ASD awareness, white tulip + a bunny

As it's coming up on autism awareness day, I thought I'd share an autism awareness image, lovely tree with multi-coloured puzzle piece leaves :)

I've finally gotten around to rewatching season 5 of Fringe and so shared an image of my white tulip tattoo (part of my geek leg) on instagram, it's on the back of my ankle, small and cute :)

I finished my 5th bonbon, this one for my son and with chunky yarn on 4mm needles with 12mm blue safety eyes. I played yarn chicken with the lilac and lost so one ear changes colour about 2/3 up to the pink.

I'm a bit rubbish at getting the limbs equally stuffed so I'm pretty sure this, along with my previous bonbons, will have odd legs, and arms lol so long as kids like them I'm sure that's not too big a deal lol

And this one is definitely liked. The blue was meant to be for him but he showed no interest so it went to live with my niece and I made him a mostly pink one which he prefers :)

I've been working on the TAAT socks, attempting to finish them for tomorrow but I doubt I will...I can barely speed knit at the best of times but with 2mm needles and sore joints it's extra unlikely. Shame if I don't as they'll miss the FO&dye socks KAL and I started them too soon to go in the spring into socks KAL (bakery bears and knicksknits)...but regardless of if they go in a KAL or not it'd be good to finish them before I work gets started on my kitchen, then I can have a new project going :)
Happy Crafting!

I need a bunny break!

I finally did the fish lips kiss heel on the TAAT toe up socks out of opal sock yarn on 2mm needles :) yay!

I'd intended on having a bunny break, my son is happy to play with the one I made for myself rather than the blue one lol and my mum would have waited a little while...
The blue bunny has ended up with my niece who showed everyone at school n I got persuaded to make one for her brownie leader as the group mascot.
My arms n joints n fingers are sore so no more...my mum will have to wait a week or so. The brownies one is cute as it's slightly smaller (I was playing yarn chicken with the brown lol).

It's made from DK yarn with 2.75mm needles and has 9mm purple safety eyes. My son was reluctant to let this one go lol

I've done a little on the leg of the socks (but not much), I'm gonna worry these won't fit, until they're on her feet and I see otherwise...if they fit lol fingers crossed :)

Three of the four bonbons I've made, showing the size difference between them. My mum now wants a small and large one and a friend who is doing my cousin a favour wants one so I can't really say no...I need a bunny break but one isn't gonna come any time soon lol once I've made the 4 or so I need to, I may make an extra one and offer for people to bid on it and proceeds go to a local autistic charity...if people are still interested in them by the time I get there lol see what people think...?

This is true, I always want to knit, though I can't always knit lol

I've done a little work on my trillian, I think I may finally be up to date with podcasts...and I ache like crazy from sorting through, packing and moving boxes around to get my kitchen empty for work to start in a week or so...it's killing me but it needs doing...I've still a lot to do (and my sons school finished for the holidays today, should be interesting trying to do stuff with him around) but just gotta try do a little each day then on the last day move all the toys upstairs, roll the rug up, move settee and make sure they have access to electric box too...wish me luck...just the thought of all the dust is making me wish it wasn't happening but I really need a new kitchen. I'll be happy once it's done, everything is back to wear it should be and the dust has finally gone lol Hope you're all having a good week and have lovely weekend plans :)
Happy Crafting!

Bunny fever!

I made a bigger bunny (bonbon) lol I think I love this pattern lol a few rounds still kill my fingers, wrists and elbows (though that's gonna be the case every time I knit it)...I've gone a little mad with my pain cream and supports today to get this finished but I just adore it so much, I really wanted to see it finished :)

The nose is still not quite right, toy faces are not my strongest skill lol but I think it's cute all the same :)

This image shows the size difference between the DK on 2.75mm needles with 9mm safety eyes and the chunky on 4mm with 12mm safety eyes...quite a bit bigger :)

Adorable!
Hope you're all enjoying your crafting activities.
I did a little knitting on my trillian in bed last night but the TAAT socks still need heels lol
Happy Crafting!

Blue bunny!

I managed to finish this one in two days...but I'm feeling it lol super cute though. The nose is a little off, I'm kinda terrible at toy faces lol

The next one will be in chunky pink and lilac yarn for a baby girls christening :)

Happy Crafting!

Bonbon bunny!

I finished my first bonbon toy, it's very cute, I think it may be the first of many...though it was a bit painful on my finger and joints, so it took about 4 days of knitting.

I used (what claims to be) aran weight yarn (it's sooo not lol) with 2.75mm needles and 9mm purple safety eyes.

He came on my driving lesson with me, though he didn't sit there for the actual driving as I needed to see the speed lol

I'm working on a variegated blue one now and have plans for a pink and lilac one for a christening gift, and likely my son too lol
Happy Crafting!

Square, yarn and a new WIP

I've made another charity square. Basic start with 3 stitches, increase one each row then once desired side length decrease once each row, I also alternated yarn colour every two rows, I think it looks ok, I accidentally forgot to twist the yarns for an inch or so but it should look fine once joined into a blanket.

YARN ALERT!
Ok this is bad I know, it's not a club yarn, it didn't have a crazy coupon code...but it was destash...that means it was cheaper than full price and seeing how it's totally gorgeous how could I resist..? lol I controlled myself though, there were more I liked but the right yarn was the one that made me fold first lol
Left yarn: from dye candy on the crazy 8 (sw merino) base in the colour super trooper
Right yarn: from countess ablaze on the Lady Persephone (BFL/nylon) sock base in the pins and needles colourway which was for the Feb 2015 sock club.

I started a new project...Bonbon, too cute to resist, though my colour choice isn't bright and beautiful I hope it will look good once finished.I hope to make another in variegated yarn once I get the hang of the seamless construction and knitting with stuffed bits attached :)
Feet...

Arms...

Ears...

And now to put them all together with a body :)
I've still got the TAAT socks that still need heels doing...I'm procrastinating lol I will do them eventually...my steam died on the trillian and not sure why as I love the colour and the yarn and the pattern I just needed a distraction for some reason. Work on the vest has stopped, I'm pretty sure I've cast on the wrong size so it will likely be frogged and restarted again when I double check the recipients measurements and gauge etc...
I've had a hectic day so I'm tired (sleepless son and waking with pain), mildly stressed (driving lesson, doing two maneuvers and a reverse park with cars in front and behind me) and achey (zumba/tesco trip and the heavy walk home). Got one more bag of bits to charity too thanks to my step dad dropping it off for me, I've enjoyed finally watching Mockingjay part 1, and am now impatient for part 2 lol and am now chilling before what I hope to be an early bed time...if I can resist joining the swordofaknitter VKN tonight...I know I should as my laptop is screaming at me and I know I'll end up on too long is I do sign in...
Hope you're all having a good week so far...I've another driving lesson tomorrow so a little nervous again lol
Happy Crafting!

Sock/Fibre club love...

My first sock club shipment came from countess ablaze :) it's gorgeous, I love the colours, and the postcard that came with it. The colour is one of her Odyssey Trail special dyes and is called Masquerade on her BFL/nylon base...so much love when this arrived :)

I crocheted another charity square, I'm still struggling with it after so long not crocheting and my joints hurting but I finished it and that's all that matters :)

I finally added buttons to the tilting TARDIS cowl. This was originally a selfish knit but is now not, and going to another Dr Who appreciative friend...not that they know it yet lol or they might if they see this post before it's delivered lol

My second fondant fibre sw club shipment arrived today and is extra sparkly :) nice rich colours and it came with some vintage looking buttons and a wool soap sampler...unfortunately the soap I got has lavender in so will have to go to my mum to care for her growing collection of hand knits. A shame as all the other ingredients looked awesome (she listed them, I'm not just guessing lol) but lavender gives me migraines or sends me loopy...or both which is hard on the system as I'm hyper but in a lot of head pain...so best to be avoided. She also listed some of her other scents which don't have lavender in so I may give one of them a try if she starts selling them (though I currently just use eucalan wash).

New lovelies galore...but of course I'm always wanting more lol
Hope you've all had a good week, mine has been somewhat up and down. I went to my first zumba/circuit class which was hard but good, had a couple driving lessons (I thought I did kinda crappy but my instructor assures me I'm being too hard on myself and my mistakes were small and I got out of them without any harm, injuries or accidents being caused so to give myself a break). My son still isn't sleeping great so of course neither am I but that's life :) (and now I have that song in my head lol)
Happy Crafting!

mini cowl and charity info

Made another mini cowl for my son, this one is blue/green and slightly (but not massively) bigger than the previous one...Knit on 6.5mm needles with super chunky yarn (bought on our holiday to Scotland in October).

I'm ready to do the heels on the socks but still not done them yet, and I've started another charity square. Speaking of, the charity I send to (along with my friend Lariath) received our last package in January (I checked the lists they keep on their website). We send international economy which takes 2-3 months, then they have to be unpacked and sorted, then the lists are made and uploaded. We sent our last package in October 2014 (I think) and I hadn't made a square for a while and recently made a few again, as well as baby hats for this shipment too. They also accept some knitted toys and clothing items, for more information and some free patterns, check their website; Knit-a-Square.
Happy Crafting!

Update: stitch markers, buttons, bag and more

I made a set of sea life themed stitch markers (including an autism awareness one) with one clasp marker that can be used to mark progress or as a zipper pull.

I finally figured I didn't have 8 matching buttons to go on my mums cowl so went to my local haberdashery and got these cute ones that match it brilliantly :) I've since given it to mum and she likes it, so that's good :)

We had a fine day at the weekend, first in quite a while, so we went for a walk up to a park, my son played on the slide and swing and galloped around having loads of fun. It was nice to get out and about for a bit. 

I won a project bag through an instagram giveaway from @alexandramckenziemason and it arrived wrapped in lovely paper (left image)...the bag itself is great, really well made with thick wadding so no worry of needles poking through and a 'gorjuss' print fabric (right image) that is really cute. I'd defiantly think about buying one of her bags in the future (though I have way more than I need, but the quality is good and the prices looked reasonable too, SpinningandStitching on etsy), I've added quite a few items to my favourites. 

I cast on another 8" charity square but had to cast off early, the yarn made my arms and hands hurt really bad, never had that happen before, it's just an acrylic but gonna be passing it on to my knit n natter group and see if someone else can use it. Pattern is the buni facecloth by tikki knits.

As the square was too small I picked up stitches around the edges and did some garter stitch to get it to size.

I did a little spinning on the lovely fibre from fondant fibre, I spun the first half before my tattoo and just picked up the second half yesterday :) Fibre is BFL/trilobal blend and the sparkle isn' showing very well but I assure you it's there :)
Speaking of fondant fibre she's just had an update and I'm in love with some of her rolags, my top 3 that are tempting me to buy them (in no particular order) are:
Owlet
Lorrie
Montmartre Carousel
She's also uploaded some cute and adorable project bags for you all to drool over, or buy lol :)

I've got the two at a time socks ready to do the fish lips kiss heels but need a little more brain power and less joint pain to get them done two at a time (I usually do them separately but thought I should try them two at a time all the way through the sock). Yarn is opal from the play range.

Now I'm a bit headachey and very tired (my son decided to be wide awake between 2am and 5am so sleep wasn't very restful) so I'm off to try do as little as possible.
Happy Crafting!

Stash Enhancment and Charity Squares

I made a charity square, I crocheted a granny square, then picked up and knit around the edges and did a crocheted edging...it's a bit of a mess but hopefully it'll look ok once it's in the middle of a big blanket.

I got a new (and my first of this type) pyramid project bag from laal bears final sale before closing her etsy shop. I loved this print and it's sparkly too so I'm happy with it, was tempted by a ladybird bag too but semi restrained myself lol

Needless to say my yarn diet has been broken lol but 45% off was just too good an opportunity to say no to...and I managed to be a bad influence on a few others who bought stuff too...at least we all have super pretty yarn and project bags lol
Top image is DK BFL/masham in the coneflower colourway, it was intended for my son but I think it may be slightly irritating for him as if it's even slightly not soft he just pulls it off. Could be a nice gift knit.
Bottom image is aran BFL in the rosa colourway, and it is super soft so may use a skein for my son (he likes pink).

Got some plain WYS sock yarn which can either be contrasting socks (the lime and yellow look really good together) or used for heels and toes of other variegated WYS yarn I have in my stash, but the solids don't match any colours in them balls at all (probably do contrasting but not 100% yet).

And as if that wasn't enough Cara of the 'knit all the tings' podcast mentioned a sale at maple tree yarns and showed some lovely sock yarn, so naturally I bought some lol coz two full 35L boxes wasn't enough lol I now have two overflowing 35L boxes of sock yarn with nylon (and one without nylon).
Yarn is knitglobal 75% sw wool 25% nylon and I got 4 variegated skeins and 2 solid colours for either contrasting socks or heels/toes etc. They look nice and feel like they'll make good socks.
Top left - ocean / Top righ - harvest / Middle left - cranberries / Middle right - mountain / Bottom left - plum / Bottom right - marine

I wound some babylonglegs sw merino sock into a cake ready to knit, I asked for opinions on instagram between the hitchhiker or trillian shalws, and the trillian won, which I'm happy with coz I have a hitchhiker but the trillian I knit last year was a gift knit :)

I also wound a skein of the plum and marine knitglobal for soon to be socks :)

Day 1 of the trillian, cast on at home then knit on the bus (before it made me feel nauseous), in a cafe, the dentist waiting room, craft group (at an art gallery) and home again...so it's traveled out of town already lol Hoping it will swap between the colours pooling and being spread out a little to make for an interesting shawl.

I got tagged on instagram for #widn (what I'm doing now) and I was watching the great comic relief bake off and crocheting a granny square for charity.

The finished square, the shade of purple is hard to get on camera but it's somewhere between the two images in person. I'm finding crocheting very difficult on my elbow, I don't do it much these days as I mostly knit, but nice to give it a try again :)

So far today I haven't managed any knitting as been running round before my driving lesson (which I'm still nervous for but giving manual a trial period so at least I've given it more than a week before I make my final decision, as I really do prefer automatic), then met mum, popped to my grandmas and home in time for my son finishing school. Hoping to get a little knitting done this pre-evening (as Sheldon would say lol) but see how things go...always lots to do...
Happy Crafting!

mini cowl and markers

I've made my son a multi coloured cowl :) super chunky yarn on 6.5mm needles, it was speedy :) I've entered it into a couple of KALs over on ravelry. He's only ever had scarves so he's not sure at the minute but hopefully it will grow on him, less likely to be lost than a scarf :)

I've made a progress (clasp) marker and a couple of stitch markers with some new charms. The clasp marker could also be used as a zipper pull :) Still a couple new charms to try, might make some ear rings or something...or just more markers :)

My hands been hurting so progress on the socks is slow as just one round hurts, hopefully my hand will be up to them again soon as only abut 1/2 an inch till starting the heel.

New KAL alert:

• Spring into socks KAL with the Bakery Bears and Knicksknits podcasts

• Sheepy Spring KAL with the Geeky Girls Knit podcast

• Heat Your Neck KAL with the Foxes in Socks podcast

• My Favorite Things KAL with A Homespun House podcast

(Look at each groups discussion threads on ravelry for rules and hashtags for instagram posts.)

My yarn diet kinda died...I was just signing up for club shipments but then got some sock yarn on sale, included nice colours for myself and gift socks too :)

Plus side, I managed to claim a spot in the Shiny Club with Penguin Soup...very excited for those parcels (April, May, June) as getting three different bases and firefly themed colourways (including Jaynes hat) and a project bag and stitch markers too :)

Had a crappy day so just had a kopparberg, gonna chill a bit n watch the Brothers Grimm before bed...Revenge can wait till tomorrow or Wednesday...

Happy Crafting!