Bella's Cable Scarf

Yay!

I have permission to pop this online. I wasn't really sure how to go about it, so I turned it into a PDF and have just hosted it with google, but this might change if I figure out a better way and I am also hoping to get it on Ravelry at some point too.

So here is the link. Enjoy.

If you need any help then just send me a message, though it's a pretty easy pattern so I can't see there being too many problems :)

Studying hard.

That is what today has felt like, I have been beavering away working on a couple of patterns.

I have never really done pattern writing, I adapted a pattern to make the Bella's scarf, and my version of the Bella's mittens is different from the original as I changed the palm from garter to moss stitch, but actually designing something outright I have never done. So today I sat on the living room floor surrounded by pieces of paper, lots of patterns I have been studying and my stitch dictionaries and did some doodling.

It all started when after receiving the yarn for my Haven scarf, and starting to knit it up I began to think I wouldn't have enough. I promptly ordered two more balls and it has now occurred to me that I might actually have had the right amount first time around, so I might have extra. To solve the potential problem I decided I needed gloves too. I already had some DK weight merino to make some ladylike gloves but I thought what if its colder and I want chunky gloves? After all I do live in England, and in the north, when I used to come home from Uni I would get off the train in Doncaster and promptly put on some gloves and a scarf. So chunky mittens became the idea.

So I am now sat having chosen the branch lace pattern for the top of the mitten having to choose from 7, yes 7, different types of stitch that I like for the palm. I don't want it to be plain garter because I like a textured palm to a mitten, but I also don't want to use anything too far away from the lines that garter gives when knitting in the round in case it looks a little messy, decisions, decisions.

I also don't want to start knitting it up because I might have been right the second time, and may need the yarn for my Haven, so this will be a slow burner I think (though if I am honest Haven is going pretty quickly, so it wouldn't surprise me if I was attacking this next week).

See, a long way to go but still growing quite a bit. Also look at the pretty KnitPro needles, I have fallen in love with the Spectra needles, they are fab. I find metal too slippery and these have just enough slip and just enough grab, as well as having nice pointy tips unlike my Addi metal needles, I shall definitely be adding some more sizes to my shopping list.

On another note about a finished object, I received a lovely compliment from this lady today. I have been reading her blog being a lurker for a while and she said my Bella's scarf was beautiful, which made me very happy. Incidentally I am currently awaiting a reply from Subliminal Rabbit, the writer of the Bella's Mittens pattern, I thought it would be polite to ask if I could put my scarf pattern up for all to see and knit as her mittens were my inspiration. So watch this space :)

My yarn is sprouting toadstools!!

Where be the fairies?!

Do you like my pins? Don't they look great stuck in the yarn to dry! I am so chuffed with them, they are definitely worth the time it took to make them, and the glue and paint fingers. I have only done half the tin of pins so far and there are loads of them so I am not sure if I will do the others. My dad said I should sell them in little sets of 20 or something, they are really cute but I am not sure anyone would buy them, and I haven't a clue what I would charge consider the effort that has gone into them.

Also, there are two without dots on yet, can you spot them?

Other then pricking myself many times with pins I have started the yellow yarn project, which will now simply be called Haven, as I am actually using the real pattern now I have managed to commandeer the book (queen of the book buying I got 10% off because it was creased muhahaha) and a very pretty book it is too.

Here it is:

Along with the pretty yarns I got during my trip to John Lewis. I went purely for Rowan yarn and that is what I got. I was tempted by some Debbie Bliss but no Rowan and only Rowan. I got some Kidsilk Aura to make the 'Calm' pattern from the book, it requires 6 balls, but I can't afford that all in one go so I thought I would get two and get another every so often to make it drag out a bit, I have never understood the hype about dye lots, I guess I am just not fussy about those sorts of things.

I also got Cherry Glace for some lovely Little Cotton Rabbits cupcakes I am knitting up to be a new pin cushion (the ice cream cone one wasn't successful, note to self, cotton wool is not a good padding) and also some Alpaca Cotton for making the bunny on some bunny egg cosies also from the same marvelous woman. If you haven't read Little Cotton Rabbits before you really should, it is one of the few blogs I was reading before I actually started knitting and helped inspire me to actually start. Her animal creations are the most adorable things I have ever seen, I desperately want a fox so I shall have to see if one appears in her Etsy shop next time she releases some of the animals to new homes :)

It is also Julie that put me onto my Swallow casein needles, she has quite a few pairs and they are fab, so i definitely recommend popping over to her blog for a read about her family and crafting and gardening, and if your a knitter you should definitely get her patterns!

I think that is all for the next couple of days. I am working on a sewing project too at the moment but I broke my sewing machine making it on saturday and still haven't gotten round to borrowing my mum's machine yet so more on that when it is complete!

Finished Object!!!

Oh yes, you read correctly, the Bella's Scarf in PINK is finished!!!!!!! I am so happy about this, mainly because I was getting a little bit of cramp from all the pattern repeats (I did 35 in the end) and also because this is my first finished object that i can wear, it is functional, which is what this learning to knit lark was all about.

so without further ado, here is the beauty:

Isn't it pretty :) I am off to the library for my Agatha Raisin fix in a bit and I suspect I shall have to wear it, it looks a little chilly out there.

Anyways some technical stuff, the scarf now measures in at a really quite long 170cm. This is after blocking obviously. I used a wet block method, just dunking it into some water and then squishing it back out with a towel before pinning it down, I pinned it to my old yoga mat as I don't have any of those foam board things, but actually it wasn't quite long enough, one of the ribbed ends hung off it so I just prayed that as it is k2, p2 rib it will be ok as its super stretchy anyways.

I used 100% Merino on 5.5mm needles for this, and am really glad I did as it's lovely and soft and now it is blocked it flows fantastically, before it was all stiff because it was so tight but now it has a great drape to it.

It is so exciting getting to wear something that you have entirely made yourself, I enjoy wearing things I have altered because there is a sense of achievement but when something used to be a ball of yarn and now after some time, care, and attention it is a scarf it really is satisfying, I was so excited that I wanted to put it into last night's post but I refrained!

While that was blocking yesterday I got down to some crafty business and painted the heads of my pins and glossed them, now all I need is some craft glue with a really tiny nozzle so i can glue them back together!

To Arthur!

As many of you may have seen on the telly and around the towns, today is the 250th anniversary of the founding of Guinness.

I actually had to be reminded by my (Irish) boyfriend today, I knew it was coming up but not which day, so I promptly sent the home delivery wagon (Dad) to go and fetch me a can. Not as good as the real thing, and I wish I was in Dublin (though mainly because I miss the Irish boyfriend a lot.)

I have had a love affair with this drink for many years, since about the age of 13 I think (I am 21, that is a long time for me!) and I have had many happy times drinking it. Several funny occasions that I can recall are the response from men much older then me when I was 13/14 of: "a GIRL drinking Guinness?! And only 14!!!"

Also many a time at college parties where a pint was drunk in one as a party trick in order to use as a bargaining chip, "I will only do it if you do..." (this one was really rather fun).

I had a hiatus from the drink while at university, mainly because of a bad incident with some Bacardi, I am happily sitting enjoying a pint now though, reminiscing about my youth, which while not really over yet, I feel the most outrageous parts are definitely behind me. I feel much more grown up nowadays (today I was a little miffed I couldn't join an over 55's dinner at the community centre).

So today, I would like to join the millions of others to say "To Arthur" thank you for many wonderful memories :)

Special Delivery!

I am really rather behind on this so this will be a long one.

First, I have finished my ice cream cone pin cushion! My first real FO! (I'm not including the one mitten I have done as obviously it is part of a set) I am quite proud of it, I used the "scooped" pattern on Ravelry. I did make a change, the pattern called for 5 rows at the beginning of the scoop pattern, which makes up the melting part of it, but this is where all the ssk's that were hurting my wrist were so I only did 3 rows and then continued the rest of the pattern. I used some lovely squishy Lana Grossa cool wool to make it, and the effect is nice and soft. I stuffed it with cotton wool but I am not so sure this was the best idea and may take it apart and change it as it isn't as good at accepting the pins as I thought it would be.

Other then this I have been merrily knitting away on my pink scarf, I have now used two balls of the yarn, and am onto my third, I am not sure how many repeats I am actually going to do, I will just judge by putting it on at intervals, so far I have done about 30.

In between this and that I have been popping to the library. I have access to two library areas, both North Lincolnshire and Lincolnshire, the knitting sections aren't great from what I have seen but I have found a couple of things I'd like to make.

I really rather like this tote bag, it calls for felting, which is something I haven't done before but really want to try. It would make a great bag for storing yarn that wont fit in my Cath Kidston knitting bag where i keep projects. Though saying that it would just be a really nice bag to have really, great for transporting all the stuff I carry around, especially books.

These are a cute little Christmas decoration, also felted, both projects are from a book called Holiday Knits. It also has a couple of other cute projects too, well worth having a look at.

Thee stockings are a lace pattern, and the ones below are felted slipper socks. I love both of these, they are from a book called "Knitted Sock Sensations" again something I haven't done before, making socks, but which I keep saying I will, when I get some yarn that is suitable.

Now for the special delivery part. Look at my haul!

This wasn't all in one day i might add. My Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky arrived in the middle of last week. The Black Sheep whom I ordered it from were really great with the order, and it arrived only a few days after I had ordered it, I had great fun throwing all the balls into the air :) I got the Katia and the Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino from Tricot only yesterday. It should be the right amount to finish my pink and purple sets! I'm glad I finally managed to get what I needed so I can plough ahead. The random hand wound balls on the left are some nice 100% merino that i got from Boyes purely to have in my stash for little jobs.

My lovely books that you can see I got over the weekend, they are the reissues of the Harmony Guides stitch dictionaries, the pictures inside are fabulous and the amount of different stitches in each book is great. I really want to try and insert them into some of my knitting.

Here is my favorite collection of new things, they arrived this morning:
Lovely Knit Pro items! I got some 5mm DPN's, a 5mm inter-changable wooden tip and an 8mm new Spectra acrylic tip, and the cables i need to make things on them.

Here is a close up of the spectra tips, they are really cool! I can't wait to use them, I got them for my Yellow project, which I will make sure I don't cast on until I have finished something else, I am promising myself!Here are the DPN's and the 5mm symphony wooden needles too, look at the pretty colours! They are for making the hat to go with my Bella's scarf, and hopefully another hat for someone else :)

More crafting to talk about!

I have more to say! I didn't want to make an extra long post so I thought I would split the content in two.

I have been doing other crafty things, mainly making a notice board.

A while back I read on one of the many blogs I have bookmarked that someone had make a notice board by covering an artists canvas in fabric.

"Genius!" I thought. That would be perfect for making a little board to hang next to my desk, said desk is normally filled with clutter and post its but this way I can keep it a bit more tidy.

Art canvases aren't that cheap by the way, I got mine from a cheap bookshop that has previosuly been mentioned and it was £3.99, 'that's not expensive!' I will hear you cry but for me that is, its a ball of yarn! I then also got some red and white stripey fabric as my room is red and white stripes, the colours are a bit bright but its all I could find.

The construction was relatively easy, I simply stretched the fabric over the canvas on my desk and stapled it in place with one of those staple guns used to staple into the wall and things, like at school. This bit was easy but sometimes a little frustrating if the fabric wouldn't lie flat, for example I ironed it before doing this and it then got a massive crease in it half way through because it folded while I was stapling.

Here it is after I had stapled on some ribbon too, I needed 3m to finish it, I originally got 2m of ribbon but as you can see from this picture I didn't quite have enough. Luckily I got this from Boyes so there was plenty more, and it was only 30p per meter too so it wasn't exactly breaking the bank to get more. I didn't measure where to put these or anything, I just did it by eye, stapling them at one end and then stretching them tight around the canvas and stapling at the other end. The ribbons if you haven't guessed are great at holding up bits of paper that you don't want to put a pin through, they tuck in and the tension keeps them in place.

Here it is all finished yesterday, complete with post its to show how grippy the ribbons are.

And here is a pin so you can see that it does indeed hold pins nicely, especially my little ladybug ones, which were from Paperchase a couple of years ago (they might still do them, I bought about 5 packs so that should suggest people want them!) Like the little bow? I did that with the left overs of ribbon from the first day :)

Getting behind.

Ick so I was hoping I would have a picture of a completed pin cushion to show you...I haven't. I started making the ice cream top and noticed my wrist kept clicking whenever I did an ssk (there are a lot of those) and thought I had better put it down for a bit, I started it again last night and got almost through a row when the clicking started again so I think it will have to be done in short bursts.

This doesn't mean i haven't been crafty though :)

Muffins!

Double chocolate chip muffins to be precise! My mum works at a school as a cook and some of the muffin mix was nearing its best before date so she bought it home for me to whip up into delicious chocolaty treats! The mix is very much like packet mix, stick some water in and you're ready to go, they are delicious though and i added both milk and white chocolate chips.

Here's a pretty one with a close up. Yum yum!

I haven't only been stuffing my face with cake though. What happens when you cross left over clay from making stitch markers...

With a big pot of dressmakers pins like this,

You get these!! Dressmakers pins with sparkly pink clay heads, which are going to be polka dotted and glazed like the stitch markers so they all match. I had the idea when after realising that my pins had all had their ends snapped off, it slowly occurred to me that I would have to get new pins. I looked on Etsy and other places for some nice decorative ones but then decided, I have clay and paint, why not make my own! I have done more then this picture suggests, two pins wouldn't do very much, but i do still have half the pack of pins left and lots of clay, they also still need painting because since i haven't finished my pin cushion i have nothing to stick them in! I am super proud though, they have cost me hardly anything per pin and will be really pretty when they are finished.

Small things.

So, please proceed to tell me off, after saying only yesterday that I MUST finish some of my WIP (works in process) I have started something new... but it is really small! So it should be allowed!

Voila!

My ice cream cone pin cushion :)

While sewing the other day I noticed that some of my pins weren't pointy any more, and after some detective work I found that my pin cushion was snapping the ends off, so I have made a nice new soft one full of cotton wool.

The cone is green, I don't have any brown wool so it is a pistachio cone, and nice vanilla ice cream.

As you can see from the larger picture then normal I got to use my Knit Pro needles, I have discovered that I am in love with these needles, they really are amazingly cool. Not only are the colours great but they are really smooth to use and have really pointy ends. I have been considering ordering some interchangeable circular ones as I saw some that are acrylic, and I prefer plastic to metal and previous to this wood, now I think I will get a couple of cables and a pair of acrylic AND a pair of wooden ones, just to try. Oh and of course some new pins to replace the broken ones, I am considering being all crafty and giving them decorative ends :)

Stuff

I have finally decided how I am going to make my yellow lace project, I ordered some lemon yellow Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky from The Black Sheep yesterday, I think 8 balls will be enough if my calculations are correct, if not I will just have to find some more! It was half price which I actually did a little dance about, a real dance with "yippee!!"'s and everything. I had gone into Tricot earlier in the day and asked if they would order it and they would have to charge me for the full ten balls and it would be £45 which in my currently jobless situation I could not afford, so I was super happy when i found this at £2.50 a ball and only £1 for postage! There was some confusion about whether they actually had any, but today I got the confirmation they definitely did so I cheered up after thinking I had lost my perfect yarn.

I have decided though that I wont be casting this on for a while yet, while at Tricot I got some Katia 100% merino which is a much closer match to the pink german yarn I already had for my pink Bella's Scarf and so I frogged the little bit I had done in Sublime and have redone it in the Katia, I am going to get another ball and do the hat in it too but do the other mitten in more Sublime, I am determined that I will finish the pink and the purple sets before starting the yellow lace project as the yellow is really a christmas present to myself, and I wont be using it until I get my bag anyway.

My list of to do is slowly getting bigger, the purple is chugging along nicely, I will definitely need more yarn but I will worry about that next week, mondays are now my Scunthorpe days

so I will be going to the library and the yarn shop then.

Today I haven't done much knitting, but I have been playing with yarn. Last night I was knitting away and getting really frustrated about my ball of yarn rolling away from me, my first solution was this:

While effective and also using up one of the hundreds of bowls my mum has (they come with panna cotta and creme brulee in them from M&S) the ball bounced out a couple of times, so instead I did some searching on the internet and found out how to wind balls of yarn so that they unwound from the middle, and so have been feverishly winding yarn on my thumb for a lot of the afternoon.

I did it quite losely and the yarn is all in much smaller balls now, they will all fit in my bag with some projects in too which is good as that is what it was designed for, it was a little annoying that it didn't all fit anymore. I think I shall definitely be doing it from now on, they are all so neat and tidy too :)

Other then winding yarn I have been busy sewing, I have made the project bag I had said I would from the scraps left after the sailor dress transformation.

I am actually quite surprised with myself with this one. I honestly thought I would leave it a few days then start it then leave it because using the sewing machine does wind me up sometimes, but I'm glad I have done it, I have also made a little notions bag for my now completely finished stitch markers (I glazed them with clear nail polish in the end). Hopefully this will stop me losing them, and help keep my knitting bag tidy, unfortunately I didn't think ahead and make it big enough to also hold my cable needles and tapestry needles, but I have a little make up bag I don't use that I think everything will fit into. If you haven't noticed already, I really don't like things being messy.

The only other interesting thing to report really is that I have found some new favorite books. I have been finding it hard to concentrate on reading lately because my mind would keep wandering to other things and I would not take in the words on the page. I knew I needed something really easy to read, and so I decided to try these:

I first discovered them while working at Waterstone's and considered getting them, but I am now glad I didn't, 30% discount doesn't come anywhere near 3 for £5!! I found them at this bargain price in the bargain bookshop The Works when browsing for a book for my sister's AS Level English Lit course. They are really fun, I finished the first one in two days, which while slow for me is quick for me while I am also knitting and feeding my restaurant city people and chatting and cooking etc.

The series is about a 50-something PR businesswoman who takes early retirement and moves from London to a tiny village in the Cotswolds, murder shortly follows and in a Miss Marple-y way Mrs Raisin (as is her name) solves it! The first one, 'Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death' was nice and light hearted, and I especially like it as I can see the same sort of things in my own village, particularly the bits about incomers, damn those new builds ruining the prettiness of my picturesque home :)