Ready for Christmas

Hi everyone :) I failed my driving theory test last week but redid it this morning and got a good pass so I'm feeling much happier. The children are home for the holidays, the shopping is done and I'm planning on spending the next few days chilling out. I've got books to read, knitting projects to work on and lots of relaxing to accomplish.



I finished my Mum's socks a couple of days ago. Still need to weave in the 4 ends and give them a quick wash and block but that won't take long. I'm hoping to pay my parents a visit in the near future so might be able to persuade her to let me take some modelling shots :-p



My son's sweater now has a sleeve so the second one is going to be my tv knitting project as it's just plain stockinette and I know how many rows I need between decreases and how much length to add etc.



My final WIP is this hat. The pattern is called Here's Looking At You and caught my eye when I was looking for something to knit with this yarn



I think this stitch pattern is so pretty. Originally I thought it was some sort of cabling but once I got the pattern I found it's just left and right leaning decreases and yarn overs. Very easy to remember too which is always good.

The yarn I'm using is a completely different colour to what my camera has come up with. Hopefully when the hat is finished I'll be able to get some daylight shots which are more accurate. The yarn also has a bit of silver thread through it which gives a nice effect.


So that's me sorted now. I hope if you celebrate Christmas or are just looking forward to a day off that you get some relaxing time. Happy Holidays and if I don't end up posting again this year I hope you all have a Happy New Year too :-)

Take care, Evelyn x


Linking up with Yarn Along and Keep Calm Craft On

Egg-citing News

We had an egg-cellent start to the day this morning. I slid open the roof of the chicken coop to give it a quick spot clean like I do every morning and I found not one but two perfect little eggs.



It was ever so exciting, we've been wondering when they'd start laying and assumed the cold dark weather would put them off until the Spring. We did notice recently that they've started squatting down when you try to pick them up rather than running away which apparently is a behaviour they will do for the cockerel.

Of course now we've got to decide what we're going to do with these two precious eggs and how we can share them between the six of us.



Oh my gosh! I went out while I was making my lunch to give them a pear to eat and couldn't resist another peek inside their house and look what I found!



A third egg, and it was still warm :-)



How funny that they all started laying on the same day. And they all layed in the nest box too, clever girls



The black girl on the left laid the third egg, she's called Maude. The grey girl is called Merry and the orangey one is called Betsy. Thanks ladies!

Wednesday's WIP's

I had another driving lesson today. I'm definitely making progress although my instructor does shout a lot "USE the CLUTCH!" "BRAKE!" "Did you SEE that RED LIGHT?!" :-P Poor guy, I don't think I'd want his job. Today I went into top gear on purpose because I was driving along a duel carriageway. I also reversed into a parking space rather well too. We'll gloss over the roundabouts, stalling at junctions and not using the clutch properly...


I've mostly been pottering around with things at home. A bit of cleaning, a bit of ironing, a bit of playing with the puppy, a bit of revision for my theory test (next week, *gulp*) and occasionally a bit of knitting too.



The red sweater has been waiting for me to try it on my son to see how much more length I need on the sleeves. I need to do another 4 inches or so before starting the cuffs so that will keep me amused for a while.

My sock now has a heel and is nice and simple to knit again, much like the sleeves on the sweater. Seems that's what I'm in the mood for right now.

The purple garter stitch at the top is going to be a hat. I'll talk about more about that another day, hopefully when I've started knitting the pattern part. At the moment following instructions is a bit beyond me (my driving instructor probably agrees...). I cast it on because the yarn has been sat on my shelf for so long it was starting to get dusty. Rather than dust the shelf I thought knitting would be more fun ;-)


So looking forward to the Christmas holidays and things feeling less busy... Take care everyone :-)

Linking up with Keep Calm Craft On and Yarn Along

So busy

There doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day at the moment. The children's schedules are busy, the puppy is a full time job and I've got a driving theory test to try to revise for. On top of all the normal household chores that a family of 6 generates. And that's not even considering Christmas shopping... Ooof!

Knitting and blogging has rather fallen by the wayside at the moment. Even a few rounds on a sleeve seems tricky, making sure I decrease in the right places and don't get tangled up magic-looping. My son keeps asking when his sweater will be finished, I'm hoping by Christmas, even if that means spending the first few days of the Christmas holidays sat on the sofa knitting furiously lol



I've finished the first sock and I'm now making progress on the second. Not much progress it must be said, a row here and there, but it all adds up eventually I guess



Things will get easier. Pippin has his final vaccination tomorrow and then 10 days after that I'll be able to take him for short walks which should tire him out a bit better. At least long enough for me to start making progress on things rather than barely keeping up. We've been trying to do a lot of socialisation with him while he's still young. This means we take turns carrying him around in a sling so he can visit new places and meet new people. Yesterday we took him round a garden centre to look at the Christmas decorations and then we went to a pet shop where he encountered a rather noisy parrot.



Right, I'd better get back to revising for my driving theory test, I need to practice doing the "hazard perception" part of the test. I'm hoping it's easier than it sounds lol. Have a good week everyone :-)

Wednesday's WIP's

Yes I know, I can't quite believe it myself, an actual knitting post ;-) It helps that the puppy is finally having a snooze, he got to that overtired and bitey stage which isn't much fun. So then, what have I been knitting?



Well I have made some progress on these two projects since I showed them to you last. The socks are based on the Rye pattern but made using sockyarn. They caught my Mum's eye when she last visited us so I'm going to give them to her when they're finished. As you can see I'm onto the ribbing of the first sock and as I started these in July I don't think she'll be getting them any time soon...

The sweater is for my son using the Little Spare Time pattern. I've rejoined the knitting after doing the front and back flat for the pockets. I think now I'm about ready to do the edging but I want to try it on him first to make sure the length is right. It shouldn't be far off but as my gauge wasn't quite right I'd prefer to make sure.

That's all I've got to show you at the moment. Pippin the puppy is taking up a lot of time in the day and then by the time Mr Soaring Sheep is home in the evening I'm too tired to want to do any knitting. He's sleeping longer at night now but it's still going to be another 3 weeks+ before he's allowed out for walks. For now all the entertainment he gets is either at home with me or when I take him out round the village in a baby sling so he can meet people. He's getting bloomin' heavy now though lol



His favourite spot at the moment seems to be squeezed between the sofa and the radiator. I took this photo this morning but he's snoozing there now. Funny boy :-)


Linking up with Keep Calm Craft On and Yarn Along

Hello!

Sorry for just disappearing like that. Who'd have thought a 2 month old puppy would require so much attention lol. When he's awake he needs feeding, training, playing with and taking outside to the toilet. When he's asleep I'm either getting on with chores or trying to stay awake after a night of being woken up by him needing the toilet. Still a week on now and I feel like we're all getting the hang of things :-)

It helps that he can be ridiculously cute...























Sleepy boy has his injections tomorrow. Will be good when I no longer need to carry him everywhere. Even using a sling he's still pretty heavy!

Have a good week everyone

A New Project

The children went back to school today. I miss them a bit but it's nice how the house stays tidy lol. I had my first driving lesson this morning, very exciting. Also rather scary, it's strange how driving along at just 20mph feels like you're going incredibly fast. My instructor had me driving up and down a quiet road and then at the end of the lesson he got me to drive home. Apparently I did alright, I hope I didn't annoy too many drivers who had to follow behind me as I slowly made my way along the bendy road lol.



I've cast on a new project after finishing my shawl. It's a sweater for my eldest boy using the Little Spare Time pattern. I showed him lots of different patterns but this one caught his eye because of the cosy collar.

Aside from the collar detail it's a pretty straight forward raglan sweater. I am going to do pockets as he likes to keep his hands warm so I'm just knitting until I get to the right length at the moment. Good for working on when I'm tired and not able to concentrate much.

Mr Soaring Sheep has requested a cardigan after I showed him this pattern on ravelry. Isn't it gorgeous? He even wants it in the same pinky purple colour. I think I'll wait a while before casting it on though, I expect with having a new puppy arriving on Saturday, driving lessons and tennis lessons my mind is going to be a bit busy for concentrating on all those cables lol.

Have a good week everyone, Keep Calm Craft On

Puppy visit

It's been a busy half term, we've not really done much but I feel like I've hardly had any time to myself. Got one more day with them at home and then we can get back to the school routine.

Yesterday was an exciting day for us because we found out which puppy is going to be ours. The breeders have had the puppies tested to assess their personalities and then from that information they were able to work out which would suit us best. I was over the moon to find out that it was the boy with the orange collar who I've had my eye on since he was born. This morning we went for our final visit with the puppies before we bring him home next week



We've decided to call him Pippin, or Pip for short. The above photo is my favourite one of him, I love his eyes :-)







The children are rather smitten with him too :-)





Can't wait to bring him home :-) 6 more sleeps to go...!

Autumn Walks and FO - Rainshine Shawl

Mr Soaring Sheep has managed to get my laptop fixed at work, it was an update that had broken the loading program but he was able to delete the update and now everything works the way it should. In fact it works better as it had been slow for a while before it eventually died. Huzzah :-)

It's half term here so I've got the four little monsters darlings at home for this week. Yesterday we decided to make the most of the sunshine and go for a walk round the nearby country park. I also took the opportunity to get some photos of my newly finished shawl.







I love this part of the walk to the country park. Church yards are such peaceful places and with the sun shining on the Autumn leaves it was beautiful to walk through.



Maybe not quite so peaceful when my brood are around :-S





My eldest boy asked to wear my shawl so I was able to get some photos of it being modelled :-)







The shy one (not) wanted to pose for some photos too. I took quite a few but this one really sums up her personality lol



Halfway round the circular route is a playground. Whilst the children burned off some energy I was able to get some more shawl photos







That cast off took me over 3 hours, I had to keep getting up to walk around and stretch my legs lol.







I really enjoyed this pattern, apart from the tedious cast off! I'm a little disappointed about the width of the shawl as I prefer them a tad bigger. I could possibly try blocking it out again to try to stretch some more width out of it or if I made it again I might make the stockinette section larger. The actual lace section was very straight-forward and well written like all Booknits patterns. I'm pleased with how it's come out though and I'm looking forward to wearing it this Winter :-)

Linking up with Keep Calm Craft On

Computer Woes

My laptop is being a pain at the moment and not updating so I can't get it to log on. This also means I can't load up pictures from my camera as I normally use the SD card slot as I've no idea where the cable alternative is! Mr Soaring Sheep is on the case, he's reinstalling Linux and then he's going to copy the important files across to an external hard drive and then wipe everything and start again. Bit of a pain.

Hopefully I'll be back in a few days with lots of photos to share with you. I've got 2 rows and a looooong cast off to go on my shawl so I'm hoping to get it finished, blocked and photographed by the end of the weekend :-)

Have a good week everyone

Evelyn

FO - Custom Fit Sweater

I'm really excited to share this FO with you today. It's my first attempt at making up my own sweater pattern. I started back in May with a swatch and after taking lots of measurements and following this guide and this cable pattern I ended up with this :-)



Working out where to start the cable was a bit tricky and I'm not entirely happy with it as I'd have liked something that grew out of the collar in a more organic way but that's just me being knitpicky.



The collar was the next challenge. Sleeves and the body of the sweater were fairly straight forward providing I kept an eye on the fit but the collar had me daunted for a while. In the end I was a bit sneaky and based it on the collar from the Abernathy Sweater which uses short rows to shape it so it sits nicely. I'm really rather pleased with this bit given how much it was worrying me. It naturally wants to sit in the right place, it doesn't pull on his neck and will keep him nice and cosy.







I've really enjoyed the challenge of making my own design. I've knitted quite a few raglan sweaters in my time so that part was fairly easy for me but the process of working out stitch counts and shaping took a bit more brain power. I definitely fancy doing it again although I expect my next sweater WIP will be designed by someone else so I can just enjoy the knitting lol.

Mr Soaring Sheep seems rather pleased with it too which is always the main thing!



Linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along and Nicole's Keep Calm Craft On