Alan dart

One of the most surprising things to come out of the weekend was the wonderful collection of Alan dart toys made my the man himself at our hosts house, the pictures really don't to them justice.

The amount of different characters is really mind boggling along with the wonderful Beatrice potter characters as well as Wallace and gromit. 

My favourite toys happen to be the wombles ive always loved the wombles. 

As you know ive tried to make a Alan dart toy before Paddington and thank god he was not in this collection to shame me  for my disastrous attempt at an Alan dart toy. 

collective yarnstorm !!!

As we have all had practise doing a solo yarnstorm we were all extremely excited for our collective yarn storm.
As we were in ventor on the seaside we decided to do a smugglers theme for our yarn storm attaching the dolls and accessories to the famous barometer on the seafront.
This yarn storms was quite difficult the weather was much worse than the say before and there was a strong wind and being on top of a ladder was actually quite difficult as i did not dress in my most smart way.
After some times we realised that the clock was too tall so we used fishing wire to attach our smugglers scene.
overall the Piece took an hour and a half to get finished before it started to really rain.

After the collective yarnstorm we went back to the b a b to have our graduation ceremony and get our goodie bags before we all headed home.
ive had a great time in the isle of white and will definitely be yarnstorming soon.

first yarnstorm ever !!!

My first yarn storm ever in ventor isle of white and i  so excited our lovely group of 6 have no collective theme that comes later so we all get to make whatever we want.
i decided to make a teacup full of tea with a flower garland around it it came out well and i am very happy with my first yarn storm piece.
out first yarn storm was on ventor front in wonderful weather where all ten of us yarn storm with some wonderful moments when una climbed on a lamppost to add here piece.
after the yarn storm we headed for drinks at the local pub and visited a wonderful wool shop called rainbows which had so much  lovely wool at such good prices.

I brought some love;y leclandic loopi wool which is a wonderful heavy aran heatherer yarn perfect for aran winter knits.

yarnstorm boot camp

For my 21st birthday my parents got me a holiday to the isle of white for a weekend holiday yarn storming with deadly knitshade and the fastener from knit the city london.

The only glaring problem was going to be the ferry to say i hate boats is an understatement i really hate boats but it is very expensive and silly to take a tiny 3 seater plane from Southampton to the isle of white. 

On the way there having taked as many travel sickness pills as possible i did manage to get through the hour long ride without being sick. 

after getting to the boot camp we met the fabulous deadly knitshade and the fastener to talk yarn storm plans for the little town of ventnor. 

New knitting bag for my holiday.

On friday i am going to the isle of white for a knitting yarnstorm bootcamp holiday i am so excited, all of my knitting is usually very controlled so i an excited to make stuff that is very creative and not all on stitch techniques and tension.
over the long weekend we will be participating in 2 yarnstormes and visiting a collection of Alan dart toy samples as well as a knitting library.
The only problem that i can foresee is that you cant fly into the isle of white you need to take a ferry, ferry's are one of my top 3 hated things i love swimming and the sea but i hate all boats, i get chronic sea sickness and once even was able to be sick on a pedal ow on Weston pier.
This is going to be my first solo journey on a boat and im terrified but as a treat for the holiday ive brought my self a new clareabella bag to hold my two ongoing projects.

I love my new one even more than the first one i brought as its so cute and girly.

Finished mittens 2 !!!!

I have finally finished my second pair on mittens the fair isle cameo mittens from interweaves special Jane Austin pattern book.
They have not been a easy knit, the tension was right but as we know tension lies.They have ended up huge i mean i don't have tiny hands they are just huge mutant mittens really pretty but just massive.

The wool i used was the correct wool rowan 4ply and i even i used smaller needles than asked for but still sometimes these things happen i think i gona just tack around the top of the mitten to secure it.

a new start

Dad has always loved my knitting but being 6 ft 8 and quite large knitting jumpers for him can be long and laborious but when looking in this months the knitter he saw a parttern he liked made by an american knitter which is a cardigan knitting all in one go with a i cord cast on and i cord up the button bands.
Its a massive undertaking but knitted in aran weight it should be ok but added in that the circular needle it will be very heavy in the end.
ive worked for many hours and have completed only 32 rows but when you have 242 stitches on one row i found that i can compleat 4 rows in 1 hour.

for this knit i am using robin wool acrylic aran weight in a 400g ball.
This wool is one of my favourite for men's jumper as its cheep and 2 balls make a very large jumper/cardigan for a man with a 42inch chest.