Some people run marathons...

...other people knit snood/ cowl type things with 400 stitches in each row! I have finally completed this for Bella, a friend at work. It has been a bit of a labour of love. It is knit in 100% angora (which I bought from Coldharbour Mill) and is beautifully soft. I can't really call it my own 'pattern' - I just cast on 400 stitches onto a long circular needle, joined into a round and worked 1x1 rib until it measured 13 inches, ending up with a giant loop. The idea is that she can loop it once around her neck and once round her head, or twice round her neck. Here's a photo of her modelling it!

Big Bear and Little Bear

Big bear is the big bear and little bear is the little bear. Big bear and little bear lived in a house with a mouse and her mummy. The mouse's mummy often tried to knit things and sometimes she was less successful than others. This particular time she had attempted to knit a sock on the train and although she thought she was doing very well, it was in reality a different story all together. When she got home she was very excited to have finished one of the socks and so decided to celebrate and drink some red wine, and commence knitting the other sock. Let this be a lesson to all bears (mice and people)...as you can well imagine, the 'under-the-influence-sock' did not quite turn out the way it was supposed to, and much to big bear's disatisfaction, and little bear's amusement, she bequeathed the odd socks to the mouse, who loved them very much and put them straight on big bear's cold feet to warm her up - right after she had finished her Oliver Newton-John work-out. THE END.

The first ever cardigan

OK - so I can't resist telling you about the first ever cardigan i knitted. I decided to knit it when I was pregnant, having previously only ever knitted scarves or blankets (that began their life as a scarf and ended up as a blanket, but that is a whole other story and if I ever get the photo of it I will definitely post it). Anyway - it was supposed to be a white cardigan, for a newborn baby...my daughter is now over 2 and can just about wear it! I knew very little about babies when I knitted it (as you can tell), so just to illustrate what size I thought the baby might be (according to my knitting at least) when it came out, I have put it next to one of her dolls....

At least it has lasted 2 years already and I bet we can get another year's wear out of it! I made up the stripes myself from lots of different bits of wool I pinched off my mother, and I knitted it with needles that were too big f0r the wool...hence its quite holey! But, other than that - its not too bad for a first attempt - methinks! Enjoy!

The one that took tooooo long!

Goodmorning fellow knit-knits! I have finally managed to get some photos sent to me of the very lovely jumper (if I say so myself) that I knitted for little L's 3rd birthday. Here he is proudly modelling it! It was made in Chameleon (Wendy) which is the loveliest wool (and 47% wool, 50% acrylic and 3% polyester), chunky with a very fine black thread wound around it - knitted on 6.5m needles (uk). Its a sort of dark orange, yellow, pink and brown and knits in stripes beautifully. The pattern came from one of Linda's magazines - I can't remember which one, but perhaps Linda can add that at the bottom of this blog?:o) Anyway - it was easy peasy!

It's actually the first jumper I have ever made (have previously only made 2 cardigans, one of which was a cadigan coat thing) so have never previously had to tackle the V neck! But, all said and done, it turned out pretty good and I don't even think there were any mistakes in it! It did take an awful long time as for some reason I had knitter's cramp...and it does unfortunately seem to be lingering...it may have something to do with getting an allotment and not having space for 2 hobbies in my head! Have a wonderful weekend whatever you do! I shall be praying for sunshine! :o)

Lovely little cardi

I just wanted to add to few words about the lovely little cardi that Linda has photographed so beautifully (scroll down a bit!). It was made for my boss's daughter, who is now well on the way to being grown up, when she was small. Linda and I though it would be nice to post some photos because it uses such a pretty combination of colours and is so sweet - especially the hand made label. I think Linda may be working on a pattern to go with it or at least some instructions on how to do the exciting bobbly bits.

losing the will to knit

I thought I would post a picture of my mid-way through project as I can't get the motivation to finish it. Little needles and lots of stitches really aren't my thing but it will be my first ever adult sized cardigan when it's done.

I'm using the beautiful eco wool I got for my birthday along with a bit of green from the mill place in Tiverton (name is escaping me) and following a pattern from the Eco wool dk book. It'll be brilliant when it's finished....

Anyway, posting a half finished thing will now shame me into completing it (that's the plan anyway) xxx

Isn't this lovely!

Some knitting patterns may not be worth the effort...

Not really sure what to say about this. It's pink and it's a sheep (I know it looks like a hedgehog, think that might have something to do with her very pointy face). To help to make her more realistic I have added some grass (I think that made it worse).

It's good to do everything once in life. Now I wont have to make a pink sheep ever again.