socherryknits

I've been away for a couple of weeks doing this; Icarus ! My first ever lace shawl, and I have been bitten by the lace-y bug! I've heard the Yarn Harlot speak of the 'magic' of lace blocking , and now I too have experienced the magic ... and it is AMAZING! [although I had to wear a plastic on my thumbs for the next couple of days after pushing all those pins into the carpet] This shawl chose me - I went to see Sunshine at the cinema [alright, but mince for the last 3rd of the film] and the spacecraft was called Icarus. Random knit-blog surfing after the film found me at Mirum's blog . I love the design - it's Icarus ' frame with the feathers having melted to the ends. I used handpaintedyarn.com's laceweight - colourways Bombon and Sunshine Yellow. Like Icarus, I too began in a cocky manner, convinced of my success and confident that I didn't need lifelines or stitch-markers to mark pattern repeats. I learned my lesson [along with how to tink lace and...

Presenting .... : Bedtime Bear! Made for a work colleagues 1 year old little girl. Pattern: Simply Knitting Magazine, Issue 13 April Yarn: GGH Amelie [now discontinued, but still available at Loop] Skills learned: First time making a knitted toy and embroidering onto knitted fabric. Modifications: None - had to knit blind as I had no idea how it was going to become a bear until nearly sewing up time. An added label on her bum! I wanted it to look like the old-fashioned style bears, but with the more modern yarn, and I hope she loves it.

I was home in Elgin at the weekend and got to chatting with my mum about knitting and one thing led to another and doll's clothes, our baby clothes, knitting magazines etc. got pulled out of the attic. There is so much to blog about that this is post 1 of 2! Above is a cardigan my dad knitted for me when I was born [pic of me in it below]. It's blue not because they were expecting/hoping for a boy, but because blue would look OK on a girl, but pink maybe not so much on a boy. My mum helped by casting on and off, and seaming the sleeves, but other than that this is all my dad's work! This was knitted by my great-granny for a doll - although there are pictures of me in it. A doll!! Look at the work in it - I could never give so much for little girl's doll, and I took a lot of photos of it - Fair Isle is next on my list, so I was entranced by this stunning cardigan. Reverse photos ... This pink shawl was knitted by my granny for my mum when she was a baby - it was cream th...

Finished! Pattern: Free - Bernat Cotton Crochet Market Market Yarn: Bernat Handicrafter Cotton 3 balls Skills learnt: All of it - brand new to crochet. Modifications: The strap originally went the other way, but I felt tote-style made it lie better - it just felt twisted the other way [see pattern link] I'll be taking this with me to Japan as it expands and therefore can fit lots of yarn. Not an awful lot else to say really... I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Encouraged by K1 Yarns and Sarah , the boy and I visited the Lighthouse this weekend for the Scottish Show / Six Cities exhibition. There were lots of cool things to look at and think about - in particular someone's suggestion to improve the entrance to the Mitchell Library by covering over the gaping motorway hole with a lovely flat green space. So simple, but such a lovely idea. He wrote to the relevant authorities but no answer as yet ... Anyways, we climbed alot of circular stairway steps to get the top of the Lighthouse tower - I had to be persuaded, and had I not been wearing my pedomoeter the boy probably wouldn't have got me up there [no pedometer = wasted steps]. It's amazing how a different perspective can shed a whole new light on a place [click for giant pics]; The Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art [spiky pointy roof] The formidable Gorbals Towers How did they get there to tag this? A lovely roof garden - bet they love all the people staring at them from the Ligh...

Huge shout of appreciation to Kathleen for leaving a link to some excellent crochet videos in my comments! Crochet definately seems less catered to on the interweb so if you have any funky links please please leave them in my comments. The videos combined with this Craftster post made me sigh out loud. As Kathleen had suggested when I showed her my drunken 'v's, I was in fact crocheting slip stitches. Through no fault of my own I might add - the Happy Hooker book has a fatal flaw ; the single crochet instructions are actually instructions for slip stitch. So I have mastered slip stitch, and for those that wonder what happens if you crochet slip stitch: you get a sideways knitted fabric... [above] You can literally see where the penny dropped. Thanks also to Ella at the Knit n' Stitch for keeping me right. Once I'd mastered the first basic stitch it was time to address those row ends and beginnings ... Ta-da!!! 20 stitches of Single Crochet [Double Crochet UK], Half-Doub...

I can't believe it's been a fortnight since my last post.Various things have kept me away; Blogger, the camera, lack of writerly mood, the lack of excitement in photographing Icarus - stunning, and so exciting, but at the moment it's really just a clump of lace knitting on circs. But mainly my hand has been giving me trouble. It's been tingling, and 'nerve-jumping' for a while, causing me problems with knitting [gah!], keeping in touch with friends [email & texts] and gaming. All of which has made me blue. Honestly, I don't know how people can just veg out in front of the TV and do nothing - tried it, and turned into a crabby person within 2 hours. I mentioned my plan to restrict my knitting/gaming at work. My colleague said 'yeah, don't knit for a week or so, that should help'. I meant I wasn't going to knit for 24 hours. A week! A full entire endless week with no knitting *shudder* Not possible. So I did everything else. Swapped my mous...