FO Multnomah

Finally, here are the photos of my Multnomah :-) Lovely pattern, I really enjoyed knitting it. Would be fun to do it in lace yarn with some beads as well, hmmm....





Yarn was Crazy Zauberball by Schoppel-Wolle in the Indian Rose colourway. Very pretty yarn and good fun to knit. I like how it striped a different colour for each pattern repeat towards the end





Lovely as my 7 year old looks in this shawl, she won't be wearing it again as I gave it to my MIL :-)



Hopefully she'll be kept nice and warm this Winter with it :-)

Friday Failure

Well my plan to show you my Mulnomah didn't work out too well. I knew I was planning on having my hair cut yesterday so I wanted to take photos after that to show you my new style and my pretty shawl at the same time. We were busy in the evening though and then this morning when I was planning on taking photos it started raining and it's barely stopped since. Not proper rain, just that irritating drizzle that just leaves you feeling permanently damp. Humph.

So tomorrow morning, regardless of the weather I will be taking photos of my shawl, that's an absolute promise ;-) I don't want to wait until next Friday as I should have finished my Wingspan by then lol. I'm on the 6th out of 8 triangles now.

In the mean time though I'm going to be incredibly indulgent I'm afraid and show you my new hair cut. Feel free to stop reading if you're just here for the crafting :-) It's quite a change but I hadn't had a proper cut in years and it showed :-S



Even my 2 year old didn't want to be seen with me ;-) To be fair I normally had my hair tied back and blow dried so it doesn't look quite as wild as in the picture. Not much better though lol. Anyways, I took advantage of Mr Soaring Sheep having the day off, strolled off to the local hairdressers and asked the lady to cut it SHORT.





I am so pleased with it. Messy, doesn't need much effort in the morning but I can play around with it a bit too if I feel inclined. Perfect for a time poor Mum of young children. But do you know what I'm most excited about?

HATS! No more having to avoid them because my ponytail didn't fit comfortably. No more knitting hats for other people and not me. This Winter, I'm going to have great fun :-D

Sunny Wednesday

Ooo it's a lovely sunny day outside today. Warm, bright sunshine but not so hot it's uncomfortable. Lovely :-) The pots in my garden are starting to fill with Summer flowers





Wonderful :-)

I've finished my Multnomah that I posted about last week. I'm hopefully getting my hair cut tomorrow so I'll get some photos of it after that for FO Friday. At the moment my hair is a bit of a birds-nest and almost permanently in a pony tail to stop it getting any worse lol.

My current project is a Wingspan shawl. The pattern says to do 8 triangles and I've just started my fourth. Well, technically it's my seventh! I messed up after getting to 3 triangles and then decided I didn't like my gauge at all so I frogged it all back and started again with smaller needles. Much happier with it now lol. It's such an easy pattern though, perfect for mindless knitting. Unless you stop paying attention, forget to cast on the stitches for the next triangle and then have to undo several rows. Not that I would be so silly of course... *cough*



That's it from me for today although before I go, I'd just like to show you a couple of pictures from our lounge window last night. We think it came down in the fields behind our house, it was very low, you could hear the people on it :-o






More WIP Wednesday posts with Tami's Amis

FO Friday - Alec Sweater

I really enjoyed joining in with the Alec KAL this month. It's such a beautiful design and very straight forward to knit too. The adult version is being released mid-late July and I'm very excited to make one of these for Mr Soaring Sheep :-)

Anyways, on to the photos. Firstly though, let me apologise. I have a 6 year old son and when I ask him to pose for photos he goes a bit silly...



I knit the 25 inch size although his chest is 23.5 inches as it's supposedly Summer here and I wanted him to get some use out of it this Winter and hopefully the one after as well. Should be fine with that!



It's actually a bit longer in the arms and body than it looks which is good as he doesn't look too swamped by it.. Ok, maybe I could have done the 24 inch size after all! At least children grow lol



I dyed the yarn myself and one skein was slightly darker than the other two. Rather than alternating skeins I decided to be lazy and use it in the top part with the stitch pattern and pretend it's a design feature ;-)



Over all my son and I are both very pleased with it :-) Thanks Sezza for such a great design! More FO Friday posts at Tami's Amis as usual :-)

WIP Wednesday

Sorry, went a bit AWOL last week! I have taken some photos at the weekend of my son modeling his Alec jumper so I'll be sharing those on Friday, I'm really rather pleased with it :-)

I've finished and edged the ripple part of my cushion cover (aside from weaving in a couple of ends). I've not yet decided how I'm going to do the back. I might do some sort of granny square or more rippling or be adventurous and have a go at hand sewing a fleece cover. For now though this is what it looks like :-)



I edged it in blue simply because I have lots of that yarn left over from my Scrappy Granny Square blanket. I used Little Tin Bird's fab tutorial for straightening out the top and bottom edges. I got in a bit of a pickle initially as I was finding it really hard to get my hook through the stitches and it just wasn't working right. I threw it on the floor in disgust, went back to it a couple of hours later and realised I'd been working on it backwards so no wonder the stitches were hard to get a hook through! A couple of hours later and I was done :-)


I'm a knitter at heart though and it's rare for me to be without a knitting project. I fancied something indulgent and not too complicated but with a bit of detail to keep it interesting. So I got out my sock yarn and started on a Multnomah



The garter stitch section whizzed by and now I'm doing the old shale lace pattern which is deceptively simple. There's only 1 row in every 4 row repeat that has "lace" and it's just a pattern of 6 increases followed by 6 decreases. It's really enjoyable to knit :-) I have to do 10 repeats and I'm doing my 7th at the moment so hoping to get it finished over the weekend. If you've ever wanted to give shawl or lace knitting a try then I'd really recommend it. It's definitely beginner friendly but looks so clever lol.

Linking in with Tami as usual

WIP Wednesday

Another quick post today as I'm trying really hard to get my Alec finished ready for Friday. I had 2 inches left on the bottom but finished that ball of yarn so decided to do the sleeves first rather than risk running out. One sleeve is done, the other just needs the garter stitch cuff. I'm rather surprised how quickly I've got this sweater done, I guess mindless stockinette is working quite well for me at the moment!



My ripple cushion cover is still growing although it's stalled slightly at the moment as I'm running out of balls of scrap yarn and I've been concentrating on my knitting. Not got much more to go though before I can edge it and then work out how I'm going to do the back. I've got a couple of ideas in mind but they'll have to wait for now ;-)



Hopefully I'll be back on Friday with a finished jumper (aside from buttons which I have yet to buy). Linking in with Tami as usual :)

Fluffy post

I posted last week about joining in with Anadiomena's mystery KAL's next month. Well I couldn't decide whether to do the boy one or the girl one so I ended up buying yarn for both. I got the blue yarn for the boy design last week and my other yarn for the girl design arrived just before the weekend:



It's a 4ply yarn from the Natural Dye Studio in a colourway called Woody Bay. I ordered mine from Tangled Yarn and whilst I was there I also bought 4 skeins of Malabrigo lace in the Azul Bolita colourway... *swoon*



Isn't it STUNNING :-o

Believe it or not those four 50g skeins are going to become a super gorgeous cardigan for me.I can't quite get my head round that at the moment as they are so small.* Can't wait! This is going to be my Summer project after I've finished the MKAL's. I figured there's lots of stockinette in the design so it will be good for mindless knitting and compliment well with the blanket I'm planning on crocheting too. More on that in a later post ;-)

The sun seems to have gone back into hiding for a bit now but I've had a busy morning doing my chores and playing with my littlest girl so now I feel just about ready to put my feet up for half an hour and do some knitting.

Hope you have a good week!





*just panicked myself that I'd bought 3 skeins by mistake which would be VERY tight on yardage! Checked and I've actually got 4 which means I'm 20 yards short of the 36" size with long sleeves but as I don't want long sleeves I should be fine. Phew!*

FO Friday - Dazzle Me Socks

Just a quick post from me today. It's been a long week and a busy day! Here are my latest pair of socks and the last ones I'll be knitting for a while as I've got a load of other projects I'm ready to get my teeth into :-)



Yarn is Laughing Yaffle's Cloud Tweed sock in the Dazzle Me colourway. I did 32 stitch cast on using Judy's magic cast on, increased to 64 stitches and then just knitted. I used an Eye of Partridge heel which looks rather pretty I think and feels like it should be quite hard wearing too



Taking photos of ones own feet is rather tricky! I asked for help but he was too busy reading her a story ;-)



Hope you have a lovely weekend, I'm hoping ours will be a peaceful and relaxing one with lots of lazing around in the sunshine :-) Linking in with Tamis Amis as usual :-)

Spinning week 2

Ok, I've gotta confess, I've not really done much practising this week, probably only picked up my spindle 3-4 times. I don't really have an excuse other than it's been sunny, we've been busy... I just haven't made the time.

However, the nice thing is that a lot of spinning is about the muscle memory and those few sessions were enough to help my brain continue learning and I still feel I'm improving. I spun a lovely, thin, fairly even yarn and thought I'd be clever and wind it into a skein to show you:



I suspect my left handed-ness is causing problems for me. My natural inclination is to wind the skein and twist it in one direction but I think perhaps doing it the other way would have worked a bit better. Or if I'd plied the yarn first to get the twist a bit more balanced. Hmm, I guess I'll find out with some more practice!

Despite appearances to the contrary I'm getting better and the yarn I'm spinning is getting thinner and more even. Apart from when I join in a new bit of roving which makes it go a bit thicker but hey ho!

I'm also starting to move away from the park and draft technique and letting my spindle dangle freely. I find it harder to control the thickness of the yarn this way but it's a lot quicker. Again practice will help there.

Still having lots of fun with it :-)

WIP Wednesday

Oh my this week seems to be flying past! I've got a colourful post for you today, do not adjust your monitor ;-)



My new camera has got a much better photo of the red yarn, told you it wasn't pink lol. For those who've just popped over from Tami's I'm knitting an Alec jumper for my 6 year old son using some yarn I dyed myself. It's a lovely pattern and now I've got past the textured bit it's smooth, relaxing knitting. Perfect for sitting out in the sun and supervising the children while they play



The stitch pattern is so lovely close up and very simple to work too. I'm a big fan of simple techinques that look complicated ;-)



My other WIP is my ripple cushion cover. I've not really worked on this much lately so I'm going to hook another row or two once I've finished this post



Of course, crochet or knitting goes best with a hot cup of tea and some cake, so I made a quick batch of blueberry muffins...



And yes they are as yummy as they look, I've tested ;-) Recipe is here, I found it last year looking for blackberry muffin recipes and it's now my go-to recipe. Chocolate drops, raspberries, even banana goes very well instead of blackberries. I used blueberries as I bought some that were reduced because they were on their date in the supermarket. Tasted fine though :-)

Right then, I'd better get back to my hooking. Thanks for popping by!

Fluffy post!

Actually it's not fluffy, it's silky smooth and yummy!



One of my favourite designers, Anadiomena is running another of her Mystery KAL's this Summer. There are going to be two designs this time. A girly one and a unisex/boys one. The yarn above is going to be for the boy's design, it's King Cole Bamboo Cotton in the Peacock colourway. I'm not sure which of my boys I'll be making for yet. Probably the youngest one as I'm making my Alec jumper for the eldest. But then the eldest has grown recently and passed down most of his handknits because he's outgrown them. Tricky...

My indecisiveness was not limited to just the boys though. I've ordered yarn to make the girl pattern too! I'll share photos of it when it arrives but it's a beautiful dark green colour...

The two previous mystery KAL's Anadiomena has done resulted in these:






Both were a lot of fun :-) I'm not sure if I'll be able to knit BOTH the designs during this MKAL but I'm going to give it a jolly good go! Can't wait :-D

Is anyone else in blog-land joining in?

Sunshine!

Summer finally seems to have arrived over here and it's wonderful. The older children went back to school and pre-school today so I had a wonderfully indulgent morning sat out in the garden with my little girl. I drank tea and knitted and she did some drawing and had a teddy bears tea party. Lots of chatting and giggling, great fun :-)

As some of you who follow me on twitter may know, I was rather excited last week that my camera had finally returned from the menders. I'd only had it a couple of weeks before the autofocus broke which I was very cheesed off about. However it's back, the sun is shining and I'm going to make the most of it!

Hope the sun is shining where ever you are :-) I'm going back to my knitting, I've got about 6 rows before I can separate the sleeves on my Alec jumper and I'm determined to get it done before I have to pick my children up from school :-) See you later in the week!