Winifred...

Please excuse the daggy selfie, but no time for blocking or photo shoots. I have some packing to do. :-) 

What can I say? Even though I made the wrong size, the arms are a little wide, it still looks ok! Winifred..... I LOVE YOU!!! So comfy and yes I will make another in the right size before next winter. The measuring of the boobies went askew. The funny thing is I knew it at the time as I had measured a few days earlier but it went straight over my head. I mean really ones boobies don't grow 2 inches in a couple of days do they? Wishful thinking bahahahaha. I made extra decreases in the arms but they are still a bit baggy. Doesn't matter though. As I said, its comfy.

My mummy says I need to take a break from the knitting. She felt I took on way too much this month. She is probably right, however, one just does not take breaks from the knitting does one? Imagine not playing with yarn for a while. Oh dear!!!!

Excuse me while I go pack my crate for my holidays. I think I have narrowed it down to a crates worth anyway. :-)

Pattern: Winifred by Sezza Knits.

Yarn: Patons Dreamtime 8ply in Aqua. (I used 10 50g balls)


Happy Sunday lovelies. Have a beautiful day! Hugs xoxox

Things that come from keeping yarn in ones bag....

Good morning lovelies, How are you today?

Its a wee bit brisk down here but the the sun is shining in all its glory and I am looking forward to a nice walk along the beach later today.

Yesterday was the first long walk I  managed in a while, it has just been too cold to go far the last couple of weeks. We tried, but the wind was biting so we turned back and enjoyed the scenery from the car. Yesterday I walked with bare feet and tested the water which was slightly warmer than the air but not as warm as the lovely sun. It was enough that once you had walked that little bit you were warm enough to enjoy. So enjoy we did.

I love winter walks on the beach. You often get the whole beach to yourself and this means I might just happen to start singing, skipping along and whilst dreaming up new ideas. LOL Who am I kidding? I am prone to do this even if the beach is crowded. But it was a most loverly walk with only the sound of the ocean for company. The hubby by then had decided to take a run and I don't do run.

I do come up with pattern ideas though. Which reminds me of what I had to show you today. I have not named this one yet and am not sure whether I will write up the pattern or not. Sometimes I like to make what I call Scrappy hats or Happy Hats, hats that come about just because I happened to have been taking walks, going for drives (passenger wise of course) and from having a hook and yarn in ones bag at ALL times. Sometimes I make them up as I go, sometimes I try to take that picture from my head and make it real.

This one is made from Bendigo Woollen Mills Serenade, (which is a merino and bamboo blend) and some Cozy Wool which is a variegated pure wool.  I started with a flower and then went from there.

It was created whilst freezing ones toes off at early morning soccer matches, gazing at the beach on blustery windy days and finished whilst snuggled in front of a warm fire.

Take care lovelies, have a beautiful day. xoxox

Avi-baby......

OK I totally tried...I tried very hard not to cast on anything else...I really did but in my own defence, Winifred is going very well and with one sleeve almost finished.  I thought it was a fine idea to take a break and make something little. Nothing wrong with that yeah?  And I got very enticing mail on Monday and I kept saying "Don't you touch that....don't you dare!!!"

What one gets when ones crappy cheap needles break and ones fluffy yarn snags on the other cheap needles. The internet is dangerous my friends. Too easy to spend money without leaving the house! 

And I totally did not touch that. I kept looking at it and thinking about casting on Summer Strawberries but I refrained and kept on knitting away at Winifred and then I saw several Aviatrix hats pop up in my facebook feed and happened to stop and read one of the posts. Because I do so love an Aviatrix and never get fed up with seeing new ones. :-)

If you are not familiar with the pattern, Aviatrix is a FREE pattern by Justine Turner aka Just Jussi for babies and kids, comes in all sizes, yarn weights and it is a rather unique pattern. I for one, out of curiosity took a little stroll on the internet and was unable to find one just like it.

Sadly, it has been blatantly copied with only a  minor change to detail by French company Phildar and published for sale. (copy here)  A sad occurrence and one that has a lot of people in an uproar on Ravelry. This is a very popular pattern and a very generous freeby as well. Considering how well it is known I am rather surprised they went ahead with it. One would think an established company would know better. (Update: After writing this I read some more info that apparently they have done this to another designer before and basically being in an area with not a whole lot of internet access they appeared to get away with it and take no note to whats being said on Ravelry. A shame.)

 It does have me wondering though, just what is considered right or wrong in the knit/crochet design business. Of course when we hear of something like this, we think it is wrong, however, I have seen many many knitwear designs out there that people claim as their own only to see several practically identical patterns with the same claim. Then there are all those very old books that most may not have seen which also look very very similar to many new designs. There are only so many knitting stitches and as a person who often makes up my own designs as I go along or changes patterns to suit myself it now makes me a little wary of taking the plunge and going into selling them. Of course I would not attempt to sell a pattern that I had changed just slightly it just does not feel right. Yet some people I have spoken to truly believe if you change it by just 10% thats ok. In fact I had a very short but quite heated debate over that certain cardigan that was giving me grief last week when someone suggested I rewrite the pattern myself. Ummm NO. Sure I will do it and make it for myself but I would never pretend to have come up with that design. Its NOT MINE.

I will admit I have seen crochet or knit items in pictures I liked and then went ahead a "made" one myself. I  needed no pattern and maybe I did not make it exactly like the one I saw but still I would not claim the design as my own. The pattern however is my own. I made it up myself using my choice of stitches etc. So where does one draw the line? Hmmmm Lots to think about. Thats for sure.

Anyways, my thoughts have taken me astray from the project at hand. In support of Just Jussi's sad news. And the fact that it is going a little viral right now. There is a KAL on her Ravelry group, a peaceful protesty kind of KAL but all friendly and nice like. If you feel like showing your support and want to knit up a little Aviatrix hat yourself (here is the link to join in). As with most KAL's there is chit chat and even some generous donations of prizes.

My little effort up there ^ is the newborn size in DK. I used about  half a skein each  of Moda Vera Printed Pure Wool and Moda Vera Pure wool in pink. The button is from my Vintage stash. A one off. Its really pretty, the picture does not do it justice.

If I get time I might make another one in a size 1 for a friends little girl. But first......first I must get back to my Winifred. Only 8 more sleeps till my holiday. Yay. What yarn and projects shall I choose to take with me? Oh decisions decisions!!!!!

Peace and love to you my friends. Have a beautiful day! Namaste xoxox

WIP....Winifred.....

Good morning lovelies. I hope you are well. I thought I would give you a quick update on the WIP status today. I am behaving myself and keeping the knitting down to ONE yes you heard me, ONE project. And that is Winifred.

After my joys of that other cardigan the other day. I got as far as knitting up one side of the band and decided to rip it back and put it aside for later consideration. I plan to use a smaller needle and see how it goes but at this stage I do not love the way it looks. Anyway, enough said about that. Today is all about Winifred.

Winifred makes me smile. I LOVE this pattern. Whats not to love? Just like Little Winifred the pattern is well written and easy to follow. I am loving that there is also a tally chart to cross off as you work your cable rows. :-)

The Patons Dreamtime is so soft and knits up really nicely, it slides much better over the metallic needles and thankfully this needle is holding out.

Joyful knitting is so much more fun! Have a beautiful day everyone. After a full day of cleaning yesterday I am off to spend some quality knitting time with my mum. :-)

Love and hugs to all xoxox

WIP Woes and Whimsies........

Autumn Leaves Cardigan....

 Good morning my lovelies, just like the weather outside today....my WIP looks lovely enough but underlying nasties are waiting in store to swallow me up with frustrations.....trialling my patience like you would not believe. And yes that does take a lot. So what's up you ask? Well I shall tell you.

Dare I say it? Normally I would not. Its not nice.....even if it is true. This pattern my friends....its badly written. I have looked at it sideways, read other peoples comments about how nice it was even though they all had to rewrite the pattern to finish it. Of course I assumed they had changed it to fix the shape or something. Not one person pointed out the obvious, that it was not written properly in the first place!

The first thing I noticed was there was no +1 added to the pattern repeat. So the first leaf  is not perfect like the rest of them. You have 310 stitches on the needles and the pattern panel works over 10. As I was in a bit of a hurry and did not fancy pulling back the 8 rows or so to add it in, I just kept going. After all it did not look too bad. Next up we decrease in the garter stitch section and of course then the patterns don't line up and we are left with extra stitches on one end. I am not so sure about the logic of the amount of stitches decreased or about the way they are position. After pulling it back and trying to work it out several times I ended up just winging it and trying to line the leaves up with the middle stitch. This meant I now had odd middle stitches along the way. So some had a gap of one and some a gap of 2 stitches to even it out. This pretty much did my head in. I am so fussy about such things but no amount of refitting was going to sort that out. But it did explain one persons decision to take out a whole leaf section and spread them out a little more. Sigh.

I am chalking it up to one of "those" projects. I have to wonder though when patterns are published like this, do they even test them first? Someone should be testing every size and if the pattern is not laid out completely perhaps it should be mentioned in the beginning of the pattern so at least you are aware that you will need to have a bit of experience to complete the pattern. I would have to say that this pattern would be so disappointing to a beginner knitter. It is so easy to start with and honestly you would have thought great pattern. I did. I have always been of the philosophy that if something is free don't complain. However, one still spends a lot of time an effort and of course the cost of the yarn. So pretty disappointing if you get this far and have to frog your work.

So why am I whinging? Why don't I just fix it already? Oh I am just in a whingy mood today. I was hoping to get this finished asap so I could work on my Winifred. I wanted to take this one on holidays with me and sure this is still possible. However, its frustrating me all the same. I hate rushing things, I don't like that I have to fiddle with the pattern every 2nd row and it still is not coming out the best. In all honesty I would probably rather pull back that pattern panel and re-write the whole thing but I don't have the time. So yeah......I seem to have lost the LOVE for this one.

So why am I sticking with it you may be wondering, well Winifred had a little mis-hap too....not her fault at all, and thankfully I had a stitch holder handy when it happened......

And of course both projects require the same size needle and I don't happen to have a 3rd one amongst my gazillion needles. At this point I have been ogling all those fancy expensive sets online but really cannot justify the money spending at this stage. Its nice to dream though right?

OK enough energy expended on the whinging... Time for this princess to suck it up and get on with the day. :-) I plan to torture my weary body with some extreme yoga, do a little house cleaning and then tackle this baby head on! I can do it! I can! I need those needles for Winifred!!!!!!!!  Only 17 more sleeps till holiday time. Woo Hoo!

Todays Mantra:  "Let if go...Let it go...." Ok nope thats just annoying..... "I can do it, the rest of the pattern comes naturally and easily to me, I finish it with joy! Yes I do!"

Blessed BE....

Have a beautiful day my friends.  Love and hugs to you. xoxoxxoox

FO Friday

Just for something different in my daily adventures.....I designed a hat to go with the Sequin Lace Amour Scarf.....

I was making the scarf for a swap partner and had some yarn left over from the skein so thought a hat was in order as well.

I have written up the pattern but will not publish it till I make the second version which will be a little less flowery. A friend suggested I make two versions so those who desire a little less frill can still benefit from the pattern. Due to time limits at the moment it will have to wait till after my holidays have been and gone. After all, I have a Winifred to knit. :-)

Love and Light to you xoxox

Whats on the needles? Whats off the hook?

Last week I made a promise to myself that I would NOT join in any more swaps, do any more test knits or join in any more KAL/CAL's as we are counting down the days to our yearly holiday and I want to plan something fun to take (LOL Last year I took a whole crate of yarn along). With this NOTness on my mind I decided that this month's knitting would be all about me. Because really I can't just NOT knit can I? Yes I shall make myself something. I had 3 balls of Bendigo Woollen Mills Stellar in Agate which I was dying to try and with much searching and deliberation over patterns I decided to go with Autumn Leaves by Janine Le Cras.

So far so good. Its all a bit boring really. A lot of plain old stocking stitch and I had laugh at other comments on Rav which pretty much summed it up as well. It all pretty much looks like this...although the colour is not quite this dull....

I managed to finish the body and 1 and half sleeves before I caved. Sezza is hosting a KAL you see, and my will power took a beating as I was getting fed up with all that stocking stitch and I have been wanting to make some socks AND of course a Winifred. You know I love those Little Winifreds and I have been wanting one for myself for ages.

Going to admit it took me about 2 seconds to talk myself into it and buy a copy of Winifred and Summer Strawberries.   After all I did have all this lovely yarn that needed using up even if the Poems sock yarn did not quite suit the pattern. I honestly thought I would cast on the socks and that would be my KAL project and the Winifred could go on holidays with me.

My needle situation thought otherwise and decided for me....snag snag snag... went the yarn and all it did was fuzz up as I tried to manoeuvre it along those toothpicks that are supposed to be needles......sigh.... I can feel a shopping trip coming on. I can.






For now however, I gave up and casted on for Winifred. Very optimistic and not sure I can get it done in just two weeks but hey you never know. I will not stress over it. I intend to enjoy it all....

Even if it does mean a whole lot more stocking stitch....LOL...... Thats ok, Since I took this picture I have  started the cable panel so its not so boring now.....

And the yarn is nice and squishy soft. Patons Dreamtime which I seem to have a whole lot of in my stash. :-)    If you would like to join in the KAL, you can find it over here. There are some pattern discounts too if you have been thinking of purchasing a Sezza pattern, now is a good time.

Now I must way and get some work done. Here is another one of those little Angel Pinafores and matching hat that I finished yesterday to leave you with a little something finished to look at. Have a great day all.

Hugs and smoochies xoxoxoxxo

Cute much?

This is another test knit I did recently for Erin of Mymymy Knitting.....its called Bliss Bomb and is a plain tunic style top knitted in 8ply cotton. The pattern itself comes without the heart design shown in the pattern picture but Erin is working on having that added.  She has linked to a graph for those who wish to add them.  We decided to add some crocheted flowers instead this time. A quick and relatively simple pattern with an I-cord through the top. 

The pattern is also available in a 10ply version on Ravelry. 

My thoughts? Cute, very cute! :-) 

Tuesdays Ta-dah.....Shavo

Well almost, its going to need a few changes but that will have to wait. I am going to show you anyway because it did turn out just as the pattern said and I think it looks mostly ok, but he who shall not show his head in the pictures was concerned about the lumpiness under the arms.

Not that it is entirely noticeable from the front but I do admit it does have quite a bit of room under there and the yarn is rather thick and heavy. In fact looking from the other side, there it all is....the arms are ridiculously wide in the top section considering the width of the chest and shoulders. I did stick to the pattern though for once in my life. haha.

So back to the drawing board to fix it up I shall go. Just because I am a nice wife and all. ;-) It measures up exactly to size of his favourite sweater, however, that one is a much thinner yarn so does not bunch up. Le sigh.   I am thinking I will undo the whole top of the sleeves and leave out the pattern panel. Perhaps making them it a little narrower as well. What do you think?

Pattern:  Shavo (a free pattern by Berroco)
Yarn: Bendigo Woollen Mills Classic 12 ply (colour 609 Aztec)