Just finished – and just in time as we’ve had snow here the last few days – my latest project! I knitted “fetching” from knitty.com, here they are:

(and yes, one little finger is always a bit crooked. The other one matched it until it got hit by a high-speed netball a few years ago)

I’m so proud of these little gloves, they were knitted on four needles – and with cables too!! The tension is a bit tight on the bottom of the first one that I did, I hadn’t knitted on four needles before and it was really slippery wool and I was struggling. Its Debbie Bliss Cashhmerino Aran and well worth the expense, only needed one ball so I’ve one left to make something else … suggestions please!

I should mention that my knitting had the right side on the inside of the tube when I knitted on the four needles. Apparently its supposed to come out on the outside so you can see what’s happening before you finish the item and can turn it the right way out but I couldn’t work that out without poking my eyes out with some of the needles at the same time :) Thanks to my knitting group friends for telling me to knit whatever way worked and especially thanks to mum for picking up and knitting the thumbs for me :)

A while ago my not-mother-in-law bought me this book and its been great so I had to sing its praises here.

Its not glossy or colourful, in fact the illustrations are two-colour, but its really useful. I’ve recently come back to knitting from crochet and I live some distance from either my mum or the book-donor so it can be hard to get a helping hand when I need one. This book is a knitting textbook and a great reference when a pattern calls for something fiddly to happen!

Watch this space for my latest (rather complicated) knitting attempt :)

There was a recent post to the Leeds Knitterati mailing list (the local knitting group) asking about local wool and equipment suppliers. I replied mentioning The Wool Shop and another member sent this which I had to share as its so good!

There’s also quite a good shop at the top of Eastgate (by all the bus stops), and one at the top edge of the Market hall (opposite corner to the Corn Exchange.) Samuel Taylor’s have minimal stuff (also now own the other haberdashery stall at the top of the market) but their warehouse has damn all – just more and more paper crafts stuff. There’s a nice little shop called Cath’s Sewing Box in Austhorpe Rd, Crossgates but her range can be a bit limited.

Anyone else still mourning the demise of Worth Knitting?

There’s Texere at Barkerend Rd in Bradford, who will ship, but it’s easier to pick up. Not sure if Ramsdens (Wendy etc) and Rowan allow colecion/ have a mill shop. Might be worth investigating.

Anthea

So thanks to Anthea, for te suggestions and for allowing me to repost what she wrote. There were a few replies to this which mentioned Coldspring Mill too.

I may have mentioned that I made it to the PHP Conference last week. O’Reilly had their own stand and were doing a healthy 30% discount on a selection of technical books. I was enchanted to see in the corner of the stand, copies of CRAFT – so I bought one!

Its a truly eclectic publication, I describe it as crafty tech rather than techie craft but the distinction does get blurry in places. Features include crochet robots, a wool-winder made from Technic Lego, homemade chain mail and a cat scratching creation made of cardboard layers. My personal favourite has to be the pattern for a top with programmable LEDs fitted … my university degree was in Electronic Engineering and I always loved LEDs so this is my idea of heaven. Not sure I quite fancy a top which lights up but there is definitely scope for something to come of this.

Craft/Tech fusion suggestions welcome!

There’s a lot of craft entries going on here at the moment I know but actually I’ve just had a binge at finishing things off rather than actually creating things at speed.

Here’s my string basket:

Its going to hold all those little samples that you get from Boots in the free gift from the No7 range that I keep ending up with! Its made from “jute twine”, that’s common-or-garden brown parcel string to you or me, I used a 5mm hook and its just double crochet through (single crochet if you are not British – see an earlier post about crochet dialetcs). Just make a little loop, dc into the middle six times, then 2dc into each stitch for the next round. After that I increased in every other stitch and then less frequently as the round base of the basket grew. The exact pattern depends on the string and your hook so I just tried to stop it from curving up or getting wrinkly and its not too bad. The double crochet makes it quite quick and very simple:

The stripe is just some crochet cotton that I used for a few rows, partly for interest and partly to give my fingers a rest from being shredded by the rough string. I might make a few more to go with it … can’t decide though whether to do the next ones more stripy or in another colour of cotton or what. Watch this space!

The good news is that I’m nearly at the end of my pink big wool stash, so there might be some less-matching items appearing here soon. However today I’d like to show off the bag that I’ve made to go with the mittens and the hat.

The pattern for this bag was taken from Emma King’s 25 Bags To Knit Book , here it is:

A closeup of one of the cables with a bead in the middle (I’d never cabled before so I am very proud of myself!)

As a finishing touch and to keep the bag in shape, I decided to add a lining. Thanks to Jess for “lending me her sewing machine” … actually she just sewed the lining for me :) Here’s a peep at the lining:

Now I have a dilemma. Can I reasonably wander around with bag, mittens and earflap hat which all match … ?

I saw these slowpoke patterns linked from somewhere else a while back and I just had to buy them. Well the first one is finished – he’s a bit plain (think that was the rather primary colour choices) but he’s done and I think he’s cute:

I pre-recorded this entry a few days ago as he’s a present for a friend and I had to photograph him and then post him … but he should be there by now if you’re reading this.

I might have to make some for myself, or maybe one of these what do you reckon?

OK so its Sunday name is “Swing”, but here’s my most recent knitting achievement. Its a hat, with long earflaps that make a scarf:

I has a nice bit of garter stitch around the brim:

And here’s a closeup of the fabulous pompoms:

I can’t really knit. I must have been able to once; I knitted toy snowmen as christmas presents for my friends when I lived at home. But its something that I can’t just pick up and potter along with like I can crochet. For my birthday I received hobbhy craft vouchers (thanks Kath and Geoff!) and the “Stitch and Bitch: Knitters Handbook” which has a lot of tips about picking up dropped stitches as well as really clear instructions for every knit stitch I’m going to need for a while.

So when I wandered into hobbycraft and they had six balls of Rowan Big Wool in “whoosh” (that’s funky pink to you and me), I decided they must have had my name on! Here are the first fruits of my knitting revival ….

This doesn’t really do them justice though, so here’s an alternative presentation, they’re still cooler than this one shows them though!

Watch this space for matching items to appear :)

Thought I’d show off my most recent crochet creation as I haven’t been keeping the site up-to-date with stuff lately. I received an invite to a Christmas Ball from a friend in the Army, and accepted. My summer ballgown (I slimmed back into the pink one mum made – yay!) was going to be a bit chilly at a winter ball so I thoughtit would be good to have something to throw over the top.

A half-hour conference in the wool shop saw me with some Dolce Vita by Wendy in shade 499, no idea what its called but it looks white to me, with slightly fluffy sparkly bits. I saw this pattern on Dot’s site and thought I’d have a shot:

And the stitches in detail:

While working a small prototype I decided to add extra non-pattern rows into mine, so I have half the shell patterns that hers does. The finished article is 76 inches from wingtip to wingtip and about 18 across. It would have been longer but I basically ran out of time – I was still putting the border on it at the pre-event drinking session :)