A week in the life: 19th February 2017

This week has been... nice. Not the most descriptive word, but definitely the right one. Nothing earth-shattering has happened, the children have been playing nicely together and the sun has shone. I even managed to get away with washing my winter coat and not freezing for the couple of days that it needed to dry.

I've been working hard on my sock yarn blanket, which hasn't seen much (possibly any) action since Christmas. I realised the reason I'd been stalling on it was that I had added a bright orange square during the last session, and was about to add a neon yellow one. Neither are my favourite colours, and I think I was a little upset by the change in colour balance of the section I was working on. So I got out my advent bags and played around with the order I was going to add the next few balls in. Somehow I managed to find an arrangement that made me happy, but that still allowed me to add the colours in the order they'd be drawn in (and no, I can't remember which colours were for which day; there are too many and I've shuffled them too much!). I'm hoping to get to the end of the Day 16 bag by the end of the weekend and will have a nicely squared-off section to work on next time I pick it up.

While working on some new designs I've been playing around with short rows and have picked up two handy new skills in the process: German short rows and knitting backwards. I have used the wrap and turn method for short rows previously and it works, but requires some concentration to ensure you don't miss the wraps when you're working back, otherwise you end up with holes. German short rows are a game-changer as far as I'm concerned. I find them much less hassle to work, and they're obvious when you're working back. I can't show you what I've been working on, but am certain German short rows will feature in a new design in the not-too-distant future. Knitting backwards is something I have been meaning to try for a while: when I'm working my sock yarn blanket I get annoyed turning the work every few stitches towards the end of the square. I had tried it a few times, but ended up with stocking stitch instead, which wasn't the plan. And suddenly (whilst driving to one of my kid's swimming lessons) it clicked - to get a knit row when working from the front, the action is more purl than knit. And it works! No more turning the work when I'm only working on a few stitches, hooray!

This coming week is half term, so we have lots of exciting things planned (my five year old wrote a list). I have also booked my train tickets to go to Edinburgh for a day in March to visit Edinburgh Yarn Festival. I had hoped that I would be able to go, but could only guarantee that this week. Unfortunately advance purchase tickets have sold out, so I'm going to have to gamble on getting a ticket on the door. Wish me luck - the event is looking like it could be rather busy if my Instagram feed is anything to go by!

I hope you've all had lovely weeks. What have you been up to?

A much-needed palate cleanser

After yesterday's indecision about what to work on I spent the evening sat on the sofa adding a few squares to my sock yarn blanket and watching A Series of Unfortunate Events on Netflix (which I adore; I loved How I Met Your Mother and was genuinely sad when I watched the final episode. A Series of Unfortunate Events stars Neil Patrick Harris (who played Barney in How I Met Your Mother) as one of the central chartacters, and I can't help thinking of A Series of Unfortunate Events as The Barney Show. In any case, I love watching A Series of Unfortunate Events!).

Today I feel refreshed and have cast on the sock I was procrastinating over. It's going well, and matches my nails beautifully!

An extra happy-thing at the minute is the current book I am reading: Bill Bryson's The Road to Little Dribbling. I read my first Bill Bryson book in my teens, and have read many more over the years. The book is a travelogue covering Bryson's trip along the longest straight-line route you can take along the length of Great Britain and I am really enjoying his descriptions of the places he visits.

Linking up with Ginny for Yarn Along.

Christmas countdown 2016: Days twenty to twenty-two

Day twenty

A lovely relaxed day with family. I even managed to fit in some knitting on my sock yarn blanket, and somehow knitted an entirely green square from what, at the end of the square, looked like a purple ball of wool. I'm pretty sure this makes me a magician (though I am a little miffed that the purple didn't make it to the square - the purple and green makes me think of Spring, which is very welcome at this time of year)!

The advent calendars might have given me their best day yet! I love everything that came out, and can't wait to add Day Twenty to my blanket.

Day twenty-one

The shortest day, although with children that just means the shortest period of time available to let them run around outside... I finally got round to putting on my Christmas nails (these are Tinsel Time by Jamberry; they're nail wraps, sold via independent consultants, I buy mine from http://samfindlay.jamberry.com/uk, run by Sam, who is a friend in real life). It's the first time I've put on a whole set of Jamberry wraps (I normally do a couple of accent nails with nail varnish on the other nails), and a couple of the wraps could have been applied better, but the overall effect is great, and I can knit while I wear them, so I will use them again.

I also did some knitting on the Christmas socks I started in November; while I did knit a couple of stripes on them, they're definitely not going to be done by Christmas, oops.

Another good day from the advent calendars, although the lack of light did result in a slightly blurry photo, which I didn't notice until I made the photo bigger this morning, sorry!

Day twenty-two 

It's still early as I write this, but I have a good day ahead: I am off to see school-friends for coffee this afternoon and get to meet my friend's (who lives in Australia, but is over in the UK for a couple of months during her maternity leave) daughter, who is 8 months old, I can't wait!

My daughter has loved having access to all the jigsaw puzzles at my parents house, so we've already completed one this morning (fortunately not too big - we've hidden anything with more than 54 pieces).

Today the advent calendars yielded a bonus surprise: two tokens from my son's Batman car. I had noticed my daughter poking about with the Paintbox Yarns box, and that a couple of the doors had been disturbed, but not that she had made additions! It made me smile, so I thought I'd share. A bit of a mixed bag of colours, and I love them all individually, although maybe not together. I do finally have some red from the Paintbox Yarns calendar, so whatever I make from the yarn will look more festive!

I found one festive treasure at my parent's house, a cd my sister played on a loop over one Christmas (and I've no idea what the B-side was, so I suspect she played just the one song on a loop), and a song I'm pretty sure I can sing in it's entirety now, many, many years later: I Want an Alien for Christmas by Fountains of Wayne. I'm saving it for the car journey home, it might amuse the kids for a bit. Or drive us up the wall!

What plans do you have for the next couple of days? Are you all ready for Christmas?

Christmas countdown 2016: Days eleven to fourteen

Day eleven  

I could have sworn I had written a post for the eleventh, but apparently not. I think I spent it frantically knitting the rainbow hoodie, which is written to be rather long, so took longer than expected (and why do hoods always take more time to knit than I think they should?!).

Some slightly meh colours (read too orange for my liking) from the Opal and Paintbox Yarns advent calendars, but the blue rainbow yarn is beautiful, and I'm very much looking forward to adding it to the blanket.

Day twelve

Monday was the crazy day in the lead up to Christmas with the nursery party and the school show. I was also meant to be at my work Christmas dinner, but decided from the start that the day would be too busy if I tried to get to that as well! I also managed to whizz through some sewing of last minute gifts to people I was seeing at my Monday night knitting group. Phew! I did get to have a nice relaxing knit in the pub in the evening though, which was lovely, and I managed to get a bit more knitting done on my sock yarn blanket, so am not quite so far behind.

And I finished the rainbow hoodie, just in time to pass on to its recipient on Monday morning!

The advent calendars handed my some crazy clashing colours, including the most neon neon yarn I have ever seen. And it's sparkly! Not totally sure that one will end up in the blanket...

So neon you can see it through the bag!

Day thirteen

A much quieter day: a morning to myself to get on with some non-festive pattern writing (though the deadline is Christmas day!) and start knitting a sample. And coffee in peace!

I loved all the colours from the advent calendars - isn't the festive yarn from Felt Fusion beautiful? I won it in a competition in the summer and have been saving it for Christmas. And just for Sara Roberts, here are all my Paintbox yarns colourways in one photo. I hadn't realised quite what an assortment I have (Sara, do yours look better slung into a pile - I tried laying mine out in order and they looked rather drab), and still haven't decided what I'm going to make from them, but I'm starting to think that I'm going to wait until they're all out of the box and make something wonderfully coordinated for next Christmas.

Day fourteen

My final child-free day before Christmas, so I have spent this morning frantically trying to finish writing the Christmas cards written and get anything that needs to go in the post wrapped (largely unsuccessfully, fortunately our Post Office is in a shop and is open until late). I have also stitched the final two Christmas presents that needed doing, so I'm feeling pretty on top of things at the minute.

Today's advent calendar colours are lovely. Nicely coordinated! I added the Paintbox Yarns ball to my Advent Kilner jar, and might have to find an alternative display system for the yarn, the jar is full!

What's everyone else been up to over the past few days? Is all the Christmas prep done?

Christmas countdown 2016: Days four–six

Day four

Some pretty bright yarns from my sock yarn advent calendars, and I finally got to go to the cinema (late on day three) to watch Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which I had been very excited about going to see. Unfortunately it didn't quite live up to my (excessively high) expectations, with not quite enough plot to fill the length of the film, but it did look very impressive. I might go back and re-watch all the Harry Potter films over Christmas to reminisce.

Day five

A really very cold day. There was frost on the ground when we woke up, and it was still there when we went to bed! I also had to brave the Metro Centre to get the last of the purchased presents bought, which is never fun in December, but is at least better on a Monday during the day that it is at the weekend.

Day six

I had coffee with Lucy (lucylocketpocket1 on Instagram) this morning, and managed to get some more squares added to my sock yarn blanket. I have now completed the knitting for day four, so am only a couple of days behind; anything is better than nothing! She also gifted me a couple of DPN cosies that she'd made so that my needles do not escape while they're in my bag.

My Paintbox Yarns Advent Calendar finally gave me a bright colour! Not that I know what I'm doing with all the tiny balls. At the minute they're looking rather pretty in a Kilner jar.

I finally feel like I'm making some progress on my Christmas knitting. This cardigan has to be done by Monday, and I have two hats to do for the weekend; I suspect this is not possible! The bright cardigan is an excellent antedote for the dull weather today - I took the photo of the advent calendar bits at about 4pm, and the light had totally gone.

What's everyone else been up to this week?

Christmas countdown 2016: Days two and three

Welcome to days two and three of my Christmas countdown 2016!

Day two

Yesterday the advent calendars offered up some more yarn (obviously), I particularly like the one from the Opal advent calendar, pink and the turquoise end of blue is one of my favourite colour combinations. And I have managed to stay on top of the square knitting. Not that I'm using the whole of each ball from either sock yarn advent calendar, which means I'll still be adding yarn from them to the sock yarn blanket well into the new year. I still haven't decided what I'm doing with the Paintbox Yarns calendar, but I think I might try knitting a wreath around a polystyrene ring, maybe.

I'm certain I won't keep up with two squares a day, especially as I have Christmas gifts that I haven't even cast on (and the recipients know about them, so I can't not make them), but I should be able to manage one. I'm also hoping to knit a hat for the Giftalong, using something from my stash, but that might not happen until after Christmas.

We went to Durham Christmas Market yesterday, as Friday is always the quietest day, but it was more stressful than festive as it was already busy, and I couldn't find parking close enough to town to make it to our swimming lesson on time, and I was a little annoyed at missing it. I did manage to pick up our Christmas pudding, from Proof of the Pudding; my husband loves Christmas pudding, and this one is his favourite, so all was not lost.

I was also very lucky to receive some mini skeins from Mothy and the Squid in the post yesterday as an early Christmas gift.* I am in love with the green one; I might have to send in a request for a custom order after Christmas. The skeins will be added to my sock yarn blanket, but not until after Christmas (and by the 25th I might not want to do anything on the blanket for a bit, so possibly not until Spring!).

The other thing I found yesterday was my stash of books I'd been saving for Christmas. As you can see, they are defintiely top-quality literature, but I couldn't resist the combination of Christmas and knitting. I'll let you know how I get on with them.

Day three

Today we went to see Santa, so I was very relieved to get my son's Rudi jumper finished. This is now the largest size, and it should fit for the next couple of years, but I might need to revisit the pattern over the next 12 months and add a few larger and smaller sizes, I might even go as big as adult size, if there's enough demand (or I decide I want one; at least I'll only have to knit it once and be able to wear it for years!).

And here are today's treats from behind the advent calendar doors. My son helped me open them today as he asked very nicely last night if he could help.

Hope everyone has had a good couple of days, and I'll be back in a day or two to continue with my Christmas countdown.

*The skeins were donated to me for free; any opinions given are my own.

Christmas countdown 2016: Day one

This year is the first time in ages I have been really excited about Christmas; there are several factors in this: (1) I have finally finished everything to do with my PhD, so I don't have that hanging over me; (2) my son is at an age where he is really excited about Christmas and it's rubbing off on me, and (3) I have three yarny advent calendars to open over December!

The first Advent calendar is one that I made for myself using all the mini skeins I have lying around my house. There are also some little sweet treats in there, woo! All the skeins from this calendar will be added to my sock yarn blanket.

The second Advent calendar is the Painbox Yarns Advent Calendar, which I won at the The Flock party I went to at the start of November. It contains 24 little (10g) balls of Paintbox Yarns DK, and I still haven't decided what I'm going to do with them; they are really cute as they are though, so as a temporary measure I'm going to put them in a Kilner jar, and if I totally run out of time I'll thread them all onto a long piece of yarn and hang them as bunting! If they're lucky I might manage to knit or crochet them into cute mini stockings for the Christmas tree.

The third Advent calendar is a bonus. Last weekend Love Knitting discounted their Opal Advent Calendars, and while I didn't think I could quite justify it, my husband did by buying it for me. It is HUGE! And my son is very interested in the box, so it might have to be hidden in a couple of days to avoid probing fingers. The calendar contains twenty-four 15g balls of Opal sock yarn, so they're also going to be added to my sock yarn blanket (which will be almost doubling in size this month if I keep up).

Here's day one, look at all the lovely yarn.

I also have lots of other knitty plans for December, including finishing my son's Christmas jumper, which just needs a couple more seams, pupils and a neckline. Should be done in time to see Santa at the weekend.

Does anyone else have a yarn advent calendar? Or some other exciting calendar? I have seen candle, tea and stationery options this year (I would have loved the stationery one when I was small)!

*This post contains affiliate links, please see the Disclaimers and policies page for more information.*

My DIY yarn advent calendar

Yesterday I told you about my slow-growing sock yarn blanket, and today I'm going to tell you about my DIY yarn advent calendar, which should help the blanket grow over December, and give me a little much-needed time out during what can be a rather busy month.

I have lots of mini skeins stashed all over the place, so at the weekend I brought them all together and chose 24 to make into an advent calendar. The choice was fairly arbitrary as I'm going to make sure I have at least a couple of positions in the advent calendar open at any particular time to give me a few options on where to put the yarn for a given day. I'm sure it'll all fit together somehow! I also purchased some chocolates for the calendar - chocolate coins and Malteser reindeer, both festive favourites of mine - some pink and white striped paper bags (5 x 7 inches, readily available on eBay) and some festive number stickers from Hobbycraft.

Putting the calendar together was simple: put a skein in each bag until the pile of skeins was all gone, add some chocolates to each bag, then stick the number stickers on the bags, sealing the bags in the process. The bags were all then glamorously thrown in a carrier bag and hidden away until the end of November (I might upgrade them to a Santa sack at the end of the month, or even hang them in the living room on a washing line for all to see).

I'm not totally certain I will keep up with the advent calendar - it's been a long time since an advent calendar held my interest beyond about December 12th - especially as I also have the Paintbox yarns advent calendar to work through in December, but I will try my hardest to keep up!

My sock yarn blanket

Last year I started knitting socks, and every time I finished a pair, I added the spare yarn to a little bag, which rapidly had to be upgraded to a bigger bag, which was stashed in a cupboard for later use. I didn't think about the bag of leftovers very much. I am someone who likes to make projects with very organised colour selections, often with large quantities of a few carefully selected colours, so scrappy socks didn't appeal, nor did knitting and stuffing huge numbers of hexipuffs to make into a quilt. And then I joined Instagram and every few days someone would post a photo of their sock yarn blanket project. 

Apparently the idea stuck, and in January, I started browsing the internet for sock yarn blankets, settling on Tikki's mitred square pattern. The pattern can be worked across any number of stitches, and I had decided that I wanted to use as close as possible to 5 g of yarn per square, so cast on 2 stitches in my favourite sock yarn (Twilight Rainbow by Cuddlebums, on Donegal sock) and worked from the corner, increasing rather than decreasing at the centre until I had used just under 5 g of yarn; there were 42 stitches on the final row, which I cast off, then I picked up and cast on the 42 stitches for the next square.

The project is not a quick one. Squares are added erratically, often five will be added over two days, then none for a month, and at the time of writing, the blanket has 57 squares. I do love working on the blanket though. It's different to everything else I knit, and it gives me a chance to play with different colours of yarn and see how one shade affects another.

The one possible drawback of knitting the blanket is that it gives me a reason to buy mini skeins, which I hadn't considered buying before I started the blanket as I had no use for them, and they have a habit of accumulating! So this year, I have made myself a yarny advent calendar, featuring a mini skein to be knitted into the blanket every day. I'll tell you more about that tomorrow.