Keep on going...

The Snuggle Blanket has reached that stage. You know, the stage where you know you must be making progress cuz the yarn is being used up, but you're still way off from the finish line.

So I thought I'd take some pics for my own sanity's sake. So I can actually see the progress myself.

Each row is now 70 shells across - that's 210 trebles in each and every row.

Still, I can see how I'm getting on now, and I know that soon it will be decrease time.

Despite all that negative sounding stuff, I do actually love this blanket! I find the colours quite addictive, and I'm really pleased with the overall look.

Plus it's another Christmas present in the pipeline, which has to be a good thing. :-)

Cloth-mania - again

I've been busy knitting various smaller projects recently, including a couple of my own new designs for washcloths.

First is the Modustar Cloth - cheesy name or what?!

It's done in bias-edged squares joined up as for modular knitting, to give a star shape when finished.

Very simple, but effective - and using just 1 ball of cotton.

Watch out for the free pattern coming very soon!

I'll post it here and on Ravelry (as Six Skeins of course).

The other cloth is a spin-off from the His and Hers washcloths that I designed.

A third washcloth for the set simply covered in hearts, as requested by a Ravelry test-knitter.

I'll also put this free pattern up soon.

Here it is pre-blocked, but you get the idea.

I've used an odd ball of Rowan Handknit Cotton for this one with 4mm needles.

It comes out smaller but still perfectly formed!

Christmas FO

The first Christmas present is done!

I finally seamed the Cashmerino Baby Shrug and added a double crochet flower embellishment to use up the last few remaining yards of yarn.

That yarn is so smooshy and lovely that I didn't want to waste an inch of it.

Here is the intended recipient (my sweet little niece), when she came to visit with her family almost 2 weeks ago (wow, where did that go?!).

As you can see, she's in the stage where she is fascinated with labels - I remember mine being like that.

We had a great time all together; it was lovely to have my family here as it was the first time they've visited since we moved here 20 months ago.

We had fantastic weather too - good enough for ice-creams and sandcastle-building on the beach! A little weird for October but much welcomed after this summer's rain.

Uninterrupted knitting!

Had a lovely day today with some fellow knitters at the Watering Hole in Perranporth. 4 hours of uninterrupted fibrey-fun!

I forgot to take my camera of course, but I did make a good start on my latest project - a simple ribbed cashmere cowl.

I'm using Knitting Goddess 4ply hand-dyed cashmere yarn (yum!) and double rib to make a simple neck-warming accessory in the Purl Bee style for a Christmas present.

There should be enough left for a similar item for me too - but mine with be a more lacy affair I think. Maybe something along these lines.

Stalled

This week has flown past with no progress on anything craft-related other than house tidying in preparation for my relatives visiting this weekend.

It's a good thing though as it meant I had to sort out my project pile which was threatening to take up as much space as another armchair. There still seem to be too many projects, but the no-further-than-a-swatch ones have been sent home to the stash mountain, and the others have been neatly packed into the remaining bags. For now anyway.

There has been a minute amount of progress on the Snuggle blanket, probably last weekend. The only reason I know is because it looks different to the last WIP picture! I have been carrying it around with me every day, but even work lunch-breaks have been busy with other far less exciting activities.

Never mind. My family will be here for the next 4 days or so, then I should get some crafting time next week. Fingers crossed anyway!

Christmas knitting!

Yes, it's true - I've nearly finished a Christmas knitting project. I didn't mean to do it. I wasn't actually thinking about Christmas; I just needed an easy project on a circular needle to do whilst travelling on a coach, and this leapt to mind.

I had planned to do this project at some point, just not yet. So much so that I'd added it to my Ravelry queue and even bought the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran while it was on sale at Stash Yarns.

And now I'm so glad I did. What a great project! It's the Debbie Bliss Baby Shrug in size 9-12 months. This was featured as a free pattern for a while on the Prima website (and probably in the printed magazine too). It doesn't seem to be in the listed patterns now but I found it via Google here.

It's quick, easy, gorgeously smooshy in the cashmerino yarn, and so very cute. Plus there's very little seaming to do - bonus!

That's all I need to do now to finish off this little beauty, then Christmas Present Number 1 is good to go.

Oh, it's for my lovely little niece by the way, who is coming to Cornwall to visit us with her brother, mom and dad (i.e. my brother) this weekend coming. I can't wait!