It was my Birthday!

I'm sorry for my lack of blogging, my wedding planning is very distracting! To make up for it I'm going to share with you my birthday goodies!

Yes, I celebrated my 22nd year last week (13th, unlucky for some) and my family was generous as ever so I got to purchase some cool things.

I was this on tumblr and just had to get it! I've coveted a lot of Tangerine Designs products, and what better reason to get it than my birthday? I love Doctor Who, Saturdays are now must-watch tv days! Every other day I'm running around with my sonic screwdriver. Now my needles can be gauged in style!

I may have said before, but I *love* Deadpool, this year I had a theme for my presents from my wonderful fiancé, can you guess? Yup, the Merc. with a Mouth himself. This yarn is just so Deadpool, the red & black of his costume coupled with the sparklies with I'm saying represent his swords!
I have to thank Lyndsey of Countess Ablaze for the 2nd skein, letting me keep it when it turned up was very kind of you, thank you so much!
My other Deadpool presents were a graphic novel, a custom card and a cake he decorated himself, he also got me a ball winder, squeeee!

I love Vincent Van Gough, he's one of my favourite artists, the colours in his work are so wonderful, I've been coveting these yarns since their release. Sunflowers is my favourite artwork and the yarn is so wonderful, my favourite colours in a ball. I also liked Starry Night, but I chose Cafe because of the yellow in it, my birthday present yarn means my socks.

I wanted this a while ago, it's Loki by Gnome Acres, but I couldn't afford it at that time, but Amanda had a huge update the day after my birthday and there was Loki, I had to snag it! I love the shades as much as I love the character.

I also had gift vouchers for books so I got a few more knitting ones! Which I should be reviewing in the near future!

Yarn Review: Moonlight Sonata DK

If you follow me on Twitter you may have seen me raving about this yarn, raving about it so much that I decided I'd write up a review.

The yarn in question is James C. Brett Moonlight Sonata Double Knitting, how romantic does that name sound?

I picked up this yarn on a whim when I was out buying sock yarn, it just looked pretty and I knew I wanted it. I'm a sucker for doing this, hence my current not-buying-yarn-for-a-while thing I have going on.

I just loved the colours in it, and the way it's balled up reminded me of the sparkly Loop batts I keep seeing on podcasts like Knitabulls (which you should all go watch because Diane is amazing). So for someone who can't spin [yet] I guess this is the next best thing.

Like I said it's a DK weight, so good for scarves, but want to know what blew my mind once I checked the meterage? It's 500m! Roughly 546 yards. In one ball! So there's a nice scarf in one ball.

The ball band says it's 10% Mohair - 10% Wool - 75% Acrylic - 5% Metallic and it's so lovely to work with. I bought shade 'SM7' which is gorgeous jewel shades paired with a gorgeous olive shade, all intertwined with a golden metallic thread. I think one of the reasons why I fell for this yarn is the blues, they remind me of my engagement ring.

I'm not usually a sparkle person, but this yarn is amazing and I love it, and I'm seriously considering getting enough for a cardigan for smarter occasions, though in a different shade.

The only thing I've found I dislike about James C. Brett yarns is how they have codes not shades, that's it really, that's my gripe. The whole range is affordable. Moonlight Sonata costs around £5.20 for 500m for such a beautiful yarn, which would be about £15- £20 for a beautiful cardigan, not bad at all.

The pattern I'm knitting is the Extra-Long Stripy Scarf from Knitting Vintage by Claire Montgomerie. I've loved the whole feather-and-fan patterns for a long time, and I knew this would be the best pattern for the yarn, classic enough. Plus it's a 4 row repeat, so great for mindless knitting.

Franken-Monster

You know what? I'm really enjoying knitting these Monsters, I've just completed my 2nd one which is a bit of a Franken-Monster.

I chose to knit the Lurleen the Laundry Monster pattern, form the ever popular and amazing; The Big Book of Knitted Monsters by Rebecca Danger.

Back in April I finished a pair of Hermione's Every Day socks in some very attractive Regia sock yarn, and I had leftovers. I've just realised that the yarn was based on a childrens book about sock monsters!

So I used up that for the body, some yarn I'd dyed up for the head, and a lovely little 10g ball of Opal sock yarn for the arms/feet. Now I have to find out this colour way, as it is beautiful.

She has now gotten the nickname "Boob-foot", you only have to look at the photos to realise why, just the way the yarn striped.

I knit her up in quick time on 2.75mm DPNs, once I've learnt how to knit in the round with a circular needle I'll have to have a go at using a heavier weight yarn for the monsters.

Squares and Affection

Squares

I have a chair in my room which I love to sit in, put my feet up and knit. As this chair is cream of all colours, I have a throw on it. This throw is now getting a little threadbare, but I love this it!

I bought it from IKEA a couple of years ago, from the bargain corner, so it had a hole in it already. I didn't care, think I paid about £3 for it. All I did was knit a ribbed square and sew it on over the hole.

Fast forward to now, and I'm at the height of my yarn collecting. I'm knitting things all over the shop and I have odd balls of yarn. I figure, why not use them up and save something I love? I can practice different square knitting methods, learn something new, it's fun!

As you can see I have kept the squares to a natural-ish pallet, using 5.5mm needles for aran weights and 4.5mm needles for the bulky. This keeps the squares at the same sizes

Affection

And by affection I mean the ever popular Colour [Color] Affection. 

I've chosen grey, yellow and green as my colour scheme, ooh they look so tasty together, don't you think? Craig bought me the yarn, it's Stylecraft Life 4ply in Silver Grey, Zest and Fern.

Everyone appears to love knitting this, so I'll give it a go. I'm going to start with the grey.

Best get started then! I'm off to watch Revenge, laters!

Projects!!!

Given the long time in me not posting my projects on here, I am still knitting, and I've finished a big, a few medium and a few small projects.
So, here they are:

Nevada Hat

It's called the Nevada hat because that's the 'shade' of yarn it's knitted in. I used Sirdar Indie and a hat pattern that came with the yarn. I also knitted a huge jumper for myself (for those really cold days that'll be approaching) that is miles too big and the sleeves are really long, nice and warm though. The colour combinations are beautiful too, just look at that blue.

Cables and lace hat


This pattern came from an issue of Simply Knitting and is super nice to wear. The yarn is Robin Aran, i don't know the shade my nan gave it to me.

Pink Lace Scarf

This is going with something for my nan's Christmas present, as she expressed interest in it whilst I was knitting it. I cannot remember the yarn's name but (if I remember right) it's a Tivoli yarn, most likely one that is discontinued. I got the pattern for it from the back of a Simply Knitting issue, their 'Stitch Library' it was very nice to do and the yarn comes out beautifully. I knit it on 4.5mm needles.

Military Lace Scarf

This is going to be another Christmas present, and another scarf created from the Stitch Library section of Simply Knitting magazine. It's knitted in a Robin yarn, but I've forgottent he exact colour, but it is DK. It's a lovely shade of green.

So, now you're updated and I can ponder what to post next.

Until next time!

The Yarn Files

I read letsKnit magazine, and unlike other magazines I find it fresh and young, with giggles thrown in. They have a section called the yarn files, so I thought I'd give it ago. Illustration by my dear boyfriend.

Name: Laura
Ravelry alias: perdi1309
WIP: A pair of socks.
UFO: A jumper for my boyfriend for xmas
FYS: Allsorts in Wednesbury, Wulfrun Wools and Crafts is Wolverhampton & ebay.
Favourite book: Currently 'Charmed Knits' by Allison Hansel or printed off patterns
Knitting heaven: Comfy chair whilst my bf is playing one of his games
Knitting hell: Having to undo over 20 rows because you forgot to shape armholes
Knitting hero: My mom (who taught me to knit) and my friend Gill (who taught me to purl)
Knitting ambition: To get this jumper done by Christmas
Least likely to knit: Something to be felted
Fantasy stash: My own little textile studio, where I can knit to my hearts content.
Knitting motto: (stolen from some witty so-n-so on cafepress) "Instant knitter, just add coffee"