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


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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

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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