and now for some more crochet

Some wool from a karma swap and some sirdar nova from the stash and I have this, another stahsbusting baby blanket. I think i should get that set of shelves cleared and moved in time for the birth after all, I'm certainly on track so far.

been away a while

Needed a bit of a break from writing stuff for a while. That dosen't mean I haven't been knitting though, and i'm learning more about crochet.

What you see above is a 3.5 foot diameter baby blanket, it's nice and thick and soft, so I think will make a great blanket for baby to lie on the floor or the grass. Took a few days to complete, but not bad for a near beginner, especially since ti's got a good 700 yards of yarn in it. I had the purple left over from making a blanket for the she-demon a couple of years ago, and the white is the same yarn, one of sirdar's cotton/wool/acrylic blends, so sticking them together to make a nice baby blanket seemed a great idea

I'll add some pictures of some of the other sutff I've een doing recently as well later, dishcloths, baby cardie, a knitted baby blanket. need to hit the WIP pile and finish some stuff there as well.

oven glove

Finished the oven glove, the first of the projects I'm making for an article about recycling felted/feltable jumpers.

today's efforts

Not much for today. I am working on another little project that is taking a little longer than expected. Should finish that tomorrow

even more blanket squares

Knit a few more of these today. Fairly sure i have over 200 of them completed now.

more blanket squares

OK, moving on from the mad sock making frenzy, I've decided i need to knit something that can be shown to be a finished item or module every day. This may be part of a WIP like a jumper sleeve, or blanket squares, or a sock or a completed item from the WIP pile.

In effect, April will be my month of finished stuff.

I want to get the WIp pile to something reasonable, and along with the great stashbusting blanket, I should be able to get all my craft kit fitting into the boxes I bought for it. This will however, be classed as a minor miracle, so don't hold your breath waiting for it.

anyway, here's a picture of some completed blanket squares for today's 'finished' effort.

progress on the giant rug

Did that and planted some more seeds last night. Feeling very productive and pleased with myself.

day off from sockknitting

I think I will scream if i don't take the occasional day off socks. So today is the day. I'm rug knitting instead, sitting up, with a nice warm cat on my feet and nearly 2 foot of the rug done. Considering this is supposed to be the project for the whole of April and use up over 3 miles of yarn, having completed nearly a third of it is looking good.

I wrote an article for downsizer as well as the knitting pattern today. This is the most formal writing I've done in a day since I last tried to write an essay. i'm feeling quite pleased with myself for this and for seemingly not completely messing up with the seedlings this year.

I've had a fair few disasters trying to grow herbs at home on windowsills from seed and this was very disheartening. Now I'm trying to grow veggies from seed to actually produce a reasonable amount of food and I keep remembering my earlier failures and worrying. Seeing stuff sprouting and then starting to set leaves really makes me feel a lot more relaxed about the whole thing.

simplest ever lace socks

I got this yarn through the ukarma swap on ravelry with the intention of knitting something for soon to be expected baby, however, my 4 year old decided she adored the yarn and recognising it as yarn that would knit socks, asked me to knit her a pair.

I've also been starting to add some complexity to my basic sock patterns, colour work, cables and now the simplest ever lace, with a yo, k2tog on every second row giving vertical ladders down the sock. It's not too fancy for her to wear comfortably at school, but interesting enough that I didn't get bored out of my mind knitting it.

The lass in question has 18cm/7 inch long feet. The length of the pattern could likely be adjusted to fit between 3 and 7 year old, given that the stretchy nature of knitted fabric gives a lot of leeway on foot width.

Anyway, after posting the pattern up to show the group that I got the yarn from, I was asked to show the pattern so here it is.

yarn: fleece artist sea wool. 70% merino, 30% seacell
349m, 115g

cost: free!!!!!!!!
since this was a karma swap, the yarn was technically free. apart from that, it will cost £13 per hank at getknitted.

needles: set of 2.5mm dpns

knitability: advanced beginner
another great second sock pattern

time: 15 hours


to knit:

1. leg

cast on 48 stitches and divide them onto 3 needles, 16 stitches on each needle. Join work, taking care not to twist the cast on and begin to knit in 2x2 rib (k2, p2, repeat) Work until the rib measures about 2cm, 1 inch. then knit the rest of the leg as follows

row 1: (k3, yo, k2tog, k3) repeat this 6 times, twice on each needle
row 2: k all stitches

repeat these 2 rows until the leg is the desired length. On a child, this is usually between 10 and 15 cm, 4-6 inches.

2: heel

knit 24 stitches, turn work, slip one stitch and purl to end. complete the heel by repeating the following 2 rows 12 times:

row 1: S1 k to end
row 2: S1 p to end

then turn heel:

row 1: slip 1, knit 12, k2tog, k1 turn
row 2 slip 1, p3, p2tog p1 turn
row 3: slip 1, k4 k2 tog k1 turn
row 4: slip 1, p5 p2tog p1 turn

repeat pattern until there are 14 stitches on the needle

knit 7 stitches onto one needle, knit the other 7 stitches onto a second needle and pick up stitches along the side of the heel flap, 13 along the side of the flap, where stitches have been slipped, and 2 in between slipped stitches and the front needle. knit across front needle in pattern, (k3, yo, k2tog k3) repeat 3 times, and pick up 15 stitches along the other side of the heel flap. knit the first 7 stitches of the heel flap. You should now have 2 needles with 22 stitches and one with 24.

3. Foot

Knit first round of gusset, knit the stitches that have been picked up along the sides of heel flap twisted (knit through back loop)then knit as follows

round 1: knit to last 2 stitches of first needle, k2tog, (k3 yo, k2tog k3)x3 on second needle , ssk then knit to end of third needle
round 2: knit all.

repeat these two rounds until there are 12 stitches left on the first and third needles.

then:
round 1: knit end first needle, k2tog, (k3 yo, k2tog k3)x3 on second needle , knit to end of third needle
round 2: knit all

repeat these 2 rounds until the work measures 3cm from desired length.

4. toe

round 1: knit to 3 stitches from end of first needle, k2tog, k1, k1 ssk knit to last 3 stitches, k2tog, k1, k1 ssk, k to end
round 2. knit all stitches.

repeat these 2 rows until there are 20 stitches left in total.

Kitchener stitch toe and sew in ends.

she demon in socks

YOu can't see the face, I can. She's utterly delighted.


This is my own design in fleece artist sea wool from a ukarma swap.

day 21: sea wool sock

i got this yarn as a swap, intending to make something for baby. Then she demon started cuddling it. So it has become socks for her.