FO - Charybdis Socks

It wouldn't be Christmas without a new pair of socks for Mr Soaring Sheep. Even before I was knitting them for him I'd buy him some lol. This pair have been made in secret although I'm starting to have my suspicions that the children have said something to him. Either that or he's EXPECTING a pair of knitted socks... Hmm may have to give them to him on Boxing day instead to trick him ;-)



Charybdis is a straight forward pattern to knit. It's a free pattern on ravelry and I was drawn to it because I liked that the feet spiral in opposite directions





I chose to do an afterthought heel rather than use the one in the pattern, just to be contrary really lol. The yarn is some of my stashed Flamboyance Yarns in a colourway called "Eldritch". I think it shows off the stitch pattern nicely, and green is kind of Christmassy right?



The children finish school today and Mr Soaring Sheep finishes work. We're all feeling rather run down and looking forward to the Christmas holidays. Not sure if I'm going to get a chance to post again before Christmas so if not I'd like to take the chance now to wish you all a...

Happy Christmas and New Year!!

Iced Gem Socks WIP

Oh I am so in love with this yarn. It's one of the ones I posted about yesterday. I couldn't resist getting it on the needles and look how beautifully it's knitting up :)



*swoon*

Is it just me who finds themselves knitting faster with self striping yarn? I'm always so keen to get to the next colour stripe lol.

I was out in the garden this morning to get some photos of Mr Soaring Sheep's Christmas socks which are now finished, blocked and hidden away ready for wrapping. I'll show you the photos tomorrow but thought I'd share some of my girl cat Rosie.



This is how she was sat on the grass. She didn't look very happy to be there but no one was forcing her outside lol. You can see all the bird seed mess the starlings have thoughtfully left on the ground. Maybe she thought one of them would fly down into her paws?



I caught her mid-miaow in this picture. She chirrups a lot when you speak to her. Our boy cat has a deep miaow and growls constantly while he's eating but she is higher and more inquisitive sounding



One last out of focus shot and she was off. Back inside to spend the day curled up on my son's top bunkbed and sleep. Sounds rather tempting actually!

Wednesday's WIP and Fluffy Post!

Last week I had to frog the work I'd done on my son's jumper because I'd been sent different dyelots. Luckily the company, Deramores, very kindly sent me out some new yarn to use and I've got loads of knitting done :-)



My camera wasn't very happy with the purple colour so it's not particularly true to life but it gives an idea of how it's knitting up. I've got one more repeat to finish and then it's starting the neck and shoulders I think. I don't tend to read too far ahead in a pattern or I get muddled!

The pattern is called Umberto if anyone is interested. It's a lovely straight forward knit, I'm really enjoying it.


Over the past year I've been "Cold Sheep-ing" and didn't buy any yarn for a whole year. It ended when I bought the purple yarn for the jumper above but now I've treated myself to two beautiful balls of self striping sock yarn



They are both from The Laughing Yaffle and I love how vibrant the colours are. I've had to throw away a pair of knitted socks recently, the lack of nylon content meant they wore out very quickly. I'm looking forward to replacing them and increasing my stash of knitted socks. Can't beat them at this time of year, brr!

In fact, I think I'm going to cast on some now :-)

Feeling Christmassy

This is our first Christmas in our first owned home and it feels rather magical to be here :-)



My granny square tree skirt is back out again, making me smile








My teeny baubles are looking lovely and joined by some toadstool ornaments too :-)






I love my new lamp, I've wanted one of these for, literally, years. We were actually organised enough this year to go to IKEA in time to get one before they sold out




 
The bunting I made last year is up too as if it was made for that space


I feel very lucky and happy to be here. I hope the positivity continues into 2015.


The replacement yarn from Deramores arrived this morning. Unfortunately it doesn't match the knitting I'd done previously so the whole thing had to be frogged and restarted. I've had a lovely day pottering around the house doing jobs and knitting away the rest of the time. Wonderful :-)

Yarn Problems

I was happily knitting away on my Umberto sweater for my son when I noticed a problem



Argh! I had a look through the yarn I'd bought and 3 of the balls had no label on so it seems they must have been from a different dyelot. Unfortuntely the yarn all looks the same colour in the ball so it's not until I was actually knitting it that I saw the problem.



I tried frogging back and then alternating two balls of yarn but it's just turned out stripy :(

I've been in contact with Deramores and they are going to replace the whole order of yarn and hopefully it will arrive tomorrow.  I'm going to just frog back to the end of the first ball and cross my fingers that the new yarn matches better. If not then I'm going to have to completely restart :-(


Suppose I'd better do the heels for Mr Soaring Sheep's socks. Almost finished now :-)

Woolly Headed

I've just remembered that I told you about the Umberto I'm knitting for my son but never got round to showing you a picture of it! So before I lose any more knitting-blogger-points I thought I'd show you this :-)



The cable took me a couple of rounds to get right due to not reading the instructions properly. It's all sorted now though :-) I like the moss stitch in the centre of the diamonds and the purl stitches on the edges, lovely textures (although they'll benefit from a bit of blocking)

I've not really been working on it much lately though because I've been trying to get Mr Soaring Sheep's socks finished. Last night I realised I'd made a mistake...



No, there isn't really anything wrong with the knitting, just my counting! I usually knit 60 rows for the leg and then 20 rows on the cuff. Some how when I knitted the first sock I only managed 50 rows on the leg :-S I'm not going to bother ripping back and reknitting it so he'll just have to put up with slightly shorter socks than usual. Whoops!

At least it means I'm almost ready to do the cuffs. Nearly there :-D

WIP Wednesday

I've been enjoying working on my Charybdis socks and scrappy ripple blnket this week. The blanket is over halfway done now in terms of length, I'm aiming for single bed sized so still got a bit of a way to go. It's big enough to snuggle under now though



I've made good progress with Mr Soaring Sheep's Christmas socks. I'm going to do both the heels at the end. I've got about 15 more rows before I can put in the waste yarn for the heel on the second sock. I'll be using the same technique I wrote about here.



I'm having to concentrate slightly more with the second sock for some reason. I think I've just about got the hang of it now :-) Mr Soaring Sheep is away until tomorrow night so I'm getting lots of time to knit in secret. Hopfully I'll get them finished off by next week so I can get them washed, blocked and wrapped up for Christmas :-)

FO - Neverland Wendy Hoody

I've got a very colourful cardigan to share with you today. Made using left over yarns from other projects and using the barber pole striping technique to get this unique effect.



I made the 6 years size with some extra length for my 8 year old daughter. I could possibly have got away with a larger size but she's quite petite and I didn't want it to swamp her



I followed the pattern pretty much as written apart from the hood which I made into a pixie hood instead at my daughter's request





She's such a diva lol. The days of her posing normally for photos are long gone :-p





The buttons were some I bought from etsy ages ago but they are absolutely perfect for this cardigan.



For anyone interested here's my project page on ravelry. It's a nice straight forward pattern to knit although the moss stitch borders feel like they take FOREVER. There is a boy/gender neutral version without the waist detail which is even easier to knit.

I'm really pleased with how it's turned out and it's been a great way of using up my yarn scraps. My daughter loves it too which is the main thing. I even found her sleeping in it <3 br="">



Thanks for visiting, more crafty posts on Ginny's Yarn Along post :-)

Christmas Countdown

It's one month to Christmas today. I've done all my Christmas shopping but this morning I realised that I only have 19 knitting days left to finish Mr Soaring Sheep's Christmas socks. Eeek!



I'm about 20 rows off putting in the waste yarn for the after-thought heel. The stitch pattern will then spiral round on the leg part which means I'll have to pay attention to which row I'm on so that I know how long to knit the second pair! The pattern is Charybdis by the way which is free on ravelry.

Think I'll have a quick cup of tea and then back to the knitting :-) Linking up with Keep Calm Craft On today

A new project

Over the weekend I sewed in all the ends for the Scrappy cardigan I've been making. I had the most perfect buttons for it which Mr Soaring Sheep kindly sewed on for me and it's been washed, blocked and photographed ready to share with you on Wednesday :-)



My big boy has grown again since last Winter so is in need of some new jumpers. Despite adding extra length last time it just wasn't enough. When he was off school with his poorly finger (all healed now) he picked out the yarn he wanted me to use



It's Rowan Pure wool in the DK weight. I love working with this yarn and it washes and wears well. Plus it comes in a lovely range of colours :-) This particular colour is called "Damson".



For the first time ever I've not just knitted a swatch, I've actually washed it :-o The pattern I'm going to be using, Umberto is knitted from the bottom up and in order for the cable design to finish in the right place you need to know exactly what your gauge is. I'm making the 6 years size but with the 7 years length, the pattern explains clearly how you work out where to start on the cable chart.

I've already cast on but I'll show you photos of how it's knitting up later. Have a good week everyone :-)

Yarn Along

I haven't showed you my scrappy ripple blanket for a while so thought I'd share a couple of up-to-date photos. I didn't work on it much over the Summer but now it's getting colder I'm enjoying hooking away with it spread over my lap :-)



I think I'm over halfway now, it's a nice simple project to work on and I like the way the colours interlock with this technique



I've got a few ends to deal with but as I've been crocheting over them as I go along it shouldn't take much time. The scrappy cardigan I've made though is another matter :-S



Yeesh that's going to take me a while! Aside from sewing in the ends it just needs 3 buttons sewing on (Mr Soaring Sheep's job) and some button loops making. I'm hoping to get it done by the weekend so I can give it a wash and block and take some photos.

Right now though I'd rather be working on my ripple :-) Have a good day everyone and hop over to Yarn Along for more projects.

Keep Calm Craft On

I was a busy bee this morning. Trying to get lots of housework done whilst my youngest child is at pre-school for 3 hours so that I could have some time to sit with my feet up and do some knitting



I've made lots of progress with my eldest daughter's cardigan. Both sleeves are finished, the modified hood is finished and I'm well on the way through the trim around the front. It's slow work alternating k1 p1 k1 p1.... but it's mindless and good to do whilst watching tv or reading blog posts :-)

So I sat myself down just before 11am with a hot cup of tea and my knitting with a nice tidy house. And then the phone rang. It was school. My eldest boy has an infected cuticle on his finger and it was hurting him a lot and he'd gone pale, could I come and pick him up?

He's home now, he's had some lunch, a warm bath and some paracetamol. He's got a doctor's appointment this afternoon and Mr Soaring Sheep is home to pick the other children up from school for me.



He's sat at the computer playing a Lego Harry Potter game. He looks like he's suffering doesn't he... :-S


I'm going to go back to my knitting. Feeling a little bit conned. They always seem to get better by the time they're home lol

Yarn Along

I've got a little work done on my Neverland Wendy cardigan this week. Not as much as I'd like because of my "knitters elbows" but at least the first sleeve is finished.



The barber pole striping technique I've been using has one drawback, tension issues :-S





You can see quite clearly along the underarm of the sleeve where I've been changing from one yarn to the next. It should block out a bit but I did make sure I'd placed it deliberately in an area where it won't be seen as much. Has anyone used this technique before and found a way to avoid this happening?


We had to go shopping on Monday to get some costumes for two of my children (thank you School...) and whilst we were there I saw this cute cake stand. Luckily Mr Soaring Sheep liked it too so it came home with us. At last our Christmas cake will no longer be served on an upside down plastic lid!



I'm not feeling particularly Christmassy at the moment, thank goodness, but I do enjoy wandering round shops and looking at their decorations. Not from the end of August though despite what some shops think ;-)

Have a good week everyone :-)

WIP Wednesday

Speedy post today, got to rush out again in a bit to pick my daughter up from her after school club. They're making some sort of Christmas decorations I believe, she loves sewing so it should be right up her street :-)



I've not got much knitting done because I've been resting my elbow. Seems to be feeling better now so looking forward to getting some more work done on this cardigan. I'm going to do the sleeves next and then a pixie hood.



I've also started a new pair of socks for Mr Soaring Sheep. I'm using the Charybdis pattern which is a free one on ravelry. They're going to be a surprise present for Christmas. Yes I said the C-word :-o Well it is November now and I'm not able to work on them when he's around so I need to make the most of the time I've got lol.

Happy knitting everyone :-)

WIP Wednesday

It's half term here at the moment so my knitting time and energy is rather reduced. The combination of having 4 busy children at home and the clocks going back an hour has rather knocked me for six.  I've also got a touch of "knitters elbow" going on so being careful about not spending too long with my arm bent.



Spent a while trying to decide how to do the border for this cardigan and Mr Soaring Sheep agreed a solid colour border would be the way to go. I decided to use this undyed yarn partly because of the way it sets the colours off nicely but also because I knew I had enough of it in the stash that I wouldn't be in any danger of running out mid project!



The cardigan should finish nicely at around bum height so she'll be snug and cosy in it. I'm making the 6 years size despite my daughter being nearly 9. She's rather diddy lol. The project page is here.

I've got the in-laws visiting this afternoon, we're going to show them our new allotment. We've not done any work on it yet, I need to get round to ordering a few "how to" books! Have a good day everyone, thanks for visiting :-)

Linking up with Keep Calm Craft On and Yarn Along