FO Friday 02.06.23

We’re in the middle of a heatwave in the UK, so of course I decided to finish off a pair of gloves.

This is the Easy Peasy Knitted Gloves pattern on Rav, and the yarn is Caron Simply Soft in the Teal Zeal colourway.

I started these because I wanted to see if I could manage gloves with fingers and it looks like I can, hooray!  I will admit the thumbs were not meant to be offset but the first one somehow turned out that way so I fiddled with the other one to make them mirror images.  Now I want to try a pair of those fingerless gloves with a flap that converts them to mittens, but that can wait until the weather calms down a bit.

Hannah

xXx

Advertisement

FO Friday: Harry Potter and the Whirl blanket

I actually finished my Whirl blanket weeks (if not months) ago, but finding enough space to block it proved challenging. Scheepjes Whirls are 4-ply so it’s quite small by blanket standards but still too big to fit on my blocking mats, so I’ve had to use a bit of space on the carpet in the living room.

There are still two ends to sew in once it’s dry but even I can face two little ends, and then I think I’ll gift it to one of my friends with children.

The pattern is the Order of the Phoenix blanket from the Harry Potter Knitting Magic book. I used a Whirl in the colour Indigo Plain, and I had to miss out a final repeat of the feathers pattern because I ran out of yarn.

I’m proud of this blanket, and I’m glad I stuck with it even after six or seven false starts. Part of me wants to make another in DK or aran weight yarn just to see the difference, but the other part would be quite happy if I never even thought about making it again. Only time will tell which one wins.

Hannah

xXx

Nearly-FO Friday 14.01.22

I can’t believe we’re at the 14th already, nearly halfway through January. Clearly this year is going to blink past like the last two.

Last month I was hoping to rattle through some of my ‘make nine’ list, but then covid (and possibly a cold on top of it) hit me and I didn’t really feel like doing much at all. Plus I ran out of yarn for my super chunky jumper and had to order more, and a sprinkling of snow on the ground meant that Royal Mail didn’t deliver it when they were supposed to. But hey, I did make a colourwork mitten so that’s that crossed off the list at least.

The jumper currently looks like this:

Either my gauge or my measuring tape went wrong somewhere because it’s more like a jumper-dress. Which I don’t entirely mind; I had something similar in alpaca yarn before it accidentally went through a hot wash and came out child-sized and felted to heck.

Now I just need to work out how on earth the sleeves fit onto the top. I’ve tried googling it but that throws up a hundred different ways to do mattress stitch, which I’m already okay with. Maybe it’s my lack of spatial awareness but I really can’t see how the shape of the sleeves is supposed to fit into the shape of the arm holes, and I’m afraid to just have a go and find out because this yarn is like velcro and I could get in an awful mess trying to undo it if I go wrong (speaking from experience here). Any suggestions?

I’m not sure I like making my jumpers in pieces. Although I might be willing to give it another go with a slightly less awkward yarn. We’ll see how this one turns out before I give up on the idea completely.

Hannah

xXx

FOs all over

Remember that test knit cowl I was doing the other day (or maybe ten years ago. I really can’t tell) with all the cables? Well I finished it.

Then I kept going and made an ear-warmer.

And then there was just a teeny bit of yarn left so I finished up with a headband.

They are SO warm and cosy.

I also managed to finish the jumper in time for posting tomorrow, and I love it.

Although I was mad at myself when I got to the end and realised there were 32 ends to sew in. Single-colour jumpers from now on!

And finally, my Diagon Ally socks are finished. The pattern isn’t as obvious in the darker yarn, but I still love them.

Blocking to follow when I’ve sewn in the ends and we’ll see what effect it has on this cottony sock yarn.

This brings my WIP list down to a slightly more sensible 6. I feel like I might have given myself a case of finish-itis; crossing all these WIPs off the list felt good and I really want some more of that. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Hannah

xXx

FO Friday 14/08/20

You bet I waited til the depths of Summer to finish off a blanket!

Despite the oodles of natural light, I cannot seem to get a true picture of the colours, but trust me when I say it’s BEAUTIFUL.

This is a Beachcombing blanket designed by Eleonora at Coastal Crochet. I decided to do it as a stash buster and it didn’t half make a dent in the mountain! According to Excel this beauty used up 17.5 skeins of cotton, which had been sitting in my stash since 2017. That feels gooooood.

Now back to socks again so I can play with my yarn without sweating buckets.

Hannah

xXx

A froggy finish for a Friday

Behold – a flattened froggy bookmark!

The boyfriend wanted the tongue and the arms to stay wiggly, but I blocked out the legs and body, as they’ll actually be in the books.

I made a few minor mistakes when putting froggy together, but I’m trying very hard to ignore them and focus on the fact that I made a thing! And he’s really pleased with it, and it’s exactly what he asked for, so yeah I’m calling that a win.

Hannah

xXx

 

A good old FO Friday post

Finally posting about the pattern test I did, whenever the heck it was.

It was the Baby Bear Bonnet pattern by A Yarny Robin, and I believe there’s a discount code on it until tomorrow (the 4th) if you fancy it.

I tested the newborn and age 6-9 months variations. First up – the newborn, which looks more like a monkey than a bear to me but still cute.

For the 6-9 months version I used some darker yarn, but after a while it started to look a bit too dark for a cute baby item so I edged it and made the ears with the same light brown used for the newborn bonnet.

I think that worked out pretty well, if I do say so myself.

So there’s my finishes for this week. It’s nice to cross things off the list again, but I really must focus on getting some of these old WIPs done too. Fingers crossed for some lockdown finishes.

Hannah

xXx

I’m on a roll

I finished the final rounds of Changing Tides last night. That’s two WIPs off my list in one week, and it feels goooood!

Yes, I’m ignoring all the ends. Since this is a blanket just for myself there’s a high possibility the ends will never get sewn in. I’m okay with that.

Look at all that texture

In the beginning I wasn’t sure about the mish mash of colours, but they actually seem to work okay, plus I’ve used up a good chunk of the acrylic in my stash so I’m doubly happy.  I’m looking forward to snuggling up under this now we’re in pre-Winter (those outside of Scotland may know it as Autumn), as it’s really toasty and has a nice weight to it. I’ve always wanted a weighted blanket!

Now on to Flax Light and hopefully I can get that finished as well before too long.

Hannah

xXx

FO Friday 07.06.19

I have another finish WOO HOOOO!

This poncho has taken me far too long, but it’s done now and looking pretty good if I do say so myself.

It just needs a quick wash to soften it up and then I can hand it over on Monday.

A question for everyone: what would you charge for this? The yarn is all acrylic that I had hanging around in my stash, and I spent about 4-5 hours (ish) making it. My initial thought was £30, but is that too much? Not enough? Let me know what you think!

Hannah

xXx

FO Friday 31.05.19

Wow it’s been a while, but I finally have an FO to share!

This little tooth is done and ready to be sent off to my Mum so she can give it to her dentist. Hopefully they’ll like it.

I used this pattern, which is great except for one liiiiiittle thing. At the start of the body it says to work with the right side facing ‘out’. Dunno about you, but I take ‘out’ to mean ‘away from me’ so the first couple of rounds on the body are actually the wrong way round and you can see the back side of the stitches.

By the time I realised the mistake I couldn’t be bothered frogging so I just turned and started working back the other way, and left that slightly awkward line as is. I don’t think it’s massively noticeable!

When it comes to the roots, I had a similar problem to the one I encountered with the teeny tiny llama; the join at the middle of the four points is a bit of a mess.

I mean it’s less of a mess than the llama, but I clearly still need some practice.

So there we go – one little tooth all finished! What do you think?

Hannah

xXx

FO Friday 12.04.19

Last weekend I took a wee break from all my massive projects to make something teeny tiny.

It’s a llama!

The pattern is by Ravencraft Designs, who I follow on Instagram. I followed along with every post as Jess worked out the process, and as soon as I saw that the pattern was released I jumped over to Ravelry and bought a copy. Then I made a start with a little scrap ball that just happened to be in front of me at the time.

I can’t get over how small she is, and I’m the one who made her!

The number of ends created a bit of a mess when it came to sewing the legs together, but maybe that was only an issue because I made mine so small, using a thin DK yarn instead of worsted. What a shame, I’ll have to make another one in a thicker yarn and see if I get the same result.

What do you think I should call my little llama? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

FO Friday 29.03.19

I never posted about the second baby blanket my mum commissioned, so here we go. It’s another Irish Wave blanket, this time using Sirdar Snuggly Baby Crofter DK in the colourway Hazel. I followed the pattern right up to the end, when the amount of yarn leftover was just the wrong side of useless. I added two rows of sc and that used up every last scrap.

It came out a bit of an interesting shape, but by the time I realised it wouldn’t be the normal rectangular shape I didn’t have enough time to start again with a shorter chain. Next time I just need to remember what a yarn-muncher it is!

There probably will be a next time, as I love the shapes and it seems to work with all kinds of yarn.

Plus here’s another photo of the lego blanket, because I’m just so proud of it!

Now I’m going to enjoy a weekend of working on every single WIP I have, just because I can! What’s everyone else up to this weekend? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx