Tuesday 14 October 2014

Barking mad!

It looks like life is still very much on the crazy side here but thankfully a bit of crochet saves the day! The first of October saw the end of July's part of the kaleidoscope blanket and the start of Augusts. It does seem to be a bit quicker at the moment but I believe it is down to the colours used in this months triangle. In many ways I will be sad to see this blanket finished as I have loved working with the bright colours but once it is done I can focus on finishing some of the others I have on the go.

As you can see Bertie insists on being in the picture every time, he has become a bit of a diva when I get the camera out! S x

Monday 22 September 2014

Hooky hooky

I promised to share with you what I am working on currently so a quick run down so far:

The kaleidoscope blanket - nearly done with my July part but not quite yet so hang on in there for a picture!

Newly begun is my 'Great Escape shawl' and Bertie said I wasn't having a picture without him:


Also recently begun is my coastal ripple blanket - I ordered the yarn as a pick me up for when we returned from holiday as I know I need most distracting once everyone is back in the work day routine:

Once again Bertie plonked himself down so he could be part of the picture! I also have just cast on a pair of socks for Dave but there isn't much to show just yet so will be back with an update on those eventually! 

The chimney has just been swept for this year so settling down by the fire with a nice bit of hooky sounds like it won't be far away but for now I need to go and mow my lawn as the grass seems to be growing quite fast still! More soon, S x



Monday 8 September 2014

September already!

August passed me by in another whirlwind of holiday and birthdays and here we are at the start of autumn! So what did I do to fill the time? Well I finished the June section of the Kaleidoscope blanket:


Bertie spent many happy hours stealing the yarn from my bag and tangling it up, he really does love this blanket!


Lottie's friend from work made me these lovely cupcakes for my birthday!


And we all had fun on the beach!

And here we are in September with the weather changing towards a cooler and darker time and I am looking back and thinking what a lovely summer we had! I seem to be having a huge dose of startitis so I will be back soon to show what I have on my needles and hooks! S x

Tuesday 15 July 2014

Oops!

Where did the last few months go? Swallowed up in a whirl wind of chaos I am afraid to say as we had new bathrooms, a new lawn and a teething and growing puppy. I can't believe it has been that long though but here I am with more seaside pictures:



Dave and I sneaked off for a couple of days with Bertie ahead of a holiday trip with Lou, how much we manage to get her out and about will depend on how well the' Bertie factor' works! We have found that although Bertie is just a puppy he has a very special effect on Lou which seems to help her cope with things a little better. I have always believed that she would benefit from an assistance dog but the way life works currently it wouldn't be possible for her to have one, Bertie seems to be the next best thing. He is so patient with her and has been really good when we put him on 2 leads in order for her to 'walk' him so I am hopeful we could see small but significant progress in the future.

Its a dogs life:

Hopefully I will be back again soon! 

Wednesday 30 April 2014

Where did the time go?

Sorry I have been so long again but I think that we bought a time shrinking object and not a puppy as the last 3 weeks have completely vanished with very little to show for them!

Bertie has been a busy boy though as we had a few days away at Easter and he enjoyed lots of new experiences such as 'walking' along the beach:


And visiting the pier:


Also a quick trip to the pub:


He has also been enjoying my kaleidoscope blanket, I am a little behind now as I have just finished my 'March' part:


Hopefully I will make some progress in catching up soon but I am a little distracted as you can see! More soon from us both x



Tuesday 1 April 2014

Introducing Bertie!

Sorry to have been quiet again its just lots has been going on here in my corner of Cheshire including a bit of forward planning and some exciting news!

The forward planning is a new bathroom and seems to have taken ages to finally choose what we want but this is not being fitted until May so still time to get organised here. The exciting news will be the arrival of a new puppy called Bertie please say hello:


This is Bertie at 4 weeks old when we went across to Derbyshire to choose him. The following weekend we were at Crufts where Bertie's Dad won Best of Breed - we were so proud to be there knowing that little Bertie was his son, Harry is a lovely dog and I can't wait to see both he and Bertie's mum again when we go to collect Bertie at the weekend.

Hopefully you will forgive me for giving you doggie pictures for a few weeks instead of knitting but we are so excited after all that we went through with Ted to have something precious again to love. Ted is still thought of every day and he will be in my heart forever but a waggy tail is a wonderful thing and I can't wait to have one around again!

More soon, S x

Tuesday 11 March 2014

Finally finished!

So here we have it I have finally finished my snawheid hat and my Southwold in the snow shawl! I have loved knitting both of these as they are both such lovely woolly yarns and they smell all sheepy. The hat I managed to get finished before we went away for the weekend but the shawl came with me as I was in the middle of the picot cast off, it seemed to take forever with that cast on 2 and then cast off 4 but the effect is really pretty. Thankfully I also took my baby cardigan with me too so I still had something to work on once that was finished and I have blocked them both now we are home again.



I meant to show you these earlier but somehow life got a bit busy again and I have been chasing my tail to catch up with myself, I hope to be back here again soon!

Wednesday 19 February 2014

Nothing new!

I am not quite sure where last week disappeared to but I did have my sister staying with me so time does seem to go into a big black hole somewhere! I have made progress on all 3 of the current projects I am working on but nothing has come off the needles yet, I guess that the knitting goes into that black hole too!

I am almost finished with January's section of my crochet blanket with only the little filler holes to do. The February section shouldn't take as long as there aren't as many triangles for this round so hopefully I might have caught up by the end of the month but I will keep you posted!

Monday 3 February 2014

Inspiration needed?

After my last post Barbara said she was looking for inspiration and it got me thinking about what I do when I 'need' a new project. To be clear here I don't ever have 'nothing on the needles', there are always projects that are lurking in the background waiting to be rediscovered and reloved or simply just finished off! Sometimes however I do find myself thinking that I really really need some new exciting thing to fill that void which has suddenly appeared for whatever reason, at this point I sign into Ravelry and start to rummage around. I know that we all use this website in different ways but for me when I come across a pattern I like I will add it to my favourites queue and this is my first point of rummaging around to see what grabs my attention. Something else I also do is look through my friends queue's and projects as they might have seen something that I haven't and it can lead to an exciting discovery! Occasionally I also see projects in thread conversations that grab my attention and by adding them to favourites they remind me to go back and take a second look. Usually by now something has caught my eye and I am beginning a new project but sometimes nothing quite hits the spot and I take a good hard look at the projects that are already begun but need more work and I pick one out and sit down to check where I left it and remind myself of the pattern. So either I have a project that I want to carry on working on or by working on it a bit more it brings to mind something else I thought about previously and was too busy to start!

This week as well as working on my hat and my shawl I have also been finishing off a baby cardigan! Now don't get all excited here it isn't for anyone you know - it is for Dave's boss in the USA. It isn't often I knit baby things as they don't really do much for me in terms enjoyment and I have no idea why as they are quite quick to do but there we have it. This is what I made:


It is the beyond puerperium cardigan and was knitted as a 3-6 month size. I have also knitted the Puerperium cardigan in the smallest size in the past for another of Dave's work friends and it is a really simple pattern to do but seems to be quite popular with the recipients! I have another one of these to knit for Dave's UK boss as his wife is also expecting soon! Hopefully all should be quiet on the baby front for a while after that and I can retreat to my happier knitting!

I hope that by next week I will have something off the needles to show you all but until then happy rummaging! S x

Wednesday 29 January 2014

Somebody stop me........

Last week I had a dose of startitis which I haven't had in a good while so I must be feeling more like my old self again!

Firstly I cast on a hat, I made one over Christmas for a gift and I loved it so much I thought I could use one myself!
So I cast on another....


Next I cast on a shawl - something in the name called out to me and I knew I needed to make one. The yarn for this is really warm and woolly so just right for the cold at the moment.
It is called 'Southwold in the snow' and by now you should have guessed at my seaside obsession!  Although I haven't been to Southwold it is on my list of must visit soon places, my only worry is what might be left of the beach huts! I know how badly the beach huts in Cromer suffered in the December storm and many haven't made it past the pile of matchwood stage. Having said that the town has worked extremely hard to bounce back and the sun is still shining even though the weather is bitterly cold!
Sorry I felt the need for a real seaside picture at this point (taken at Christmas I might add).

So as I have been working on my 2 new projects I sat a pondering over my lack of progress on the kaleidoscope blanket and wondered just what it was that these new ones had that the blanket didn't? The blanket is bright and cheery and the colours just sing so why have I been drawn to the more muted colours of the other projects? My conclusion is that it isn't the colours it is the yarn as although the blanket is bright and lovely the yarn (it  is also 4 ply) is thinner and silkier and not woolly and warm! Given how cold and grey it is at the moment I can only assume that my mind / body feels the need to work with the warm woolly yarn and once again I am driven by the seasons for my knitting habits!

Hopefully next week I will have finished something to keep out this cold and moved back onto the cheery colours that make me smile! Sx

Wednesday 22 January 2014

Kaleidoscope Blanket

Last week saw the arrival of the yarn for the January to March portion of my blanket and I shared with you the jewel colours which remind me so much of a tin of quality street. This week I have a little progress for you but not an amazing amount. Time was a bit restricted for me as my sister was staying with us all week so Mum and Dad could have a bit of a break.

This is where I am up to! After this 'round' of triangles is done there is another round and the rest of the little filler circles to add as well and then month 1 is complete. I am not expecting to receive the month 2 pattern until part way through February so I should have finished this months progress by then I hope!

I don't have a great deal of other progress to report on as I am sure you don't really want to hear about the mountain of washing I am working my way through today - I don't really know where it all appeared from suddenly as I thought I had actually got a grip of the mountain that had gathered previously! More soon, Sx

Wednesday 15 January 2014

As requested!

After my last post Barbara asked for more details on my Rams and Yowes blanket so I thought I would oblige. I bought it as a kit back in February 2012 and I must say that the price has gone up significantly since I bought it! I cast on after doing the on-line road test for continental knitting as this blanket uses stranded knitting,each row uses 2 colours of yarn with the strands held at the back of the work. Importantly this blanket is worked in the round so there is a set of 5 stitches which are worked to give somewhere to work the steek and also somewhere to change the colours over when required. By using both hands to knit it means that each hand carries its own colour of yarn and so makes it quicker and simpler to knit. I got part way through the tube and had to stop as life got too complicated and exhausting to give it the attention it deserved and I stuck with much simpler knitting. After Ted died it has taken me the last 6 months to get my energy levels and concentration back to something nearer to what it had been - who knew that extended sleep deprivation would take this long to recover from? Over Christmas we went away to Norfolk and the sea air worked some of its magic on me and I finished the tube part of the blanket.
Sorry but I don't have an extra blanket picture to show you but these seagulls made me smile!

This is where it gets tricky as you have to work 2 lines of crochet in order to prevent the steek from unravelling - thankfully the designer, Kate Davies provides detailed tutorials on how to work these and the tube then becomes a flat piece of work. Next up is the picking up stitches part which seemed to take me forever, partly because I had to redo some of them to get it to look correct but that was my lack of technique and nothing more! Now I am working the border stitches but the whole thing doesn't look much yet as all of the border stitches sit on 2 long circular needles and everything get scrunched along as you work - when  it looks less like a messy pile I will take more pictures to show you.

In the mean time I can show my newest project:

These lovelies arrived yesterday!


And I wound them straight away. They are the first quarters' yarns for the kaleidoscope crochet blanket club hopefully I will have more to show you on this soon! I will try and be back again next week with some progress for you. S x

Friday 10 January 2014

New Year New Start!

Happy New Year to you all out in Blogland! I hope that 2014 is a good year for us all.

After the terrible year I had last year I was more than happy to say goodbye to 2013, it started badly and ended not quite so badly! My apologies for the lack of posts but I shall try very hard this year to get back on track. It has taken me 6 months to start to feel a bit more like my old self again and although I miss my furry friend every day life is beginning to move forward bit by bit. You might be pleased to hear that my knitting has started to slowly pick up pace again and I can see progress in projects that I am working on rather than the painful slow work that was last year.

So with that in mind I will show you some progress I made over the holidays - you might remember my excitement at starting my Rams and Yowes blanket back in 2012? Well this was where I got to over Christmas:

I did my first steek - so I must have been feeling better as I cut my knitting! Thankfully it worked and I spent the following week picking up stitches which is my least favourite thing to do but I persevered and am now knitting the border.


I will leave you at this point as I only popped in to wish you all well and say that I am back again (hopefully) for 2014. More soon and thank you for still being here! S x