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