100 Days 100 Words #4 - Knitting

Hello!

Hope you are all having a good weekend! I would like to first apologise for missing last Saturday, we were away for the weekend at a wedding and during the week I just hadn't had time to write up a post, sorry. But I am here this weekend and ready to tell you about my fourth word!

Knitting
Now the title of my blog may have given it away and if you follow me or have stopped by before you are going to be pretty familiar with the fact I like Love knitting! First I will tell you a little about my knitting background. I come from knitters, my granny on my dad's side has knit her whole life and my mum has been knitting for about 10 years. My granny tried to teach me to knit when I was 7 but I was one of those children who was much happier running around and being on the go, not sitting quietly and concentrating for any lenght of time. So as you can imagine my poor granny didn't get far in teaching me. Then my mum thought she would teach me, I think I was about 24 at this point and I picked it up ok, I wasn't brilliant and it took me a long time to master the basics and eventually I just stopped. However, I believe third times a charm and for a couple of reasons this February I decided I wanted to knit. When I told my granny she offered to knit what I wanted for me (that's how bad I was) but I said no it was ok I was going to learn and do it myself. When I told my mum, she kind of groaned and kindly said she would be on the phone if I needed her (she lives 300 miles away). And that was it really, I have had a few disasters, which you can read about on my blog but on the whole it has been going really well and I am quite proud of myself, for not only learning to knit, but being able to actually make things and that I have stuck with it. I couldn't imagine not knitting now, it has become such a big part of my life.

  This is me knitting away this morning. The sofa is where I do most of my knitting. I have taken it on car journeys but the husband doesn't like it as he has images of breaking hard and me spearing myself with a needle (he's very dramatic!) I have also taken it when I was traveling on the train, which you can also read about on my blog. But really I mostly knit on the sofa, it's comfy and near the tv, what more can I say?! I try to knit everyday but as you will understand sometimes life just gets in the way. I am also trying to resist the urge to keep casting on projects before I finish one. There is so much I want to do, as you will see if you check out my bucket list!

Right now I am knitting a top for myself. This is quite a big project for me as I have been mainly knitting small things up to now. It seems to be going well and I love how it looks and feels. I usually update my progress on a Wednesday as part of Wip Wednesday on Tami's blog. What I would like to show you  is the knitting bag I have started using. I got this bag as a gift at Christmas from my MIL and loved it but wasn't sure what I would use it for. But now I am knitting it makes the perfect project bag.

 Isn't it Gorjuss?! That's a little joke as its by a company called Gorjuss art you can find the website here. They do all sorts of truely lovely stuff. Check it out!

So I think that concludes my thoughts on knitting (well at least for today!)

Please feel free to add your blog to the Mr Linky. The blog post can either be your own 100 days 100 words or just a post about knitting! Also try and visit some other posts and share the love and link back to me!

Fo Friday #6

My first Pattern

So I decided after all the encouragement I recieved last week for my cushion, I would try and write down a pattern for it and then if anyone wanted to they could have a go themselves! This unfortunately means that this week's finished object is a little bit of a cheat but hopefully you wont mind!

I used UK size 4 needles and baby wool for the main body and then just dk for the band and the bow. I also used two colours but you could just use one or lots! You could probably use any yarn as well (but use the size needle suggested for yarn) as the stitch pattern is just stocking stitch. So here's what I did

Main Body
Cast on 60 sts
Row 1: K
Row 2: P
Continue until desired length (I made mine 52cm)
Finish on a K row
Cast off

You should now have a long piece of knitting measuring 26cm wide 52cm long (if following my measurements)

Band
Cast on 120 sts
Row 1: K
Row 2: P
Continue until desired length (I made mine 4.5cm)
Finish on a K row
Cast off

You should now have a piece of knitting measuring 52cm wide 4.5cm long (again if following my measurments)

Bow
Cast on 40 sts
Row 1: K
Row 2: P
Continue until double the length you made the band (ie, if you made the band 4.5cm long then you bow should be 9cm)
Finish on a K row
Cast off

You should now have a peice of knitting measuring 8cm wide 9cm long (again if you are following my measurments)

To make up
Weave in all your ends
Fold the body section in half, length ways, so you should have a piece measuring around 26cm. Sew up the sides of the body.
Now pin the band arond the body (try to get it as straight as possible). Once happy with the positioning sew onto the body. (As I made the body in lemon and the band in white I stiched the band on with lemon for a contrasting look, the choice is up to you though)
Now fold the bow in half lenght ways (like with the body) and sew up the sides and the bottom
Get some yarn and start wrapping it around the middle of the bow until you are happy with the look (again I used lemon on the white bow as I thought it looked good)
Now pin the bow to the band and when happy with the positioning sew the ends of the bow to the band (I only attached the ends as I thought this was secure enough and gave me the look I wanted)
Now you can stuff yourcushion and sew up the bottom.

Ta da! You should now have a lovely knitted bow cushion!

Please feel free to amend any section (or all) and please let me know if you see any mistakes, As this is my first go at writing down a pattern I may have missed something or got something wrong, so please let me know. Also if you decide to make one let me know how you get on as I would love to see it!

I'm off to go and have a look at some other Fo's at Tami's blog! See you there!

Wip Wednesday #8

Progress Report

This last week has been crazy busy (see Monday's post) so I didn't get loads of knitting done. I have made a little and I do mean a little progress on the top.

As I said not much progress but I have changed from size 31/2  to size 4 needles and the pattern is starting to take shape. Here is a close up of the pattern.

I'm quite pleased with how the pattern is coming and I think its fairly neat. I know its not very complex but this is the first pattern I have done so I think it's ok to be a little impressed with myself! The yarn is really nice to work with and feels really nice when knitting with it.

I'm hoping to get more done this week as I have a few days off and for a change nowhere to go. So hopefully next week you will see lots of progress. I will also apologise now as I fear we may all get sick of this top before its over as I think it will take me a long time to finish! Please stay with me, don't leave me alone!!!!

So for more wip's check out Tami's blog!

Much Love Monday - Great friends and amazing Weddings!

I have been a bit out of the blogging loop this weekend as husband and I were away back up north to Aberdeen for our friends wedding! We had the most amazing time, everything was just perfect! The setting, the food, the company and the couple! The husband and I were lucky enough to spend the day with some great friends and we had such a laugh!

We really couldn't have had a better time! So this Monday I am loving great friends and amazing weddings! Also wishing Cat and Ryan all the very best for their future together!

To have a look at what other people are loving this monday, check out anna's blog

Fo Friday #5

Hip hip hooray!

Yes that's right I have finally finished the cushion! I was gutted last week that I hadn't got it completed in time for Friday and I had made such progress with it at the beginning on the week too! Never mind its finished now! So here it is

So what do you think?

I'm pretty pleased with it! I didn't have a pattern and I made up the bow part but I think it turned out ok for my first attempt! The colour hasn't come out as deep on the photo, it's a slightly stronger yellow in the flesh. Now that it's finished it is going to have pride of place in our back bedroom on the day bed!

For more finished objects hop on over to Tamis

Wip Wednesday #7

A New Wip


Yes that right a new wip! Some of you may have read Monday's post, so this will not come as a complete surprise to you! I have had the secret items as wips but they are not a major project unlike this one! So without further ado here is my first picture

Sorry the photo is rubbish I only had my iphone with me, but you get the idea! Oh my goodness, I just realised I haven't told you what it's going to be (hopefully!) This is going to be my first top, the pattern includes a tie detail at the front and it has quite a simple square pattern 16 stitches in purl 16 in knit! The shape is also quite simple, just a square really. So I am hoping that this will mean I will be able to follow it and get it right! I did phone my mum first, (the pattern is from the magazine Simply Knitting which both my mum and I get) to talk about whether she thought I would be able to do it. She thought it I was going to be fine and we then went over the pattern to make sure I undertood everything.  Now onto the yarn, I had already bought the yarn, I just couldn't help it! The pattern said you would need to use Rowan Lenpur Linen and as this is my first big thing I decided to go and buy exactly that. I quite like this yarn, I have never worked with Linen before and it did take a while to get used to it but it's fun working with something different.

So this is as far as I've got this week

Again sorry for the photo! I'm not very far along and please don't expect this is to be finished anytime soon, I am really only going to be working on this in between other things!

So for more wips head over to Tami's blog

Needle Dilemma = New Needles!

First, happy Monday everyone! Hope you all had a lovely weekend! My weekend was good, I was working but got some down time too so that was good.  I decided during this weekend down time that having two wip's just wasn't enough (also I had seen this really lovely top that I want to make) so decided to cast on another project! Now before I get carried away, I can hear you cry "Two wips? I thought she was just working on the cushion?" Well yes I am working on the cushion but I am still working on the secret items for my niece and nephew (see this post.)

So anyway back to the weekend. Before I could cast on though, I had to look out what size needles I would need (I had already bought the yarn - you know just in case!), and here was the problem, I needed a pair of 31/4 mm and a pair of 4mm  but I was alreading using a size 4mm for the cushion. So, poor husband had to endure a mini strop while I decided what I was going to do. He suggested I just wait untill I was finished with the cushion and then the 4mm would be free, but I didn't really like this idea, I wanted to cast on that day (you know how it is!) Here lies problem number two, it was a Sunday, now where I live not a lot is open on a Sunday and definetly not my wool shop! Don't panic (like I did), when husband and I were at the supermarket I nipped along to Poundstretcher and found a lovely pair of bamboo 4mm needles...on sale!!! I was a happy girl! I then went home and cast on, more details on that on Wednesday!

So today I am loving Poundstretcher and my new 4mm bamboo needles! For more posts about what people are loving this Monday pop over to Anna's blog here

100 Days 100 Words #3 - Ribbon

First of all happy weekend everyone! I hope you are all having better weather than I am having, its been raining all day! :(

So onto our third word -Ribbon
Not sure why I chose ribbon as one of my words except that I do really like ribbon and have lots of it at home. I usually use it when I am making cards but I also like to use it when wrapping presents as I think it adds a nice touch. I love the versatility of ribbon, you get satin ribbon, grow grain ribbon, straight edge ribbon, wavy edge ribbon, all sorts really. This is the ribbon I keep in my craft room

I also have a separate stash of Christmas ribbon and ribbon for wrapping presents. Other than these divisions I haven't organised my ribbon at all, as you can see from the above photo! These is really unlike me as I'm normally super organised and I love to keep things tidy, so that I can't find exactly what I'm looking for with minimal fuss. However, I like the random mess of my ribbons and that I have to wade through them all to find the one I really want. I will probably never organise them, even though I do look at some (here) with envy!

Do you like ribbon? What do you use it for?

Please feel free to add your blog to the Mr Linky. The blog post can either be your own 100 days 100 words or just a post about ribbon! Also try and visit some other posts and share the love and link back to me!

Disappointed and kicking the bucket! (Kind of)

Well unfortunately I don't have a lovely yellow cushion to show you today as the last couple of days have been really busy and I haven't been able to get it finished, I'm gutted! I promise though next Friday it will be right here in all its glory!

(image)

So instead I thought I would blog about my bucket list. I am a huge fan of lists and I've been meaning to do a "bucket" list for ages. I'm not going to have a time scale its just more of a guide and reminder of all the lovely projects I want to do! So here it is

1. Headband
2. Cowl
3. Tie bottom top
4. Cardigan for child
5. Socks
6. Mug Hug
7. Hot water bottle cover
8. Cable bag
9. Apple cosie
10. A knitted toy of some description
11. Blanket
12. Mittens
13. Doorstop
14.Tank top
15. Something for the husband
16. Fingerless cloves

Okay, that's quite a good start. I have some ideas for patterns for these projects but if anyone has any really good ones they would like to share that would be great! I am sure I am going to add to this list so I am going to make it a page as well so if you feel like checking up on my progress you can find it there!

Sorry again today's post isn't a Finished Object But head on over to Tamis blog to see what other people have finished!

Wip Wednesday #6

The Cushion Continues!

Well as you know last week was not a great knitting week for me, but since I got home on Sunday I have been a knitting demon! Poor husband and cat have been almost completely ignored, with only the faint cry of "I must have more done by Wednesday!" ringing through the house! Hee hee! It has all paid off though as today I have an almost finished cushion to show you! Here it is

Excuse the rubbish photo, I just couldn't get the light right!

Now I will be honest this week has not been without its upset. You see that lovely, very close to being straight band that I have put round the cushion well the first attempt at this was less than successfull. I decided that I would just sew it on by eye. I also make cards and have quite a good eye for seeing if something is striaght and I rarely measure anything. Apparently sewing is different, here is my first attempt

Well I had to unpick it, obvously! Husband did say it didn't look too bad but really who did he think he was kidding!!! But I think you'll agree the second attempt was much better. Well that's it for me this week, hopefully see you on Fo Friday with a finished cushion!

For more wips visit Tamis blog

Happy knitting! x

Knitting on the train!

So as I mentioned the other day I went away for the weekend. I was going up to Glasgow for a Hen weekend, as I was going by train and I thought this would be a great opportunity to get some knitting done. Especially after having (lovely) visitors for a week. Now I have a couple of things ongoing at the moment so I had to think hard about what I wanted to take. I decided it had to be something easy to follow, nothing too big and something that I would enjoy doing. I can't actually tell you what I decided to knit as its a present for someone. But I can so you an "in action" photo!

I have to admit I was kind of disappointed with knitting on the train. Don't get me wrong it was great to have uninterrupted knitting time and an excuse to just sit and knit but I had expected more of a reaction. The train was even quite busy, both on the journey there and on the journey home. Only one person spoke to me about my knitting, a very nice steward on the train. He said he hadn't seen anyone knitting in a long time and it was lovely to see it! He then told me about his mum who also used to knit. It was lovely and I enjoyed talking to him but I was expecting more encounters like this!

Have you knitted in public? Did you get more reactions? I would love to know so please leave a comment!

Happy knitting xx

100 Days 100 Words #2 - Cake

Well its that time of the week again, so here is my second word Cake! Now I love cake, pretty much any kind of cake is good. I am also pretty lucky because I enjoy baking and like to think I'm pretty good at it (well the husband says I am!)
On Thursday night I decided to bake for the husband as I am away this weekend for a hen weekend! I thought I would be a good little wife and bake before I left him alone for two nights! You should have seen his little face, so happy! Anyway, I nearly always use Nigella Lawson's cake recipes as they always work for me, they are easy to understand and I secretly love her! (That's probably not a secret any more!)

image supplied from www.nigella.com

So anyway enough about that, I was baking...

I decided I would make the husband some Rocky Road (receipe here) and then he could have it at home or take some to work for a snack! I was quite busy on Thursady night, what with in laws staying, packing for a weekend away, blogging and trying to bake! Its no wonder things got a little frantic and well I forgot to take a photo of the finished product and then it was too late. So here courtesy of Nigella's wonderfull website is what the Rocky Road looked like

I promise mine did look quite a lot like this!

So there you go week two, word two: Cake

Please feel free to add your blog to the Mr Linky. The blog post can either be your own 100 days 100 words or just a post about cake! Also try and visit some other posts and share the love and link back to me!

Happy blogging x

Fo Friday #4

Flowers

I mentioned on Wednesday that we had the inlaws staying and I probably wouldn't get much knitting done and I was right! I did have a lovely time with the in laws though, we went to see some open air theatre (Shakespear's Much ado about nothing) which was brilliant! I love the theatre and it was a really good production! Unfortunatley I was working a lot of the time the inlaws were here, but we had some lovely evenings! So not much knitting was done!

However, I did manage to russle up these little flower pins

 What do you think, pretty cute eh?

I gave one to my mum-in-law and I'm going to post one to my mum! Hope they like them!

For more Fo Fridays, visit Tamis blog

Wip Wednesday #5

Mellow Yellow


So I have decided I need to practice my stocking stitch and was thinking about a pattern that would be easy and repetitive and came up with a cushion. I didn't have an actual pattern to work from I just figured I'd make it up. So I cast on 100 stitches on size 6 mm needles and started knitting. This was when I learnt my first lesson - check what the recommended size needle is for the yarn you are using! (I decided to use the lovely lemon baby yarn I had left over from the baby bootees, so that it would lovely and soft) So I undid what I had knitted and cast on 80 stitches on size 4 mm needles. It was looking good but I thought it was looking a bit bigger than I had wanted, so guess what... I undid it again! Finally, I cast on 60 stitches and got knitting. This is what it looks like now

As you can probably see I have dropped a stitch and had to unpick a row and didn't quite fix it, but after already undoing it twice I simply refused to undo again and have decided this shall be the back and who will see it anyway!

Hoping to have this finished soon, although probably not in time for Friday as I have the in laws staying!

For more wips visit Tamis blog

Thank you!

image supplied by photobucket.com

 
I would just like to say a huge thank you to everyone who either follows my blog, comments on my posts or just has a look! I have been so overwhelmed  by the response I have recieved! I never ever thought that my little blog would be something people would look at let alone follow and comment on! I am sorry if I don't get a chance to reply to every comment but I do read them all and I'm genuinely so thrilled when I see them!
So thank you, thank you, thank you!

100 Days 100 Words #1 - Books

Hello!

Welcome to the first 100 days 100 words! I'm feeling quite excited about this post! I have been planning it all week and I'm even writing it slightly early (get me!)
Anyway this weeks post is going to be about books. Now books have always been really important to me, from being a very small child, I always loved bedtime stories with my mum! She did all the voices and I remember we would just fall about laughing (not great for getting a child to sleep, but such good memories). And now books are still a major part of my life. The first reason for this is that I work in a library so I'm surrounded by books all day every day (I wouldn't have it any other way) and secondly I don't think I can remember the last time I left the house without a book in my bag! I am also a member of several reading groups which I love! Finding new authors and sharing them with people makes me happy!

I now want to share with you some of my favourite things about books. First my favourite book, this is easy, with out a doubt it has to be this

I didn't read this book at school unlike so many people I know (who now hate it) I read it when I was about 19. I just loved it - enough said!

Now as I love books, I hate to see pages turned down, I just don't see the point, not when you can use any number of cool, pretty, funny, generally great bookmarks! And then it gives you an excuse to collect something else (or is that just me?) So my favourite bookmark is probably this one

This was a hard choice as I have maybe 150 bookmarks, I pick one up whenever I go anywhere! But this one was given to me buy a good friend when I was 11, I have kept it ever since. She was moving away and gave it to me so I wouldn't forget her, I haven't forgotten her and even though it is starting to look a little tatty I would never throw it away!

After libraries (of course) I love to browse in bookstores! I honestly could spend all day there, I don't even have to spend money, although I usually do! My very favourite bookstore is in Paris and called Shakespeare & Co. It is full and nooks and crannies. The books are piled up and well its just heaven!

Honestly tell me this doesn't look like heaven!

Well that's it for the first 100 days 100 words! Don't forget to add your blog to the Mr Linky. The blog post can either be your own 100 ays 100 words or just a post about books! Also try and visit some other posts and share the love!

Happy blogging x

The Horrors of Knitting

So I haven't actually got anything to show this week for Fo Friday, however I have a killer excuse! Here is the current view of my knitting bag

I have been unable to get any closer as there was a huge and I really do mean huge (not matter what the husband says!) spider in my craft room! Now I don't have a normal dislike of spiders, I am genuinely terrified, they make me cry! So I basically saw said spider, screamed and hot footed it out of there and haven't been back since! I peaked round the door for this shot (all for the good of the blog!) The husband did go to look for it but it had retreated back to its lair to plan its next attack! Now husband is a fairly rational person and said he would just get my knitting bag and I could knit downstairs quite happily! I however, am not rational and never about spiders and explained to husband that the spider might be in the knitting bag now and when I unsuspectingly put my hand in, it would get me! Well husband laughed, I went off the whole idea and ergo no knitting done in days!

I'm really starting to miss it though so husband said he would personally look through the bag inspecting for evil spiders and then do another sweep of the craft room to make sure. So hopefully knitting will resume this weekend!

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen, The Horrors of Knitting!

For better and less dramatic Fo Fridays hop on over to Tamis blog