one good apple

I remember ages ago writing about a Rainbow Brite jumper my mum knitted me when I was a kid.  Out of the many amazing things she did knit for me this was by far my favourite.  So the other day I was lolloping around on eBay and found this,

heaven to betsy I’m a happy bunny.  Off back to Yorkshire in two weeks to see my mum during half term and shall be availing myself of the joys that are Boyes acrylic yarns in all the colours of the rainbow and knitting this bad boy.  There were some other really sweet patterns in there too - Danger Mouse, Victoria Plum and Postman Pat - that amounted to an eighties childhood flashback.  Love it.

Part of the UK Swap that I’m involved in is to answer an optional question each week about knitting.  This week’s is,

What is your process when planning a project? Do you shop for yarn and then find a suitable pattern? Do you find your pattern and then go out to buy the yarn? Or are you stash-busting? If your stash is out of control, how did it get that way?

Well, I look for patterns first of all.  It’s all about the pattern mainly because I’m not all that fussy in terms of the yarns I use.  I have nothing against acrylic because when I started knitting acrylic was all I could afford and it doesn’t matter if you throw it in the wash with everything else because you can say a lot about the stuff but fussy it ain’t.  I’ve never bought a sweater’s worth of yarn without having a definite pattern in mind.  At the moment I’m meant to be stash-busting because I have a ton of 4-ply that I was given but 4-ply is a long term commitment and if I’m honest, I’m too flighty for the stuff - I want pretty obvious results fast.

So, that’s that for this week…  I finished another embroidered pillow case,

I’m loving the embroidery at the moment and spending more time on it than the knitting.  I bought some material today to make some handkerchief/serviette things with so will be spending the rest of the evening fiddling around with that.

Oh, one last thing.  Last night I went to see this,

and loved it.  The first time Johnny Depp sang the whole cinema began giggling but his cockney accent was mercifully better than in From Hell and Helena Bonham Carter was just ace.  I know some people think Tim Burton is just a one trick pony but if the trick is that good then who cares?  John didn’t want to see it so I went with my best friend from uni who was up visiting.  She’d had a rough night the night before and fell asleep halfway through.  Which wasn’t too bad until she started snoring and I had to wake her up.  Nothing to do with the quality of the film, she assured me…

For now, toodle-pip x

In honour of Fagin himself I made some fingerless gloves today from my own pattern

Quick Fingerless Gloves

Yarn - Debbie Bliss Merino Superchunky

Needles - 7.5mm (to give a gauge of 17 rows x 12 sts = 10 cm)

Left Glove

• Using a provisional cast on , cast on 20 stitches.  Work the following Four row repeat,

Row 1- knit

Row 2 - knit

Row 3 - purl

Row 4 - purl (this probably has a technical name but I’m not sure what it is…)

• At the same time,

Row 5 - K6, BO 4 sts, K remaining 10 sts

Row 6 - K10, cast on 4 sts (using magic loop method), K remaining 6 sts

• Continue working pattern until you have completed seven sets in total
• Kitchener live stitches together.  Weave in ends.

Right Glove

• Work as left glove except,

Row 5 - K10, Bo 4 sts, K remaining 6 sts

Row 6 - K6, cast on 4 sts (using magic loop method), K remaining 6 sts (this ensures that the ’seam’ sits in the palm of each hand rather than on the top of the glove when worn)

 And that’s that.  Feel free to use the pattern although I’m not sure how much sense it makes.   I added some little buttons that my sister got me for Christmas.  Think I might make a batch of these with various embellishments and see if they sell anywhere.  Time to be a little brave I think.

Any hoo… off to do some lino prints I think.. x