Bubbles, bubbles everywhere

After a few days knitting over the weekend I've managed to do enough of the camino scarf to show you how the bubbles are working out. Very yummy indeed! The zauberball was an inspired choice I think as it's slow graduations are working well with the size of the bubbles.

Now I'm working with the pattern, it's quite a simple construction but gives a more complex visual result. I think that's a bit of a theme for me:) Anyway, I love how this pattern uses the tight and loose tension to create waves and the lace circles. It doesn't look quite like this when I'm knitting it though! Lace knitting never looks like the real thing till you stretch it out and pin it at the end. But I wanted to see how it was going to turn out so I pinned this little sample to have a peek. I'm liking this a lot :)

Another knitter on Ravelry who used zauberball suggested that one ball should be more than enough for a nice long scarf or half a ball for a short tuck in the jacket length scarf. I'm thinking why not go for the whole ball as it's going to make rather a bright statement anyway!

Ooh, and can you imagine this as a wrap - maybe in a more subtle colourway - monochromatic perhaps? I'd love to see the pattern over a wider piece. I have visions of duck egg blue or pale sandy colours for some reason. Not very me I know but I think it would be very beautiful in a quiet, delicate colourway. Hmm...

 

I've only completed two bubbles as yet but nearly at the third one. I like when it comes to dropping the stitches and the bubble appears :) I do double check my pattern and stitch count before I let the stitches run though - check twice, drop once!! Once you get going though you can see pretty easily where the drops will be. I can, now I'm getting into the flow of things, watch the tv as I go and the pattern is easily memorised so you don't have to live with the chart under your nose all the time either. As long as I get the changeover row right then it all flows nicely.

I think though, I'll be saving this for evenings and getting some more jewellery or beading back into my days or I may be seeing bubbles in my sleep!! And after lots of short day projects this seems to be working up really slowly - for me anyway!

See you all soon,
elaine x

Camino bubbles

Today's been a busy day of mostly painting the ceiling with a little bit of knitting. It wasn't quite meant to be ceiling 90% - knitting 10%, but the painting just kept going on and on..... and one coat wasn't enough so it went on and on.... again! Hoorah for my friend who phoned and made me stop, lol!!

I really should try that the other way around, shouldn't I? Start with the knitting first and then squeeze in the painting. I obviously got my priorities skewed!!

So after said phone call and a lovely homemade pizza, I decided it was well past time to start my weekend knitting project. I've been eager to try Camino Bubbles out since I spotted it last week. My first quick sample used my own dyed yarn but the colour runs were too short for this design so I'll just save them for something else. I haven't dyed any new graduating yarns yet so I thought I'd have to put this on hold. But as I was yarn rummaging, I found a lovely bright ball of Schoppel-wolle's Zauberball in colourway Fuchsia. Seriously yummy find. And it's going to be just perfect - long stripes and gorgeous colours:)

 

I haven't got far yet but I can tell the colour gradations are going to be just lovely. The deep purple is going to run into a deep fuchsia soon, then onto red, vermillion and orange. This is going to be one bright scarf! But I think this pattern is designed for just that so it's going to be really exciting to see both the pattern and colours emerge together.

It's a very clever little design using tension and ladders to create the distortion from straight lines - a very nice knitting challenge indeed. And that makes me Happy :)) I'm sure I can squeeze in another hour of knittting yet tonight, don't you think?

 

See you all soon, hopefully with a knitting update. Fingers crossed that ceiling looks finished in daylight because tomorrow it's knitting in the lead, painting nil!

Graduating colours

Creative day 7!

Today, I decided to play with colour again but using dyes. There are several different ideas I've been meaning to try out but hadn't got around to so with such a lovely sunny day, I thought it would be perfect drying weather :)

One thing I hadn't got around to much when I was dyeing sock yarns was graduating colour - the ones where the whole ball goes from light to dark in long runs of colour. These yarns work especially well for longer lace shawl patterns and parasols without colour repeats too. I've seen several methods of doing this so I thought I'd try them out.
 

First of all though, I had a play with mixing colours on the skein. These colour bands are quite close together so will knit up more of a zigzag yarn with short runs of colours. What I love about experimental yarns is that the quick changes and blends give you ideas for other yarns - like using a viewfinder to focus on new compositions. I like the soft ochres, aquas and purple/blues down at the bottom right of the skein especially.

And the burnt ochres and greens in this one. The pinks didn't photograph well I'm afraid whatever light I tried. It was just too bright - I shouldn't complain!! But there were more burnt reds with hints of lavendar fushia pink.

In the other mini samples, I was experimenting more with technique. They all look similar as an end result but each one used a different method of graduating the colour. I learned a lot today, so I can make lots more progress tomorrow on the back of today's experiments.

mini spriral of graduating colour

One of the graduating yarns experiments. Once I unravel this fully, it will be interesting to see how the colours look and knit up. Imagine this as a whole 100gm ball of yarn. Rather subtle colour scheme for me isn't it? :) Don't worry I managed to squeeze in a dayglow rainbow one too just for contrast!

So part way done with these. The technique has been tested, now the results need to be knitted up to see if they look good. They're only short lengths so that shouldn't take long. That's my weekend sorted I think.

Have a good weekend and see you all soon!

Dreamscapes

Creative day 6 already:)

Today, after a good nights sleep, I felt much more up to tackling yesterday's rainbow challenge - as this mini knit is now being called!  As a bonus, the sun came out adding the feel good factor so I indulged in sitting in the garden knitting and writing my own version of the pattern. As this pretty much took most of the afternoon and is a pretty boring process to photograph, I thought I'd show you an afternoon's colour sketching I've been working on instead and save the rainbow bag for later on this week. Sound ok to you?  Cool :)

The idea behind this sketch was freeform drawing to music. I wanted to loosen up and not be so precious and considered in my way of working and see what happened. So no structure of composition beforehand, no choice of colours even, just whatever the music evoked in me. In fact, I even decided just to see what music was on the radio and pick something that took my mood.

I happened upon a Russian ballet, a nice long piece, I think it was Stravinsky. I love how these pieces visually tell a story - they flow and swirl, and move you along in their wake. I started drawing organic, soft, swirly shapes, soft colour fields in pastel, building up a tenuous dreamscape with suggestions of dancing figures, flowing with the melody. As the mood changed so did the colours, as a theme became more prominant, I accented it's presence. I smudged and reworked, I tried to capture the layers of story and emotion. And then it was over. Too quickly!!

And I stood back and looked. For me, it captured the feeling the music evoked in me and a transient, ethereal quality of figures not quite visible, partially emerging, then quietly disappearing back into the nebulous background. As a whole compositionally it doesn't work but I like the essence of it overall. It's the capturing of feelings, emotions, the less tangible elements that are such a big part of us. How to honestly express that?

It also inspires me to think how I could take this further. It makes me think of space nebulas, inner dreamscapes, fantasy illustration with printing, stitch and mixed media embellishments. Dreamlike vistas with layered felt as a base - or painted and hand dyed fabrics with applied layers of pattern and decoration. So many ideas just from a little sketch.

This small section makes me think of drawing with felt, seems the next logical step into textiles don't you think? It's been a while though so I'll have to brush up my felting skills and hunt out that fleece:) Hmm, what if I just drew with fleece to music? Added threads, fabrics, sequins, netting, layers of colour. Then went mad with the stitch and embellishment after? Ooh, a rich vein maybe!

Let's see where this goes. I think I might give this project some space to grow into itself over this month and post as I go. It might be nice to dye some fleece or fabrics to work with too. Maybe hand paint some yarns as well so I can knit some new organic vessels inspired by the music. I can see 'the firebird' colourway now, hehe. Time to hunt out some more inspiring music I think :)

Thanks for the company and see you all tomorrow!  elaine x

Rainbow's end

Today I decided to do a small, fun, relaxing project, using techniques I'm already familiar with so there would be more making to be had. In complete contrast to the last few days of fine wire and jewellery, I opted for a bit of rainbows, sunshine and comfy knitting.

There's a pattern I've been saving on Ravelry, a lovely rainbow bag made with simple short row shaping that's been calling my name for ages, so today I decided that this was the day! Yarn - check, needles -check, pattern -  ah, you have to buy it, but it's not a lot. Do I want to buy a pattern when I could probably work it out? Now, after learning from the wire bracelet project that sometimes it's ok not to reinvent the wheel every day, I decided, yes, why not? Have a day off from the working out and just enjoy the knit. So I did. :)

A lovely rainbow of colours to work with, perfect. The rainbow bag dimensions were 30x45cm and I thought, that's a two day project for sure. Maybe I can make a mini one? So, sure enough, I could halve all the calculations for the mini rainbow bag and we were off. I was thinking by then that this mini rainbow bag would be just perfect for my 2 year old niece - or a big kid like me :)

After knitting faithfully to the pattern for a while, I began to notice some things didn't seem right. The overall shaping with increases didn't seem to be logically placed and my lovely oval short row coloured panels were shifting off to the left alarmingly. I re-read the pattern to make sure I'd not made a blundering mistake. Nope. No mistake. Somehow the increases needed to make the bag bigger at the middle weren't staying in a straight line up the centre of the bag - major problem. I'd already knitted 3/4 of the bag by then and I was not a happy bunny:(

So what to do now? Maybe a fresh look at it tomorrow will help me work out whether it's just me or the pattern that's the issue. Or, dump the pattern!! Oh, the irony though - if I'd just written a basic pattern out I'd have been fine, lol! I might just do that anyway and brush up my pattern writing skills:) So, today's lesson has been sometimes you should trust your instincts when you know your knitting is going squiffy. And maybe the pattern isn't always right.

Well, the big kid or the little kid will have to wait just a bit longer for their bag full of rainbows but it will happen I'm sure. There's always a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow now, isn't there? :)

150 Hawaiian flowers - all done!

Hurrah, Hurrah! At last the Hawaiian flower blanket is done - finished, complete! Woohoo!!! And all that time I put it aside thinking it would take ages to complete, it only took a week to finish. Nothing like a Christmas deadline to move into ultra fast crochet mode, lol! I decided to stop at 150 flowers and make this a small bed/lap sized blanket. I arranged them 10x15 for a balanced rectangle and each flower is about 10cm wide so overall measurements approx 1metre x 1.5 metres. The pattern is Hawaiian flowers by Sarah London and is so simple to do.

Although I chose a bright and colourful palette for my niece, a lovely subtle colour combination would work well too. Mmm, imagine charcoals, powder blues, or a subtle warm ochre palette - yum! I found the higher the contrast in colours for the last two rows the better the flowers popped. And the more I did the better I got at choosing the right colour to finish each flower off. I did lay out the flowers first before that last row so I could get a good balance in the blanket overall. Then I piled them up in order, in rows of 10 and linked them together as I went.

The linking is really clever too. You make a little picot loop at the top of each flower petal and use that to link the flowers in place as you go. So no ends to sew in, and it looks great. There is an issue with only linking the tips of the flowers - it doesn't give the blanket much strength as a whole - as in a bit floppy ;) But if you accept that this is just meant to be a decorative overblanket and not a sturdy throw, then it's all good. I have seen a version where they stitched the petals more firmly together but the flowers lost their curve and become more angular points which I didn't like much. As a blanket, the bigger it gets the more solidity it gains so.... something to consider. The edges seem the most vulnerable but you could consider a solid border. Personally I like the floaty fragility of the fairy petals:) and a good press on the wrong side once finished and the flowers lie flat nicely while retaining the final chained ridge for definition.

So 150 hawaiian flowers done at last. I put this on my king sized bed and it only covered about a third of the length but all of the width. So if anyone has the staying power to want a full sized bed throw, then it would have to be about 15 x 30 flowers....... 450 flowers??? Ummm, maybe not, lol! I'd get too bored. Look how long it took me to do just this size;))) But if you were wanting a tv project for the new year then this one would be a good contender. Easy and fun to do, simple pattern and very visually effective. The instructions are very simple to follow so you know exactly where you are at every stage - which is good if you put it down for a while and then have to refresh your head to remember exactly what you were doing:)

Right, now I think it's time to relax a bit and enjoy the build up to Christmas with a wee drink and some nibbles - and maybe just another Christmas movie or two..... have to watch White Christmas and the Muppet Christmas Carol to feel that Christmas is truly here!

 elaine x

Happy stripes

Dearie me! I'd completely forgotten to blog about these other stripey gloves I was knitting. I think the last time I posted about these was last november - crikey! I didn't realise they'd been on the needles for quite so long! Well, about time they were finished and had their ta-da moment:)

They are based on the same pattern as the previous stripey armwarmers but I decided to make more work for myself and add fingers as well. And I do like how the little blocks of colour have worked out visually. The fingers are a little neat on the stitch count using the given pattern but as I have small hands anyway it worked for me. If you wanted to add some more sts, you could cast on a few more on either side of each finger as you start to knit in the round. Will work out nicely that way.

The yarn I used for these is Wendy's Happy - capricorn colourway. The colours are lovely and it self stripes so not too many ends for changing colours on the whole. I had to cut the colours for the fingers to get much smaller sections of colour so lots more ends to sew in around the fingers - which with this being a bamboo and nylon mix isn't so good at hiding the threads. I also found it made the fingers feel a little constricted where the threads were too. Not so happy with that aspect so something to watch out for next time.

As much as I love these colours, I don't think I would use a bamboo mix yarn for a gloves project again. It seems obvious that gloves need a little elasticity to fit but also to hold them up on your arm and with bamboo that nice give is missing. In fact, it's annoying. I'm finding the gloves have a tendancy to slide a little down from the elbow and after a good bit of wear look a little baggy. Not the desired look really! A wash would reshape them or a damp spray and shaping but I've been warned that this yarn has a tendancy to lose a lot of its colour intensity in the wash so I'm reluctant to try! All that lovely colour down the drain - I think I'll try a damp spray just in case! That and some hidden elastic thread around the cuff;) Just a thought!

Despite all that, they're still going to be fun to wear this winter. I still have 2 x half balls left so maybe a scarf in the pipeline? Hmm, maybe a textured chevron stripe? Suggestions anyone? Righty-ho, off to have a gander through Ravelry to see if anything takes my fancy.

Back soon! elaine x

Stripes!

Time for a little catching up on projects. There are quite a few finished or nearly finished things going on at the moment that I haven't shown you yet - like these stripey armwarmers. They've been finished since last christmas but I just hadn't got around to taking photographs - sad but true. I completely forgot about them until I wanted to turn this pattern into gloves. The yarn is Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball - tropical colourway  - and it really is as bright as the photo - yum! I do love the graduating colours and the contrasting stripe effect. So much so that I think these will stay mine instead of a present :) Bright and cheery gloves are a must when the colder weather is drawing nearer - although I'm not dwelling too much on that thought for now!

There is a slight difference in the colour blending if you compare each glove closely but I actually like the difference. Maybe not technically perfect but it gives them more character I think. Wow, me saying I can live without perfectionism, lol! Take note, it might not happen that often:) The alternate stripes are achieved using the same ball from either end starting with a strong contrasting colour - the aqua and the orange. This means though that somewhere along the line the colours meet. I did have to edit the where the two colours crossed over so yellow didn't meet yellow coming the other way but I just broke the yarn and took as much as I needed out to get back to a decent contrast again - hence the slight difference on each glove.

The pattern itself is a basic 4ply armwarmer shape with 2 regular decreases every 6 rows down to the wrist. I used a pattern designed by Brigids Hearth which you can find here. I chose to have a rib cuff at the top and a roll top edge at the fingers but you could have whatever you wanted really. I've now tried the roll top edge instead of the rib on my pink gloves - which are to follow soon - but it doesn't work that successfully, needs a bit of grip to hold it in place. Heyho:) We live and learn!

It's meant to be sunny tomorrow so maybe good light for more photo taking of new works in progress. There's a decorative crochet panel I'm toying with as well that I'm itching to develop further so I'll keep you posted on its progress as I go too. 

Thanks for popping by today, 

elaine x

143 hawaiian flowers - nearly there!

Today the sun came out again after a very grey, wet and windy week. At last! The sun can make you feel so much better can't it? And this being the longest day today - summer solstice - it felt fitting that it should feel like summer at least;) Anyway, the sun came shining in the window and brightened up a pile of crochet stashed in a shelf waiting to be finished. The hawaiian flower blanket! Yes, all the pretty little flower motifs were glowing brightly and shouting 'Finish me! You know there isn't much to do....' and you know? they're right!

Half the problem with this project was I hadn't decided just what size I intended to make at the start. It swung from being a cot blanket to a kingsize throw - in a giddy moment of enthusiasm:) - then swiftly back again when I realised just how many motifs I would need for that large a project! So I decided to count the flowers and see just how many I would need to turn this UFO into a ta-da baby blankie. 143 is the count so far, but what size is that in real baby blanket terms? Hadn't a clue so I ran upstairs and laid out all the motifs on the bed to see the scale so far......

Forgive the photos - the sun being out for once affected the tones of the bright colours. Weird. Anyway, this is what 143 flowers looks like. I get 10 x 14 rows with 3 remaining flowers. I would say that looked big enough to me;)) So I've decided to go for 10x15, crochet another 7 flowers and call it DONE!

It will still need the final round of edging to create the petal look which means I can join as I go rather than have lots of ends to sew in afterwards. Well, that's the theory. And it will make it a little bigger - possibly, although I have left gaps in the layout to compensate for that final edging. I think it will look nice and jolly once it's all done - and I won't feel guilty every time I look at that shelf now:))

I'll keep you posted....;)

And then there were 1, 2, 3, 4, ............ 58!!

Well, the hawaiian flowers are growing, and growing, and taking over the floor really:) I just crochet a few every time I sit down to watch any tv - not that I've actually watched a lot of tv this week, if I had there would have been a flower fest!! but the blanket, it's a-growin'.

48 flowers and counting....

Yes, I've decided to make this one a full on flower blanket. I wasn't sure when there were only 9 motifs but I saw a lovely one on ravelry that changed my mind. (you do need to be a member to see that link but its free to join!) It looked like beautiful coloured floor tiles all pieced together to give a colourful mosaic effect - lovely! So, it was decided very quickly to expand the mini throw into a full blown blanket. This did mean introducing a few more colours to the palette so I could get more variety in how the colour tones are balanced and I'm still tinkering with it as I go. You may notice a couple of plum/pinks that weren't there before and an apple green has sidled its way in too:)

57 flowers taking over the floor....

I have no idea how big this will become - the last ripple blanket was about king size - so depending on how many flowers I need, I'm aiming for at least for a double so it can be a decorative throw or even a wrap? Big enough to be versatile anyway! At the moment pieced together in a rough rectangle, it's measuring 60cm x 75cm and that's without the final crochet edging around to join them all together. So maybe at least another 100 - 150 flowers? Sounds a lot but those 58 have kind of snuck up on me so I'm hoping my abstract crocheting whilst watching the tv will help the numbers rise without feeling like I'm trying too hard!!

(yes, there are only 57 flowers in the last photo but I've crocheted another one since then, so officially the flower count is on 58:))

Hawaiian flowers

A little tv project going on at the moment... some bright colourful hawaiian crochet flowers, pattern courtesy of the wonderful Sarah London - go see her blog!! Colour and crochet heaven!  The flower pattern was part of a mystery motif month last year and this link will take you to day one. Four days in all and on the fifth day, there are gorgeous photos to get you thinking COLOUR!

Every so often, I get a hankering to start a longer project, like my ripple blanket from a few years ago. Projects that are in units are ideal as I can work away and feel I am making progress with small completed motifs. Okay, I'm trying not to think just how many motifs it will take to make a throw or blanket/snuggy the size I'd love to make, but at the moment, I'm happy to pick up my flowers and crochet in a bit of downtime.

I've not put the final edging on my flowers as yet as I want to link the motifs as  I go. For now, I can crochet a pile of flowers and play with the layout - that's the fun bit for me! Once I have them done, I can balance them with the final coloured edging. All is happy in the land of crochet;))

Colour personality test

Thanks to Kate @ The Garden Bell for telling us about this colour personality test. I'm a bit of sucker for these things:)) so I had to go and check it out straight away! It goes into a lot of detail so I've just edited the main bits of my results here. If you want to try this out, you can find it the link here.

Result of your test :

Your Profile : You are 48 % extrovert and 52 % introvert.

Independently of any order of importance :

• You are creative, you always have new ideas, and your inspiration comes from the inside.

• You are also strong-willed and active, your actions are determined by your own will, by the goals you settled for yourself, and by your need to act and to move forward.
  
• Finally you are able to listen to others, you show a good emotional intelligence, you know how to bring your support to others.

The qualities that characterize your personality at this time :

24 % Your creativity.
You are creative, you know how to see beauty, you are intuitive and your inspiration comes from the inside.

21 % Your energy.
You are strong-willed and active, your actions are determined by your own will, by the goals you settled to yourself, and by your need to act and move ahead.

20 % Your imagination.
You are a creative person, with always new ideas, and you know how to apply them.

17 % Your dynamism.
You are dynamic and active, you are determined in your actions, you know how to communicate your ideals and your energy, and thus, you know how to boost people.

16 % Your thinking.
You are attuned to others and you show a good emotional intelligence, which allow you to give support to people.

Finally, you are a manager and a structured person, you know how to take into account the needs of each person while leading them to the fixed goals, you are a manager and a leader, and you know how to organize groups of people and how to give them your energy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So there you go! Glad to see that creativity is at the top of the list:)) Actually it's very interesting how accurate this is as a personality test - hmm. I'm working more on my own creative work and less teaching at the moment which this reflects too. But good to know it at least thinks I have managerial and leadership qualities - who knew?! :)))

Back soon with some pics of the aforementioned 'creativity' !

Soft and snuggly

Well the baby knitting is now well underway with one top blocking as we speak. Alas, the rain hasn't really let up for over a week now so good light for photos is a bit scarce so no pics as yet - but I can show you the  lovely colours of baby yarns I'm planning to use.

I first bought Patons Fairytale DK online thinking all baby yarn would be reasonably soft but as it is 100% wool, it does have a bit more roughness than I was hoping for - although the colours are rather lovely.  The pinks and the apple greens are especially nice for some stripey numbers, I think. Maybe this will be better for heavier cardis and tops that aren't directly next to the skin. I do also want to be practical and acrylic is hardwearing and easily washable so I wanted to get some acrylic too but it had to be soft.

So my trip to the wool shop found me some Sirdar Snuggly - sooo soft! I didn't manage to get all the colours I wanted but the main ones were there so I was happy enough:-) The deep pink is lovely although I did want to find another mid pink to go with it but no. I do have one ball already (top left ball in box) but one may not be enough. But, I'll wait and see.

So what am I intending to knit with all this lovely yarn then? Oh, I have so many ideas! I've been looking for inspiring patterns and projects on Ravelry and in magazines for shape, pattern and colours. I'm trying to think of things that will be versatile as well as lovely, like cardi's that can go with lots of tops and dresses, or knitted dresses that can be worn over long sleeved tops if it's a bit cold. Here's a little look at some pics I've been inspired by so far:

The top that's blocking is a little cardi with a small lace motif in a solid colour. But while I'm waiting for it to dry and be ready for seaming then some crocheted edging, I'm thinking of casting on a dress...... but which one? Sis, any preferences?

Other knitting - Vivian made some good progress and is at 12" high. Saying that, I have noticed one cable is longer in height than the rest which means either dropping stitches at each cable down 12 rows to fix which is taking ages or  shoving in a lifeline and ripping back the 12 rows..... so it's on hold while I think which one would be less painful. At this moment in time I'm favouring more drastic action as in all honestly it may well be quicker!

Righty-ho, off to sort out the baby dress patterns..... see you soon!

Playing with blog pages

Pages! Yay!!

I've been playing about with the new pages feature on blogger and have added two new tabs under the header. Just playing for the moment but do tell me what you think. The layout format is still limited and I had to give up trying to get lots of little pictures into a grid and go for a mosaic instead, but for now, it's just nice to have separate pages and clear up the sidebar a bit. I also ditched having three columns so we are back to everything being on the right again. Force of habit maybe but it feels more comfortable and less crowded now.

Is there anything you would like to see on a separate page to make it easier to find? I haven't done any tutorials per sae but there are some posts that have more of a how-to feel to them. Hmm, maybe I can see if there are enough for a page of their own. I've also been thinking about putting my new dyed yarns on a shop page here instead of Etsy - once I get back into my stride again, that is:-) The idea would be to have a shop update on a regular basis, say the 1st of every month if there is enough interest. What do you think?

Since I've spent most of my time playing online today, not much knitting has been going on but my new cheap and cheerful aranweight magenta yarn has arrived - Yay! The photo above is from the shop site and is a little pinker than the real thing but you get the jist - deep, rich, intense colour!! I got 2x400gm balls of this wool/acrylic mix with each 100gms= 200metres so I can choose a jacket or a long cardi with this amount. It's such a lovely deep, purple magenta too so it's going to be very scrummy - yes, I'm itching to cast on despite my resolution to finish all my outstanding projects but it's a bit cold out there so it's just the right weather to cast on a warm, chunky knit, don't you think?

I'll take some better photos of the yarn tomorrow and show you some pics of what I'm thinking of knitting. Maybe I'll have enough left over to knit a pair of magenta mittens like these ones!!

Am I very sad for being so excited over scrummy, deliciously coloured magenta yarn? Nah:-) You all understand! Back tomorrow with some magenta madness! toodlepip:-)

A little Christmas giveaway!

Spent a very pleasant afternoon making some new stitch markers with my brightly coloured wooden beads that have finally arrived.  A wonderful parcel full of yummy colours and painted patterns - I feel like a kid in a sweet shop:-) Of course when I had finished the light was so poor that I had to put the light on but you get the technicolour jist, don't you?

These stitch markers are much bigger for 'normal' knitting needles compared to my last smaller sets for sock knitting. The rings at the top are 10mm wide so they should fit most needles. I've been itching to make these but I had to wait for the larger findings before I could start but they arrived today so I could get going - at last!

The more I made, the more I loved them:-) I thought the swirls were my favourite but then I saw the multi-coloured ladybirds and then these big flowers! And then, I got to these;-) Smileys:-))

Yup, I'll definitely have to have a set of these! I think if I was getting bogged down in knitting a large garment - as I invariably do! - then seeing these peeping through the knitting would cheer me up immensely and bring a smile to my face.

I'll be posting some of these in my Etsy shop soon but these ones here are up for grabs in my christmas giveaway. So five prizes to be won. Just leave me a comment saying which one you would like to win and I will have a random draw for each set. Feel free to enter for all! I will post the winners next friday 11th December. No restrictions on country - happy to post anywhere:-) Hopefully it will get to you before the christmas rush! Good luck!