Fragile Heart and the Leap Year Blanket

Eeeeek!  Its been a month since I blogged - time for a catch up. 

During the first half of the month I joined Evelyn from the The Soaring Sheep for another hand holding shawl and lace knit a long.  This was my first shawl make in laceweight yarn.  I love lace work but have decided I'll stick to sockweight yarn for shawls in the future as I couldnt work up any speed with laceweight on 4.5mm needles.  Used several 100 beads on this shawl - they look great.  Took 2 weeks to finish and I'm really pleased with it.  The cast off used a picot bind off which was another first.  The ending was a bit nerve wracking as I was down to only a couple of yards left on the skein - glad I only went for one repeat of each section.  If I make it again I'll do the stocking stitch body rather than the garter stitch.  Going to treat myself at some point to some blocking wires and pins to block it properly but here are the unblocked pics

Fragile Heart in Manos Lace

Since completing the shawl I've put down my knitting needles and moved to my crochet hook instead.  Despite starting the year full of enthusiasm and being way ahead with my Leap Year Blanket (crochet a square every day of the Leap Year) I'd fallen way behind.  At the beginning of June I was 50 squares behind so set myself a challenge to make 50 filler squares over the Jubilee holiday.  They are all completed :-) and I've now made it to 152 completed squares (its day 161 today so slipping again!!).  With so many squares it was time to come up with a plan for how to join them.  I want to make a blanket to cover our bed.  We've got a divan so I want the blanket to reach right over the sides of the bed to cover the horrible blue check divan base.  Thats given me an 82" square to work towards.  Decided to make nine 27" squares and join them together 3x3.  So far I have joined together a group of squares to make the first 27" square.  As I crochetted with scrap yarn of varying different weights and followed numerous patterns my individual squares are very ramdom sizes its therefore hard to slot them together to fit into a 27" square.  As time goes on I'll have to make some more calculated sized squares to fill the missing gaps.  I think 200 individual squares will be more than enough to cover our bed so the remaining 166 squares will be used to make a blanket for each of the girls beds and maybe a couple of cushion covers.

My squares so far :-)

The first joined together square.  Josie loves the big stained glass window one and wants her blanket with just those.

For once I feel quite settled working on one project at a time rather than having numerous WiP's on the go!!!  I shall continue with my blanket until my enthusiasm wanes again but hopefully by that point I'll have got ahead.

Hope everyone is well in the blogging world xxx

The Beautiful Iris

After a show off post on facebook about a gorgeous yarn purchase a KAL with the lovely Evelyn of the Soaring Sheep was born.  We both fancied making Iris - Goddess of Rainbow.  This pattern was initially released as a Mystery KAL so Evelyn and I were able to knit clue by clue without sneaking a peek at the full pattern.  I consider myself to be an experienced knitter but this project brought so many new techniques to me - the beautiful linen stitch, the double stitch or yo yo short row and criss cross stitches.  I used beads in the bind off too for the first time.  I loved having a KAL partner and am amazed that we managed to finish the project in a week.  Evelyn ad I are now both working on Fragile Heart

April's Finished Objects

I havent blogged for a couple of months.  So here is a little update on my finished objects.

I made the Pansy Doily for Mum.  I'm so pleased with the way it turned out and Mum was delighted.  It was part of my Year of Projects.  I really need to get working through my list of projects as so far I've only completed 5 of the 13!!!

I joined a mystery KAL group making a cardi for Josie.  The clues were released in 4 stages.  I'm a bit disappointed by the amount of stockinette after the great lace start but the cardi fits very well and Josie is very pleased with it.  Josie made the buttons from FIMO

I've also made a quick granny shrug.  Its a very clever make made from 2 hexagonal granny squares.  The squares on then folded into 'L" shapes and sewn together up the back and over the shoulder.  Once sewn together I added a few more rows to increase the length.  Please excuse the very dodgy hair - dont think I'd looked in a mirror or picked up a hairbrush!!!  Thank you to Karen at Bits and Bobs for blogging about this project

Heading over to Tamis Amis blog to check out some more finished objects

WIP Wednesday 29th Feb 2012

Wow a special Leap Wednesday :-)  I shall blog later in the day about my Leap Year Blanket Project.  Back to this weeks WiP's....

They are getting out of control again!!  Its nice to have variation every evening but nothing gets finished when there are so many on the go!

A couple of weeks ago I said I would never knit socks again as they were so boring but the comfort of hand knitted socks far outweighs any knitting boredom.  I cast these on last thursday.  Using a ball I picked up in the 2nds shelves at the Colinette workshop.  No idea what the wool is as it doesnt seem to match the rest of their range but it feels very hardwearing.  The pattern calls for a DK but my yarn is slightly heavier than a DK.  I cant get the tension to match - pattern suggests a 3.25 but that came out too big whereas a 3 came out too small - I'm therefore mixing and matching the needle sizes and so far it seems to be working.  Using a pattern with a cable which has eliminated the boredom of round and round sock knitting.  The pattern uses reverse stocking stitch but I'm not a fan of the purl side and my purling is far slower than my knitting.  Glad I went with right sided stocking stitch.

Got a couple of crochet WiP's too - one on a size 7mm and one on a 1.5mm hook.  It does feel strange swapping from one to the other.  The 7mm hook project is a lacy wrap using James Brett Marble Chunky.  The finished pattern size looks huge so I've gone down a few hook sizes.

and I've started another doily.  Cant say too much about this one though ;-)

Please check out all this weeks WIP's at Tamis Amis

The Leap Year Blanket - halfway through Feb

I'm up to 53 squares now so a bit ahead of time.  It had been my intention to join all the squares at the end of this month but I think they still look too clashy and random.  Once there are another 100 or so squares I should get some colour themes and patterns happening.  Decided to border all the squares to break them up a bit as they loose there individuality when laid together.  Bordering is squaring them up nicely too which should make the job of joining a bit easier.  .

all laid out pre borders

and the few that I bordered last night

FO Friday 17th February 2012

A pair of socks - woohoo :-).  Its only taken me 2 years from casting on the first sock to finally having a pair!  Very pleased I am with them too.  If it wasnt such a boring task I would knit many more as they are sooooo comfy.

Please check out all the other finished projects at Tamis Amis blog

WIP Wednesday 8th Feb 2012

Its been a long long time since I posted a WiP Wednesday.  Christmas crafting prevented me as I didnt want any recipient to have a sneaky peek!!!

A long with my Leap Year Blanket project I am working my way through my WiP's.  Trying to be good and start nothing new unless its a gift.  Picked up a pair of socks over the weekend that I started easily 2 years ago!!!  The first sock was completed shortly after picking the yarn but the second sock has been sat on the needles looking pretty on my windowsill for months!!  Determined to finish it before this weeks FO friday.  Had to frog the heel flap as I must have been in a grump the last time I picked this project up.  My tension was very very tight.  All frogged and sorted now and finally on the home straight.  Sock knitting really isnt for me lol

Have a look at the other fab blog posts at Tamis Amis WiP collections

The Leap Year Blanket - January round up

I've joined a facebook group where the aim is to crochet / knit a square every day through the year to make a special leap year blanket.  I'm using all my scrap wool and hoping there will be enough to make all the squares without having to buy anything new.  I'm trying to get ahead of myself at the moment so that I can fit other projects in through the year.  I'll admit to having doubts occasionally as to whether the randomness of the wool weights and colours will actually go together but I'll crochet on for now.  My plan is to join the squares bi-monthly making 6 smaller blankets to finally bring together and border.  The aim is for a massive blanket to cover our bed hopefully it will be big enough to hang over the sides and hide the horrible divan.