Knitting Round-Up

I've been on a knitting high recently, must be the winter weather, it's so lovely getting comfy on the sofa and immersing yourself in a pattern (until it goes wrong!).

All details are on Ravelry - My name is: HoldMyHand,do add me as a friend so I can see what you're up to too. If you haven't signed up to Ravelry you really should, it's such a fabulous resource and I love seeing how many projects I've finished since I first started knitting a couple of years back, I think I'm slowly improving!

Getting things done

Thanks to maternity leave I've been able to straighten out our home, I'm afraid I'm not naturally tidy and I usually let things build up until I'm overwhelmed by the mess!  Well, our house was at that stage again, so I've been having a blitz, not just a put things away and hoover type clean, but a real sort through things and chuck away.  A deep clean, a finding places for things type of clean!  I've started room by room, the kids first!  Trying to designate areas/boxes for different types of toys etc and *whisper* even thrown old/broken/rubbish toys away! They haven't noticed, which means they weren't loved and that we have too many anyway!

Storage is our real problem and at the moment we don't have money to invest in any, so I've been making do with what we have and clearing out what we don't need, which means lots of books gone, old clothes & shoes gone and even a sort out of my fabric stash!  I managed to only keep really lovely fabric, most of the sheets/duvets I've bought from charity shops thinking they'll be useful, have had to go back to the charity shop (where they'll at least generate more money for them) as I can't justify keeping everything when I'm trying to make room for a third baby in our two-bed shoebox of a house!

I've actually moved furniture to hoover rather than going round it!  Which hasn't done much for my painful pelvis though :(

I've had some fabulous help from my family with painting the hall and our feature wall in our lounge - which is now a more darker teal colour and looks fab. 

I've sorted out all the pictures I wanted to put up on our stair wall rather than waiting in a pile and mounted and hung them.

The Ercol shelf is finally up and looks fab, I got this from the charity warehouse months ago for about a fiver and it was quite a dark colour. I'm quite proud of it, after a good sanding and waxing it looks really lovely.

 I shall have to remember to rotate the display!

And I've been experimenting, more Annie Sloan!  I've got two of these chairs and I did start sanding them down to wax but haven't finished them, so I thought I might paint one for an instant make-over.  I did the legs to test but I'm not sure now, the red is so matt it's not very bright, not sure whether I can varnish over to get it glossy?  Or whether it would look cheap if it was shiny?  Any thoughts?

The other bonus of maternity leave and the kids finally being back at school is the time for knitting!

I've finally finished the Debbie Bliss cardigan - the seaming's not very professional but I doubt the baby will mind!

and I'm almost done on the bunny mobile..

All pattern info can be found on my Ravelry page, where you can find me as HoldMyHand.
I've already got the yarn for the next project, another Debbie Bliss pattern!

New Year, New Knitting

Hurray for January, no more crafting to deadlines (although it can be useful & productive!), it's a time of having a think and deciding what YOU want to make!
So after looking at what I had in my yarn stash, rather than buying new wool, I decided to find a better use for the Rowan Felted Tweed I've had for about a year now.  I originally bought 4 balls of this as I'd seen a pattern on Ravelry that I liked, no matter that the suggested yarn was alpaca and a bit thicker, I thought with a bit of maths to amend the pattern and some swatching I'd be sorted.....yes...well...I am a novice knitter I forgot, the maths I eventually mananged, what I couldn't get was the stitch tension looking nice on the larger needles I'd chosen.  So to cut a long story short, the project wasn't getting done because I wasn't happy with it, so with my January 'can do' attitude I had the brain-wave to search Ravelry for a pattern based upon the yarn I had *ding* - *lightbulb moment*!
Now it also had to be fairy easy as this was to be my first garment! I think I've done well, I've found 'Redhook' by Brooklyn Tweed, which is a lovely long waistcoat/vest type garment with small cap sleeves and is just rib and stocking stitch.  Head over to Ravelry and find me, I'm HoldMyHand, where you can see more!

I had an awful time starting off though, casting on and counting 244 sttiches was difficult for my little brain but then trying to get the rib pattern (k2p2) started proved to be beyond my novice skills!
I think I ripped back and re-started about 5 times, getting into a rhythm and having the right amount of stitches at the end of  every row was a nightmare, but I perservered, I broke down the three parts onto a piece of paper and wrote down what the pattern would be for each RS & WS row and what type of stitch I would be on at the end of each part so that if I did go wrong I'd know quickly and not at the end of 244 stitches!!
I've done about 1.5" of the 5" rib section now and once I got into the rhythm it was so much easier, that and remembering to purl the bumpy stitches!  The yarn is looking really nice too, the flecky colour is working up very attractively

While all the bad juju was going on with the above project I needed a soothing project to complete, ie. something easy!  So with the Sirdar Big Softie I got before Christmas I decided  to do some quick wristlets..

Very easy, I cast on 19 stitches (measured around knuckle width) and did a long rectangle in stocking stitch until I got a length from fore-arm to knuckles.  I then sewed up the side seam, leaving a gap for the thumb, nice and quick!  The bulky wool is really soft and warm, one ball was just enough for two, but I have a second ball left, so might think about a scarf to match, something short with a bit of character, more like a neck-warmer than a traditional scarf, I think I will have to peruse Ravelry again!

Knitty Nora and podcasts

Knitty Nora has been alleviating my boredom at work! It's a podcast I found on iTunes, there's not many of them but I really like the approach and humour. It is proving hard to concentrate on podcasts AND get work done, but hey!

My other favourite podcast is Yarncraft, again available free from iTunes, it's American but the presenters are down to earth and it has a blog that links to all the items they talk about. It's from the Lion Brand Yarn and if you register on the site you can get access to free patterns.

I've also signed up to Ravelry (HoldMyHand) but I'm still trying to work it out!

I'm hoping to find some help for DPN, as I STILL can't get the tension right, even after numerous tries and different approaches!!