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

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

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

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

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

Blankets!

Apologies for the time delay yet again - I have been so busy with helping take care of my sister that time has flown by! What with meetings and dentistry ops my life has become consumed by her life and my own has become not so.

You may remember the crochet blanket which was my sanity project when life got tough - well now it is finally finished! In reality it was finished crochet wise at least a month ago but it is the ends that have caused the 'finally finished' delay - actually sitting down and weaving in those ends is not hard it is just finding the space in life to sit down and do it!

I made the blanket as the pattern suggested but once it was joined together I found I had plenty of background colours left (the pattern colours are enough for another blanket - more on that later) so I decided to add a border using just background colours - I ran out of one and had to find a bit more from a fellow club member who had some left over but it makes the blanket a bit larger and a bit roomier and I am happy that I did so!

I promise to try to blog a little more often now but things seem to be hectic all of the time here - its not that I am out there enjoying myself I am just juggling the tiny amount of free time that I seem to have!

Good night Ted Bear

It has been a while since I have blogged and I am sorry. Partly this has been down to the extreme tiredness that I have been fighting and then latterly I haven't known exactly how to write this post! If you have been along with me on this journey you will by now have guessed that we have had to say good bye to our precious Ted Bear. On the 13th of June it was the day that we had all been waiting for and dreading and I can only say that it was the saddest of my life so far. We were extremely fortunate to have the Cardiology vet and nurse with us and Ted was surrounded by people who loved him dearly.

 He is missed every day and has left the biggest hole imaginable in our lives. We are trying very hard to get used to being able to go out for walks again and live a more 'normal' life but these things take time to readjust to.

Good night Ted Bear - you are forever in our hearts!