Cast On, Brighton

As a little treat, in my between jobs break Bobby and I took a trip to Brighton. It was mucho fun. Saw an amazing gig from Bosnian Rainbows and a bit of comedy from Paul Merton, plus lots of walking around the cool shops and eating tons of yummy food.

On the train journey down I finished this new aran cable number. I've called it my Brighton Jumper!

Its super cosy , but I think I'm going to need to block it as the sleeves ride up a bit.

Of course while there I indulged in a little Yarn bombing.

This is on the sea front not far from where we were staying.

I was actually quite surprised that I didn't spot any knitted pieces around Brighton as I was certain it would be a popular thing round there. I can't have been looking in the right places!

Farewell my dear Bath

Today is my last day at the University of Bath, I'm a sobbing mess!

I've absolutely loved working here. My knitting has really taken off during my time here and my colleagues have been incredibly supportive and often provided much needed inspiration. On top of that, the commute has given me enforced knitting time. I will very much miss the place and more importantly the people.

As a fairwell gift I left my knitty mark at various spots around the campus.

Even Lizzie also got in on the act!

Nice work Lizzie


One of the Departments I've worked closely with is Chemistry - They are a lovely bunch. To thank them for being so nice to me over the past few years I put my new crocheting skills to good use and made them an alcohol molecule!

To top it all off, the knitting group only went and Yarn Bombed my desk! That really opened the floodgates. 

I bet you'd never thought you'd hear this- Crochet is OK

A few weeks ago I had a revelation - Lizzie and Laura at work broadened my horizons and showed me that crochet isn't all that bad afterall!

Its all down to the technique. Every time I had attempted to learn I'd been following YouTube vids where they hold the yarn in the left hand. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get to grips with it, literally. Then Laura showed me how to crochet with the yarn in my right hand in a similar way to how I knit and voila, it clicked.

Now there's no stopping me!

I'm loving the granny square. I'm going to make loads more of these, sew them together and make a nice blanket for when we get a nice little house.

Evan's 2nd Birthday

They're growing up so fast! For Evan's birthday I made him an Owl and a Pussy Cat puppets to go with a lovely book that Bobby found.

Knits 'n' Giggles

We did it! Winterwell was great. We had our own little gazebo that nearly took off when we were putting it up, but the lovely security men came to our rescue. A few things were purchased and we had some lovely people and kids come and knit with us. I had a triffic time.

Nearly ready for Winterwell!!!!!!!

I am soooooooooooooooooooo excited about Winterwell.
Nanna and the team have been grafting away preparing our sign and our Wild West friends Cactus Joe and Cowboy Cash for the best weekend of 2012.

Two meters of fabrics and many fabric pens later we have our sign prepared and waiting to be put up.
 

Heres the team putting the finishing touches to Cowboy Cash's pants

Corfs is sorting out Cactus Joe's bod.

Our finished chums

SEE YOU AT WINTERWELL!!!!!!!!!!!!

WINTERWELL!

Big news this summer - I'll be running knitting sessions at Winterwell Festival! 

With the help of Bobby, Corfs and John, Knits 'n' Giggles will be set up in the Chill Out tent on Saturday the 30th June and Sunday 1st July. Its a chance for experienced knitters to come along and have a knit and natter and also a great opportunity for first timers to get started. Yarn and needles will be provided but feel free to bring along something you're currently working on.

The theme of this year's festival is the the Wild West so we will be knitting up wears for our buddy's Cactus Joe and Cowboy Cash.

Hope to see you there!

Bday Pressy for Nicky

It was Nicky's 30th Bday recently. We were lucky enough to be at his surprise party which was super brill fun. He and his lovely wife Pip have been great advocates of my knitting so I wanted to make sure he got a knitted gift.

Its an Everton Monster!!!!! Yes, Nicky is a BIG Everton fan.

Heather's leaving Pressy

Heather from work moved on to pastures new recently.
I made her a good luck duck with some nice Aran wool I'd pilfered from Mum when we visited over Easter.

Center Parcs

I've just got back from a rather wonderful hollybols at Longleat Center Parcs. It was a fun packed week with all my chums and I wish it hadn't ended!


Its been an absolute age since I did any yarn bombing. I was actually starting to feel like a bit of a fraud when talking to people about it. This holiday was the perfect opportunity to get stuck in again. I've been making large pieces on the knitting machine - its the only thing its good for to be honest - and had one stripey number which would look perfect on a tree. On the cycle path near our villa I donned this lovely tree with its new woolly attire.

Actually, I was not the first to yarn up there. I forgot to get a pic but there were some pieces there done by  Handy Roach


P.S. I've got well into Instagram lately so a lot of my pics will now have a sepia tone!

Bday Pressy for Mum

This is my first attempt at doing lace work and I think it turned out ok. There are a humungous amount of errors but I think I got away with it. Found the yarn in Lidls! Pattern is here

Industrial revolution?

So over 4 years ago, I pinched my mum's knitting machine. It has been squeezed up in a corner of the spare room all that time. I made it one of my new year's resolutions to crank it up and learn how to use it. This weekend I managed to get it working but I can't say it was an enjoyable expereince - just when I thought things were going well it would drop a load of stitches and make a whooping great hole. I've decided its only really use is for making yarn bombing peices.

Just give peas a chance!

Somthing rather exciting may be happening at the end of June, but I can't shout about it until a contract has been signed. There will be more info to follow. In preparation I have been knitting up lots of little things to sell at this particular event. Here are some peas!

Teddy for Isabella

Well its been quite and exciting week mainly due to the arrival of little Isabella Kempt. She is an absolute treasure, a beautiful little pudding!  

I found the pattern on Ravelry as per usual - its such a lovely bear, I'm dead pleased with how it turned out. I had finished it earlier on in the week, but we didn't know for sure whether Ma and Pa Kempt were getting a little girl or boy. As soon as Isabella arrived I had a bit of a rush on to make a little pinefore and shorts outfit. Although the teddy is wearing a little dress, it is reasonably gender neutral colourwise (hope I'm getting approving nods from Sian there).

Monster Monster Monster

I treated myself to Rebecca Danger's Monster book last month and it has been a rather brilliant investment.

Check out my Monsters!

Here we have Cecil, Hugo, Curtis and Morvan. It was a nightmare getting them to sit still for 5 seconds while I took this picture.

Morvan and Curtis have been re-homed so I'm looking forward to making some more soon.

Easter Fundraising

Our Knitting group at work have been beavering away making Easter egg knits to sell to raise funds for Omnibus, the staff association.
My contribution so far is 5 chicks and 4 baskets. Hope to get a few more done by Easter for them.

WoW Gorilla, AGAIN!

We were lucky enough to get hold of two of the replica WOW Gorillas and of course, one of them was the very lovely Blue who donned my knitted attire over last summer.

As Ma and Pa were about when I did that particular bombing I thought I'd give it to them as a gift. Dad sent me a message to say he had escaped en route to the car. They managed to take some pics of him in his natural habitat before recapture.

A scary way to use up scraps

We had a mega tidy and sort out last weekend, which meant I had to do a job I had been putting off for a while - tidying up my yarn stash! I had a rummage through my yarn box and found several unfinished projects a fair few ball of un-started yarn and countless more balls that are either left over from bigger projects or I've inherited from generous peeps. I also have bags of yarn snippets left over from all the colour work I've done. I daren't throw any away - it could be useful one day! Instead of getting on and clearing out the cupboard under the sink, I thought a much better use of my time would be to knit up some of these odd bits of stash.

Enter Scrap Monster!

Its ok... don't be scared, she can’t get you - she hasn't got any arms! She just likes to intimidate with her menacing stare.

I made up the pattern myself (I know, get me!!!!). It’s just a rectangle with extensions for the ears, fold in half, add some tubes for legs and Taa Daaa. I'd knit the body quite tight, using 5mm needle on yarn recommended for 6mm so instead of using toy stuffing I used the yarn snippets. As the knit is so tight, the multicolour snippets don't show through.

During my rummage I also found a monster kit that Paul and Nicole had given to me several birthdays ago. I’m ashamed to say I’d completely forgotten about it. To keep Scarp Monster company I made it up. Haven’t got a name yet though so suggestions are very welcome.

Somethings for Me

One of my New Years resolutions is to make more things for myself.
I've done pretty well in the first month -

Fingerless Gloves with fancy buttons (pattern from Knit Today)

Chunky and Cosy Cowl. I made this with three strands of aran weight yarn on fat 12mm needles and this pattern: http://ttwcreative.blogspot.com/2009/02/new-free-cowl-pattern.html

and I finally finished the jumper I started last summer

I'm super chuffted with all of these but particularly the jumper, it fits like a dream and is one of the biggest and most technical things I've made. As perusual the pattern came via Ravelry: http://www.classiceliteyarns.com/WebLetter/9/Issue9.php