I made a thing!!!

Made a little podcast on Monday night - its short and sweet and took forever to get it to upload correctly! (started to reupload at 3am cuz I was thinking about it all night!)

Annual pilgrimage planning

Its that time again when I'm getting myself sorted and organised for the annual trip to Dublin and I'm sure I'll need a rather large suitcase this time round....a bigger case than last time!

I'm at the point of the packing stage where I'm debating knitting. Do I take wips? Do I take something new and shiny and just for me? Or do I take some Christmas knitting with me?

This was one of the things I was tempted to bring. A fellow knitter has asked for help knitting socks for her daughter for Christmas and I volunteered.... so I was thinking that all that train time would be a good time to get the pair started IF I get my current pair finished (first one is very nearly done)

Or do i bring a hook and some cotton so I can practice my crochet?

Do I bring both? Do I bring none of them and bring something else?

Suggestions are most welcome!

Hat Season

A few weeks ago, (August to be precise) Sharon opened the yarn floodgates and I ended up buying lots of yarn. This photo represents a lot of money! One particular purchase involves 30 balls of aran acrylic which I had never used before. I've only done something like that once before and regretted it, so I don't know what possessed me this time.  In this picture I've bagged the yarn up in their colour family and then I promptly sat down in disbelief of what I'd done.

Then I had a wonderful idea - Winter is coming and so everyone in the world needs a new hat!! I've 36 balls of this stuff, I should be able to cover the heads of lots of people! Firstly, I decided the nephew needed a hat (even though getting him to keep it on his head is a minor miracle) and if he got one then his BFF should get one too.

After a quick rummage thought the bags, I pulled out Seville Orange and Sky Blue. Quite a nice combo I thought. So I cast on the Helix Hat in the orange for the brim for the first hat and the blue for the second hats brim. I sewed on some helicopter buttons and called them a job well done.

Even though its the same colours of yarn, the two hats look completely different!

To continue the same but different theme, I knitted up two more hats in vintage pink and dusky lilac. Same thing again, same but different! (My Little Pony buttons on these ones though)

 So how do the hats look on?? Well this cheeky chappy is almost 3 and is the nephew in question. He was asked to smile but pulled a face and stuck his tongue out instead. At least I can see that the hat fits with room to grow.

I did manage 6 hats with 2 balls of the yarn though - that's a lot of hats in my future. So what is this yarn? Well its Paintbox Yarns Simply Aran and seems to be LoveKnitting's own yarn brand.

Its great yardage, great price and its really soft and snuggly when knitted up. I haven't washed it yet though but I've been pulling balls out of bags, across floors and from under tables and it looks like it can withstand a lot.

Also yup, I knitted the coat he's wearing too. Its a Sirdar duffle coat sirdar-380 but the yarn is Marble Chunky (I love all their colours!) . I know it goes up to age 7 so he'll be getting another in a year or so. Still looks good 2 years on!

Suppose I'll go start another hat or 12, only 32 balls to go!

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