On The Needles This Week 22-04-13

On The Needles 22-04-13

I’m a little bit late this week but here it goes anyway! Last week’s knitting time was interrupted by college, head colds, rehearsals and lost dogs and this weeks knitting time looks like it’s going to be interrupted by much the same thing (minus the lost dogs hopefully and the rehearsals will be replaced by concerts!) I’ll be having withdrawal symptoms by the end of it. Bring on summer I say!

Half way there!

I’ve finally reached the half-way mark with the scarf and hopefully after this week I’ll have more evening time to get the second half finished soon. Then it will be on to the hat! I am very happy with how it is turning out though 🙂

This poor cowl is long awaiting arrival in the shop and hopefully fingers crossed it will be up next week. I’m just working out some ideas for a flower to use as a brooch and given that my crochet skills are a bit undeveloped it’s taking me longer than anticipated! But I’m pretty sure what I want now so it’s just a matter of getting it done!  But customer orders are my priority so for now I’ll be focusing on the scarf for the moment!

I’ve decided to say farewell to the gloves and mittens until Autumn and have ripped what I had done of the little glove. Finally starting to get some Spring weather here so I’ll be working on some ideas for Spring/Summer knitted accessories! I’m always open to ideas so if there’s anything you’d like to see in the shop now’s the time to tell me!

I’m off to do a bit of study and then steal some knitting time for myself!

A

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Only Thing to Do on a Windy Night!

Brrrrrr…. It’s very windy out there in Waterford tonight. Perfect night for curling up on the couch knitting a scarf and crocheting little flowers. All I’m missing now is a hot chocolate 🙂

 

Ideas taking shape!

Scarf starting to take shape

The lace pattern scarf is starting to take shape now and my time spent charting out the tapering off pattern is paying off! I’ll have to write it out again in slightly more legible form for later patterns, but I’m very happy with how this is looking and after blocking the change from pattern to stockinette stitch should become more subtle.

On The Needles This Week 15-04-13

On The Needles 15-04-03

So I didn’t get as much finished this week as I planned, mainly due to items taking longer to block than I anticipated but also with being back into college and assignments and early mornings and making lunches and all those wonderful things that school time and college time brings! But not all was lost! Two new projects were started and two should enter the shop this week, I even got a bit of organising done. Whoo hoo!

Gloves on the Go!

First up this week are my on the go project of the week, these little girls gloves. I decided to do them in the same colour as the convertible mittens mainly because I only have a small bit of those colours left in my stash and oddments of yarn like this are a pet peeve of mine! Not to worry though, these colours will be reordered for orders of the fingerless mittens, the convertible mittens and of course the gloves. All of these are available in sizes ranging from aged 2 to ladies large. You might also notice a different cuff on these than the usual 2×2 rib on the other projects, this is mainly due to my tendency to get bored with making the same thing over and over so I decided to do a nice moss stitch ribbing for a change. They are also available with 2×2 ribbing.

Scarf well underway

Next up is the scarf being knitted for a customer. It’s well underway, I’m about a quarter of the way through it now, I’m trying to work out a way of tapering out the lace pattern and going into stockinette stitch for the middles part so there’s a separate little swatch going on the needles right now to work out how I’m going to do it. I’m sure there’s a way I can do it off the needles but I just prefer to design on the needles and work it out as I go along. I just find it more fun to work it out in actual stitches rather than on paper. Hopefully I’ll have this off the needles this time next week and will be starting into the hat!

Cowl finally off the needles!

My wave pattern cowl is finally of the needles and just finished blocking. Being the silly goose that I am I forgot to order in brooch pins so I just need to wait for them to arrive, make a flower to attach to a brooch pin and vuala! it will be ready for the shop, so hopefully that will be up very soon! I’ll be writing out the pattern for this during the week as well so hopefully something else that will be up online by this time next week!

The convertible mittens are just about dry so will be sticking the little flowers on them ASAP and getting them up on the shop early this week

A bit of organising

And finally, a bit of organising. I was inspired by blog post I saw during the week (I posted it here on my own blog!) of a very innovative and beautiful way of storing yarn. A pegboard, mounted on the wall. Some pegs and stick the balls of yarn on the pegs. So not only is your yarn all in one place, it’s on display and it’s organised. So I’ve ordered a ball winder, my lovely boyfriend has told me he’ll make me a pegboard and in my excitement off all this I decided to try put some order in my stash right now. As it stands there’s yarn in a few of these shelves, in bags, in boxes, on tables…ok, you get it, not very organised or pretty looking so hopefully in a few weeks I’ll have my very own yarn adorned wall in my sitting room. Can’t wait! 🙂

New Yarn :-)

Yay! One of my favourite things to arrive through the letter box, new yarn! I’ll be getting this on the needles ASAP. Starting with the lovely green colour for the scarf.

On The Needles This Week 08-04-13

This weeks projects…and a cat

Actually this week seems to be more of a “what’s off the needles” week! The convertible mittens were cast off at the weekend and the second one is being blocked at the moment! Next job for these finger warmer wonders is to attach a nice little flower button and then they’re ready for Etsy! Keep an eye out for this and other finished projects in the new “Off the Needles and Into the Shop” section which will be updated as soon as the items are up in the Etsy store.

I’ve created fingerless mittens, full mittens and convertible fingerless mittens for the Etsy shop so I’m thinking the next obvious place to go are full on gloves So will be casting them on early this week hopefully! I think they’ll make a nice project to take the place of the Wave Pattern Cowl as my “on the go” project as it comes off the needles later today.

Wave Pattern Cowl On the Go

Hopefully when I get home from college today there’ll be a nice big parcel of some lovely green and indigo yarn after coming through the letterbox so I can get started into knitting the hat and scarf, only a small bit of designing left to do for the scarf which I can do as I go along. Have some nice ideas for the hat but I’m waiting until the scarf is finished before I finalize any of said ideas. Really looking forward to getting stuck into this one. Green and purple are two of my favourite colours put together so I’ll be very jealous handing this one over! We decided on using the same yarn I used for the fingerless mittens she already bought, it’s a lovely soft recycled cotton blend and knitted up very nicely in my chosen pattern which will feature in both the hat and the scarf. The colour here isn’t what I’ll be using for the project, I had a bit of this colour left over from the mitts so I knitted up a swatch. I like to keep all my swatches and label them to save time on future projects. They’re like a catalogue of yarns, gauges and stitch patterns for me to refer to whenever I need.

Lacy Pattern for scarf

I’ve a couple of new orders in as well for new pieces, one of which is a girls cardigan so I’ll be venturing out of the hand-knitted accessories business into the hand-knitted garments business for a little while! Looking forward to this one, I’ve only ever knitted cardigans for myself or my little one so will be fun to work with new sizes and measurements,  a bit of an extra challenge is always welcome in my books when it comes to knitting!

I have a busy few weeks ahead of me with knitting orders, college, rehearsals and concerts so there may not be much more new projects going on the needles for April but I’ll keep you updated with how the new designs are growing. I’m very excited about them and looking forward to seeing what I come up with!

There’s also some a new logo in the pipeline so hopefully that will be unveiled soon!

A

Girls Purple Mittens – Off the Needles and Into the Shop

So here they are in their finished state and just after entering the Etsy shop. The mittens in this photo are for Ages 4-6. They’re knitted in an Acrylic yarn so are machine washable as well as making them affordable. They are nice and cosy and my daughter has already put in her order for a pair! They’ll definitely be on her little fingers going back to school next week seems as Spring isn’t quite showing up yet. At least the flowers on these mittens will add a splash of colour even if the real ones won’t! You can find them here https://www.etsy.com/listing/128144910/hand-knitted-girls-mittens

On the Needles This Week 01-04-13

On the Needles 01-04-13

Looks like it’s going to be a busy week ahead for me! Various projects on the go in various stages of completion. First up for me to finish are these adorable little mittens. They’re for a child aged 4-6 but other sizes are as always available. All these little cuties need are some adorable little flowers to top them off. These should be available in the Etsy shop later on today!

Purple Kids Mittens Age 4-6

Next on the “To Do List” for this week are these lovely soft convertible mitts. One is completed and being blocked as I type and I’ll be casting on the second mitt as soon as the little purple ones are finished. These should be available in the shop by the end of the week all things going to plan!

Convertible Mitt’s in Progress

This Wave Pattern Cowl is my “On the Go” project that lives in my handbag and gets pulled out whenever I’m out and about and get chance to sneak in a row or two of knitting. It’s been on the needles for a while now so I’ll either have to get out more or just finish it off at home! This will also hopefully be my first published pattern so once I have that up online I’ll be sure to post the links here!

Wave Pattern Cowl

And last but certainly not least are a hat and scarf pattern I’m working on for a customer. Really looking forward to getting the needles out on this one and doing up a few sample swatches. She has some lovely ideas of what she wants so am very excited about putting my ideas together with hers and seeing the finished project! It’s what I love most about knitting design, you can never be 100% sure what your finished project is going to look like until you’ve actually finished it. I’ll definitely be keeping you up to date with this as it unfolds!

New Ideas in the Making

As well as all this I have college projects to get done, a house to tidy, a four year old to entertain and enjoy my last bit of holiday time before getting back to the grindstone next week! May be a good idea for me to get a move on then!

A