A Pig with a Wig

Hello all,

I hope you are well. Perhaps you are knitting away for a loved one for valentines day or something to keep you warm........I am working on my pigs with wigs (yay)

I have completed one of my two orders and I love it to bits. The patterns are from one of my favourite knitting designers called Anna Hrachovec. Her quirky designs are so fun to make up and absolutely adorable. This pattern was from her first book called Mochimochiland. It was due to this book I had to learn how to knit in the round immediately as I was so excited to make up the cute creatures. 

The first piggy is completed with a bob style wig. I think it suits him very well and I hope he will be well loved in his new home. The second pig will hopefully have a Mohawk style wig to show off to his piggy friends. 

I am still to complete my Holly Berry socks which was a pattern from West Yorkshire Spinners. I went to Stitch Solihull where the wonderful Anna helped me with the toe up sock cast on......the problem was I went home and accidentally pulled all of the stitches off (ooopphhh) I may need to have another visit soon..... 

I have finally uploaded some new patterns to Ravelry and Love Knitting (yay!!!) My newer patterns include the Tunisian Lace Lampshade, Tunisian Cross Stitch Cowl and Geo Cushion which have previously been featured in Inside Crochet. If you get the chance, please check it out.

Right I'm off to work on a Mohawk....never thought I'd say that sentence......

Until next time

Happy crafting. 

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Lounge Around Socks

Hello all

As you are all aware I have the curse of the freezing cold feet. I do love a pair of socks to chill out it and to keep my toes toasty. 

I felt that I had understood the basics of knitting socks that I wanted to challenge myself further. I had never crocheted a sock until I created this pattern. I very quickly found that the knitted and crocheted sock rules differed. For a start, with a knitted sock you tend to need to use smaller needles. If a smaller hook is used, the sock would become so tight that you cannot get it over your ankle!............which I sadly discovered by experience when I managed to cut the circulation from my foot. The only solution seemed to be to use a much larger hook size than recommended with the yarn. 

When crocheting, the pattern forms a spiral which was apparent in the yarn that I used. I absolutely love West Yorkshire Spinner's yarn and wanted to make a pair of socks in the bull finch colour. The way to compensate for this was to make the first sock starting with the hook on the inside and then have the hook on the outside for the second sock. That way the decreases and the stripes were on opposite sides so that they looked like a pair. 

I love the pattern as it combines working in the rounds with working straight which makes it really interesting. Hopefully, it will avoid second sock syndrome. 

The socks are really comfy and I was chuffed with the end result. I want to thank Inside Crochet for publishing the pattern in their latest magazine. 

I am truly in the knitting festive spirit. I have ordered some of my family members yarn and began the Christmas projects. Hopefully I can get them all dome before the big day :s

Until next time

Happy Crafting

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Holiday socks

Hello all,

I love summer holidays! Enjoying the sun and wearing all your favourite summer accessories. However, when I go away with my family it is never in the summer. Cost is always a factor and so our holidays tend to be towards the end of September. Not only do we go when it's colder...but we also like to stay in a freezing cold caravan. However, there is a positive spin to it all....it makes the time leading up to the break brilliant for a knitter. 

Most people going on holiday will shop for new clothes or accessories. I on the other hand find lovely things that I would like to make. I have a long list of things and I hope my poor hands can endure then endless projects I want to knit. 

I am happy to announce that my freezing feet will not suffer in the caravan as I have knitted a new pair of socks. The gorgeous yarn was from West Yorkshire Spinners and it is the in the Country Bird range. My particular socks are 'pheasant' as apparently the colours seen are similar to this bird. The magical yarn stripes itself creating a great false fair isle effect. I used a basic pattern provided from Rachel Coopey at a brilliant sock workshop I attended at Guthrie and Ghani. I have booked myself onto their knitting in colours in the round workshop which I am really excitted about by the way. 

It was not all plain sailing. I completed the first sock and noticed I was 2 stitches short. After I had grafted the end........disaster struck!!!!! I could see the 2 dropped stitches quite early on in the piece. This brought much sadness as I had to frog (unpick) my work back to this point to repair. Most knitters have second sock syndrome. In this case...........I had third sock syndrome.

I worked on these socks at the Toft knit night and at another knitting group I attend called Sip and Stitch. This is on a Saturday 11am-1pm at Stitch Solihull. This is a gorgeous shop which is even open on a Sunday!!!!!!. It stocks high quality yarn and knitting supplies. Check out their website for more details and look at the workshops too. I am hoping to go to a more advance Tunisian crochet workshop soon. Eventually I had made my beautiful socks. I now need to meet with my sister to find a new set of pyjamas that will match them. 

As it will only be slightly colder it's too soon to wear my Super Moss stitch cowl...................maybe I need to make another cowl before my holiday. Now I did attend that hyacinth cowl workshop at Toft and I do have the luxurious extra fine yarn to make it up with. Check out the end result next time. 

Until then

Happy crafting

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