Crafty Little Rat

  Just a selection of some of my photographs from the show which was a lovely day out in Bath Firstly introducing Isla – She’s a Syrian Hamster who we adopted from the RSPCA in Newport 3 weeks ago. She’s incredibly pretty, like a tortoiseshell cat colour. She loves racing around in her ball and driving into people’s feet! We’ve forgotten how much we missed having a hamster. It’s comforting as well to have such a live wire in the household as the rats are slowing down. So we started off in Bath by imediatly finding Wool – a great little knitting shop. I enabled Angie, and she enabled me too! In dare not tell Rhys how much I spent, especially when I said I had enough wool the week before! This is Araucania Botany Lace, the colours in it (which have not photographed too well… I need a light tent!) remind me of the seaside. Sand, foam, spray and sea and I can’t wait to work something up. I bought 2 skeins just in case as I love large shawls.   I also picked up 3 skeins of ...

Only a week and 3 days after finishing it am I finally getting around to blogging about it! Oops. Pattern – Malgven by Lucy Hauge (Part of the Celtic Shawls E-Book set) Yarn – Clicky Needles Lace (80% Merino 20% Cashmere) in Tangerine. 88g. Needles – 3.0mm DPNS to start and Nova Circs to complete (Increasing cable as shawl got bigger) Diameter – Just over 100cm across. Will probably expand more with a serious, wet block. I took advantage of finishing this just before we went to see the Kaffe exhibition in Bristol to get some good outdoors shots. Angie took all of the indoor ones – and I’m actually really happy with them.. even the ones on me! I hate having my photo taken. The shawl is intensely cabled. The pattern repeats 12 times around on most charts (on one it only repeats 6 times) and there can be up to 8 or 10 cable crosses on the cable rounds. The “Off” rounds still required concentration, to make sure the knits and purls were in the correct place. Am I 100% in love w...

  Two F.O’s to show off today I finished my Entrelac Socks. As you can see, one heel is smaller than the other. The pattern wasn’t exactly clear, and I’m so much happier with the second sock with the larger heel. Apart from that I really love the socks, and it’s not noticeable when the socks are on your feet! The yarn is Easy Knits Sock in Frodo, yarn I bought in 2012 – my first year at Wonderwool. I tried a few patterns but wasn’t happy with the pooling, the Entrelac breaks it up a lot more than plain knitting and I’m so much happier with it. Secondly is Peppa Pig! This is a present for the sister of the Guinea Pig recipient and was specially requested by her Mum. I’m so so with how this came out. I’m not a huge fan of knitting toys (though love Crocheting them) but wanted to work from an officially licenced pattern. This one was in an old issue of Women’s Weekly. I hope she’ll like it! Yesterday myself and Angie went to the American Museum in Bath, and I took loads of pict...

  Today we went through the craft room – as it had got pretty messy in the last few months and I was again struck by HOW MUCH YARN I own. So I’ve made a list of things I would like to make by the end of 2015; which hopefully I will stick to! 12 pairs of Socks! I have a huge queue of sock patterns – 51 pairs in total and luckily I have a huge stash of sock yarn as well 33 balls! I’m hoping to continue on with the Year of Socks project, where I make a pair a month as I’ve really enjoyed having more hand knit socks for me! 10 Stitch Blanket By the end of the year I’ll have at least 13 odd balls of sock wool, and more to come as I continue through the year. I normally have at least 20g left over – and by the end of 2015 (eep!) I’ll have at least 500g. My aim is to start this over Christmas and get caught up by February, after that I want to add the scraps as I finish the socks. Sweaters Soft Grey Cardigan Rhys has asked for this Cardi from the latest Issue of Simply Knittin...

  I finished my Ziprelaxagon socks the other week. Finished objects just don’t seem to be flowing at the moment… life seems to be getting in the way. After Thursday evening we’ll have been to the bank 3 times in the last 2 weeks. Once to sort out something, then back because we forgot some important information and then to switch over the ISA to a better rate one. That and vets visits, with 3 lump removals in as many months (Esme first, then Gytha, then Maggie’s today) means coming home, sleeping and going back out again! Probably not helped by the long term project being a heavily cabled laceweight shawl. I do only have 15 rounds to go on that though; so I’m hoping for an October finish. Anyway, here’s a stretched out picture; I wore the socks on the day they were photographed and they are SO COMFY. The first sock was started on 2.0mm needles. You start with the foot, working upwards (the toe is added later) and there’s a choice of 3 unit sizes, small medium and large dependi...

  Things seem to be incredibly slow coming off the needles at the moment. This might be because I’m working on a large, long term project (Malgven) or because it feel like I’ve not been knitting lots this last week or two. I’ve been working on Septembers Secret Sock parcel. Rhys picked out Ziprelaxagon and some orange-yellow sock yarn I bought last year from Aldi. Sock one nearly done –I plan on knitting the cuffs at the same time. The sock has a really unique construction, It’s made up of modules, a bit like a cross between a mitred blanket and Entrelac. You start by casting on and knitting a hexagon shape; and then other hexagons are made by a combination of casting on stitches and picking up and knitting ones from other units; then doing a cool “zip” cast off to close them up. The patterns fully customisable to any foot shape by using different sized units, and then even more so if you adjust your needle size. For this sock the 9 foot units were done in medium size and the...

  It’s been a good few weeks of changes! My other half started a new job 2 weeks ago. We now work in the same building (though for different departments in the same office). We’ve talked about a car a lot of times before, but as it would have been a bigger benefit to me (1 hour commute, £3 a day bus fare) we felt it was more important for me to actually learn how to drive first! However now we work at the same place, both spending £6 a day on buss fare we thought it was time to get a car and I’ll take weekly driving lessons as I go – with practice in our car. This is Freddie, he shares his registration date with Mr Mercury’s birthday. He’s an Aquatic Blue Mazda 2, Tamura spec. I didn’t really want a brand new car – truth be told but at 0% finance it’s very hard to argue; we’d have needed to take out finance for a car anyway.   My Finished this week is my second Doctor Who Scarf. I love the way these look – but I’ve got to say I’m so so glad it’s finally done. Miles ...