FO Poncho

It's been finished for a while, but I've only just got round to blogging it.
I love it, it's cosy warm.
I've also knitted matching arm warmers, which work amazingly well, as your arms have to keep popping out from the warmth in order to do anything.

See more FOs from other folk here at Finished Object Friday

WIP dangerously close to completion

Nearly there.....

After all that work to make a horizontal cabled border panel, I undid it. It didn't hang right and it was too heavy for the poncho.
So I simply knitted 6 rows of garter stitch and I'm now adding the tassels.
I even cut through the border to try to get it to hang right, and it must have taken 10 or more tries to get the front point right. Oh well, it was all good experience.

I am particularly pleased with the hood and its tassel. But I don't have a pic of that yet.
Maybe it will be a FO this Friday!

Find more WIPs on Wednesday here

Poncho-to-be

It's nearing completion. 

It started off as a very simple poncho, but then I added a front central cable.
And then a horizontal cabled border.
And then a cable around the hood front.
And a slice of tree branch button closure.

So now it's nothing like the original pattern.
I just have to finish the hood, and a little bit of the horizontal border, and attach the button.
I started it at Center Parcs, and I want to wear it for the first time when we go back to Center Parcs in January.

I'm using my favourite New Lanark wool in chunky. (Why use anything else? It's cheap, it's pure wool and they deliver next day). 

Please go and see more WIPs from other folk at http://tamisamis.blogspot.com/2011/12/work-in-progress-wednesday-73.html

WIP Wednesday

I'm really hoping this will be a FO soon.
It's been my travelling project for quite a while now, after being started a couple of years ago then forgotten.
I want to get started on my new travelling project, which is alpaca socks. (But not for an alpaca. I have enough trouble with a second sock, never mind a third and fourth).

It's knitted in Opal sock yarn and I shall just keep going until I run out of yarn.



Please pop over to Tami's Ami's to see more WIPs. 

WIP Wednesday

It had to be this, today.

This is what I've been mostly knitting for a couple of weeks now.

This is the back, and I have completed the 2 fronts.
With any luck, it will look like this when it's finished:

This is the wool I'm using. 

You can buy it here New Lanark Shop

Thankyou for popping in. Have you checked on the chickens? They like getting visitors too ;o)

Spunday

Here's the bunch of silk fluff I got from Oliver Twists at Wonderwool Wales.

This is what I've spun so  far.

                                                    And I started a new bobbin so I could make 2 ply, producing this in 1 hour. 

I've been looking for a shawl pattern that will suit it, so I need something that's not too fine and lacy because of its handspun uneven nature, so I am thinking that a Multnomah would do the job nicely. 

FFO Friday

(First Finished Object Friday)

From start to finish:
I bought the wool in April from Wildfire Fibres at WonderWoolWales 
Beautifully soft, with a cotton thread running through it, threaded with tiny shiny beads, like dewdrops. I can't remember exactly, but it was less than 300 metres in length.

When I got back home after the festival, this was the first thing I started to knit from the stash that I gathered there. I found this pattern Little Arrowhead Shawl on Ravelry. This was my first shawl, and it took me a while to get used to the concept, but I got there in the end. The yarn was lovely to work with, and I tried to push all the tiny beads through to the front to get the benefit. You can't see them on the photo.
It only took a couple of weeks to knit (which is quick for me, at the moment), but on the cast-off edge, I was about 2 feet short of yarn. I tried to finish it with a plain red cotton thread, but it stood out too much.

So the project was abandoned.

Until today. I thought that today I could have my first Finished Object Friday.

 So I selected some lovely fluffiness and blended it on my drum carder.

And then got out my lovely Ashford Joy spinning wheel which Father Christmas bought me last year. 

 I spun the fluff into a single ply, which I then plied with half of the ply of the original red thread, after I'd undone the offending cast-off edge. (Are you following? :oD )

Here is the finished yarn ready to complete the shawl.

And here is the new cast-off edge.

Scottish wool hat

Knitted with lovely 100% wool spun in a independent mill in Scotland.
New Lanark wool shop
Sorry I can't link to the pattern, but I just made it up as I went along. I'm very happy with how it turned out, and it's a perfect fit.

Here is the start of my Sleeveless Jacket by Bergere de France. This is the Left Front, which I have completed.

This is what it will look like when it's done.

And here is the 100% wool yarn I'm using from Scotland, online ordering available. Shop 

There will be further posts on this subject, and hopefully it won't take too long, because this first piece knitted up in no time.

Mixed bag

Thought I'd show you what's going on craft-wise.  It's been mostly chickens here for a while, what with the new girls settling in, so a quick round-up of current projects shouldn't go amiss.

 Here's my second pair of socks. Generally a pair of socks will take me a couple of years to knit. Really. That's because they are my travelling project which I leave in the car or my handbag, and I knit in between lessons (a few stitches at a time) or in the waiting room (a row, maybe?) or in the car before my next school (5 mins twice a week). This is also why I need a simple pattern. In fact my next pair  are completely plain, like my first.
These are Roo Knits Fishtail socks Pattern here
You can't see the fishtail pattern terribly well here, but it shows up better in real life.

 These are my sheepy friends. The middle one was made and sent to me by a lovely lady in Scotland. The one on the right is for my sister to give to her friend who is ill. The unfinished one on the left is up for grabs. They are all going to Church for a week for St Bartholomew's 24/7 Prayer Week They will soak up lots of good vibes and then go to be friends with people who need them.

 The start of my beach hut doorstop. I adore beach huts and all things beachy.

Here is the finished bag which was featured in an earlier blog post. Currently stuffed with all things sheepish to take to the Church tomorrow.

And here's my very first box pouch. It's so cute and adorable! I've got sewing supplies in it at the moment. It's fully lined. This tutorial  is a good one. 

I finished this recently. It is a Holden Shawlette knitted with Easyknits bamboo/merino sock yarn. Looks like the colourway I used isn't available though.

It's a lovely soft shawl and was a pleasure to knit.