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Tuesday 15 April 2014

A few finished objects

This weekend was certainly action packed it started with my sisters birthday celebration on Thursday and then I was up most of Friday night with an unplanned home birth! I also worked all day Saturday so thankfully I am at last beginning to wind down :)

I am happy to say that my new niece was born yesterday which is very exciting. She was due at the end of April so I cast on some 'gender-neutral' things as they were having a surprise.  But as she arrived a week before her due date I am still working on the baby blanket, the upside is I have now snuck some pink in which is always fun!
But I thankfully managed to finish this lovely newborn vertebrae which is a go to pattern of mine.



The battle of the Whipporwhill shawl is over! I actually finished it on Friday night just before bed- yay! I still need to block and sew the ends in but it is done! YAY and I am happy to say I love it again so I am so happy I persevered.



Who else is really excited about these Easter weekend? I have Friday and Monday off so I definitely  feel a 'knitcation' coming on :) Have a great week everyone

Sunday 6 April 2014

On the needles: The battle of the Whippoorwill

Back in February mum and I were really lucky enough to attend unravel together.  I have never been to a knitting or fibre festival before, I have been to other craft festivals - mostly paper crafts so this was very exciting for us both.  All that fibre and knitting under one roof was so amazing.  I am happy to say it was so much fun despite us both aching terribly afterwards (we are a bit broken teehee) I really enjoyed meeting all the sellers and dyers and my stash was certainly enhanced quite considerably :)  I feel more likely to use a seller or dyer if I have 'met' them in real life :)



One of the most amazing things was seeing all the real life knits and one such item was Sarah's whippoorwill.  I am not part of the Ravelry crowd as I am far too much of a lurker, so I had not seen Sarah's blog prior to Unravel and I was far to shy to say hello to her, but I looked her up online afterwards (stalker much lol) and I was delighted to see she is my favourite contestant on the GBSB's daughter! I didn't see linda which is a shame as she is excellent.  But I ordered the yarn and pattern to replicate the gorgeousness (FYI I am happy to say the pattern is very popular now thanks to Linda wearing it on the program)



Anyhoo, I very excitedly cast on my Whipporwhill and I must say it wasn't love at first row..... I persevered and while I was determined to finish it, I put my Whipporwhill in a time out recently.  I am so glad I have the real life inspiration because it has been a hard project for me.  The issues seem to be mine for example: when I looked up the pattern I ordered the largest skein possible and cast on the largest size - About a third of the way to go my skein started to look a bit sad, and yup I ran out of wool {whomp, whomp, whomp}.  I am a tight knitter so I used way more that I envisioned but the thing that annoys me is having to pay £4.60 postage twice..... I sulked for a week and sucked it up.  I am almost done - I am determined to finish it this weekend as I am still not in love with it and just want to be done now.



I am trying really hard to be a monogamous knitter, hence the just wanting to be done, so I am going to keep going... It is sad when you are not 'in love' with your project as you spend hours and hours on them.  I am sure I will love it when it is finished and round my neck this winter but we shall see...



I have also made a teeny tiny purchase which I will talk about more in the future.... It's a drop spindle :)  Could this be the new 'obsession' lol


Thursday 27 March 2014

Im good thank you how are you?

It's funny how time can pass by and everything changes, but still stays the same.

I haven't updated my blog much for a while {6 months} wow.... I have thought about it but then I never got around to it.. I guess my own Blog consumption has dwindled; ergo my own input to the medium dwindled too...But my Blog is here still the same, waiting for a new page to display :)

I got a comment from a lovely lady saying she liked my Blog and was reading my archives - how sweet :) Its so weird because I guess I don't really picture people ready my little updates and it got me thinking.  I might try and blog again so lets see how it goes...It was one of my favourite hobbies 'once upon a time' but I do lose interest in things quite often... so lets see how it goes

So how are you? I am good thank you

Creatively I am on fire! My mojo is through the roof (another reason I haven't been online much) I am a knitting fiend!  It is still the same old story with me though - I get obsessive over something then I move on to something else, then I wander back...  My knitting is number 1 again, I guess it was a long time coming seeing as it has been my oldest hobby.

I started my new job in November last year and I am so happy.  I haven't really talked about that so for the most part I am now working as a community midwife in Kent rather than commuting to London.  The lack of commute has been amazing - I do miss having time to listen/watch all my favourite podcasts but hello I am home at 17:30 so I can watch them in bed!  

Health wise I am doing OK I am managing better with less travelling but I am still really tired at the end of the day which sucks... I guess I use all my energy trying to stay upright!  I am very, very happy with the decision I made to change NHS trusts last year.

My life is very good right now, in a beautiful balanced sense.  I am very happy with my 'lot' in life, my family, my friends, my hobbies, my career - that is me just saying 'thank you' to the universe, not being a braggy braggerson lol

I am going to share some of my creative endeavours because I am happy to say there are so many!!!!

It makes me so happy to finish things, but I do love a 'work in progress'

Right now I am working on a few things:

My Rainbow Whippoorwill shawl:



My gorgeous funky socks


My Tardis blue hot water bottle cover 


I am also working on a secret baby blanket, an infinity cowl, another shawl, and a baby cardigan.  I am happy to say I have also finished lots of things this year as well so I am completing all my projects :)









Monday 30 September 2013

Making me Happy

I love to mix up my hobbies and crafts, this week has seen Knitting take the centre stage.  I love to make baby gifts, to me it is a personal way to say 'hello' to the new bundle.

I have a new niece or nephew on the way so it was time to start my project.  I wanted a gender neutral project with some love Autumn colours as well.  I decided to knit a baby blanket (I usually crochet baby blankets) so I have been working on this all week.

Knitted blanket

This time I chose a cotton Aran/Worsted weight yarn and I can see why people love it as it works up so fast!  So far after a week I have managed 10 stripes.  I plan to continue knitting until I run out of yarn, I am really enjoying this one.


Find the pattern here.
My Ravelry page.

Sunday 22 September 2013

What my week has looked like

My week started with some more of my Halloween Sampler which is 100% my favourite so far.  I pretty much spend my spare time stitching these days which leaves time for little else crafting wise.  I am happy with that as I am so determined to finish this sampler, cross stitch typically stays unfinished in my home as I am easily distracted by new patterns.


Halloween sampler

Halloween Sampler

Knitting wise I have joined the KAL the Knitmore girls are hosting, I have chosen the gorgeous Hitchhiker pattern by Martina Behm.  The group is working on all patterns by Martina and it is very exciting.  I visited Loop a couple of weeks ago to buy some gorgeous yarn for the project.

Check out my 'cake'

wollmeise

Hitchhiker shawl

I have a shawl addiction at the moment lol.

Monday 16 September 2013

Life is good

I say this to myself daily because life really is good :)  It's my favourite time of year, Monday is my day off (last 7 to go!) so I am posting a crafting round up :)

Lately I have been obsessed with shawls.  I find it amazing that in all the years I have been knitting I have never made one!

I challenged myself to make one to wear for Mark's brothers wedding which didn't happen sadly (but it was so hot a knitted shawl was the last thing I needed).  I have had the gorgeous Bigger on the Inside Doctor Who shawl in my Ravelry favourites for ages so I took the plunge and ordered the yarn.  The first part is a lace section which is not good for someone like me as I get distracted very easily and lose my place - which is a disaster.  I had to leave it for a few weeks as one row was really causing me a nightmare.  Then my lovely friend Marja suggested using stitch markers - so simple but never occurred to me and lo and behold it worked!  So I finished the lace section and had the wonderful task of picking up 311 stitches along the edging.  I managed it and now I am happy to say that this section is so much fun!  So I hope to have it done in a few weeks.


Bigger on the inside

I say in a few weeks because I am sewing like a fiend these days.  I am currently working on the Halloween Sampler by the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery - I have to say it is probably my favourite one to date!  I LOOOOOVE Halloween anyway so this is a dream to me.  It is a 3 week sampler and I have been working on it every spare second I get.   

Halloween Sampler

They are also releasing the Autumn Sampler next week so lots of stitching goodness.  I was also working on my Spring and Summer Samplers and my monthly sampler but this one has my heart and attention right now.  These will not be taking eight years let me tell you!!!! The only thing is they keep releasing more cute patterns - eeepp!

Sunday 8 September 2013

The small things

It was an unintended hiatus which started with me taking caring care of myself and enjoying the small things that life has to offer right now.

Currently creating lots of lovely things including: -

Sewing: 

My new Halloween sampler
my summer sampler
my springtime sampler

Knitting: 

Vertebrae cardigans

Crochet: 

A new shawl

Scrapping:

I am addicted to my Project Life album right now 

We had Mark's brother's wedding which was lovely - on the hottest day for a very long time
Mark & Me

What have you all been up to?