Sticking Wednesday

I've got something a bit different to share today. I thought this chest of drawers belonging to the youngest member of the Soaring Sheep flock looked a bit boring so I thought I'd get creative.



I'd got some left over decopatch papers and glue from previous projects so I thought I'd have a go at tarting it up a bit :-)



This is the what the top looks like now. The different coloured bits in the middle are already dry, it should all end up the same colours. I'm thinking of doing the drawer fronts in different colours but need to see what papers I've got left and clear off the stickers that are on there already.

Have you ever done decopatching? Would love to see photos of other projects, it's such a fun craft :-)

Tuesday Happys

It's quite mild outside today. The sun is shining and you can pretend that Spring isn't far away. Apparently it's going to get very cold again tomorrow so I'm enjoying it today. I've got washing drying on the line outside and I thought I'd take some photos of things which are making me smile today

 

I love hyacinths and Spring bulbs in general. I love watching them push up green shoots and then flower buds :-)



I took a chance on these tulips. They were closed, green and in desperate need of a drink when I bought them. They're looking lovely now they've had a bit of tlc.



My girl cat likes to sleep on the top bunkbed. She's found a cosy blanket and some sunshine to enjoy :-)



Yesterday I cast on a new project. It's yet another cardigan for my eldest daughter and the last one I'll be making for her unless she has another growth spurt lol. This pattern is Spun Sugar by Elena Nodel and has an interesting method of construction. It's kind of like a raglan but now it's kind of gone a bit shrug like. It's got some gorgeous cables around the hem at the bottom which I'm looking forward to doing :-)

Linking up with Keep Calm Craft On

WIP Wednesday

I've made quite a lot of progress on my Annabel cardigan, even if it doesn't look very different to yesterday. The daisy stitch edging is finished and I've done the two button bands up the front too. As you can see I'm now on to the sleeves :-D Hoping to get this one finished by the weekend



Looking forward to giving it a decent block once it's finished. I think it's going to look amazing when it's ready. I tried it on my daughter the other day and the length is just perfect :)



Speaking of length, (see what I did there), I thought I'd try out the ripple blanket on an actual bed. I've got a bit more to go than I thought but I'm still enjoying it so hey ho. It's perfect for working on during the cold Winter days, nice and cosy :-)



Thanks for visiting :) This is a scheduled post as we're at a family member's funeral today so apologies if I'm a bit slow in responding to comments. Have a good day everyone :)

Fluffy Post!

I wasn't planning on buying any yarn for a little while but then I got an email from Wool  Warehouse offering 25% off so I thought I'd take advantage.



Raggles the cat had to investigate...



So what did I get? Well I was quite restrained. I bought enough for two sweaters for my children. I've used Wendy Merino DK before (in fact I'm wearing it at the moment!) and it washes and wears well. Plus it's soft and warm so just perfect for sweaters :)



This colour is called Dutch Blue (2358) and is going to be knitted up into a Frozen sweater for my eldest boy



The red is slightly more orangey than I was hoping for but it's not too bad. It's called Persian Red (2352). Not 100% sure what this will be knitted in to but given I've got a cardigan WIP and then plans for another cardigan and a sweater I think I've got a bit of time to think about it!



Speaking of my cardigan WIP, I've made lots of progress. The pockets are almost finished apart from sewing the sides up, and I'm now on to the edging. It's more of the daisy stitch so quite time consuming to knit but a really pretty way to finish it. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be on to the sleeves :-) Sorry for the washed out photo, my camera is really struggling to capture the shade of green!

Linking up with Keep Calm Craft On

FO Friday - Bulle

I started this jumper on Boxing day as a quick stash busting exercise. I've been eyeing up the Bulle pattern for a while and as I had some Stylecraft aran in my stash I'd been sent by mistake (I ordered dk) I thought it would work perfectly.



Bulle is a simple pattern but there are a lot of pretty details that make it stand out. I love the garter yoke and the gathered increases at the front and back. Even the puffy-ness of the body and sleeves is pretty



The pockets are knitted after you've finished and they're just perfect for snuggly warm hands





The buttons are both from Hobbycraft, I got them at the same time as the massive ball of yarn and fat quarters. If you put them side by side they aren't a completely perfect match but when they're in use they look just fine





My daughter chose the contasting yellow for the pockets. I was thinking of a more mustard-y yellow but she was adament she wanted this shade and I think it looks rather good. In the pattern you're told to use the 3 needle cast off to seam the pockets whereas I think I'd have preferred using kitchener stitch. I'll do that if I knit this again I think.



I used Jeny's surprisingly stretchy cast off for the sleeves. It was suggested in the pattern to just go up a needle size but I think this works better. I want her to be able to run around and play in this sweater, not be irritated by tight sleeve cuffs.

I have a mere 14g left out of the 300g of yarn I started with so I think it's been a pretty successful stash reduction. As you can see my daughter loves it too which is the main thing :-)

Have a good weekend everyone, thanks for visiting :-)

New WIP

I wanted to share this project with you yesterday but the yarn didn't arrive on time so I thought I'd post today instead.



I had a little helper when I was photographing the yarn to put on ravelry, she was determined her little paws needed to be in the picture too. The yarn is Cascade 220 superwash in the Emerald City colourway. It's more green than it's come out here. I should probably have photographed it outside but it's cold and I'm lazy so meh...!



I'm knitting it into a cardigan using the Annabel pattern by Georgie Hallam. I'm making the hoodless version which mean I started with this pretty stitch pattern. It's fairly simple to work but a bit fiddly. It's a nice little detail that appears throughout the cardigan.



 As you can see I'm doing the raglan increases at the moment. Nice and straight forward knitting :-)

I was playing around with my camera and got some nice photos of the bunch of peruvian lillies Mr Soaring Sheep bought for me. They're such pretty flowers and as the window sill is quite cold they're lasting well too





I'm going to go back to my knitting now. I could be doing something more useful but I'm enjoying it so hey ho lol

WIP Wednesday

I was hoping to be able to show you the start of a cardigan for my daughter but the yarn only arrived when I was uploading these photos so I've not had time to do a swatch and cast on yet. Instead I thought I'd share some photos of my other two WIP's



Longer term followers of my blog will no doubt recognise this blanket and possibly be as sick of it as I am! It's been dragging on for ages because I'm not really doing much work on it. I'd much rather be knitting at the moment but I'm going to try to make myself spend some time on it





It's 2/3rds of the way to being single bed length I reckon so over halfway done if you include making a border. It would be nice to get this project finished in the next couple of months although I expect that is probably a bit optimistic for me right now.



My other WIP is a pair of stripy socks. I'm on to the second sock now and as it's just a plain vanilla sock it's nice and easy to work on in the car or in the evenings if I'm feeling lazy. I'm not in any rush to finish these at all, I want to savour the pretty yarn and enjoy every stitch



I'm very chuffed with how well the stripes matched up, hopefully it will continue all the way down to the toes :-)

I'm linking up today with Nicole's Keep Calm Craft On and  Ginny's Yarn Along as usual and also Chrisknits Stitch Along Wednesday so hop over to both of their blogs for links to more crafty posts :-) Thanks for visiting

New Week, New Start

I know it's the 12th of January already but after the sad events just over a week ago I don't feel like I've really celebrated the New Year yet. 2014 was quite a big year for us with buying our first home and I'd been feeling like 2015 was going to be even better. Hopefully that will still be the case in the long term, even if it doesn't feel that happy right now.

I've decided I don't want to Cold Sheep this year. It was an interesting exercise and I did reduce my yarn stash which is what I wanted. I'm going to try to concentrate on using the yarn I've got but not denying myself if I see something which inspires me.

My Mum has given me her old sewing machine for me to have a play with so I'm looking forward to having a go this year. I've not used a sewing machine since school so I think I'll need to play around a bit with some simple beginner projects. Then perhaps later I can play around with these fat quarters I found reduced in Hobbycraft ;-)



I also treated myself to some yarn while I was there. This lovely dark green caught my eye partly for it's colour but also it's sheer size! It's a 400g ball and bigger than my head!



I think it will make a nice sweater of some sort for one of my little monsters. I was playing around on ravelry last night and thought Spun Sugar by Elena Nodel would work rather nicely. I love the cables round the bottom, so pretty!



This little madam was the reason we were in Hobbycraft in the first place so my stash acquisitions are entirely her fault... It was her birthday on Sunday and she wanted to get some crafty bits. She came away with an A3 sized sketch book and a collection of origami paper which is for her latest hobby. We're hopefully going to have a play with that this afternoon when she's back from school :-)



Of course no birthday is complete without cake so she and Mr Soaring Sheep made this utterly delicious cake using this recipe. I made the chocolate icing and applied the sprinkles. Very technical job mine lol.


I got a new phone just after Christmas so I'm finally exploring instagram. If you're on there give me a nudge, I've found some people but I'm sure I'm missing others. Hopefully this button will take you to my profile. I'm still getting used to it so bare with me!




Have a good week everyone. I should have another FO to share soon, just need to weave in the ends and wait for the rain to stop so I can get some photos :-)

FO Friday - Umberto

It's been a long time coming but here finally are the finished photos of the Umberto I made for my eldest boy



It's a well written pattern and there are instructions for customising the length as well as how to adjust the pattern for your gauge as well. It's written from the bottom up with the gorgeous cables coming together at the neck and then forming the v neck. The sleeves are shaped with shortrows and then knitted top down



I used rowan pure wool dk in the Damson colourway so it's a lovely cosy warm jumper





I had a bit of an issue trying to do the first sleeve's short rows using magic loop and wasn't very happy with it. For the second one I used a 40cm circular needle instead and that worked much better for me. Luckily I was able to sort out the issues with the first sleeve through blocking and weaving in the ends carefully so now they both look nice and neat.



It's a gorgeous pattern and one I will happily knit again. I quite fancy making the vest version but need to persuade one of my boys they'd wear it like that. They don't tend to put woollies on unless they are really cold in which case they'd prefer the sleeves. Would love to make an adult size version for Mr Soaring Sheep if Sarah has the time to design one :-)

Sad Start

We've had rather a sad start to the new year. On Sunday my MIL lost her Father to cancer, less than 2 years after losing her Mother to the same disease. We'd known about the diagnosis since last Summer but in the end things happened more quickly than any of us were imagining.




We're all feeling rather sad at the moment as you can imagine. Trying to take each day gently and take time to grieve.

Hopefully I'll be posting tomorrow to show off the Umberto sweater I made for my biggest boy and finished just before Christmas. I've also got another project to share with you later on too.

Thank you for the well wishes on my previous post, it meant a lot to read them :-)


Evelyn x

Silent Sunday

Forgive my quietness lately. First it was Christmas busy-ness but now we have a seriously ill family member. Family has to take priority at the moment but hopefully I'll be back with some crafty posts soon.

Happy New Year everyone :-)