Advent socks – not finished

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas, and you’re enjoying this weird period of time when nobody knows what day it is.

The advent socks were going entirely to plan, until day 23. On the first try the patterns were not quite matching up; I thought I must have messed up the count on the first row so I tinked back and tried again. Same result so back I went. The third try still didn’t quite feel right, but I kept going (as you do) until the final round. At this point I decided to count the stitches and found that I was missing one.

Both socks then went into the naughty corner for a few days and I got on with Christmas.

Last night I looked back and realised that the missing stitch had been dropped on the previous stripe, and I hadn’t noticed because it was such a simple pattern that still looked like it lined up properly. Gutted. For fear of that one loose stitch laddering down and undoing the whole sock, I stuck some needles into the last correct stripe, ripped out the two wrong stripes, and started them again.

The diagonal stripe pattern went as easily as last time (with the correct stitch count all the way through) and I’m now working my way through this final stripe hopefully for the final time.

If I don’t mess up anything else these might be finished in time for Hogmanay!

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 15.11.17

Current WIP count: 6

My hooks and needles have been busy busy this week! There will be quite a few things to post about on Friday.

I finally made friends with my circular needles and I’ve managed to make 2 very basic hats.

Because they’re mostly just knit stitch round and round, they’re pretty quick to make (once I’ve finished frogging my cast on 6 times) so they’re definitely viable shop products.

My Apple Orchard yarn arrived yesterday so I’ve cast on another hat using that; I want to see how it compares to my crochet version and which I prefer.

I also ordered some more Landscape in the colour Boardwalk, which is definitely battling with Apple Orchard for the title of favourite yarn. It’s the one I used for that hat up there in the photo, and with what’s left I’m making a baby hat.

 

Crochet-wise, after getting really quite far with my santa hat I decided it looked too pixie-like and frogged the lot. Now I’m trying again with slightly more increase per round and I think it looks much better.

It’s taking forever at this stage, but I know once I get a pattern I’m happy with I can knock them out in an hour or two and be done.

So that’s what I’m working on this week! What’s everyone else working on? Discovered any fabby new yarn? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

Tangle of the week: Bales

This week we’re going back to one of the first tangles I ever learned.

Before discovering Paradox, it was my favourite tangle pattern.

I like it because it reminds me of super comfy, padded velvet seats.

 

Especially with a circle in the middle of each square, it looks like the studs that you get in padded seats

But my favourite way of filling it in is with a little shape like this

I suppose it’s technically an aura, as it’s an echo of the shape surrounding it, but we don’t really need to get that technical.

Bales is a great tangle for using as a background for my cards (although I can’t locate a photo right now), and I love the fact that it’s a grid so I can get all my layers and sentiments lined up straight.

What do you think of Bales? Does it look as squishy to you as it does to me? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

 

 

 

 

FO Friday 10.11.17

A thought occurs (don’t worry, I’m sitting down) – I don’t think I showed you the finished doily I was working on, did I?

Here you go!

This was a commission from a friend at choir who saw me crocheting my star blanket during rehearsals. He asked for something similar to go on his television unit, gave me some vague ideas about colours, and let me get on with in my own time.

The one issue I had is that his TV unit is rectangular, and he didn’t want the doily hanging over the edges, so a circular star blanket pattern wasn’t going to work. I did have a faff around with Google trying to find some patterns for oval doilies, but it only seemed to give me charts (which I couldn’t read at the time) or photos.

So instead I took the star blanket pattern and tweaked it a bit.

It kind of worked, but in hindsight I should have gone even further and made the beginning longer and thinner. I had to do some wizardry with singles and trebles towards the end because I realised if I kept going with double crochet all round, it would have been too long.

Singles

Trebles (on the same round)

I sent him a photo and told him the price and he was happy with both, hooray! So now all that’s left to do is hand it over and get the money. My favourite part 😉

How’s everyone’s week been? Got any FOs to share? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

An FO catch up

You may have noticed I didn’t have an FO Friday last week. That’s because I was sent home ill from work, I face-planted my bed, and I slept.

So, since I don’t have a regular post on Tuesdays, and I just can’t wait to show off this pretty hat I made, I figured I’d catch up now.

So here it is:

Aren’t those colours just gorgeous!!

I totally gave up on ribbing the bottom; nothing I did looked right and I actually quite like it plain, so there it is.

This is the first pompom I’ve ever made myself (using cardboard circles because my pompom maker hasn’t arrived yet), and it came out a bit mutant at first

But a bit of work with the scissors soon sorted it out and now I’m really quite proud of it.

I struggled a bit to attach it securely though, it was really determined to flop about.

I’ve ordered some more of this yarn, and Mum has sent me a couple more skeins too, so I’ll definitely be making more of these to go in the shop.

What do you think of the hat? Any tips for attaching pompoms? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

Here endeth October

Happy Halloween 😀

We’re rocketing on with the year and it’s already November tomorrow, I can’t wait for bonfire night!

Here’s how I did with my October goals:

1.Make at least one Christmas decoration per week.

Done. Post coming soon to show them all off.

2. List the rest of my cards in the shop.

All done, plus a few extra goodies I made

3. Make 12 new blog posts (3 per week).

So done! This is post number 17 for October, which I find particularly impressive considering I lost 4-5 days going to Budapest.

4. Write up a proper pattern for my waffle hat.

Um. Yeah.  I at least looked at the rough notes I made in a blog post a while back.

I wouldn’t be me if I met all my goals for the month!

5. Finish this doily that’s been hanging around for months

Done. I sent a photo and he seemed really pleased with it, so hopefully he’ll like it as much in person. I’ll be handing it over next week at choir.

 

Something I didn’t write down, but was kind of hoping for, was reaching 500 views on this here blog. It was a bit of a stretch goal, but the views have been steadily increasing month by month so I thought I could probably just about manage it.

I was wrong.

I totally smashed it!!

Thank you so much to everyone who’s popped in for a read, like, and comment this month; I love all the interaction in this crafty community and the new friends I’ve ‘met’. I just love yous all!

Now, on to next month! Here are my goals for November:

1. Get my snowflakes listed in my shop.
2. Write up my waffle hat pattern
3. Make at least one Christmas present per week.
4. Make all Christmas cards for my family/friends

It’s getting very Christmassy around here, and I’m already starting to get excited about it. The only way I could love Christmas more is if face paint were a regular part of it. Then it would be perfect!

How’s your October been? Got any plans for November? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

Logo time!

It has taken me six months and four attempts, but my wee shop finally has a logo!

I’m so happy with it!! I love that it’s tag-shaped so I could use it to tag up my items when I finally make enough stock to do a stall.

There’s also a banner, which I can use on my facebook page as well as Etsy.

These lovelies were designed by Louise of Designed By Lulu, who I found through a facebook makers group I’m part of.

After the faff of previous attempts to get a logo I was a bit wary of the whole thing, but Louise is just a lovely person and she’s really, really good at this. The whole thing from first contact to receiving my files took less than a week, and it would have been shorter if I hadn’t been rushed off my feet and had answered her questions straight away.

So if you need a logo at any point, I highly recommend Designed By Lulu.

So what do you think? Isn’t my logo fabby! Let me know what you think 🙂

Hannah

xXx

FO Friday 20.10.17

First of all, apologies for the quality of these photos. I have been doing battle with this thing so long that it’s now completely dark outside.

It’s all because of buttons.

I have a lot of buttons. A lot. I spent a couple of evenings sifting through them trying to find a style that 1. I liked 2. went with the cowl colours and 3. I had enough of. You wouldn’t believe the number of buttons I have in sets of four, and of course this needs five.

I finally managed to narrow it down to two options; lovely brass and shiny purple.

But I just could not decide between the two, so off I went to instagram and facebook and had a poll. It was close for a bit, but then purple took off and became the clear winner.

But (of course there’s a but) while attaching said buttons, there was a casualty

I haven’t got any more of these.

So the choice was made for me; this baby got brass buttons.

But nobody told me how different attaching buttons is when it’s knitting rather than crochet.

And why is weaving in the ends so difficult?

What am I doing wrong??

Anyway it’s finished at last, and ready to go into the shop when I can get some proper photos. Phew.

Who’s ready for the weekend (me me me!)? Got any FOs this week? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

Progress report

The middle of October has sailed past me (where did the time go??) so it’s time for a quick review of my goals for the month.

1.Make at least one Christmas decoration per week.

I didn’t manage any in the first week, but I’ve certainly caught up since then.

2. List the rest of my cards in the shop.

Nada yet. But Etsy gave everyone 50 free listings and they run out tomorrow, so you bet this is my task for tonight!

3. Make 12 new blog posts (3 per week).

I’m doing super well with this one! The count is 8 so far and this here progress post will be number 9.

Lesson learned: it’s really best for me when I sort a few posts at once and then schedule them.

4. Write up a proper pattern for my waffle hat.

Not even a little bit. Maybe when I’m travelling next week, if they won’t allow my crochet hook on the plane.

5. Finish this doily that’s been hanging around for months

I’m nearly there! One more round and some blocking, and it’ll be all done.

It might warrant its own blog post when I’m finished; there have been all kind of ups, downs, and tweaks with this thing.

 

From the looks of that I’m just about on track. Well done, me 😉  How’s everyone’s October going? Is it whizzing by for you too? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

 

FO Friday 13.10.17

Happy Friday the 13th!!

One little FO this week – I finished off my first ever snowflake.

Isn’t it cute.

I also have my PVA glue ready to make it a bit more solid.

In other news my model head arrived today, two weeks earlier than expected!

I have plans for this here head. I don’t like the fact that it’s female; I much prefer those hat forms that are just general head-ish shapes. So first up the nose is coming off. That will probably get messy!

Then I’m going back to summer holidays at my Nan’s house and breaking out the flour and water for some papier mache. That’ll get rid of the facial features and give it a smoother shape.

And the final step will be decopatch with some tissue paper I bought ages ago. It has this gorgeous, subtle sheen to it, which I think will look quite good. Colours yet to be decided, although it will definitely not be blue or pink. Even though I don’t believe in all this gendered colour nonsense, I know I’m in the minority.

All that paper should give it some extra weight as well, so if I ever manage to get outside for photo shoots again it shouldn’t be blown away in the breeze.

Oh and of course mum got me some thread to make the snowflakes from the book she sent!

That’s my week. Anyone else super glad it’s Friday? Got some FOs to share? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

FO Friday 06.10.17 (nearly)

As soon as you think you’ve got this scheduling thing figured out, along comes WordPress to prove you wrong!

Better late than never, here is my FO Friday post.

Only one FO this week, and you’ll have to excuse the photos as I’m both model and photographer and my arms are not quite long enough!

I finally finished up my scoodie and I’m loving it.

Blocking did straighten out the scarf part a very little, but in future I think I’ll just avoid the granny joining stitch and go for something straighter.

I particularly like the fit of the hood

Usually they barely fit over my head and keep sliding back so my ears are exposed (I must have a big noggin!) but this one has more than enough room.

I’d want something a bit brighter for myself, so this is going into the shop just as soon as my mannequin head arrives so I can get some decent photos. This thing does not look good flat.

Not quite as productive as last week, but then I have been taking my iron tablets and feeling quite a bit better.

What do you think of the scoodie? Anyone else got some FOs to share? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 04.10.17

Current WIP count: 6

Progress so far on my commissioned doily:

I’m still suuuper unsure about the colours, but my hope is it’ll look better the more I add in.

This is the current state of the chevron doggy blanket:

Yeah.

I was absolutely positive I had some more of that blue yarn lying around somewhere, but having gone through my entire stash I can’t find one bit of it.

So my plan was to frog back to the first blue section and remove a couple of rows, then the rows removed from each section could be used for the shorter sections later on.

But (of course there’s a but) I got nearly to the end, the final blue section with one short white section either side, and it all went pear-shaped. I made the mistake of putting the thing down, and when I picked it up again I didn’t check which end I was frogging from. I spent half an hour frantically picking at the white row, wondering why it wasn’t just undoing like the rest of the blanket, why this particular row was so sticky and unwilling to frog.

Then I realised I was undoing the foundation row. Face. palm.

I confess, for a couple of hours I seriously considered just throwing every last bit of this nasty, cheap acrylic into the bin. But there is something inside me that just cannot do that to yarn, no matter how awful it is, as well as a mile-wide stubborn streak. So I frogged it all and off I go again.

It’s a good job I like chevrons…

I got a massive ball of Marble Chunky for my birthday in April, and it’s been staring at me since then, begging to be made into something warm and snuggly. So I had a dig round Ravelry for a pattern and found the waffle knit cowl by Cate Carter-Evans.

It’s a really simple repeating pattern so I can work away while watching something on my laptop, it’s chunky so of course it’s growing really quickly, and OH THE SQUISH!! I keep stopping just to squidge it for a bit. I also love the stripes that are forming with the gradual colour changes in the yarn. I think I might struggle to give this one away.

And I’m re-blocking the scarf part of my scoodie in the hope that it’ll straighten out and I won’t have to undo and re-attach every square. Fingers crossed.

That’s my WIPs for this week. What’s everyone else working on? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx