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. 

Distraction

I have done some new mittens. Not colourwork but a lace project that looks like cable. Its pretty neat! Its a free pattern I found on Ravelry and only takes one skein of yarn so I thought I would have a go. I have a lot of WONDERFUL balls of wool that are lonely orphans and so can really only lend themselves to this type of project. They are called Autumnal Mittens and the pattern is really simple! Its a great project for starters in lacework!

Its going well enough, except that I kinda ran out of yarn at the end of the second mitten so Im having to take some of the ribbing out of the first one to make sure they match. PAIN in the BOTTOM!

Here's what it looked like before I had to modify it....

I don't like this colour enough to order more of it, so I will just have to live with the modifications and hope no one notices (Im not doing a very good job of hiding it am I???). I'm a bit worried now to start another pair but my friend wants bright pink and I actually have this amazing bright pink Alpaca yarn I keep trying to find a project for. And really, I started these as a practice to use that yarn so its the perfect chance! I'll just have to cut the ribbing at the bottom a bit short and preserve a bit more of the yarn! Le Sigh..... 

I will show a picture of these when they're done too!

Live for Sales...

I have finally set up my very own Etsy shop and am planning on talking some nice people into buying stuff from me!! Woot woot! I spend much too much money on knitting, knitting supplies, yarn, soon probably stitch markers (also from Etsy, must search for them on there, some really amazing ones!).

My shop is mostly just accessories for the winter - scarve/cowl thing that has SILK in it, some mittens, and hats. I really want to sell something! I did the photos the other day and it was so sunny and warm out, you would never guess that it's October in England!!!  That's a picture of me preparing a green hat for its photoshoot! Thanks to the boyfriend for the "outtake shot"....


I started my first cardigan ages ago, but Im doing it on such small needles and really feel its going to be a long term project and I wanted something I could wear NOW (im getting impatient!) so I started a sweater/jumper called O W L S by Kate Davies. Its a really fast knit so if anyone wants to dive into cable work but in an easy knit this one seems to be pretty awesome!

I will keep you updated as I really want to finish it soon!

O W L S

I am knitting a ubiquitous Owls sweater by Kate Davies. It seems everyone on Ravelry has done one, and now its my turn! I have one of my sleeves, and the bottom of the body complete. Instead of knitting a swatch I did the sleeve and just continued even though it didn't work out just right! But It does seem big enough so not a problem!

I will post pictures later, but the joy of this jumper is the owls and they are one of the last things I need to knit!  Im really excited as this is my first piece of clothing I get to knit for myself! I am making a cardigan, but its 4ply and it knits sooooo slowly! This one is ZOOOM in comparison!

Slippers Update

So, I cast on some slippers for myself, got about half way done and realised I had made them too skinny!!! They're child's size. Luckily I need some children's slippers so that works ok for me, but I have realised I need a size guide and clearer instructions so that if anyone else uses my pattern it won't create the same issue for them!

Using DK yarn and size 3.5 needles:

50-66 stitches create a good size for an adult foot.
40-50 are good for child's size.

The ones in the picture are a broken rib pattern and once you do one pair you'll see just how easy they are to change the stitch pattern but to do these here are the directions:

Cast on an uneven number of stitches with a long tail left to sew up your work later.  (12" would be more than enough)

Row 1: knit (this row creates a ridge so you can seam easily when they are finished)
Row 2: knit
Row 3: Purl first stitch then *knit 1, purl 1 alternately* for the remainder of the row ending in a purl
Row 4: knit
Repeat rows 3 & 4 until you reach the length of slipper you require. You want this to come just to the tip of your big toe.
Next row: As you have an uneven number of stitches you will need to find your centre stitch. Knit two stitches together until this middle stitch, knit this one on its own and then continue to knit two together until the end. (If you want to roughly guess which stitch is in the middle you can, its not that important to get it right on the centre. I'm quite laid back about my knitting and stitch counts generally).
Last row: Purl two together in the same way as last row, with your middle stitch knit on its own.

Leaving a lengthy tail break your yarn.  Thread your end through the remaining stitches and pull to create a drawstring. Sew up the two sides of the piece to create a toe to your slipper. Use the long end from the beginning (or a new piece if you did not leave the long tail) to sew up the back of your slipper.

Re-enforce the slipper with another piece of string by weaving around the opening. This will help keep the slipper on your foot!

Voila! Easy Peasy

http://thisgirlknits.blogspot.com/2010/12/easy-ballerina-slippers.html

Baby knits...?

So, after knitting the sheep baby jumper I kinda swore off baby stuff. It takes forever, its so little and they're only going to wear it for like 2 months max and then they grow out of it...so all that work for the tiny garments just didn't seem worth it. But in trying to clear out my stash I have a collection of Debbie Stoller Bamboo Ewe that I really want to use up, and in searching for patterns I've come across some really cute girly patterns.

And one of my friends has just told me she's having a baby girl in 4 months... This almost sounds like a challenge!

More Knitten Mittens

I love mittens. Especially ones I could possibly wear at work on cold days, so Fingerless are the best!

Here is the first of the "My own design" ones!

I love that these have turned out so well! Im going to be selling them on facebook under the name This Girl Knits at the end of August and anything that doesn't sell then will go on Etsy when Im back from my Canadian holiday in the first two weeks of Sept!

The link to the original mitten pattern is here : http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/endpaper-mitts

Link to my pattern is here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/heart-endpaper-mittens

And the link to them for sale on Etsy here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/82760711/hand-knit-heart-fingerless-mittens