bucket list

number 27 on my bucket list is to make myself a winter cardigan. I have finally completed this- but I have read the pattern wrong. Big WHOOPS! It doesn't fit. Still Stephanie likes it she has it as a baggy long cardigan lol

So back to the needles to try again for myself! LOL
Good job I am not a quitter or I would give up. Need to rummage through my stash and see what I have left that I can use for myself.

Just the thing for an easy Friday night after an incredibly busy week at work!

Off for a shower and then to put my feet up, oh and maybe have a cheeky glass of wine at the same time.

Happy Friday everyone!

What's on your needles?

I have spotted lots of blogs showing off their current knitting projects today which have inspired me to show off my current work in progress.
I have discovered that Tami is showing off her gorgeous sock yarn blanket here I can't wait to see the finished product. Tami is holding  a WIPW linky, I am joining up with this this week, it reaches out to my inquisitive nosey nature.

So here is my WIPW picture;

it's sleeve no. 1 for the cardigan I am knitting for myself. I am a little nervous it isn't going to fit which for a first project for myself isn't too surprising. If it doesn't fit me I am sure it will fit one oft he girls so I am ploughing on regardless ready to learn a lesson!

So what are you knitting this week? How is the project coming along?

Progress

Item number 27 on my bucket list is to make myself a winter cardigan/ jumper. On Saturday I decided I would make a start on this as I knit slowly, it'll be ready for next winter.

However, I have been enjoying a few days of doing not a lot I have not felt like going anywhere so I have sat on the sofa watching TV interspersed with a few short visits out. I have managed this;

Yep, a whole back of a cardigan for myself has emerged off of the needles. I have surprised myself with how much I have achieved knitting wise. The rest of the cardigan won't happen so quickly as I am back to work next week. Who knows I may manage to complete this by the end of this winter.

We have plans to complete several more items off of the list by the end of 2014, stand by whilst I make plans to help with this.

a finished knit

I am going to start by saying Merry Christmas- I'm a little late but well we have been busy completing another item off of the bucket list!- I will post about this later as I need to get the pictures developed so that I can show you- there is whole new blog post of a story in that!


So back to the point, I have not posted this week as a we went to Disney and then Christmas eve was spent organising the finishing touches for the big Family Christmas. This evening is the first time that I have sat down since I broke up from school 1 week ago1 It has been fantastic.

The children have gone to visit their dads so I have spent this evening chilling and completing this;

 

 

Only 2 months after I started to knit it. Not bad going for me! The pattern took a lot of figuring out initially, but it has been totally worth it. I can't wait to see what Stephanie thinks when she gets home.

 

I am going to cross off another thing on the bucket list and cast on a knit for myself next. I will be keeping up with this years frugal theme by using a pattern and yarn which I will hopefully find upstairs in the stash, meaning that it won't cost me a penny.

 

 

I want to make a good stab at progressing through the bucket list this year. -2014 is going to be the year of fun! More about that later I am still twiddling with the fine details but I am determined that this is going to be a great year :-)

 

 

 

knitting on a Wednesday

I cast on a new knitting pattern the other evening, Stephanie has requested a jumper for school, rather than the cardigans she usually wears.

I am finding it tiring, I have been knitting chunky knits with big needles, now I am using double knit with 4mm needles, it is growing oh so slowly!

this is 2 evenings of work so far! You can't see the pattern as the yarn is so dark. Hopefully as it grows you will see the pattern more, it makes a heart pattern across the jumper as you knit. The most tricky knit I have attempted, so hopefully mine will have the intended heart pattern! LOL

I am off to blog hop for a few minutes before knuckling down with the knitting again.

Another item off of a list

I have managed to make another item off of my 'things I am loving list'. I have made myself these;

a lovely warm, cosy pair of socks. I love them.

Well that's all there is to say tonight really. I am tired, so off to get some cold custard from the fridge and then I'm going to plonk in front of the tv.

More finished projects

last night Stephanie finished her first sewing project. I helped her  a little, mostly with organising the pieces she needed to stitch. I'd start of the sewing by doing 2/3 stitches at each piece and then she completed the project herself. She was most amused by shoving the stuffing up the poor rabbits bottom!

I have been following Elaine's sock pattern. It is one of the few patterns that I have been able to knit in the time specified! Elaine says you can knit one sock in an evening, she doesn't exaggerate! Here is one sock completed;

 

I have cast on the next sock, once I have made my way through today's to do list (which seems to be forever growing!) I will get the second one finished. I may even make another pair they are so simple to knit.

 

I have been making the to do list and the shopping list whilst sorting other things I need to do on the computer. The most important thing I still need to do is to source a decent bike for Stephanie as she has outgrown her current bike- off to scour gum tree and the like for an 18" girls bike as her Christmas present.

 

Have a good day all

A finished knit!

I have finished the scarf I was making from Elaine's stash busting pattern. It used almost a  whole ball of yarn. It took me about 10 days of 40 mins a day. It was claimed by Stephanie before it was even half done!

here she is the moment I had finished casting off and sewing in the ends!

she is very pleased with it. It was finished just I time as the temperatures dropped drastically last night. I have been freezing all day!


I have had a good week, I have had 2 no spend days so far. I needed to buy a new shower curtain Monday as ours ripper and was barely staying up. I shopped around and found a lovely thick good quality one for £4.00. Tuesday was a no spend day. Wednesday I had Stephanie's Brownie uniform to pay for- £30! OMG I had no idea Brownies was s expensive. Thursday a no spend day. I should manage tomorrow as a No spend day as well. I am sure there is nothing I need. I am hoping to make Saturday a No spend day as well. Sunday I plan to do a little food shop for the fruit/veg etc that we need for our lunches. I have a maximum budget of £20 per week until the end of the month. Which should be easy to stay under as I have a freezer and a large cupboard full of food.

a finished something for me

I decided that I should knit something for me, I always seem to be knitting for others, not that I mind but decided it was my turn. The pattern was out of one of my mum's old knitting magazines. It says it knits up in a couple of hours. Perfect, I'll be able to do that. It is a simple pattern nothing scary or new to learn to do it. It is a new pattern but it is made up of  the usual stitches.
It didn't knit in a couple of hours though, either the magazine exaggerates or I am slow- possibly a mix of both. It took me a just over a week of knitting at least one hour a day. I am very pleased with the result;

fresh off the needles waiting for sewing

Sewn together and worn as intended.

 

Stephanie placed her order as soon as the pattern started to take shape- she seemed most put out when I said this one is for me LOL

She wants one exactly the same as mine, a pink one and a white one apparently.

Luckily the pattern is so simple I can adapt it from the adult sizes to fit her fairly easily. So when I get five minutes I will begin hers. I'll start with one the same colour as mine as I have that yarn out already.

Now I must go and get showered and ready for the day as it is my nephews 3rd birthday and I need to go and visit him. I'm being lazy today though I didn't wake until 8.30am. I'm normally in the gym and half way through my work out by then. Not sure if I will make it to the gym today now.

friday

I have to keep reminding myself it is Friday not Saturday. My first day not in work and I'm confused already. My body clock is still in work mode too so I'm waking a couple of hours before Stephanie which is actually quite nice. I get up shower, then sit and knit.

Mums baby blanket finished for my sister.

I have cast on a little something for me

Then qhenwhen Stephanie gets up we run errands and have fun. Let's hope rest of holiday is so perfect :-)

knitting

A little post to show how the baby blanket is progressing. I am managing to do a little every night. I am on the cast off as the edge is made stitches are cast off. I am about half way through this process I am hoping to have it finished by the end of the month

Baby things

I have been very restrained and kept quiet for months!!
My baby sister is expecting her 3rd child in September. She is looking definitely pregnant now and is passed the is she just over eating? stage, and she has had the scan where they can determine the sex of the baby. She now knows and has told us all. I might try and keep that a surprise until baby is born though, I will tell you all now that she already has a baby of the same sex. Although as I already have an 8 yr old niece and a 2 yr old nephew from this sister it doesn't really give much of a clue then does it. LOL
Before my mum got ill she was making a baby blanket for another baby in the family. Unfortunately that baby only lived on earth for one and a half short weeks. So the blanket was never finished. When clearing out Mum's things we found it. The family member the blanket was intended for has said she would like one of us to have the blanket for any future babies. I have been storing the blanket for when such an opportunity arose. My sister asked me about the blanket a few weeks ago if I still have it. Of course! The next question I anticipated as soon as she asked about it, will I finish it for her. During my peaceful weekend off I started, I needed to work out where in the pattern mum had got to, then continue. No small feat at 700+ stitches per row. I am now working on the border, it will take me the rest of the month I guess at how intricate it is. But it is beautiful, and will be so worth it, take a peak;

It is so intricate and lacy, I'm totally in love with it and can't wait to complete it so I can give it to her.

WIP and works waiting to be done

Here, have a peek at my current works in process (WIP)

This is the Winnie quilt that Stephanie has been waiting all summer for me to complete, I have finally finished all the blocks. I just need to decide on the final layout. I'm tempted to just go random with them as I can't decide. Incidentally, please over look the paw prints added by Zara. Zara is my aunt's dog who has come to stay with us for a couple of weeks whilst Sue is summer where hot and sunny.

Clearly I forgot that dogs get muddy when they go out in the rainy garden and left all the blocks on the living room floor whilst I went up to the sewing machine to finish the last 2 off.

This is my latest knitting project. Stephanie wants me to make both the items on this page. Starting with the green top. She is at the stage of liking the patterns but having difficulty seeing past the colour. She liked the cardigan but not the top when I bought the pattern. Once we had chosen the wool and come home she decided she liked the top and that is what I needed to make first. I am making it in Teddy soft spot pink.

I have a whole list of projects I want to make. I would love to have all of them done by the end of the year however I suspect it may be a bit too long.

1. Knit Stephanie a cardigan in red, I already have the wool just need to get started.
2. Make a pink cardigan for Stephanie, I don't have the wool for this one yet.
3. Sand and re-varnish the Kitchen unit
4. Make Felt bunting for Stephanie's bedroom
5. Finish Stephanie's Winnie quilt- see beginning of post
6. Make a quilt for my bed
7.Make my bedroom curtains
8. Make Dylan's bedroom curtains
9. Make Stephanie's bedroom curtains
10. Make Stephanie a blouse
11. Make Stephanie a new skirt
12. Make  Stephanie a new Dress
13. Make life- ring for downstairs bathroom
14. Make a beach themed wooden plaque for downstairs bathroom
15. Make Stephanie a wooden plaque for her bedroom
16. Hanging heart decoration/ mobile for Stephanie's bedroom.


Lots of these items were inspired during our recent holiday. However I suspect that 16 items may be too much for me to manage before the end of the year what with working full time and being busy with 2 children. I will make a good attempt at it especially as many of the items are planned for Stephanie's Christmas presents.

School cardigan number 2

I began knitting this cardigan on our recent camping holiday in Wales with the intention of completing it before the children went back to school- last Monday!
Well I slightly missed that deadline, but I have managed it finally. I really enjoyed knitting this cardigan it has a very pretty lace effect pattern, the instructions were so clear even I followed them with no trouble. It is a pattern from the British Hand Knitting Confederation, it is Pattern number BHKC19 *. I borrowed this from my mum, she has hundreds of knitting patterns, some are slightly dated others like this one are beautiful.

Stephanie hasn't seen this one yet as I have literally just finished sewing it together although I suspect that it will be worn to school tomorrow.
I realise I have not posted for a while but for some reason I seem to have not had time to do anything. I have started my new job in the past week and as it is full time I guess we are adjusting to the routine we need to fall into and before that summer holidays got in the way. I am considering writing several posts and then setting them up to automatically post, I have lots I want to share but have had no time to actually get around to writing the posts.

This weekend for instance I feel that I have not stopped, yet nothing except this cardigan have been completed. I have taken the children swimming and had a surprise whilst we were there- Stephanie swam, not just front crawl but also breaststroke for the first time by herself. I have suspected for a while that she is capable but lacking in confidence I think that I can safely say that this was indeed the case. She is now -quite rightly!- very impressed with herself and telling anyone that she happens to see.

We have also been to the allotment- I plan on a blog post about how this is developing over the next couple of days, as well as spending an awful amount of time cleaning. Don't worry I won't dedicate a whole post to this! I do however plan to have at least one post showing the highlights of our recent camping holiday, what I have already mentioned the holiday in this post? Well, I hadn't noticed.





* Mum did not buy it from this site, I have linked it to show the pattern.

A first for me!

I realise I have not posted for several weeks, mostly because I took the children away for a road trip. We spent a week at my Dad's house having lots of fun. I particularly enjoyed that he cooked, cleaned, did the washing AND ironing. I had a very relaxing week. We then went off for our camping road trip. We saw a lot of different parts of Wales. I plan on blogging about a few of the amazing places we visited over the next week or so. But tonight I am too excited about what I have done today so I need to post about that now.

I FINISHED a school cardigan for Stephanie.  I am rather proud of it and myself for completing it. Here have a peek;

Stephanie choose which pattern I should follow, she picked this one American girl. I didn't use the recommended wool, I used a this yarn. It knitted up slightly narrower than the recommended wool, which I decided would be good as Stephanie is becoming rather tall and slim so I thought it would fit her body shape nicely. As she is asleep now I have finally finished it will have to wait until tomorrow for me to see if this estimation was correct.....