Ochil Ripples

Back in the autumn I made a couple of rings for a friend at her request.  Emily teaches and does some TV demonstrating on Craft Daily TV and was showing how to spin. As in, spinning fibre into yarn. She wanted some dressing for her fingers and we agreed a little craft swap - my jewellery making for her spinning. So she got her rings and I got the unenviable task of choosing which of these fibre lengths to go for. I eventually plumped for the left hand one, it was dyed by a local (to Emily in Devon) dyer and is from Blue Faced Leicester sheepsies.

Emily spun it into this.  It looks quite different, eh?

And then it was plyed into this beautiful skein. 

Now I had another unenviable task of picking just the right project to make with it. It took me nearly 6 months to decide but I loved the simplicity of this cowl to show of the colours but the wee bit of interest added in the fat lacework. Is it classed as lacey? I dunno, it's holey bits, then.

And after a few weeks pleasant leisurely knitting I have this!!!

It's been surprisingly difficult to photograph (it looks so dark!) but this is a good approximation of the colours. 

And me wearing it. It's super cosy and the cowl nature means it doesn't fall off shoulders and things. Yay!

The name comes from my Ochil Hills - the yarn is almost the exact colours they are in spring and summer.  Thank you so much, Emily, I definitely got the better end of our deal. *g*

Yarny deets:

Pattern: Whitefish Ripples by Faye Kennington  (bought on Ravelry)

Yarn: my wonderful handspun by Emily skein, approximately 200 metres used

Needles: 3.75mm circular

Meh. It's all a bit beige...

I'm not sure about this one. It's a short version of the Briar top I made a few weeks ago - I thought the low back would help disguise the crinkly back of this skirt.

The fabric is the same lovely thick interlock knit I did my first Ondee sweater in - £6 a metre from EBay.

See? Swoops back bit. The shape's cute enough, I suppose.

And I did the other neck finish on this one - it's bound like a quilt. The interlock is a bit on the thick side for it, TBH, and my twin needle skipped stitches like a mofo. So I just did a double row of regular stitching and will hope it doesn't need to stretch anytime soon!

Oh, and I kinda sorted the back of my skirt. I did a swayback adjustment and took a wedge (about 3/4 inch at the thickest) from under the waistband. Inserted a more fluid regular zip and starched the ever living heck out of the whole bum area. Is much better! 

Although it is mostly hidden by my top. But I forgot I look like death warmed up in beige. *facepalm* And the sides of the top flair too much round the waist of an a-line skirt to look flattering. It would be better with a more fitted skirt, I think. Or a drapier fabric.

So this outfit may be consigned to the reject pile. Or maybe I'll figure out a better pairing for the top - it's cute enough, it maybe just needs styled better. 

Sockies

I finished a new pair of socks! Aren't they pretty?

My local yarn shop had this pretty Sirdar Baby Crofter in and I couldn't resist the sherberty colours although they are proving difficult to photograph. I did match the stripes up really well, though. 

This is a better representation of the colours. They are really pretty, no?

And, woo go me!, they are my first finish-along finish for this quarter. Yaay!

Yarny deets:

pattern: beginners toe-up socks by Knit Freedom

yarn: Sirdar Baby Crofter in colour 175 - kaitlyn, 2 x 50g balls

Needles: 3.5mm dpns

Pandemic Legacy - February

I'm a bit behind with the blogging so this is a wee recap (really for me and my buds) of last Sunday's game of Pandemic:Legacy. I do have socks and sewing queued up for another day - feel fee to skip!

Here's our set up before hand. We're slowly sussing what works best for us so Biff is in charge of the rules book (with additional rules this month - woop!), Sue does the outbreaks (I've started calling her Typhoid Tallulah - long story. *g*) so is in charge of moving markers and sticking stickers on panicking cities and Moira is our card shuffler. I even bought her her very own automatic card shuffler so there's no excuses for badly mixed cards. Well, so you'd think - more on that later. Me? I'm doing the legacy deck which is really just reading cards at the beginning and end. Easy peasy. We also got to open our first box which was most exciting - there's 8 of them to be opened at certain points. This one had new tokens in it. 

Now we've had trouble the last few games (well, to be honest, I have had trouble) remembering whose meeple belongs to whom (feel free to correct my grammar here - I'm fed up changing it!) and so I thought I'd make us personalised ones. Here's the game ones on top and mine underneath. They're only about an inch tall so were a pig to make (also my white Fimo is very old and not very malleable!) but were worth it for the giggles they induced and the added bonus of no mistaken moving of pieces on the board!

See? Here's Biff's Cliff the Dispatcher (you can name your character - that's a Postman Pat reference!) quarantining Santiago to stop the spread of our untreatable mutated CodA disease. Heh heh.

And here's where we finished. We won!! Woop! You get 2 goes at each month and haven't needed either late game to proceed. Of course, our funding is now at zero - you know how it is, the government going "you're doing fine, you're getting no cash" so we get no extra goodies going into March. Rats. Moira's Bryony the scientist has a scar (affecting her movement in Asia) but also a nice extra skill and we eradicated the Black Zombie virus (which we get to officially name) so got to add a positive mutation for next time. Great stuff.

And the card shuffling? Well due to some fluke, Moira (who we affectionately call Brian after the unfortunate guy in the rulebook example who unleashes an epidemic on the world) pulled 4 of the 5 epidemic cards from the deck one after the other. Which was bad for her but funny for us. And almost all the red Asia player cards were in the bottom half of the deck. Which was bad. But yellow South America came out the infection deck loads and we quarantined like mofos down there so the cards were cruel but also kind. But I think we might get gubbed when we play March. Fun!

Finish-along quarter 2 proposal

So, here's my list of works in progress for this quarter.  I'm not actually planning to have them all finished (or even worked on) over the next 3 months but I like to have all my projects listed. 

1. Steampunk Blooms - not even started yet! My quilting mojo has done a runner but I still think this would make an awesome looking bed quilt.

2. Briar top - to wear with my Delphine skirt. A quick one, this!

3. Christmas cushions - I think this is a quarter 3 project with me auld mate Archie

4. Ochil Ripples scarf - my current knitty project!

5. Knitcol socks - for me!! I don't have a pair and they're my favourite yarn. This colourway has black in!

6. Black Coco dress - reeds printed Ponte Roma with a funnel neck. That's the plan, anyway.

7. Pebble Beach shawl - another knit-along with Archie. This might be a while getting started but I have beautiful hand dyed (not by me) yarn when the time comes.

8. Baby Love - I keep sticking this baby clothes quilt on here. One day I'm sure I'll get the motivation to quilt it!

9. Green mittens - I think it'll be winter coming in that gets these done!

10. Christmas Tree skirt - again, not one I plan on getting done soon.

11. Purplish socks - a test of Sirdar Crofter  baby yarn for socks. They are lovely and soft but I'm not totally convinced they work.

12. Yellow shirt - I planned to make a Mila shirt with this fabric.  Then decided to go for broke with a Bruyere shirt - I've traced the pattern and everything. But I think the pattern matching on this pattern might be a nightmare.  So I won't be surprised if the fabric ends up in a different (easier!) shirt and the pattern ends up with an easier to match print.

So there ya go! A bit of this, a bit of that and some not-bought-yet plans in the auld noggin.

A Longley cardigan

So a few weeks ago Kerry made a fab drapey cardigan from a loop-backed sweatshirt fabric. The pattern was the Longley cardigan by Wendy Ward and when I saw it I knew I had to have one. Pattern duly bought and fabric ordered I set about it last week.

It was a really pleasant make, even allowing for running out of thread 2 rows of top stitching from the end. Grr.

I love the shape of it and how the big square front pieces give the drape and the pointy sides.

I also followed Kerry's tutorial for adding a neck finish although I went with a little piece of Liberty lawn instead of a knit. It's for no other reason than to make it easier for me to find the top when I'm putting it on! But it's pretty, eh?

I also didn't add the cuffs (like a lot of people) because the sleeves were plenty long without them but in my next one I'll shorten the sleeves and add the cuffs because I like how they look. These are just turned up an inch and stitched with a long (4mm) stitch since they won't get much stretch, 

I've worn this out and about the last two days and it is super cosy and a great inbetween style - not a cardy but not a hoodie either. Recommended! 

Garment deets: 

Pattern: the Longley drapey cardigan by Wendy Ward

Fabric: navy loop back cotton sweatshirt fabric from EBay, 2m of 180cm wide. A metre and three quarters would do it.

Size and changes made: medium with added neck binding and cuffs omitted. 

Daytripping

You know how you never do the things on your doorstep? Well visiting The Kelpies has been on our to do list since they opened in 2013 - Helix Park where they are situated is only 20 minutes from our house and we pass the sculptures regularly but had never taken the time to go and see them.

Pretty cool, huh?

The park, marshlands and canal are all worth a visit. We were here at 10am and it was fairly quiet but by 11 was getting really busy. Even though it was freezing! 

When did the kid get so tall?! She's bemoaning the lack of gloves, here.

(yes, I'm in a fully me-made outfit. Even my hoodie/cardy thing which I'll show another day. So exciting to wear stuff I've sewn and knitted myself!)

Definitely somewhere to go another day for the FULL day and chill out. Instead of just being plain old cold.  *g*