Thank crunchie it's Friday!

No chocolate crunchie bars on hand this Friday - I have to admit being all sugared out at this stage and looking forward to getting back to normal.  I did manage to sit at the sewing machine for a very small time this week and get my Home is Where the Dog Is quilt top finished! To be fair it was all done bar sewing the rows together.

So glad I got all the zig-zag done on the letters before the disk in my back came at me as that bit took ages!  Finishing it into a quilt now is going to have a wait a while as I have left a blank space on the first floor to add something special and have no idea whatsoever what that could be!  I do need to try and get on with a quilt and teaching samples I need for workshops I am teaching in February and March so I am happy to park it for a while, while I mull it over in my head!

Not being able to do to much at the sewing table means there is still lots of knitting going on!  Here's an update: Winter hat for Gordon - Done!  Pattern is A Hat Fit For a Fella by Shana Schasteen.

A sparkly Christmas cowl for mum - with her help!  I get bored with plain and purl and mum hates following a pattern so we share the workload sometimes.  Mum knits looser than I do so when gauge matters I give her a smaller needle.  This was her first time using metallic circular needles - my favourite - she didn't like them!

Still her finished cowl turned our lovely and perfectly matching Christmas decor.  This pattern is the Miss Marple Scarf free on Ravelry.

Chunky hat and shawl for me - done!  Hat is my own design using two a white and a pink ball of Tivoli super chunky wool.  The shawl pattern is Clouds in a Blue Sky by Andrea Rangel.  I added a bit of Swiss darning to it to tie in the edge yard to the brighter cream from my stash.  This technique was a lot of fun and I would definitely do this duplicate stitching technique again.

And if superchunky isn't fast enough I got a present of some Jumbo Merino wool for Christmas along with 25mm needles! 

I wanted to make a cushion for my cousin as a thank you present but the 1kg ball wasn't enough and the cable I attempted to add in ended up rock hard and messed up the width so I started again!  I found the needles hard to work with and had too tight a gauge to start with so loosened it well up on the second go.


This is how thick the jumbo yarn is and it is so soft!  Unspun, it is quite delicate and frogging it is not a good idea to do too regularly!  You can't wash it as it will felt but you can dry clean it.

 Second attempt went better with a simple pattern over 10 stitches!

 Yup only 10 stitches and I had the front of a cushion.  Now to figure out the back!

I had a bit left over to make a cowl for mum though - only 3 stitches and arm knitted and done in about 15 minutes!  Feels cheating to call this one a finish!  The arm knitting was much faster once I got the hang of the cast on!  She loves it and it is really soft and warm.

I am planning on arm knitting  with a bigger ball of 4-6kg acrylic yarn to make a blanket for the bed.  I normally buy the best wool I can as I think if you are going to take the time to knit up something might as well treat yourself to the best.  Acrylic is washable though and a good bit cheaper so while I would love a Merino wool blanket I think the Acrylic is the way to go for the moment.

Happy New Year everyone - hope 2018 is a good one and a cosy one to you all!