Peevish

Well, my little scarecrow only came fourth - the winner was one that one was called "Lucky Number 7" and was actually a number 7 - looked like a pinata with sunglasses on. Fair enough I guess - I can't take credit for the sheep as they were made by the lovely Cricknitter, but I did make an effort to decorate the garden too. I wonder if the ones clearly made by children were seen to be better?! Gosh, I'm just competitive I guess. There wasn't even a prize...

It turns out I have been putting the nose wire on the wrong edge of the Olson facemasks I've made. Cue some careful ripping out this weekend on the ones where the fabric pattern didn't have a direction. I think they fit equally well either way but apparently the "curvier" edge is for the nose and not the chin. Cricknitter has made a mask from this Stylearc pattern , so I had a go below - I forgot to add a nose wire before I topstitched it down. It's got interfacing and no filter pocket, but it's easier to talk with it on. Trust a sewing company to come up with the best shape yet.

After I'd used most of the yellow tropical fabric up in facemasks, I finally made the second garment up (had cut it out about 2 weeks ago, it's been draped over the armchair ever since). Yes, totally the wrong way to do it, as if I'd cut any of the facings out incorrectly then it would have been a disaster.

Sorry for the poor photo, it's wet and grey out today. Will take a better picture when I wear it, probably tomorrow. I have nicknamed it my tropical top - as G is now working 'til the end of October, it's the nearest I'll get to beachwear this year I guess. It's a Prima pattern I've used a few times before, went down a size this time so that it is less loose on the neck (and as a reminder not to pack on any more weight WFH). I have started another one using pieces of the lovely fat quarters I picked up last weekend (previous post), should have bought two matching packs of course, oh well never mind! I'm also going to have a go at making a shopping bag that packs away into its own little "purse".

Sorry there's no knitting content - as himself is WFH in my knitting room 'til gone 8 most nights I have no brain power left by then to leap onto my machines, much as I would like to!

Trying not to take it too personally that a close colleague has pretty much stopped getting in touch with me during our extended period of WFH (and indeed, prefers to stay away from the office). I'd take it less personally if they hadn't also unfriended me on FB. It will be interesting to find out why tomorrow. I've come to realise that I can only really rely on myself, Mum and the Cog for support, though a few lovely people at work have kept in touch and of course there are the lovely Coventry Knitwits. Covid has taught me a few hard lessons and they're not ones I ever thought I'd need to learn. Sigh.

Current mood: thoughtful

Happy New Year, and an incomplete project round-up...

Happy New Year! Gosh, almost a month since my last post. Well, December always goes a bit bonkers and I didn't even do much crafting for xmas presents either, that was just the way it was! They go into major xmas mode at work these days, something happening 3-4 days every week in December. By the time the 25th rolls around I have to say I'm calorific-ally fed up with the whole thing already! I know that makes me sound like a humbug, I'm really not. We did raise quite a bit for various charities.

Because the 25th fell on a Wednesday, there were two working days before it, and two after January the 1st. My partner had to take the whole fortnight so I matched him. Bliss - but such a wrench to go back to work afterwards!

We spent one night in the lovely Hotel Indigo at the back of the Mailbox shopping centre in Birmingham, got to try out the spa, and got a lovely view of the sunrise whilst we had breakfast on the 25th floor.



This was taken through glass - it looks like a UFO attack is in progress, but it's just the reflections of the lights from the restaurant.



Rosedale cardigan. Actually finished the handknitting in October but it's been hanging around waiting for a zip and waiting for me to insert said zip. Not sure the yarn is really my colours (it's Noro Kureypatoren, which is a DK version of their Noro Kureyon).

Some finished and almost finished projects:


Snowflake sweater. I machine-knitted the body (with hand-transferred snowflake front and back), hand-knitted the hems as the machine choked on the sequins / lack of weight, and crocheted the snowflake appliques. Not quite finished, I have a few more snowflakes to sew on, but ran out of time as Xmas jumper day was 13th December. And I won! Hurrah...



Fat quarter knitting cats top. This is a basic Prima pattern, think I could probably go down a size as this is the size 20 and the neck is a bit big. Fat quarters were two packs from Hobbycraft. I would like to have a go making this entirely with an overlocker next. Think I might need to add those little bra doohickeys on the shoulders.

Not pictured: I also made some 2x2 ribbed hats from my All gauges easy rib hat pattern, and another jumper from leftover Noro.

Leicestershire machine knitting club are running a 3 month project where we design and knit a jacket. To that end, I was asked to do some samples of edges, and picked four from Mary Anne Oger's excellent books (see below). They've been "killed" with the steam iron to make them lay flat, they are DK acrylic.



Also not pictured, I am trying to be more sustainable. The poor Cog does not know what has hit him - we have bar soap in all bathrooms now, and I'm experimenting with making my own beauty and household products. I had quite a lot of offcuts leftover from the "knitting cats" top above, and used the overlocker to turn them into rags. I've also had a sort out of undies and t-shirts, and made them into rags also. Knitted fabric is actually better for kitchen spills as it's more absorbent. Currently it's replacing kitchen towels in the kitchen. Use them once, pop them in the washing machine. The cotton offcuts are better as handkerchiefs. I got to play with my overlocker and figure out some of the settings, and I help the environment too. Win-win, I say!


Current mood: busy

Bits and bobs before the "storm of socks"

I took delivery of a lovely new overlocker last week, but work/life being what it is, only got to play with it in anger this weekend. Oh my, what fun! It just works, straight out of the box. I'm still trying to sell my old Singer Ultralock but as there are no takers so far it might end up going to TWAM if I can't find it a new home. What a shame - nice machine in working order but it just doesn't work for me. It might just need a service, of course...

You may recall I picked up some lovely deckchair cotton at the NEC last week - well, I made a rather oddly proportioned shopping bag with it. Yeah, I probably should have measured something, huh? And a safety note here - I should have swapped whatever needle was in the machine (probably a standard) for a denim one, because this happened, and it narrowly missed going into my eye:





I put my reading specs on after this, too!

We've been trying to interact with our overgrown kitten-cat more, so I made a 100% catnip kicker stick from some leftovers and...



...he's still not very interested in catnip. Bah.

I also finished up a pair of stripey tube socks, I knat the first one at Kegworth and I've a big sock commission on at the moment so I wanted to get this pair done:



I'm currently running a sale on my current etsy stock, two pairs of socks which will go in the charity bag in a few days if they do not sell. Please check it out! Or maybe they'll go into my sock drawer, haha! More stock will be coming soon, but by soon I mean in a month or so.

Yesterday I taught a new student in mk, she has had a stroke so no use of her right arm. It's amazing how tricky certain things are with only one hand, but she is determined! I am going to try and knit her a replacement for the ribber comb as it will be too hard for her to use the metal kind with the removable wire. Some yarn rewinding, and putting up of the chunky machine, required in the next four weeks then.

"Storm of socks" - yes, I've 8 pairs of custom socks to knit. 1 pair are on the CSM so that's 11% done I guess! :)

Current mood: annoyed with Flickr and Mondays in general...