Ooops!!

Oh dear.  I honestly thought at most it had only been like a week or two since I last blogged. Looking back through my activity it appears my last post was almost two months ago!! Where on earth has all that time gone? I can only blame my lack of organisation and the black hole that is yarn, creativity and all things that go with it.

I know I know poor excuses really. I guess I should start this post with a look back over the past 8 weeks and try to justify my absence with a few makes.

Throughout February I have managed to knit 4 sets of newborn hat and mittens, one set was a design of my own. I need to explore the design some more and look at how to write it up but all going to plan I hope to release it as one of my first ever patterns. For the foreseeable future, until I have gotten the hang of pattern writing and my designs begin to require a little more thought and work, I plan to just write my patterns up here as a blog post and link to them on Ravelry. What do you all think?

I say one of my first ever designs because in the middle of February I was asked by Mr Lyvit himself if I could knit him a bed cap to use on stage during the local pantomime. You see he was playing the lead character in 'Scrooge's Phantomime', a panto written by a local director and his daughter.  I rose to the challenge and after careful selection of yarn from stash by the man himself I set to working out how to attempt this task.  For now I will keep the intricate details for a later post but if you cannot wait you will find most of the information on my project page on Ravelry, as well as our son modelling it for me.

February also saw me crochet another Joker, this time as a commission for the talented cartoonist, Kent Taylor. I also crocheted a panda baby hat for the future arrival and finished my first pair of socks for the year, the first pattern from the Wanderlust Collection designed by the talented Mina Philipp. I enjoyed knitting these and I am very happy to say they were selected as one of the first prize winners in Mina's knit along over on her Knitting Expat Podcast channel.

Here are the socks 

And here are my winnings! 

The bag is made by Whimzee Stitches over on Etsy and the gorgeous yarn is....you know I cannot remember who dyed it but I do know it is fingering weight and VERY sparkly. Also it is only in my most favourite shade of blue, so I feel that this will most definitely need to be in a beautiful shawl, not hidden away on my feet. Im tempted to join the Mystery KAL being run by Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade. What do you think?

March has been a busy month yarn wise too. I started and completed two pairs of socks, the first one from the Cosy Collection by Mina Philipp, and the other is the first in the Handmade Sock Society I also made another hat for the hamper, a hat for the middle child, one for myself, a spring bunny amigurumi for Mother's Day and a small red dragon for Father-in-law's birthday. All information is available over on my Ravelry page, including pictures and patterns used. I couldn't resist not showing you the cheeky antics I caught the little dragon up to before he went to his new home.

Both February and March also saw me dabbling a little with my sewing machine, making a few wheat bags and attempting my first ever project bag, with my first ever sewn in zip! 

I have lots of plans for the future in all three crafts, and also others I hope to start. I either need to clone myself or learn to prioritise them I guess. I need to start keeping a list of what I want to make and do so that I lose the nagging worry that I will forget or not have time for something. Hmmm another new are for me to explore....pretty notebooks, journalling, pens,......

Right I better head off to construct these lists to firstly help organise my time better. The pretty notebooks are just a happy bi-product.

Chat again soon

M

x

January Round up and February Plans

Evening all. How has the past week been for you?

Can you believe we are in February already? I started the month wondering where the time had gone and feeling a little deflated. I felt like I hadn't achieved much in January so decided to take a look back through my Ravelry projects page. Let's just say I was a little bit shocked!

Above is a photo collage of all that I have made last month, including some sewing, crochet and knitting. There are several crochet amigurumi characters, a hat made from the wonderful Betsy Makes Ectoplasm sock yarn, as well as a matching cowl, and a few baby items.

Firstly I want to rave about the Betsy Makes yarn! It is so soft and squishy, and boy doesn't it go a long way! It is on her Perfect Sock fingering weight base and is an amazing 425 metres per 100g! Even after making the hat and the brioche (first time knitting brioche!) Cowl I still have approximately 40g left! I'm not sure what I will use the remainder for but some is definitely going into my future cozy memories blanket, and maybe even a crochet granny stripe one too.  I know, I know jumping on the bandwagon but I love the idea of snuggling under lots of memories of happy knitting times.

The baby items are for a close family member's first baby, due around Easter time. I hope to make a fair few things for her, keeping most of them secret until she has received them. So I guess that's a future post there.

February looks to be the month of socks for me. I have signed up for not one, not two, not even three, but four sock clubs.

Truly Hooked Sock Along

Wunderlust Sock Along

Cosy comforts sock along

Curious handmade sock along

There is also Sock Madness going on in Ravelry but I think that may be just one sock too much for me this year. Tempting though.

I have soooo many garments I would love to knit up too, so I hope to start one of them soon, if not just to justify to myself the large quantities of yarn I have.

To add to my crafting plans this month are my sewing plans. I really want to start making some clothes for myself. I have fallen in love with most of Tilly and the Buttons' patterns including the new Mila dungarees and the Cleo dress. I have a lovely pile of fabric now and hope my health allows me to sit at my machine soon.

What crafting plans do you have for the month? Are you part of any make a longs?  Any advice on climbing out of the 'Make it All' rabbit hole I seem to have fallen down? Or have you joined me here?

I'd love to hear your plans and see what you have made so far. Looking forward to chatting soon.

Mrs L
X