Weekly Update!

Hello all!

First off, I'd like to mention that Episode 2 of my knitting podcast is now up! Hop on over there and listen whilst your needle click! [And follow....that'd be ever so nice!]

Alrighty, let's get down to it!

The pile of hexipuffs is ever growing, I knitted one in public yesterday! Ooooooh! It was my first time knitting in public and I drew a few puzzled looks from those sat in the dentist's waiting room [waiting in there for my Mother]. I love hexipuffs, you really can take them anywhere. No-one asked me what I was knitting, sadly, but I was being watched non the less.

Is anyone a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic? Yeah, me too! So a couple of my hexipuffs are a mention to Fluttershy, who is the best pony and y'all know it, on one 'puff I embroidered 2 butterflies and on the other I sewed on a matching butterfly that I'd knitted! I don't know if I'm going to reference any other pony, but you never know.

I don't even know how many hexipuffs I have at the moment, looks like I'll be counting again soon.

I'm still knitting the Dr Watson scarf, it's growing! I'll be writing up my pattern soon.

Hopefully this afternoon I shall be doing the hood on the Saturday Morning Hoodie. I can't wait to finish it off and bundle my man into it!

Speaking of Craig....that's him modelling my current 'daisies' of sewn together 'puffs.

Until next time!

Knitting Novels

We all know that knitting & reading is like cheese & crackers, as you can draw inspiration out of a character, or place, but I hadn't realised there were knitting novels!

I've been skimming over some ebay listings and I've seen the following titles;

Friday Night Knitting Club - Kate Jacobs (Owned)
Friday Night Knitting Club, Knit Two - Kate Jacobs (Owned)
Not Tonight Darling, I'm Knitting - Betsy Hosegood
Knitting - Anne Bartlett
The Knitting Goddess - Deborah Bergman
Died in the Wool - Mary Kruger
Knit Fast, Die Young - Mary Kruger
It's My Party and I'll Knit if I Want To - Sharon Aris (Owned)
At Knit's End - Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
The Knitting Circle - Ann Hood
Knit One, Kill Two - Maggie Sefton
Skein of the Crime - Maggie Sefton



So, anyone know any others? I'm rather interested in reading these, I'm so amused by the mystery titles though.

Round Up

Hello!
First off I thought I'd do some advertising, well for myself, as I've started a podcast! First one can be listened to here and future podcasts will have some more structure!

On the needles

I'm still knitting hexipuffs, I have about 85 now. All pretty colours, need to clear a space to try putting some together, I have had the idea to do some 3D butterflies and flowers on them, with the aid of 75 birds, butterflies & beautiful beasties to knit & crochet (nix the crochet, can't do that yet) also the internet. I still have some lovely charts to work on some hexipuffs that I downloaded from Ravelry.

Took a trip to the cinema with my lovely fiance to see Sherlock Holmes (2): A Game of Shadows and what should he decide to adore? Dr. Watson's hand knit [by his wife] scarf, as you can see in the above image. So we took a trip to our local yarn store to find the colours, instead of the blue he's chosen a teal/green shade. I started using this blog for a guide, but found the pattern didn't quite work for my yarn so I'm making the stripes longer. Though the ribbing is lovely, really makes the fabric denser. I really do love stripe patterns.

Finally on the needles is the Saturday morning hoodie I'm knitting for my fiance's birthday present. I have the majority of the main body finished, now I just need to sew the raglan, attempt the hood and do the edgings... and decide if I should line it and if I should zipper it instead of sew on buttons.

I've also rediscovered an Alan Dart pattern in a back issue of Simply Knit, which is of a Doctor. Now if you're like me, you'll be a fan of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com and know the infamous character of Doctor Insano, now if you're like me you'll be making the obvious connection. I have a fun-fur yarn, which I bought for no apparent reason, I can use for the hair, so here I am creating another project for myself to do.

Finally

I'm not sure if you are aware, but here in Walsall it's bloody cold! The temperature is really dropping at the moment, so I'm glad I'm a knitter. I currently have my yet to be featured on this blog shawl wrapped around me and another undisclosed scarf around my neck as it hasn't been fringed yet.

So this is me signing off!

Chicest Link

You may remember in my blog post; Knitting and a Period Drama, that I had cast on for a purple cardigan, so I'm here now to post photos of said purple cardigan.
In the end I didn't knit the Chilli Pepper jumper, but a simple crew neck jumper, post soon).

Though I did cast off on this project a few months ago, I've only just got round to photographing it. The flash has made it look like different shades though it's all the same deep purple.

It's knit in Hayfield Bonus DK (produced by Sirdar) and the shade is Purple. (You can buy it from Deramores)



You can see the detail a little better here, the waistband is shaped by changing the needles to a smaller size, thus giving waist definition.

The lace was repetitive and tricky at times, seeing as when I cast on I couldn't do lace very well.
The neckline is a lovely graduating V that has simple repeating decreases so you can't really go wrong.

I didn't knit the ties (that go on the waistband) as I liked the cardigan as it was once I'd finished it, and it looks better wrapped around, almost like a kimono.

The sleeves are nice and simple, this project was the first time I'd tried a garter stitch cuff instead of a ribbed cuff, and I like how it fits on my wrist.

The pattern is from Simply Knit magazine (issue 80, I believe) which you can probably find on ebay.

'Puff along

As you can see I've started sewing some of my hexipuffs together into these, er daisies? Daisies. So I have these two daisies at this present time, though I still have a tote bag full of the little smushy-puffy goodness.

I really like the mushroom/toadstool hexipuff, and the ring around it. I bought that ball of yarn on Saturday from Wilkinsons for £1.50 and I've barely made a dent into it yet.

I worked out how many hexipuffs I'll need: 600 whole ones....and I have no clue how many half puffs I'll be requiring to complete this quilt.

62/600

My Current Fave Hexipuff

I took five little balls of yarn with me to Craig's this weekend, and at this moment I have added 10 hexipuffs to the collection. This puts me at a total of 33 so far.

So I decided to play around with yarn colour combinations which is where this love striped 'puff came from.

White is always a good base, but the little blue and pink stripes work so well together. The jewel tones always look special, don't they?

I'm now thinking of other ways to have fun with patterns, I've seen some hexipuff charts which I may have a go at a couple of them. I've seen slip stitch patterns in magazines, so I could have fun with those.