Off The Needles: Wee Willie Winkie Hat

Do you ever have one of those projects that takes so much longer than you planned for, that it feels like a massive relief not to be working on it any more?

Objectively, there's nothing wrong with this hat. It's a cute pattern and will look adorable on a toddler's head. But over the course of knitting this one, I fell seriously out of love with it and it was purely the fact that I'd been working on it for so long that I stubbornly persisted with it!

The finished article.

I've documented my reasons for not liking this one so much before and I'll point out they have nothing to do with the pattern (by Lynne Rowe) or the yarn (Yarnsmiths Create DK). It's all me.

First up, the colours. When I selected the purpley-blue and grey shades, I loved how they looked together. But then I started knitting it whilst watching Wicked and started to think that pink and green would've been a fun combination.

The aforementioned Wicked watching also led to my other issue. I spent ages merrily knitting away, then realised that I'd made a mistake and as much as I was hoping that it would even itself out, it didn't and I was forced to restart. I think I had to start over at least once or twice more as well!

This makes me feel annoyed with myself, because if I had doubts about the colours, this would have been the time to correct them, rather than rigidly sticking to what I'd originally chosen.

In progress at the studio.

And then there was simply the time it took me to knit the hat. Again, this was all on me.

I picked the largest size to knit, so there were quite a few stitches per round, and I was using slightly thinner needles than usual. I think that contributed to how long it took to knit.

Starting it also coincided with starting a new role at work that I really hated. I found myself really struggling with motivation full stop, so my knitting declined sharply. Before work, I felt lethargic and unable to settle to things, and after I felt tired and drained, and as it involved using two balls of yarn at once, it wasn't as portable as some of my other projects. And I was learning to crochet at the same time, which seriously hampered my knitting time.

Watching it grow.

Once I made it onto the decrease section there were two different things going on; the stripe sequence every four rows and a decrease every three. Try as I might, I just couldn't keep it straight in my own head. Instead I had to write out each row so I knew what I was to do and when, there was no way I could just autopilot it.

Happily, with the decreases started, the number of stitches on the needles steadily reduced and the rounds sped up. It felt like once I was onto that point, I actually zoomed along really quickly. The pattern called for a pom-pom but I felt like a tassel worked better with the look. And despite not really enjoying the knitting process of this one, I'm really pleased with the finished project.

But I'm having a slight break from hats by knitting a pair of socks now!

On The Needles: Elder Throw

It's been over a month since I last shared my Elder Throw blanket progress. Back when I started it, I over-optimistically planned to finish it by the end of 2025, dedicating roughly 6.5 weeks to each of the eight original pattern releases. After all, the first panels are basically just garter stitch and that's super quick and easy to knit.

Three down!

Best laid plans and all that!

As it happens, they are pretty quick to knit up. I can do a standard square in about two sittings of an evening. The thing that slows me down is when I need to pick up the stitches to join the first two squares together and knit the third and fourth squares of a panel. Actually picking up stitches in this project isn't so bad, garter ridges make it nice and straightforward but I still need a degree of concentration. Recently, I was chatting to my mum while picking up stitches along the edge and realised when I got to the end I was one short. When I looked back along the row, I'd missed the very first stitch so had to pull them all off and start over again!

Despite my relatively slow progress on these squares, it is one of my favourite things to knit. The fact that each square involves using two balls of yarn at a time means it's not always a portable project and relies on me having the space in my bag to fit them in. Obviously, what this tells me is that I need a bigger bag! 

These colours!

I'm now at the point of finishing my final four square panel. This will be followed by a nine square panel and then I'll be finally done with these mitred squares and onto something new! 

Introducing Rupert

I've missed posting the past two Fridays, that's the day I normally aim to share whatever item I've most recently finished. The first week, I simply didn't have anything to share and there was no point in posting without having something to share.

And this handsome boy is the reason for my failure to post last Friday.

Meet Rupert

We collected him after I finished work on Friday so our evening was spent settling the little guy in. In the build up to him arriving, I didn't get very much knitting or crochet done. I was a little bit anxious about whether it would all go smoothly and maybe panicking slightly in case we were about to make a big mistake!

We lost our old dog, Tara, exactly a year to the day yesterday. I knew the anniversary of having her put to sleep was coming up, but I had tried not to focus on the date; I didn't want to be concentrating on that if I had something on that day, playing back events of that day in my mind. So it seems sort of significant that we woke up exactly a year after she was gone to find that we once again had a dog in the house.

Rupert is an 8 week old border collie and he's so smart. He's already getting the hang of his name and we're working on getting him to tell us when he needs to go out. We've had two little puddle accidents since he arrived (plus a peeing in the water bowl incident).

I heard about him about the time he was born, saw some photos and heard a little about him, but I was adamant that we'd not get another dog after Tara, so it was easy to look and listen. Then we went to a birthday party out a my friend's farm and my daughter, Miss 4, and I met him in person.

Back when he was known as Puplet.

He was a little bit wiggly and being held by someone else. Miss 4 asked me if she could hold a puppy and the man holding Rupert offered him to us. I warned Miss 4 that I thought he might want to go play with the other pups, but Rupert just melted into her arms and stayed there until it was time for him to go away. She nicknamed him Puplet. On the way home Miss 4 broke her heart that she missed him.

I hoped that it would be a case of 'out of sight, out of mind', but she and I couldn't help but keep thinking about him. A couple of family meetings later and we were going out to visit the farm again, this time with the Spousal Unit, and he fell in love with Rupert too.

He's settled in so well.

We have a crate for him in the living room and we're working on a ratio of 1:2 for activity and down time. I've never crate trained a dog before, but Tara had an area of our living room sectioned off and it was so handy for her to escape to if the kids were too much. We're using Rupert's crate in the same way and he's getting used to settling in it.

The Spousal Unit and I have been tag teaming at night, I do the first shift in the living room with Roop, then whenever Miss 1 wakes up looking for me, we swap. Rupert seems very attached to me, which feels like such a privilege. I'm writing this with his sweet little puppy head on my foot.

I was also fully prepared to be unable to get much knitting or crochet done once he arrived; the thought of which ironically kept me from doing much of either in the week running up to Rupert's arrival. I've been pleasantly surprised. There's been less in the way of day time knitting, because I need to be ready to intervene if the pup starts chewing something he shouldn't or the kids get a bit much for him, but come evening, he settles down and chills while I get on with my craft of the day. I suspect I'll have plenty to share in the next few Friday posts.

On The Hook: Pot Holder

I was going to share an update on my Elder Throw today, but I've not taken a photo of my latest progress. It's been a busy few days, the reason for which I'll share in a future post.

Instead, I'm onto the next crochet pattern in The Bumper Book of Crochet and this time it's pot holders.

I have to confess, pot holders aren't something that we really use in our house. We do have a pan that we have to use mitts or a tea towel to hold though, so maybe there is really a place for them in our kitchen. Plus, the pattern introduces crocheting in the round and trebles, so I definitely need to master those!

It took me no less than five attempts to start it!

Naked Attempt

My first attempt was pretty good, but then I set it down for a couple of days and couldn't remember where I'd gotten to. At least once I messed up the joining in the round thing. At first I couldn't count the stitches so had to restart twice to make sure I'd counted them all. And once I was able to count them, but missed the starting chain.

Eventually I got everything in order and was able to get onto the second round. I'm knitting in the Drops Cotton and it is wonderfully smooth. The actual pattern just uses two colours, but I felt like the teal and terracotta were too much together, so I added in a white to help break it up.

Target practice!

It's crocheting up ever so quickly, I guess because I'm doing it in trebles. And because it grows with every round, I'm getting more stitches to practice on each time. I'm now at the point of being able to make a treble stitch without having the instructions open on my lap to guide me through it.

I've ordered round left to do and then a whole second one to make, then those get sewn together. There's a second one in the pattern book with a fancy scalloped edge and despite our low pot holder requirements in the house, I'm going to have a go at that one too because I want to work on my edging and it seems like a good opportunity to practice.

Getting there!

Hopefully I'll be able to share at least one of them in its entirety soon!

The Mouse

Several years ago, we had an old gas fire removed from our living room. The only real sign that it was ever there is a small round hole in the floor by the skirting board. It's not noticeable and usually we keep the kids' library books over in that corner so we can't even see it. It's never been an issue before, until last month.

There have been a couple of times when I'd thought I'd heard a noise coming from that corner of the room, but we have neighbours above us and we hear them moving around, so I assumed it was coming from there. That was until a few weeks back, when we were watching TV one evening and I heard a noise from the door behind me.

Miss 4 has a habit of sneaking into the room, really slowly opening the door when she should be in bed, so I assumed it was her. I'm not sure who was more surprised me, or the small furry mammal trying to figure out how to open the living room door at being spotted!

I squawked for the Spousal Unit, the mouse managed to slip through the gap in the door, and we gave chase, but the little rodent was nowhere to be seen. We searched all the likely spots, but without any joy, so had to go to bed with the knowledge it was somewhere loose in the house.

Before bed, we blocked up the hole in the living room floor (with tin foil and a tub of powdered milk) and ordered some humane traps ready to evict the little fellow.

Not knowing where the mouse had gone, we ordered a pack of four traps, figuring we could set them up in the most likely spots around the house for the maximum chance of catching our little friend. And that's what we did, baiting them with some chocolate cereal that Mr 7 asked for and then promptly decided he didn't like.

Luckily for us, mice do like them!

The following morning, I had a quick scan of three of the traps and was informed by the kids that the fourth had closed. Mr 7 didn't want to slide it out from under the cupboard where it was tucked, but Miss 4 had no qualms about doing it.

And she spotted a mouse!

Tiny visitor preparing to move into new home.

I didn't believe the kids when they told me, because telling your parents you've seen a mouse is the sort of thing you'd do when you were 4 and 7. So Mr 7 borrowed my phone to take a photo, and yep, there was a mouse.

We didn't want to pop the little guy out in the garden in case it took that as an invitation to break back in, so Mr 7 and I took a stroll into some nearby woodland and released it there. It was a little reluctant to leave, but eventually we coaxed it out and watched it run away to settle into its new home.

Reluctant to head for pastures new.

We left the traps set up for a couple of weeks but haven't seen any signs of any more intruders. It must have been an opportunistic scout scoping out our house for a more permanent residence. The hole in our living room floor remains blocked up too!

But it has prompted some interesting conversations about potential family pets. More about that in a future post.

On The Needles: Temperature Blanket

As it's Wednesday, I thought I'd share what I've been working on this week. I try to work my projects in rotation, with the exception of those designated as 'portable' projects to take with me whenever I have space in my bag. This usually means that each day I work on something different, which helps to keep things interesting and means I feel like I'm making progress on everything, even if it's just the odd row here and there.

Last night's project was the Temperature Blanket for Mr 7. I managed several rows, which doesn't really sound like a lot, but each row is 300 stitches, so even though it's garter stitch, it takes me a while to get from one side to the other.

Laid out to see all the stripes.

A few weeks ago a friend asked me for a photo of what I've been working on and so I laid out the blanket on a single bed to snap it. It's the perfect width for a single bed, so that was reassuring because I didn't actually do a gauge swatch when I started it and just based the measurements off of the dimensions of other garter stitch projects I've worked on in the recent past.

I've now reached the middle of August 2017. In the photo above, the bottom black line is the divider for the start of August, so in this next one you can see the progress I've made since then.

Most recent progress.

I'm enjoying watching the colours change. I can see the bands of red in July, interestingly those fall around the date when Miss 4 would be born three years later. I can see a shift back towards the lighter yellows from the orangey shades, indicating that the temperature was cooling down. Soon I'll be adding in some hints of green. Maybe even by the next time I share it here!

Birthday Goodies

Exactly one week ago was my birthday and I was lucky enough to get money and a voucher for Wool Warehouse. Obviously, these two gifts were just begging to be combined into a super order.

Exciting big bag of goodies!

My order arrived just as I was leaving the house with the kids, so I just got the briefest of moments to look longingly at it, before I had to dash out the door. And then when I returned, I got stuck straight into work, so it was a few hours later when I got to pulled it out the bag and give it a good squish.

I've been wanting to try my hand at more colourwork and also socks, so I felt like this would be a good opportunity to combine the two. The Yarnsmiths Merino Prints and Solids yarns were on offer (plus some were on clearance) so that was the first to be added to my basket.

My go to outfit for work is boots with knitted socks that vaguely match my dress, so I picked three of the Prints yarns with colours that would complement my favourite dresses. I opted for Fruit Salad (from the clearance section) with Royal Blue as the complementary solid, then Muted Earth with Khaki. Naturally, to take advantage of the offer, I needed a second Prints yarn to get the offer, so grabbed Berry Burst. I think that'll go with the Royal Blue if it comes to it, otherwise, maybe a nice lacy sock pattern and using it alone.

Since ordering, I've noticed they're offering a bulk buy discount on the sock yarns, so I'm thinking there may be another order in my future and I'll stock up on some to use for my Doodle Knit socks, when I get around to them.

The softest yarn I've ever squished, along with more pretty colours in the background.

I've not currently got any suitable needle tips for socks, so I grabbed myself a couple of sizes which'll work for those. The yarn is suitable for 2.25mm to 3.25mm but I'm a pretty tight knitter so the likelihood of me needing the smallest size to get gauge is pretty small. I opted for 2.5 and 2.75mm, plus another set of 3.25mm needle tips, purely because I have a pair already floating round the house, but no idea where they are and this is the surefire way for them to turn up again!

I also grabbed another cable for my interchangeable circulars, one of mine is a little dodgy and seems to unscrew quite easily, so this was the perfect opportunity to grab one.

There was a wonderfully satisfying moment where I had about £50 worth of stuff in my basket and I added my voucher, at which point the basket total dropped and it told me I needed to spend another £3 to qualify for free delivery. I made up the order with some more balls of the Yarnsmiths Create DK to add to my collection. Again, I have plans for some of these to go towards patterns from the Doodle Knit Directory.

There's just so many patterns and so little time, but at least I'm well-stocked for when the opportunity presents itself!

Off The Hook: Purple Washcloth

Last Friday I managed to get another washcloth off my hook, this time it was the one I'd made for my youngest, Miss 1.

To save squabbles over things like bottles, plates, and the like, each of my children have an assigned colour. Mr 7's favourite colour is green, so that's his; Miss 4 is very much into pink, so that's hers; and Miss 1 is really too young to express an opinion, so she's got purple. As Mr 7 and Miss 4 have got predominantly green and pink washcloths, respectively, Miss 1 obviously needed a purple one.

Off to a flying start.

Once again, I followed the pattern in The Bumper Book of Crochet, though I decided against adding any stripes, mainly because I'm reaching the point where I'm ready to try crocheting something else so I wanted to whip it up without too much fuss. But I also thought a solid colour with a contrasting border would be a nice effect.

If I was a little more confident in my abilities, I'd have tried something a bit fancier on the edging, but after making a nice neat washcloth, I didn't want to risk spoiling it with a scruffy edging. I know I'll have to suck it up and give it a go at some point in the future though. At least the beauty of crochet is that it can be easily undone and restarted again, if you need to. But for this time. I chickened out and decided to just keep it simple.

I did try for a more artistic shot, but the lighting wasn't great, so here's a slightly less interesting view.

Hopefully by this time next week I'll have my final washcloth finished and ready to share. Then I can share something non-washcloth-shaped!

On The Hook: One More Washcloth

This is the last one, I swear!

Since finally getting the hang of crochet, or more specifically doing double crochet (I'm still working up to trying other stitches!) I've been getting my practice in by crocheting washcloths for the whole family.

I'm the proud owner of a rainbow washcloth (it'll be two once I've woven in the ends of a second one), my son has a green one with blue stripes, my older daughter has a pink one with purple stripes, while my younger daughter's is purple with pink edging. The only washclothless member of the family is the Spousal Unit.

It was suggested that blue might be the best colour for him, but the cotton I'm trying to use up for these washcloths is getting rather depleted, so I have dark blue, light blue, and a little grey in reserve in case either of those run out.

Cool colours.

As the dark blue ball had the most remaining, I started with that, last Friday evening after finishing up the edge of Miss 1's washcloth. This was entirely the wrong time of day to be crocheting with a dark blue yarn! I do have a neck lamp which is just the thing for these scenarios, but it needs a charge and was in a room with a sleeping toddler; I wasn't about to risk waking her (which would severely hamper my crafting plans), so I muddled on. The first couple of rows were especially tricky, but then I found my rhythm and it was just the start and end of the rows where I was really squinting.

At this stage, I'm happy enough hooking along, I'm planning a stripe pattern for this one, but I'm not following any particular pattern. I'll just go along in the dark blue for a while, maybe about 10cm, then add in either light blue or dark grey, and see where the mood takes me.

Making progress.

I'll share how it goes.

Happy Birthday to Me!

We're having a quiet family day at home, where I'm mostly pretending I have no chores to do and handing over all nappy changing and bum wiping duties to the Spousal Unit; I'm fairly certain the Birthday Bum Wiping Clause was one of the things we agreed to in our marriage vows.

Our original plan was that we would be in Wales this week, with my birthday weekend including a visit to Wonder Wool, but we've rescheduled that for next year instead after after my recent job change. My mum went along without me and sent photos of the squishable yarns as requested.

It's still been a very yarny sort of birthday.

Exciting new knitting book and beautiful birthday flowers.

I gave my husband a list of three colourwork books that I've had on my list for a while and highlighted The Doodle Knit Directory by Jamie Lomax as the one I coveted the most. He delivered and I spent breakfast flicking through it and feeling very inspired. I kept pulling up the hashtags for the various projects on Instagram and was delighted to find that there 'expansion packs' of doodle designs which can be bought and downloaded from the designer's site. I've already got my eye on the Edinburgh and Dinosaur packs!

I've also got money for a Wool Warehouse order so I've started building that. I've been wanting to try knitting socks for a while so have been planning out some colour combinations of the Yarnsmiths Merino sock yarns. Happily they're on offer at the moment.

My colour inspiration is some work dresses I've recently bought myself, since I wear leggings or tights with them, and then handknit socks poking out from my boots. I currently only have two handknit pairs of socks (courtesy of my Mum) so I need to stock up!

I've also got a Hobbycraft birthday voucher too, so my next stop is to shop the downloadable patterns there, just in case I run out of potential projects to knit.

When I started...

As an extra special treat, I also hid down the bedroom for a good hour and a half working on a jigsaw puzzle. I felt kind of bad avoiding the family for so long, though I had extended an invitation to my older kids to come join me (and in the end, they both did) but it was lovely to just get in the zone and power through with getting pieces into place.

... And when I finished.

This puzzle has been my white whale for about three years now. I started it in pregnancy with Miss 1 and, as it's a map of the world, there's a lot of blue! Couple in trying to do it around children, particular a grabby baby/toddler, and it's hardly any wonder it's been taking me a while! I do feel as if the end might be in sight now, I might even finish it by my next birthday!

Off The Hook: Pink Washcloth

When I decided I wanted to master crochet at long last this year, I grabbed my copy of The Bumper Book of Crochet and set out to work through it. 

I actually set out to do this about 3.5 years ago, but I didn't really know how to read the pattern I'd picked to try. And my crochet hook felt unnatural and awkward in my hand. And my tension was off. And all I could think while I wrestled with it was 'I could be getting so much knitting done right now'. So aside from a wonky rectangle, I didn't produce anything at all. 

This time I started at the beginning, skipped the first two projects (involving making jewellery by doing chain stitch) because I didn't have all the required extras, like beads, and set to making a washcloth.

And I recently finished my fourth washcloth! 

Artfully draped over my armchair.

This one is for Miss 4 and I wanted to practice changing colours so asked her to pick two. I knew the main colour she'd want would be pink before she even said; she's very much a pink child (despite all my attempts to aim for non-pink clothes for her). We ran through the other colour options for the second colour and she picked a purple shade.

Crocheting while presenting a radio show.

This is Stylecraft Naturals Bamboo & Cotton, actually purchased about four years ago and I've mostly used it for knitting in the past. These two colours are Rose and Raisin. It's a DK weight, but I'd say it's thinner than other DKs. I used a 3.5mm hook as recommended on the ball band.

This washcloth was my first time going off pattern slightly. Rather than following the instructions and starting with a chain of 35 stitches, I added on an extra ten. But then I didn't adjust the subsequent rows to make it square, so this washcloth is more rectangular than the others I've done so far.

Super satisfying stitches!

The border is in the purple and there's just a tiny wonky bit. I still need to improve my starting and finishing when I join on yarn for the edging. I maybe need to watch some videos to make sure I'm doing it right. There's one bit where the end I'd woven in popped out when I was adding the edging on and I think it's maybe untidy looking now, even though I managed to secure it in place again, but otherwise, I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Of course, Miss 4 is yet to use it. She's worn it on her head and pretended it was a mask. It even got used as a blanket for a cuddly toy at one point. Maybe some day she'll use it to wash her face too!