Return from Iceland

Last month my partner (now fiancé, woohoo!) and I went to Iceland for a week, and what a week! Between hiking, bathing in a hot spring, snowmobiling on a glacier, seeing a recently erupted volcano, tasting some fermented shark, indulging in (just a bit of) Icelandic beer, and of course Icelandic wool shopping from the Handknitters Association of Iceland, I just had to get enough wool supplies to knit a few pairs of sturdy hiking socks and an Icelandic style sweater (which I'm not allowed to call Lopi sweater as it won't be knitted in Iceland), even though I enjoyed the trip so much I wouldn't have minded too much being stranded over there, you never know when one of the many volcanoes in Iceland might erupt or something 😉.

I didn't get the chance to publish the knitting pattern for my latest beanie yet, but I got to test it on a few hikes in mountains to volcanic fields, on the way to a glacier and even at the biggest waterfalls I'd ever seen, and even though the weather in Reykjavik was mild in August when we were there, it does get cold when you reach a certain altitude and the winds pick up!

The verdict: the moss cable beanie, which is based on my Moss Cable Cowl and Moss Cable Headband, is perfectly up to the job as it stayed perfectly put in windy conditions and kept my head and ears nice and warm 😁:

Moss cable Beanie at the Waterfall

Moss Cable beanie at the Volcano Field

I will try and publish the knitting pattern for the Moss Cable Beanie soon, if I can get away from knitting my Icelandic sweater, which looks very promising so far, as I didn't need to frog any part of it yet, probably thanks to the fact that I am using the recommended wool for the pattern for once 😂, here's a picture of it so far, which I'll leave you with until the next time:

Knitting my Icelandic Sweater

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The Upsides of Self-Isolating: Knitting in Self-Isolation

Last Wednesday I tested positive for Covid-19 so for the first time since the Covid crisis, I'm having to self-isolate 🙁.

Still testing positive after 2 days

Besides the fact that I feel like a prisoner in my own home and not being able to cuddle with my partner (I managed not to pass the infection on to other household members), I'm missing a few days of work, I've had to change my holiday plans and I missed going to a Pixies concert last Friday, which I was devastated about; I couldn't have timed it worse 🙄.

These were the downsides of getting Covid-19; now for the upsides:

1- Since I'm not very sick (I have a bad sore throat and runny nose for about 3 days, my aches and pains were kept under control with paracetamol, I guess this vaccination round & booster paid out), I'm able to work on my knitting projects; Socks on my needles for BBW (my new nickname for the Best Boyfriend in the World), and I made a little bit of progress in sewing my hand knit 3/4 lace sleeve top:

Progress since picture was taken: now both sleeves are closed up.

2- Our planned holiday was originally for 4 days in July, we changed it to a full week in August, even better (more time for yarn shopping abroad 😂).

3- Instead of seeing the Pixies locally, we're going to see them abroad, so a little extra holiday, and also I have something to wear as BBW got me 2 Pixies tops when he went the first time (he gets to see them twice 😎).

Cool T-Shirts: might have to crochet a Rock Festival Skirt now to go with these!

4- Ok, it's a little bit boring to be stuck in my room for 7 days, but I'm an introvert, it's what I do best 😅, I can live with binge-watching Big Little Lies on my Ipad for a little while longer!

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Knitting Projects Update: April 2022

I have been quiet for a while on the blog, but that's because I've been busy knitting and walking. 

I have 3 new knitting patterns that are close enough to be finished but need some more testing: a headband, a cowl and a beanie hat . These all have a similar design that I love because the stitch gives them a great texture: it's a mix of moss stitch, cable knitting and twisted stitches, and I'm keeping the first test knits for myself.

Cowl, Hat and Headband Test Knits

I've also finished my summer top, which took me 3 weeks to knit: I found the pattern on Ravelry and I thought some of my latest purchased yarn would be ideal for it: the yarn is called Linello from Lang yarns and I bought it on my last trip to France last February. I bought 4 balls and only used a little over 2: what will I knit with the other 1.5? I'm thinking a nice lacy knitted summer scarf 😍.

Finished Knitted Summer Top

Apart from knitting, because I work in an office sitting down all day, (and then some more when I knit or crochet in the evenings), I decided to get into the habit of walking at least 2-3 times a week, weather allowing. I have actually decided to participate in a charity walk in Aid of the Irish Cancer Society, : it's the Tochar Phadraig Walk, a 35 km walk that takes place on April 30th in the beautiful county of Mayo and anyone who would like to help me raise funds is welcome to donate here.

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Knitting and Crochet Planning for 2022

It's only January 28th and I'm already falling behind with all the knitting and crochet projects I want to do in 2022 😅.

I think I need to start writing things down in a knitting/crochet diary or planner, not that it's going to help me knit faster, but at least that may help me get my projects more organised even though that may mean I could spend 5 years making what I originally planned to make this year (if only I could afford to retire 20 years earlier 😂).

These are the knitting and crochet projects that are running around in my head right now:

1- Finish knitting the scarf I'm designing while at the moment: because of the special double-purpose it serves, it needs to be of a decent width and length, so I've spent about 3 weeks doing it so far and only have about 80% done:

WIP

2- Knit myself a biker style jacket: I have seen some beautiful celtic aran cables jackets available to buy as finished items from a few Irish gift stores but I would really like to knit my own. The only trouble is I can't find a knitting pattern available to buy so I'll have to use my brain cells and come up with my own pattern.

3- I want to make some crochet coasters for my own use, to give as gifts and if they turn out well also for my Etsy store. I'm thinking the doily type coasters, as I have an idea in mind: another one of my Million Dollar ideas that may or may not work out 😅.

4- I need to knit more socks this year, as I have some nice sock yarn left that is crying out to be used up.

5- Slippers: I've been wanting to crochet some thick boot-like slippers for the past couple of years: in fact I printed a crochet pattern for crochet slippers, only to find the exact same pattern I'd already printed before in one of my pattern stashing places (yes, I'm disorganised like this 😂).

6- I'm planning on knitting myself a sweater using some nice fingering yarn I bought last year, I have a vague idea of what I want but more knitting pattern research needs to be done. 

7- I want to crochet for myself, maybe also for my partner and for my son, Christmas sweaters using a  square that I've seen being used in a blanket crochet pattern for the front motif and plain crochet for the rest of the sweater(s). I need to do more pattern research for this too.

8- I'd like to knit a stole/shawl either for myself or as a gift using some metallic yarn I have in my stash, a Knitting and Stitching show purchase from a few years ago, I hope to have enough to knit something decent.

9- While having lunch sitting outside a restaurant in Cork last year, I spotted someone with a messenger crochet bag, I'm not sure whether it was handmade or not or what stitch it was but I loved the texture so much I can't get it out of my head and I' hoping to be able to reproduce a similar bag for myself.

Well that's only a start as I know more knitting and crochet ideas will pop into my head during the year, realistically I will need more like 5 years to made all of the above and that's only if I don't get distracted by other projects I feel I just have to do. I really need to keep my focus in check and NOT BUY ANY YARN in 2022!

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Besides Knitting

While I'm slowly working on publishing my new knitting pattern,I thought I might share some other things going on in my life, just so you know I am a human being and not completely obsessed with knitting (even though that remains to be proved😉)

I've been know to do a bit of baking: I don't particularly enjoy baking, it's mostly the eating part I love. I made my first slow-cooker banana cake recently: slow cooked cakes are the best, very difficult to burn 😂.

My yummy banana cake

Speaking of baking, I managed to grow a healthy enough blueberry bush in my backyard and since I'm the only one who seems to want to eat them, I froze the few blueberries I picked so far this season and planning to make a batch of either blueberry muffins or blueberry tartlets (my mum made some once when I was a kid and they were delicious!).

As for gardening, I wouldn't call myself a keen gardener but I enjoy having pretty plants and edible things in my garden (the less maintenance the better). Here's a pretty picture of my hydrangea now in full bloom, it's not as pretty when the flowers die off:

Close -up of my beautiful hydrangea

But what I really love doing is knitting so I thought I'd share a sneak peak of my new hooded cowl:

Wriggles Hooded Cowl fresh off the blocking mat

I just couldn't help myself, could I?

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I Failed... But Not Giving Up

Today I'm sharing my latest knitting fail with you.

You see I had this grand idea of a new shawl design using a method I hadn't seen anywhere before, so I thought this could be my Million Dollar idea as well as my contribution to the Knitting World, I thought I had at last found the reason why I had been put onto this Earth... 

Well my search will go on for a little bit longer as I now know why nobody out there was using that great new-found knitting technique: it's because IT DOES NOT WORK!!!

This was going to look great

I was trying to make a triangle with increases made from the middle instead of the sides but as the shawl grew, it got increasingly curvy because the middle grew faster than the sides:

Excuse the poor drawing skills!

I was going to fix it later using short rows but then the sides started growing straight and if I kept going, my triangle would have become a very wonky triangle at the bottom with straight sides at the top:

I had to admit my failure and undo about 2 weeks worth of knitting.

I did get a new idea slowly crop into my head when I started to see that design wasn't going to work.

This might not work either but I'll try it anyway... How else am I going to find out?

My Million Dollar idea is still out there somewhere, I just know it 😂. 

FO: Finished Knitted Summer Top

My summer top is now finished and I can't wait to get the weather to wear it ☺.

Knitted Summer Top Waiting for Warm Weather

I am pretty happy with how it turned out, especially since as usual I wasn't strictly following the exact knitting pattern: Since my gauge was smaller than the pattern instructions for the width only, I was following the instructions for a size larger than my own, but sticking to my own size for the height measurements. 

In my last post I explained how I was a bit tight on the turquoise yarn so I was thinking of maybe having to add a different colour stripe: well I chickened out as I was too close to finishing it by the time I ran out! Luckily I found a store that still had the same yarn (Amazon was going to charge me over £10.00 for shipping only, probably blaming Brexit for that even though I found it elsewhere still in the UK at a similar price for the yarn but only about £5.00 for shipping).

Of course now I have more leftover of my 4-ply bamboo cotton yarn, I now have a nearly full ball in 4 different colours so I'll try and find a stripy knitting or crochet top pattern, or maybe a few pairs of summer socks...😔

Back to my top: when I put it on it feels great, I had never knitted with 4-ply bamboo cotton before (I usually knit using DK or worsted yarn), I am very happy with the drape and how it feels warm and cool at the same time. I could knit myself another one, maybe with short sleeves and stripes to use up more of that amazing bamboo cotton leftover yarn 😁.

Currents W.I.P @ 30th April 2021

I'm a long way off my unofficial original plan of releasing 1 knitting pattern per month but not stressing too much about that; after all, I need to remember that knitting is a hobby, so no need to stress over deadlines as I already have a full time job that puts bread (and sometimes cake too 😉) on the table!

I started designing a pair of mittens with a lace hearts design (to change from the cable hearts 😅), but I got a bit sidetracked as the sun came out while I was at the boring stage (i.e. writing 2 more sizes and putting everything down on Word before testing the knitting pattern), so this will have to wait for a while.

As the sun came out I decided to knit myself a light summer top using some leftover bamboo/cotton yard from my stash (I'm hoping I will have enough of the turquoise yarn as I only have 2 balls of this colour, if I run out I will have to frog some and add a white band in the middle using the ball of yarn of the same type that I also have in my stash: I don't want to do the upper part in white as that may be a bit see through 😅).

The pattern for this top is called Strawberry Summer; it's a free knitting pattern from Drops and I am using 2 balls (maybe 3 depending on how this progresses) of King Cole Bamboo Cotton 4 Ply in Turquoise. This yarn is very soft and has good drape, I hope my top turns out as lovely as it feels knitting with this yarn 🤗

The bottom of my top 🤪.

Also, not really a Work In Progress as it's finished, but since it was made in less than a week I didn't get the chance to show it here yet. This is a hat I made for my son, as since I was guilty of botching his hair (his sister gave him a nearly bowl cut and I was trying to rectify it, I should have left it as it was: damn these YouTube videos that give you the confidence to try something you should never go near 😖).

So now my son is proudly wearing the 2 hats I made him, I needed to wash the one I made last winter so made him another one made of cotton for Spring, as he claims these are the only hats that will cover his hair and hide my awful haircut 😳.

The pattern for the hat is the Crochet Easy Ripple Hat, free crochet pattern from The Crochet Crowd, using 2 balls of Rico Cotton Aran in navy.

My son loves his new hat but wouldn't model for me 👀

My next project will be the Wild Bees Socks, the 3rd pattern from the Handmade Sock Society 4 by Helen Stewart, which I am planning to knit in the lovely looking Unicorn yarn I ordered especially for this and that came in the post earlier this week, but I will try and finish my mittens knitting pattern first, I am nearly hoping for bad weather so that I can get more time to focus on that rather than the sunny weather 😅

My yummy new sock yarn

My Finished Curling Mist Socks

I finished the Curling Mist Socks that I was knitting for my partner a few weeks ago. I think they look very pretty, too pretty to use on a working day (his work involves a lot of driving but also physical activity and wearing safety boots that are not really breathable), also too delicate to use on a hike (whenever we are all allowed to go back hiking more than 5 km away from home 😅, so he's only allowed to wear them on nights out (that, too, looks like a long time to wait for 😂).

         curling mist socks from THSS4.

I used the sock blockers I bought on Etsy from a seller based in Turkey since I couldn't find a pair I liked from Ireland unfortunately. It was the first time I used proper sock blockers and they looked huge at first (the blockers, not the socks) but they worked out great.

I wasn't too crazy about the second pattern from  The Handmade Sock Society 4 (I'm still hoping it will grow on me so I'm keeping it), so I was going to wait for the third one: the third sock pattern was released last week and looks beautiful but I think it would suit a plain colour yarn better than the stripy multicolour yarn I want to use for my next socks, so it may be May before I start knitting my own socks, or else I might just buy some new sock yarn (More yarn? 😉).

Socks On My Needles: Curling Mist Socks

For the last few years I've been looking at handknit socks as a luxury item: I dabbed into it a little with a pair or two of plain knitted socks (with my first ever pair miserably shrinking in the wash), but I lacked the patience for the beautiful patterns that fill some Instagram and Ravelry pages.

Last September, right before lockdown no. 2, I went on a short break to Northern Ireland and found some funky sock knitting yarn. I could have found the same locally, but as I was on holiday mode I found it obligatory to visit a wool shop and easier to spend money than if I had stayed home (sorry, local yarn stores, I'll make it up to you!).

The yarn in question is Funny Feetz by James C. Brett, it's not a luxury yarn as I had hoped I'd find, but I still find it decent enough, with a good mix of wool, polyamide and bamboo, very easy to knit with.

Then I happened to find a post on Facebook about The Handmade Sock Society a few weeks ago; I think this was the last day that I could join at a discounted price (and who can say no to a discount, right?).

So I purchased their bundle of 6 sock patterns, where there is 1 pattern release each month during 6 months: it's a little like a mystery knit along, but with 6 different sock knitting patterns, where you only discover one of the knitting patterns per month. I don't know about you, but I find this very exciting (I probably also need to get a life, but at least I have the excuse of our country being on lockdown and knitting is one of those little life's pleasures that are still allowed, as long as you have your stash/shops that sell online 😅).

Here's my progress on the Curling Mist Socks:

It's a simple enough sock pattern, not too intimidating unless you hate cables. I happen to like knitting cables, it's just a matter of knowing where to place the cable needle, these are easy cables as they all go in the one direction. Of course I've decided to make things a little harder by using the double pointed needles instead of a circular needle, but that's just because the smallest size circular Knit Pro needles I have are 3.5mm and I am using 3mm to match the pattern. It takes a little time to get used to, but with nice needles like those (I'm using my Knit Pro Zing metal double pointed knitting needles, yarn distributed between 3 needles and using a 4th needle to knit the stitches and a 5th as my cable needle), everything is easier.

Can't wait to finish these and start on the second pattern, which was released on March 4th, but I'm not known for keeping deadlines, at least not when knitting is concerned 😅.

I Heart Cables Cowl Knitting Pattern

My second knitting pattern of the year is this beautiful cowl, with heart shaped cables:

This nearly broke my own heart because of how many times I've had to restart, since I wasn't happy with the width at first, then the finishing... Did I mention my stubbornness here before? Actually the politically correct way to call it is perfectionism 😉.

This is called I Heart Cables Cowl and is available as a digital knitting pattern through Etsy and Ravelry.

It features 8 different cables, so it is not the easiest pattern to knit, but once you think logically about how a cable must look, it will come naturally, maybe one for the cable knitting nerds out there, but I'd encourage advanced beginners looking to improve their cable knitting skills to try it. 

I know, only 2 patterns so far in 2021 and we're already nearing the end of February but who said there was a race? When you have a full-time job and a family (granted my children are at the age when they can look after themselves), plus when you keep creating others ways to keep busy (my sewing machine is looking a bit guilty, even though very pretty in its brand new cover right now!), it's difficult to keep up with plans of taking over the world of knitting patterns 😂.

Head over to Sophie's Knit Stuff on Etsy if you'd like to grab the pattern. It would make a lovely gift for Mother's Day 😉.

I Love Cables Headband

After 2020 being a year of limbo, and I'm sure I'm not the only one saying this, I wanted 2021 to be different, so I decided that I should get back to creating and selling a bunch of knitting patterns.

It's been a few years since I've created new items for sale: these past few years I have kept knitting, but the items I've knitted were all gifts (to myself as well as to others). The I Love Cables Headband is my first finished product of 2021 and I published the knitting pattern on the usual suspects: Etsy and Ravelry. 

I am particularly proud of my I Love Cables Headband as I designed the cables myself (not without the usual bit of swearing, frogging and re-knitting), those cables are as close as I could manage to make them look like hearts, because you can never have too many heart shaped things coming up to Valentine's Day,  which was the time when I was working on it.

I re-used a little of the same pattern when designing my new cowl, (which I was hoping to have ready before Valentine's Day too but I think I may have overestimated my speed and the amount of time I had available to me 😅), this is still a work in progress but I can already say it's even better than the I Love Cables Headband, up up and away!

That Time Already? Catch Up Show And Tell...

It's been over 2 months since I last updated my blog: I will blame my accountancy course but if I'm honest it's probably all the time I spend on Facebook that's the guilty party.

Here are a few things I've been doing since August:

2 knitted dogs: one for each of my daughters. Not my favourite things to make but if my kids are happy with them, I'm happy:)

I've decided to learn a few new knitting stitches: here's entrelac, which would probably be good for a cushion cover or a blanket, but since I'd rather crochet large home accessories than knit them, I don't think that's really for me (my curiosity about knitting entrelac has been satisfied, I can move on;)

Cheering for the Galway hurling and gaelic football teams with a maroon/white headband: I'm not into sports but if I'm going to support a team, might as well be a local one (I won't mention the French rugby team that miserably failed at beating the Irish team last Sunday, I should really forget I ever tried to take an interest:(

More knitting experiments, and I've discovered twisted stitches: now I can twist to the right, and I can also twist to the left! I'm not sure how I've lived (knitted) for so long without knowing about these, but I immediately started to see a few possibilities:

 A crochet blanket (or afghan if you want me to be posh about it;) in progress: 77 of these circles made so far, the blanket is supposed to have 132 but I'm not sure whether I'll make it full size; these little circles are going to be made into squares and joined using grey, this is my week-ends project (but I can be seen working on it from Friday to Thursday if I'm between other projects;)

My lovely shiny wool that I've decided to start using at last:

I had planned to make a lace wrap that can double up as an oversize scarf (I do like accessories that have more than one use) but since it's looking like I'll need at least 4 balls of each colour and possibly also 4 weeks each to complete - especially if I'm going to continue studying AND caring for my children at the same time. I only have 2 balls of each colour, I can't see it working with different colour stripes (did you call me stubborn?) and even if I could afford buying more wool I wouldn't be guaranteed to find the exact same shades, so I've decided to made some smaller accessories...to be continued in a few weeks (or follow me on Facebook) if you want to see what I've decided to make with it.

Oh and I nearly forgot to include the mini project I made at the week end: these are 2 microwavable heat packs made with fabric scraps (I'm trying to use cotton but I don't have labels of all my scraps so I'm closing my eyes hoping they won't melt or explode in my microwave oven while I heat them up). I filled these with rice and set the oven for 30 seconds on full power (I think mine goes up to 850W), but I think they need to be heated for longer - hopefully nothing bad will happen!

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Sewing, Knitting, Crochet, Studying, Holidays...

I didn't know what to call this post, so it's a little bit of everything I've been doing in the past few weeks.

I finished this little bird shaped lavender bag for Emilie's teacher which she gave her on the last day of school:

I got the lavender in TK-Maxx (yes, I know, it's not the first place I would have thought of either, but I grabbed it all the same when I saw it) and I have some left so I'll make some more for the car and the house when I get a minute... Or a few days;)

I also made my teenage daughter this laptop bag which I'm very proud of. I couldn't find a sewing pattern for a padded bag with handles and velcro fastening and I wouldn't settle for a pattern that didn't do everything I wanted it to, so I mixed the instructions for a tablet cover from a sewing book I have at home and watched a Craftsy video tutorial to learn how to attach strong handles. I also added a little inside pocket that's really handy for storing earphones (also learnt through the Craftsy tutorial).

I haven't listed anything new on my Etsy shop, but summer is usually quiet enough for knitted and crochet accessories, so I'm happy enough renewing items as they expire for now.

I spent the last 2 weeks doing quite a bit of studying - as much as I could anyway, not easy with my daughters now on holidays and at home most of the time - so not doing a lot of knitting during the day but I managed to finish my summer top while watching "Who's That Girl" on Netflix in the evenings.

I even managed to finish crocheting my youngest daughter's top that was left unfinished since last month (oops!)

I've just applied for my mock exams so that I can sit the first set of exams before going on holidays next month - I'm not the stressed-out-about-exams kind of person, but I'd rather have them out of the way when I'm visiting my family for 2 weeks in August - then I'll be ready for more studying as my next modules should be available by the time I'm back from holidays (if I do pass my exams, that is;).

In the meantime, I have to finish my eldest daughter's knitted crop top and I have a few little sewing projects in mind to use up some of my fabric scraps. I hope to make a few more Fimo buttons for using on new crochet or knit mug and phone cosies (the last buttons I bought on Ebay are very cheap looking so I don't want to use these on my accessories, maybe my daughters can find some craft projects to use them for).

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