Hama Beads

I think I have a love hate relationship with these little beads.  The children love them and will spend ages quietly sat making creations but the little beads get everywhere and I seem to be forever sweeping a stray one up, or treading on them.  Mr T is making Christmas decorations at the moment for his Nanny and Miss E makes pink things.

Mr T with his special camera face!

Miss E concentrating very hard, and surprisingly for what I think is the first time ever, making something that isn't just totally pink.

Blue

I had noticed I have been knitting a lot of pink at the moment so I asked for Mr Ts help to choose a yarn he thought he would like to wear.  Of course as we are in the middle of a very strong colour stereotype phase in this house (thanks mainly to Miss E and her pink obsession) he chose blue.  It is a very nice blue combo though so after the pink hat I have started some blue mittens.  I have a little meeting coming up with a lady at a local shop so I am trying to knit a few items to take along to show her.  After a busy day yesterday and a quiet evening while Mr Man and Mr T were out at a bat walk look how many I have managed to rustle up

The boys loved the bat walk, although the tiredness in Mr T is making today a bit stressful already and its only just past breakfast!  The bat walk was organised by a parent from our Home Ed group and it seems that everyone loved it.  I will nag Mr Man for the pictures he took to post on here as they even spotted a toad.

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.

Chunky Red Mitts

Well they are finished and oh so snuggly and soft.  I mentioned in my previous post that these were turning out a bit bigger than I had expected, and well,  they do actually fit me!!  I was hoping they would be ok for 8-10 year olds but although I do have small hands they are definitely a teen/small adult size.  I had to overcome a strong urge to keep them for myself as they are in one of my favourite colours but they are now listed for sale on Etsy.  Mr Man and I spent a long time trying to get a good photo with the mittens and a butternut squash, there were quite a few that looked a bit...inappropriate!!

A Surprise Project and New Wool

So today I had a first go at pattern designing!  I found the designing part quite easy but writing down the pattern was another matter.  I had an idea of a new hat design to sell in The Yarn Owl's Nest but couldn't find a pattern that I loved online so I decided to try my hand at designing my own.  I'm really please with how its working out but the embellishments are pretty time consuming and fiddly so I think it'll be a while before I make any to sell.  In the meantime I hope to bring you the pattern on here once I've written it in a way it makes sense to someone other than myself!


At the end of last week I had my first custom order.  The yarn arrived over the weekend so I got started after I unpacked (and photographed the yarn!!)

These three were extra colours I had fallen in love with and are waiting to be knitted into mittens.

And here is the beginnings of my first order!!!!!

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!

Card Making

A few weeks ago a lovely friend sent Mr T a card making kit she had made.  Mr T was really keen to get sticking and loved all the punched shapes and different fancy papers and embellishments.  It was bedtime by the time he had made one card but there are loads of bits left to make lots more and he is already planning his next designs!