My New Snood (Just for me!)

Just a quick post to share the snood I just finished.

This one is just for me and made in King Cole Riot Chunky yarn. It is very soft and contains 30% wool AND is machine washable (will still go on the wool cycle if I put it in my machine, though).

I am waiting for a delivery so I can make a matching hat and mittens (all for me too). My excuse for being selfish is: if I don't show off my work, who will (other than my 2 daughters who are waiting for the first chance of stealing it;)?

Back to School Knitted Lunch Bags

I spent the last few days designing and knitting two lunch bags for my daughters. I think these are great for carrying a school or work lunch, especially when made with a yarn that can be machine washed.

I included cables, as I think it's giving the bags a bit more hold than if there were simply knitted.

I knitted the first one flat (green), but as the finishing required quite a bit of sewing, I decided to try the second one (maroon) on circular needles, so this one is knitted as a tube and I have added a rectangular piece for the bottom (still some sewing to do, but much less than for the first one).

I also added zippers to the top and as this was my first time working with those, I am relieved to say that it didn't go as bad as I expected.

I will try and publish a pattern for these, including instructions for flat knitting and for circular knitting, as soon as I figure out how to make a downloadable PDF (Bear with me as I'm still on a learning curve!)

Here they are now:

Knit a Birthday Badge

I love the idea of knitting with more than one colour at a time, it just multiplies the possibilities!

Here is a birthday badge I made a few weeks ago for my youngest daughter's 9th birthday:

For this, I knitted 2 pieces, the second piece a plain pink circle, sewed them together adding some cotton wool to give it the required thickness, and attached a safety pins at the back to be able to pin the badge to my daughter's clothes.

I think I'll make a few more for my Etsy shop, with different colours and ages, as it's the ideal project for someone like me who wants to be able to produce a bigger quantity in less time.

I'd like to hear your ideas in the comments section, do you like/hate it, do you like the idea of a handmade item rather than a cheap plastic birthday badge?

My Etsy Shop

I opened my Etsy shop a few weeks ago; guess the name: Sophie's Knit Stuff!

I only have a few items on there for now, but planning on adding many more in a few weeks' time, since I'm giving up my customer care job at last (as can be witnessed by my colleagues/neighbours, I'm not a people person, I would much rather write than interact with people on the phone).

What I am planning to do is looking after my children, knit, knit and knit some more; and if I can earn some income from this, there won't be a happier person in the world than me!

What I have in my Etsy store right now is not much, but it's a start; ideas of new things I could knit are flying around in my head, and I need to write them all down before I forget.

I have also created a Facebook page for all my knitting related business, and I would be really grateful for any Likes and Shares that you can spare for Sophie's Knit Stuff.

To visit my store on Etsy, go to Sophie's Knit Stuff.

I will now leave you with a few pictures of a goodbye gift I've made this week-end for one of my colleagues at the call centre, to apologize for all my violent mood swings - never at her expense - as I have to admit there's been an awful lot of swearing/ranting/wanting to hit my head off my computer mouse.... on my part after finishing some calls (anyone working in a call centre will understand):