Reveiws and recent projects

Sorry for the long absence, it's been a very busy year for me, I've moved house, had another baby and got a dog!
Anyway enough of the excuses and onto the projects. A while back I knitted a lovely cardigan called Wayside Lace cardigan. (i got the pattern on Ravelry) I love the stitch pattern but i didn't like the way the cardigan fit (its a waterfall wrap cardigan) so i decided I'd revisit it a little while ago and used my usual jumper pattern but incorporated the wayside lace stitch pattern. My usual size for a jumper is 38" which is baggy and how i like it, but with the lace and cables it ended up quite a snug jumper, but still fits well and i think looks great. I acidentally picked up the wrong amount of stitches on the sides of the neck so it came out a bit square but all in all i have to say this is now my favourite jumper to wear

For some reason my photo of the finished jumper is upside down and I'm not sure how to sort it, so will attempt this later!

As the weather is getting colder it was time to knit hats for the boys so I used the dead fish hat knitting pattern and attempted my first ever short rows (they're not as hard as you'd think or I could've just done them wrong haha)

I guessed with the fins and tail and added the little curly bits and bobs your teapot - a magicarp hat!

The stegasaurus hat was done in the same way but I lengthened the tail an knitted to a point, crocheted the plates, spikes and teeth and have a very happy boy wuith a new hat!







Next up is a pumpkin hat knitted to a pattern called self striping childrens hat on ravelry, I think I did something like k6, p1 around the hat then added the little leaf etc

I added a couple of extra rounds at the top for the stalk. It fits alot better then the picture, its actually over my knee for the photo! I said to my hubby that I should get one of those hairdressing dolls so I can take better photos of the hats.
I've almost finished a Pikachu hat for a friends little boy, but refuse to get it ifnished until I get the gyardos hat done for her oldest son. I don't want them to think Ive forgotten one of them! I'll add photos when I'm done.

I have also starting knitting school jumpers. It seems that they are super expensive here so I thought I'd have a go to see if I can knit them a bit cheaper to help out parents and also make a bit of extra cash. One of my friends gladly let me practise and make one for her daughter.

I found a lovely stitch pattern on a Finnish pattern so after a little translating this is what it looks like (i'm pretty sure I could've found it in english but where's the fun in that!)

This is the first attempt, which my friend loved, but it was a little short for her daughter so I made a second one

I didn't add the ribbon to this one as it actually took me longer to add the ribbon the first time then it did to knit both jumpers!
It turned out pretty well though. Another frind took the smaller jumper and it fits her little girl so we will just change the ribbon to her school colours instead!



AT the moment I'm working on  Drops pattern for a cardigan. I'm hoping to turn it into a coat as I find it really hard to find the coat i want. I look for something that is either somewhat waterproof or lightweight or both, so hopefully this will fit the bill. It wont be very waterproof but it should be fairly light even when wet and warm. I'm considering lining it for extra warmth when its windy but i'll have to finish knitting it first then decide. My plan is to also add a hood.

So far so good except I misaligned the patter at the start *sigh* sorted it now though so hopefully it wont be too noticable!

Now onto the reviews. I have always used cheap knitting needles. I prefer bamboo needles as they are lighter when knitting, but I've foudn myself knitting more and more in the round (i hate sewing up) so I had some very cheap circular needles. The ends got blunt fairly quickly which isn't a problem for stocking stitch but lace is a little harder with blunt needles, so i decided it was time to invest in some decent needles. I scoured the internet looking for a decnet interchangeable set at a reasonable price. Wool warehouse has some drops needles at £17.50 which I belive fit with knitpro tips, but they were out of stock and I'm impatenient. I settled on knit picks nickel coated set which was just less than £30 on amazon. I have to say they are the nicest needles I've ever had the pleasure to knit with. No more squeeky wool or cables falling off, sticthes getting stuck on the join, they are brilliant and I'd definitly reccommend them!
I've also been branching out a little with wool (or shoudl I say yarn as technically 100% acrylic can't be classed as wool i suppose) I bought some DK from marriners. Its pretty much the same as Robin DK except it doesn't seem to fluff up as much. I've noticed that Robin fluffs quite a lot and stylecraft special bobbles quite quickly. Marriner seems to fluff more than bobble but still not as much as Robin. The best part is its only £1 per ball and orders over £25 are free delivery. My only problem with marriner is they don't have bottle green, which is the colour i need for the boys school jumpers, but to be honest its more of an observation than a complaint!
The caridgan I'm knitting at the moment is aran/worseted weight so I bought some Robin aran with wool (which I've never used before) So far its knitting up really nicely and it feels really soft so I'm definitly going to be using it again, however I might try marriners aran with wool as its a bit cheaper so i can compare!

Just in case I haven't said before or there are people looking for websites for patterns. I'll give my recommendations on them too. I use ravelry quite a bit. You can filter results by yarn weight and free/paid for patterns which is quite useful. Its also handy to look at the projects others have done as there are often realy helpful notes in there. when ever possible i try to add notes on my projects in case I've accidentally fdone something useful haha. I also find it helpful to look at projects before selecting a pattern to knit. I recently wanted to knit a bunny toy for my youngest so I trawled through ravelry. I found one pattern in particular which looked like just the thing I wanted, but when I looked at the projects others had done it was all mishapen and weird looking so I decided on a different pattern. It saved me wasting the time and yarn making something I owuln't be happy with.

Garnstudio (drops) is a brilliant website for patterns. They are all free and they have everything from home, petsm, kids, ladies, men etc. The only thing I will say is their patterns can be a bit vague at times (like how to centre your pattern!) They certainly don't hold your hand like other patterns but I'm hoping i'll get an extra sense of achievement after completing my latest drops project. I've used theor patterns before but had to modify them as they weren't the size I was looking for (e.g. baby suit that started at 0-3months and i wanted newborn size)

Pinterest is another great tool for finding patterns but beware there arn't always patterns to go with the wonderful photos so it involves alot of frustration for me! I use it mostly to save ideas rather than actual patterns so if i see a jumper with a design i like i save it on there to make a chart from later.

As for buying patterns I've found my favorite to be Sirdar. Every Sirdar pattern I've knitted has turned out great! King Cole is another one which I find quite good. I recently bought a shoe pattern (not entirely sure why when I can find most of the patterns on ravelry) I've only ever knitted one James Brett pattern and I hated it so I steer clear. I must admit that it was probably down to my knitting rather than the pattern but it just looked awful and it took alot of work!

Anyway thats it for now, hoep you enjoyed my little update!

Wolf Toy

So a friend asked if I would make a Foxy toy from Five Nights at Freddys for her son and after scouring the internet for a decent pattern I found one from Crochet gamer Foxy pattern Fantastic easy to follow pattern but in UK terms, so had to 'translate' it first haha. But it turned out really good and he really loved it.

It inspired me quite a bit to make some toys for my kids, so I decided I would make a wolf, a lion and a bird of some sort (I haven't quite worked out how to do the bird one yet). Each one has a special meaning for me and each of the kids so again I looked in the usual places for suitable patterns. Theres loads of lions! But I couldn't find a wolf that I really liked, so not to be put off I decided to write my own pattern.
I hope you like it!

 Wolf Toy Crochet pattern

Blusa de Croche by Anna Maria Braga - pattern translation

I found this wonderful pattern on ravelry blusa de croche, however it was written in portugese :( Not to be deterred I decided to have a go anyway and try to translate it for others to use. Theres a wonderful video to follow Blusa de croche video but again it is in portuguese, so I had a go at translating it. Now please note this is not my pattern. It is Anna Maria Braga's pattern, all I have done is attempted to use both google translate (which proved interesting haha) and watched along with the video whilst writing out instructions as best as I could! SO they maybe don't make sense or they are a bit jumbled up or weird, so appologies in advance for that, here they are anyway for anyone who is interested!

I have used US terms as I leanred from youtube and most of the crochet videos were using US terms

this is the photo from Anna's ravelry page, I haven't taken a photo of mine yet :(

Start

Central flower

Step 1: ch 6 and join with slip stitch to close circle

Step 2:12 sc into centre, join with slip stitch

Step 3:* ch3 (counts as first dc), ch5, skip 1, 1dc, repeat from * (using dc instead of first ch3). Join to 3^rd chain with slip stitch

Step 4:* ch3 (counts as first dc), 2dc in ch5 space from previous row, ch2, 3dc, ch1, repeat using dc instead of ch3 at start of row. Join with sl st into 3^rd chain

Step 5: ch4, ch6, 1tc in ch2 space from previous row, *ch6, skip 2, 2tc in next 2 stitches, ch6, 1tc in ch2 space.  Repeat from *. Join to ch4 with sl st

Step 6: ch4, ch6, *1tc into top of tc from previous row, skip 2, 1 tc, ch6. Repeat from *. Join to ch4

Step 7: ch3, 7dc over chain from previous row,* 8dc over chain from previous row, repeat. Join to 3^rd chain

Step 8: ch2, 3sc, ch20, skip 1, join with sc, 3sc repeat. Join to top of ch2

Step 9: ch2, 2sc, 30dc over petal loop, sl stitch to join, 3sc

Step 10: slip stitch into 21 dc, ch6, join to 9^th dc on next petal, sl st into 13 dc, ch6, join to 9^th dc

Step 11: slip stitch into 4 dcs, ch6, skip 3, connect with sc, ch6,( 1dc, ch2, dc) over chain, ch6, skip 3, join with sc. Slip stitch to join

(approx 20mins on video)

Outline

Slip stitch 2, ch3, (dc, ch2, dc, ch2 into space after sc on previous row), (dc, ch2, dc into space between dcs on previous row), ch2. [37 v stitches for first row]

Ch3, turn, skip 2 spaces, (dc, ch2, dc skip 1) repeat, dc into top of ch3 to join

Repeat the last row

Ch3, 6dc, skip space, repeat

Divide for neck and shoulder

Step 1: ch3, turn, skip 3, dc, ch2, dc, ch 4, repeat. dc into chain between 6dc from previous row.

Leave 9 sets of dc from previous round un worked – 6 for collar and 3 for shoulder.

Step 2: ch 3, turn, repeat last row a further 2 times (V stitches will be on top of previous row V stitches)

Step 3: Ch3, turn, 7 dc, skip a space, 8 dc, repeat to end. (dc’s will be in top of v stitches from previous row)

2^nd Layer petals

Step 1: 2sc, ch 20, skip 2, 13 sc, repeat. (loops will centre on 8 dc’s from previous row) ch 20 centre of last 8dcs from previous row to finish

Step 2: 35 dc into chain loop. Skip 2, join with slip stitch, 7 slip stitch, 10 dcs, dc into 10^th dc on previous petal to join petals together. Continue until 35 dcs in petal. Repeat in each loop.

34:05 on video

Join yarn onto 9 sets of dcs left for shoulder and collar

Ch3, skip 3, (dc, ch2, dc into same space), *ch4, (dc, ch2, dc into 3^rd stitch of 6 dcs from previous row) repeat over stitches for shoulder [4 sets of 9 dcs], sk3, dc, ch3, turn

Repeat previous row until you have 7 v stitch rows.

Bind off

38mins

*make 2*

Joining shoulders with petals

1.       Join yarn on 2^nd player petals, 7 dc from bottom. Sl st 1, ch20, sk2, join with sl st, sl st 2, ch20, sk2, join with sl st, sl st 2, ch20, sk2, join with sl st, sl st 2, turn [3 petals]

2.        First ch20: 10dc over ch, dc into 7^th dc from join on previous row of petals (its hard to explain watch the video), 20dc over chain, sk1, sl st to join at bottom

2^nd ch20: 10dc over ch, join to 10^th dc on previous petal with dc, cont until there are 30dcs over ch in total, sk1, sl st to join at bottom

3^rd ch20: as for 2^nd ch20

45 mins on video

3.       Rejoin yarn on other piece and repeat step 1

4.       1^st ch20: 10dc over ch, dc into 7^th dc from previous row of petals to join as in step 2, 5dc, join to matching dc on other piece  to join both pieces together with sc, continue until there are 30dcs over the ch, sk1, sl st to join at bottom

2^nd ch20: 10 dc, dc into 10^th ch on previous petal to join, 5dc, join to matching dc on other piece to join both pieces together with sc, continue until there are 30dcs in total, sk 1 sl st to join at bottom

3^rd ch20: as for 2^nd ch 20

Sew V stitch shoulders together.

Neck

1.       Rejoin yarn at 1^st dc on 6dcs sets.

2.       Ch5, sk2, dc, ch2, repeat around. Join to 3^rd ch of ch5 with sl st

3.       Sl 1, ch3, *[sc, ch3, dc] into same space, repeat from * around. Sl st into 1^st ch of ch3 to join and bind off

59 mins on video

Join Petal Side

Rejoin yarn on 7^th petal. 1^st dc after join

Ch5, sk2, dc, sk2, dc repeat all the way up to middle of 1^st shoulder petal, ch5, turn

Repeat last row with dc into top of dc from previous row

Bind off leaving long tail

Repeat on other piece

Sew pieces together leaving 20cm for armhole (2 2^nd layer petals)

1:06 on video

Join V stitch side

Measure 20cm and leave open for armhole. Sew together rfom bottom starting at 8dc sets

1:14 on video

Sleeves

Join yarn at underarm seam

Ch5, *sk1, {2dc, ch2, dc] into same space, ch2, sk1, dc, ch2

You should have 8 double v’s

Ch5, double v into space between double v from pervious row, dc in space before single dc

Repeat to desired length

Cuff

Ch5, [3dc, ch2, 3dc] into double v space, ch2, dc into top of dc from previous row

Ch5, [4dc, ch2, 4dc] into double v space, ch2, dc in top of dc from previous row, ch2

Ch5, [5dc, ch2, 5dc] into double v space, ch2, dc in top of dc from previous row, ch2

I used a 4mm hook (or 3 1/4mm can't remember which) and dk acrylic yarn but i think it would've looked better with cotton and thinner yarn. 

Apologies

Well guys, this is my apology post...
I'm sorry I havent been keeping up with my blogs,  have been knitting and crocheting but its been a slow process over the last week or so, plus Ive been busy with allotment and gardening stuff and the usual family stuff with my eldest starting school tomorrow.
As well as that I have had quite a diffcult time health wise over the last week or so. I'm not wiritng this to have anyone feeling sorry for me, but if any of you have or know or anyone who has been diagnosed with the same condition I'm reaching out to you for your experiences and how you control the disease.

6 years ago i was diagnosed with menieres disease. For those of you that don't know its an inner ear condition that causes dizziness, ringing in your ears and hearing loss amongst other things. I have been relatively ok for quite some time with just the odd slight dizzy spell, however over the last week or so its been terrible! I ended up on the floor unable to get up on Monday night and had to phone my dad to come and 'rescue ' me. Since then I've had to take things alot easier. Even walking the short distance to the shop or even down the stairs of our flat has been a challenge. Ive been prescribed some anti dizziness tablets ( Prochlorperazine) [how on earth do the doctors even know how to both pronounce this stuff and spell it!!?!]
I haven't tried them yet (i only got the prescription yesterday and am waiting to pick it up).
In the pasty Ive had Betahistine and some kind of water tablet (i can't remember its name) both of which made me feel worse. I recently googled it and found a guy who also suffered from meneieres who had been taking anti fungal medication with quite some success, however my doctor was unamused with this idea.

So, anyone out there that has any tips or tricks or useful info, please please let me know!
thanks for reading and hopefully back to yarn related posts soon :)
Hayley

Lost in translation

I haven't been keeping up very well with the blig, but I have been doing at least some knitting! I made a couple of sleeveless sweaters for the boys and a sun hat for my youngest, but with the decent weather finally appearing i decided it was time to make myself a summer top!!
After scrolling through pages of patterns on ravelry I finally came across this one blusa de croche, only problem is it's in portuguese and I don't speak a word of it :( Not one to shy away from a challange Ive set about translating it both for my own use and for others as i think this is an awesome pattern!!
Ive never written a pattern before. Ive made plenty of modifications to knitting patterns but never actually made an item of clothing (other than hats or baby booties) with crochet, so this is a first for many different reasons!
Anyway I take absolutely no credit whatsoever for the wonderful pattern and I have probably written the instructions really weird but they are working for me so far and the wonderful lady who designed the pattern has a video which (although i can't understand a word of what she's saying) is super helpful!
so this is what i have so far:

I used a dk yarn and a 3.5mm hook instead of the suggested hook size and yarn weight (i did start one using the reccommended stuff but it looked way too small)
It's a bit wobbly at the moment, I can only imagine its because the pattern uses cotton yarn and I'm using acrylic and once its finished and blocked it will look better. I will of course post a 'tutorial' of sorts with the pattern translated as best as i can undertsand it.

scarf update and chart making method

so heres what i have so far on the Ghibli scarf

 For anyone thats wondering, heres what i have;
From bottom to top
Totoro and mini totoros from My Neighbour Totoro
A soot sprite from both spirited away and my neighbour totoro
the symbol on Nausicaa's dress from Nausicaa and the valley of the wind
no face from spirited away
some small fish for ponyo
the flags from up on poppyhill
jiji from kiki's delivery service
and (not that you'd tell) the start of the mask from princess mononoke

I got the charts for totoro and no face from ravelry, when i post the completed scarf I'll add all the charts i made and links to charts i used.

I discovered an easy way to make knitting charts (i bet someone else has already discovered this but thought i'd share it anyway)
find a image you want to make a chart from (i found most online chart makers either rubbish giving you a blurred image or make the chart the wrong size) copy and paste the image into microsoft publisher.
Resize it if it's too small (also picking an image that is a sillhouette or at least very simple is much easier)
then insert a table. My scarf is 41 sts wide (of course for the double knitting technique there is actually 82sts on my needle to knit the front and back at the same time but you only need one sides amount of sticthes if that makes sense)
the important bit with the table is that you select the entire table and unselect the grow to fit text option. this means you can resize the table to the shape of your chart

once you've done this just move the table over the image, resize making sure the cells on the table are square and not rectangular and then start to fill the cells with the fill tool. It can take a while but its a much easier way than trying to draw it out by hand (in my opinion)
the last thing to remember is make sure you put borders on the table so you can see the squares. I forgot to do this for 2 of mine and had to go back in and add them (which was a pain in the backside and took ages!)

so here are some of the results using the method above!

Robot from castle in the Sky

Marco (or Porco) from Porco Rosso

Turnip head from Howls Moving Castle

I can't wait to get them done on the scarf! I still have quite a list of characters to add and am almost at the end of the first lime green ball of wool (which will be the point at which i turn the characters so they are not upside down when wearing the scarf (i hope). I am guessing that if I do have one way and half the other then it'll work out! But no matter what happens I will share it on here. I am already madly in love with this scarf! I will definitly be knitting another one! Its been hard work and I'm not even half way there yet but every second has been worth it!
Hope you guys enjoyed my little update and feel free to use my charts, just post a photo of your work in the comments for me :)

Scarf #2

Ok so the last post I told you guys about my scarf (my first ever double knitting project) which was full of mistakes, but I loved it! I was going to use the wool from a jumper, but unfortunately I couldn't get the jumper to unravel so I had a (not even half finished) scarf with no wool left :(
Not to be discouraged I started a new one. I used the left over wool I had from a previous project and some I had bought to knit a school jumper for my eldest son.
So here's what I've got so far:

Again please excuse my rubbish photography. It's actually lime green and bottle green.
The last one I half knitted I was unsure of what I was going to do next, but this one I know where I'm going with it, the only problem is it's going to be very very long!
So its no longer a Totoro scarf, it's a Ghibli scarf!
So far I have Totoro, a soot sprite, the symbol from Nausicaa and the valley of the wind and No face from Spirited Away. (although no face is a little creepy I honestly don't think it would have been right not to include him, after all he does end up knitting so had to play a big part in this scarf!)
I have already made up charts for the mask from Princess Mononoke, Jiji from Kikis Delivery service, the catbus from My neighbour totoro and turnip head from Howls moving castle, but I have much more planned. I'm hoping to incorporoate something from all the movies (or at least the ones I've seen) so i still have a fair few to include;

• Ponyo
• Pom Pokko
• Porco Rosso
• Castle in the sky
• the Wind Rises
• Grave of Fireflies (even though I don't really like this film or Ponyo they have to be included I think)
• the cat returns
• Tales from Earthsea
• My neighbours the yamamdas
• from up on poppy hill
• Only yesterday (I haven't got round to watching this uyet but have it in the house)
• whisper of the heart 

so I still have loads to inlcude! How long will this scarf be? I may even have to make up a chart for a fairisle style jumper with all this in just so I can fit it in!
I already figure I need to add some aeroplanes for both porco rosso and the wind rises, I'm thinking a racoon for pom pokko, a small fish for ponyo and some flies (hopefully that look like fireflies) for grave of fireflies and a cat for the cat returns. Maybe even a robot for Castle in the sky but some of the others I'm really struggling with. but hopefully by the time I've caught up with the charts I've already got and made some of the ones that I know I want to make then I'll have thought of somethng for the rest! Who knows!
If you have any suggestions leave me a comment! I'd really appreciate it! And if anyone wants any of the charts I've made or found I'll happily share them!

thanks for reading :)