Sock knitting: Take erm... Three!

So about a year ago the urge to knit socks took me, I don't know what it is about hand knitted socks I guess they are pretty yet so practical. So I had a go with some lovely rainbow opal yarn and got about an inch of ribbing on a plain sock that seemed to take forever! Then my not quite two year old at the time son ripped the needles out and I gave up.
Around Spring this year I found a book called cute knits for baby feet or something along those lines and came across the cutest baby socks and had to give them a go, I made a very cute baby sock with a messy heel which appeared to be too small. Once again that's as far as I got, plans to knit a whole range of cute baby socks never actually materialised.

Then a couple of weeks ago someone tempted me with their pretty hand knit socks again and I rose to the challenge and picked a lace pattern that wouldn't get boring (dragonfly socks) and have now made it to the heel of my first sock. It went pretty quickly, when I compared the measly 60 stitches a round with the 200+ I've done on a shawl it just didn't seem such a daunting task. I know I still have another sock to go but this time I am hoping third time lucky. I think I'm hooked!

Yarn dying fun continued.

I decided to wind up my first skein of yarn I dyed yesterday and thought whilst I was at it I may as well get some more pictures of all three skeins.

The first attempt: on the swift

All wound up.

Attempt number two, I wasn't happy with the basic red/blue/yellow I wanted purples and pinks and greens but wasn't really Happy with the products of my colour mixing skills, so firstly a trip to Hobbycraft was in order. I was going for a sort of rainbow, so after mixing a bunch of colours up and dying some 4" strands of yarn to see how the colours came out, I started on the pre-soaked skein (vinegar and water) I was too lazy to wind the yarn into a longer skein, so just tried to spiral the colours around which although not going as planned didn't look to bad, then I wrapped it in clingfilm and microwaved it as before. Unfortunately the colours mixed even more during the microwaving and came out rather messily! Attempt #3, I just decided to go for blue, pink and purple, covering a third of the skein in each colour and mixing gently where they met.
I had a very willing helper, in my eldest daughter, who was quite happy to help me rinse and squeeze out the yarn, though it may have had more to do with delaying bedtime and spending some uninterrupted time with me.

The results:

I have two un-dyed skeins left. I definitely need to look into methods of placing the colours as I have no idea how the knitted product will come out (knitting time is somewhat limited at the moment, and I have a lot of wip being ignored) but think this may become a bit of a new hobby. In case I forgot to mention yesterday the yarn is organic merino aran from Yarnundyed.

My sewing machine made a bit of an appearance yesterday, it has been a bit sadly neglected lately. It was a bit of an experiment really, I sewed an extra panel into a T-shirt to make it into a nursing T-shirt. I haven't tried it on yet, but am hoping it works just like my h&m nursing tops, which I love but don't really come in a wide range of colours or styles. Hopefully with the machine out though, I may get back into sewing again.

Yarn dying adventure

This is something I was thinking about a few months back but never got round to buying the yarn,then something reminded me and I ordered 5 skeins of organic merino aran from Yarnundyed.
It arrived super fast, so I dragged my poor kids round the supermarket looking for gel food colourings.
I found a pack of red, blue and yellow in Tesco and just dived straight in, the first try wasn't exactly as I was expecting. I soaked a skein in vinegar/water mix for a few hours then mixed some of the blue gel and red gel with a bit of water, trying to go for pink and blue. I then squeezed out the skein and attempted to paint it with a brush. With an impatient baby and a couple of small people eager to help it was taking too long, so I tried to suck up the food colouring mix with the empty tubes the gel had come from and squirted it on the yarn itself, then I wrapped it in cling film and put it into a microwave container and put it in the microwave for 3 minutes and then let it rest 3 minutes. I did this 3 times in total then rinsed it off.
It wasn't quite what I had expected, the red/pink was a lot paler than I had hoped and the blue was rather dominant.

I have since dyed another 2 skeins but as I don't seem to have the photo's I am certain I took I will share them later.

Introducing......

I haven't been around to much, I've been a bit busy growing and growing, and on the 16th of June we got to meet our squishy baby girl!

There has been lots of knitting going on too, so hopefully I shall be sharing that soon!

As usual a little late to the party!

But (and I know that But with a capital B is probably against the laws of grammer or something) as I am working on 3 projects at the moment (after saying in a public forum that two was nough for me) I really wanted to share!
So WIP wednesday! (on a Thursday!)

First up, the Mizzle, which I think I will be working on for a while as I am only doing about 2 rows of this a day, need to check how much of this yarn I have because I am thinking I would like to do the larger version.

Then My second baby cardigan, Bitty cabled cardigan. I really think I need to check my tension. This is newborn size but seems teeny and rather than frog I think I will just pass it off as a teddy/dolly cardigan if its too small for Bean.

I know it looks very un cardigan like at the moment!

I am using my first set of knitpro cubics and I am not sure how I feel about them right now, they seem a little rough actually and the yarn catches where the square part of the needle starts after the join, though to be honest seem to be struggling with knitpro joins at the moment and I am kind of lusting after a set of interchangable hiyhiya sharps.

And last but not least! I have cast on my first ever pair of longies (ultimate longies) with some gorgeous yarn from Pixieknits

This pattern is really testing me. I struggle with written instructions sometimes as I have to be able to process/picture it in my head, and there are instructions for 3 different weights of yarn and 5 different sizes, but it has some picture instructions to help with the short rows etc at the end of the pattern. It is certainly giving my brain a fair bit of excercise!
I am also a bit concerned these might be coming up a bit to small too, but they are on 30cm needles, these seem a bit difficult to find in the uk, I was eventually pointed in the direction of  some fixed addi's, which I haven't tried before but am quite liking (once I got used to how short they were)

So there we go, and for some actually timely WIP wednesdays, head over to Tami's Amis.

Making progress!

OK, so I am not quite finished with the cardigan, like I hoped! I have finished the body though and have moved onto the sleeves, YAY!

(excuse the state of my table! with 4 kids keeping it clean is an endless task)
Its a bit messy in places where I have fixed mistakes but I am hoping that this will look better after washing and blocking.

I have also managed a few rows on my mizzle, and after receiving these

started my first crochet project! It is only an Attic24 jar jacket, but it is coming along nicely!

I was thinking of using the left over yarn to make a small crochet baby blanket, but am not sure if there would be enough yarn.

Wednesday already!

Well seeing as it is, I may as well join in WIP Wednesday!
Well I am STILL working on the baby cardigan (Unbend cabled baby cardigan), I managed to get a big chunk done on Sunday but things have slowed down again since. I am challenging myself to get it finished this week though, but probably not by Friday!

I should have really put in button holes, but as the pattern doesn't state where to put them I just didn't bother. I could maybe just put loops on to fasten it with.

Yesterday on a bit of a whim I decided to cast on Mizzle, I have had a bit of an urge to do another shawl, I intended to use a sock yarn I had bought for a different shawl but its just to fuzzy, so I have used a ball of sublime merino 4ply I bought on a whim because it was on sale and purple, I only have two balls so not sure I have enough but we will see.

As you can see I haven't got far! I have used a set of fixed hiyahiya needles but to be honest I think they are a bit slippery so I am going to switch to my knitpro's.
Although I am not enjoying using them on the baby cardigan as the yarn keeps getting caught on the join, I also managed to snap one of the tips, whilst putting the sleeve stitches onto spare cables.

If you want to see some more WIP's head over to Tami's Amis

I have been over taken by procrastination!

It is amazing how I never seem to have time, yet at the same time I seem to waste so much of it!
Since my last post I have done very little crafting and an awful lot of browsing and shopping! It is amazing how an hour of my day can disappear on the computer while I am having a coffee and slice of toast. I would really like to just switch the computer off and not touch it for a month but then I would miss my friends and my daily adult conversations, I would have to print out all those patterns I had intentions of doing that are stored in cyber space, I wouldn't be able to you tube when I came across a new technique I was unsure of either. What would I do if I got stuck?

I must admit a little part of me could imagine living in a little cottage in the days before modern technology took over the world, spending my days baking, cleaning and crafting in front of a roaring fire in the evenings. No TV to turn the children into zombies, and no computer to turn me into a zombie! Living in a tight knit community where there would always be a neighbour to ask when I got stuck on something.

Hmmmm Got me thinking if I could maybe go without the Internet for the weekend (well what is left of it) I guess I will think on that some more.

So that teeny bit of crafting I have been doing?
The start of an unbend cabled baby cardigan for the ever growing bean!

 As you can see I haven't got very far, but will have to get my act together if I want to get another cardigan, longies, soakers and baby socks done by June!
Speaking of babies, bean is growing nicely

I also decided to give crochet another try as I would really love to crochet a blanket, got as far as a granny square, and a few practise rows.

I really need to have a time set aside for my crafting (and actually stick to it!)

Hopefully I will be back soon, with a bit more progress!

p.s. Ooooh postman has just been!

I am really looking forward to trying out the cubic's tips for my knit pro's, they do look teeny though, and I know actually have cable needles now too!! And my first skein of malabrigo too, all from Woolstack.

Also some gorgeous hand painted yarn from Pixieknits which will probably be turning into a pair of very cute (hopefully) longies!

My pictures really don't do justice to the colours!

Now I must go, and am now on a shopping ban!!

Hello 2012!!

Wishes for this year? Shout and swear less! Play with the kids and craft more, spend more time outside, learn to crochet, make a quilt and there are a few special knitting projects I have in mind!

Maybe this year I can keep the blogging up a bit more too!
There hasn't been a lot of crafty things going on here for a while, been far to busy with family, diy and christmas. But there finally seems to be a bit of a lull in the madness and the first bit of knitting I have completed since about october was finally finished last night!

It is the aviatrix hat, meant for my 5yr old daughter but its just too small for her, infact it doesn't fit my 2yr old son either! I did most of it before christmas but finished the ear flaps and strap the past 2 days and made atleast 3 mistakes!! but it feels good to finish something. The question is what to start next!

There was a bit of a crafting break before christmas, I just could not get myself to pick up a pair of needles and had no interest in yarn! For a very good reason though!

It is amazing the things you go off when you have morning sickness!

Hope 2012 brings you all many wonderful things x