Not an FO Friday

I was hoping to get some finished photos of my scrappy jumper to show you but a combination of the never-ending rain, sleep deprivation and a poorly boy with two ear infections has meant that it will have to wait for next week.

Instead I just wanted to share with you this photo I took of the children in Oxford last weekend when we met up with my brother



The girls on the right, that's the difference 4 years makes in posing for Mummy-photos!



Have a good weekend everyone :-)

WIP Wednesday

I'm a bit scatty with my WIP's at the moment. There are several projects I've not touched in ages and yet instead of working on them I cast on something new. This week I'm wanting to finish off this scrappy sweater, I'm on to the last sleeve now



Unfortunately I messed up my sizings and should probably have done a smaller size. However I've used my eldest son as a guide for measurements and promised my younger son that I will finish it and he can keep it in his drawer until he's big enough. "But then I won't have a new jumper to wear Mummy" he wailed.

Don't worry, I'll cast on another one for you...



It's an Alec. The second time I've knit this pattern, or I guess third time if you count the one I made for my husband. It's a nice pattern, and it's got buttons which is what sold it to my little boy. Hopefully it should knit up quickly!

I love knitting for my children but I am getting a bit sick of raglans at the moment! As soon as these are finished I'm going to knit socks, and shawls, and maybe some wrist warmers. And I should probably finish my crochet blanket too :-S

Linking in with Tami, Ginny and Nicole

Knit Now Magazine Fluffy Post

My prize from Knit Now Magazine for being this month's Star Letter arrived last week. I felt very spoiled when I opened up the parcel!



The pattern book is lovely although I've not had a proper look through it yet. Something to do now the children are back at school and I can sit and concentrate for more than 5 minutes without being interrupted ;-)

The yarns are very interesting. I immediately thought these two should go together to become some sort of cardigan or jumper for my 3yr old little girl.



This yarn I've seen on Deramores and been wondering about trying for ages so I'm looking forward to having a play with it. Perhaps a hat?



And last but not least there is a ball of this very colourful superwash merino by Debbie Bliss



I'm completely stumped with this one! Does anyone have any ideas? There is 105m of it :-) The colours are lovely but varied so I think a simpler pattern would work best for letting the yarn colours show best. A bit of a challenge!


Thanks again Knit Now, I'm looking forward to having a play with these lovely yarns :-)

FO - Abernathy Sweater

My eldest boy has had a bit of a growth spurt recently. He's now got only 2 pairs of trousers that fit him and he's even grown taller than his big sister. Naturally this meant he needed a new Mummy-made-sweater.



I've had the Abernathy Sweater pattern in my library for a while so it was lovely to finally have a chance to knit it. As you can see I changed the cable down the centre to more of a braid design



I knitted this project using aran weight yarn rather than the DK weight suggested. I wasn't that far off with my gauge though and measured as I went. Just means he has a slightly warmer sweater. The yarn was dyed by me in a slow cooker pot with food colouring haphazardly splashed in! I alternated skeins the whole way to disguise the differences between each skein



I love this detail down the sleeve. It's hard to see in the original pattern photographs so I wasn't expecting it when I first cast on. I think it looks really smart and makes the sleeve fit nicely too





I asked him to show me the back, so he stuck his bum out at me...





The cycle helmet and gloves are because we were just about to go cycling with my in-laws. I quickly asked him to take his coat off so I could get some photo. It wasn't that cold, honest!





I did have a couple of issues with this pattern where I felt things could have been explained a bit better. I've knitted a few raglan's in my time so it wasn't a problem working things out but I think for a person doing their first raglan it might not be the best pattern to start with unless they are confident enough to work things out for themselves. Having said that I LOVE how this sweater has turned out and would definitely make another one. I wish there was an adult version as I bet my DH would like one!

Linking up with FO Friday, Fiber Arts Friday and Creative Friday. Have a good weekend everyone :-)

WIP Wednesday

As it's half term I've not had much crafting time this week so have just stuck with one fairly simple project. It's a jumper for my youngest son using up lots of left over yarns. I'm spiralling 3 balls of yarn around and replacing each one when it's used up. Means I'll have a quite a few ends to weave in as you can already see but it's going to be one unique jumper!


It's great fun to knit because I never know how the colours are going to look together. My little boy keeps asking me if I've finished yet :-)

 Mr Soaring Sheep has the day off work today. We've got my in-laws visiting later in the day so hoping the weather stays nice and we can go out for a walk somewhere. I'm running my toddler group in the morning though so I'd better a move on and pack my stuff up before heading out. Have a good week everyone!

Head over to Tami's WIP Wednesday, Ginny's Yarn Along and Nicole's Keep Calm Craft On for more crafty posts :-)

A new project - Celebrations Jumper

I finished my Abernathy jumper yesterday and instead of being sensible and working on my existing WIP's I just HAD to cast on this idea. I'd mentioned during my Abernathy that I was playing around with "barber pole" striping in order to minimise pooling and fix the problem of having non matching skeins of yarn. Well this new project is making use of the technique to make a completely random, technicolour jumper I'm using my stash of left over aran/worsted weight yarns and as soon as one colour runs out I'm adding another one. I'm trying to chose colourways that work well next to each other but I'm sure as I work my way through the scraps the combinations will become increasingly random. I'm using the Little Hoodlum pattern again because it's so well written. Technically the pattern is for DK yarn but it works fine with slightly thicker yarns too. So why am I calling it the Celebrations Jumper? Well it's because I'm using an old tin of Celebrations Chocolates left over from Christmas to store the tiny balls of yarn in! Stash busting and recycling, I think that's something to celebrate lol :-)

FO Poison Queen Shrug

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Mr Soaring Sheep and I don't really celebrate it although we have bought each other a small gift this year and will be having our usual takeaway for tea after the children are in bed :-p


I'm doing quite well with FO's at the moment. I might even have another one for you next Friday too. Today it's my Queen of the Waves shrug using Wharfedale Woolworks Poison Ivy sock yarn.



I went for a plain sleeve which has a gentle flare at the end. I love the pooling this resulted in



There's also some fun pooling on the body too





The buttons were from Berry Nice Crafts and have this pretty leaf like design. I added beads to the neckline to make it a bit more special. I was planning on just doing silver beads but then I found the green and purple matched the yarn too so added all three :-)





My daughter seems quite pleased with her new shrug. It will work better when the weather is a bit warmer and she's wearing Summer dresses



It was a lovely project to knit and there are several different sleeve styles and fastenings detailed in the pattern so I might make another one at some point, perhaps with the lacey sleeve option.

I'm linking in with FO Friday, Fiber Arts Friday and Creative Friday today. Hope you have a good weekend, thanks for visiting my blog :-)

Squee!

I know I said I would be back on Friday but I really really wanted to show you something. The other day I picked up the latest copy of Knit Now Magazine, this one:



I was flipping through and look what I found in the letters section!!



I might even have let out a little squeal >.<

Thank you Knit Now for printing my project :-D I'm so chuffed with it!



*original FO post , ravelry project page *

WIP Wednesday

Hi everyone! I've been quite busy with my knitting this week. I love how quickly worsted weight yarn knits up in comparison to 4ply!



The sock is clue 2 of Sezzaknits MKAL. A pretty lace pattern which spirals round the leg. Nice and simple to knit although I did forget a YO on one round near the end and had to tink back, whoops!



The jumper is an Abernathy sweater for my eldest son. I dyed the yarn in an old slow cooker with some acid dye and food colouring. Basically a glug of this and a splash of that >.< As the skeins are all quite different to each other I've been using a technique known as Barber Pole striping which I first read about on Kepanie's blog. It's given me an idea for a future project too which would make more of a feature of the technique. With this project you can't really tell what I'm doing which means I can practice without ruining anything ;-)



I've changed the cable down the centre so this more complicated looking braid. It's not actually complicated to knit but it looks like it is ;-) My favourite type of cable!



I've lost a bit of steam with my crochet blanket at the moment. I've got 21 squares to make and then it's just sewing them all together and doing the edging. It's half term next week so I might be able to concentrate on finishing it or I might have no time for crafting at all! Depends on how much supervising my children need.

Hope you get some crafting time this week. I'll be back on Friday to show you the finished shrug I made for my daughter. I'll be linking in with Tami and Ginny today so hop over to their blogs to see what other people are working on :-) Thank you to everyone who commented on my latest socks on Monday's post, they've been keeping my feet toasty warm. I've already wound some yarn to make a pair for Mr Soaring Sheep at some point

Squee! NicsKnots Post :-D

Nicola of Nicsknots has sent me this fabulous parcel after I won her project bag competition. I asked for a drawstring bag and a notions case but in different fabrics. I gave her a list of the fabrics in her shop that I liked and this is what she chose :-)



Aren't they wonderful? I can't decide which I like most! I love the little chicken card and the little beads on the drawstring of the bag.



I think the project bag definitely needs a new project in it soon and I know it will be made with the gorgeous Lorna's Laces sock yarn she sent me too. I think I'm going to have to do some ravelry browsing!


Thank you Nicola, you've really made my day :-) I really recommend you visit her website, she's got some beautiful project bags, notions cases, needle rolls etc. and she's lovely too. I know I'm stalking the crochet hook rolls page and will be sending details to Mr Soaring Sheep as a not so subtle hint ;-)

FO - Socks on a Plane

I've got a quick FO post for you today. I've been working on these socks for a while, they've been my mindless knitting/car knitting project but I decided that I wanted to finish them by the end of January so I put some extra effort into them



I used my normal toe up pattern with 64 stitches on 2.0mm needles and a gusset heel but added in this simple cable



I knitted the cable stitches through the back loop to make them pop



The pattern I was inspired by is Socks on a Plane  which is free on ravelry. The yarn is by Wharfedale Woolworks in a colourway appropriately called "Heatwave". This particular colourway has sold out but there's a gorgeous yarn called Firecracker that's quite similar ;-)



Have a good week everyone. I'm hoping ours ends better than it did last week. We've had a family member with health issues, a broken car and a dead hamster. Not very happy at all :-(

FO - Alec XL for Mr Soaring Sheep

I'm so excited to share this jumper with you today. I cast it on just before Christmas and made really fast progress. Unfortunately my funny shaped husband meant that although the chest measurement was fine, the arms and body were a bit too big. Rather than completely frog it I just frogged back to the raglan increases and separated the shoulders a bit earlier. It was a bit of a pain to have to frog back so much work but it was definitely worth it :-)



I used Cascade 220 in Red Wine Heathers to knit this jumper. It's a gorgeous shade of red, I rather fancy making myself something using it too although I don't think I really want to go for the "his and hers" matching jumpers look lol 



Poor Mr Soaring Sheep felt a bit awkward posing so he started being silly ;-) I laughed at him









I love this stitch pattern. It's got a really nice texture but is very simple to knit





The pattern is Alec XL and is by Sarah Ronchetti. There is also a children's version which I've knitted previously. The child version is called Alec.

I'm linking in with Tami, Linda and Andrea for the various Friday posts. Hop over to their blogs for links to more projects :-)

Shrug and Socks WIP's

I'm working on two fingering weight projects at the moment. The first is a shrug which I blogged about yesterday. I was hoping to get the first sleeve finished yesterday but was more busy than I thought I was going to be so it's not quite there yet. The shaping is slowing my down as I'm having to make notes about which row I did what on so the second sleeve matches. I'm not co-ordinated enough to do TAAT!



My other project is a pair of socks. I'm joining in with Sezzaknits Mystery Sock KAL. I briefly considered working on both socks at the same time but I've only got one set of needles and as I mentioned above, two on the same needle isn't an option. I don't mind though, it means I can join in but still work on other projects :-)



I'm not sure if I'm allowed to show you more progress when I get the next clue. I figured just the ribbing is pretty harmless lol.

The yarn I'm using is beautiful. It's by Flamboyance Yarns and is called (appropriately enough!) "Deep Purple". It's also got a silver thread running through it which sparkles in the light. I think I'm going to love these socks when they're done :-)



(ignore my horrible looking thumb nail, I broke it quite badly at the edge and it tore across. Not much fun while it's growing out!)

So, that's what I'm up to this week :-) Visit Tami and Ginny for more projects. I'll be back on Friday to finally show off photos of the jumper I made for Mr Soaring Sheep. I'm SOOO pleased with it and he's been a very good boy and worn it loads too :-)