FO Friday: Twinkle, twinkle little star

Last December (or maybe the one before!), in the midst of my frenzied gift knitting, I decided that I wanted to make something for me. Earlier this year, my husband picked up a new sideboard with glass-fronted cabinets in the top half for our living room, and as soon as I saw them I knew that during the Christmas period they would look lovely with a simple garland of stars hung across the fronts.

I considered knitting the stars, but I’m not a big fan of knitting small fiddly things, especially when you have to make several of them; as far as I’m concerned, projects like these are what crochet is made for. After browsing many, many patterns (both for stars and snowflakes) on Ravelry, I stumbled across One Dog Woof’s crocheted star ornament pattern via Instagram, where someone had crocheted individual stars to put on Christmas cards (a lovely idea, and one I would consider copying if I ever have time!).

The pattern is nice and straightforward, and I worked up the first star pretty quickly (definitely under half an hour). I even managed to work a magic loop for the first time (I have tried before, but it has always eluded me). Within a couple of hours I had quite a pile of stars. I’m not going to claim they are all perfect, they are absolutely not - I kept misreading the pattern, or not quite putting the hook in the right place, but once they’re all displayed en masse, you really can’t tell. After about seven, I had memorised the pattern, and I’m sure that a proficient crocheter could memorise the pattern much faster! I ended up with 13 stars, which I threaded onto thin silver ribbon, looping the ribbon back on itself at the joins between the stars so they didn’t slip.

What yarn did I use? Paintbox Yarns Metallic DK in the colourway Martini.* Paintbox Yarns launched this yarn at the end of the summer/early autumn, and it immediately made me think of Christmas decorations, even though it’s marketed as a summer yarn. The yarn has a chainette construction, which is lovely and smooth, and half the yarn is metallic and the other half plain (white in the Martini colourway). The yarn has a shimmer to it rather than a full-on sparkle, but I really liked that. I held the yarn double for my stars, and while it crocheted smoothly, I did have to use quite a lot of moisturiser on my hands otherwise the dry bits of my skin would catch on the plies within the chains. Overall I was pleased with the yarn, and holding it double gave a subtly marled effect that is festive without being too blingy.

I finished my garland of stars in plenty of time for Christmas, but what with one thing and another I never quite got round to hanging them properly, so instead they were laid across the front of the sideboard for the whole of Christmas. I’ve put them away now, along with the hooks I bought to hang them (then mislaid repeatedly...), so hopefully the stars will occupy their proper position next year!

Pattern: One Dog Woof’s crocheted star ornament pattern

Yarn: Paintbox Yarns Metallic DK*
Ravelry project page**

*Supplied for review purposes. Affiliate link.

**Ravelry link. May cause issues for people with photosensitivity.

FO Friday: Paintbox Yarns Socks (review)

A few months ago Paintbox Yarns got in touch with me to ask if I would like to test drive their latest yarn: Paintbox Yarns Socks.* Paintbox Yarns have been producing yarn since last year, and pride themselves on supplying affordable yarns in a huge variety of colours across a range of yarn weights, but Paintbox Yarns Socks is their first foray into sock yarns. As I love knitting socks, and have liked the other Paintbox Yarns that I have tried, of course I said yes!

As with the other Paintbox Yarns, the new sock yarn comes in lots of colour options. The range is made up of 28 colours, divided into 4 families: mock-fairisle, pixel (which look a little bit like a uniform speckled yarn), stripes (including both graduated and distinct colourways), and Zebra stripes. I was allowed to choose any colour from the range and went for one of the defined stripe colourways (specifically because the colours reminded me of the Doctor Who scarf).

Top to bottom: Stripes, Pixel, Zebra. Images copyright Paintbox Yarns.

My first impression of the yarn was good. The yarn is a 75% wool, 25% nylon blend, and is smoothly spun. The yarn isn't as soft as a merino, but not as scratchy as West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4ply, which is my go-to for socks, especially if I want stripes. I'd say the feel of the yarn is very similar to the sock yarns produced by Regia and Opal. Each ball of yarn is 390 m (427 yds), which is enough to knit socks for all but the largest of feet.

My knitting experience with the yarn was good. The stripes are uniform widths and the colours have been selected such that there is good contrast between adjacent stripes. Each repeat in the colourway I tested has 8 colours, which is on the generous side; I really enjoyed seeing each stripe emerge as I knitted, and the yarn got lots of admirers as I knitted at various knitting groups. While the joins between the stripes are clean, there are some colour spots on some of the stripes, but I don't think that on this occassion they detract from the yarn, but that might be something to look out for. The yarn was smooth throughout the ball, and I didn't find any knots. I've worn my finished socks a couple of times and they feel good on my feet - the yarn is sufficiently squishy that I can't feel every purl bump, and I think it will wear well.

The yarn is designed to be easy to care for, and is machine washable at 40 degrees, so I think this would be a good yarn to knit gift socks with, so long as you can trust the recipient not to tumble dry them. The yarn costs £8.79 per ball, which is about what I'd expect for the quality of yarn.

I do have a couple of comments on the colour range. The range is good, with several masculine options, which is always nice to see. I love the animal stripes, but think Paintbox Yarns has missed a trick by not having a tiger colourway.  I was also a little disappointed that there were only three solid stripe colourways, but only because I love stripes.

If you fancy giving the yarn a go, you can buy it here.* If you want to make socks that match mine you'll need the Summer Vacation colourway. I'll defintely be knitting more socks with this yarn. I think I'll try the Zebra stripes next.

Thanks for reading. What's your favourite sock yarn?

This yarn was supplied by Paintbox Yarns for review purposes. All opinions are my own. Unless otherwise stated, the photos in this post are (C) Vikki Bird.

Ravelry project page
Yarn: Paintbox Yarns Socks in Summer Vacation*

*Affiliate link.

Yarning Along: Record socks

This time last week I was one a half socks into a four sock deadline. Did I make the deadline? Well, sort of! Somehow, through some serious speed knitting, I managed to get both pairs of socks completed by the end of the party (yes, that does mean I was still working on them when we arrived). I think these socks deserve a post of their own, which I'm going to save for FO Friday, but here they are in all their giftwrapped glory!

Having finished my gift socks, I am back to the autumnal socks I gave you a sneak peak of last week. The yarn is Paintbox Yarns sock yarn,* which will be available from Love Knitting** by the end of the month. I'm going to give these socks a full post to themselves when I review the yarn, so keep an eye out for that, but for now, just enjoy those beautiful stripes.

This week has felt long and we're only on Wednesday. The party we went to at the weekend was in Cambridge, which is a very long way from Durham, and we only spent one night there, so we spent a lot of time in the car. It was worth it though as we managed to catch up with friends, spending the afternoon walking round the parkland at Wimpole Hall, which was gloriously autumnal, before having dinner with my sister and her family, followed by drinks with just my sister after our children were safely asleep in bed. We nipped into Cambridge very briefly on the Sunday morning to show the city off to my brother in law who had never visited, and my son, who is currently studying the Tudors at school, was very excited to see all the Tudor buildings in the city centre. I spent three years living in Cambridge and it is one of my favourite places, so I was delighted to be back, even if it was only for an hour. The party itself was wonderful. I met many of my mum's relatives who I hadn't seen in years, and some that I had never met. The party was held in one of the Cambridge colleges, and the kids loved exploring the gardens and chasing the squirrels.

Yesterday I went into town to queue to get tickets for the Lumiere Festival, a biannual festival held in Durham city centre. I've been to all previous events and am looking forward to it again this year. Some of the event is held on the Durham peninsular, and tickets are required to enter that area between 4.30pm and 7.30pm on festival days. Having been to all the previous years, I know how busy the event can be outside these hours, when access becomes unrestricted and the area becomes very crowded, and as tickets are free queuing for them yesterday morning as soon as they became available seemed like the only sensible option. I ended up queueing for an hour, which was actually a bit less time than I expected. I took a book (I can't knit while standing up, I'm not sure I've shared that here before!) and read my way round the queue! I'm still reading Autumn by Ali Smith, and while I am not disliking it, I am unsure of where it's going and what its conclusion will be. Also, the book has no speech marks to indicate when someone is talking, which is annoying!

As ever, linking up with Rachel for Yarning Along. What are you crafting on and reading this week?

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Don't forget, I'm currently running a competition for my blog's first birthday. More details can be found here.

*Yarn provided by Paintbox Yarns for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
**Affiliate link.

Christmas countdown 2016: Days fifteen to nineteen

Hey there December, could you please SLOW DOWN a little! Having said that, I am starting to get into the holiday spirit a little (probably helped by my children being rather excited!).

Day fifteen

An utterly un-festive day, occupied by routine appointments and things that need to be out of the way before everything slows down for Christmas. I did manage to get the final few Christmas cards written though, which is always good!

More crazy combinations from the advent calendars: the Opal one seems to produce a lot of shades of orange, which is my least favourite colour (probably, that might be reserved for brown...). I do like the purple and the speckled yarn though, and am still enjoying opening all the calendars every day.

Day sixteen

The final day of term; cue excited small children asking, repeatedly, how long they have to wait until Christmas. My son is five and pretty much the perfect age for Christmas. When we visited Santa earlier in the month he was totally sold. I cannot wait to see his face on Christmas day!

Some more muted shades from the advent calendars. The one on the bottom right was donated by a friend and is gorgeous and sparkly.

Day seventeen

A day of travelling to see relatives, which is never all that much fun with small children: 'are we nearly there yet?' and 'I want to go home' are pretty common refrains. While we live a long way from relatives it's certainly worth making the effort, the kids love all their grandparents and aunts and uncles.

My husband went out to see the latest Star Wars film in the evening, which I'm not bothered about seeing at all (am I the only one? It does feel like it sometimes, even though I know I'm not). So I settled down to watch the Strictly final after the kids were safely asleep in bed (I don't watch the whole series of Strictly, and just dip in and out over the series depending what else I have to do), which was excellent, even already knowing who'd won when I started watching (grr, Facebook; yes I know looking at Facebook on finals night was a mistake if I didn't want to know who'd won).

Gorgeous shades from Opal in the advent calendar, and the brightest peach from the Paintbox yarns calendar - my phone did not capture it well!

Day eighteen

Panto time! For my son, husband and his mum. My son had gone to see a different Panto with school and LOVED it! So we were happy to send him off to see another, which he also loved. We let him choose who he wanted to go with as my daughter is still a bit small to enjoy it (my son said she would be scared), but next year I think we might all go along. While I don't love Pantomimes, they are a festive tradition, and I quite like those.

I got on with knitting the final must-knit-before-Christmas project, which I can't show you as it's for a magazine. I was still knitting it at midnight, at which point I called it quits and vowed to finish it in the morning. Sometimes that really is the best decision!

I love all of the yarns from the advent calendars on day eighteen, even the pink and orange one! And that green is fab!

Day nineteen

The must-finish project was finished over breakfast, washed in the sink while I grabbed a shower, then dried over a radiator (after squashing out all the water into a towel) until we were ready to drive on to the next destination. I had the project hung in the car to get it really dry - this one has to be in the post on the 20th, so I wasn't taking any chances!

The kids and I drove further South (more complaints about the distance). We stopped at several service stations along the way (I don't like driving in winter, the changing weather and light make my eyes ache, so we stop much more frequently than at other times of year), and, as always, my kids loved the stop at Gloucester services, which has an indoor play area that is always a hit! I also appreciated ten minutes to get a little bit of knitting done.

Just look at the neon. Actually, you probably can't avoid looking at it, it is a tad shouty. I've wanted to try Regia Fluormania for ages, and 10g is probably just the right amount!

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Last week I commented on the selection of colours I was getting out of my Paintbox Yarns advent calendar after Sara mentioned that hers were rather pastel; I'm still not sure what I want to make from it, although I do have an idea that I'm going to look into and maybe do with the kids on Christmas Eve (no spoilers in case I totally run out of time, which is a distinct possibility). Sara sent me a photo of her colours (below) and they are so neutral! I'm really hoping she has some brighter colours now, although hers has gone so far down the neutrals route it'd be really odd if she suddenly got some neons!

Sara's Paintbox Yarns Advent Calendar selection. Image copyright Sara Roberts

I wonder how Paintbox Yarns chose the colours for the advent calendars? Does every calendar contain 24 different shades? Are they planned in any way? And is every calendar different? There are 60 different shades to choose from, so it's certainly possible that they're all different! I'm pretty sure (from my assessment of the #opaladventcalendar2016 tag on Instagram) that the Opal calendars have 24 yarns to choose from, but the order they appear in is random. has anyone else been opening a yarn advent calendar? Are you pleased with the yarns that have come out?

I'm hoping to get a bit more done on my sock yarn blanket this week as most of the Christmas planning is out of the way now (I still have to wrap the Christmas Day presents, and put one pre-Christmas birthday present in the post; this is the most organised I've been in years!); it's stalled over the past week.

*This post contains affiliate links, see the Disclaimers and policies page for more information. All items are subject to availability.*

The Flock: the launch party

This weekend I went to London to catch up with my siblings, an event that doesn't happen very often as we are rather spread out across the country. I'd had the date in the calendar for a couple of months, but hadn't made any fixed plans, so when an email came through from Love Knitting inviting me to the launch of their blogger ambassador programme, The Flock, I jumped at the chance - I would be in London anyway, so it would be rude not to!

The event started at 17.30, at Love Knitting's very shiny new office. It's in Holborn, not an area I know well, so I allowed plenty of time to find the building, and ended up arriving a few minutes early and being the first one there. I wasn't totally sure what to expect, the invite had said there would be nibbles, networking and a couple of presentations, and I was a little nervous when I arrived. I needn't have worried though, there was plenty to do, and everyone there was happy to talk about yarn, knitting and crochet all day!

Tiny cupcakes

There was a pom pom making station, and I duly added a neon pink and yellow pom pom to a cardboard sheep (whilst chatting to Justyna Lokowska, a huge knitting name, about her pattern, Maya's scarf, which I am currently knitting); I chatted to Karie Westermann, who knew who I was, which totally made my day; there was a table of delicious and very cute snack food; I met lots of people, including a few familiar faces and lots I hadn't come across before (and a few really big names that I was too shy to talk to), who were all as enthusiastic as me about all things knitting; and we got to squish a lot of yarn: every table in the room had baskets of yarn on them, which we were allowed to play with, stroke, cast on, take home; obviously all there for promotional purposes, but it was paradise.

This was even brighter in real life!

There were indeed some talks about Love Knitting and the rest of the Love Crafts family, as promised, and a little quiz, which had prizes: I came away with a Paintbox yarns advent calendar, containing lots of little balls of yarn that will become some form of (as yet undecided) bunting over the course of December.

I am so excited about this advent calendar

The whole event was only two and a half hours long, and the time whizzed by. When we left, we were each given a goody bag containing some more yarn (I also had some pom pom makers in mine; I think everyone got something different), which my sister and I pawed at on the train back to hers. Huge thanks to Love Crafts for hosting the event; and if you ever get a chance to go and visit their office, go, it really is a little yarny paradise!

I did come home with a *little bit* of yarn

*This post is about a promotional event hosted by Love Knitting and Love Crafts; all yarns shown were donated for PR purposes; the post contains affiliate links, see the Disclaimers and policies page for more information.*