Oatmeal Marl Hat

Loving this new oatmeal marl yarn.  It is a wool mix so a little warmer than my other pom pom hats.  It has a lovely natural rustic look and is great for unisex baby gifts.  Thank you Linda Clarke Photography for the fabulous photo, what a gorgeous little girl!

Hat available for custom order at The Yarn Owls Nest.

Sunny Seaside Inspired Hat

A few lovely beach days have inspired the colourway for this newborn baby hat.  It is knitted in a lovely silvery grey and denim blue vegan yarn and the prototype was actually knitted up on the beach. It is for sale already up on The Yarn Owl's Nest Etsy Shop but if you would like a different size please contact me.

As for the beach, everyone loved it, and I am still finding sand around the house even after hoovering and sweeping!

New style Wee Willie Winkie Hat

A new design I came up with for Christmas (I know its too early for the C word but this year I am trying to be a bit more prepared!).

Fluffy Fancy Yarn

Look what I had a play with yesterday!  Was a bit worried it would be tricky to knit with but it was lovely.  Its for a special request for a lovely photographer and I can't wait to see it being used.

Elves at the Ready!

The weather here is wet and grey.  I put out washing yesterday and today it is wetter than when it came out of the machine.  It even feels wintery so we have spent the day inside crafting, lego building, reading (kids) and knitting elf hats (me)!

The elf hat on the left is the first of my Christmas ideas (I know, I realised I completed it exactly 6 months before the big day itself!), the middle is rose and cream and the one on the right is the cocoa and cream one. Don't forget if you would like a chance of winning a cocoa and cream one scroll down to my giveaway post!

An Elf Hat

I know I have been quiet but life is busy and to be honest not really blog-able.  The busy-ness is not really crafty, or baking, or fun with the smalls.  All of those things have been going on of course, they always do in this Home Ed family but other things have been keeping me busy at the moment.

Amongst all the hustle and bustle though I have knitted up a new hat, an elf hat specially requested for a photo shoot.  I enjoyed knitting it although I wasn't keen on so much row counting ;)

I haven't listed it for sale as it was made to order but I hope to knit up some more to sell soon, and maybe one for Miss E!

Ice Cream Hat

Ok so we still haven't seen much sun yet this year but this hat is definitely giving me an ice cream feeling.  Its knit in lovely Sirdar Snuggly Baby Crofter and is super soft and squooshy!

This one is a toddler size, just a bit too small for Miss E otherwise I think it wouldn't have actually made it into the shop as it has plenty of pink in it ;)

Internet Problems

For the last three and a bit weeks we have been without internet and phone connection, hopefully it'll be fixed on Thursday.  I have been able to pop on occasionally thanks to my lovely neighbours sharing their wifi but that is why I have been a bit quiet.  Here are a few pics of the knitting I have managed to get on with though with less time to Facebook/pinterest/Ravelry etc!

Another earflap hat

With our dodgy internet getting online is proving quite a tricky procedure but has given me more knitting time!  Here is my new off-the-needles hat

The pattern is an adaption of this hat knitted up in King Cole Twist Aran.  I followed the 6-9 months instructions but did the body a little longer and a larger garter stitch rim.  I have put it for sale as unisex although it does have some cerise pink in it, the colours are really autumnal!

Blue Earflaps Batman!

Finished a custom order early this morning for a little baby boy.  I attempted a brand new pattern, a lot of frogging occurred but the end results are well worth the effort, I hope the little man and his Mummy like it too!

If you are also in the UK you will know why these photos are sooo dark... we have had 2 days of torrential rain and floods.  Apparently it is supposed to stop at lunchtime, I think I may wait until this afternoon before I take these to the Post Office!

Falling Leaf Hat

Here is my newest creation and I have to say am really pleased with it.  I followed this Green leaf baby hat pattern to start off with but used DK so I cast on 72 stitches for the newborn size on 4.5mm needles.  I was tired when I was finishing it and misread the decreases part of the pattern and missed out the plain knit rounds.  It meant this one had a founded instead of the more pointed top but I think I actually prefer it.  Its up for sale in my Etsy shop and I'm already thinking about some other colourways!

I think it looks sort of elf-like, don't you think? I really want to try it in some variegated autumny yarn!

Flower Hat

I still had some of Jenny Cooks gorgeous hand dyed yarn left and found a lovely hat design on Ravelry.  I contacted Jolene about making a hat from this design and she sent back a lovely reply so I got knitting.  Here is the lovely pattern .  The hat knitted up really well but I found the flower really fiddly and ended up frogging it and following a different pattern from Knit With KT.  I like the big flower on weeny hat look but I think next time I make one I will do a slightly more in scale flower as I figure some people might think its a bit big.

Casting on...

...a few more projects!!

I am usually a finish one project before starting on another sort of person but I wanted a portable knit as well as the mittens and circular needles are much safer for moving about with than all those points!!

The lilac is another berry hat and the red is an experiment really, using the Debbie Bliss Glen to make an extra large sized baby mitten.  They are looking bigger than I expected as I was hoping they would be suitable for 5-8 year olds.  At the moment they look like they'll fit me!

Knitted pumpkins great and small

I happened to walk past Miss E when she was playing in her toy kitchen and spotted a tiny little pumpkin I had knitted a few years back when I was having a phase of knitting play food.  I managed to "borrow" it from here when she had whirled off into another game.  Don't you think it makes the perfect companion to my baby hat?

The pattern is from here I think, although there are loads of free pumpkin toy patterns about online.  I haven't a clue what yarn I used, I have a feeling the orange is pure wool and the green cashmerino but it was knitted when Mr T was a baby so who knows!!

Beginning to look a bit like Autumn

Its raining again here.  I have heard that everywhere else in the UK are having a heatwave, well it seems to have missed us and instead the garden is under water again.  Some lovely friends brought us a playhouse for the garden and both children have been an almost permanent fixture in it since its arrival although Miss E is a bit worried because its now wet!!!

At a quick visit to the market I bought home these

Damsons!!!!!  They are sitting there looking at me and reminding me that autumn is definitely not far away.  Hopefully by the end of today they will become a Damson Crumble.  If I am feeling brave I may even allow Miss E and Mr T to make it.

Whilst my sister was here I managed to complete another hat, this time I used purple for the berry section.  I ordered the wool online and when it arrived it was much more Cadburys purple than I had expected.  I'm pleased with how its turned out although I'm not quite sure what to call it, blueberry, blackberry, blackcurrant??!!  I cast on 80 stitches and it has come out almost big enough for Miss E so probably a 1-2 year size (she insisted on squeezing her head into it as she is sure one of these hats should be for her even though most days she refuses to wear anything that is not at least partially pink!).

(Sorry the photo is soooo dark but so is the house today the weather is so awful)

Another pumpkin

My first pumpkin is on the way to its new owner and I have knitted a couple more.  Another one from the same pattern but this time in the baby size and a second one in newborn size from this lovely pattern.  I'm not sure which I prefer although the berry one is much quicker and easier to knit as its all done in one piece.  I've been back online and ordered some more yarn so I am planning on producing a field full of these in time for autumn!

Mr T has been busy with his Hama beads and has made these for a custom order, they just need threading up and they will be ready to hang on the Christmas tree in a few months time.

I can smell autumn!!

Its almost my birthday and although it is still summer there is a definite hint of autumn on its way.  I have got back into my knitting and have made a very autumnal hat.  I used this pattern and made the toddler size with Stylecraft bought from this super fast online shop.  I managed to get Miss E to model it for me even though its not pink, it is a bit small for her but she does have quite a big head so I'm hoping it will fit its recipient ok.  I have decided to make a few more to sell so if anyone fancies one message me, the pattern even goes up to adult size ;-)

The pattern called for two leaves but I quite fancied a tendril instead!

Long time no see

Things have been a bit all over the place here so I had to vanish for what seems like ages.  Fingers crossed, touch wood etc I should be back to crafting now and hopefully posting again!  Ihave got to that awful part of making my flower cushion that is "the ends".  There are what seems like hundreds of them to sew in and I keep on putting it off.  I've started a new knitting project, a pumpkin hat, which I am hoping to finish in the next few weeks.  For Ravelry peeps I am using this pattern for the hat, but am doing the leaves and stem both in green.