Weasley Blanket & Wedding Blanket

I am one of those insane people who think casting on for a blanket is a good idea. I keep thinking that it'll decrease my stash, and yet I don't think I've completely used up a ball of yarn in one of these projects. In fact I think I may have added to my yarn stash because of these. Add to the fact that I've learned to do granny squares in crochet *insert a victory dance here* and that I still haven't finished my bee keeper's quilt, well I may be drowning in blankets.

And yet I have finished two of these stash busting projects!

The Weasley Blanket

It will come as a surprise to no-one but I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I went on the studio tour with my husband as part of our honeymoon week.
So for me to have something Potter without outwardly screaming; "HARRYPOTTERHARRYPOTTER"  is a good thing. And it's a replica.

It's the Ron Weasley Blanket by Penguineer and here is my version.

I have loved knitting this, each square has been lovingly researched and you can knit it up with stash! I loved that aspect so stash was used.

I used 5mm needles and DK yarn. I even managed a neat single crochet border.

It's great to be curled up underneath it with my husband.

And talking of husbands! [What a great transition].

Wedding Blanket

My friend recently got married!

So since they announced their engagement I've been knitting log cabin squares to make into a colourful blanket. Pretty, huh? I almost didn't want to part with it.

You can see it's project page as there's no pattern for it.

It's been knit out of various DK yarns on 4.5mm needles.

My Peggy Sue

I've knit a few sweaters/cardigans now, my husband [yeah, we got married last month] has 4 now, my nephew has one, my mom has one and I've knit myself one in the past. They've all been bottom-up. Well, I've recently cast off my first top-down cardigan!

Woohoo!

P-A-R-T-Y? Because I gotta!

I chose to knit the Peggy Sue, with my own modifications of course. Here's My Peggy Sue (links to my project page).
It's a free pattern on Ravelry, a delightful little 1950's style cropped sweater, very feminine, very flattering. The neckline follows your collar bone whilst the cabled ribbing accentuates your waist.
And you'll notice that mine has no such effect, well except the neckline, I like that neckline. There's also the stripes, I haven't seen anyone else do stripes yet.

I did omit the shaping in the body as I was extending it.

I based the stripe pattern on one of my favourite cardigans, which is blue/brown/yellow, and I really wanted a green one.

So, below are my modifications.

Let's start with the yarns. I have 5 colourways in my cardigan. All being from the Stylecraft DK ranges.

Colour 1 - Fern (Collar, button band & stripe) (100g ball)
Colour 2 - Daffodil (Stripe) (100g ball)
Colour 3 - Zingy (Ribbing & stripe) (Will need 2x 100g balls)
Colour 4 - Charcoal (100g ball)
Colour 5 - Pebble (100g ball)

Cast on with Fern and work the collar and raglan set up row.
Change to Daffodil for 14 rows.
Change to Zingy for 18 rows.
Change to Charcoal for 18 rows.
Change to Fern for 18 rows.
Change to Zingy for 18 rows.
Change to Pebble for 18 rows.
Change to Daffodil for 18 rows.
Change to Zingy for 30 rows of 2x2 ribbing.
Cast off and rejoin for sleeves, and keep the stripe pattern (above) the same as the body.

When you rejoin for the sleeves, pick up 5 stitches on the under-arm and decrease them down the next few rounds. I chose the slp1, k2tog, psso method.

The sleeves are bracelet length on me, though still a little baggy. I decreased 6 stitches in the Pebble section as it's where my forearm starts to get narrow.

There are 8 buttons which are 15mm wide and spaced evenly along the button band which is followed by the pattern only with more stitches picked up and a little maths which meant the button holes were being worked after every 19 stitches.

I hope these notes are helpful, or just of interest to you.

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week 2013 - Day Three: Infographic

Ah, I do like to start projects, I don't tend to finish them very quickly though. I'm terrible with blankets though, usually with the thought of "Oh, this'll decrease my stash!" but you know what? It never bloody does!

Log Cabin Blanket (not yet on Ravelry)

"Stash Depleting" Blanket

Sock Yarn Blanket (not yet on Ravelry)

Weasley Blanket

Log Cabin Squares

Bee Keepers Quilt

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week 2013- Day Two: A Mascot Project

I quite like that I'm a bee. I love bees. I love the internet meme's about bees, well I say "about" I think I mean more along the lines of "mention". Be it Batman saying "Bees. My God." in Amazons Attack or Nic Cage screaming "Not the bees!". I love it.

Now knitting? Well obviously there's the Bee Keeper's Quilt, which I've been working on for over a year. All those delicious little hexipuffs that go together like honeycomb.

In my quilt, I've been adding things I love in bit by bit. There's a hexipuff in there with the Deathly Hallows symbol on it. There's two hexipuffs with butterflies on it, to look like Fluttershy's cutie mark.
There's even an owl in there! I love owls.

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week 2013- Day One: The House Cup

After reading through the choices on Eskimimimakes (and donning my Gryffindor hat) I think it's fair to say I'm at home in House Bee.

There's always a new pattern I want to cast on, or a yarn I want to use, a look through my project bags and my Ravelry page can tell you that.

Hey, I haven't finished my Bee keeper's quilt yet, but I do a few hexipuffs here and there, it'll get done soon enough. I have a few scrap blankets on the go, one for sock yarn and two (or three) dk ones. A couple of lonely socks without partners, hanging out together. A teddy bear, a couple of shawls. They'll get finished when they get finished.

To be honest, life can be crappy, so if I feel like casting on something new I'm going to cast on something new.

I'm a bee.

Hey, it's okay;

You know, being a perfectionist could drive a person crazy. So I've decided to let things happen as they will with my knitting, loosen my gauge.

Hey, it's okay;

• If my stripes don't match when knitting that second sock.
• To cast on new projects without finishing old ones.
• To buy another skein/ball of yarn without a project in mind.
• To not follow a pattern to the letter.
• To substitute yarns.
• If knitting with lace weight mohair isn't your thing, even if it did cost more than that aran jumper did.

There's a few of mine for you, I'd love to know yours.

Inspiration Shall Strike

Forgive me for being such an absentee blogger, my karma for this? Well I'm feeling a little rusty on the writing front. So before I jump back into frequent blogging, I thought I'd do a post on something other than knitting. "Something other than knitting?" I hear you cry, yes, dear reader, I'm afraid so!

Knitting is all well and good, but what is the point of creating if you aren't inspired? Given that inspiration can strike at any moment, where do I begin? I figure with my reading material as of late and then proceed to films I've seen lately, though in some cases these may intermingle.

Given the film's release this winter, I chose to reread The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. The thrill of going back to the Middle Earth of my imagination was wonderful! I can see Bilbo's perfectly round green door, his homely hobbit hole, the landscapes and the caves, for me it was like going home. Then I went on an adventure of my own; to the cinema to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, though my journey there wasn't unexpected, I've been anticipating it for years now. That first glimpse of Hobbiton, along with the score, actually brought tears to my eyes!
After seeing this again I chose to cast on my Hitchhiker in the green and yellow of Bilbo's front door.

Another book I've recently finished reading is Jam by Yahtzee Croshaw, an internet reviewer of video games and rather hilarious. It's about a Jampocalypse, really, strawberry-scented-man-eating-jam. I urge you to read it. It's rather refreshing, in a sticky-jammy way, given the recent rise of zombies in the media to have an apocalypse so sweet!

The weekend just passed I took Craig to see Wreck it Ralph at the cinema as an early Valentine's gift [it's only just opened in cinemas here in the UK]. My love of video games comes from character, story, history and art, and I am nowhere near the gamer my other half is, but that isn't to say I didn't grow up with Lara Croft, Pokemon and Sonic the Hedgehog. So this film was a real treat for the both of us, getting the in jokes, noticing characters in the background, being amazed at everything/everywhere in general, of course it had it's Disneyisms but that was easy to put aside. It really reminded me of what I was knitting when I started; pokemon characters and using 8-bit sprites as colour work charts. I miss doing that. One of my New Years goals is to knit what I feel, and I feel nostalgic.

It's no surprise that I'm inspired by Deadpool, I get so excited waiting for each new issue, I even knit a doll of him recently. I adore the merc. with a mouth, he's my favourite in the Marvel roster.

 Yesterday I watched Midnight in Paris. My stars! This film is magical! Given that I adore the 1920's anyway, it made me want to visit Paris more now than ever. I loved seeing all the notable figures of that era, and the clothes and the music. That's the magic of film, you can bring anything to life. I am on a Tom Hiddleston kick as of late, but he's such a fantastic actor! He's so eloquent and has a voice meant to listen to. He acts with such a passion that I find myself so inspired by his performance. Doesn't hurt that he plays Loki, either.

So, this is my inspiration lately.

Until next time. xo