Owls, seals and a Milo.

Off my knitting needles, for a friend's new arrival, an owly Milo.

I like how the Milo pattern gives you different cable options to personalise the vest.  I made the three month size and fit in two owl repeats.  My only issue was that I used dpns rather than circulars, and my tension must have been a bit dodgy, as you can see a line where the needles met.  Hopefully a few washes will get rid of these marks!  I think the owls look great, maybe one day I'll get round to making myself an owls jumper.  I've also been to visit some other new arrivals, this time at the Donna Nook grey seal colony.

These seal pups are adorable!

Winter is finally allowed to happen...

Seven years ago I lived in a very cold flat.  Seven years ago my mum taught me how to crochet granny squares.  I put these two together and had a brainwave, "I know, I'll crochet a granny square blanket for the bed".  What a great idea.  Have you ever started something, without quite realising what you are getting yourself into?  This was definitely one of those projects.  I previously blogged about this blanket here, here and here.  And last night I finally finished the blanket - hurrah!

Here are four things I have learnt about making a granny square blanket:

1. Pick a yarn that isn't about to be discontinued.  I really liked the tweedy look of Sirdar Donegal, what I didn't realise was that after I had brought half the quantity for the blanket, it was discontinued.  Cue some panic buying on ebay.
2. Make BIG squares.  I made this blanket from some rather cute and compact 10cm squares.  In hindsight I would have made my squares much bigger.  This blanket is made from 256 of those cute and compact 10cm squares.  They stop feeling quite so cute after the first 100 or so.
3. Crochet them together.  Crochet is way quicker than sewing.  Yet for some reason I started to hand sew them together, and then continued this way.
4. Leave a long tail on each square to aid joining them together.  For the majority of the squares, I left a short tail, sewed it in, and then had to use a separate piece of yarn to join the squares together, creating extra work for myself! 

So finally 256 granny squares, with 12 rows of granny stripe border, over and done with.  I have ignored washing and blocking, in favour of putting straight on the bed.  I can confirm the blanket works, and it is certainly very cosy!

All is full of love...

Some crochet cotton and PVA come together, based on this tutorial from Craft.

Be warned sticky crochet cotton is well, quite sticky.  I used a cocktail stick to move the thread around without getting into a big mess.

Tiny couching stitches hold it on to the card.  Perfect for a wedding acceptance rsvp card.  Maybe this will encourage me to make my Christmas cards this year?

Woolly stripes

When are stripes not stripes?

When they are a square.

My first taste of illusion knitting using the tutorial from Woolly Thoughts.  Illusion (or shadow) knitting uses combinations of knit and purl stitches to create hidden images, the possibilities are endless.

Loops and Lace

The other weekend I attended a Lace Workshop with the very talented Elizabeth Lovick. The class was as part of Glasgow School of Yarn, organised by the Yarn Cake.  Prior to this workshop lace charts were a bit of a mystery to me.

And now, I think I have now solved that mystery!  PS, do you like my blocking mat?

It was the free foam packaging in my new rucksack.  I just knew that it would come in handy one day!

Getting colder...

It is forecast to get very chilly at the end of the week.  In preparation, I have finished my slipper socks.

I have cold feet all the time.  I wear socks to bed in the middle of summer, so big cosy socks are a necessity for winter.  These socks are rather chunky and a little silly.  They were made using two strands of double knitting yarn, rather than the worsted the pattern called for, and 5.5mm needles.

One thing to remember is that these are rather slippy-slipper socks, and should not be worn on the laminate floor!  With warnings to prepare for winter, I pulled out my granny square blanket.

This has been ongoing for 7 years, this year I am determined to get it finished!  I was pleasantly surprised by how much I had done, I have finished sewing up 200 squares, only another 50 squares to sew and then a border...  And in other news, Mark has been guinea pig shamed!

Knitting and a little snoozing...

I'd seen the one row lace scarf by Turvid and thought it looked great.  Although I couldn't quite believe the comments that it was so easy.  Can lace ever be easy?  I cast on with some squidgy drops merino extra fine, and surprise, surprise... it was easy!

The pattern calls for a one row repeat (hence the name) and once you have knitted a few rows it becomes super simple.  I managed to rattle through the ball in two days, and made the strip into a twisted cowl.  I am now ready for Autumn!

I also realised how difficult it was to take a picture of yourself wearing a cowl without a) looking like you have 4 chins or b) looking like you have really odd shaped breasts!  In other knitty news, at the weekend I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally Pally.  I was surprisingly restrained with buying goodies, although I did get some lovely self-striping Rico superba yarn which will make some very cute socks.

I also treated myself to a copy Pop knitting by Britt-Marie Christoffersson, which has some amazing knitting samples in it, that I can't wait to experiment with.  On the needles currently I have some rather silly, but very practical slipper socks.

My attempt to progress on these this morning, was halted by a rather sleepy Jeremy cozying on my lap.

Who wouldn't want to climb in to a fleece sleeping bag on an overcast October morning?  And I think we can all agree that this is good foot action!  Glasgow is home to some VERY exciting knitting events this week here, here & here.  Maybe you can catch one?