All befuddled

Current WIP count: 6

I have made it through the first week of a brand new job! While I’m not as exhausted as I expected after all the newness and strangers to deal with, my brain has gone a bit mushy. It’s showing in my attempt to make another Flax Light.

Firstly, I either forgot how garter stitch works or just got hyper-focussed on purl stitches: round 1 starts with some purls, and I couldn’t for the life of me work out how to do a kfb for round 2. “But it’s a purl stitch!” I kept saying to myself, more times than I care to admit.

After a few days in the naughty corner (the knitting, not me) I picked it up and suddenly my brain was working again.

Or so I thought. The next challenge was placing stitch markers and, considering they’re labelled ‘raglan markers’ in the pattern, it should be pretty obvious that they’re to mark the raglan increases. But nooo, this dingbat got it into her head that they marked the beginning and end of the garter sections.

I was a few rounds in by the time it twigged, I tried to fix it and ended up making more of a mess, so I frogged the lot.

This is now all I have to show for myself.I’m thinking I’ll aim for Christmas rather than baby’s first birthday at the beginning of December!

On the plus side, I think my new job is going to be really good, AND I can take the subway instead of driving so I can knit every day on my commute. It all balances out in the end.

Hannah

xXx

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Leftovers

In my rush to get the Lego blanket finished on time I left out the ring of bricks around the edge that I had planned.

But that decision was made after I’d finished making all the bricks, plus a few extras because apparently I can’t count, so I had 48 Lego bricks all stacked up on the sofa with nowhere to go. What to do with them?

The stacks were actually slightly smaller than this

There was always frogging, but I couldn’t bear the thought of 1. undoing all my work and 2. adding 48 little scrap balls back into my stash. I had to use them for something. So of course I made a baby Lego blanket!

It was a bit on the small side with just a sc border so I went for an extension of the bobble stitches again, which had the added bonus of using up some of the extra Rose Red I ordered after my yarn mix-up.

Now it’s just the right size, and I have to decide what to do with it. It’s far too pretty to go to the cat charity (and I don’t know if they’d accept the bobbles), but I can’t think of any friends having a baby any time soon. Any suggestions?

Hannah

xXx

WIP Saturday 22.07.19

Current WIP count: 7

You’ll have to forgive the delay, I’ve been away for a few days with no time at all for blogging. Glorious sunshine though so I’m not mad.Last weekend both Morag and Flax Light came on my travels with me, but in the end I only worked on one of them.

Turns out this sleeve is just simple enough to keep working on it even when I’m totally exhausted. There’s been a lot of that recently so this is the only yarnery I’ve done.

Although I’m also spending time trying to convince myself I don’t care about the rows that should have been purled.

There’s no way I’m going back to the start and doing it again so I’ll just deal with them.Would it be too much effort to count the rows and knit them the same on the other sleeve? I’ll let you know.

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 01.05.2019

White rabbits!

Current WIP count: 6

I’m 95% sure I accidentally used a bigger hook for the first three sides of these pebbles. But they take so long, there’s no way I’m frogging them and starting again.

Every time I do this I tell myself I must get a project book and write down the details of all my WIPs to stop this happening again, plus it would use up one of the millionty notebooks I have lying around, but so far I just haven’t found the motivation to do it.

Things are still busy busy so nothing more to report this week.

Hannah

xXx

Yarn review: Caron Cupcake

When my brother sent me this photo while on holiday in America,

I messaged him back saying PLEASE BUY SOME IMMEDIATELY!!! I’d seen Cupcakes on Instagram and Facebook for months, but never managed to get hold of any, so you can understand my excitement.

Suitcase limitations meant he could only bring back one for me (and one for mum because he’s smart), but that’s one more than I had to start with so I was happy!

It’s a 100% acrylic DK yarn that comes in a cake with a pompom. The colourway I got is called Peach Sorbet.

I’ve mentioned before that I thought the whole point of these Cupcakes is to have just enough yarn to make one hat, which you can then top with the pompom. But I managed to get two whole hats out of my cake. Two whole adult hats at that.

It seems strange to be disappointed with MORE yarn than expected, but I do so love the idea of essentially buying a deconstructed hat and making it up with no (or at least very few) scraps.

The ball band includes a pattern for various hat sizes, although they’re all children’s sizes, which I now find a bit odd considering how much yarn there is to play with. “You can make hats for all three of your children, and we take no responsibility for the ensuing battle over the single pompom!”.

I followed the instructions up to a point, but then carried on increasing to make both hats adult sized. In the first one I also went with back loop only stitches because I really like that line they make.

I’ve used a lot of Caron Cakes over the last couple of years so I thought I knew what to expect from the yarn itself, but this stuff is unlike any Caron I’ve ever used.

It’s really, REALLY scratchy. Like, making-the-skin-of-my-tensioning-finger-sore kind of scratchy.

I blocked the first hat with some Eucalan and that helped a bit. I’m going to try putting the second through the washing machine to see if that has better results. Either way, it’s really not much fun to play with pre-blocking. Unless you like scratchy yarn of course. To each their own.

On the plus side it frogs really easily and the colours are all super pretty.

So overall my first encounter with Caron Cupcakes was a fairly disappointing one. It’s possible that this was just an off batch with the scratchiness so I am willing to give them a second chance, if I ever manage to get my hands on some more. I am prepared to be pleasantly surprised.

Stats

• 100% Acrylic
• DK weight
• 223m
• 85g
• Suggested hook size 4mm (although I used 4.5mm)

Have you used a cupcake before? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 05.12.18

Current WIP count: 5

There was a bit of a setback with my Sunrise Scarf. You may remember it looked like this last week.

And now there is nothing.

I went a bit wrong you see and I tried my best to tink it, but somehow I got the stitches twisted. Then I thought I could frog a bit, pick up the stitches again, and carry on, but once I started I couldn’t seem to find the right point to pick up again. So I ended up having to frog the lot and start again.

Sigh.

One of my other Christmas presents is going much better. I’m making a heidi bear triceratops for my friend’s son, and now I’ve got the pattern memorised I’ve been whacking out African flowers every spare minute I get. Including on my lunchtime walk!

I’ve made all the singular shapes and now I have to make many, many pentagons and hexagons.

This is 13 out of the 50 required motifs so there’s a ways to go yet, but I’m enjoying every minute!

That’s what I’ve been doing, what’s everyone else working on? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

You better think

This was supposed to be last week’s FO Friday post, but I’m a dingbat.

I did manage to finish one mitten, which I’m pretty proud of considering all the pattern-wrangling it took to get to this point.

And I hardly dare mention the ends.

But then it came to the second mitten. I worked away at the thumb, getting more and more excited as the end approached, until I reached the penultimate round… and realised I’d forgotten to do the first round in the back loop only. Argh.

So I frogged it right back and started again in the back loops. No problem. Until I realised I’d added in a few extra rounds on the first mitten that I forgot to add to the second, so I had to frog back again. Argh!

Then I got halfway up the thumb and only then noticed that I’d sewn the top of the glove in a way that made the thumb hole right in the centre of the palm. So I unpicked some of those flipping ends I spent hours sewing in, which I made such a mess of that I had to frog the final 2 rounds of the mitten. ARGH!!!

Right now it’s sitting in the naughty corner to think about what it’s done. But I thought I would share as a reminder (mainly to my future self) to actually think about what I’m doing, instead of rushing on and making silly mistakes. So many silly mistakes.

Keep your fingers crossed that next time I get it right and get these mittens finished before summer comes around!

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 18.07.18

Current WIP count: 7

Do you ever ignore that nagging little voice in your head, just to regret it later? That happened with my bunny lovey.

The head wasn’t quite as round and cute as I planned, but I told myself I could make it work, it would look better when it was stuffed, blah blah and so I carried on. I wanted it to be a ripple blanket, but somehow I couldn’t make the maths work and I ended up with a 5-pointed star blanket.

It wasn’t terrible, and I’m sure my friend would have loved it however it turned out, but I got more and more dissatisfied every time I worked on it. Eventually I got to this point:

And couldn’t do it any more. I frogged the whole lot and started again.

It was frustrating, and my wrist wasn’t too happy at having to do all that tiny tight amigurumi all over again, but now I’m so much happier with it and I can’t wait to hand it over to my friend.

Now the main part is finished, I’ve made the ears and the plug for the base of the head, and all that’s left to do is give it a cute face and sew everything together. I should be done this week.

Progress was much smoother with the bootees. They’re now done, aside from sewing the buttons on. I guess I’ll need a button sewing session one day this week to get these and the dragon scale pair finished.

I gave them cream soles to match the border on the lovey, and a beige trim to match the inner part of bunny’s ears. I want it to be suuuuper obvious that these are a matching set

The long weekend meant I did get to work on my wee dragon, but I hit a couple of snags. The first is that I ran out of the main colour when I was halfway through a piece. I improvised a little and switched in the yellow from the wing pieces. Now the large horns will be green and yellow, and the little horns will be all yellow.

My next problem is the wings.

Do they look like wings to you? Because they don’t look like wings to me. They’re double layered and I had to make the stupid things seven times just to get four the same shape, and they still don’t work.

Not sure what the problem is but I know I’m not using these. Maybe I’ll just admit defeat and bin the wings – make him a drake rather than a dragon and hope nobody notices.

So that’s been my somewhat frustrating week. How’s everyone else doing? Is your work going smoothly? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 18.04.18

Current WIP count: 6

I hit a bit of a snag with my Tunisian jumper, which serves me right for not reading the pattern fully before I started. I thought the section I’m working on now was the whole body piece, and I calculated the number of rows of each colour accordingly. Turns out this section only goes up to joining the sleeves and there’s a whole other section for the yoke.

So I had to frog aaaaaaall the way back to the first colour combo, leaving me with this.

Oh well, next time I will definitely remember to read the whole pattern first!

I’ve also been playing around with cables on a super duper simple cowl, using my favourite Lion Brand Landscapes colourway.

It looks like a skirt right now because my circulars are so small, but trust me it’s a cowl!

I could really do with a row counter for this so I don’t have to keep going back and counting them manually every time I lose track, but hey, first world problems! It’s just a bit of fun for myself to practise my cabling, so I’m not terribly bothered if I go a bit wrong.

So that’s my WIPs for this week. What’s everyone else working on? Having a good week now the cold has finally naffed off? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

 

 

WIP Wednesday 21.03.18

Current WIP count: 6

I’m still working on these dratted bootees. I keep thinking I’m done with one, but then I look at it the next day and it’s just not right.

Right now I’m not 100% happy with the shaping at the front, but I might just let it go.

The baby isn’t due until June so I’ve also spent a bit of time on my Tunisian jumper and the chevron blanket. This is where my sleeve is up to.

I’m on the last section, just a few more rows and I start all over again with the next sleeve!

And I’m on to the final white section of the blanket. I’ll save photos for Friday because it will be finished.

That’s what I’m working on this week, how about you? Got any thoughts on the bootees shape? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 14.01.18

Current WIP count: 6

Oh I am enjoying working on this Tunisian top. Just look at the pretty colours!

When I was planning it out, I actually didn’t understand the construction of Tunisian stitches so I didn’t know it would come out with one colour on the vertical bars and the other on the horizontal stitches. But the more I look at it, the more I like it.

It’s also given me an idea for another one (I have a baaad case of start-itis that I’m trying to resist!) – I would keep the rainbow colours for the stitches, but use black yarn for the vertical bars. I reckon that would look even better.

My WIP count has gone down thanks to some frogging rather than finishing. The grey knitted hat was turning out absolutely massive, big enough to fit a baby elephant massive, so I frogged it and I’ve put the yarn aside for another project. I don’t think it wanted to be a hat after all.

And I haven’t really touched anything else, Tunisian is strangely addictive! So that’s my week so far. What’s everyone else working on? And what do you think of my black rainbow top idea? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

FO Friday 17.11.17

I’m naming this week Hat Week, because I’ve been whacking them out and I’m now onto my fourth!

You’ve seen this rainbow lovely, which I decided not to make a pompom for so it’s finished as is.

I also (totally on purpose, honest) made a baby version with pompom using the same yarn.

This might be the cutest thing I’ve seen all year – I made it and even I squee a little bit every time I see it. It’s just so CUTE!!

This one here is the first one I made using my circular needles.

I’m calling it the Ribbit Hat, because the number of times I had to frog this thing is into double figures. And, y’know, it has ribbing.

That weird stripe in the cream was an attempt at a pattern using knit and purl stitches. They’re supposed to be triangles, but clearly it needs a yarn with clearer stitch definition because it just looks a bit wavy.

This one came out as a slouchy hat, which I didn’t think I liked, but then I tried it on and it actually doesn’t look too bad.

The santa hat is not quite finished because I was finishing up my Captain America cushion instead.

What do you think? It’s not quite as I imagined, but you can definitely tell what it’s supposed to be so that’ll do for me! And my Mum is pleased with it, which is what really matters considering she ordered it.

So that’s been my pretty productive week. Does anyone else get into trends of making the same thing? Got any FOs to share? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx