What I did at the Weekend

Friday

So this weekend I treated myself to a days holiday and had Friday off too. Happy days :)
I've recently gained an English Heritage membership through work, so I thought I'd make some use of it and go exploring.

My friend, her daughter, Lily and I found ourselves at 11am on Friday morning driving to Dorchester to find The Nine Stones. These are essentially 9 large rocks in a circle type arrangement that were placed there about 4000 years ago. No idea why, but there are only 4 of them that can be found in Dorset, UK. Lily was strapped into the harness (the meadow walk to get there was not pushchair friendly). She seemed to enjoy the trip...



My friend also found a 4 leaf clover - which was pretty cool! I'd never seen one before.



Also published my first chapter of A Game of Life and Death. So that was pretty cool :)

Saturday

Saturday was a very busy day. Lily and I got up at 7ish, then went to swimming at 9am. She's really getting the hang of putting her face in the water - they encourage them to copy us so she's moving at her own pace with this one which is nice.

From swimming we went into Poole to meet a friend, which was lovely. Then we went straight from Poole into Bournemouth to meet some other friends for lunch at The Real Greek. We're a huge fan of high chairs in restaurants. Lily is also starting to develop a habit of studying menus...



We've also developed an attachment to a travel sized version of "I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet..." which she now pretends to read and studies the pictures. So cute!
In the evening we then went to a friend's engagement party, which was lovely :) Lily was absolutely fascinated by the disco lights and promptly fell asleep in a faster manner than she does at home. How does that work exactly?



Sunday

Was just a day of chilling, knitting and wine. Which I completed needed after the last couple of days!



I'm going to give this very yummy bottle of wine from Lidl (on offer at £2.99) the credit for giving me the courage to finally learn DPN knitting.



So that's all from me for today :) what did you guys get up to this weekend?
Love to you all and happy knitting!

MrsKirstyHoll

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New Wip - Socks 1/12

Hello all - my name is Kirsty and I am addicted to knitting....

So, in all fairness, I've started another WIP because I needed a change from the shawl (garter stitch gets boring after a while) and I have finished the first yarn ball.



This is currently on hiatus while I jump to my first sock knit of the year.



As it's my first project on DPNs I thought it might be best to start off on something small and easyish.



In all honesty, it took me a good 6 rows in to actually get the hang of this. It took ripping the first attempt apart and restarting to work out what on earth I needed the 5th needle for. Once I got started though the length soon started adding up.



By about row 5 it was feeling a lot less awkward knitting with about a zillion needles. Getting used to it now.

So my main yarn is Crofter 4ply baby fair isle effect from Sidar Snuggly (super soft). The pattern also wants some contrasting yarn for the heel - so we're swapping to Regia 4ply verigated for that. We'll see how these go. They might be for Lily if they fit, or they'll be donated if they don't. I can use this knit though to work out how much larger Lily will need it to be.



We tried Lily on orange and lemon yesterday - each slice was quickly demolished. She is quickly becoming a citrus lover! Now just to try her on some lime...

Love to you all and happy knitting

MrsKirstyHoll
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Yes I brought more knitting patterns

….To be fair they were in a charity shop.

The story started with my husband needing a lift into work. Having to drive all the way into town and, needing to buy some shopping anyway, I thought I better make use of the journey.

While I was down there – not having had time for breakfast before we left the house – Lily and I thought it would be rude not to try out Delfino Lounge (a new cafe/bar that’s opened in town). So we ordered there veggie breakfast and a coffee for £7.95. The price was worth it when we started eating. The veggie sausages were so good and not the horrible cheap ones Weatherspoons has started serving. I am also in love with the mini bean mug and the spinach and red pepper side – not something I’ve seen anywhere before.

Lily was very good and sat in her highchair (that did need a clean before use) attempting to eat the menus, my phone, the table (I didn’t understand that either) and her face cloth.

While hunting through the charity shops I found this amazing King Cole collection of Catwalk knitting patterns for £1.99! I also picked up the needle toppers for £2.49. Thinking they will look adorable on my lace needles!

So these are are a few of my favourite patterns in there…

So, as usually, I have a few things to add to the knitting list… But the instructions look pretty simple and I’m looking forward to when I can get to choosing yarn for these!

That’s all from me tonight! I’ve not long got back from work and I could really do with catching some Z’s (or at least chilling with my needles before bed).

Love to you all and happy knitting!

Mrs Kirsty Holl

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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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F.O – Julia’s house donation knit

So.. drum roll please… this is now a finished object. For a number of reasons this ‘quick project’ has taken a lot longer then it should have.

But it’s finished on time to donate for a raffle to raise money for a charity for Julia’s house – it helps support families of disabled kids. So really hope it helps and it’s always feels so rewarding to donate knits.

This infinity scarf design is in ladder stitch pattern on 6mm straight needles – which always feels weird as I usually knit of circular where I can. But it looks so effective in the pattern with the single block colour. In all honesty, I have enough of this yarn to knit another scarf for myself… which is seriously tempting and will happen next time I need an easy project and I loved the yarn to.

That all from me for today (want to get some sleep in before Lily wakes up for a feed!).

Love to you all and happy knitting!

MrsKirstyHoll

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F.O Baby hat Aran Yarn

So I was pleased as punch when I found this pattern in a Julia’s house charity shop about a month ago – a complete bargin at 50p! I’ve had a huge ball of this lovely white aran yarn in my stash for years with no idea what to do with it. So this also became a stash project to – so total win on this one!

It was a really nice knit – and I also learnt the LT stitch which cause a really cool twist that runs up the hat. The only problem was the decrease at the end which involved knitting in pattern. Had to get some help from the lovely ladies in the knitting circle!

The pom pom was my first make with the maker I brought from the knitting and stitching show (see the multipom frame in the picture below). It was by far the fastest pom pom I have ever made. The concept of a scrap yarn pompom rug for Lilly’s room is looking more likely (but definitely not until after we stop eating things!) as I don’ think it will take a horrendous amount of time to make the required pom poms.

So the hat is about size 6-9 months (Lily has a large head). Although it does fit Lily, this one is going to be donated. The next project out of this yarn will be the matching cardigon. I love the cross over front – the other patterns I picked up on the day had a similar design.

That’s all for the minute. Will try and find some time to update you on my current wips! I have been knitting and attempting the crochet…

Love to you all and happy knitting

MrsKirstyHoll

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F.O. – Scrap yarn cot blanket

My knitting speed has definately increased. This is good news in light of my limited knitting time these days. 

So this was knitted with my favourite curcular needles – addi premium. Such a pleasure to knit with!

Luckily I finished knitting on a day with some glourious evening sunshine!

I’m so pleased with how this turned out. Really love the image and the mix of colours within it. I have used up some yarn balls… but not was many as I thought I would. So need to look and some other smaller projects for that…

What I really learnt with this project was colour changing. It wasn’t something I’d really done before. Initially I was just cutting off the ends with the intention of sewing in later.

Then as I went on I figured out that winding the yarn was much tidier and saved a lot of time. Will definately use this method on furture projects!

The final side of this was 1m x 1m plus a 5cm border on both ends. 

On a side note the border matches my nail polish…

I had originally hoped that a 4×4 ribbed border would have prevented the end curling. I think sticking with the same needles with the slightly thinner dk mucked up tension and so it curled anyway. 

But it still looks shiny  

This blanket will be a christmas present for Lily. She’ll have grown into it by then!

Now time for a crochet project  Already planned with yarn in the bag and pattern downloaded. So watch this space!

Love to you all and happy yarning!

Mrskirstyholl (and Lily)

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W.I.P update - Harry Potter Scrap Yarn Blanket

Hi all! 

For reasons I’m not going to share, I’ve ended up having a lot of knitting time this week – Lilys fine just incase you were starting to worry!

But what that does mean is that I’ve finished the picture on Lily’s blanket! I’ve still got at least another 20cm of knitting and the border to go. But this last bit should be pretty quick. 

I’m really pleased with how its turned out. Slightly edited the design to make the top of the head rounder. That’s the additional stitches in dark blue in the pic below at the one end for the top few rows. 

So off to continue knitting. Will get the colour finished and border done for the top end. Then will pick up stitches to extend colour and do border for the bottom. So nearlly there!!!

Hopefully the next one for this blanket will be a finished object post… 

Love to you all and happy knitting!

Mrskirstyholl

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W.I.P Progress Report - Scrap Yarn Harry Potter Blanket

Made some good progress on the blanket over the last few days. Stocking stitch is making this a pretty quick knit.

The blanket is twice as wide as this – mainly wanted to show you the picture progress. 

You’ll also see that it’s rolling up at the bottow. Thinking of countering by picking up a cable stitch or ribbed stitch border. It’ll also help extend the length a bit. 

For the first few lines I was cutting and rejoining. But finding the tension remains more consistent when I’ve been weaving the colour in with the black. Also has the benefit of being less ends to weave in  (complete win!!) 

That’s all from me for now… off to stare at my yarn collection…

Love to you all and happy knitting!

Mrskirstyholl

F.O Premmi baby blanket

So after about a month of on and off knitting the lavender blanket is done. It’s not perfect, but hopefully it’ll keep some else’s little fighter nice and toasty  

The ripple knit pattern was a new one for me. Definitely something I’d like to try in a shawl or something with some colour changes!

So this F.O is going to be donated on Monday. I’m off to get started on my next project!

Love to you all and happy knitting 

MrsKirstyHoll

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F.O. Octopus for a premmie (Knitted)

After about a month I’ve finally finished knitting an octopus. It’s the first toy thing I’ve successfully knitted  – which does make me pleased with how much my technical skills have increased. 

It seriously hurt my hands though (lots of breaks did increase the time this project took)! Tiny lace circular needles and high tension to avoid holes were a must for this project – although this did mean I had to use a crochet hook and double crochet to bind off the tentacles.

Not very curly tentacles. But otherwise I am pretty pleased with it. The plan is to move onto the flat crochet makes as they seem quicker to produce. Also the crochet seems to give more curls!

Once I’ve made about 4 or 5 tentacle friends I’ll send them off to a coordinator to be cuddled by babies in NICUs in the UK.

Sorry for the short post. I’m frantically trying to get my purple premmi blanket finished because it’s been a WIP for a while and I would like to get it donated a week Monday ideally! Then I have my spare yarn blanket WIP to finish – although I’ll slip a mini octo project in the middle of those. So a few stash projects in progress. 

Love to you all and happy knitting this bank holiday!!!

Mrskirstyholl

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F.O – Knitting Patchwork Blanket

So in some big news – Drum roll please – I’ve finished the patchwork blanket. All the knitting, the sewing and cutting.

After 2 years, this project is finally done.

So after 2 years, 90 squares, a pregnancy and a baby… it’s all done!

This project came at a perfect time in my life. I saw the advertising for the Art of Knitting magazine at a time in my life where I wanted to get back into knitting, but didn’t know quiet where to start. So I started one square at a time.

Since starting this project, I’ve knitted hats, knitted a jumper, a blanket for Lily. It’s been a skill that has helped keep me sane for the last couple of years and really helps keep me balanced. I love how it’s improved my quality of life and I love the people I’ve met both on and offline because of knitting.

So love to you all

Happy knitting!

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Be W.I.P Update

Hay guys! 

Lily is asleep (for now) and I’ve managed and shower and some housework. So definately winning.

So I’ve started back at work this week. It’s been a pretty gentle catchup week. So that’s been a great way to readjust. Hoping to get properly stuck in next week!

Patchwork blanket

I’ve picked up stitches for my border. So I’m hoping the stocking stitch could be a quick way to finish this off!

About half way through border 2. 

Odd ball/scrap yarn blanket

So this is the stocking stitch Harry Potter blanket for Lily. It’s using up the pile of yarn I have left from the patchwork and some other spare ‘what do I do with these?’ Balls from the stash.

Premmi baby blanket

This is the blanket I’m knitting as part of the preemi knitting group on a Monday. The ripple pattern is simple, but it looks really pretty.

Octo for a Premmie

This is my first go at this pattern. On tentacle number 4 now. I love the look. But my tentacles are a bit hit and miss!

Anyhow, I’m off to do some more knitting!

Lily says hi by the way – she’s 3 months old today!

Love to you all and happy knitting

Mrskirstyholl 

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