The knitter submission spring summer 2014

After getting my first pattern published in the knitter for the winter i have recently put in my new submissions for the spring summer.
These trends for the spring are very much my colourway and i loved the patterns i designed.

The shawl is debbie bliss cashmere aran which is now discontinued and wooden buttons brought from get knitted in Bristol.
The hand painted buttons i totally love are all different with flowers and bugs painted on.
The sock wool is a variegated lang sock wool which is also totally love and have had for many years but i just wanted to wait for the best pattern to come along.
The only problem with the sock is that the frill was very difficult to attach and i had to knit it separately.
Overall im really happy with the two pattens and will be giving them away for Christmas maybe as i totally love the shawl.

pink socks .2

A while back i made a pair of pink and green multi socks and because i used 2 balls of 100g sock wool after one pair i had enough spare to create another pair of fair isle socks this time i used a pattern from the knitter mad up of many hearts that is fair isle all the way down the foot meaning i think i may be tight at the end on wool.
The pattern like the last sock is difficult to see as both colours are pale and the green multi does have specks of pink within the wool.

At this point im only half way through the first sock they just seems to be taking so long to finish , however if i bothered to knit them they may go faster.

Viking hat is finished.

Finally the viking hat is finished only the horns left to sew on and im all done im actually pretty pleased with how its gone as i did make the hat from the crown down with no pattern and only needed to rip back once.
The band at the bottom i think really sets the hat apart making it look like a metal Viking hat.
As well as the horns i forgot that i had to make a beard as well which in gona have to start but i am cautious about how big to make it.

With the hat finally finished i did have some problems with the horns and in the end did need to get some help of ravlery to help with the decreases for the top of the horn as mine were coming out very strange shaped .
I did put a small amount of wore in the horn to hep it hold up and keep the shape as with only wadding the horns have a tendency to flop and flap around which i did not want.
As many of you know i do not usually like a novelty knit and myself hate dress up but this was quite interesting but only for the technical issues i faces while knitting the hat , beard and, horns.

holiday buys

White on holiday in truro i managed to find a lovely wool shop and treated my self to come unusual wools one being debbie bliss andes in three colours and louisa harding hand beaded yarn.

A less unusual yarn i found but in three complimentary colours the three rowan yarns are worsted wool and alpacca wool in grey creme and jade which i want to make a hat out of possibly with cables and a braid. 

Also i brought myself some noro sock wool which i usually stay away from as it is so expensive i just could not say no to this amazing pink wool.

Spiral Socks

Sometimes i really do think that these spiral socks are never going to finish, they seem to be taking an age but if i dont knit them they will take an age.
The pattern is becoming simpler to follow and the sock is nearly finished .
The sock was finally finished after another weekend holiday which is were i do get most of my work done.

I love the socks and may keep them for myself the wool is now one of my all time greats such a lovely feel and knits up so beautifully. 

The only problem is that on the heel turn you do end up with a sizeable hole on each corner that needs to be sewn up. 

Birthday jumper

For emmas birthday i decided to make her a jumper from a vintage pattern i brought in a bundle.
The wool im using is lambs pride worsted weight wool in black and red brown that i got from ebay.
This wool from america is one of my all time favourite and it is extremely difficult to source in the uk as you have to pay for shipping from the states.
The pattern is simple and quite easy to follow and the jumper is comming along nicely.

honeycombe blanket

I have nearly been knitting my honeycomb blanket for a year and yesterday i had only managed to knit 16 hexipuffs i realise that if i don't knit any the quilt will not get any bigger.
so yesterday i decided that i had to knit some and managed to knit 9 before i got really bored.
The difficult thing is that they do seem to take a massive amount of time for such small things like 45 to and hour to make one which is why i think i get so bored of making them.
Also however i have changed how i am making the blanket but attaching each hexipuff together as i go so i don't have sew 300 together at the end.

The knitter submissions winter 2013

I have started a commission again for the knitter magazine, i love winter and find it much easier to design knits for winter
We have some fantastic news i have been commissioned to take some patterns for the knitter i cant show you any pics yet until the patterns have been published but it wont be long.

New Year knits.

As i have decided to finish all knitting projects that i have started before like the honeycomb blanket and the matching fair isle socks as well as my large patchwork blanket.
As ive been working hard i only have these three projects to finish when i have finished the orange jumper the spiral socks and the lace weight.
Why i have to finish all of my large projects is that i have to make my best friends birthday jumper before march tenth as well as make three babies worth of blankets and booties as she is having triplets.

The jumper is going well but taking a long time to finish and the pattern needs large amounts of adjustment due to the different wool and needle size that im using.

viking hat.

As many of you know my brother is a fanatical fancy dress enthusiast, he asked me to make him a viking helmet with beard for a fancy dress party.
Looking on the internet i saw many different styles of of this type of hat and in a flash of genius i decided to make the hat out of lopi alafosslopi from iceland that i got on holiday from the isle of white.
because of the pattern i decided to make the hat from the crown down so i could had a braid at the end as well as a bobble cuff.
As you also know im am not amazing at novelty items but im going to make a good go and try to make it as realistic as possible.

The knit is not going as well as i hoped i got the size wrong and the hat was massive way to big for any mans head. 

lace shawl

The lace shawl is still continuing on , its taking a very long time to knit but i am going to change the cast off as i dont want it to be frilly like in the pattern.
just yesterday i reached the mark of having to increase from 512 to 1024 stitches meaning i will have to buy another ball of wool to finish the project.
I am now working on my own pattern because i decided to make the shawl out of lace weight,( im not fond of dk or aran weight shawls as the pattern suggested i think they look bulky)i knew that when in the pattern you would cast off i would still have to go on further ive allready added 40 more rows but believe i may have to add another 40 more to finish the piece.
Having just knitted the last 4 rows i have totally run out of yarn i think im going to need one or even 2 more balls of the lace weight noro wool.

The jumper is FINISHED !!!

Dads jumper is finally finished im so pleased it still needs a block and the button sewn on but i have sewn in the threads.
The only problem i had is that with 3/4 of the collar left about 1000 stitches i run out of wool flat out, its also not a sort of wool i thought ide be able to get again having brought 2 massive 400g balls in trowbridge, i did eventually find the wool on eBay and had to buy another 400g 800 m of wool to compleat a tiny part of knitting.

The final item has also come out very big sort of massive colossal as big as the titanic and to make matters worse dad who is meant to be wearing it is on a diet.

Ive just been able to block and add the buttons to the garment, which i was very worried about blocking the garment in case it increased in size any more which often happens when you block an item.
using a hot iron an thanks to the wool content in the piece i was able to slightly control the size of the garment and if you are careful sometimes it is actually possible to decrease the size of an item with the iron.

spiral socks

My first ever attempt at spiral socks downloaded on ravlery the first has gone well the sock ive made for a male friend of mine 

Ive now started the second sock and its moving along ok quite slowly but i have been working on the jumper to get it done.

No movement on the jumper.

Dads jumper is still slowly moving on i have until his birthday on the 25th of January to finish it which i think will be ok but i need to buy some more wool as i seem to be running out.
The jumper seems to be getting bigger and bigger i know that sounds odd but i think that the pure volume of weight of the jumper is stretching the jumper and i had to get dad to try it on and it seems to fit.
I have added in the sleeves and am just working on the raglan sleeve and slowing moving up to the shoulder.
The only problem i am having is that as i had to make the sleeves and overall length of the jumper longer i am rapidly running out of yarn and think i will have to buy another ball of yarn the only problem being is that i can only buy the wool in 400g 800m balls and i know i only need about 100m extra to finish.

CHRISTMAS HATS

I promised to make a hat for my friend a least 6 months ago and here it is finally being made and finished in a matter of days the wool used is brown sheep  worsted weight that i managed to get hold of from ebay as the only English supplier has stopped stocking this wonderful lambswool and mohair mix yarn. 

The pattern is of my own making using the two colours to make a pretty spiral pattern that follows round until the two colour pom pom 

presents are slowly being finished.

My christmas presents are taking a very long time i have finished the socks but i still have one jumper a pair of socks a hat and a xmas wreath and all my Christmas cards to make.

christmas presents that never ends.

For Christmas i am still knitting 

it is not ending i keep knitting and nothing is happening.