Eleanor's Jumper

Hi Guys!!

I thought while I'm on here viewing my friends blog I should update mine.

Firstly my new job is still awesome. I am so much happier now I'm like a different person.

(this is where I had to pause because my kitten Bill was trying to eat a roll of sticky tape)

Secondly, knitting update. So I decided to buy this yarn to make something for my niece for Christmas because it is perfect for her


Its pink and sparkly, so Eleanor.

So my sister is all 'wow that is so Eleanor, knit her a jumper!' Turns out James C Brett Moonlight Sonata DK has really great yarndage. Turns out that not even this great yardage is enough to cover a seven year old body. So i find this pattern:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/s15-4-jersey-knitted-in-stocking-stitches-and-raglan-with-alpaca

I figured I could modify it and do the bottom band, neck band and arms in a cream colour. I thought it would look cool, maybe baseball style (am I thinking about the right American sport here?) it worked for me before when i did my  Peppermint Twist



Except this pattern wants me to do the shoulders in the round. I have no idea how to go from white arm to pink sparkle body and back again in the round. So i did what comes naturally to me. I left it in the corner and huffed. By the time I was willing to return to my stupid jumper I was feeling more optimistic. I sat down with the pattern and planned how i could manage to get it finished. It was an amazing plan, I picked up the needles ready to get started and realised the bloody cat had chewed through them. Bloody good job he's cute.

Bonus picture of Bill

Posting from my mobile

As the title says, I'm making a blog post from my mobile! Yippee!

The reason for this fancy technological post is that I've just completed my first piece of fairisle! Double Yippee!

I know its unblocked but isn't it so beautiful?
No its not. It's quite ugly and misshapen but I worked it out and I did it so triple Yippee!

Podcasts

Hi Guys

How are we all?

I'm great.

A quick update of what's happened in my life in the last month or two. I went to Florida for a jolly holiday with the family for a couple weeks. Very fun. Took the nieces and nephew to Disney World and then moved down to Clearwater to see the sand and palm trees but not the dolphins, there were no dolphins.

I also handed in my notice at the IT company where I work. I'm off to go work in a craft shop. I'm sure its not career brilliant but I know I will have a jolly fun time and love every minute of being surrounded by so much ribbon.

Third item of news that I guess belongs on a blog that's meant to contain craft stuff, I got a sewing machine! Yippee! I love it. It's all new and shiny so I don't have to try and repair it every five minutes like my old machine. Previously I have never really sewn more than a straight line but since I know a lot of people who can't even do that I decided that means I must be an expert already. I took myself to my new place of work (I needed to hand in a form, mentioned I just got a sewing machine and was lovingly guided to the fabric section) and bought a pattern and some fabric to get started. A nice lovely skirt with a ribbon trim. It turns out I know nothing. It was terrible. I had no idea how to cut out a pattern which meant meant I was working on fabric which was half the size it was meant to be and then I had no idea how to overlock a hem so I had a very crinkled, frayed, half sized piece of fabric. This was when the mother in law popped round and showed me how to do the lot. I'm so grateful. she sat with me for FOUR HOURS! while we went through the whole lot, she taught me so much. So now I get to go back to considering myself an expert again. Yippee!

As the title of this post says, Podcasts.

I have so many items sat at home waiting to be finished. a bow on my skirt, a border on my cardigan so I can't use this post to show off any finished items. However if I had waited until they were finished I'd forget all about updating this blog so I thought instead I'd list a few of my favourite podcasts

First of all I''ll go through my knitting favourites
Knit.Spin.Cake www.knitspincake.blogspot.com
Auntieaipee tells us all about her life, her knitting and wind farms. It often comes with a cake recipe too


Electric Sheep www.hoxtonhandmade.com/electric-sheep-podcast
hoxtonhandmade reads amazing lectures about a variety of subjects and then updates us on the fun side of knitting

Knit 1 Geek 2 knit1geek2.mt-pockets.org
Karen and Maggie tell us about their adventures in knitting and then update us on the world of geekdom

And then non-knitting related podcasts -
Friday Night Comedy Podcast from Radio 4
We either have The News Quiz with Sandy Toksvig or The Now Show with Hugh Dennis. They are very funny and a more humorous way to swag for the pub quiz.

Jay and Silent Bob get Old
Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith meet once a week to take about life and such, this one is normally VERY rude by the way. It was started as a way to keep Jason Mewes off the drugs but its very funny listening to their stories.

The Perfect Ten with Phil and Phill
Phil Jupitas and Phill Wilding are meant to answer ten questions in thirty minutes but they usually go off topic and just have a bit of a laugh. This one also gets rude in places but not as bad as Jay and Silent Bob Get Old. Unfortunately though this is a great podcast I think I've only seen it updated once in the whole time I've subscribed to it.

Stuff You Missed in History Class
This is one of the hundreds (14) podcasts that the How Stuff Works website offers but its my favourite. The episodes are shorter than my usual podcast (usually about 10-20 mins long) and feature a different but very interesting subject each time. Its updated a couple times a week but it goes back to about 2008 so I'm still listening to the backlog of it.

This American Life
This is the podcast of a Chicago radio station. Once a week they have a different subject and look at it from some very interesting but mostly unique angles. It often contains a mix of real life interviews and fiction as well as other things.

The last one I love which I want to mention quickly though I'm going to have to run for a bus very soon is The Yogspod. There's these two fellas, Simon and Lewis who run a YouTube channel for computer games. This is how I found them. I'm not so big on computer games but Simon and Lewis are just as terrible at them as I am. They are just lovely to listen to, they are SO British and very very funny. The podcast contains absolutely no mentions of games, it's just funny stories and made up tales of fancy from Simon and Lewis usually has to try and ground him a little. Quite daft and will not broaden your mind.

Right, I'm going to have to run now. I don't even have time to read back for grammar errors so I hope I've been a careful typer.

Til next time!
Tori

Florida build up

Good Afternoon People!

Yes its been forever, yes I've cheered up after my miserable whiny post from last time (although things got a lot shitter before they started improving)

Most important things first, on Monday I go to Disney World Florida!!

All the family will be there, Mum, Step-dad, both sisters, both brother in laws, all the nieces, the lone nephew and my long suffering boyfriend. 

I have planned some knitting for the flight though I'm a bit nervous about it. the TSA and Direct Gov may both say you can take knitting but what if I get a grumpy security man? I don't want to cause a scene. 

I have decided on a loose fitted jumper called Boxy by Joji Locatelli for my travel knitting. Its a lot of stockingette but I think that would be good for while I listen to podcasts and watch The Avengers on repeat. http://www.ravelry.com/projects/toric/boxy
I decided to do it in a green half wool half acrylic yarn I've had in my stash for a while, I have just enough yarns for it so I've decided to do the ribbed edges in a cream all wool yarn I have to give myself a little extra wiggle room (I live in constant fear I'll be short of yarn). 

I'm hoping to get some yarn shopping in while I'm away. There's some yarns which (as far as I can tell from listening to pod casts) seem pretty standard in America that I would really like to try out such as Cascade 220, Lionbrand and RedHeart. So I plan on finding a nearby Joanne's or Michael's and seeing what I can find.

I have a few other projects I have recently finished and would like to mention (since I'm a little bit pleased with myself). I took part in this years Ravellenic games and made myself a pair of socks. 

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/toric/blue-and-green-socks---ravellenic2012

I'm kinda proud of them because they are my first pair of socks that don't have a daft mistake and I made the pattern up all by myself. I used the Texere yarn Jura in lime and kingfisher. I loved this yarn. Several people commented it was a bit course but I think that's a good thing for socks, specially after my jitterbug socks when all fluffy. Also the colour is fantastic, I think its a tad bit brighter then in this photo. 

The other project I finished that I'm quite pleased with is my bias wrap. I made this to go with my dress for my step sisters wedding after I realised that the colour of the Kid Silk Haze I had in my stash was the same colour as my dress. It took my a very long time to do and it was a very boring knit. I hate doing scarves and wraps because its the same pattern over and over again. But eventually I got it done and it looked fantastic. Unfortunately I got too drunk at the wedding and forgot to get a decent picture of me wearing it so the best I've got is a picture the boyfriend took of me just as my heels sunk into the grass (it was a very wet day, when the rain finally stopped and we ran out for photos all the women were stuggling with the mega soft ground)

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/toric/bias

See you soon x

*sad face*

Hi There!

If anyone actually follows what I write here and is sat impatiently waiting for the restaurant review I promised in my last post well here's why there wasn't one, we didn't go. The more we looked into the place the weirder it got. And well, most important, it didn't have an alcohol licence and neither myself nor the boyfriend were up for eating sober so we sacked it off and went to Chiquitos instead. It wasn't the night I'd hoped for at all. I wanted fun times and tequila etc but we were both super dooper tired and after maybe two drinks we sacked it off and went home. I think I may have fallen asleep on the sofa with my head on his shoulder while we both looked at funny pictures on the internet together both to tired to even laugh properly.

As you might be able to tell I've been suffering from the grumps a little lately. I'm blaming it on a combination of my joints being particularly sore recently and having zero money. I've had to cancel on a bunch of friends and our planned activities because a, I can't afford that particular activity b, I physically wouldn't be able to carry said activity or both c, I can't afford it and it involves being physically active.

This all really hasn't been helped as everything I own keeps breaking. My computer is knacking up and our dryer is eating all my clothes and I feel shit enough about the clothes I own (I put on a lot of weight very quickly and I can't afford to replace everything with the next size or two up so a lot of stuff is quite snug fitting) but now they all have big holes in them. I'm trying really hard not to be so materialistic but you have no idea how heartbreaking it is having to walk out the the wheely bin in the back yard and just dump armfuls of clothes in there. Not just any clothes either, some of my most favourite and most expensive items. I already felt plenty unattractive as it is and now I can't even hide behind an outfit I always thought was flattering.

As for the joint pain issue, I'm finally getting tested. I took my mum to the doctors with me and they kind of just looked at her and went 'oh yeah, you're mum does have a ton of genetic joint problems, maybe we should take notice of you'. So my last week had been full of blood tests and x-rays and phone calls to say 'we didn't take enough blood, can you come back so we can have more?'. I don't think any of this will help me, there's no magical cure, I'm not even sure they'll find anything, they didn't last time I got x-rayed. But hopefully its a step in the right direction and one day I'll be able to participate in group activities again.

/moan

Cinco De Mayo!!

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo!!

Super excited. I'm going to try this new place in Durham that I stumbled across http://www.beachtaco.co.uk/ fingers crossed it all works out OK. I tried to ring them to ask if I needed to book or not (I literally have no idea what this place is like) and the girl on the other end of the phone told me she didn't need my name to take a reservation :s weird.

Anyway, after that I plan on drinking tequila based cocktails and then after that I plan on not being able to see. I'll update you with a restaurant review possibly on Sunday depending on how much tequila I drink.

Finish-itis

I'm having a completely weird time at the moment (in relation to knitting) and its my darling sock yarn blankets fault. I LOVE knitting this blanket. I love watching it grow and seeing all the pretty colours and I can't wait until its finished and myself and the boyfriend can snuggle up underneath it.

I've received a lot of donations from my knitting group, in fact I'm not sure if there's anyone left who hasn't donated (and I am very grateful to them all!) but i keep wanting more which means I'm desperate to finish loads of 4ply projects so I can have my scraps.

I've finished my Hermione everyday socks that have been sat neglected on the needles for far too long.
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/toric/hermiones-everyday-socks
I'm very glad they are finished. I love them. As soon as they were cast off I put them straight on. I love how the yarn turned out too, they look far more like they have a vague stripe to them instead of the pooling I usually experience with jitterbug yarn.

I have also finished my featherweight cardigan (which I don't have a picture of yet :( ) and despite this being a super annoying knit (I mean really? sleeves? most boring things ever) I really like this finished cardigan. I get loads of complements when I wear it out and I'm sure I'll get a lot of wear out of it as it goes with pretty much every item of clothing I own.

I also finished the boyfriends hat. This isn't one of my 4ply adventures but I was very much spurred on to finish this. I think it was a combination of my finishing binge for everything else, the boyfriend constantly asking me if it was done and the fact I hated knitting it (k1 p1 forever :s ).
Though I think it was mostly because my non-knitting family kept laughing at me for making him a hat. They were all so sure it was going to be horrid and the boyfriend would have to wear it all the time because I've never knit him anything before. I was getting lots of 'haha are you going to put a big pompom on it?' no of course I'm not. 'haha why are you knitting him a hat? It's April?' well darling family, in case you haven't noticed yet it may be April but its 2 degrees Celsius outside and my boyfriends job often takes him up Scottish hills past the snow line.
I'm sure you can tell that typing this out is bringing back all those memories of me knitting away in a dark room sat with the family fantasizing about making my darling sister eat the remaining yarn once I'm done.
Anyway, the hat was finished. Though the knit was boring (k1 p1 k1 p1 k1 p1 k1 p1 k1 p1 yargh!!) I am happy with the hat, its an attractive looking hat for a man and the rib makes it stretchy so i didn't have to stress about the fit.
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/toric/wasatch-backcountry-hat

And then after my finishing binge I didn't have a clue what I wanted to cast on. I could even decide if I was in the mood for garment, accessory or sock. I've been padding for time with some teeny tiny baby items for the step brother who is having a baby soon (via his wife) and the fabulous sock yarn blanket.
I have cast on the lace shrug from Glamour Knits by Erika Knight (bought for me by the best mate Nik for my birthday, thank you chick!) with a mohair/merino blend in a pale green. However I'm a bit unfamiliar with lace knitting  so this will have to be kept as in-the-house knitting.

And hopefully I will remember to keep my blog updated when the inevitable start-itis begins :)

Thank you anyone who reads this, much appreciated

dumb people

Some of the people i work for can be so dumb it hurts my head. They don't know that they're even doing it too.

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Rock Shows and Craft Shows

Feeling pretty poorly and I have nothing to do so I thought I’d write myself a blog.

Today is Friday and I’m very excited as tomorrow I’m off to see Avenue Q and then on Sunday I’m going to see the Kerrang tour to see New Found Glory. I saw New Found Glory at Leeds Festival and they were awesome so I cannot wait to see them again. Unfortunately the other band playing, Sum 41, had to pull out due to illness and were replaced with another band called The Blackout but they are worlds apart in terms of music style and I’m not sure how well this will go down. I’ll be seeing them with my friend Lisa who is a big fan of the band so I'll have to enjoy they for her. After all she stayed with me all the way through The Strokes at Leeds Fest.

Also, while on the subject of music, I bought my first ever Nine Inch Nails song last night, I don’t know why this would be important but for some random reason I feel it is. I also bought my first ever tracks by Death Cab for Cutie and They Might be Giants and some night 80s stuff by Go West but you don’t see blogging about those do you (:p I bought other music too, good music, don’t judge me on just these bands please or you’ll think I’m weird)

On to crafts, Myself and Lauren will be trading at Miscellarium in August with our joint craft venture Non-Conformist Crafts. We went to the Maker Market last weekend and meant Fiona (organiser of Maker Market and Miscellarium) and Daniel (trader at Maker Market and organiser of Miscellarium and owner of Impossible Gears) face to face.

They both seemed amazingly lovely but I was just too hungover from the night before to say anything interesting so I’m sure they both think I’m a right sap. But there’ll be plenty of other opportunities in the future to show them how amazing and brilliant I am. I bought a necklace from Daniels stall and I LOVE it. I wear it all the time however the pendant is the inside of a watch and it’s a little bit too pokey to wear all the time and I keep catching scarves etc in it. But that’s part of why I love it.

As for the crafts I’ve been making myself. I have been finishing off some bits for Non-Conformist crafts. I have finished the bag that could stand up for itself. I have made a pattern and some mock ups of gloves/wrist warmers with a little bit of a ruffle on them. I’m not sure if they are overly special as there are probably a lot of slightly ruffley gloves/wrist warmers out there but I’m quite proud as its my first pattern I’ve made that has worked without any major issues. I've also sorted out all the flower pins to take those too.

I finally joined the rest of the world and cast on a featherweight cardigan for myself. A lot of people have tried to talk me out of it as its dull and its quite shapeless, or at least I'm told its just a straight body with loose arms, well that's exactly the type of cardigan I want to knit for myself so I guess we're all in luck aren't we? I've also cast on a jumper which i can not remember the name of right now but it has a low low neck line, sleeves that look like they have actual poof to them and from the bust down its all rib. I can on with the King Cole Galaxy that my mum bought me for Christmas and I'm enjoying working on it a lot, its quite mindless so far as it's all rib but I've been in the mood for mindless projects I can carry around without needing lots of patterns etc. Which brings me on to my socks. I love the look of them and I love the yarn I'm using but I'm sick of carrying notes with me so I know where I am in the pattern so they are getting neglected. Which yet again brings me to my next project, I've started a sock yarn blanket and so far I really love it. I have all my scraps in the wooden bowl Alan's parents got me on the coffee table and I make squares while I watch telly. I've had some donations from my knitting group of sock yarn scraps to go towards the blanket (which are great as I'd like to to be as colourful and different as possible) but unless I start finishing some 4 ply projects soon I'll run out of scraps and I'll have to stop which will suck so I need to keep my head down and get those socks and the featherweight done!

I feel this has gone on long enough but I wanted to mention that I'm trying to go for another stash down year. I tried last year and got to about May and then continued as I always do (spending loads). This year it was barely past the new year mark before I was buying more yarn but so far I have only bought in decent quantities (so I can actually make something instead of wondering what to do with a single balls worth of something) and I've only bought stuff in sales that was at least under two pounds. I know I can't stop all together but I have so much I want to save up for this year with holidays and hopefully moving in with Alan, that I hope I can at least be sensible with it and try to keep my spending down.

c2c - lets see how long this lasts

I'll just come out and say it. I'm really considering doing a coast 2 coast bike ride from the west coast of England to the east (http://www.c2c-guide.co.uk/ if your interested)

I'm not sure if this is a very good idea. I'm physically unfit. I've never been too keen on changing this in the past either. I don't own a bike. I am terrible at estimating distance. I don't like the idea of wearing a helmet and I know I won't look good in one either.

I still think it will be good though. I like a challenge and I bet it will be a lot of fun once I've done some training and all that. I'll have the added bonus of getting myself a bit healthier too.

As for the issue of not owning a bike I'm trying to pick up a bargain second hand off ebay. I'm the highest bidder on one at the moment but its still got a few days left on it. I want one now so I can go out and get practicing. also, once I have the bike I can start buying all the cute bike accessories.

Two posts in one month? I must have gone mad!

Hiya

So yeah. Spinning is kind of sitting to one side while myself and Nik work on something else. We have decided to crochet a big afghan for a wedding gift for when her brother gets married next week. I'm starting to think that we will never have it finished in time but there is only one thing you can do when that happens, CROCHET FASTER!

I've been thinking today what i want to do the day after the wedding, when i won’t be surrounded by crap acrylic, crocheting endless annoying squares and i think I’ll start with my grandmas tea cosy.

She has asked for her birthday (it was last week but she asked knowing there was no way I had time so she wants me to just do it as soon as I can) for a tea cosy to fit her teeny tiny teapot so I've decided on http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mistake-rib-tea-cosy which comes in a small size. I just need to choose what colours now. All I know it that I want it to be very bright.

Once I've done that I'm going to finish my peppermint twist jumper. Not far to go now, just sleeves and collar. I keep praying to the knitting gods (and Buffy too, it's always good to remember Buffy whilst praying) that it will fit. I do not want a repeat of the 5 dollars in Newcastle jumper i made which i stupidly did in alpaca because it was so soft and lovely! And it would be perfect for a wide neck jumper!

No it was not.

It stretched and stretched within a couple hours of me wearing it i had to keep my hands in the air so it didn't fall off my shoulders and show everyone my boobies.

While i was at work.

Luckily a rep had just dropped off a load of free promo t-shirts so i could get changed. My step dad is now the proud owner of a lovely greenbyte t-shirt (other European made storage arrays are available)

I would also like to finish my socks. I started making these on Boxing Day and I’m still working on them. I know that’s slow but I have been working on other things in the meantime. I’m so close to being finished I just want these done. I’m on the second sock and I’ve just got a couple more rows left before the toe decrease. I could have got there last night but I wanted to compare the second sock to the first which I didn’t have with me. I know the first is a tiny bit short but it still fits over my foot and I’d rather have matching slightly too small socks then odd ones. They are a bit too tight for my giant fat legs anyway. I think maybe next time I knit socks I’ll read the pattern properly before I start and use 2.75mm needles instead of seeing ‘size 2 needles’ and getting started before I remember that is what American’s call a 2.75mm needle. What an idiot.

I have also seen this pattern, http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/abalone-4 and decided I want to make it out of my grey/blue King Cole anti-tickle yarn I bought from Ann’s. I don’t know why but I think it’s beautiful. I think it’s the rounded corners on the bottom. I see myself wearing the hell out of this but I want to be a good girl and swatch etc. first, not sure if I can wait though. I’m so naughty.

I also really want to finish the dinosaur hat I’ve been making for Charles. It’s been sat as a hat with no spikes for ages and I feel like a terrible aunty so I think I’ll finish this before I start the cardi. I’ve also been thinking I’d make him a matching scarf. I made this http://www.ravelry.com/projects/toric/pipers-chain-scarf for my beautiful niece Eleanor at the beginning of the year and I thought I could do the same for Charles but instead of multi coloured I’d do just black and red to match the hat.

Another project I’ve started and would like to finish is my first ever shawl and my first ever bought off Ravelry pattern http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/tuch-shawl-lazykaty

I’ve cast it on in the red/purple and black Zauberball dad got me for Christmas. So far I love the yarn, I’m not sure particularly what I like about it so much, I think I like the tension that it’s been plied together (I don’t know if that’s even a thing, I just made it up) it’s nice and springy and still feels pretty study.

Well, I’m pretty sure that’s enough knitting to keep me occupied for the rest of my life so I’m going to leave it there. Though by the time I next post I’ll have likely changed my mind about everything and decided to knit myself a whole bunch of other ridiculous stuff.

My Poor Neglected Blog

So I had every intention of using my blog and I've posted twice. Well done me!

Considering my last post was about how I'd re-learnt to knit by finishing my first project I guess I've got quite a bit to update. I think the biggest news is that myself and Nik learnt to spin! now we can make our own yarn! Yippee! And this brings me to my current news.

While having a lovely four days camping in the west of scotland I noticed an awful lot of sheep about. I pointed this out to my friends who informed me that was because we were stood in the middle of a sheep farm. What knitter doesn't love a sheep farm? So when the campsite owner/farmer came round to ask if we were ok I asked if he sold fleeces and he went away to check prices and came back and informed us (my friend who is also ginger, I would have thought Scotish farmers would be one of the few groups of people who can tell the difference between gingers but i was wrong) it would cost me 10 pounds. I've never bought a fleece before but I think 10 pounds must be a right bargain. I spend that on a single ball of yarn! And there is so much of it! The farmer told me to pick out whatever fleece I wanted, i found one with nice long hairs or fibres or whatever I'm supposed to call them and pulled out a fleece the size of a medium to large sheep skin rug and smiles at the man all happy with myself and he said 'no, theres more' and pulled out more fleece about twice the size I pulled out. I dont think I've ever seen a whole sheep as big as the size of this fleece.

So anyway, me and Nik have now spent two night washing fleece, soapy wash, vinear wash, hot wash repeat and we are both now immune to sheep poop. We have three laundry baskets full sat in her spare room and a set of carders waiting to be picked up from Chester le Street post office.

The next step will be teasing the yarn. All I can think about when I hear this term is the episode of The Good Life where they make their own clothes. In fact, thanks to that episode I already new the basics of how to spin my own yarn before I started reading about it. Looking back now I am amazed with how quickly the managed to spin enough yarn to use on a giant loom.

And once we've done that all thats left is carding, spining, washing, plying, washing, dying and kniting. We'll probably have it all done in about a week and a half. pfft yeah right!

found this online and i love it. my dream is to visit every state in america so i found it quite fitting.

visited 4 states (8%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

i finished the mega ugly hat for my niece Grace. it was VERY ugly but it servered its perpose and it got my more comfortable with knitting again. I have a picture of her in it but my sister has banned me from showing anyone it.

Since then i made myself this shrug http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/50902A.html. I started this shrug the night before I left for my brothers wedding and finished it on the car ride up. I was so quick to knock up and I got a LOT of compliments for it. I changed some parts of the pattern a little, I used size 20mm needles instead of 25mm and I used merino instead of mohair. I increased the number of cast on stitches to 36 instead of 34 since I was using smaller needles but I wished I hadnt cos its a 'little' too big to keep on my shoulders. My mother has asked me to make one for her for her birthday on the 20th, I've knit about 18 inches so far.

I tried to adapt a pattern to make a little bride and groom for my brothers wedding but i gave up on them. The style of them was a cute thing with big head and body and little details with things like arms. Though with the little skirt on the bride and the lack of arms and the big round head she looked a bit more like a sea monster so that project has been pretty much permantly shelved (literally, on my top shelf)

Still need to finish other booty and ballet cardigan for eleanor

learning to knit

so im off work on sick leave for two glorious weeks so i have decided to start knitting. so far it is not nearly as fun as crochet but hopfully when i get better at it i'll enjoy it more.
my first project is as simple as it can get. a baby hat for grace, basically knit a rectangle, fold it over, sew the sides and stick it on her head. im making it in a very attractive bright red colour that im sure she will love /sarcasm.
i ordered stich n bitch online as well to i can make lots of brilliant knitting projects but yet again things arent going my way. saw a pattern for mittens which i figured would be awesome and simple and i have the perfect yarn in my stash for them but guess what, i need 4 double pointed needles to make them and the info on how to knit with four double pointed needles is vauge as hell. its obviously not gonna stop me but i doubt ill get them done this week.

things to do:
finish ugly hat for grace
make other baby booty
FINISH SLEEVE FOR ELEANORS JUMPER BEFORE SHE GROWS OUT OF IT!!!