Keep Calm Craft On

It's been a bit busy in our house lately. We've had a leaking central heating pipe dripping into our hallway, carpets and floors ripped up and various men coming in to fix it. Having the pump switched off for 24 hours caused it to fail so we had to have another man out last night to fit a new one. Luckily we now have hot water and heating again which feels very luxurious lol. In the middle of that we also had a house full of pre-schoolers for my littlest girl's 4th birthday party.

It's the Easter holidays here now so I've got all four little monsters darlings home at the moment wanting to ask questions and talk to me. Mr Soaring Sheep works away and won't be back until Thursday evening so I'm probably going to be a little quiet in blog land this week. I've also got a cough which has lasted over 3 weeks and I've ended up hurting some sort of muscle in my chest from coughing so much. Wonderful lol.

Today I wanted to show you my two new projects. Firstly I have a new cardigan for my littlest girl



It had an interesting construction with a provisional cast on and then short rows for shaping. The fronts have now been joined to the back and it's looking like a cardigan now which is good. I'm loving the sunny mustard yellow yarn. It's not a colour I normally knit with as it doesn't suit my family's colourings particularly. The pattern I'm using is Tully by Georgie Hallam which has a beautiful lace body and bell sleeves. I'm just about ready to start the lace section but will probably wait until the children are occupied with something or sleeping.


My other project is another pair of stripy socks. I've used the Twisted German cast on rather than my usual two tail cast on and I'm going to try using the Fish Lips Kiss heel



This is going to be my mindless tv knitting project so they probably won't be finished any time soon. The yarn is from Laughing Yaffle and is called Splendour. The colours are so vibrant :-)


I'm linking this post up with Nicole and hopefully I'll be able catch up with some blog reading tonight. I've got a finished sweater to show you tomorrow so pop back on Wednesday if you fancy a look. Have a good week everyone

Easy Zig Zag Edging Tutorial

Hi, thank you for the comments on my finished blanket yesterday, I'm really pleased with it :-)

I thought today I'd show you how I did the edging as it is deceptively simple but produces a nice effect

So, onwards with my first crochet tutorial...



Now I'm going to assume you have a basic knowledge of crochet stitches. I'm going to be using English crochet terms but I'll put the American translation afterwards in brackets. Just to confuse things more I crochet left handed so I work from left to right.

I started off by edging my blanket using the blue yarn and a double crochet (single crochet) stitch. I straightened up the edges of the ripple by using Little Tin Bird's tutorial. For the purpose of this tutorial I have made a quick line of double crochet (single crochet) stitches.



Next take your second colour and put a treble crochet (double crochet) into each stitch, just through the top two loops of the previous stitch like you would do normally



Work all the way to the end and then chose your third colour. This will form the Zig Zag effect, I found a lighter colour made it stand out more but play around and see what looks best to you. This time you will continue to put your hook through the top two loops but you only do every other stitch. Make two treble crochet (double crochet) stitches in every other stitch and continue along the row



I didn't bother putting any chain spaces between the pairs of treble (double) stitches but if you're a tight crocheter you might find it helps. It should come out looking something like this



For the next round we're going to continue in this way but instead of putting your hook through the top loops of the previous stitch you need to put it in the middle of the two paired stitches on the previous row



Work to the end of the row. Look we have Zig Zag's!



Continue repeating the previous row as many times as you want



On the last row do not break the yarn, instead we're going to make the little picot bits. Continue putting your hook between the paired stitches of the previous row.



To make the picot you need to make a double crochet stitch (single crochet) then two chains and then another double crochet (single crochet) stitch into the same space. Then just work your way along to the end :-)



Ta da! Cute huh?


For the corners I made two sets of the paired stitches separated by two chains. If you have a preferred way of making corners then feel free to modify it. If you've got any questions then feel free to message me and I'll see if I can help :-)

I've also had a go at drawing a crochet chart. I'm not 100% sure if I'm right with it but hopefully together with the pictures it will help to make sense of my waffling



For translating the UK crochet terms to American crochet I used this site. Most crocheters seem to be fairly bilingual anyway so hopefully it won't cause too many problems.


I'd love to know what you guys think of this tutorial and if anyone has a play around with this edging then please send me a link to a photo as I'd love to see :-)

Evelyn

FO - Scrappy Interlocking Ripple

Almost a year ago (28th April 2014) I started making this blanket to use up some of my yarn scraps. Ok, it wasn't perfect as a stash reduction exercise as I ended up buying more yarn in certain colours but I'm really pleased with how it's turned out :-)





I used Stylecraft Special DK in a variety of bright colours and used a 3.5mm hook to crochet it. The pattern is Attic24's interlocking ripple



(it is actually straight, my garden slopes and it was tricky finding a good angle to take this photo!)



I made it single bed sized after my eldest daughter claimed it. I probably could have made it a little wider but it's just perfect for snuggling under :)





I'll do a post about the border tomorrow but it was very simple to do. It's come out a little wavy which is a shame but it's a blanket that was made to be loved, used to make dens, sit on in the garden and be snuggled under on the sofa. I'm not too bothered if it doesn't look perfect ;-)



I think I'm going to miss working on it. Not right now though, that border felt like it took FOREVER! I started a new 100g ball of yarn for the purple and had only 35g left by the time I was finished. Yikes!

Linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along. Thanks for visiting :-)

Finishing Off

I'm desperate to get some new projects started. I was a little rebellious and have cast on some stripy socks already but I'm not going to cast on anything else until I've finished both the ripple blanket and the frozen sweater.

Happily, neither of these goals are too far off. This morning I did the final round for my ripple blanket border. I've now just got to weave in the ends and give it a wash. I might give it a gentle steam block as the border is a teeny bit wobbly but I'll see how it looks after a wash.



I'll do a quick diagram of how I did the border too. Nothing particularly fancy but easier to explain in pictures than words.



The frozen sweater has maybe a couple of inches on the sleeve to go. I'm looking forward to getting it blocked out as I think it will look really lovely when gently pressed into shape



The two safety pins on the left mark the same point on both sleeves. The pin on the right marks the start of the ribbing, it's a quick way for me to work out how much more I need to knit.

I got some flowers at the weekend, you guys know how much I love having fresh flowers around :) 



I've never had hyacinths as a cut flower before and I've only had one pot of hyacinths this year. Must remember to plant some bulbs in the Autumn, they're so pretty :)





Have a good week everyone :) Hopefully I'll be back with some FO photos soon. Fingers crossed for some sunshine! Keep Calm Craft On

More fluffy post

I'm in a bit of a yarn stashing mood at the moment. I think it's because it's Spring and I feel really positive about the year and want to make lots of things. Or it could be that buying yarn is a bit of a slippery slope and is far too easy with online shopping



This gorgeous blue was chosen with and for Mr Soaring Sheep. It's eventually going to become a sweater for him, there is still a slight disagreement over patterns but I think we're on the verge of a compromise ;-)



I love how the heathers range of Cascade 220 has this gorgeous mix of colours. There's almost a turquoise in certain lights. Yummy. This shade is called "Mallard" and is colour 2448. I'm looking forward to seeing how it knits up. If Mr Soaring Sheep isn't too careful I might pinch it and use it to make something for me instead!

Well I guess I'd better get back to my knitting before I get completely overwhelmed with fluffy post purchases ;-) I'm just about to start the second sleeve of my Frozen sweater :)

FO - Iced Gems Socks

I've got a super colourful pair of socks to show you today :-) Perfect colours for Spring



The yarn is from Laughing Yaffle and the colourway is called "Iced Gems". It's beautifully dyed, lovely clean colours and evenly spaced stripes



I managed to get the stripes to line up almost perfectly which I'm rather pleased about




Despite how beautiful they look I'm not 100% happy with these socks. I wasn't paying enough attention when I put in the scrap yarn for doing the afterthought heel and I made the legs a lot shorter than I like. I'm not a fan of working cuff down because I struggle to get my cast on loose enough. I'm not too happy with the heel either, I prefer the gusset heel I use when I'm knitting toe up. I've still got 43g of the yarn left so I think I'll knit it with a contrast yarn at some point.

I've decided for my next pair of socks I'm going to switch around a few things. I'm going to try a different cast on which is supposed to be stretchier than the two tail cast on I've been using on bigger needles. It's called the "Twisted German Cast On" and I found some details and a video about it here.

I'm also going to change the heel. I want to keep the stripes so I fancy giving the Fish Lips Kiss heel a go as lots of people rave about it and I love how neat it looks.



I've got this beautiful Laughing Yaffle yarn ready and waiting. I'm looking forward to getting them cast on soon :-)

Linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along

Keep Calm Craft On

It was Mothering Sunday this weekend in the UK and my children made a few bits at school to give me :)



My eldest daughter made this card, except she lost it so I didn't get it until yesterday.



^this made me lol, I wasn't aware I had power over plants ;-)



My youngest daughter made this sweet little flower display at pre-school. She carried it home very proudly



My eldest boy made me a flower too :) Clearly my children have noticed my love of plants



The rainbow was from my youngest boy. I don't think it was technically for Mother's day but it makes me smile :)


This week's project is finishing off the border of my ripple blanket. I've got a plan and my daughter has chosen the colours she wants so I'm enjoying seeing it coming together





Tomorrow I've got some finished socks to share with you so please pop back :) I'm linking today's post up with Keep Calm Craft On. Have a good week everyone :-)

Whoops!

I've had a busy morning planting some new foxgloves and lupins in the garden, vacuuming, cleaning, ironing etc. so I thought I'd sit down this afternoon with a cup of tea, my sock WIP and the latest Truly Myrtle podcast.



I'm getting really close to finishing them now. Except I've just spotted a problem. Can you see it too? Would you like a close up?



I've knitted too far! I'm supposed to be well into the toe decreases. What a bother lol. I'll frog them back a bit and sort that out. Hopefully if I get my act together I can get these beauties finished this week.

Well before I go frog, I wanted to show you some photos of my amaryllis flower which is blooming gloriously in the corner of our lounge





Actually I said flower but infact there are 3 open blooms, beautiful!



 And two more at the back to open later :)



Have a good week everyone, hope no one else has frogging in their future. It could have been worse I guess, at least it's just a plain vanilla sock rather than anything complex

A quick Friday FO

I've not got particularly good pictures of this FO because I finished it Wednesday evening and promptly gave it to my FIL before he left. You can sort of see how it turned out though :)







Not even blocked, what a mess lol. It's like showing you pictures of my ironing pile or something :-p

At least FIL seemed to like it...



Although judging from that photo perhaps not lol. Oh well, it's finished and will keep his head cosy which is the main thing. I based this hat on the Wooly Owl hat pattern but added a few extra stitches to make it fit an adult sized head. I kept the ear flaps the same size though. I used some cascade 220 yarn left over from my Romantika cardigan. The blue was left over from some longies I think, not sure!

Linking up with Creative Friday and Fibre Arts Friday