Chevron lace fingerless mitts

I got two brilliant new craft books for Christmas, both of which had been on my wish list for a while. The first was Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders edited by Judith Durant and the second was I Can’t Believe I’m Crocheting Socks by Karen Whooley. I was probably more excited about the concept of crocheting socks to begin with, but as soon as I browsed the one-skein wonders book, a dozen projects were crying out to me and demanding my time right away. I do have rather a lot of stashed sock yarn and quite a bit of it was purchased before I knew much about knitting socks. You know, little things like hand knitted socks can be itchy unless you buy just the right yarn – and hand knitted socks are super-cozy and warm but your feet might not actually fit inside your shoes when you’re wearing them unless you go up a shoe size!

So the first project I decided to tackle was not socks, but these fingerless gloves. I needed to learn a few new skills to make them:

* Crochet picot cast on! A completely new concept to me – crocheting onto a knitting needle. Very confusing at first, but how completely clever once you’ve worked it out!

* Using a stitch-marker! I really don’t know how I got by until now without knowing this, but I really didn’t know how to use a stitch-marker properly before. I have some which are like little tiny plastic paper clips and have always used them by hooking them around the yarn itself. I couldn’t find them when I needed them though, which caused much cursing and rummaging and made me very stressed indeed, until I remembered I had these beautiful beaded stitch markers which my lovely friend Amanda made for me a few years ago. “But I can’t hook them over the yarn, they don’t have an opening!”, I thought, and finally went off to Google to search for how to use a stitch-marker properly. You just slip it over the needle. How silly did I feel? It’s easy when you know how!

* Thumbs! I’ve never knitted anything with thumbs (or fingers) before. It was a little bit daunting at first but worked out fine. I’m not sure what I was so worried about.

* Picot bind-off! Fortunately the instructions for this were included in the pattern so I couldn’t go too far wrong.

And I love them! The only thing I would do differently is to make them a bit smaller (by using smaller needles). I wish I had checked Ravelry before I begun knitting as I found that almost everyone who’d made these before me had said the same thing. I may well make another pair before long though as they were a really quick knit.

Pattern: Chevron Lace Fingerless Mitts by Lynne A Evans from Sock-Yarn One Skein Wonders (on Ravelry)
Yarn: Wendy Happy Bamboo yarn in Lavender (2525)
Needles: 2.75mm DPNs (but I would use 2.5mm or even 2.25mm if I were to make them again)

A look back at 2011 – Q4

Letting the pictures do the talking.

October:

November:

December:

A look back at 2011 – Q3

A post of few words, or these will never get posted. All three of us have been quite poorly with a bad throat/cough/cold for the last week and are still suffering to a smaller or larger extent. That’s another one of those things I’ve learnt about parenting — the things they never tell you — you catch every germ there is going. I’m sure I’ve been ill more in the last six months than in the past five years. Baby D has been very miserable with his cold too but has been sleeping a lot because of it and is definitely on the mend now.

Anyway, you don’t want to hear about our germs. On with those pictures. I love the way each month’s mosaic has a certain colour/mood/feeling about it. They give an overall impression even without many words.

July:

A very green month. Warm but not a whole lot of sunshine. Time in the garden, time crocheting, time snuggling with the baby. Things I made included a pram bag, my first amigurumi, a coffee cafetiere cozy and a tag blankie.

August:

I think this is my favourite mosaic.

September:

Warmer days, blue skies, time in the garden. Our first home-grown tomato of the year. The top-right picture shows a project which is finished but not yet blocked, so I haven’t actually photographed or written about it yet. The start of a ripple blanket.

Happy days.

A look back at 2011 – Q2

April:

Well April was a month we will never forget. April Fools’ day was my last day at work — my colleagues gave me a lovely card and a very generous gift of Amazon vouchers. It was a month of two babies — at the start of the month J became an Uncle when his sister gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. And of course, towards the end of the month, my precious Baby D arrived! In the weeks in between, well, I kept myself busy but I’m not entirely sure doing what — enjoying the glorious spring weather, knitting, baking, and putting my feet up as much as possible, by all accounts.

May:

In May, Baby D was settling in at home. I somehow managed to find the time to finish his hooded striped top, but thinking back I have no idea how I found the time to do anything creative at all back then. We travelled with Baby D for the first time — to visit his Great Grandma on her 90th birthday!

June:

Baby D was becoming more alert and I made him a cheery floor mat. I was also working on another summer garden crochet blanket — which I have since decided I don’t actually like very much. There’s just something weird about the colours. I bought some amazing Derwent Inktense Blocks as soon as they hit the shops and was very excited about giving them a try — but you know what? I still haven’t taken the celophane off the box. Ah well, I have come to learn that with a baby in the house, some things get deprioritised. There will be time for drawing and painting and all those other things further down the line. For now, my boy is the most all-consuming and wonderful thing — and becomes more so every day.

A look back at 2011 – Q1

I had prepared a lengthy review of 2011 but somehow WordPress ate my draft overnight. Rather than try to repeat what I’d written (which took ages), here are the mosaics and some short monthly summaries.

January:

An alcohol-free New Year because, of course, I was growing a bump. The knitting for the forthcoming arrival had begun — I was knitting a little hat and jacket out of some Sirdar Snuggly Domino that I’d had stashed for years. I also decided it was time to do something with my stash of Baby Cashmerino — and added to it with some finds in the sales.

February:

The bump was growing — I was into my third trimester — and Mika discovered that a baby bump made a great pillow for cats. The Baby Cashmerino outfit was completed but I didn’t get a chance to write about it until March — read about it here.

March:

March was my last month at work. The spring arrived and I was busy knitting a ‘Born under a star’ baby blanket — I mentioned in my last post that this had become Baby D’s favourite snuggle-blankie — and a striped top for him. I’d been driving a Mini E — a fully electric version of the classic BMW Mini — for the last six months as part of a field trial. The trial ended in March and I very reluctantly had to give my Mini back. They ran a little awards ceremony and presented me with an award for the first baby incubated in a Mini E — the prize being a lovely little Mini Babygrow!

I’ll move on to April in another post to avoid my draft getting eaten again!

Born under a star

Happy New Year everybody!

We’ve had a couple of days of dreadfully windy weather here. We suffered minimal damage compared to some parts of the country, but the fence between our house and the neighbours’ has come down, a lot of my loved plants have been knocked about and pots broken, and despite having our house number painted on it in huge white numbers, our recycling box was blown down the road never to be found or returned. Today, though, has been gloriously sunny, spring-like and fresh. I even heard a chaffinch “pink-pink”-ing outside which was very cheery and really gave me a glorious new year feeling, even though the worst of the winter is probably yet to come.

Christmas and New Year were fun, if a little chaotic. I may have taken a little too much on, resulting in a feeling that I didn’t quite get to sit down and enjoy things as much as I could or should have done, what with it being baby’s first Christmas. It was the first time we’ve hosted and overall it was a huge success though — it was good to see my family and everyone said they had a lovely time, which is what it’s all about I suppose!

I’m going to try to do a mini review of 2011 in pictures if I get a chance, but I thought I’d show off my first finished object of 2012 — this cute little blanket for Baby D.

I made one before he was born from a pale turquoise coloured Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino yarn — it was his “coming home from hospital” blanket and he slept under it in his moses basket. He’s outgrown it as a bed cover now but as he’s got larger he’s taken to cuddling it and chewing on it — it’s his favourite snuggle-blankie and when we put him down to sleep he immediately looks for it and gets quite agitated if it’s not there. So, I figured I should make another as a spare — if only so that I can wash the first!

I couldn’t find the same colour yarn but found this gorgeous green Baby Cashmerino and hoped that the colour wouldn’t matter too much so long as it felt the same. It certainly seems to have done the trick — I finished it yesterday and gave it a light steam blocking before swapping it for the old one (which went straight into the washing machine). When he went for his nap he reached up for it, pulled it over his head and dozed off right away. I think we can say that’s a win!

Pattern: Born under a star baby blanket – from the book Purls of Wisdom by Jenny Lord (on Ravelry)
Yarn: Baby Cashmerino – shade 340047 (2 balls exactly)
Needles: 6.5 mm
Baby D approval test: Pass with flying colours!

Christmas is coming

It’s starting to feel really Christmassy around here now.

We bought a six foot (artificial) tree at the start of December and it has been twinkling away in the corner of our living room ever since. We’ve never had a big tree before — I have a potted Christmas tree which comes in each year and that has had to suffice. It was a tiny table decoration when I bought it five-or-so years ago, but I’ve potted it up each year and now it’s grown to about eighteen inches tall. It’s starting to look a bit worse for wear; hot summers and too little TLC mean the lower branches have lost a lot of their needles and it no longer has a nice Christmas tree shape at the top. It still cheers the place up when it’s decorated though, so we’ve brought it in and put it on a side table next to the piano in the dining room anyway.

This year we figured a big new tree was a must though, seeing as it’s baby’s first Christmas. As the weeks go by he seems to be getting more and more interested by its colours and twinkly lights. I mostly bought new decorations for it — why would I have a lot of baubles if I’ve never had a big tree to put them on? — but I do have a few from years gone by when I saw pretty decorations that I couldn’t resist, despite no tree to put them on. Like this one — my favourite:

I wish I could remember where I got it from so I could get some more — you can see why it’s my favourite, can’t you? I’m so pleased to be able to have it on display this year!

I’ve also been knitting. Knitting quite slowly, since the quiet times I get for such things seem to be few and far between at the moment. Now Baby D is on stage 2 weaning I seem to spend most of his nap times cooking meals for him in batches so that I can freeze some. Today it was Salmon with Carrots & Tomato, a recipe from the Annabel Karmel baby & toddler meal planner book. He likes his food a bit lumpy now so I mashed it instead of pureeing and it went down a treat. It was quite a fiddly recipe what with peeling and de-seeding tomatoes, steaming carrots, microwaving fish, grating cheese, then combining everything in the right order — but he really does love his food so it’s got to be worth the effort and it won’t be long before he’ll be eating the same food as us, just mashed up a bit more.

But anyway — that knitting. I always wanted a proper knitted Christmas stocking when I was little so I thought I should have a go at making one for D. I couldn’t find a pattern that I liked so I figured I would wing it and make something up — I knit enough socks and a stocking is just a big sock — big yarn and big needles, right? Well, yes — it seems I wasn’t far wrong, and I’m very pleased with the result! There are one or two things I would do slightly differently if I were to make another, but for a first go I’m really pleased! Here it is:

I probably should have put something in the picture to give a better idea of scale — it’s about 60cm from top to toe.

Baby D seems rather confused by it, although he does like the bright, bold stripes. I’ve tried to explain about Father Christmas coming to fill it with presents for him and he seems rather confused by that too, but we’re not letting that spoil the fun.

I’ll have a go at writing up the pattern for my stocking if anybody is interested… in time for next Christmas, anyway!

Counting down the sleeps until D discovers what it’s for…

Christmas wrist warmers

The start of the Christmas season is always marked for me by our village Christmas fayre, which usually happens on the first Friday in December. It really brings the community together — one of the main roads through the village is closed and stalls are set up, offering crafts, gifts and raffles — as well as hot dogs, mulled wine, mince pies and beer from a local brewery. The local schools and scout groups take part, and it was made all the more fun for me this year because I was playing with the band.

I’d been warned how cold it can be, standing on the street corner playing carols in December, so I decided to make myself some Christmassy fingerless mittens to wear while I was playing.

I used Lucy of Attic24′s pattern for wrist warmers again — I made some striped ones a couple of years ago and practically lived in them I liked them so much.

Here they are:

The details:

Pattern: Wrist warmers by Lucy of Attic24 (on Ravelry)
Yarn: Rowan Pure Wool DK in red (and white, for the edging)
Hook: 4mm

They got lots of compliments and I’ve already been asked to make another pair by one of my fellow band-members for next time we’re out playing in the cold!

Ripples

Here’s my contribution to the great Internet-wide ripple-along which is happening the moment — inspired by Lucy of Attic 24 and Heather of Little Tin Bird.

I actually made two almost-identical blankets, one to give as a Christmas present since I was so pleased with the one made for baby D. The only difference is that the first (ours) starts and ends with red rows and the one which will be a present starts and ends with blue rows — and the one to be a present doesn’t have any mistakes in it! No telling who it’ll be for — it’s a secret!

The details:

Pattern: Waterbeach Ripple – from 200 Ripple Stitch Patterns by Jan Eaton (on Ravelry)
Yarn: Sirdar Supersoft Aran
Hook: 5.0 mm

I found the pattern a little difficult to understand but once I had it sussed it was easy enough and I love the final texture, with thick sections where the cluster stitches are. The added row of sc meant that it wasn’t the quickest ripple pattern to complete but it was definitely worth the effort. I used a foundation chain of 121 (7 pattern repeats +2) and ended up with blankets which should be plenty large enough to keep the babies cosy in their pushchairs as they get a bit older — baby D has already outgrown the car-seat sized ripple blankie I made for him before.

All quiet

Time is slipping away through my fingers and I never seem able to catch it. It may be very quiet here at Fantasy Landscape but that isn’t a reflection of life — more the polar opposite, as it is rare these days to get a quiet moment. While I don’t get a chance to sit down and write often, I wish I could do so more than ever since there are so many moments I don’t want to forget.

I have been busy with lots of projects — some still waiting to be blocked, others posted off to friends before I remembered I should take a photo. I’m crocheting a rippled blanket or two, like so many seem to be at the moment, and finally got around to planting my hyacinth bulbs into glass vases for some flowery winter cheer.

The little boy is six months old already — well, nearer to seven months old now as it has already been more than a fortnight since his half-birthday. He’s a bundle of joy and mischief, and keeps me on my toes. Weaning is going well — he currently has two meals a day, porridge with fruit puree in the morning, and some other fruit or veg purees in the afternoon. His favourites are pear, broccoli, butternut squash and mango — the boy eats more exotic foods than his mum and dad! I really enjoy making up his little portions of food and the freezer is suddenly full of pear cubes, butternut squash cubes… one squash makes an awful lot of baby meals!

He even enjoyed spinach.