Monday, monday...

It's Monday again.

Today wasn't so bad, I was at Ma & Pa's over the weekend with TheBoy and stayed over til this morning so work was quite short (hurray!) Ma has been knitting up some of my Stash too, which is rather fab as she knits so quick, which means I'll be able to get off my yarn-diet sooner!!

So this weekend has seen off a couple of balls at least, Ma is thoroughly enjoying getting rid of the pesky things and getting her fingers up to top speed again! (I can't believe how quick she knits and forget she has been knitting since the age of 10, hoping that I'll be as quick one day...)

Next on my list is a ball of red-ish-multi-coloured yarn, hopefully it will be a hat when I've waved my magic wand, er, needle, over it. We'll see.

I'm a Hooker... at last!

Hurray, I got crochet under my belt! Well, at least the basics, I made a flower for my felted bag which has finished it off just perfectly, poor bag has been idling in my 'not-quite-finished' area for weeks... done!

Also, I've been reducing my stash again by knitting up a couple of balls of Robin Super Chunky, that beautiful plum colour in my scarf.... that was just a swatch which against all the odds made it into 'finished!' - not sure how that happened.... anyway the main event is a poncho which hopefully will be finished later on today, watch this space.

Black; it's a girl thing...

So, I thought Black,VeryBlack was a mans scarf but it's surprised me by going all girly on me. Hubby said it needs to be longer for a bloke (men, it's all they're ever worried about!) and when I tried it on it looked just right - partly because the ends are wider, with the fuzzy wool and sort of fan out, in a very un-manly way. I can live with being wrong. Occasionally.

That's finished then, and the next thing is a big shawl/scarf made from 2 balls of very cheap and cheerful pink yarn. One is an eyelash type pink/black and the other is a velvet-y candy pink. They are both pretty yuk on their own to be honest (but they were cheap!!) but knitted garter stitch, one then the other alternatively they become transformed into some quite lovely! Pix to follow...

Part 2: It's Black, Very Black

For today's stash-reducing-attempt I'm cracking on with a scarf I started so long ago it's become Stash again, if I'm honest.

Black,VeryBlack is a man's scarf that's for sure... I'm seeing off 2 balls of R2 black something, it's odd stuff R2, not keen on naming itself or giving away tension, needle size etc, anyway the one I got (in a discontinued sale bin in hobbycraft) is a lovely soft short fuzzy kind of thing, and I've been embellishing with Patons Spirit (grey/black) um, also bought as a 'bargain', you'll notice a theme here, hence the self-imposed yarn ban!

Black is garter stitch either end (R2 and Spirit) for a couple of inches, then moss stitch in between in just R2 - I'm going to make a kind of hole in one end for tucking the first end through, have seen this done but not attempted it... yet! And, I'll be doing it without a safety net...! Tomorrow though, or the day after...

Also, just finished today is Shiver - the snuggly fate of an unbanded ball of fuzzy black yarn (yes, in a bargain bin, ok, I have a problem and I'm dealing with it, OK!) anyway, the fuzzy snuggly black lovely yarn has shimmery black bits in it too and a big ball of I guess 100g was enough to make a very simple short sleeve shrug, everso everso cosy and just the thing for wearing with a strappy vest for an evening out - that' my story and I'm sticking with it. So that's just finished and I'm wearing it now, with trackpants, it's gorgeous. Pics will follow...

Tea Bag is, um, not quite finished...

Making a start - Tea Bag?

So, I've been knitting for about 4 months now but the bug has well and truly bitten - how can I tell? The Stash.

I'm not the slowest of knitters I'm sure but I'm certainly not quick enough to knit wool quicker than I can buy it... so now I'm setting myself the challenge of knitting up my stash and getting a few things sold before I get ANY MORE wool. Aren't I good?

I just love looking through patterns and occasionally knitting to a pattern, but mostly I'm just knitting as I please, I love the idea that with a ball or two of wool you can make beautiful things, OK, not big man-size sweaters or a throw for a king-size bed I admit, but beautiful SMALL things, like scarves, shawls, capes, bags and (who can resist?) baby bootees. And probably more things too. As I get more experienced.

So today I started with a deceptively small ball of Rowan Biggy Print, yes it looks huge but it's about 3 feet long... anyway the colours look like tea to me (but I'm a tea-monster so I may be biased) so I may be making a Tea Bag, I'm not sure yet... I've got a big ball of DK in a taupe sort of colour for a lining and handle too. The big knitting is done, not sure I'm happy with the shape but it took about 15 minutes to knit up all 3 yards of wool so I won't mind re-doing it to a different size. The lining will take longer, all those wee stitches so it might not be finished for a while.

I'm going to get some pix posted up of my other small but beautiful things, feedback welcome - I'd like to get an online shop set up selling my knits so would love to know what people think!