Little York - new pattern

Today I published a new pattern today on Ravelry. I thought it would be good to foray outside of the sweater craze and work on some designs. Also, to give me something to do while the “job application slump” has hit. I feel like I’ve already seen and applied to all the relevant jobs…. But with the pattern so far the reception seems to be pretty good!

I called it Little York and it is a hat I designed while living in England on York Road in my little basement flat. I loved that flat, and this hat was a nice little project one night when I was home alone and obsessing with all things knitting. 

So presenting my new pattern Little York!

(The cowl in the background is the Stockholm Cowl by knittedbliss) 

and then i'm going to....

Last year my cousin bought me some knitting magazines and a needle case for Christmas. It was my first knitting related present, and I was thrilled. The magazines were full of clothes and ideas, and I had a place to store all those circular and dpns I suddenly seemed to have collected - awesome! 


And my other cousin, the other family knitter, warned me, "Once you make some clothes, you won't stop."


Pish pash, I hadn't stopped anyway! But clothes are an investment, of time and supplies. My piles upon piles of single colour skeins of wool are no longer relevant? How can this be? 


(I MUST KNIT FASTER). 


Enter my O W L S sweater. Yes, okay, that is nice to wear and it's super cosy. But now I'm working on my Aidez, and I can see the end of my Aidez cardigan in sight. Woot! Can't wait to wear it. 


So what did I do today? Order MORE YARN for a new cardigan?! What? Someone needs to restrict me from these things! Oh wait, that's what the boyfriend tries to do.... oops?


Anyway, here is what I plan on making next - but in burgandy!!!

Its a Kim Hargreaves design, called Cobalt.  I already bought the book (Indigo) when I saw it used already on Amazon so am excited to make this! 


After my other one is done, of course?

New Sweater

I have bought some yarn. Online.


This is always exciting when I have a project in mind and I wait until I know I will be making it, and then put an order in. When I buy yarn in a store it feels more impulsive, so when I shop online I make myself wait, think about it and then decide sensibly.

Now, when I buy the sensible yarn I don’t always JUST buy that – when shipping is free you take advantage, right?!

I have bought 800g of Wendy Mode Chunky in their Vanilla colour to make this Aidez cardigan. 

I made my O W Ls sweater out of this yarn in Navy and it washes well, is easy to knit with and 50% wool and 50% acrylic its’ perfect weight and feel for a hard wearing every day kinda sweater. This Aidez sweater looks like a lot more work, and I might have to pay attention, but I cannot wait!  

I also mentioned that I may have bought some other yarn (possibly impulsively!). 

I have been seeing more and more Hudson Bay stuff online, either on Ravelry or Pinterest and feel I need a bit more Canadiana in my life. I need to get in touch with my roots (my roots, not Roots, but I'm sure that will come later). 

I bought some white, green and yellow soft DK, and I already have some red and blue... so something similar to this blanket might appear, should I decide what to make. I'm thinking, hot water bottle, or mittens? But then, that's what I'm always thinking, so maybe instead some sort of cabley cowl? SO MANY OPTIONS! Who says I have to choose? 

Where's Waldo Fingerless Mittens

They are complete!  Waldo and the Wizard would be proud! (I hope)

Pattern will follow soon!

Quit my job and knit all day

I really should marry rich. My current boyfriend agrees with me as well. He wishes he could marry rich. Shame we've fallen for each other. He dreams of opening a coffee cafe, with sandwiches and soups and coffee late while pubs are open to give an option for those who want to socialise somewhere a bit different.

I want to run a knitting shop, offering lessons and such a variety of yarns it would make your mind boggle. Or just stay home and knit all day while a maid cleans the house and I laze about watching movies (I dont really like daytime tv) and knitting, knitting, knitting.

Back to reality I have done some selfish and some non-selfish knittings and finished many'o'projects. It is funny that the two for me are the same colour. I had started the fingerless (as previous blog) and then got the yarn for the full mittens for Christmas.

S

Bella's Mittens - Pattern free on Ravelry. The yarn used is Rowan Cocoon in Seascape. Its a wonderful colour and does make you think of the deep dark sea. The pattern is quite fitted on the hand so I used a slightly bigger needle. If you want more info you can find me on ravelry under Sheenaknitsuk. :) 

Autumnal Mittens for the boss - Pattern also free on Ravelry. She received a pair for Christmas, and now has asked for this colour and a dark brown, but I haven't been able to find a nice dark brown at this time of year in a yarn that I like... I'll keep looking. She might get them next year instead!

Autumnal Mittens in Alpaca, for me. These mittens in this yarn is irresistible. Get any baby alpaca yarn, DK, in the colour of your choice and go on Ravelry, get this pattern and knit away. Seriously. If you do anything in 2012 knitting related it should be this. Easy, fast and soooooo scrummy. These were meant to go into my Etsy shop and I love them too much to bear to part with them. That's how wonderful they are. 

I got this yarn for 5 pounds and it's the King Cole Alpaca one. If you're in the UK you can buy this yarn from Modern Knitting online. I use them a lot as they seem to be cheaper than other online shops and have a good selection.

Turning over a new leaf....

I started myself a project as its now after Christmas and I feel like I deserve some of my own knitting. I also finished the project today which is very unlike me... normally when it's for me it sits on my needles for AGES and I feel guilty about working on it, but not this one! (I'm also doing this as a test knit to create a pattern to share, so I was also sort of working for others at the same time, so maybe that is why it is guiltless.)


It is also something I've been dreaming up since I first learned to knit. I bought some hot water bottles and if you have seen my Ravelry line up you might notice a small and very rustic one with a heart that I designed and knit last year. This year my skills are much improved and I still had a big bottle to cover, so in Sept when I was at Romni wools in Toronto and bought many balls of amazing wools I dreamed up this design and have finally realised the dream. (Bit dramatic sounding but not sure how else to say it!). 


I want to change some things in the pattern before I share it, like the squareness at the bottom, and some placements of colour changes but otherwise here is the gist of what I will be doing in the next little while!


My FO from today!

One, Two, Three, Four....

I HAVE SOLD SOMETHING! Its amazing!

These mittens have been a hit (and they're a lot easier than the ones I was doing before) and I've managed to sell two already and then had some people enquire about a few more!

Here are the green ones. You can see the thumbs have changed and I'm not overjoyed about that but I think it looks better than having a second colour added on!

The first pair I sold were these amazing Alpaca ones in a hot pink that I'm in love with. I bought the wool at Romni in Toronto and that store is a cave labyrinth of amazing-ness. These were from the Dungeon of Sales in the basement! I removed one repeat of the pattern at the bottom to ensure I had enough left for the thumbs and I did! (Just!)

The pink ones were sold to a friend from work and we are a team of 3, so naturally my other colleague wanted a pair too. This purple is from English wool company Wendy and its' their Bliss line and its really soft (and cheap, woot woot!). I think its my new favourite standard yarn. Just hope they come out with even more colours. You can kinda see the flecks of pinky purple with bluey purple in this colourway.