WIP – Terribly Simple Shawl

So this is a super easy knit that I was inspired to do after seeing A Tangled Yarn’s blog post a few weeks ago. The pattern from Caitlin Ffrench got screen-shootted into my gallery and stored for a latter date.

I got bored and went rifling through my stash (mainly to see if I could justify buying more yarn – turn out that a no-go currently… damn). But what I did find was about 5 balls of cotton textured yarn which have little bobbles all the way through. Honestly, I only brought them because they were only 99p a ball…. Then I had no idea what to do with them…

…Until now.

I’m going to be honest, I love the effect it’s making – the textured yarn seems to match up really well with the lack of any interesting knitting pattern – but its so uncomfortable to knit with. This is a knit that needs to be done, as apposed to one to fall in love with. This is the first me knit I’ve done for a long time. It’s going to be my first shawl and I will take it to work with me – the aircon is freezing and it’d be nice to have an additional layer to hand to wrap around my shoulders!

The plan is to increase the size of the circular needles every 10cm or so to see what happens. Should also mean the long rows knit up a bit quicker!

That’s all from me for tonight. It’s been a long couple of days and I need to get some sleep!

Love to you all and happy Knitting!

MrsKirstyHoll

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Lily Shopping... Opps I did it again!

Does Lily need more clothes? No. But she has more anyway.

Mummy and Daddy went shopping again... To be fair we only go to Dronfield about once a year, so it was our first time taking advantage of their baby shops!

Our first stop was the adorable Tiny Tots Boutique (Dronfield). The owner was super lovely and super helpful. We brought Lily some beautiful outfits - although we were sensible and did buy bigger stuff. So she'll look adorable while she's learning to walk! I'm not going to say exactly how much we spent... but I will admit that by the time she's big enough to run through puddles I will not be spending this much!

6-12 months

The light weight organic cotton will make this ideal for the summer

12 Months+

I was about to pay... then I saw this dress and I couldn't leave without it!

This was half price.... So it would have been rude to leave it behind....

This dress is absolutely adorable. Enough said.

In an effort to then be slightly sensible in our financial decisions we then hit the local charity shops. These are up in the local civic centre and include a Banardos Children's shop (highly recommend!).

Mummy's purchase...

Hoping to use this super chunky yarn to knit a miny blanket for Lily - using my super huge needles. So technically a Lily buy really...

Lily shopping

Lily's first moneybox

£2.49!! Size 12 - 18 months. Also a super colour

£3.49. This red dress is also 12-18 months and is seriously cute.

John Lewis dress are about £20 new. So for £2 this is an absolute bargin. Size 3-6 months - so Lily will pretty much fit this now.

At £2.50 with the original label still on it, I couldn't leave this behind. I have a leather jacket with almost the same design... so when Lily fits this next year we'll match!

I love Quentin Blake. 25p!

£2.00. We have the Gruffulo equivalent of this book already. Love the sounds and story combo. Also really colourful - so ideal for kids!

£2.99. The joys of co-sleeping? This is now hanging over my bed...

So that's a summary of our purchases for the weekend! Thankfully I don't get much time for shopping at the moment so I don't end up buying to much... Also back at work in April so I can then have less time and more money (for yarn food and bills and other stuff).

Anyhow... I'm off to see if my daughter has any space left in her wardrobe...

Love to you all

MrsKirstyHoll

x

Charity Shops finds for Lily

So on Tuesday (as part of my new get fit routine), I pushed Lily up the our local shop parade. Mainly with the aim of a Coffee once I reached my destination – a much required prize after the huge hill I needed to walk up to get there!

Julia’s house has recently opened up a charity shop on the parade up there. It looks fantastic and has a great range of clothes up there. I’ve already got myself a dress and Lily has had plenty from there when it opened the other week. But I was particularly pleased with my haul on Tuesday. So I thought I would share it with you all – as I am a seriously big believer in charity shops for baby clothes. It’s a really great way of cheaply buying practically new clothes for hardly any money.

3-6 Months

This dress will look adorable with a long sleeved baby grow underneath!

These dungarees are made from some really nice thick denim. I was so surprised with the price and I’m hoping she’ll get some decent wear from them as they look huge!!

6-9 months

For a £1 this dress was an absolute bargin! I think it’s adorable and will look super cute with a set of white leggings.

Both of our parents have dogs. So this was a T-shirt I couldn’t resist – especially as it still has the original price tag on it. It’s amazing how many baby clothes still have the original price tags on.

9-12 months

Both my husband and I love dinosaurs. So this was not going to be left behind. It will be autumn by the time Lily fits this. Which will be ideal and so she’ll hopefully get some decent use from it 

On the other hand, here is a super cute picture of Lily in a Darth Vader onesie that we got from Mothercare . The annoying thing is that I paid about £10 and I doubt she’ll get more than a month’s wear out of it!

But she did look awesome at our under one’s group on Wednesday!

Not got much knitting done this week. I’m pretty sure we have gremlins in our house that produce washing. I swear I have spent every moment Lily has been asleep either washing up of doing laundry! It’s seriously starting to drive me nuts!!!

FYI – I really hate housework, but if I don’t then my house looks like its been hit by a (baby sized) bomb!

I’m off to the knitting and stitching show on Sunday. So keep an eye on my Instagram for updates from that and I’ll post my review of the show (with pictures of yarny goodness) early next week.

Hopefully I’ll get some knitting done on the train ride up to London!

Mummy brain signing off

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

X

Charity shop finds

So I had some really cute finds in charity shops last week  Just thought I’d share….

1. Milk jug. £1.49

I brought this for a project – it’s now been turned into a pin cushion….

2. Hat. £2.99

I nearlly walked out of this charity shop… then spotted it on the way out.

I really couldn’t help myself. I am totally in love with this hat.

3. Needles. 50p per pair. 25p per single double point / cable needle

I’m still in the process of building up my knitting ‘tool kit’ so any cheap needles are always welcome. I was very pleased to find all of these over a couple of days.

16 double point. Mix of 2.75mm, mix of 3.00mm and 3.25mm.

1 x 3.0mm cable

1 x 6.00mm cable

1 x 6.00mm needle pair

1 x 6.50mm needle pair

1 x 7.00mm needle pair

1 x 9.00mm needle pair.

This week has been a bit of a win!

Yarn Addict Signing off

MrsKirstyHoll

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