a new Friend

Meet Smith. I love him lots. Even if one eye is slightly bigger than the other…

 

Smith by Ysolda Teague

Yarn: Sirdar Donegal Tweed (spikes)
        Teddy Sonnet (body)

Ravelled here.

This is such a fun, quick, easy pattern. I started him on on a Friday night, finished knitting his head on Saturday night, and added the eyes and nose on Sunday morning, but if you were more studious than I he could easily be finished in a day.

Although the construction is straight forward he is a bit of a fiddly knit. The whole thing is knit seamlessly in the round, with the spikes knit separately and attached to the body as you go along. Whilst this isn’t in itself a complicated process, as more spikes are knit on to the body things start to become a little bulky, and once you have 6 or 7 spikes attached and start to decrease for the front of the body, things can get a tiny bit tricksy.

The hardest part of this project for me were the French knots for the eyes and nose. I can French knot on flat surfaces, but the knotting for this is done after it’s all stuffed and sewn up. Perhaps I was going about it all wrong, but I found it a little difficult knot securely onto the knitting and bury the ends safely enough so that the 2 year old Smith was destined for wouldn’t pull his face off! I managed to fudge it in the end, but if I was going to knit this again I might find some other way of doing the nose as I’m not entirely happy with how that turned out. Or maybe I just need to practice my French knots! I’m probably going to have lots of opportunity since I bought Ysolda’s Otto, Sophie and Elijah patterns when she had her birthday sale last week. I apparently seem to have decided to knit a menagerie for my goddaughter!

Overall though, this is a fantastic little knit with a lot of character, and I love him to bits. If you follow me on twitter you might have noticed that it was with a little bit of reluctance that I let him go in the end, although I’m sure he’s much better off with the little girl he now lives with :)

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beginnings

I’ve finally cast on for the latest Solid Sock mystery KAL (only 6 weeks behind!). Not sure I’ll finish them by the end of the month, but it looks like a fun pattern. I cast on in hopes of distracting me from my misery at the death of my external hard drive, which houses all of my music and photos. I’m still hoping my little heart out that it can be resurrected. Anyone know anything about corrupt hard drives and damaged NTFS boot sectors?!

 

I’ve also started knitting a rabbit, although she doesn’t look like much so far.

 

More WIPs over at Tami’s WIP Wednesday!

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Bounty

At the beginning of the year one of my best friends very kindly gifted me some birthday vouchers for The Knit Studio in Newcastle.

I’ve been wanting to visit this store ever since it opened last August, but somehow never managed to get around to it. I finally popped in a couple of weeks ago, but typically forgot my vouchers, so when I arranged to meet a friend for lunch on Thursday I realised that if I headed into town early it would be a prime opportunity for another visit, this time with vouchers in hand.

I love this store. It has all the wonderful yarns that I hear so many knitters raving about and knitting such wonderful things with, but have never had the chance to try. Yarns I have coveted from afar. 

Eventually, I settled on some Zauberball.

I was instantly drawn this ball of natural browns and greys. Although I do love colour, I tend to always go for the “safe” option of quite classic, neutral colours, colours that I can just throw on with anything at the last minute without having to think about matching/clashing. I think there is also something rather rustic and organic about shades of brown, grey and cream which really appeals to me. They feel like comforting colours. It seems a little strange to me now, to think of browns as being one of my go-to colours, since it was the colour of my school uniform and I grew up hating it!

 

I also spied this fiery colourway and thought that it might be nice to travel a little outside of my comfort zone. This is probably the most vibrant yarn I’ve ever had in my possession!

 

And finally, blue is one of my all time favourite colours, and I just could not help falling for the jewel tones of this Jawoll yarn. (It also reminded me of a few MAC eyeshadows I own, and that’s never a bad thing!)

If any visiting knitters are ever in the Newcastle area, I strongly recommend a visit to The Knit Studio! Located in historic Blackfriars, which is an old 13th century friary and one of my favourites spaces in Newcastle, it is the most darling yarn store I’ve ever seen, filled to brim with all sorts of luscious yarns, fibre, fabrics, books and magazines. The owner, Anne, is also lovely and so friendly! Plus, the store is right next to Chinatown, so lots of yummy eats are nearby!

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I have been interviewed!

I was interviewed earlier this week by the lovely destack on Ravelry! If anyone is interested the interview is here on interrobangknits.

Whilst you’re there, check out the rest of her blog too. She’s so sweet and is doing a really fun series on knitters you should know. She’s been profiling some fantastic knitters and crocheters!

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Lazy Weekend

I’ve had a lovely lazy weekend.

It’s mostly been spent reading a book I borrowed from a friend (if you found me, hello Ro!!),

Painting my nails bright, summery colours,

(peachy nails, pinky toes)

and of course, knitting my squishbel.

Hope you guys had a lovely weekend too!

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