Baby blanket progress

So a few weeks ago I shared our team baby blanket project for our colleague. We are at the sewing up stage and I’ve been tasked!

I have to admit all the different squares together look brilliant.

As we’ve all got slightly different tension I’ve plumped for crocheting these together rather than try to do an invisible mattress stitch. I started with this but the stitches just were not adding up!!

I’m using the same red colour that everyone has used for their border. There is a slight ridge but I don’t mind that, as it looks like a feature.

I’m nearly there! Then the last stage will be a nice thick border in the same colours!!

Phew! Two weeks to the maternity leave. I think we shall make it.

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Pink creeps up on you!

Crocheting away this evening I realised there was quite a lot of pink involved.

Once upon a time pink was anathema. In fact anything that wasn’t black was! So what’s happened here without me noticing I wonder?? Lol.

I looked in my knitting basket. More pink.

Recent shocking pink cables.

And…..

Pink tea cosy in production!

Then I surveyed my recent purchases.

I found this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

You get the genera idea.

I think I may have developed a liking for pink. Oh well, embrace change!!!

What are your thoughts on pink?

Baby Blanket

A friend of mine at work is having her first baby. In the office we decided to make her a baby blanket, all making our own squares. I chose the colours- what do you think?

I was trying to go for something non gender specific. Mission accomplished?

We are using acrylic wool as washable, good for mucky babies!

I’ve tried a variety of patterns. We thought that if we did all different patterns this would disguise any variations in tension etc from different crocheters.

I seem to have rather drawn to the red and white combo.

Here are my contributions. What do you think?

Another Break from the Knitting

Gary has recently done wonders completely doing up our bathroom. It looks great

He is so handy at things I am very jealous!!

I thought I would make a little contribution by making a mixed media painting to go in the bathroom.

I’ve been preparing my background. I started before I knew what I wanted to do.

I’ve now decided something with fish in. These round beer mats are going to be some kind of bubble.

And I have started practising fish on some old bits of wood.

I quite like this. I have used embossing powder for the outline and then just water-coloured it in. I’m going to experiment a bit more with this idea I think……

It’s fun to do something different for a change!

Ceramic Painting: a first go!

I was invited to an unusual work event last week – ceramic painting. You could take your own wine. This was my kind of event.

I’ve never done anything vaguely pottery related. It was a learning curve!! We went to Rainbow in York (a great place btw).

The tiles on the wall give you a clue to how the paint will turn out – it looks really pale and completely different when you paint it on…

I chose a plate to paint because it was flat – others were more adventurous!!

I opted for a stylised tree design. I’ve done a couple of small paintings like this.

I did several layers and then attempted to do some painterly shading effects. In retrospect I think plain block colours are probably best but you live and learn.

We had to wait a whole week to pick it up!!

As you can see the colours are much brighter. I’m definitely going back for another go!!

Cables Ahoy!

Cable stitch long terrified me. How was it possible? Would I have the patience?

I’ve always found its origins fascinating, even more so now I live in Yorkshire and am often by the sea. The stitch is apparently meant to look like rope, and was originally used for sailors’ gansys- a chunky jumper, to which the cable added weight.

This guy above is loving his….

Men themselves often used to knit these….

And tradition has it that each village has its own pattern.

I’m starting basic. I found some inspiring cables tea cosies on the net:

I thought I’d give it a go. For anyone who hasn’t tried cable it’s a lot easier than it looks. There are loads of YouTube tutorials such as this one here. Be brave and give it a go!

Here is my progress:

The cable rows are a tiny bit of a bore, but you only have to do one about every 10 rows…

I love the look of cables!!!!

Christmas Coasters

So I’ve been trying to plan for Christmas for a while. Last year I realised I didn’t have any coasters. I’ve not sorted this situation yet so this is my new TV watching project, using some left over cotton in reds whites and creams.

I hate weaving in ends as you can see! I’ve now got about 8 to do at once. Why do I always do this to myself?!

I quite like the round ones.

Can’t beat a granny square!

and another!!

I think this is my favourite. I like the cream in the middle.

Love the claret cotton on this one.

One rogue knitted one!!

What are you making for Christmas???

A Break From the Jumper! Cobweb Scarf.

I’ve loved this Boucle alpaca wool for years and have made several scarves with it….

I like using fat needles, in this case 15s, to make a cobweb effect scarf.

It is so unbelievably soft and lovely. I’ve used the full spectrum of browns and now have splashed out on ten balls of the dusty pink which I love.

I’ve reluctantly put this on my etsy site as I’d quite like the keep it!!! Oh well, I can also make another one.

Odds and Ends jumper continued…

So, I’m at the setting in of the sleeves stage:

I have a problem! My sleeves are too big.

I’ve worked out why, I’ve been far too generous with the seams up the side. Disaster! Good job this is just a practice…..

I have an option though… perhaps I can do a kind of 1940s puffy sleeve?

It could look ok… but lesson learnt for next time.

I do like the neck though. It was so easy!

I’ll update you on the finished sleeve and let you know if it works!!

Odds and End Jumper

So my Practical Knitting book suggested I make this gay “odds and ends jumper”!

I love a project that uses up all those little half balls of wool you have lying about… This is only my second completed jumper and it’s a very good pattern for the beginner jumper maker… I used greens and yellows which is what I had to hand; the pattern suggests interspersing each row with black which probably looks really good, but I didn’t happen to have any. I improvised with my stripes:

It’s come up massive as I am so bad at doing tension squares. I always think I know what the sizing is going to be like. I don’t. So don’t do this! But I am just doing this as an experiment so I am ok with it and have learnt my lesson for next time!

It’s got a really simple fold over collar which is so much better than the fiddly picking up stitches nonsense when you are new to all this!

Is anyone else sad like me? This is simply my favourite bit of the whole operation..

Now you see them –

Now you don’t!

Clearly I am a saddo.

If you’d like to try the pattern, here it is:

Have fun!