A surprising buy

I went over to Woolfish today and had a lovely time with Louise and a couple of her friends catching up on news and knitting on my baby blanket - almost finished it - and will blog about it soon.

One of the main reasons for going - apart from getting a little free-time - was to look for some black yarn to make a hat for Morgan - he wants a pointy Wizard's Hat as seen in 'The Philosopher's Stone'. So I bought some lovely Noro Cash Iroha which I haven't seen before. It's plain black and slightly shimmery - and looking at the ingredients I can see why - it is 40% silk, 30% lambs wool, 20% cashmere and 10% nylon - maybe a bit luxorious for a child's hat - but I guess I love him!

The other thing that caught my eye amongst the Aladdin's cave was some weird nobbly wool. Now I normally detest novelty yarn - but for some obscure reason I really liked it. It's Adriafil's Retro Trends and looking at their site it's new out this year - I looked because I couldn't find it on the Ravelry database which is unusual. I borrowed a pair of needles from Louise and knitted up a quick sample to see what it was like. Well it was horrible to cast on and the first two rows were horrific - but then as my guage settled it started to really look amazing. The nobbles all settled down and gave the most amazing mottled effect. So I frogged it back so I could give the needles back to Louise and I have got three in my stash now. Not sure what to do with it - I'm thinking tea cosy or a weird hat for Orla. Again - looking at the ingredients it's not surprising I found it so lovely - 96% lambswool and 4% nylon. Lovely

A nice afternoon away from the mayhem - I even found out about a knitting group I may start sneaking off to on Saturdays.

Thing A or Thing B?

Look - a small yummy baby in a hat I made - squuuueeeee


Now is that Thing A or Thing B?

Joy - if you're reading this do let me know which of your gorgeous daughters that is....

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The Owl

Not really knitting I know. I have done my first bit of sewing for years and I am rather chuffed.

It's all my mother's fault - we stopped off at their house on the way back from holiday and she gave me a bag of fabric which included this fabric..


... which I loved. The owl especially - look, isn't he cute??....


So - I cut him out and rummaged through my fabric and found a backing piece, cleared out the sewing box and found some thread (and lots of things I forgot I owned...) and started on him.

And - I finished him - and he's lovely...
And here's a picture of him with Orla - so you can get a sense of scale...


So there you go - a new hobby *grin*

There are 3 more on the fabric cut off as well as some mice and some hedgehogs - so I may make a whole menagerie!

Baby Surprise Jacket

Well - I am now totally hooked (pun intended) on this pattern.
I am about half way through my second one and am loving every moment I get to work on it.

I've finally taken some pics.
This is the first one I did - using Debbie Bliss Merino Aran - I have some lovely hand-made patterns winging their way to be via a lovely Etsy seller.

The second one I am making using some lovely Krafty Koala merino wool. I am using much larger needles and hoping this will fit my 2 year old daughter (no of course I didn't knit a swatch!!!)


I'd love to make an adult one next but am loathed to use a really chunky wool - is there an adapted pattern for normal wool - so with more stitches??? Answers on a postcard to....

BSJ

I'm finally knitting my first Baby Surprise Jacket as part of this knitalong.

I spent ages swatching trying to decide on colours:



I finally decided to go for the Debbie Bliss Merino Aran in plain red and have just got some more in a pale gold colour to accent it. Really enjoying working on this - it certainly is an unusual pattern.

Go Gryffindor

Morgan wanted me to knit him a Gryffindor hat - well actually he wanted socks first.... but then he looked at the 'Charmed Knits' book and decided he wanted a beanie.  So a beanie he got.

It was a very easy knit and I loved the fact it is my Primary School colours - made me think of my school days *grin*

Morgan was a little sad when he tried it on - his brother had just hit him in the mouth - hopefully I'll get some better shots soon.

Twin Hats

My lovely friend Joy has just had twins so I knitted them some hats.

I used Hipknits Aran silk which I love knitting with.  Joy is not a girlie girl (a bit like me) so pink wasn't really an option.  I used the lovely jewel-like colours of plain green and plain purple.  One hat in each with an accent of the other to connect them.  I even did my first fairisle with the purple.

I love how these have turned out and am going to post them off today. 

Now what to do with the remains?