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

End of Year Round Up

As I write this I realize I haven't written to you all in a few weeks. 

Things went really crazy there before Christmas and I took the week after to spend with my family, like a good mummy should. 

Once Mr Lyvit had returned to work I took some time with my morning coffee to upload most of my gift projects up to Ravelry, along with photos of those I remembered to take before wrapping. I quickly realised how much I had actually achieved last year. 

For those of you that like the statistics; In 2017 Yarn stash in through buying and acquisitions 19,855 metres Yarn stash out through making. 16,915 metres. 

I made a whopping 7 hats (including a design of my own, more soon!) 6 pairs of gloves, 23 stuffed toys, 4 Shawls, 2 blankets, 6 pairs of socks, and 10 other items including cloths, decorations and bookmarks. 

Round up of some of the makes

2018 should be just as fun and creative, but more on that in a future post.

Bye for now

Mrs L

X

Super heroes and family

Morning all!

How are we all feeling on this dark, cold, winter's morning (if you're in the northern hemisphere)? Are you ready for the festive season? I'm not seem! We have managed to space the extended family out nicely this year, giving me time between visits to craft like a mad woman. Every year I end up panic making, staying up late to finish items off and wishing I had started earlier. This year is no exception!

Most of this week has seen me crocheting away at lightening speed, bringing a large cow and superman into life amongst other things. When I first planned what I was making along with who for, I spent a great deal of time searching the wonderful Ravelry catalogue for suitable patterns. One of my sister-in-laws is absolutely mad about cows and very happy to receive anything remotely cow looking. There are some amazing patterns out there for amigurumi cows but I quickly fell in love with this beautiful one, partly because of its heart shaped patches. Despite having read through the pattern though, and ensuring I had everything I needed, I must have totally glazed over how big this beautiful creature would be. Usually the amigurumi I make take me 1-3 days to make, allowing for real life to interrupt me. I quickly realised though, after finishing the head and closing my 100th stitch, that this was no ordinary toy.

The beautiful Daisy

Beautiful isn't she! I thoroughly enjoyed making her and hope sil is as happy to receive (open) her in 21 days!

Whilst wrapping up the wonderful cow and other gifts for the family I quickly realised I had forgotten one small but very important gift. This saw me pulling an all nighter on Friday before our intended 100 mile round trip to visit and present swap. In fact I finished sewing him together and Things 2 & 3 wrapped him up in the car on the way!

Who is this super character, I hear you ask. Well...

 

Isn't he cute!!

Our youngest nephew is dotty about Super Heroes, and up until the summer it had to be Flash. Thankfully when I had seen him during the holidays we had been discussing the super heroes and how he felt Superman was better than Flash, mainly because Superman has more powers. The mind of a 7 year old! I was so grateful to find this pattern for him on Ravelry for free, and even more so when I realised how quick a make he was. Three hours in total!

Right, now that's swap one done I need to be getting on with the gifts for swap two, which is this Saturday. So on that note I will say tata for now. Take care everyone.

Till next time

Mrs L

X