Sock it to me Monday 14

I finished my first pair of Pride socks and I LOVE THEM!

They turned out slightly more mismatched than I expected (although they’re not actually different shapes – the right side just wouldn’t lie flat), but I think the similarities are enough to tie them together as a pair. Plus they’re comfy and soooo toasty.

 

There’s still plenty of month left so I made a start on the second lot of yarn I was considering.

These are not going so well.

Curse you, accidental colour pooling.

The yarn did look fairly rainbow-y in the skein, but now they feel more like Hogwarts Houses socks.

Not that I’m against Hogwarts socks, but I was really aiming for a more Pride-y look.

I suppose the spiral stripes look kind of cool, so it’s not really a disaster. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that the other sock turns out the same so at least I have a matching pair of not-quite-rainbow socks.

Once this pair is finished that’ll be me out of rainbow-like yarn so I shall finally start my first Rose City Rollers. I’m pretty excited!

Hannah

xXx

Sock it to me Monday 13

I finished the boyfriend’s socks, and this time I’ve even sewn the ends in!

He’s very happy with them, which makes me very happy too.

I’ve already frogged and restarted my pride socks three times (I just couldn’t choose a pattern) so they’re only this far along:

I’ve only ever used this yarn for amigurumi before and the colours came out looking quite random, so I’m pleasantly surprised to be getting regular stripes this time. I did say I wanted to try some self-striping!

Now the frogging has stopped it’s going pretty quickly, so I think I might be able to make two pairs this month.

Aren’t socks fun!

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 sort-of finish

I finished my square!

So it is an FO, but obviously I haven’t finished the blanket what with the next part of the CAL not being released yet.

This is another stash busting exercise, still trying to use up the ridiculous amount of cotton yarn I bought however many years ago. I probably could have matched the pattern colours, but I have a looooot of blue shades so I started there and chose a few colours that worked with them.

I rather like it!

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

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Finally finishing

Current WIP count: 5

So far this week has been more about finishing off old projects than working on new ones.

While sorting through my FO box, as well as moths (UGH!!) I also discovered that I’m even worse at sewing in ends than I thought.  About 95% of them were technically UFOs because there were ends hanging out eeeeeverywhere.

I am determined to actually get them to a charity rather than sitting around the flat, so the last few days have been a bit of an end-a-thon to get everything done and dusted.

This is the pile of true FOs now:

And this is what I have left to sew in:

 

You probably won’t remember, as I mentioned it so briefly and ages ago, that I snapped the cast off of my Flax Light the first time I wore it (curse these hips). What I didn’t say at the time was that I couldn’t face fixing the hundreds of teeny tiny stitches, so it went in the naughty corner and there it stayed until this week.

I managed to catch the stitches where the yarn broke and went round undoing the cast off, then I attached some more yarn and had a go at Jenny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off.  It’s a bit tedious, what with having to lift over two loops individually for every single stitch, but boy does it stretch!

The edge looks shonky because the needle I used for cast off was too big. I keep telling myself I can deal with it because the jumper actually fits me, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this will end up being undone and cast off for a third time at some point. We shall see.

I did also start another hat at choir this week, until I remembered I was going to use that yarn for a Flax so I frogged it all. Hopefully by next week I’ll have some progress to show on that, but for now it’s back to those ends!

Hannah

xXx

Chonkster

I do love super chunky yarn. Look at this gorgeous hunk of squish.

It only took a few hours to make, and a lot of that was trying to get the pompom to believe it’s meant to be a sphere rather than some weird egg shape.

It’s a bit too big for me or the bf so it’s gone into my Knit for Peace box. Hopefully someone with a large head will be happy to find a hat that actually fits.

There’s still a whole lot of super chunky yarn left in my stash, so I can definitely see some more of these chonksters in my crafting future.

ETA: This is the Chunky Pebbles Hat, which is a free pattern on Ravelry.

Hannah

xXx

Final bears

Current WIP count: 7

Okay this will be the last post about Simba bears for a while, I swear. I just wanted to show the whole set of sizes all lined up now they’re finished.

Thankfully that was enough bear for now and I’ve been able to get back into Roses for Grandma properly. All the current squares are finished and I’m now making motifs again, as I decided I want a bigger blanket than first planned.

It’s not quite mindless enough to work on at choir, so I’ve also started another hat. This is strictly for choir/travel crochet so it won’t take any time away from my Grandma blanket.

I think I’m finally getting a good balance between charity makes and projects just for me. Hopefully I can keep that up.

Hannah

xXx

Helpful FOs

You’ve got to love the crafting community. The Animal Rescue Collective Craft Guild (link here) has received so many donations for Australia that there’s currently a stop on sending any more, to give them time to take stock and work out what’s still needed. What an excellent ‘problem’ to have!

So there’s been no crafting for Australia for me just yet, and I’ve been finishing up my other charity projects instead.

I now have four bears to go to Simba.

Still not looking like twinsies.

And two hats to go to Knit For Peace.

I was going to block both hats, but I tried on the rolled one and I actually really like the look of it so that’s staying as it is.

I’m still hooked on the charity-crafting thing so now I’m making a pair of large bears for Simba. Once they’re finished that will be a full set of sizes and hopefully my crojo will let me get on with some of these WIPs that have been lying around for months.

Hannah

xXx

An FO and a big “NOPE” to magic loop

Only one month late, the baby Flax Light is finally finished and blocking!

Thankfully, baby is on the petite side so she hasn’t already outgrown it before it even gets to her.

Now, those sleeves.

I tried. I really tried. But magic loop (the knitting version) is just not for me. I don’t understand the argument that it’s easier/better than using DPNs, with all the to-ing and fro-ing of the cable, dealing with two massive ladders in your work, or constantly changing where the cable pops out to avoid said ladders. So. much. FAFF!

It’s good to know what my strengths and weaknesses are though, and it’s much better to not use magic loop because I don’t like it rather than because I’m scared of it, as used to be the case.  I’ll take that sort-of-win.

I should hopefully see my friend at some point this month so fingers crossed for some photos of baby wearing her new jumper. I hope she likes it!

Hannah

xXx

Starting as I mean to go on

Here is my first charity make of 2020: a pair of little bears for SiMBA memory boxes:

They’re really quick to make (once I deciphered the frankly terrible pattern) so I can see myself churning out quite a few more in my spare time. Hopefully with a bit of practice I can get them looking like twin bears rather than distant cousins!

Being so small, they’re not going to use up much stash very quickly, but every little helps and it’s all for a good cause so I’m going for it. My next project can be a big blanket or something to balance it out.

Hannah

xXx

2019 review

Well look at that, another whole year gone by. Once again I’m so glad I have my blog to remind me of all I’ve achieved over the last 365 days.

For a start, there were a lot more FOs than I thought.

Baby poncho x2

Kalinda shawl

Caron cupcake hat x2

Caron cake folded bag (I’ve still got this lying around. I really must give it away)

The teeny tiny llama, and a somewhat creepy amigurumi tooth

There were a few bits and pieces for myself

Flax Light for me

A scrappy neck warmer

Changing Staircases

But I think I’m most pleased with my blanket output this year.

Not one, but two full-sized Lego blankets!

Changing Tides, my first ever CAL

A baby Lego blanket with spare bricks

The super chunky green and purple baby blanket

A more traditionally coloured baby blanket

There was also a Mothers day card with crochet elements, which I know I can do better this year.

Outside of knitting and crochet, I tried my hand at both needle felting and beading.

Then for christmas I whipped up my Dad’s hat and a final headband.

That’s 24 total FOs, which I’m pretty darn pleased with.

With all these projects I also learned a thing or two:

Continental knitting

Foundation crochet stitches

Magic loop for knitting

Stretchy bind off

Needle felting

Crochet loop stitch

So I’ve had a great year and I’m hoping to make 2020 just as good, if not better!

I’m determined that this will be the year I finally jump in to sock knitting. I’m also planning to make a big dent in my stash and make a bit of a difference in the world by focussing on some charity yarnery.

I hope everyone had a lovely new years eve, and that 2020 is so much better to you than 2019 was (whatever kind of year you had).

Hannah

xXx