Watch The Birdie...

 When I saw this pattern (Birdsong by Manja Vogelsang) I had to buy it and have a go.  My first colour choice was a no-go - the yarn arrived and was not as it looked on the website.  Other colour combinations were scotched because they were out of stock, so I ended up with pale grey and a soft crimson.  I like it!

However, as the yarn needed for this pattern is baby yarn, it has taken a very long time indeed.  The bird pattern was a nightmare to do - the whole jumper is knitted in the round in one continuous piece, so the number of stitches had to be exact and the pattern repeated four times - I had to painstakingly count and mark the number of stitches in each row on the pattern in order not to lose my place.

Once the birds were done, it was plain sailing but has taken weeks and weeks of knitting.  I'm on to the second sleeve but have reached the point where the knitting is so boring that I fall asleep after only a few rows which is not helpful!  I did joke that this would be ready to wear in time for Christmas - not sure that is too far from the truth now!

Birds, Babies & Blimey, That's A Big'un!

Throughout the summer I have been sporadically working on this jumper.  I saw this pattern through a post on Twitter I think and looked it up on Ravelry and promptly bought it.  I could not resist those wonderful birds!  

 

However, making it has not been easy.  Firstly, the yarn I ordered arrived and was not the same colour as it appeared on the photograph on the yarn store's website and they did not have another similar so I had to change my colour choice.  Then it took me three attempts to get the increases right before starting on the birds.

The chart for the birds involved being repeated 4 times in the round (did I mention this whole jumper is knitted in the round from the neck down?) and to make it a bit easier, I went through each line counting the number of light stitches and writing them down before knitting the round.  So I was getting through a maximum of three rounds in an evening.  Incredibly, I think I only made a couple of minor errors which hopefully will not notice and I did end up with the right number of stitches needed to carry on once the birds were complete.  Now it is straight knitting, which is a whole lot easier and much quicker, although this is being knitted in baby yarn so not that quick!  I might have this done by Christmas...

I also made some summer dresses for my grandaughter, one with farm animals on, one with dogs on, and the one previously posted with wild animals on.  Apparently they went down a storm and were ideal for the heatwave.
 

The garden has been struggling with the heat and lack of rainfall - it has meant a lot of plants dying off prematurely and my runner beans have been a disaster.  But I have managed to grow several of these enormous things!  It is a Tromboncino squash,and this one is over 2ft long.  You can cook them like a courgette but they are much tastier and not as watery.  I shall definitely be growing these again next year.

I am currently finishing off a couple of painted trinket boxes - painting the bases black and varnishing.  Not hard work but time consuming as it means literally watching paint dry.

And I might have quite an interesting little job coming up involving knitting and bears...

Now We Just Need A Baby...

 It's been a race against time, but I have managed to complete this lot before the appearance of my first grandchild - which we know to be a girl by the way!  The baby was due yesterday, but when was a first baby ever on time?

Good News...

 Within the next couple of weeks or so, I am going to become a grandma!  Shame I have not had the time to knit more for my first grandchild, but this tiny jumper I made is the cutest thing ever!

Make Do & Mend

Seeing as I am such a skinflint bargain-hunter, my heart skipped a beat when I saw this lovely but damaged cable knit sweater in the sales yesterday.  You can barely buy a cup of coffee for £3 these days, let alone a toasty jumper.  So I snapped it up and took it home for repairs.

I 're-knitted' the ribbing using a crochet hook, and gently eased the yarn to make sure the width of the ribs matched the undamaged side as closely as possible.  As the yarn was broken in a couple of places at the edging, I had to search my stash for a similar coloured yarn - the camera has picked it up as pink with the flash but in normal light it blends quite well.  So I crocheted round the neckline with a row of slip-stitch and then a row of double crochet to secure any further loose bits.  For slobbing round the house, it doesn't matter about the slight variation in colour.

For going out, just add a scarf!

I've worn this today and have been nice and warm while the temperature plummets outside, as well as having an air of smugness at being able to save both this sweater and a wadge of cash.*

*That's not strictly true, as at the same time as buying this bargain I also picked up a thick, snuggly cardigan.....well, it was in the sales too so I'm not a complete hypocrite!

Happy Valentine's Day...

You won't find any hearts and flowers here - it's a very subdued Valentine's Day when your loved one is in another country, although I did get a couple of dozen roses a few days early.  Instead, what better way to cheer yourself up than to wear a sweater with a moose on it!  I finished this last night, washed and blocked it overnight all ready to wear today - I absolutely love it!  It's difficult to take a photo of your own chest, but you get the idea - thank you Knitty.com for such a brilliant pattern.

I've been struggling for days now with making a miniature chandelier.  This is to go with all the other knitted furniture for the animated film, but of course to knit a chandelier this small would be impossible.  What I have had to do is fashion it out of wire, find a way to join 5 very unwilling pieces together (bluetac and florists tape) then wrap the lot with gold crochet yarn.  The wrapping alone took me an hour as I had to do it in one long continuous length to prevent any lumps and bumps.  The bases for the bulbs (there will be real bulbs...) are buttons painted gold - try finding flat gold buttons with holes in the centre when you want them, it's not going to happen.  Next is crocheting the bulb holders and adding the crystal drops...or beads as we like to call them in the trade.  All those fiddly mini knitted animals, fish, chairs and the cuckoo clock seem so easy by comparison to this.

As well as the above, I am spending every spare minute painting......deadline too close for comfort!

33 RPM

Here is the top-down t-shirt sweater knitted in Rico Poems yarn - what lovely stuff that is!  This was a really quick knit - probably less time to knit than it is taking me to iron the thing! 

It's been a long time since I knitted a guinea pig.....I seem to remember there was a mad rush on them at the last Christmas fairs I did and then a hiatus until now.  This one already has a home - he really is very cute with his tufty long hair and beady brown eyes.  He has a squeaker and fully jointed legs and likes to eat peas.  If you would like a guinea pig, short or long-haired, any  colour, do get in touch - I'm temporarily between commissions so get your order in while you can!

I have quite an extensive collection of vinyl albums which haven't been touched for years now - my stereo broke and with the advent of CD's and MP3 players, I just never got around to replacing it.  But today I received a pre-Christmas present from me to me of a record and tape player - it looks vaguely similar to one I used to have in my teens!  The difference is that using this one I can transfer all my neglected albums on to the MP3 player - yay!  In the meantime I am listening to albums by Dr. Hook, and Manhatten Transfer - hands up if you remember either of them!  The sound seems so tinny but wonderfully nostalgic...I'm fifteen again....haha!

Holey-Moley

Just one week to make, a nice summer sweater for me...and yes, it is supposed to have runs in it, I didn't drop stitches willy-nilly!

If you like my necklace, it was made by Sybille at Magpie Magic a while back just for me - I simply adore it and wear it a lot.

Hare Today...

In amongst all the knitting and painting for other people, I managed to complete a jumper for myself. This is from a pattern in November's Yarn Forward magazine. It was knitted from the top down, which makes life very easy as there are no seams at all, the only difference being the hare pattern was worked 'upside-down' - not a problem.

This has been knitted in green arran weight yarn with the hares worked in baby camel wool. It is nice and warm, which is just what was needed today among the flurries of snow here in rural Hampshire!

Jumpers!

How to construct a knitted rabbit hutch....that has been the conundrum on my mind the past few days. In the end I used a cardboard box, whittled down to sized with some cunning scissorwork and masking tape, which was then lined with Ingres pastel paper in a nice woody brown. I spent an inordinate amount of time knitting a box cover for it - first a rectangle, then picking up stitches on each edge separately and knitting the sides, which were then sewn together. This had to be then slipped over the box and stitched all round with about half an inch of the knitwork folded over into the box - ouch, my fingers!


The hutch door caused me more problems - I had cut the right shape out of card and then cut out the central hole. How then to cover the remaining shape...... in the end I resorted to winding yarn around it as tight as I could, using tacky glue to keep it in place, with a bit of jiggerypokery around the corners. The mesh was sewn and woven with grey wool, with a bit of fabric stiffener applied overnight. I still have to work out a nice child-friendly catch to keep that rabbit in! Oh, and he has a knitted boucle straw-coloured mat inside to represent...well, straw!

Next on the agenda, how to knit a lettuce leaf.......


I finally finished the complicated chunky lace pullover for myself - there is no way I could have completed it before going on holiday, the sewing together alone took me a whole evening. It is knitted in pure alpaca yarn, called Peru I think, in the shade 'blanket'. I didn't notice until blocking it that the yarn formed quite distinctive stripes even though it was all from the same batch. Whether or not this fades with washing, I don't mind as it is a quite nice effect.

I love the way the extra long sleeves with their 'U' shaped finish go almost right over my hands - a definite plus in the cold weather, expecially for someone like me who suffers from cold fingers at the best of times. No photo of me modelling it - far too cold today to be taking clothes off and on!