I like big socks and I cannot lie

You can thank me later for having Sir Mix A Lot stuck in your head for the rest of today.

I'm back with my first completed project of 2019: a pair of long, slightly ridiculous, knitted socks. 

The yarn I used is Stylecraft Batik Swirl in the colourway "Meadow" and was a Christmas present from my lovely Mum. She knows I love a good "making" present!

The socks are, more or less, 109-32 socks with diamond pattern by Drops Design, a free pattern on Ravelry. I'm not sure why it's called diamond pattern as I would have thought it's basket stitch? Either way, it's blocks of knit stitches and purl stitches stacked alternately which makes a pleasing, squishy texture.

I knitted the socks fairly long (10" from the cuff down to the heel flap) to make the most of all the colours, although sadly I didn't quite reach the yellow. I'm aware the wool would have likely looked more effective spread out in a larger project, such as a shawl or blanket, rather than socks as the colours came out quite blocky. However I just couldn't shake off the idea of bright, long, textured socks. They're a bit weird, but I love them.

They very nearly became epic leg warmers for ballet class, but I think my macaron dance shorts are probably jazzy enough for people to contend with!

What is everyone else knitting at the moment? I have another pair of socks on the go (shocker) but fancy having something a bit more exciting on my needles, although I'm not sure what that might be yet.

making, mending, baking, reflecting

It's that time of year again.... when I feel the need to blog about all those forgotten bits and bobs from this year and panic that it has to be done before 31st December otherwise THE WORLD WILL IMPLODE.

Or something to that extent.

It's also the time of year where I bake perverted gingerbread santas, boobie angels and questionably festive dinosaurs.

 And a new addition this year... moustaches!

2018 has been full on, but pretty positive for me. I bought a little house (all by myself), have been renovating said house (complete gut job - nearly finished), turned 30 (I guess this means I'm grown up?) and started learning ballet (hard work but amazing and making me feel so much healthier.) Sadly that means my baking and sewing have taken a nose dive but I know they'll come back when I have the time. 

I've only sewn one item this year besides my wedding guest outfit in February. ONE. And that was a rainbow stripe Tilly and the Buttons Agnes top.

Although I initially really liked it at the time (in April) I haven't reached for it since. I think it was because it felt slightly too big, mostly because the jersey has a higher stretch percentage and I didn't account for that when I was sewing. Looking at this photo though (which I took the other day) it looks and feels fine, so who knows why I haven't worn it, other than I've spent most of the year wearing old crap for house-renovating instead of nice things.

 The top looks great with my festive pyjama bottoms! 😀

Last month, in a bid to get back into sewing I tackled my dreaded mending and alteration pile. It allowed me to reacquaint myself with my machine and complete manageable, bite-sized projects as I didn't have the headspace to create items from scratch or deal with multiple pattern alterations.

I started with altering the sleeves and neckline of a tunic dress for my Mum, (which she loved) then I did a few simple, rewarding tasks: sewing up a hole in my mustard tights (which I had set aside at least two years ago), replacing a missing button from a favourite coat and dyeing a faded and unloved pair of black jeans (set aside over 5 years ago!) a much nicer, more wearable shade of plum.

Spurred on by my small mending successes, I moved onto more exciting alterations. My first was turning a rarely worn pair of handmade tights into funky exercise/yoga leggings by chopping off the feet and sewing on cuffs. As much as I flipping loved the look of the tights and their cool construction, I found I never reached for them as I didn't like the feeling of the lycra fabric over my feet. These will definitely receive more wear as leggings. Stretches are much more exciting to do with jazzy looking legs.

My last project was a complete refashion: turning a rarely worn circle skirt into a pair of cute dance shorts! As cute as the circle skirt was, I never felt it was a flattering shape on me so it only got worn a handful of times. The fabric will see far more wear as a pair of cute shorts for my dance classes. I like that I'll be dancing (well, moving around in a vaguely coordinated manner) with my butt covered in macarons.

To make the shorts I traced around the upper portion of a pair of shop-bought leggings to make pattern pieces and cut out a new waistband. Luckily everything easily fitted within the skirt fabric. The only thing that I found difficult was finding a suitable way to hem the legs as a standard zig zag did not provide enough stretch for my enormous, muscular?, thighs. In the end I used a fancy stretch stitch setting on my sewing machine which worked great.

All in all, a pretty successful month of mending!

This year in the online sewing community I've noticed that there has been a lot of chat about sustainability: not over-buying fabric, buying ethically, using up or recycling scraps, altering, mending or refashioning existing items, not replacing fast fashion with fast sewing etc. It has been an interesting topic to ponder, especially since I've spent the majority of the year away from my sewing machine.

It's great to see these topics being discussed, however I do find it odd that it's perhaps being presented as a new way of thinking, or dare I say another trend/fad, when a lot of it is surely common practise in the first place? It is to me anyway. I've always tried to look after my clothes and mend items if possible (to the extent that some pieces in my wardrobe are 10-15 years old and still going strong), donate what I don't need or use and work hard on sewing items which will become well worn and loved in my wardrobe and not thrown out after 2 wears. Admittedly, the whole discussion of sustainability has made me think even harder about my choices, which is never a bad thing.

I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with this sewing related naval gazing, but I thought I'd throw my thoughts out there for what it's worth. The only conclusion I can draw from it all is that I'm not comfortable with sewing for the sake of sewing and ending up with a ridiculously large collection of clothing when I already own more than enough clothes. However I do want to continue sewing as it's nice to have new things from time to time, especially when they're unique and tailored to me.

Unlike my sewing, my knitting output has remained fairly strong this year, mostly because it's something I can do whilst crashed out on the sofa. Since my last update in the summer I've knitted another pair of socks.....

...and I've loved wearing them. All my handknitted socks have received a lot of love this year. They're perfect for padding about the house in the evenings or making my toes extra cosy in my winter boots.

These socks, pictured above, were my first foray into knitting the magic loop method with circular needles. Although I like how portable it is (you don't have to worry about stitches falling off needles) and how much easier it is to try projects on mid progress, I'm still not convinced I like it more than working on dpns. There's something about shoving stitches back and forth along the needles which irks me. I'm going to continue using both methods though as it's fun to mix things up.

I've also knitted four hats this month! Three as Christmas presents and one for myself. 

A stripey ribbed hat for my eldest brother. It killed me not being able to put a jazzy pom pom on top but I know he wouldn't wear it if it had one. As much as all that 2x2 ribbing felt endlessly boring it did produce a lovely, comfy hat. I also learned how to knit jogless stripes with this hat.

Then I knitted hats for my other brother and his wife. They both like and suit wearing burgandy so I thought I'd make them not-quite-matchy-matchy, cute couple hats. The hat on the left is Miki by Atelier M on Ravelry (free pattern) with sparkly thread added to the pom pom for a bit of girly glamour and the hat on the right is the Close Cables Hat by Anna and Heidi Pickles on Ravelry (no longer free, sadly.) I added burnt orange yarn to the pom pom for a fun, speckled effect.

Lastly, my own festive hat! I'm not sure what prompted me to need a festive hat but the idea hit me one evening and I couldn't shake it off. I roughly made it up as I went along, following a chart for the star motif. It took a few attempts to figure out the decreases for the crown as it needed to come in quite sharp after the motif. It's quite gathered at the top as I still had a lot of stitches on the needles, but the hat is fairly slouchy so I think the soft gathers suit the style. My favourite thing though is the tassle. I've been desperate to knit myself a tassle hat ever since I knit that toddler hat at the beginning of the year!

And that's me signing out for 2018. Thanks for reading and continuing to follow my creative ventures. Wishing you all the best for 2019. See you on the other side!

knitting review: 2018 so far

As we're now over half way through 2018 (whaaaaaat?) I thought I'd do a review of my knitted projects. I have managed to knit something every month so far this year except from June which is pretty good going for me. Here's what I have been making:

January - Dr Who Fair Isle mittens

One of my best pals turned 30 in January and after seeing how much she admired my handknitted fingerless mitts at Christmas I thought I'd make her a special pair of mittens. I searched for suitable patterns on Ravelry, mostly looking for Fair Isle type patterns, then stumbled across the (free!) Whovian Mitten pattern and was like "wooahhhh, I could make her dream mittens: Fair Isle meets Dr Who."

I redrew the chart to incorporate Fair Isle patterns and made a few fit modifications along the way which I've written about on my Ravelry page. I was worried the finished mittens might not fit well as I found them quite tight and short (although admittedly I have quite large hands) but luckily my friend has much neater hands and fingers and assured me that they fit her well. Phew!

February: baby and toddler knits

In February, the same week I got my house keys and my brother got married, my friends had their second child, another little boy, so naturally I felt compelled to knit cute baby and toddler presents. The baby hat pattern is Sirdar 4806 garter stitch hat and the booties are Stylecraft 4821.

I initially knitted the hat in the round on dpns as a sneaky ploy to avoid seaming but the yarn bagged at the corners so the hat looked awful - serves me right for trying to be a smart arse. Weirdly I only get this bagging problem when I use acrylic mix yarn. After sulking for a day the hat got unravelled, reknitted flat as instructed and then I finally taught myself how to do mattress stitch from YouTube tutorials. It isn't particarly difficult to do and it gives such a smart, flawless finish so I have no idea why I have been avoiding it like the plague. Now I feel embarrassed about how badly I seamed my early knitted items, haha! 

With my newfound confidence in seaming I happily went ahead with the toddler hat, the Pointed Pull On Hat, also from Sirdar 4806 pattern and knitted flat. Is it wrong that I want a bigger version for myself, complete with tassel? It's so cute! I also really liked the wool for this hat, Sirdar Snuggly Crofter Baby Fair Isle Effect DK. It was so soft and the self-striping effect made it fun to knit. 

March: Hermione Hedgehog socks

It appears every knitter and their Mum/dog/cat/child online has knitted Hermione's Everyday Socks by Erica Lueder... and now I'm one of them. For these socks I used my first skein of indi-dyed yarn: Hedgehog Fibres Sock yarn in the colourway Genie. I’m not normally drawn to neon colours but fell in love with the bright, highlighter pen style speckles when I saw it in a yarn shop in Edinburgh before Christmas.

I cast on the first sock on Christmas Day and finished it just before New Year but sadly it felt too tight. The gauge was correct so it must just be my wide, deep feet. It didn't feel unbearable, but uncomfortable enough to know I wouldn’t enjoy wearing it and that felt like a waste of effort and yarn. I was so grumpy with the project that it got stuffed in a bag and I knitted all of the projects above before coming back to it. Eventually the guilt got to me and I unravelled the sock and started again on bigger needles. 

It felt like a major pain in the arse knitting 3 socks in order to have a pair but it was worth it. My feet no longer feel suffocated and the knitted "fabric" (for want of a better word?) also feels nicer at a looser gauge. It felt really stiff on the (original) 2.25mm needles. The socks are perhaps slightly on the bigger, roomier side but definitely preferable to tight, suffocating socks.

In terms of the sock pattern, I love the textured stitch and how the heel looks so I can see myself using both again. In terms of the yarn, I have mixed feelings. The finished socks are gloriously soft and the colours are gorgeous, however I found this merino/nylon mix yarn to be a slippy, splitty, pain in the arse to knit. I can't say I'm keen to work with it again. It's a shame, but these things happen. It's all part of the learning experience.

April: my first shawl

As well as buying the Hedgehog Fibres skein when I was in Edinburgh, I also bought a skein of Malabrigo Sock in the 866 Arco Iris colourway. To say I was besotted with this skein is a complete understatement. I fell hard for the mix of pink-purples and flecks of yellow and green. It's a good job I was shopping with my best friend who is fully aware of my eccentricities as I spent the rest of the day petting the skein and squealing with delight. We also went to Cuckoos Bakery for cupcakes, to a fabric shop where I bought some ribbon and to the Christmas market in the evening to ride the carousel. BEST DAY EVER.

After another month's petting I decided to turn the yarn into a Nurmilintu shawl, a free pattern by Heidi Alander on Ravelry. This was my first time knitting a shawl and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The pattern is a satisfying combination of mindless garter stitch with enough lace for a bit of interest without being overly taxing.

I genuinely could not be happier with how this shawl turned out. The colours knitted up beautifully and I’m delighted to have created something I absolutely love from this yarn as it felt so special. I now understand why people go nuts for Malabrigo yarn!

Unlike the Hedgehog Fibres yarn I've found the Malabrigo (100% superwash Merino) an absolute joy to knit and wear. In fact I was so pleased with this shawl that I didn't get around to washing and blocking it for 3 months. I cast it off one morning and started wearing it... then kept wearing it! Oops, shame on me.

I feel bad for wearing it unblocked for so long as it looks *SO* much nicer for being washed and blocked. It completely transformed the shawl! The yarn bloomed and opened up the lace sections beautifully. It was well worth pinning out the picot edge too as it makes such a pretty, delicate detail. I love how intricate and fiddly it looks but it's relatively simple to achieve as most of the work is in the blocking/pinning.

May- early June: self-striping socks 

My Mum started knitting a pair of socks in May and eventually I got sock-envy and had to cast on a pair too. I had bought a ball of Stylecraft's Head over Heels yarn in the colourway Everest earlier in the year and it came with a sock pattern so I went with that.

I initially tried knitting these with the magic loop method but found it incredibly annoying having to shove my stitches back and forth along the cable and needle, especially since they kept catching at the join. I suspected my cheap Pony needles were the main problem as they have a fairly thick, inflexible cable so I unravelled and went back to knitting on dpns.

Other than changing the toe I followed the pattern and I'm pleased with how they turned out. The colours look great and the self-striping yarn made the socks rather addictive to knit. I'd be knitting late at night (usually whilst watching old episodes of Taggart, A Touch of Frost or X-Files) and find myself thinking "ooh, just one more band of stripes" before heading to bed.

I really like the effect of the twisted rib on the cuff/leg and I find the fit comfortable. I've discovered that I prefer the fit of a 60 stitch sock to a 64 stitch when I'm knitting with 2.75mm needles. 64 is fine for slouchy bedsocks but it's nice to have a slightly neater fitting pair.

July: another Nurmilintu shawl

Another one of my best pals turned 30 and I felt she was also worthy of a lovely handmade present. Given how much I love my Nurmilintu shawl in Malabrigo yarn I thought she might like one too. This time I picked a lovely deep blue shade called "Impressionist Sky."

I knitted this shawl at a slightly slacker tension compared to my first one, as I think I knitted mine slightly tighter than usual for some reason, which resulted in a slightly bigger, airier shawl. I was so pleased with how this shawl turned out and almost felt reluctant to let it go but I know it has gone to a good home.

I genuinely cannot get over how much I love lacework, it's just so pretty. I often think knitters either fall into cable or lace camps and I'm definitely team lace. I'd be interested to hear how other fellow knitters feel, which camp do you fall in?

I also can't believe we're entering August tomorrow. Crazy! I've got my next knitting project lined up: another pair of socks in Stylecraft's Head over Heels self-striping yarn. However this time I'm going to try my newly purchased Knit-Pro cable needles to have a second attempt at knitting in magic loop. I'm open to being a magic loop convert, but so far I'm still feeling very much in the DPN camp. We'll see!

the forgotten knitting projects of 2017

Hi folks, I'm back with my knitting round up. I managed to blog two knitting projects last year, my Blaster cardigan and first pair of socks, but here are the rest. Enjoy!

Steven Seagull

Haha, see what I did there? I knitted this little fella for my Mum's birthday last year for a bit of fun. He was a bit fiddly to make but worth the effort as he has loads of character. Mum has him "flying" from the ceiling on thread. He looks a bit lonely though, so perhaps I should knit another to keep him company!

Sweary mitts

This was my summer knitting project (what can I say, I was being prepared!) I initially followed the pattern for Drunk Girl Designs' "How Cold Is It?" mittens but ended up throwing it to the back of a drawer as the pattern didn't work for me. However I still loved the sweary concept so I created my own chart and followed the pattern for my first mitts as a rough template. In hindsight I wish I'd made them a bit bigger as I'm not convinced with how the lettering stretches across my hands, but I still love them. They're pretty yet subtlely offensive which I find highly entertaining. I'm aware that not everybody shares my enjoyment for foul language so I'm only sharing a photograph with the naughty word obscured.  If you want to see them in full sweary glory then feel free to check out my Ravelry project page.

Slouchy moss stitch hat and matching cowl

Ahhh, the slouchy moss stitch hat of dreams. It's so big and squishy! I can even fit my little pony tail inside this hat and that's impressive considering I have a sizeable head and a lot of hair. However this hat has almost grown too big since I made it in October (the perils of acrylic mix yarn I guess) as it keeps falling down my face unless I have my hair up in pony tail. I might run some elastic through the ribbing to give it a bit more grip if it really starts bothering me.

Oh the glorious cowl, I've worn this loads since I finished it! I've wanted a moss stitch cowl for ages so I'm happy I finally knitted one. It's so cosy and the perfect length for comfortably wrapping twice round my neck.  I also love the combination of the textured stitch with the flecked yarn. It's so pretty.

Subtle festive socks

My second pair of socks! I started off following the "favourite socks" pattern by Voolenvine but ended up abandoning the pattern after the heel turn in favour of a different one as I was struggling with the somewhat vague instructions. The pattern is likely fine to follow if you're familiar with sock knitting, but as a person with little sock knitting experience, having never knitted a heel flap before, it's not the clearest to follow. 

I really love the fit of these socks so I'm definitely a heel flap girl. They have been fantastic to wear over ordinary socks or tights for extra cosiness inside my winter boots.

Hand-dyed socks for Mum

My Mum took to sock knitting in a big way last year (it snowballed from my birthday socks) as she spent most of November and December knitting socks for family Christmas presents. However she never got around to knitting a pair for herself so I sneakily knit a pair for her Christmas.

I also used this as an opportunity to try my hand at dyeing wool after discovering the world of independent wool dyers through YouTube vlogs (Amy of Stranded Podcast being my favourite.) It's hard not to feel excited and inspired by all the beautiful colour blends and effects that can be achieved through hand dyeing.

After watching a *lot* of tutorials on YouTube, I settled on Jacquard Acid Dyes as it's easily available within the UK (thanks, Amazon!) and the stove top method for heat setting the dyes. Top tip for others interested in dyeing: raid the charity shops for equipment. I imagine a lot of people could be put off dyeing by the thought of having to buy new equipment (as you can't use pots/utensils you plan to cook with/eat from due to the dye pigments) but it doesn't have to be expensive. I picked up stainless steel pots for next to nothing!

For my wool I went with my favourite, Jamiesons of Shetland, in their bare wool called "natural white". I was aiming for a variegated effect of soft sea-green/ sand tones and although it didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned it still looks effective. I've dyed more skeins since then and it is so much fun! I'm looking forward to knitting them up.

The only downside to my yarn choice is that 100% wool isn't the most durable for sock knitting. A little bit of nylon content would make a much harder wearing pair of socks. Although I've worn my wool socks loads and not worn through them, my Mum managed to wear a hole through one of her socks within a month. Looks like I need to learn how to darn!

And that's it! A cardigan, a seagull, a pair of sweary mitts, 3 pairs of socks and a matching hat and cowl. So far this year I've mostly been knitting presents (birthday and new baby) although I've just returned to working on a pair of socks for myself which I started at Christmas. I'm using a fun, speckled skein from Hedgehog Fibres (my first skein of indi dyed wool) which I bought as an early Christmas present to myself in Edinburgh in December. I also purchased a stunning variegated skein of Malabrigo yarn which is earmarked for a shawl/scarf. I'll likely start that after I finish the socks.

What are other fellow knitters working on at the moment?

kitty feet - my first hand knitted socks

I think we all need to take a moment to admire my feet. Not a statement I make often, but look at the little kitty faces!

Earlier this year I decided it was time to learn how to knit socks. My Granny used to knit wooly socks for me pretty much every winter when I was growing up. I loved padding about the house in them before bedtime or wearing them over another pair of socks inside my welly boots for extra cosiness to play outdoors. Although I still own a couple of pairs, I stopped wearing them a few years ago for fear of wearing them out. I've come to the conclusion that this mentality is ridiculous as I'm now perfectly capable of making (or mending) handknitted socks.

However little did I know, until I started looking for sock patterns, that there are many ways to knit a pair of humble socks! They can be knit toe up or cuff down, on dpns or magic loop, not to mention the mind boggling variety of heel techniques:  heel flaps, fish lips kiss heel, short row heel, afterthought heel... SO MUCH CHOICE.

The pattern I used is "Yin Yang kitty socks" by Geena Garcia on Ravelry. Apart from the obvious appeal of being free and incredibly cute, I like that they are short, almost slipper-like, therefore quick to knit and the minimal stranded knitting and sewing of whiskers adds interest without being complicated. The socks are constructed toe up on dpns with a short row heel, which suited me fine as I'm used to dpns and familiar with knitting short rows after knitting Andi Satterlund cardigans.

The wool I used is Jamiesons of Shetland Spindrift in Natural White and JC Rennie Supersoft Lambswool in Silver/grey and a tiny scrap of pink for the kitty noses. I only used 41g of wool in total here so this project is a great stash buster.

Why yes, I did knit these socks specifically to match my grey kitty faces pyjamas :D

Casting on and knitting toe up felt weird but it was a fun experience. At one point my knitting looked like a little hat for my foot, or toe warmers, which amused me greatly.

It took a couple of attempts to cast on correctly with the first sock, but I got there in the end thanks to YouTube tutorials. I wonder if this technique is easier with magic loop method? It felt a bit cumbersome on dpns, but the second sock was definitely easier.

Although there is absolutely nothing wrong with these heels, I think I prefer the fit of a heel flap after comparing it to my mum and granny's handknitted socks. For my next pair I'd like to try a different heel and perhaps top down construction to see how that differs. Despite naturally being a person who shies away from new things I surprise myself by being a relatively fearless knitter. I enjoy new techniques and stretching my skills and I have a feeling sock knitting could be all kinds of fun!

(Not that I need more socks. At the beginning of the year I counted how many pairs I owned... 64!! And that didn't even include bed socks..... How is that even possible when I mostly wear tights?! I have since donated a few pairs to my Mum, haha.)

knitted: turquoise blaster cardigan

It feels like an eternity has passed since I finished and photographed this project. May, I think? Anyway, I managed to finish knitting a wooly cardigan just before the start of summer. Smart, eh? I only wore it a couple of times before it got packed away with the winter jumpers. Oh well, not long now until it can come back out from the drawer!

(worn with my yet-to-be-blogged Kitschy Coo Lady Skater dress)

The pattern in question is yet another Andi Satterlund design, the Blaster cardigan. What can I say, I love Andi's cardigan patterns. I've knit 3 now and still have at least 2 more in my knitting queue. They just look so pretty with my fit and flare dresses. Like my previous two cardigans (here and here) I used Jamiesons of Shetland wool (again, what can I say, I love their wool) but this time in the colourway "Caspian". It's a really lovely dusky/dirty shade of turquoise.

Sadly this cardigan wasn't the most fun to knit, but I must stress this was entirely due to tension problems with my knitting, not a reflection on the pattern. My first gauge swatch was absolutely massive so I knit a second one on smaller needles with a tighter tension. It was still a teeny bit bigger than recommended but I calculated from the schematics that my tighter gauge would give me a good fit as I run between sizes with Andi's patterns.

It turns out that it's one thing altering your tension for a small project over a couple of evenings, but another entirely for a longer project. Sadly messing with my natural gauge resulted in irregular tension: it's slack at the beginning around the upper back then gets tighter towards the waist. Thankfully I'm broad shouldered with a small waist so weirdly the tension blunder works in my favour, but it irks me nonetheless. 

My second drama was the first sleeve. I had knitted down to the elbow when I tried the sleeve on and decided that it felt uncomfortably tight. I wasn't sure whether I was still having tension problems or my upper arms are disproportionately large - a bit of both I suspect - but I bit the bullet and frogged the sleeve back to the short rows at the sleeve cap. For my second attempt I knitted double the amount of rounds between the decreases and I'm much happier with the fit. I also knitted the sleeves to full length.

The third drama was the knitting of the buttonholes as I didn’t understand how to do them from the pattern's instructions (they were knitted differently to my previous cardigans.) Then when I figured out the method after watching a KnitPurlHunter video on YouTube (seriously, if you ever have knitting problems, check out her channel) I had to undo them all because my buttons were too large to fit the holes. Doh!

My final gripe is that the top buttonhole wants to bulge upwards. I don’t know whether that’s down to how I picked up the stitches on the buttonband or the fault of the ribbon I sewed onto the reverse to stabilise the buttonband (never done that before, it looks pretty!) I had to sew the top buttonhole vertically as the ribbon was too narrow to sew the hole horizontal to match the knitted hole - perhaps it has stretched the hole out? 

I'm aware I've spent the vast majority of this post complaining, but I genuinely like the finished cardigan and think it looks pretty despite my blunders. I love the simple lace pattern, especially the detail around the waist, and the fit is surprisingly lovely despite my tension woes. I imagine it will get as much wear as my two other Andi Satterlund cardigans.

I'm undecided which of Andi Satterlund's cardigan designs to knit next. Hetty and Anouk are already in my pattern library, although I'm also really tempted by Andi's newer design, Salal. I would need to order wool though (oh, the hardship!) if I want to make another cardigan and it would be a good idea to finish knitting my first pair of socks before I start anything else. I'm ready to turn the heel - exciting!

festive makes and bakes

I'm squeezing in one last blog post this year - my festive makes and bakes.

Personally, it isn't Christmas without pervy gingerbread Santas and boobie angel. And dinosaurs. It has been a tradition of mine for quite a few years now and they always go down a treat. I made these for a Christmas party and they caused an absolute sensation. I have never seen so many grown adults get so excited about a tray of biscuits. It was hilarious to witness.

I acquired two new biscuit cutters this year for a bit of variety - a Santa and reindeer. The Santas in particular looked really fancy once decorated but man were they labour intensive to do. I'm glad I only had a handful of them to decorate, otherwise I'd be sitting there icing for days!

In addition to gingerbread biscuits I made an industrial supply of shortbread and tablet to give as presents to family. (I have a lot of family!) The amount of sugar and butter I went through was positively obscene.

Sadly all my baking ground to a halt after the shortbread and tablet marathon as I caught a nasty cold. I just managed to make a trifle for Christmas day but didn't manage to bake anything new which was a shame.

Now onto the makes! I knitted a couple of small, silly presents and first up is this snazzy penguin. I found him a bit fiddly to put together but the end result was worth it as he looks so cute and cosy in his big jumper.

The pattern came from a book I received last Christmas called "Mini Knitted Christmas" by Sue Stratford. It has loads of funny, little festive projects which kept my Mum and me occupied through most of December. It's hard to beat a bit of knitting whilst watching terrible Christmas films about incomplete women who need a boyfriend for Christmas or vice versa. And everybody is either called Holly, Chris or Nick. It's Christmas film law.

I also knitted a gingerbread couple from the same book. They're so hilariously odd yet adorable. I photographed them against my gingerbread man dress as I couldn't resist being a matchy dork.

My last piece of random knitting was this ginger cat. The pattern is called "Beans" and is a free Ravelry download by Linda Dawkins. It only dawned on me afterwards that the cat looks more Baked Beans coloured than ginger which made me laugh. Either way, it's a cute cat and I learned how to knit an i-cord.

And last up is a sewn present. For the first time ever I was completely stumped on what to get my Mum for Christmas, so after a bit of discussion I agreed to sew her a new apron. She picked out the fabrics (spotty and gingham heavy cottons) and told me what kind of style she liked and I drafted something suitable.

I tried my absolute best to sew and finish to the best of my capabilities and I'm really pleased with how the apron turned out. My Mum is delighted with it too which is the main thing. She loves all the handy pockets, the broad straps and that the whole thing matches her kitchen perfectly.

And that's it from me this year. I intended to do a big round up of all my makes and bakes from this year but I'm afraid I've run out of steam. I'll probably do one in the new year though as I've enjoyed doing them in previous years. In the meantime, I wish you all a happy and creative 2017! x

mini festive jumper garland

Teeny tiny knitted Christmas jumpers! These are quite possibly the cutest things I have ever knitted.

The pattern is by Sue Stratford and free on Ravelry if anyone else fancies a last minute festive knitting project. They're relatively quick to make as I averaged a jumper per evening. Each jumper is knitted flat then seamed together and the charted designs can be embroidered on or knitted. I chose to knit as I wanted more practise at stranded knitting.

 This is my "I CAN KNIT ALL THE JUMPERSSS" face.

I added snow to the snowman jumper as it thought it looked cute.

I used all 6 of the charted designs which came with the pattern then made up two other designs, the pudding and the fair isle patterns, as I fancied making more jumpers.

I ended up doing a tiny bit of embroidery for the holly berries.

I'm tempted to dig out my old Barbies as I'm pretty sure these jumpers would fit them. Cool idea or a step too far? :D

How's everyone's Christmas preparations coming along? One week to go! In the past three days I have baked a ridiculous amount of gingerbread, shortbread and tablet to give as presents and now I've come down with a horrible cold. Boooo! Next I need to finish sewing my Christmas dress. I'm really excited about it.