I gave my sister a few patterns for him to look at, and he chose the Jestor Hat by Woolly Wormhead

and I just so happened to have a skein of the orangy Debbie Bliss yarn that was also used in the pattern, and he approved this as well.  (Can’t remember the name of this offhand but I know the yarn is discontinued now)

The hat knit up quickly enough, I was just pained by the large circular needles/ dpns, as I’m more used to using smaller sized needles.  It got a pain at the top where the increases  were happening towards the end and I struggled through the last couple of rounds. Each round I told myself “just ONE more round”

The pattern was a little confusing as it didnt really guide on how many stitches you should end up with etc, but I estimated how much yarn I had left and decided to cast off at just the right time.  Otherwise the points would have been too long.  I did have yarn left, but it was hard to determine just how long the points would be until they were cast off and sewn.  I kitchener stitched them together from the point inwards

Then set the timer on my camera and posed. This was the best of a bad lot, believe you and me

Fortunately, he loved the hat and even agreed to pose for me in it.

I gave my sister some bells to take away with them in case he decided he wanted bells sewn on the points for added interest!!

Edited to add: The yarn is Debbie Bliss Maya. Had to log into my ravelry page to find out!!

Saturday then we had to get ourselves together in order to cook for our nieces christening on Sunday.

We made cold Chinese noodles, coconut rice, coleslaw, goats cheese tomato and olive tartlets, 2 types of potato salad, top hats, and 2 lots of my brown bread.

No idea who nicked those two tartlets there in the middle, maybe it was ghosts??

Sunday was devoted to the christening, and feeding the hoards, and was another late night. Monday we managed to make it back as far as my parents place where we brought leftovers for lunch.  Didn’t get back to our own place for some chilling until late afternoon.

As a result, the amount of knitting time was seriously affected, both from lack of time and lack of energy.  Ive only just gotten back into it last night.  I’d turned the heel late last week and last night I picked up the stitches on the other side of the heel and started into the decreases while watching Lost. There is light at the end of the tunnel!

Talking of Lost, I think we are the only people on the planet, and certainly in Ireland, who have never followed it. We are remedying that now, very slowly, we have the first box set and are working our way through it.  We are onto the 4th disc of 7. So far so good.

I enjoyed it last night. I think I could easily sit and watch episode after episode but my DH gets edgy doing it like that and likes to break it up…hence the slow going as we both want to watch it together!

This one was crocheted, with 2 layers

This one was also crocheted

and this one was knit, 2 layers again.

here they are together

I had fun with the pinky one, if you put it under your shirt it looks like a nip*le (tee hee)

Yeah, you though you’d get a look, didnt you?

Just had to post about this.

Was going into town with DH, we decided to go in and have a wander around the Hugh Lane Gallery, then go and feed the ducks at St Stephens green….except we forgot to go feed the ducks….and decided to get the train in as we could relax and chat ( and in my case, knit,  obviously)

Train had no sooner moved off when the door from one of the other carriages opened and a guy came through, and he was holding one of those plastic packages of mince meat.. and what looked like part of a roll of french bread nestled beside the mince meat…and in his other hand was the rest of the french bread… with MINCE MEAT INSIDE IT.  RAW!!!!! YYeeeuuuukkkkkkkk.

Made me feel all queasy it did.

This is a very satisfying knit so far. I’ve just finished the deacreases for the heel arch and am on the home straight now.  Haven’t had much of a chance to knit on it the last couple of days but every chance I can, I whip it out and do a row or two!

There are errors in the pattern;after you divide for the heel flap it asks you to slip one knit one on both sides of the heel flap which just wasnt going to work for me, so on the wrong side I slipped one, then purled to the end.

I did try it and it just went wonky so consulted a couple of other patterns and had to rip back a couple of rows.

When you are working your arch decreases on the first row you should knit to the last 3 sts, then ssk, k1, which is fine, but on the other side it gets you to ktog first without knitting one first. does that make sense to you? So to rectify this, on needle 3, k1 first then k2tog. Otherwise it makes it look a little bit strained. The rest of the pattern seems fine, but I havent gotten to the toe yet

Oh and the yarn I’m using has been sitting in my stash FOREVER.   Got it early on thinking that it would make some nice socks for my dad but attempted it a couple of times and always thought it just seemed so thin compared to other sock yarn, but I have been very pleasantly surprised by it. So much so that I am going to buy some more of it for my Dads next pair.

Its Lang yarns Jawoll superwash and is comprised of 75% new wool, 18% nylon and 7& acrylic. This colourway is 50842

I was so excited as I’d never won in a giveaway before.

It arrived via my brother delivering it from my folks place, the day before yesterday.  I couldn’t blog about it until now because I couldn’t get a decent picture until yesterday due to lighting issues.

I love this material! Amy Butler is one of my favourite fabric designers, and orange is one of my favourite colours

And that wasn’t all she sent, she sent a lovely little zip pouch which will be great for all the notions you acquire as a knitter or sewer…and some great patterned twill tape (is that how its described?)

Claire has an Etsy shop, and also a Folksy shop (which is linked on her blog) and I know she has more knitting needle rolls in her etsy shop, so go and check her out!

Thanks a lot Claire!!

Here’s that material I got.

So sorry you didn’t see a picture in the last post, but I was being very bold and blogging from work, and didnt have a picture to hand.  Here you go!

Oh, that looks so unironed!!

Here’s a close up

I actually got some admiring comments from some of the other girls in the class over the material.  Of course, I didn’t say what its former life was…. tee hee

We were given a pattern make that we had to get, along with the usual list of supplies, most of which I had already. The pattern was for a skirt; a straight skirt, which included a zip and a button. 
Now, a straight skirt just doesnt suit my “curves”, but for the purpose of the class, and learning how to do all the right things with a pattern, I don’t mind making it.  I’ll progress to an A-Line next time . We have already learned how to adjust a pattern so that it suits your own figure, which is what I’m hoping to learn more about.

However, the material I got for the skirt is very nice.  Too nice, in fact, to waste on a skirt that I know I will never wear. So while I was in town after work one evening last week, I popped into one of the charity shops, and came out with some curtains. Curtains I hear you say? yes curtains. Curtains which were handmade from cotton material.  Perfect once they were washed and ironed,hems taken down, the top bit cut off.

At least I’ll stand out in the class!! Almost everyone else has plain one colour material….
Nothing like a bit of recycling.  The end result will probably go back to the charity shop after its made up. In fact, I may even sew one of my labels onto it, Lol. Nothing like a bit of free advertising.
Unless I can find someone it will suit…

I was just about to sew it all up when I posted about it last.
Button wise, I only had 7 of the smaller green buttons, instead of the 8 needed, typical eh. So I had to improvise, and decided on putting 2 accent buttons on the top.  I like the way it has turned out. I need to knit another front for this before I send it off, and unfortunately, I think I’ll be using a different yarn for it, if I can find one that matches up.
I hated this yarn. Really disliked it. Its the first time I have bought a yarn and considered actually throwing it out!  I won’t, dont worry, I’ll give it to someone to use.  I have a second ball of this in a different colour also, plus about half of this ball.
The yarn is 50%wool and 50% acrylic, and the only reason I gave in to the acrylic thing is that it was to become a baby cardigan and we all know that baby clothes need to be machine washable, and I liked the colours in the ball. What was wrong with it?  It split all the time, was very badly spun, and was thick and thin inconsistently. As a result of the bad spinning, it seemed on the verge of splitting apart often. When I sewed up the first side, I had to actually twist the yarn several times as it had become untwisted while sewing and pulled itself thin, so I almost lost it on a couple of occasions.
The cardigan took me a long time to make, I kept on putting it away, in denial mainly!

Pattern: Presto Chango

Yarn: King Cole Mirage DK

Needle: 5mm

I’ve been stalling sending it to my friend because I still havent knit an alternate front for the cardigan, thats the whole point of this cardigan imo. So, I think I’m just going to have to send it, and send a second front when I get the thing done!

More babies being born, no time!!! My friend M had a baby boy Ruairi last week.  Am I organised and have things knit and nicely packaged up to send to her?  Oh yeah, I’m really that organised

Instead, I’ve cast on for a pair of socks for my FIL, at the request of my DH, as its his birthday at the end of the month. I’ve done well over the weekend- I’m now at the heel flap of the first one, and liking the pattern, but I’m still aching to get more baby things done!! I’ve even dug out some baby soya yarn that looks really squishy from my stash but need to make a decision on what its going to become.

Is the knitting capabilities!

Hands caught on camera are Diane (closest) and Isobel.  Not caught on camera was me.

Taken during our trip back from the weavers closing down sale in Drogheda. Isobel blogs more about it.

I also got buttons (and took eerily similar photos), and 3 small cones of yarn, one of which was partly used in making the teacosy, and 2 throws. Ive used both throws already