Wip Wednesday #4

Sorry today's post is a bit late, today has just ran away from me!

Pink needles and the biggest ball of yarn I've ever seen!

So this isn't quite a wip but it going to be, so I hope this counts!! This is the wool and needles I bought when I was back in Forres visiting my mum and family. You can't really tell but the wool is such a gorgeous purple colour. I'm going to use it to try and knit a cable bag, this wont be for a while but I just couldn't resist the wool, which is evident by the size, according to the pattern I will need 150g and this ball is 400g. Now I know they say as a beginner you should buy more than you need but 350g more?!? Anyway I'm sure I will use it for other things, maybe mittens? ooo that's an idea!
Also I do apologise the photo isn't great but also in the photo are some very cute pink needles. Again I just could resist. They are size 41/2mm, I'm not sure what I'll use them for but who cares, they're pink!! So this is it really for this week but I promise next week I will have something much a bit more exciting to show you!

For more wip's pop over to Tamis blog here

Much Love Monday - Summer

This Monday I am loving that it is finally starting to look like summer!! Husband and I spent yesterday in the garden! He was actually gardening while I relaxed with my knitting! It was just lovely! Although as a result I am looking slightly sun kissed!
Then this morning we woke up and amazingly the sun was shining again... Yes!!!!

For more love on a Monday pop over to anna's blog
muchlove-anna.blogspot.com

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

100 Days 100 Words

So Yesterday I was blogging along minding my own business and came across this (Check it out!) and I thought it was a really good idea. So here's the deal, you quickly with little thought write down 100 words and then for the next 100 blog posts, whether this is daily, weekly, monthly, whatever (I'll be doing mine every Saturday) you write about the next word on the list. For example, first Sat could be dogs and I would write about whatever came to mind about dogs and the next Sat could be cheese and again I would write about what came to mind about cheese.

Sounds easy right? Not so, coming up with the 100 words was actually quite hard. the first few were obviously quite easy I just picked my favourite things but then I got a bit stuck. I asked husband to help, which was great but he was picking obscure words that I kept rejecting and then he would remind me that I wasn't supposed to think about it too much to which I replied that was fine but I would eventually have to write about these words to which he replied... Well you get the idea, we were also just about to watch a film but I wanted to make my list first so 100 seemed quite far away at times. Anyway here is my list

1. Books
2. Cake
3. Ribbon
4. Knitting
5. Music
6. Pizza
7. Snow
8. Blogging
9. Buttons
10. Scotland
11. Love
12. Flowers
13. Friends
14. Cats
15. Cards
16. Cooking
17. Movies
18. Travel
19. Christmas
20. Photos
21. Family
22. Coffee
23. Beautiful
24. Soap
25. Wool
26. Powder
27. Frogs
28. Hair
29. Castle
30. Farm
31. Mug
32. Responsibility
33. Work
34. Health
35. Enjoyment
36. Technology
37. Happiness
38. Scared
39. Canada
40. Pressure
41. Vintage
42. Purple
43. Exercise
44. Weddings
45. Time
46. Ikea
47. Clothes
48. Wine
49. Housework
50. Park
51. Black and white
52. Husband
53. Garden
54. Winnie the pooh
55. Crafting
56. Iphone
57. Light
58. Owls
59. News
60. Night
61. Minis
62. History
63. Raspberry
64. Day
65. Haggis
66. Paris
67. Theatre
68. Dancing
69. Candle
70. Lists
71. Traditions
72. Poetry
73. Diary
74. Audrey
75. Shopping
76. Chocolate
77. Design
78. Dragon
79. Party
80. Sleep
81. Focus
82. Water
83. Fresh
84. Yummy
85. Home
86. Fast
87. Play
88. Magic
89. Lose
90. Bath
91. Magazines
92. Eyes
93. Expressions
94. Lasagna
95. Comics
96. Jewellery
97. Impulse
98. Wellies
99. Stubborn
100. Me

So there it is, while typing these there were a few I really think are going to be tricky, oh well not to worry. I am going to start doing this alongside An Accidental Knitter and will be starting on 2nd July! For those of you who don't do quick math that means I'll finish somewhere around  May 11th 2013! Eek!

I have also decided to make this a Linky Party so if you would like to do this as well you can add your link every week and see what other people's words are!

Happy blogging

A-Z Getting to know me, getting to know you!

I saw this same post on another blog (you can find it here) and thought it was a really good idea! As I'm quite new to blogland and have been very lucky to have some followers I thought it would be a good time for you to get to know a bit about me!

A. Age: 28
B. Bed size: Double
C. Chore that you hate: Dishes and cleaning the toilet
D. Dogs: When I was a kid we had a golden retriever, she was ace, more of a cat lady now though
E. Essential start to your day: Coffee and food
F. Favourite color: Purple
G. Gold or Silver: Silver or white gold
H. Height: 5ft 2"
I. Instruments you play: None I'm afraid, always wanted to though
J. Job title: Library Assistant
K. Kids: Not yet but someday I hope
L. Live: In England
M. Mother's name: Bridget
N. Nicknames: Samuel (friends), sammykins ( friends), honeybunches (my dad), dolly (my mum)
O. Overnight hospital stays: Too many to mention, honestly
P. Pet peeve: People who are rude, seriously what is the need?
Q. Quote from a movie: Holly Golightly: It should take you exactly four seconds to cross from here to that door. I'll give you two. I just love Audrey Hepburn and Breakfast at Tiffany'e is one of my favourite movies
R. Right or left handed: Right
S. Siblings: One step sister and one step brother
T. Time you wake up: Weekday - 6am,  weekend - 8ish
U. Underwear: Yes I wear some
V. Vegetable you hate: Potatoes (yes I know I'm a freak!)
W. What makes you run late: Trying to fit in too many things
X. X-Rays you've had: Again too many to mention
Y. Yummy food that you make: I make a pretty good red thai prawn curry and a mean victoria sponge
Z. Zoo animal: Penguin

So there it is my A-Z, it was really fun to fill out, although I did have to think hard about some of the answers! If you would like to do one too that would be great, just let me know and I can get to know you too!

Happy blogging x

FO Friday #3

Well this Friday is going to be a little different. Basically I am going to cheat! I don't really have anything finished to show you today but I am going to reshow you the very first scarf I made, just in case anyone missed it! I am then going to fill you in on the last week as I've been away and feel like sharing! Hope this is ok with everyone.

So first off here is my scarf

I made this back in March. I was so pleased with it as you can read all about here

For other proper FO Friday's please visit Tami's blog here

So onto my week. Last Friday the husband and myself went up to Scotland to visit some friends and family. We were meeting our new nephew for the first time (I may have mentioned this before?!?) and we had a wedding to go to and generally catching up with people. This pretty much took the whole weekend which was great but tiring (who knew being sociable was so exhausting!) We were also around for Father's day so that was really good. I cooked lunch for my father in law and we took my dad out for his dinner! We were so full by the end of the day!

On Monday we drove through to visit my mum and some more family. This was great as it was the first time my mum and I have been together properly since I started knitting. I took my knitting bag and all my bits and pieces to show her and we spend ages just talking about knitting and looking at each others work! It was great, I miss my mum! We also got a chance to go to her favourite wool shop, we both bought yarn and I got pink, yes I said pink, knitting needles! Poor husband was thoroughly bored but never complained, bless him!

We spent the rest of the time just visiting people and catching up, it was lovely. Back to work now and the old grind! Ha ha!

Sorry if my blogging has been sporadic other the last week but I have been busy!

What have you been doing?

Cake = Yum!

Wordless Wednesday!





I'm joining the girls at wordless Wednesday today! Check out more at
http://faithhopeandawholelottalove.blogspot.com/2011/06/wordless-wednesday-family-dinner.html

This is an amazing cake, chocolate Guinness! It's my husbands favourite and I always make it for him on his birthday! It's so rich and dark and damp. Total comfort food and just yum!
You can find the recipe at

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/chocolate-guinness-cake-3086

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Much Love Monday - my mum

I've had a great day today! Home in Forres visiting my mum and family! My mum and I have had such a good day talking and looking at each others knitting projects! It's been so nice to spend time together!

For more Monday love visit
muchlove-anna.blogspot.com


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

FO Friday #2

What a week!

This week as well as knitting secret items (see Wednesday's post) I have also been making less secret bootees for my new nephew James. Some of you may remember I knitted some for him when he was first born, but now he is rather bigger so I thought I would make him some more. It was going to be so simple I was just going to redo the first pair but in a bigger size. However, on Sunday when I went to cast on I discovered that the needles I needed were being used! I don't yet have a stitch minder or multiples in needles so I had a rethink. I was looking through some magazines and other patterns I have collected and I came across one my mum gave me ages ago. This pattern was for pretty cute bootees, with a turn down top and a shaped heel and pretty fancy looking. So I thought I would give them a bash. It was not successful. Not successful at all!

It was all going fine until the pattern said turn, I remained calm went onto the internet googled it and found out what to do! No problem! Then the pattern said pick up and knit, I was starting to loose my cool at this point but again went onto the internet (thank God for the internet) and looked it up. Ok it seemed straight forward enough, I gave it a go. I quickly realised I was not doing it right. So I decided to unpick the last 9 stitches (the wrong ones) and try again. Yeah that didn't go any better, to cut a long story short after the fifth time I was in tears and my knitting looked like the above picture! In my frustrated state I called my mum. She was as usual very understanding and said you know maybe I was just trying too much too soon (again!) she also reminded me that not everyone gets it right first time and she still makes mistakes as she is sure every knitter, new or old does. I apparerntly was not in the mood for a pick me up and decided that knitting and I were over and it was all my mum's fault anyway for giving me the pattern! I am very lucky my mum pays no attention to me when I am like this (I really really don't like being defeated by something) and said she would call me back later.

By the time she did my lovely husband had given me chocolate and all seemed better again. I decided to go to the shop the following day buy another pair of needles (can you have too many?) and do the bootees I know how to knit and when I visit my mum next week she can help me with the other ones!

So here finally (sorry for the saga) are the bootees I made this week for James!

The second purple one is just waiting to be cast off, which I'll do later today!

For more hopefully less traumatic FO Fridays visit Tami's blog here

Wip Wednesday #3

Can you guess what it is yet?

This Wednesday I am knitting a secret item! I'm actually knitting two, one for my niece (Eva) and one for my nephew (James). They will receive them at Christmas with other secret items (hopefully). The reason they need to stay secret is that their mum reads my blog and I like their presents to be a surprise for her too. So this will probably be the last time you see said secret item until after Christmas. But I promise I will post a picture of Eva and James with the secret items!
What I can say is that so far the secret items have been going very well and has taught me how to increase and helped me practice decreasing. I now feel like a master (kind of).
Well thats it for me today but to see other Wip's visit Tami's blog here

Much Love Monday - Phoebe

This Monday I love my little cat Phoebe! Her gorgeous little heart shaped head and the fact that last week when I was ill she stayed by my side and gave me lots of cuddles!

For more love visit anna's blog at
Http://muchlove-anna.blogspot.com

Happy Monday! X

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Knitting Tutorials

Today I'm feeling quite happy about things. My asthma seems to be calming down and getting easier and I am just loving blogging! It has been such a good distraction from my asthma and all the lovely messeages about my bobble hat and well wishes have really made me smile! So I guess you could say I'm feeling pretty grateful for finding blogging, all the talented people I have found through blogging and grateful for discovering knitting too. Becuase without knitting I would never have found the amazing world of blogging! This is why today I am going to link up this tutorial post with Maxabella

Tutorial 2 - Casting on

So now that we have mastered the slip not the next thing you need to know is how to cast on.

Step 1

Start with the slipknot on your left hand needle

Step 2

Insert the right hand needle into the stitch from the bottom. Keep the needles crossed - left over right

Step 3

Wrap the yarn round the back of the needles and through the middle

Step 4

bring the right hand needle underneath the loop and to the front

Step 5

Bring the right hand needle forward so it crosses the left hand needle

Step 6

Pull the right hand needle out to the right

Step 7

Put yarn from right hand needle onto left

Step 8

Remove right hand needle

Step 9

Pull Long end of yarn tight, this is your second stitch

Step 10

Repeat process until desired number of stitches

First FO Friday - FFF

Well here it is, after all my complaining on Wednesday about feeling like I wasn't getting anywhere, I finally finished my bobble hat! So here it is

The photo hasn't come out great (I think it was the light from the window) but you get the idea. I'm pretty pleased with the outcome, other than all the measuring and feeling poorly during the week it wasn't actually too bad to knit. It's amazing how different you feel when you or under the weather. But I am also pleased to report that the steroids seem to be working and also the antibiotics and the nebulizer I had on Wednesday so fingers crossed I'm over the worst of it! Yay, back to knitting! Thanks again for all your lovely messages xx

Well that's it, my first hat, that sounds pretty cool!

For more FO visit Tami's blog here

Wip Wednesday #2

First let me apologise, today's wipw is not going to have much to show and I'm not going to be my normal cheery self either. I'm not feeling so great. In fact I've not been feeling great for a week now, my asthma is playing up and I'm back on steroids for it. And today I thought I would be feeling much better as I've been on the steroids for a few days now but its as bad as ever and I'm going back to the doctor, which sucks as I wanted, really wanted to go back to work tomorrow but that isn't looking likely. I haven't even really felt like knitting. Anyway enough with my pity party.

So as a result this week has been pretty slow knitting wise. Still trying to get my bobble hat completed but all I'm seem to be doing is measuring it.

It needs to be 18cm before I can start decreasing and finish it and it just seems to be taking forever. Plus I must have the most uninspiring tape measure ever, there are so many cute, funky ones, I'll need to get one.

Anyway as you can see from the above photo I also made a pom pom for my bobble hat, which did manage to put a smile on my face for a while.

Anyway I'm going to go and for more upbeat and productive wipw's please visit Tami's Amis blog

Sharing the Link Love

I thought I would share this link with you as I really like the blog that is attached to this facebook page! There is also a giveaway so go to the link below and like the facebook page for a chance to win

Annie B Handmade

Happy blogging x

Much Love Monday - Stationery

I LOVE stationery, I really do! This Monday I love it a little more than usual though as my new notebook has come in very handy. I usually have a collection of notebooks (I have a real weakness for notebooks, any colour, size or style) some are in use, some are waiting for the perfect time to be used. Anyway, since I started knitting a few months ago I have been keeping a note of things in an old notebook which was pretty full. But I was in our craft room/study at the weekend and found the above notebook. I thought perfect, I can use it to keep all my knitting scribbles and notes on patterns and yarn. Also I started a pattern that's a little bit more complicated than I have tried before and I'm partly designing it myself (fingers crossed) so my little notebook came in very handy.

If you would like to see more Much Love Monday-ness take a look here

Happy Monday x

Knitting Tutorials

I thought I might try and put together some tutorials on how to knit. As I am pretty much going to be learning at the same time I thought it would be a good reference for me but also good for anyone who is reading along and wants to try knitting. (Well hopefully, I'm not sure how good my instructions will be!)

Tutorial 1 - The Slipknot
The slipknot is the first thing you need to know before you can start knitting. You wont get very far without knowing this. Here's how you do it

Step 1
Make the yarn into this upside down U shape

Step 2

Cross the yarn over, so it looks like this

Step 3

Hold onto both ends. Pull the right side of the yarn into the loop form behind

Step 4
Still holding onto both ends pull the new loop tight

Step 5

Put slipknot onto knitting needle and pull tight again so it is securely attached to the needle

Overview

This is your first stitch. You will know it the slipknot has worked if you can tighten and loosen it. Also if it comes undone when you pull the two ends.

Postman Calling

Now this has definitely been said before but I'm saying it again. Getting parcels or handwritten letters or cards in the post is one of the best things ever! And today I was lucky and got something in the post, a little parcel. I recognised the handwriting as my mum's straight away! And look what she sent me

Stitch markers!

As I'm still fairly new to knitting I didn't have any of these and actually I had to ask my mum how they worked. Thankfully she is very informative and never gets tired of my endless knitting questions.

Well thats all for today, just felt like sharing xx

WIP Wednesday

This is the first wip Wednesday I am participating in and I gotta tell you I'm pretty excited! So here it is what I'm working on at the moment

There's not really much to see its only a few centimetres at the moment but soon very soon its going to be a beautiful bobble hat.

If you would like to see other wip's please visit http://tamisamis.blogspot.com/

Happy Wednesday xx