Official crafty blog for my Quiet Water Craft Etsy shop
I finished the teeny mitts for my friend’s new baby and sent them away with a couple of jumpers that I had lying around for some reason. Handmade clothes for baby and some more things cleared out of the flat, win-win!
The mitts were baby selbu mittens (Rav link), the grey jumper is Flax light from Tin Can Knits, and the purple/black one is a mystery because my memory is giving me absolutely nothing.
Hopefully they’ll all fit okay and keep baby warm.
Hannah
xXx
Current WIP count: 7
Harry Potter and the Whirl blanket
Wouldn’t you know it, I hit a snag almost as soon as I started. For the last three days I’ve been trying to work out how a repeat of 10 stitches is supposed to leave me with 88 total stitches for the round. The chart seemed to show the same thing so I just couldn’t figure it out.
Thankfully the pattern designer is on Ravelry and responds to comments. It turns out I was doing M2 (make 2) the wrong way, which knocked the repeat off by one stitch, and those one stitches added up through the round to give me a whole extra repeat that shouldn’t have been there. I’m going to fix it when I get home tonight and hopefully the rest of the pattern will go a bit smoother.
Jumper
I’m on to the mindless stockinette of the body so this is my new choir rehearsal project. We sing in lots of different languages so I need my brain free to focus on the words rather than counting stitches or rows. It’s fun getting to the end of a rehearsal and seeing how much I’ve done without really noticing.
Hedgehog 2
Part of the issue with hedgehog 1 was attaching the head to the body. I struggle connecting two 3D pieces together neatly and it ended up with no neck in a very not-cute way. This time I’m going to try making head and body as one piece, decreasing for the neck and increasing again for the shoulders so I don’t have to sew them at all. I’m far more confident with crochet than knitting so I’m not afraid to shoogle this pattern around and make it do what I want.
This time I’ve started with all the little fiddly bits so when I’ve finished the main part I can sew them all together before I lose momentum.
In non-crafty news, I already have an update on some of my new year goals.
Enter a powerlifting competition
There’s a competition specifically for ‘first timers’ in December this year, about 90 minutes drive from me. We’re still checking qualification weights and what equipment I’d be allowed, but my trainer thinks it would be great for me. I could be booked in by the end of this month (pending Scottish Powerlifting membership), which gives me at least 10 months to learn the proper commands and get as strong as possible. I’m already excited!
Run every week
I hit a snag last week, as my new running shoes didn’t arrive when I thought they would. But instead of giving up and writing the week off as a fail, I set up my bike on the indoor trainer and did 30 minutes of cycling instead. The real point of the goal is to work on my cardio fitness so I still count that as a win.
I’m very glad my running shoes arrived at the weekend though; it astounds me that bikes have been around for so long and nobody has figured out a way to make the seat even a little bit comfortable.
Hannah
xXx
Jumper
I got into a rhythm and forgot to try it on, so I’m just sticking with this size. If it doesn’t fit I’ll give it away, and if I run out of yarn then I’ll just have to buy more and that’s never a hardship.
Teddy ear bonnet
I have absolutely no concept of how big babies are. I made this bonnet once and the Fiancé suggested it might be a bit too small, so I frogged it and I’m now making a larger size with a larger hook. Hopefully it will end up a wearable size.
Hedgehog 2
I’m determined to get this hedgehog finished by the end of next week. I wasn’t too pleased with the first one so I’ll see what I can do to make this one look a little cuter.
Advent socks
These were not finished for Hogmanay, obviously. It’s a bit hard to tell with no heel in yet but I think they might need an extra stripe added on to fit my Hobbit feet, so I need to decide which stripe to repeat.
Rainbow socks
These still need their afterthought heels. I can’t seem to get over the fear of cutting into my knitting – it just feels so wrong!
Black + yellow socks
After a good long stint in the naughty corner, I’m ready to face these again. Not only was my tension way off on the second sock, I’d also missed a decrease round after the heel turn so there was a whole extra motif in there. I’ve frogged it right back to the heel so I can fix the mistake and hopefully by the time I get back to the colourwork I shall be nice and relaxed again.
Hannah
xXx
Contrary to popular belief, I have been making more than just socks this year (mainly socks, yes. But not ONLY socks). One of my best friends had a baby last month so there was a lot of teeny tiny knitting and crochet going on. First up was a love heart blanket with a matching hat, in the colours of my friend’s nursery.
Right now I’m working on a matching hat and mitten set with some self-striping yarn that my mum sent me. I’m using the Barley hat pattern from Tin Can Knits, but I’m really not sure about the sizing. The smallest size, labelled “baby size”, seems way too small, so I tried the next size up and the difference between them is ridiculous. I might have to see if I can fudge the pattern to land somewhere between the two.
Mum also sent me two crochet kits to make this hedgehog.
I struggled with this one. First of all the pattern is in UK terms, and yes I did get more than halfway through before realising this and had to frog it all. Grr. The yarn is quite stiff and hard to work with so that’s not fun. Plus I just don’t like the construction – there are gaps at the edge of the bobble stitches, I had to fudge the spacing of the bobbles on the head so they didn’t end up lopsided, and I just don’t think it looks as cute as it could.
Next up is the beginning of a jumper, using a ball of Melange that I got from Jinty & Baa, the yarn shop in Dunoon. The idea was to use the one ball to make a top for myself, but I was quite a bit smaller when I bought it so there’s a distinct possibility that it will end up as a cropped, short-sleeved jumper. I just stuck the sleeve stitches on waste yarn, so I can do a few body rounds and see how it’s fitting. I am prepared to frog the lot and start again if I can get away with a smaller size, but we’ll see what happens.
I also got a commission for some personalised robin baubles this month. Instead of taking the easy route and finding a pattern to follow, I decided to just make it up as I went along. Mistake. I also left it to the last minute, big mistake. I put everything together, sewed their little hats on…and realised that I absolutely hated them. They were nothing like the happy little robins I’d planned in my head, but I was already running 5 minutes late for choir rehearsal (where I was supposed to hand them over) so there was no chance for a re-do.
During the rehearsal I decided to give my robins a beak, as it couldn’t possibly make them look any worse. And you know what? They somehow changed everything. Suddenly I didn’t hate the robins. In fact they were pretty darn cute. It makes no sense to me, but thank goodness I took the ten minutes to add that finishing touch.
I mean they’re still not perfect; if I were to make them again I would give them smaller bodies, and do a ribbed brim to the hats rather than a rolled brim. But considering how disappointed I was with them before, I’m counting this as a solid win!
So there you go, I do still know how to make things other than socks 😀
Hannah
xXx
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
Nobody really believed I would stick to single-colour items from now on, did they? Because of course I went for something with even more ends.
This is another Good Old Raglan in the 0-3 months size, for a friend who should be having her baby any day now. I just couldn’t resist using up more of this spangly yarn, and (once I figured out where I went wrong) the pattern is so simple and easy to make.
But oh the endssssss!
I’m tackling them by sticking something on Netflix, snuggling up with the boyfriend, and sewing in as many as I can stand. Then I take a break to knit or crochet something else so I don’t get mad and end up throwing it across the room (this may or may not have happened before). So far it’s working. Slowly.
Hannah
xXx
Everything was a bit of a disaster in my last post, but it wasn’t actually the end of the world like my brain kept telling me.
The jumper is flying along now and should be finished in time for posting at the weekend.
I haven’t seen the recipient for about a year, and have very little interaction with children in general, so I have no idea if it’s going to fit right. My hope is that it will either be the right size or have a little room for growth.
And I’m extremely happy to say that the pizza dough was perfect, which is handy as I made enough for five pizza bases!
Thank goodness it’s freeze-able.
Hannah
xXx
I’m just going to sit and play computer games tonight because I don’t think it’s safe for me to attempt any more making.
First, I came to put aside sleeve stitches on the Good Old Raglan and realised I’d done the increases COMPLETELY wrong. There were 4 increase lines equally spaced around it, rather than the correct spacing for sleeves and body. I tried tinking back but then couldn’t work out where the stitch markers should go (thanks to some short rows at the neck) and ended up frogging the lot to start again.
Then it was time to start the prep for sourdough pizza so we can have it tomorrow. I measured everything out and thought it was a lot, but told myself it just seemed like a lot because I’d halved the recipe last time.
Turns out I hadn’t noticed there was a wee tip of a butter knife under one corner of the scales so all the measurements were completely off. You’d think I would have twigged when it used up nearly a whole bag of flour, but noooo.
My dearest hope is that all the measurements were off the same amount so it’s just a lot of useable dough, rather than a waste of starter and so much flour. There’s only one way to find out.
So I give up on today. Hopefully I’ll get my mojo back tomorrow.
Hannah
xXx
Current WIP count: 7
Having a job isn’t helping me keep track of days at all, so no alliteration for today’s post title. I’m sure we’ll manage.
I have finished the first sleeve on the boyfriend’s jumper, but haven’t picked up stitches for the second one yet.
If you think that sleeve looks a bit long then you’re right. The boyfriend and I like our jumpers and coats to come down past our wrists, for maximum warmth and snuggly-ness. He has tried it on and approved.
The blanket is coming along nicely, with four squares now finished.
I’m dithering a bit over that latest square. It’s all very red and orange and part of me wants to sub in some more yellow in the second one, but I also want to stick with the pattern and keep both squares the same. What do you guys think?
Hannah
xXx
Current WIP count: 7
Oops that count is sneaking up again. I really must keep an eye on it.
I am utterly LOVING how fast this Flax is knitting up, at least by my standards. I’ve already finished the raglan increases and now it’s stockinette for a few inches until I split the sleeve stitches off. Easy.
Hooray for worsted weight yarn!
Speaking of yarn weight, did you know that we don’t really have sport weight yarn in the UK? I’m dithering over joining in the Arachne KAL, but a filter of my Excel spreadsheet told me I don’t have a single scrap of sport weight in my stash. So I jumped across to Hobbycraft’s website and found that sport isn’t a filter option; they don’t have any either. Mothy and the Squid – no. Siobhan’s Crafts – no. Sealy MacWheely – nope. It’s just not a thing over here.
This is not helping the dithering. It should make it easier, right? I refuse to add to my ridiculous stash mountain, so no sport weight = no KAL for me. Especially considering I know nothing about fiddling with gauge for different yarns.
But I wanna!
I first saw the Arachne pattern at some point last year and I wanted to make it IMMEDIATELY, and that feeling hasn’t gone away after all this time. There must be something I can do.
Any suggestions would be welcome, but in the meantime I shall just plug away at this Flax, and dream about fancy cobwebby jumpers.
Hannah
xXx
Yes, I started knitting a jumper without a hint of a gauge swatch. Didn’t even entertain the thought for more than a second. But it’s okay; I have a plan.
I’m following the pattern instructions for a Medium, which is the boyfriend’s size. If it turns out my gauge is right then yay he’ll have a new jumper. If my gauge is off it’ll likely be looser than recommended, which should make the end result big enough to fit me and I’ll have a new jumper – It’s a win either way.
And if it’s a total disaster that doesn’t really fit either of us then I have a charity box just waiting for some more goodies, and it will still be a good chunk of yarn out of my stash. But I’m optimistic that one of us will get a squishy new jumper out of this.
Hannah
xXx
I just can’t stop making hats at the moment.
The current one is an attempt to use up a big multipack of yarn I can’t remember why I bought. Each skein is 200g and for some reason I got four of them, so there’s a lot to work with!
It’s plain blue and I can only deal with boring in one aspect of my crafting, so I decided to add a wee bit of texture into this hat. After the ribbing I’ve started a 7-stitch repeat over a number that doesn’t divide by seven evenly, in the hope that it will offset and create a subtle spiral pattern.
I’ll see if it works out soon enough.
The thought has just occurred that I could use some of this stuff to make a Flax for myself. It would be much quicker than the Flax Light (yay for thick yarn!) so I’m seriously tempted…
Hannah
xXx
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