Skiing and Spas

Hello all,

This is the month where I turn 30 (I cant believe it!!!). I have been keeping myself occupied by challenging myself to do things that have previously scared me. I have also been knitting. 

So far out of the two things I have tried,.....50% of them I already regret. I have now got quite obsessed with Groupon and found a deal to try skiing. It was at the Snowdome and the idea of cruising down the slopes seemed extremely appealing. Also the idea of knitting away in a snowy log cabin by a log fire sounded brilliant. However, the reality was completely different. I was unable to stand still so would automatically fall down the slope....and yes I mean literally falling......On one occasion I did this ssoo well I managed to ski down the slope on my shoulder!!! I really felt for the instructor as on the few occasions I made it down the slope I had to grab her legs, arms and her waist.......I feel that skiing was not my calling....

The second activity that I have taken part in was going to a spa. I made a slight error in that I booked myself in for a deep tissue massage. I had never had a massage before and expected a lovely relaxing session. However, I ended up leaving feeling battered and bruised......although I felt much better the next day. I also indulged in a facial and a body wrap, which was amazing!!!! I feel I am a spa girl and could happy image myself knitting away at a spa. 

The spa was also a lovely treat as my best girlfriends joined me in celebration of my birthday, I received so many lovely presents but the one very relevant to this blog was from my knitting buddy in crime. Becky presented me with a great top that I am sure to wear to all future knitting shows :-)

The next thing on my list to do is a pottery course....how wrong could that go....:-s

until next time

Happy crafting 

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Autumn and the hunt for the missing leg

Hello all,

The weather appears to be changing quite quickly and I am currently............. freezing!!!!!!!! For a knitter, the change in season is great as it brings back more motivation to make woolly goods. I have completed my Christmas project for my sister.......with a lot of yarn left over, so I will need to think what other present I can create with yummy chunky yarn.

I have also finally completed my West Yorkshire Spinner's Mallard socks :) They are fabulous and really warm. I like the colour combinations and I feel they may come on holiday with me to the caravan. I have successfully recovered from the second sock syndrome and back to good health. I am now on my next project. 

Work has started on my nephew's dinosaur using the TOFT pattern. All was going well until I lost a leg that I had made..........I suppose there is a slight possibility it walked off (I guess more accurately hopped off as it is only one leg). The hunt to find it has began but it could be anywhere between Birmingham and Reading. If you do happen to find an orange crocheted leg about.....please tell it to come home!!!!!!

There are a lot of lovely knitted accessories coming out in the shops. Whilst with my sister, we found some sweet knitted jumpers for the nephew and gorgeous chunky cardigans for us in Primark. I am at the point where I am considering popping the heating on at home but I am trying to resist the urge...........until the real autumn arrives.

The holiday planning is going well. I am  trying to locate the local yarn shops near Bideford. (Please do share any recommendations) I have found a knitting cafe called 'Periwinkle' which I would love to pop in. Not only does it sell beautiful yarn but it also has tea and cakes. This sounds like a knitters dream to me and a must do on the holiday list. 

I am also still on my quest to find other socially acceptable place to knit. So far I have found on a train and a cricket ground. Tomorrow, my car needs to be serviced and I intent to be making my dinosaur in the waiting room. This is a new knitting territory for me and I hope it is well received. 

I am still fundrasing for Birmingham Children's Hospital after spotting all of the Big and Little Hoot owls. I am happy to say I have reached my target and I want to thank everyone who has been able to sponsor me. If you are able to help this great cause my page is www.justgiving.com/sarah-reed2015

Right....back to the dinosaur and the hunt for the missing leg.....

Until next time

Happy crafting

Sarah :) 

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Second sock syndrome.......

Hi all,

I have successfully completed the Big and Little Hoot for Birmingham Children's hospital. The project was set up by Wild in Art. It was great fun and it was a brilliant way to explore the city. All 211 owls have now been spotted and I now have more time to knit again :) I am still collecting sponsors so if you are able to help in anyway that would be much appreciated. My page is www.justgiving.com/sarah-reed2015.

My knitting buddy Becky and I felt we wanted a new venue to knit at. We looked into acceptable places to knit and found that a cricket ground is the place to be. We booked our tickets and went to watch an exciting match.....however, it was not meant to be. I arrived just after 1pm and the rain began to fall. We stuck it out for 5 hours but after that, we gave up and the match was called off. Despite the rain we continued to knit our current makes. I have finally finished Christmas present number 2 for my sister. It involved a TOFT pattern and some very chunky yarn. I also picked up the Mallard sock and got most the way to completing the first sock.

The next day I persevered and completed the first sock. I have began the second sock but I am now suffering from the terrible aliment of 'Second Sock Syndrome'. I am working on the cuff and I am struggling to complete it. I feel that they way to recover from this terrible syndrome is to put on a great movie and knit to the end. I am hoping to complete it over the weekend.

I have my next project lined up, which is of course a Christmas present for my nephew. He seems to have befriended his toy T-Rex. My nephew has such a strong bond with this creature, that he now feeds it and gives it his dummy. I felt it would be nice for the dinosaur to have a little friend and TOFT have some lovely dinosaurs patterns to make up. I haven't crocheted a toy for a while and I am looking forward to working on this.

The family are plotting their holiday to Bideford and I am currently trying to spot where all of the fabulous yarn shops are. If you have any suggestions, please do share :)

I have noticed that Age UK are starting to promote the Big Knit project. This involves knitting little hats to place on Innocent smoothies. For every smoothie that is sold wearing a hat, 25p is donated to age UK. Look online for more details on how you can get involved. 

Right!!!!!! I will not be beaten by this sock!!!!!!!!

Until next time

Happy crafting

Sarah :) 

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Shaun Spotting

Hello all,

I have been taking a break from Knitting and decided to do the second thing I enjoy, which are Art Trails. These trails involves finding sculptures around different towns. 

This year alone I have completed a Baron Trail in Salisbury and I am currently completing the Big Hoot in Birmingham. For the Big Hoot I am aiming to see all 211 Big and Little Hoot owls for Birmingham children's Hospital. I have currently spotted 95 of them and will hope to see the others within the next 2 weeks. If you are able to sponsor me,my just giving page is www.justgiving.com/sarah-reed2015 and I am raising money fro a great cause. 

Over the last weekend I went to Bristol and saw all of the lovely Shaun the Sheep sculptures. Bristol is a beautiful place and the trails lead you to all of the amazing sites such as the harbor, heritage sites and around the town. 

There were 70 to see and I managed to squeeze them all in 3 days!!!. I am now trying to recover from aching feet.......although I have agree to go yoga tonight....wish me luck. Knittingwise there are two beautiful Shauns. One is totally crocheted in St Nicholas Market and the other is a Knitted Style one in St Peter's church. The crocheted one, 'Woolly Wonderland', has individual crocheted motifs all over it. The other one called 'Knit-Wit' is painted in a knitting style which contains different knitted stitches...so see how many you can recognize. 

Intermediate Media have sponsored a Shaun which is near the harbor. Intermedate media create magazines including Knit Today and their creation is called 'Shaun Bean'. I really enjoyed this trail so it is worth a visit if you can make it before 31st August. However, if you cannot make it they can all be seen together at Cribbs Causeway 12th-20th September and in Covent Garden 24th-27th September. 

I have completed my first Christmas project and currently working on the second one.......hopefully I will actually finish them all on time!!! My poor mallard sock is sitting on the side but I will pick it up more towards the autumn. 

Right back to work

Happy crafting

Sarah :) 

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Fibre East and Owl hunting

Hello all, 

I have just managed to sit down and write this blog as I have been busy out and about. I love Art Sculpture trails and Birmingham has set one up called the Big Hoot. 89 Large and 122 smaller owls have been released in Birmingham and I intend to find all of these owls. By doing this I am raising money for Birmingham's Children's Hospital. This is a great cause and if you are able to spread the word of my work or even donate I would appreciate it https://www.justgiving.com/Sarah-Reed2015/

I had a wonderful day yesterday with my knitting companion Becky. We went over to Fibre East for the first time. It was lovely and there was a lot of sumptuous yarn to enjoy. Thread of Life was there and I was able to pick up another double ended Tunisian Crochet hook. There was also a lovely book stall selling older craft books. I managed to find one with Tricot crochet....which appears to be Tunisian crochet. A stall sold Drop's yarn and I could not resist buying some. Overall a great day with some good finds.

In true knitter's fashion Becky and I found a pub nearby called the Woolpack. Yes I found the irony hilarious. Here we had a lovely lunch and admired all of our purchases. 

On Thursday I am going to Guthrie and Ghani's knit night. It runs 6.30pm - 7.30pm and the company is great there. If you are free, it's worth going along to. 

I am working on a West Yorkshire Spinner's sock in Mallard and I have started a Christmas stocking for my nephew.......I need to finish at least one project as I can't have 2 on the go :S.......perhaps I will get to work on this now..........

Until next time 

Happy Crafting 

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Marie Curie Tea Party and the 'C' word

Hello all,

I had a lovely knitting Saturday last weekend.I attended the wonderful tea party held by City Knits in Birmingham. The gathering was in aid of Marie Curie. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and there was so much on offer. 

On the day there was a vast array of gorgeous cakes to indulge on and also there was a lucky dip for knitters. I had a go and bagged myself a lot of wonderful prizes. There was also an opportunity to try and knit with epic needles and there was a stall selling many hand knitted items. It was also wonderful to see all the lovely tea cosies that had been created for the event. 

I have taken part in the raffle hoping to win some of the lovely gifts. One of the offerings is 39 balls of Stylecraft yarn !!!!!! Imagine what I could make up with that !!!!!!! The draw is not until 30th June so there is still time to buy a ticket. They can be purchased from the shop or on-line, by donation, on City Knits just giving page www.justgiving.com/Christines2015. It's well worthwhile donating to this lovely cause.

I really enjoyed myself and hope they carry on hosting this event every year. 

I am unsure if it is inappropriate but I am going to use the 'C' word. That's right !!! I am contemplating beginning Christmas knitting. I need to decorate my new home and this year the family are celebrating with me. Is it too soon to begin???? I'm not so sure. I will contemplate on this more.

Until next time

Happy crafting

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Tunisian Lamp Shade

Hello all,

I am excited to announce that Inside Crochet have published my latest Tunisian crochet pattern. I really enjoyed designing this piece and I think it  would make any room look amazing. 

The lamp shade cover came a bit of an accident really. I am easily influenced by internet companies postage policies. Around the time, my sister wanted a pair of hand knitted gloves. However, in order for me to get the yarn I would have had to pay £3 postage. Oh no !!!! I was not having that!!!!! The way around this was to turn my £4 order into a £25 one. I have no idea why this seemed to make more sense to spend more money than settle for the postage. I looked for the most random thing to increase the price of my order and came across the Rico lampshade......of course into the basket it went. Once it arrived I had no idea what to do with it. 

I am really into my Tunisian crochet at the minute and I wanted to move beyond a Tunisian Simple Stitch. I looked through a few stitchonaries and found this lovely lace stitch. It is a 2 line repeat and involves decreasing and passing a yarn over to maintain the same number of stitches on each row. I think the main trick to this pattern is making sure that you count the number of stitches after each row to make sure you have not lost any. The pattern allowed me to use the luscious West Yorkshire Spinner yarn that I had been saving. From there the project was created and published by Inside Crochet. 

To feed my Tunisian addiction I will be going to a Tunisian crochet workshop with the lovely Denise on Saturday the 6th June at Stitch Solihull. By the end, I will hopefully be able to do the same stitch on Tunisian crochet on each side of my work (exciting stuff!!!!!)

I need a cup of tea and a calm down from all of the exciting things that have been going on. 

Until next time

Happy crafting 

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Birmingham knit nights and the Rabbit thief

Hello all,

I have been developing my skills in doing Tunisian crochet in the round and creating new designs which is all exciting. I have sent them off to the magazines to see if they would like to use them. Fingers crossed :) I would show you them however, the rabbit thief strikes again!!!!!!  It appears that she has taken to seeking comfort lately...........not from me but my designed good. It is a bizarre habit but I suppose if it keep her happy who am I to judge? 

As you may be aware I have recently moved to Birmingham and started to look for local knit nights. I love attending one on a Saturday 11am-1pm at Stitch Solihull. This beautiful knitting hut can be found inside Nottcutt's garden centre in Shirley. It is only £1 to attend and there are lovely biscuits and tea on hand. Stitch Solihull hold a variety of workshops and one that I am intending to book onto is Tunisian Crochet with the lovely Denise Pigott. The workshop is open to any ability and I am desperate to learn how to do double sided Tunisian crochet. I am booking onto the workshop on the Saturday 6th June. 

I have located another group near Bournville held at City knits in Birmingham. This group is on the last Wednesday of the month and runs 6.30pm - 8.30pm. This is a lovely group and there are usually a range of handmade cakes, tea and knitting gossip. I have enjoyed this group and will hopefully attend again in May as I am away in April. 

A group that I would like to try is at Guthrie and Ghani. This is held on the last Thursday of the month 6.30pm - 8.30pm. I love the shop and the atmosphere and I am intending to go along in May. The shop is in Moseley which works out great as it is not far from the day job. 

The final group that I have heard of is Stitches and Ho's which is held at a pub called the Hare and Hound pub in Kings Heath. This group runs on the last Tuesday of every month and starts from 7.30pm. This group seems different as it is based in a pub and shows the public how great knitting (and of course crochet) is. 

I am off to Brighton soon so if anyone can recommend and knitting shops that I must go to that would be much appreciated. 

I have updated my Ravelry shop with all my latest patterns so please check it out :)

Until next time

Happy crafting

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I'm back!!!!

Hello all,

I seem to have lost track of time :s I hope you are all well. I am in the process of relocating to Birmingham to move nearer to some lovely yarn shops. I am having to face the reality of how huge my yarn stash is. I need a bit of a clear out but it is so difficult to do. Once I am in my new property I will have a whole room to fill with yarn goodness.

I am still in love with West Yorkshire Spinner's yarn. I recently visited my sister in Reading and went along to a lovely shop called Yarnfest. It is in Thatcham and filled with good quality yarn...including my favourite West Yorkshire Spinner's. There are other yarns such as Debbie Bliss, Noro and Louise Harding. There is also a cute dog which will help you with your yarn shopping. Yarnfest also run a variety of workshops that look amazing to attend. I will be sure to try and tie in a visit there whenever I visit my sister. Check out the shops website for more http://www.yarnfest.co.uk/

I have a couple more magazines commissions on the way (one includes the yarn I brought from Yarnfest) and I have also had a couple of patterns reprinted in a German magazine called Hakeln which is exciting :)

Toft are currently raising money for Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity and Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice. They are making a crochet jungle which will be on display at the Knitting and Stitching show in March. I am helping towards this project but if you are able to make some leaves or buy a monkey kit where a donate would be made to these brilliant causes, that would be much appreciated.  please check out their website for more information. 

 http://www.thetoftalpacashop.co.uk/Article_News_crochetjungle.aspx

Well I need to get back to typing up my patterns :)

Until next time

Happy crafting

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Tunisian Mitts

Hello All,

I can finally take a breath as I have completed all of my Christmas knitting. I am looking forward to the open day at TOFT alpaca on the 20th December and I hope to see you all there. If you are a little behind with your knitting and need a place to go with lovely cakes, I suggest that you go to TOFT's knit night. At the moment it is on every Thursday 4pm-8pm to provide you with time to catch up with your festive projects.

The Christmas stocking bunting is on my fire place ready for Santa. Maybe as there are so many mini stockings I will get loads of gifts this year. I feel this was one of the cleverest schemes that I have hatched muhahaha. ......... Unless I have been naughty which means there will be a lot of coal for my fire place........


The final project that was published in Inside Crochet was Tunisian Mittens. This was a good challenge that I had set myself as I used a special way of crocheting. I have used this technique before and it involves a long crochet hook. With standard crochet you would work with one stitch at a time. However, with tunisian crochet you have a front pass where you pick up stitches on the hook, this means there could be 20 stitches plus on the hook at one time!!!!. You then work a back pass where you remove these stitches so you are back to one on the hook. You never need to turn the work and the stitches can mimic knitting stitches. There are not many books out there to provide guidance on this technique but I recommend a workshop with City Knit's In Birmingham. The courses there are a reasonable price, the tutor Kate was lovely and extremely knowledgeable and it is a good excuse to visit the lovely shop in the gorgeous area of Bournville. 


As I am a beginner at tunisian crochet, I wanted a project that did not require increases or decreases. I have learnt three stitches which were a standard, knit stitch and purl stitch and wanted a project to combine them together. This is where is the mitten was created. I used the wonderful Erika Knight's yarn. I love the texture and colours and feel this really added the the project. I also wanted to use different colours which is again another skill. I really enjoyed making this project and I hope that you do too. I feel that if you are new to tunisian crochet, this is a good place to start. 

I have added a couple of new patterns to my Raverly page so please check it out. There is not a crochet mug cosy and a knitted Christmas gift bag.

Until next time

Happy crafting. 

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Christmas is around the corner

Hello all,

I seem to have lost the month of November due to my rapid Christmas knitting for family. I love having a skill which means that I can provide truly unique gifts for my family members. I often look to Ravelry for knitspiration and find projects that suits everyone perfectly. Last year I was able to find a pattern for a toy Starship Enterprise and made that up for my dad as he was a Star Trek fan. He loved it and it is proudly hung on the Christmas tree.

You'll be happy to know that I have almost completed all of the required items and I can start focusing on designing and knitting for myself again :) I am really into cable knitting at the moment. I love the effects that can be achieved using this technique and I am hoping to be the proud owner of some new fingerless mittens soon as mine are pretty done for.

I will be displaying my handmade Christmas bunting in my home in preparation for the big day. Inspiration came in the middle of summer (bit odd but there we go). I started to thing about my holiday projects and dreaming about advent calendars. I thought about how I would love to have bigger chocolates each day as opposed to the tiny ones found in the shop brought ones and the only way around this would be to make my own advent calender. I didn't have a stocking as a child and I felt to make it up to myself I would make 24 mini ones as a bunting. 

I found the gorgeous Milla Mia yarn and a beautiful bunting was born. The pattern was in last months Inside Crochet and I really like this piece. I will be putting it up very soon........I don't want to wait for 12 days before Christmas 

I hope all of your festive projects are going well. I will be going to TOFT's open day on the 20th December with the family. It looks great as there are many demonstrations and also the opportunity to halter walk alpaca's (how exciting). The Cornflower Cafe is also amazing and well worth a visit too. I am hoping to be there with a lovely cream tea or a salted caramel cake..............perhaps by that point I wont care and I'll have both. 

Right...back to these mittens!!!!!!!

Until next time

Happy crafting

Sarah

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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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The Creation of Lamb Chop and Designing a Lace Shawl workshop

Hello all,

My dad has recently got into antiques which means some of my weekends are spend going around the fairs. I did not realise until this point that this is actually a good place to go and find retro knitting and crochet patterns. I found items such as the lovely knitwear to make an Action Man and super vintage cardigans. However, on one occasion, I found one epic find....... this was none other than the one and only Lamb Chop puppet.

I always remembered Lamb Chop being on the TV and I was a huge fan.....much to my dad's amazement. He assumed I had no idea who this was. This was the purchase of the day and I went to work on this project immediately. In order to begin, I thought I would look at photos of the original puppet online. I didn't really think this through and just typed 'Lamb Chop' into a search engine. Of course over 100 images of a Sunday dinner came up instead. This is not how I 
wanted my end product to look like. 

The pattern was interesting to make as it involved a technique in knitting that I had not come across before.You needed to create loops to give the woolly fleece effect. This involved winding the yarn around the needle 3 times and then knitting. This did make the piece fiddly to make. The pattern also required felt to be used to form the ears and hands. Felt and I do not get on well. I have a tendency to keep hacking at it until there is nothing left. I decided it would be better to create a knitted version of these parts instead. 

After many hours and my husband modelling the puppet on his hands many times, I finally had my very own Lamb Chop. I think it's turned out well and it will be well loved. 

I also attended a great workshop on designing your own knitted lace shawl. This took place at a sweet shop in Sutton Coldfield called 'Sitting Knitting'. This is a shop in the Four Oaks area which has an excellent range of yarn. There was lovely items such as natural fibre yarns, Knit Pro needles and more. Rachel (the shop owner) was really friendly and easy to chat to. The workshop was ran Anniken Allis. She has been featured in numerous magazine with her gorgeous lace designs and also is currently working on a book. she was extremely knowledgeable and I feel happier to try to do lace knitting. I have something sketched out and if this works I will post it up at a later point. This was a great workshop and a lovely shop and I would recommend them both. 

At this moment in time I am working on a lace scarf and I have other ideas in my head which when I have time, I will create :)

Until next time

Happy crafting

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Benjamin's Bunny

Hello all,

I am an Auntie :). The lovely Benjamin arrived into the world in April and he is gorgeous. Babies are brilliant  to knit for as the projects are small, quick to make and often adorable. I asked my sister if there was anything in particular that she wanted for Ben. Instead of the usual booties or hat, she asked for a bunny. Not just any old bunny but one similar to what we had as children. 

One of the first knitted items that my sister and I had as a children were a rabbits. One of our rabbits had red dungarees and the other had peach ones. The rabbits did not quite look right but we loved them very much. I can remember they were mainly made in garter stitch and the dungarees were formed in stocking stitch. 

This would normally not be a problem to make.....if you had the original pattern....or the original toy to refer. However, I had neither of these :s meaning I had to rely on my memory. To reduce the amount of sewing needed I knitted the toy on double pointed needles but to achieve the effect of a garter stitch, I had to use a purl stitch.

My poor husband had to endure confusing questions such as 'can you tell it's a rabbit but it doesn't quite look like one?' He decide to help by bringing me a lot of tea and reading quietly in the corner. 

I thought to make this item more specialized and gave the rabbit blue dungarees. I finally completed the project after a week and hand delivered the item to beautiful baby Ben. He seems happy with the end  product (well as happy as a 1 month old could be). 

More news is that I have finally opened a pattern shop on Ravelry. I haven't managed to post all of my designs yet but there is a good sample which can be seen on this link (http://www.ravelry.com/designers/sarah-coad).

Summer is on the way so I will soon be writing about some of my summer patterns :) 

Until next time

Happy Crafting

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Festival of Arts and fibre fest

Hello all,

I am now officially an award winning knitter and crocheter :). In my town there is a local competition called the Nuneaton Festival of Arts. Within this you can enter a number of different arts and craft ranging from poetry to quilts. I thought this year would be the time to give it a go.

My first decision was what I should enter. I was quite proud of my sockcessful knit so I wanted this to be entered. This did cause a couple of issues for the husband as it did once again mean that I had freezing cold feet. I also wanted other knitters to see a sample of extreme knitting so I had to whip my rug out from under the cat. She was also displease as she was cold. However, there was a lovely compromise as she now sits on my husband's lap. This means that the husband's lap is now too hot and I can help cool him down with my freezing feet :)

As there was also a crochet category that I wanted to submit some items here. My hook case was one of the first things I designed and I wanted it to be seen. I also loved my little hedgehog and he was my final submission. This did not cause any problems in the marriage you'll be happy to know.

Results were released within a few days but it seemed like a life time. When they were out I was over the moon as I found I was 3rd in the knitting category, 2nd in crochet and I got a certificate of achievement. I was honored to have been selected. 

I also attended Fibre Fest which was put on by the Fibreworks. This was a great day would as there was a range of crafts available from patchwork to lovely woolly gifts. The Fibreworks is a sweet shop that stocks an excellent range of yarn in gorgeous colours and fibres. There is a branch in Chipping Norton and Oxford. 

I learnt about Knit for Peace which is a brilliant charity. The idea is that it encourages people to knit and the items produced is sent off to different great knitting causes. Some knitted tops have been hand sent to India with this cause. This charity is something that I would like to get involved with. Please check out their website and help them out where you can (http://www.knitforpeace.org.uk/) 

There was an inspiring talk and workshop ran by the lovely Erika Knight. I feel so much more confident with using colour work within my designs. I loved the theory used and thought it was one of the best workshops I have attended. Check out Erika's work on http://www.erikaknight.co.uk/

 It was an extremely enjoyable festival and if you get to the chance to go next year, I would strongly recommend it.   

Until next time

Happy crafting

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Extreme Knitting

Hello all, 

When the word extreme is used, some of you may think of death defying things such as bungee jumping or tomb stoning. Others may think of more unique challenging such as extreme ironing.  Believe it or not this term can be associated with knitting!!!!

There are different types of extreme knitting such as knitting as fast as you can or running the London Marathon whilst crocheting (this has actually happen). I undertook a different challenging.....

I went to the Knitting and Stitching show in London and found a stall that sold extra large knitting needles. The theory was that you could knit up rugs and duvets in one go. To make these items with 'normal' knitting needles, you would have to make a few strips and join them together but with these needles anything was possible! 

The needles are sized 27mm and massive. The first problem I encountered was finding the space to use the needles. I thought my marriage was safe as I had made my socks but there was an issue again as I had to evict the husband off the sofa for a week :-s  Another issue was that I could only knit a few rows at a time due to the weight of the needles and  the work as it progressed. This is due to knitting 12 strands of yarn at the same time to compensate for the size of the needles. 

I decided to make a rug with a moss stitch on the outside. I like a moss stitch border as it stops the edges curling so hopefully there is less of a risk of falling over. I used a stocking stitch in the middle just to make the piece more exciting to look at. The whole project only took two days to complete and I now have an epic size rug. 

One of the ironic things with knitting is that you do not always want your end product to be used for it's intended purpose. I know I made a rug, but I didn't want it in a place where people would stand on it. I found a lovely spot in the bedroom but when I came back, I found that my cat had found her new bed. I am happy for the rug to serve this purpose. 

The rug and cat have a new home and my husband is welcome back to the sofa. I had to make him a few cups of tea to apologise :s

Until next time

Happy crafting

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My Sockcess Story

Hello all,

I am proud to say that I have created my first pair of socks :) This is something that I have wanted to do for a long time but never found the knitspiration required. It is also considered to technically quite challenging. This is an essential project as I am fed up of my husband nagging me for putting my cold feet on him. If I had a lovely cosy pair of socks I felt that this would put an end to this argument once and for all. 

My knitspiration came in the form of a lovely ball of yarn from York. Whilst away in February, I went to a great knitting shop called Ramshamble. I love this shop as it has a great variety of yarns and most of them are natural fibres. My eyes fell upon a beautiful yarn from the Yorkshire Spinners. This was from a range called Signature and it is magical. Not only is it a lovely combination of wool and nylon, it is self patterning. This means that when you knit it the wool colour will change certain points to make the sock stripey. It is so soft and perfect for that lovely pair of socks that I crave. 

With this magical yarn, I finally got to work on my marriage saving socks. In order to create them, you need to use double pointed needles. Although it looks like a medieval torture device, I can assure you that it is not. It is a method of knitting where you need to use four needles as opposed to two. This means you knit a tube shape and reduces the amount of sewing needed at the end :)

When working on a sock, you tend to start at the top, also known as a cuff. This is usually started with a rib stitch for elasticity which is followed by a stocking stick. You will work to the desired length and then need to create a heel flap. This is achieved by working some of the stitches at the back of the sock so that a length for the heel is created. In order to make the part of the sock that is along your foot, you need to pick up stitches from the heel flap so that you are able to knit on the double pointed needles once again. The tube shape is continued until you get the foot length required and then sewn at the end. Looking back at this written instruction, it looks confusing but if you have practised each element in a different pattern, I can assure you it isn't :)

One difficulty I found with a self patterning yarn is that you need to ensure that your second sock is started in the same place in the pattern as the first. If this is not achieved the pattern and colour order on both socks would be different. Some people don't mind this but I do !!!!!!!!! After four attempts, I got this right. I no longer freeze my husband, I now have nice toasty warm feet. 

On Thursday I will be heading to TOFT for their knit night. It runs 4pm-8pm every other Thursday :) I love going here as its a cosy environment full of knitspiration and a lovely gang of knitters attend. I also love it as there is tea and cake a plenty. If you are in the area, I strongly recommend that you go. All skill levels are welcome.Check out www.thetoftalpacashop.co.uk for more and details and the great range of workshops they have.

 Toft also have a great open day on Easter Monday running 10am-4pm, this is soo much fun as you can see the studio, sign up for mini workshops and go on a tour of the farm to see all of the lovely alpaca :). This is well worth a visit if you are free. 

Until next time

Happy crafting

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