Cool cables

Time has flown by really quickly.. I can't believe it's been 1 year since I properly picked up a crochet hook and knitting needles. It's been a year since I've discovered my local yarn store in my city. Throughout the year I have made a few things and have ventured out to some of stitches that I thought was impossible for me to grasp. However, I have taken on the challenge of cabling whilst knitting and I have made the cushion cover below.

There have been mistakes made simply by not paying attention to which row I was knitting. This has been created with rowan all season cotton. The pattern was found in a magazine from the collection that I have at home.

The wool itself was very smooth to work with and it gives a great stitch definition especially in the cabled parts if the cover .

UGG booties

Recently I had the urge to buy the newest knitting magazines but I wasn't quite into the Christmas season yet.. One night after work on my way home I went to my local 24 hour supermarket. I had a sneak look down their News and Magazines aisle and found two of my fave knitting magazines and automatically picked them up. I continued my shopping around the store not for much longer though. 

As soon as I got home, I was getting ready to snuggle up in my bed with my magazines. I jumped straight to the front where you see photos of what the magazine had patterns for. I instantly fell in love with their UGG style booties... I also got good Christmas present ideas from it too. 

Next day, I browse online to see what deals I could get for buying all the wool that I required to make my own UGG booties and presents. I know this isn't significant but it was Wool Week. What does this mean? I got discount on any wool or wool blend yarn. As I wasn't looking to getting the stated wool mentioned in any of the patterns I had to choose from a page of suggested substitute wool. Once I chosen which brand which one would be a reasonable price, I only had one problem with choosing the colour I wanted to get for each one. I love personalising my gifts. In the end I chose Debbie Bliss Paloma in Mallard along with Rowan British Sheep Boucle. 

I can't wait to wear these during the cold and long winter nights.  They are so cosy even though they are a little bit loose but it makes it easier to get my feet in and out of them. =)

little creations

I have made these little creations earlier on this year but never really got round to putting these up...



Mobile phone sock




Cable detail

 The phone sock design is a perfect fit for almost any phone as demonstrated above. I really love the cable twist in this design as it adds a bit of texture to the knitting. This was knitted with an acrylic double knit wool in fuschia.

coin purse



Bobble coin purse

 Above, is something that I created using a very simple stitch found in my Stich Collection book. This purse was inspired from seeing a similar purse somewhere. It is perfect for using up some of the yarn that I had left over from the mary jane slippers. I absolutely love the bobbles in this stitch and the fabric used to add a bit of strength to the actual purse. It also ensures that no coins could escape too. If anyone is interested in this purse then let me know =)

With winter on the way now I also have these cute owl mittens below

Owl mittens

This is a pattern that I found in a magazine so I didn't design this one. I just used a different colour of yarn, Artesano Aran. This is lovely and soft to the skin and it keeps your hands warm when it gets chilly outside. This would make a perfect gift for Christmas....

monkey adventures

It has been a long while since I last blogged... one reason - no card reader available until today!! =D



Monkey @ the hotel in London


The monkey above has been made with lots of love. It has been on a little adventure too from Aberdeen to London then over to Colchester.

No doubt I absolutely love it. This has been made with Hayfield bonus DK in chocolate and Wendy DK in biscuit. The size wise is probably slightly smaller than it should be due to smaller needles being used. It was recommended on a 3.25 mm but I just used 3mm needles.

let's go dotty

As a present for my friend who bought a house with her husband a few months back I have made the dotty cushion below.

Again, it may not be the perfect finish but it's the thought that counts. =)

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My day off (Tuesday) started really early at 9am.. not through choice but my body and warm sunshine. I headed into town to grab a few things as I didn't want to spend a whole afternoon in town not knowing where or what to do.

First stop was the bank and then over to Boots to hand back an umbrella to a customer who left it at the restaurant the night before. The Body Shop was on the cards until I walked past and seen it closed for a refurbishment... =( 

John Lewis seems to be my favourite place to get all my little bits and bobs for my crafty stuff at the minute. They may not stock on a wide range of wool but their whole Rowan collection is enough for me to look at. After a quick browse on their wool with no intention of buying any since money is tight at the minute I just ended up getting the zip I required to finish off the cushion above.

Next stop whilst on my way to Yorokobi for lunch was Primark in getting a new shower curtain... Although I've been on the hunt for something nice for going to London next week I couldn't find anything in the sales or Primark. Don't you hate the feeling of looking through your wardrobe in hope to find something nice and you don't? Then you say to yourself 'I don't have any clothes.' I guess thats why girls seem to have a lot of clothes in their wardrobes and drawers since we don't really throw much out.

Anyways, I just got on with what I was there for - shower curtain. They have shifted things about and I had to walk around all 3 floors until I found them upstairs with all the PJ's. I guess it's good to have burned off a few calories before indulging on some yummy food.

Lunch at Yorokobi was a breeze. I think that is the only restaurant that I can go to by myself without feeling wierd or pitiful for myself. 

Vegetarian Jabchae

California Hand Roll with Tobiko

Soft shell crab Maki

All of that went into my tummy. =)

That is all for my day off as the rest was spent at home watching Glee and The Vampire Diaries.

right kind of wrong

Yes I took the name of a song sung by LeAnn Rimes as the title for this post. It is true for my knitting journey that I have been on so far. It's meant to be summer just now but it feels like it's Autumn. I'm loving our traditional Scottish weather though.

Recently I've finished knitting up a pair of slippers which are very similar to the mary jane's one. 

I love the little bowdetails on them... =) This was knitted with Sirdar Crofter Chunky wool on a size 5 mm needles.. This has taught me to spend some time to knit up a tension square first. It's a little bit loose but it's good. So the 1st right kind of wrong is knitting a pair of slippers in the summer. 

the next one is I went out for a dinner date with my girlfriend C about 2 weeks ago.. I dressed up.. I was wearing a dress with stilletto heels  and the weather was pretty much miserable.. wet wet wet. However it felt good not to be dressed according to the weather though. 

My next in the car project is a pair of fingerless mittens... All I need to finish is the right hand mitten.

 

Ready to use

It has come to my attention that I haven't written in this blog for a whole month now... Where has the time gone? To be perfectly honest I think it's just all done to laziness. It's hard to think of a topic each time I open up this page on my screen and I know I have a lot that I can write about since this is very broad on what I can tell online. Here is one anyway... ready frosting..

I was invited to a gathering at a friends house during my week off in May. It was just all finger food and games night really.. I offered to make something sweet e.g. cupcakes.

Cupcakes itself is easy to bake and doesn't take long either.. I find the decorating part can take longer than the actual baking.. It's always about the looks or the cover of book that one would find appealing to their eyes. We always say 'never judge a book by it's cover' or a person by their looks. Well, thats not the case for cakes... with this in mind I didn't know how I wanted to decorate these cupcakes that I was going to make. Whilst shopping around in the supermarket I found their own brand ready to use frosting icing in a vanilla flavour. I thought this would be perfect. I have never been sure of using the ready to use or bake packs. I was surprised by this though..

To be fair, these cupcakes were delicious. The mini marshmallows just finished it off nicely in terms of decoration wise.

baking marathon

Well, after a week of holiday it has come to my weekly day off even though I've only been back at work for 2 days. My only day in the week that I can rest and recharge my batteries for the following 6 days ahead of me whether it's busy or not I still need the energy to get through them. Sometimes it can be crazy - depends on how I feel and those around me. It can get to a point where I just have some crazy fun with colleagues or even customers. Dependent on their nature if they can take a joke and not take it to heart. 90% of the time it's ok to ahve a laugh with them. Or it could get really bad where I just put on a fake smile and to me then everything and everyone will some what annoy me, except for those who know me well and will steer clear of me. At that stage I wish that I could do such and such a thing but it never seems to happen since I usually have a few errands to do on my day off. However, today was an exception. I didn't.

I thoroughly enjoyed a real lazy lie in today, I didn't really get out of my bed until near enough 1pm. Don't get me wrong I was awake already from a phone call from the MR asking me what I'd be getting up to - I didn't know. After the phone call I rambled on in my head what I wanted to do. I said to a girl last night that I had quite a lot of plain and self raising flour to use up. *ding ding* why not bake? Whilst baking I can watch Season 1 part 1 of Glee and knit too. How amazing would that be? I can tell you it was. I got up and dressed and chose what I wanted to make from looking at a cook's book. It sure has some goodies in there. I then wrote down what I needed from Asda which was my closest supermarket and headed out. I came home and decided which order to make the baked goodies. Then I realised I forgot to get the right amount of butter which meant I had to do what I planned on making last first so that I could head out whilst it was sitting in the oven baking.

After the 2nd trip to Asda the house was already smelling of baked chocolate mousse. It smelt yummy. Whilst still waiting on it to be baked I moved onto my 2nd bake - chocolate brownies. The timing was just in time for everything, by the time the brownies was ready to go in the oven - the mousse was ready. I had 15 minutes to do the cleaning up and prep for my last bake of the day. The strawberry and cream sponge cake. The only problem I have at the end of all this baking was who is gonna help me eat all this? 

Chocolate Brownies

baked choc mousse

Strawberry and Cream Sponge Cake

After the baking marathon, I made myself dinner which compromised Chicken wings and pasta with some cheese. A simple dish. My entertainment was my LoveFilm DVD which consisted of Season 1 part 1 Glee. =) 

Finished eating and I still had a few more episodes of Glee to get through so  to round off the evening I picked up my knitting needles in front of the telly. As I finished off a little bit of my cardigan the DVD came to an end.  

Staying In

After all the travelling the past 2 days I thought it was time to stay in and just chill out for the next few days before going back to work... It was a struggle on deciding on what to make for dinner. The food shopping was simple once I knew what I haven't eaten for a loong time.. A home made macaroni cheese. This dish brings back some fond memories that has been buried away.

I thoroughly enjoyed this dish tonight. It didn't taste quite right but I only have myself to blame as I made the sauce up a little bit as I cooked it in the pan.Nevertheless it is still one of my favourite dishes of all times. =)

Sometimes in life I wish I could go back to the past to make some changes. However, everything happens for a reason. Whether it's for good or bad it  depends on how we see it ourselves. Personally, everything that has happened in my life was for the best. Sometimes I like asking myself 'what if' questions, it is such a rhetorical question because we will never get an answer from these unless it really did happen or we make it happen ourselves.

teddy bear

It fees like its been a while since my last post. In that time I have made a few quick knits to use up some of my stash that I have in a box. I really didn't know what else to make but a bright idea came to mind. Just a wee knitted bear for a wee girl called Ava.

It's now time to go back to my bigger projects that I had on hold for so long, time to finish those off. No doubt after a while I will get bored and move onto another quick knit.

fair isle knitting

I have only been knitting and crocheting for a few months. I thought I'd give this 'fair isle' or 'intarsia' knitting a go and here is the outcome.

I am quite proud of this small knit being a first attempt at it... Now all I need to do is try other techniques that I haven't tried yet. =)

I am now going to work on a lot of mini projects so that I can use up my stash or yarn... any ideas what next?

Sunday lunch

 I just looked back at the number of posts that I had about food and there isn't much so here is a little blog with some food included.

Today was just a breeze.. Started off with going to Wagamamma for lunch... Personally I wouldn't have chosen to go there since I have been there a few times already.. This time round I had something different from what I had in the past... 

Yaki Udon

Chicken Katsu Curry

Chicken Ramen

I enjoyed my sunday lunch today.. After that I went for a quick browse around in the shopping centre... I could spend a whole day looking at knitting/crocheting patterns and wool... I think it might be a good idea to try and use up some of the yarn that I have at home... After all of thatit was time to head to work. 

The shift wasn't too bad.. it was steady enough for the night so I was a happy bunny. =)

knitting for charity 2

I have been asked to knit a baby jumper for those babies who have been born with the AIDS virus and have nothing to keep them warm except from newspapers. It was a free-style on the colours so here is mines. I used Sirdar Click dk wool and some odd ball of yarn that I got with a magazine a few months back.

It gave me great pleasure to knit this jumper as it will be going towards a good cause. From this project I have learnt new techniques for knitting and it's all thanks to some tutorial videos on YouTube.

The deadline is end of May, if anyone is interested in contributing towards this project click here for the pattern for babies jumper.

ellie the toy elephant

Here is my latest make amongst all my other 'big' projects. Ellie the toy elephant - still deciding on where to send this cute animal.

The trunk does look really long and the features look kind of out of place but I guess whoever receives this toy will love Ellie. It is also a little bit under stuffed. I can never tell if it's enough to make the toy firmer....

my baby knits

Whilst taking a break from knitting a lazy snood with Rowan's Alpaca Cotton yarn I made a few quick baby knits and makes.. When I say a few it's not just one or two but 4! 

A few months back I have been asked by a friend to knit/crochet some stuff for their sister's baby. At the point I thought great! I can use up some of my baby yarn that I had lying around amongst my stash. However it was all very boy-ish colours i.e. baby blue and a dark green... Thanks to a magazine that I bought at the start of February which had a nice pattern for baby booties... I kinda changed the colours a little bit...

crocheted booties

That was one of the many items that I made.. I am hoping this baby will have big feet... lol!

Next up is the mittens that I made by knitting... To me they look a little bit weird but I guess baby's do have rather small hands

mittens in st st stitch

 After that I still didn't have enough of making baby makes so I went for a matching hat. When I say matching it's just simply a different colour scheme... Not totally though! Don't look too closely now as I see a few mistakes already...

6-12 month baby hat in garter stitch

As though that wasn't enough look at my last photo for this and you can see i made a rather colourful burp cloth too...

the whole collection

That is the lot. My partner seen all this and asked who are these for? Our kids? I was like nope, it's just for a friend. I think if I was pregnant I would be making a lot more than this and probably  put more time into it.

Rory the Rhinestone Spider

Here it is Rory the Rhinestone Spider is finally completed after months of being abandoned by it's owner. The plan was to create Rory for Halloween 2011 attempting to give my boss a little fright. Tee Hee!! This was only due to the fact that I have found out he's kinda scared of them. 

8 legs...

 The legs was completed a few months ago whilst on a day trip to Edinburgh to visit one of my uni friends. Don't look too close now as I spot a lot of mistakes this is only my trained eye though. =) 

Rory the Rhinestone Spider

 

 

 

Above is the one-eyed Rory the Rhinestone Spider. He's cute isn't he? We shouldn't be scared of these wee creatures as they can't harm us...

knitting for charity

I am proud to present Becky the ballerina dolly.

I got the yarn from Lets Get Crafting Magazine Issue 38. I used their exclusive Crystal dk yarn. Most of the pieces was in a st st. The only part that I found hard or never seem to get it right is the putting it all together part. Becky will go on a journey all by herself to Surrey where she will be sent to a  good home as this is for the Children's Cancer Recovery Project. It makes me feel sad that I have to part with Becky already but I am sure she'll be well looked after by the lucky child who receives her. I believe that it will make a difference to the childs world whether they are young or older and I hope that it will bring a smile to them when they meet Becky.

another make

Here is my latest make that I completed in mid jan.  A simple baby blanket in stocking stitch for the body and 2x2 rib around the border. I used 350g of Sirdar Escape dk. I really love the colours that has gone into this yarn makes it so different from all the usual baby blankets designs.  This certainly took some time to knit up but I had great pleasure with this.

 Now I have moved onto knitting a ballerina dolly which I think will go to a charity to send it to children.. =)

crocheted flower motif

Since I'm stuck in the restaurant for the rest of the day.. In face I have a 12 hour shift to get through which I'm half way through already.. It doesn't really help when I've been up since 4.30 am this morning. I just couldn't get back to sleep as I kept tossing and turning in bed... The lights was off but someone was watching a movie on their PC which still had light shining through... fingers crossed my coke fix will help to keep me going for the evening service. Anyways since I'm just 'on duty' whilst the restaurant is closed I managed to make another quick makew of a flower.. It's not very colourful but I thought it be nice for spring.

It's doesn't look as nice as it should in photo but I think it's all down to my tension whilst going through the pattern for the first time. Practice makes pefect I guess.

Gonna make a start on ballerina dolly for charity I think.. All for a good cause. =)

a quick make

Remember from my last post that I got iinspired by my friend's random purchase of yarn? Well, I fell into the trap a day later after visiting her whilst she was working. I was lucky that day.. I was just browsing and having a difficult time choosing which colour to buy.. The representative from Rowan told me that the 'big wool' and 'drift' are exactly the same yarn. The same length and tension... What did that mean to me? More choice in colours and designs. To be quite fair since I'm the one who would be wearing it, it's my choice and my own design. tee hee! In the end I went for a 3 tone... A cream, mustard yellow/gold with a hint of brown and a coffee brown. This surprisingly only took me 6 hours to complete as it was just simple double crochet round the loop.

close up of the design

the actual size

I have another completed project too.. watch the space for it!

holiday crochet makes

I've been a busy bee over the last few days even though I was on annual leave for a week. I got some inspiration from a friend who randomly bought some yarn to crochet a snood for herself or whoever she likes to give to as a present. She asked me to help her start off the chain and to join it together to form a circle. It was such a nice yarn and chunky it got me thinking should I or should I not? After a day of pondering and shopping for the same yarn I managed to walk away from it. The resason being was I needed to finish off my granny squared  cushion cover that was 3/4 completed. I am the kind who likes to finish off a project before starting another one or have 2 going at the same time. The next day I finished making up the squares and needed to get some fabric to sew the cover onto and wrap around the cushion pad. This is the completed cushion

It does look a bit weird to me since the edges are like squint but that makes it unique and what home made is all about. =) I am very content with this and it will go wherever I move to as well.