The beekeeper's quilt

In my mind for sometime I have been planning to make some sort of blanket, and have view lots of different ways of doing it. I saw a lovely blanket by a lady call Sophie on Ravelry, which was made using the Pom-pon yarn that I have last year knitted a scarf from.

This idea was very appealing nice results and I knew this will be a very quick knit with very great results also being super soft. This became the plan but it would cost about £8.00 a ball and needing two of each colour it could end up a costly matter and I don't think I could sneak that about of yarn past my husband without him noticing. But as a pondered this problem I came across this amazing a little pattern called the "Beekeeper's Quilt" it was made of hundreds of little hexagons in lots of different yarn of all different colours and is amazing.

  The quilt is designed by Stephanie Dosen of Tiny Owl Knits and this has become my new project!

It is of epic proportions, I have to knit hundreds of the little "Hexi-puffs" in a wide range of colours but I have taken on this challenge! Wish me luck!

Merry Christmas Armadillos

I hope everyone has had a very Merry Christmas and soon to be happy new year. I have had many Crafty gifts this Christmas which have all been fantastic and prove very interesting.I received a beautiful gift from my friend Karen (who keeps a excellent blog) Crochet Armadillo. I had mentioned that I collected armadillo items and she was kind enough to make me my very own. 

                               I think he is amazing and have named him Bert! Thank you Karen

Knitting Natter

So it's been over a month since I last posted and I must try harder. But don't worry I have been busy clicking away with my needles.

I have finally finish my panda for my husband and I am very please with the result. As I reported before he is a pattern by Alan Dart which are always fantastic to knit, you knit all the piece in flat and sew up at the end.

 I impress myself with the jacket edging which is knitted as i-cord and the stitched on. I was a bit worried at one stage that I wouldn't be able to finish him, plus my husband did discover him at one point so the surprise has gone but I hope he will be impressed with the finished item. 

I have now moved on to my next project which I will be posted in the next week or so. 

Freddie the Pheasant

As I reported in my LAST post I was knitting two projects at the same time which was taking up quite a lot of time and I was a bit worried about completing before the Christmas. I am very proud to report that I have completed my second project and present. 

Freddie the Pheasant

He was a fantastic knit and took know time at all, I didn't knit the feet but placed a small fabric bag of rice inside Freddie so he would stand up. I would recommend this knit to anyone that likes something fun and quick with a good result. I would say it is a intermediate knit with a tiny amount of picking up stitches and requiring good grafting skills. As you knit it the shape will look very strange (more like road kill Pheasant) but when stuffed I understood the pattern and the lay out . the yarn which is Artesano Alpaca Hummingbird 'Pheasant' which is a really good yarn and I will be using again in a planned future project for the new year.
A great knit!

I haven't forgot to blog

I just thought I would let you all know that I haven't forgot my blog :)
I have been very busy knitting away but current have haven't finished any projects to show you.
I have a huge list of Christmas knits to get through and none of them seem to be moving very quickly which is a bit worrying.
I am currently knitting a Xiaopang Panda by Alan Dart for my husband, who has always moaned that I have never knitting him anything. He pick it out of Simple knitting July issue and I don't think either one of us realised how big it would be, I thought it would be quite a small quick knit just a bit bigger than my hamsters buy he is three times the size.

I am also going to knit a toy Freddie the Pheasant for my Grandad who loves pheasant s , but I haven't started him yet :/

 A lovely lady called Penny from oliverboliver.com sent me a knitting kit for him for only £8.00! So I hope to crack on with him soon.


So thats what I've been up too :)

Halloween Hamsters

I am and always have been a big fan of Halloween, as a child I use to draw up lots of paper bats and hang them round the house and make jelly with raisins for flies in it. So this year it was time for another little project to enjoy over this very special holiday.

In this months Simply Knitting (October 2011) I found what I was looking for and discovered a set of patterns by Alan Dart of little Halloween hamsters. I have knitted a Alan Dart pattern before and it really suits my type of knitted and the results are always really good. Last year I knitted a Christmas Turkey which proudly sat on my table through the festive period

The Hamsters knit up really quick and look fantastic, they were a real stash buster as well. The devil knitted quicker than the witch as I had to make the clothes, but she looks great. :)

Nemo Clown Fish

I am sorry I haven't been blogging more recently but I have been busy knitting away, and haven't forgot about you all waiting for me in blog land.

I have completed my second handmade pattern which I have added to the pattern section here and is available PDF from Ravelry. 

My friend had requested a Clown Fish sometime ago and I decided to knit him one for Christmas. But at the time I couldn't find a pattern , and when I did you had to pay for it. So after my success with the prawn I took on the challenge of making my own.  It is by far the biggest and most complicated thing that I have made and only my second thing.  Yet again it was a sea creature I seem to be becoming a bit obsessed!

It can be quite tricky to find a good orange coloured wool so l found DK life by Stylecraft it was a bit thin to use but knitting little creatures is quite forgiving as you don’t really need a gauge. I used safety eyes size 12mm which I found in Hobbycraft and a little bit of black yarn to put the mouth on. 

I am very pleased with the way he turned out and hope other people will be able to use the pattern I made to knit their own Finding Nemo.