F.O - Baby Blanket

As promised - I have managed to finish the weave effect Baby Blanket. This pattern was from the Love Knitting for Baby magazine Dec Issue. 

I really did enjoy knitting this pattern - designed by the blogged Laura Strutt. It was really easy to follow and had enough aspects of the pattern that you could really personalise it. The design was also really quick to knit up when you get into the rhythm. 

In addition, I also feel a lot more comfortable with picking up stitches than I was before I started. It's really helped me understand how this technique can affect the structure of a garment. 

Those of you with a keen eye may notice that the border does not match the colours used in the body of the blanket. That would be because I didn't have enough wool left of the 2 balls of each colour for the border. I could have done with having 3 of each. So I found a ball of wool in John Lewis that I could order in next day collection. I was in such a rush to order the yarn (I really wanted to get the blanket finished) that I ended up ordering the slightly off red instead of the red. 

Although, I'm actually really pleased with the overall effect and to make the colour look less like a mistake, I knitting the border with 5 rows rather than the advised 3. Personally, I think it gives the colour more of a pop.

Lily tested the blanket out this morning. We went on a walk while the sun was out. Although it was a bit chilly (hence the pick ASDA hat).

What have you lovely lot finished recently? 

I'm off to focus on getting the patchwork finished (and giving Lily lots of cuddles)!

Mummy brain signing off

MrsKirstyHoll

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7 Week Update

So Lily is now 7 weeks old today. It's been a weird 7 weeks to be honest. A strange point between wakefulness and sleeping. Even being awake hasn't been fully awake. 

Learning how to be a new mum has definitely been one of the best as well as one of the hardest things I have ever done. But it's so rewarding - especially now Lily is starting to smile. Both my husband and I have have been given a huge grin at least once this week. Her little personality is starting to eek through and it's so much fun watching it happen. 

The scary thing is that I only have a month left before I have to go back to work. I was honestly not expecting the time to go this quickly  - which was probably a bit naive to be honest. But due to necessity I need to go back to work, which will reduce any sparish time I have considerably.

So I need to get some serious speed knitting done over the next few weeks to get my WIPS finished. I'm also looking forward to watching Lily get more and more alert. There is a couple of local sensory groups  I want to start taking her to in about a month. She's completely in love with lights and shiny things at the moment and starting to stay awake for longer and longer periods.

Lily is also now managing to stay awake for most of the under one's group we go to on a Wednesday morning. This week was the first time she's started to pay attention to some of the other babies. I'm hoping she'll eventually figure out crawling by paying attention and copying the other babies. She's currently one of the youngest in the group so I'm hoping she'll get a lot out of it. 

I won't do a WIPS update this week. I've been focusing on Lily's blanket this week to try and get it finished. Only about 2.5 colour rows and the border need doing  - then it's all done! Lily is with her grandparents this afternoon. So once I've finished this speedy update then I will get on with some speedy knitting (along with a cheeky G&T! - while the mice/baby is away....)....

Love to you all, Mummy brain signing off

MrsKirstyHoll

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To make list – the beginning

Right… so I keep adding stuff to my make list. I really felt like I needed to get all the ideas together for planned projects in a list so I can focus on the projects I have yarn for before I buy more of it…. Although I can’t promise I won’t come back from the knitting and stitching show with more yarns and more patterns… 

I’ll confess those yarny sins when I get back… 

1. Firstly I want to get this blanket finished. Another 10 rows to go and then the border.

2. Then I want to get this blanket finished. 20 squares, then to sew them together before adding the border to go.

3. Then I want to finish a Star Wars scarf WIP I found in my wardrobe while tidying last weekend. Sample tension square done and needles / yarn purchased.

4. This freebie lace shawl pattern. This would be my first lace pattern. So pretty exciting. Yarn came free with mag and needles purchased.

5. Knitted baby sock. Yarn already purchased. This will be the first if 12 socks I want to knit this year.

6. Jumper for Lily. 

7. Cardigon for Lily.

8.  Scrap yarn blanket. I found this crochet pattern yonks ago. Now I have enough scrap yarn this I think I can make the background look really funky. Will probably end up giving this to Lily for a Christmas present or keeping it as a family blanket for the sofa. 

Original Source of Chart Image – Happy Hooker

So that should keep me busy for a while. But I really need to focus on 1 project at a time to ensure that they make some decent progress. I think that needs to be a resolution for the year!

Off to carry on knitting!

MrsKirstyHoll

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Progress on my to-do list

Thought you guys would like an update on my progress went with that to-do list:

• Edit and update a spreadsheet for a mate (I am a bit of a fan on Excel - so feel free to ping me any questions if you have any) - done!
• Make a start on my Daily Greatness Journal - new year, new me (and mini me) - managed to make a decent amount of progress through the planning stages 
• Start reading through the collection of blogging books I've brought to help grow this blog - not got very far with this one. Started the book from Problogger by Darren Rowse and Chris Garret. So far feels like a really easy read and it looks like its going to be really informative.
• Take down my Christmas decs - otherwise bubs will turn up and it just won't happen! - Christmas tree down and all of the decs packed away. Currently in boxes on the stairs ready to go into the loft!
• Catch up on clothes washing - again when bubs appears there will be a lot! - all done and hung up :) 
• Tidy up my lounge - it looks like it's been attacked after a week of both of us being in the house. - looking significantly better then it did this morning! 
• Knitting - Complete the last Diagonal Stripe Square. - completed! So that's another pattern down :) really enjoyed knitting this one actually! 
• Knitting - work 2 colour rows of the baby blanket - worked one so far. So making some progress on this :) 

• Schedule/draft blog articles - with the theory that with bubs I am not going to have a lot of time! - so not really made any progress on this. Going to get started this evening once I've posted this one.

There was also a massive energy crash which saw me half dozing on the sofa for a couple of hours. My hips have also started hurting again. So I think the plan is to jump into another hot bath later on in the hope my muscles feel less achy!

I also managed to capture this really cool bit of footage of bubs having a good of wiggle around. Head over to my Instagram @mrskirstyholl if you want to take a look!

Happy new year all

Baby brain signing off

MrsKirstyHoll

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WIP Progress Report

Hay to all my lovely followers!

So this week has actually been super productive on the knitting front. I’ve had lots of lovely friends and family come to visit me this week and so I’ve managed to get a lot of knitting done!

This week we are totaling 6 squares (so catching up on my 2 square shortfall from last week) and 2 colour rows of the blanket.

The reason for my massive square catch up is I had a batch of 5 moss stitch squares to complete. Over the course of the week I have become – if I do say so myself – a pretty speedy moss stitch knitter. The first square took me about 6 hours to knit, while the 5th one took about half the time. I still think the stitch is seriously boring to do for any length of time, but the final affect is nice.

So I only have 21 squares to knit (according to my spreadsheet which was definitely a Godsend to the speedy completion of this project). Which means we are definitely on the final countdown to this first stage of my knitting journey. After we’ve sewn that together I can find something else to knit… (AKA start my aim of finishing 12 socks this year)

I’m hoping to get some serious blanket rows knitting done this afternoon and during this week. It’s really starting to gain some length now! It’s becoming a seriously awesome blanket and I am looking forward to seeing the final finished piece. Of course, I am especially looking forward to seeing Lily actually using the final finished piece!

Lily, on the other hand, is growing every day – can you believe she’s 6 weeks today? She’s now weighing in at a healthy 12ib (about 5.4kg). The health visitor came on Friday and was really pleased with her development. Lily can now hold her head up and almost has enough strength to sit up – we also have an ’emerging smile’ (so not just wind and this was witnessed by the Health Visitor). She’s also starting to pay attention to rattles and turning her head to see the direction of the sound. So it shouldn’t be long until she starts properly reacting to her toys (she has a lot).

Yarn Addict Signing off – I have a lot to get done this afternoon!

MrsKirstyHoll

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1 month in – wips in progress, more wips to be and baby progress

So we’re just slightly over 1 month in to motherhood. Lily and me are doing pretty well. 

She has put on one serious growth spurt over the last couple of weeks! We’re now about 11.5 ibs. So Lily is now in size 2 nappies – my baby is growing so quickly!

Which does mean she’s already growing out of clothes… Thankfully I managed to pick up this dress for an absolute bargin from a charity shop last week -£1.00!!!

Her development is happening so fast as well. She can now lift her head up and she wants to able to crawl and sit up – she just needs a little more strength in her arms and back. Deffinately no longer a newborn!

Lily’s pram blanket is making some serious progress. I’ve figured that if I can get about 3 rows a week done it will be about finished by the time I get back to work in April. 

I’ve also managed to get a couple of squares done for the patchwork blanket. I need to average about 4 of these a week to get this done before I head back to work…. So yes I am running behind already.

While in Hobbycraft yesterday I made the mistake of checking out their magazines…

The freebie yarn is to make this easy level lace pattern…  

I’ve ordered the required circular needles and am actually really excited about giving this a go! 

The mag also has some other really cute pattern ideas.   Will let you know more when I get around to knitting them… 

That’s me over and out while I run off to the needles while Lily continues to nap…

Mummy brain signing off

MrsKirstyHoll

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Blog prompt – Craft/crafting

Today I felt inspired by the wordpress word prompt...

I’ve always been into craft and crafting. My Crafting genius started early on… 

My crafting talents lay dormant for a long time though. I learnt some basic knitting stitches from my nan when I was 7 and spent my time knitting scarves for dolls.

From there I took art for GCSE. Which was a great chance to learn how to plan a project. I also had a chance to play with a number of materials.

I managed to get an A… so I was actully pretty good at drawing at that time. Although my skill has sadely decreased due to the lack of drawing practice in the following years.

Through the A level and uni years I unfortunately lost any priority for crafting. I did rediscover writing for a time (I had spent most of my teenage years writing fanfiction) and wrote a draft of a novel that is yet to be edited, but the yarn lay gathering dust in a cupboard.

The only crafting I did for a long time was this me to you cross stitch kit.

When I really get in the zone my cross stitching isn’t to bad. However, I do find this zone very hard to find and normally struggle to count the squares etc. My more recent attempts at cross stitch have ended in a rather botched attempt and corresponding reduction in enthusiasm for the project.

The craft of knitting didn’t find its way back into my heart until a couple of years ago. I’d recently finished a job that had really stressed me out and found a new one where I was much happier. As a result I wanted to really ensure that I kept myself on more of an even plane.

I picked up issue 1 one the art of knitting and I was completely hooked again. Within days I had subscribed and was knitting squares almost constantly. One of my early successes was a scarf (we’ll ignore the couple of dropped stitches) which I’m still wearing today.

While I admit the squares are still continuing, my confidence in my knitting has really progressed. I’m now knitting from proper patterns and feel more confident with trying new technical elements and more complex designs. With this constant learning process this is a craft that I plan on keeping at the forefront for a very long time. 

I’m also loving being able to knit for my daughter now. It’s so rewarding.

My current major WIP is a blanket for her. I’m hoping that will be done by the end of the month.

So knitting is the craft that constantly saves my sanity on a daily basis and is the subject of many of my articles on here. So also my muse as well 

Going to go and smell my yarn stash now…

Mummy brain signing off 

MrsKirstyHoll

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Project 333 – The beginning

So Lily is currently having a nap (yay). Today (with the loss of my bump and the renewed temptation to buy new clothes) I thought it would be a good time to start having a sort and slim down of my wardrobe.  

The plan is to reduce my wardrobe (not including p.js, workout clothes or underwear) down to 33 items. This is partly an attempt to really simplify my life again – with limited time I want to be able to priortise my daughter, husband and knitting rather than my stuff. So now seems like a really great time to do that.

Currently I have filled 3 shopping bags filled with clothes and I’m still not at that 33 yet. I still havn’t gone through my coats or my shoes!

Now I’ve made the major cull, I’m going to keep what’s left in the wardrobe. Over the next few months I’m going to see what I wear and remove anything that doesn’t. I honestly did not think it would be this difficult!!

But I am seriously excited that this dress fits again…

It’s black, glittery and very flattering!

I’ve also booked myself in for a hair appointment in March. This is the look I want to go for.

So with an updated hairstyle and updated wardrobe I am looking forward to my new look going back to work!

Mummy brain signing off

MrsKirstyHoll

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