Knit and Stitch show

A little misrepresented...

I went to Birmingham on Friday to attend what I thought was a knit and stitch show, hoping to get the wool for my next project. I dragged my boyfriend along, we both took the day off work and drove in the terrible snow conditions to 'sunny' Brummy.

I paid for us both to go in and entered my boyfriends worst nightmare! :)

The first stall we saw were a very friends GirlGuiding Midlands stall (I think it was Midlands) They had lots of badges and merchandise (luckily for my purse I already had most of it!) and we had a little chat with them. Its always nice to see like minded people, and for my boyfriend to see some more ideas of lovely presents for me.

So we turned left and started from the beginning. Not that there was a beginning as unlike Ikea you could go any direction you wanted which was a nightmare with women and their wheely suitcases everywhere! 

There were some lovely stalls, lots for embroidery and habidashery, card making and some exhibitions of students work. 

I found two knitting stalls. Just TWO! One the wool was all over the floor in a massive pile and there were women everywhere diving through like a jumble sale. The other was much nicer and the lady helped me pick my wool, which resulted in me not buying it from her! 

I had picked my wool as a replacement for the one in the pattern as it would have cost me well over £100 to make other wise. The problem was my pattern is on size 10 needles, and even though I had picked up 'chunky' wool it wasn't chunky enough. The Lady taught me that I needed to look for what needle size was suggested on the packet and that would give me a good indication. I had picked one using 5 1/2 needles so it was clearly no good. She told me what I really need is 'super chunky' wool as this is going to be more suitable for me. They had none with them at the show but they gave me their website (www.abakhan.co.uk) and a money off voucher so I could get it at the same price as the show.

Feeling sorry for my self as I hadn't bought anything I subscribed to 'lets Knit' magasine, at 3 issues for £6 and a free goody bag worth £6. This made me feel a little better and gave me lots to look at when I got home. It has a pattern and kit to make some egg warmer's in the shape of bunnies which I may try for easter gifts, so all is not lost!

Note to self - check it really is a knitting show before braving the elements!!

Mothers day

Well for mothers day I think I bit off more than I could chew.
I decided I would make something for my Mum. My Mum always has cold feet, no matter where she is her feet are cold. So when I found the pattern in the magasine 'Let's get Crafting' for leg warmers/boot toppers I thought this would be perfect.

This is me thinking I was doing it right...

My first challenge was 'knit 2 purl 2'. The knit was fine, I just got myself a bit confused with the purl bit and was actually just knitting the whole time just making 2 stitches really difficult for myself. The worst bit was you cast on 50 stitches, so after about 10 rows I realise that its not looking very much like the pattern I realise I'm wrong. So I start again... another 50 stitches... still not getting it.

So I watch something on YouTube with the sound off, cast on another 50 stitches do 5 rows STILL NOT GETTING IT. What's wrong with me.

Failed attempts!

So this time I cast on 10 stitches. I watch the YouTube video over and over and over again with the sound on this time. On row 7 I get it. Thank goodness I was starting to go mad!
Turns out purl goes at the front and stays there. I was trying to move it over the the back where the wool was, not realising I had to pull the wool to the front. Also I wasn't getting I needed to alternate rows, so knit to start row 1, purl to start row 2.

Take 4
So I cast on 50 stitches again and give it another go. It's going great, got my stitch counter on and everything all working fine. Then I hit row 10 ish and forget if odd was knit start or purl. So I end up swapping by accident. It's ok I think I'll just do the same on the other one and tell Mum its a feature :) she'll never know! So I keep going as fast as I can, I end up doing a row in about 4 mins which really impressed me. As usual though I got bored and tried to cut a corner. The pattern says 50 rows, but I only did 30 because I knew my Mum wouldn't fold them over. So I cast off and made it up.

I thought phew! finished with a week before mothers day.. oh wait she needs two! So I try and speed knit the next one replicating my mistakes so they look deliberate. All knitted up finished on the morning of Mothers day, but she was coming over for lunch so my morning was spent cooking and cleaning and making the house mother proof. So it never got sewed up in time!

Once everyone had gone and the house was back to normal I finished the second one and here'd what it looked like.

Time spent so far 60 rows x 4 mins + 'all the faffing I did getting in a knit/purl mess' = 5 hours
Time remaining 45 hours :)

I finished the blanket!

By George it's finished!
Thank goodness!
Can you tell I got bored of squares. Well with a little help from my friends (thanks Andrea, and your Mum) I have finally finished the blanket.

As you can see it's a bit wonky.. I don't think that's all my fault. Though I put it together so it probably is. The problem started with the squares that one guide brought me that had been done as stockingette stitch. So it had started to curl around, plus it wasn't quite a square. I was then trying to make it up and failed terribly. But once a baby is under it no one will know!

I have given it to the other leader now and she seemed very grateful for all the effort the girls had put in. Hopefully it will brighten up any cot or buggy and no-one will know it's wonky. :)

Time spent so far 10 hours. Though I lost count so probably more... oops!

Small things for short attention spans and tiny people

Recently to carry on the baby theme, I made some booty's for a friend at work. I needed something that would give me a result quickly as I was beginning to loose faith and become bored with knitting... Dun dun durrrr! BOOTY'S TO THE RESCUE!

So I googled 'easy free baby booty patterns' and I found this lovely one http://www.craftbits.com/project/charity-pattern-easy-baby-booties
And I happened to have the evil evil wool that went with it!
So here is my version.

The wool was so fluffy it was hard to get into the stitches properly to knit, and it was hard not to accidentally increase your stitches. It also is that kind of microfibre that sticks to your hands if they are dry which mine always are so its was a weirdly uncomfortable knit! I also lost count when I was doing my initial ten rows, so I think I ended up doing 13, unlucky for some, but I replicated it on the second one so shush no-on will know! It's bad when your 10 year old Guide tells you to get a stitch counter because its clear my 'old brain' can't cope with counting! I dutifully did buy one, so my next knit will be according to plan, I hope!

I have to clue why one is bigger than the other! I was speaking to my friend Rachel about this and she said I should always make 3. 1 to get used to the pattern so its all neat and tight and the other two because I know what I'm doing then.. I think she over estimated my skills... And I don't know many three footed babies!
I didn't have any ribbon either so its not as pretty as the ones on the picture but my friend liked them.

It worked though, less than an hour each booty to knit then sewing up takes me to my quickest project yet at 2 hours total :) just about as long as it took me to watch the new Bond film.. though my boyfriend kept complaining about my squeaky needles. I must have been pulling it too tight. One point I even snapped my needle! That made him jump!! Good job it wasn't my glass ones and only thin plastic or he would have had a bigger shock!

I think I will try this pattern with normal wool and see how they turn out who knows the next stop could be mittens!!

Time taken so far 9 hours - getting there slowly!