updating the blanket update

So glad that I decided to switch over to Cobalt, it flows so much better. I had comparison photos, but the batteries in the camera up and died whilst attached by the USB cable, so it wiped the whole card. feh.

All the blocks are sewn together into their colour strips - now sewing the strips together.

My eejit husband gave me his damn cold. yay. And I still have this stupid broken blood vessel in my right eye. It's not going away, although I googled for info and found that it can be upwards of three weeks before it goes away. joy. I just feel so attractive!

It's a lovely sunny day - quite warn for January. Weird weather we've been having.

We didn't win a damn thing, lottery-wise. smeg. I was rather hoping that the raffle thingy would hit.

Blanket update and yet another hat

So I made a hat for Chip. I hope it's not too big. I tried it on Stave last night and it was huge on him, but Chip does have a bigger head and fluffier hair... too lazy to link to the pattern properly, it's Tychus, a knitty pattern. I must have been doing something wrong, I ended up with holes and stretched stitches when I did the second half and connected all the lines. I tweaked it a bit, twisted some stitches and made one just to slip it over another stitch. So, other than being big I guess it looks OK. I doubt he'll like it, he never seems to like stuff I make.

I'm also worried that my friend won't like the Tea Bag. I'm still debating whether it should have a closure of some sort.

I also have to make Dev's fleece scarf and mittens and hat. I bought Cars fleece on ebay. It wasn't entirely what I expected, the images are larger than I assumed they would be. But it's still doable. However, he keeps yammering on about getting The King and, well... we didn't. And I can't find those blasted things ANYWHERE!

I should call Kathy and ask her to look at stores out there. I can send her a picture of the packaging.

Oh yes, and the blanket update: I decided that I don't like the darker blue and I prefer Devlin's original choice - Cobalt. Which means that I will most likely rip out the blues and re-do them. Yes, I really am that anal! :) Oh and I bought a sort of heathered red and I want to trade that in on the candy apple red.

Devlin's blanket

Or rather, what will be his blanket. It will be 5 squares by 4 rows of different coloured squares. The next set of colours will be red and something. Maybe something that also has yellow/gold and blue in it, so it will then tie in with the blue squares. The greens tie in with the fiesta colours in the purple squares and the red ties in with that, too, but the blues seem rather lost, don't they?

Hats Off part two.

Since I didn't really like the grey hat much I made one out of some yarn that I do like. :) But this is a crappy picture and doesn't show it off very well.

I used this pattern I found online at Knitting pattern central and Caron's Simply Soft yarn for the grey, Lionbrand Homespun for the one posted above.


This is a Clapotis Hat made from some leftover yarn from Melissa's shawl. I really like that pattern. I really wish I looked better in hats. Hell, while I'm wishing, could I please win the lottery?

Clapotis Hat pattern found online here
I used Paton's Brilliant, less than 1 skein.

Hats off!

The grey hat on Bill the Cat!

OK, so it's not exactly properly presented, but... I just don't much like this hat! The brim rolls and it shouldn't - that's a fault in my knitting, always has been my problem, and I'm not a big fan of grey. But it's not for me - it's for a friend's Mom and I hope she likes it! I wanted to make it in brown, but can't find a decent brown anywhere...


I finished up with the Violent Violet mitre squares for Devlin's new blanket - now working with the Ghastly Greens! If I had my way it'd all be in blues, but I decided to let him pick out his own colours! Yes, there will be pictures sometime soon!

it be Tuesday...

and there's nothing really thrilling going on. Devlin went back to school today, I went back to bed this morning - had some very odd dreams, got up at the crack of noon and meandered my way through my two favourite sites: Next Exit and the Neil Gaiman board. It's how I wake up.

I'm re-reading Small Gods for what is possibly the 254th time. I do so love this book. Lucky Brits get to watch an adaptation of Hogfather in December. I hope it's released on DVD sometime soon.

Short review by one of the World's End boardies who won tickets to the premiere: that it was great, but they only got to see the first half. They have to wait for the second half. And they got to see Terry Pratchett!

I'm extremely jealous of course.

Many years ago I wrote a very short story about Christmas and how trying it can be and the twist was that as time went by and everyone kept saying Christmas should be all year 'round, that's what happened and there was one day when we could all just relax and take a break - December 25th! Don't you wish this day came all year 'round?

I know I wrote it... but d'ya think I could find it? Of course not. I can't seem to re-write it either.

I'm off to make pancakes!

Happy Feet

I took Devlin to see Happy Feet yesterday afternoon. I thought it was delightful. Devlin squirmed, yawned, lost a toy - amazingly didn't scream or yell or throw a wobbler, possibly because I assured him that he would get it back as soon as the movie ended - asked me at least a dozen times if the movie was over yet and eventually became a lap parasite... And yet walking out in the hall he said "That was a great movie. I really liked it."

Is Hugh Jackman the Michael Caine of 2006? He's in everything all of a sudden! He is a delight for eyes and ears though, so I'll overlook it for now...

A few days ago I got an email from Transworld about a premier for Hogfather - have to be a UK resident and actually in the UK to go... useless to me, so I posted the link in the Neil Gaiman message board and someone won tickets! How cool is that? And while I am of course extremely jealous that she gets to go and see it on telly, I'm sure it'll find its way to DVD someday. Mr Pratchett himself has a cameo as the toymaker.

I wonder if I can convince my husband to take me to the movies tonight. Either Casino Royale or Tencaious D. I vote for the latter, I'm more in the mood to laugh.

Baby blankets

well, the picture cloning thing seems to have resolved itself, but I used a different format than the other posts. And they will most likely get deleted and re-posted, 'cos they annoy me.

Baby blankets! It was a very fertile year apparently, two friends online, a friend of the fam, one of hubby's friends and his boss - all due mostly the same time! (mostly - from early December to mid February) Both blankets were just design elements glommed from other sources - books or internet - and thrown together. Top blanket - the hearts were supposed to be done in two different yarns, I preferred just purl stitches. They should have been a bit bigger and seed stitch or something around the edges, but... oh well. As you can see I was really into mitre squares this year!

Top blanket: Bernat Softee Baby
Bottom blanket: RedHeart Babyclouds - size 15 needles, so this was quick!

seeing double

OK, colour me confused but... Why are my pictures being doubled? Obviously I'm doing something wrong...

dyeing for a cuppa tea

It all started with Lionbrand's Bolero - lurv the colours, hate the yarn. It's thick and thin and I hate that - makes it seem like they didn't spin the yarn properly and although it works up fast on huge needles, there's not really much yardage to the skein. So, I decided to experiment with some Paton's Classic Merino and tea and cocoa.

I googled some info on hand painting wool, mostly got info on kool aid dyeing - but I'm not interested in bright colours, at least not right now, I wanted natural browns. So I decided on tea and cocoa.

I'm quite happy with the way the tea turned out, the cocoa, less so. Coffee is the next experiment anf then perhaps wine or curry powder or paprika... The above project will be a felted purse.

Melissa's Butterfly Shawl

...not sure why there are two pictures of the same thing? I'm still figuring out how to do all this - posting pictures and all that!

I started this on October 8 and finished it November 15? 18th? It was seriously complicated, but extremely satisfying to accomplish. I found the pattern online at needlebeetle.com - I certainly didn't design it! I'm not that talented!

Melissa wanted a dragonfly, but I couldn't find anything that I was willing to do (the one pattern I found, the needles were way too small!) but she lurvs butterflies too - so I bought this pattern and we settled on yarn and then... it was Spring and I stopped knitting! :) So, back at the end of September she found the yarn she wanted at yarnbythebag.com and sent it to me. I expected this thing to take me forever, but it took about 6 weeks. She may just get it in the mail today! I do hope she likes it. And feels brave enough to wear it! :) But... I did it! I finished it! Even if she hangs it on the wall or drapes it over the couch... it'll still get noticed and it's still gorgeous.

I wore it out last week, secretly hoping that someone would stop me and gush over it so I could say, Yes, I made this! and no one said a thing...

My very first blog...

This will mainly be a showcase for my crafty things, 'cos Next Exit is my main blog! :)


Once I figure out how to do pictures there will be an overabundance of such nonsense...