crafts & knitting · new patterns

Miaow

Working on this new pattern on and off over the last year has been an exciting and slightly novel thing for me. It’s the first time I’ve made a pattern from scratch with the intention of it being a pattern, if you see what I mean. All of the other animal patterns have come about because I wanted to knit them as finished items rather than with the original intention of sharing them in pattern form and so for most of them I had years of tweaking and lots of knittings before arriving at the final patterns.

This time I started off with a basic idea sketched out and then knitted up some trial runs (the earliest of which did not go well). But I’ve persevered and after lots of rejected test samples I arrived at one that I was pretty happy with. Then it was just down to playing around with ear placement, head length, tail tip and a few more little bits of fiddling and tweaking. Anyway, I’m satisfied enough to now release the patterns, so here is my little cat boy and girl, both clad in plaid ๐Ÿ™‚

It was hard to decide exactly what sort of cat should be in the pattern – after all there are so many different breeds, from refined pure-bred Persians to lowly but loveable moggies. So because I couldn’t decide I’ve included in the pattern 4 extra head designs which are interchangeable, so you can make either a plain coloured cat, or a cat with a white blaze, a cat with an eye patch, a Siamese cat or a tabby. There are little bits that you can combine from these different designs to make your own unique looking cat, a bit like a selection box (sorry I couldn’t resist taking this photo – hope it’s not too creepy!)

Here are some of the heads I’ve made so far from the pattern (all instructions and details of yarns used for these are included with both patterns)…

As usual with a new pattern release I’m on tenterhooks, waiting for the first projects to appear on Ravelry. It’s so exciting to see what other people have made from the patterns so please come and add yours to the group if you give any of the patterns a try.

The new patterns are now live on both Ravelry and Etsy . I so hope that if you give any of them a go you have fun knitting from them x

 

general stuff

messy life

Sorry to have absented myself for so long. Lately life has felt a bit like my project bag here – a big old tangle of things with lots coming unraveled at the same time!  Life is sometimes a bit messy and I've not felt that I've had much of any interest to share with you here on the blog.

 

Mxedbag

 

On the positive side I've been resting my elbow (which is much improved by the way – thanks for all of your good wishes), and working on a new pattern which I'm desperate to share with you but need to work on a little bit more before I do.

 

Inbag

 

Recently we've had a tantalising taste of summer weather and I've so enjoyed being out in the garden with my knitting and my radio again. Everything is growing so well (I'm watching the first of the courgettes swelling daily and they're almost ready to pick). We've had some beautiful sunsets too, which have amused Toby while he's been bouncing on his trampoline – it's hard to get him to stop at bedtime now that the evenings are long and lovely.

 

Sunset

Sunset2

Glory

 

Hattie Hen has gone broody (very unusual for a hybrid breed I'm told) so she's just sitting on her imaginary clutch of eggs. I keep moving her out of the nest box so that at least she is visible to the other two and in the late afternoon they often go and sit with her in the corner and keep her company. Hopefully she'll get bored of sitting soon but for now we're down to two eggs a day.

Not much else noteworthy has been happening on our patch. Hopefully I'll be back soon with some news of a new pattern, knitting projects and the usual unfocused mix of family life – the happier moments at least!

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PS: I'm trying an experiment and am currently replying to comments that are left directly here on the blog – not sure if I'll be able to keep up with it but will do my best ๐Ÿ™‚

Thanks for dropping in to visit, see you soon x

 

chicken stuff · crafts & knitting · garden stuff

Puffed out

Firstly, thanks so very, very much for all the wonderfully kind comments on the previous post about Tobys hair. I was so touched to read them and wish I could share them with Toby and have him understand all of the lovely compliments you gave him.

Secondly, sorry to not have been around much recently. I seem to have done something to my elbow and it's needed some rest as even typing for more than a short while has been a bit painful. Scraping down the chicken run every few days probably hasn't helped but I think making these puffs may be the main cause…

 

Puffs1

 

A couple of weeks back I decided to start a cushion to match the blanket that I'm slowly working on (see below) and I've always loved Alicia's Sunshine day afghan, so that seemed the perfect choice of pattern. Once I got going on the puff making I became a bit hooked on them and made lots in one day. The following day I paid the price for my puff over-indulgence with a very sore elbow and it's taking ages to feel better.

Needless to say this project is now having a snooze at the bottom of my knitting bag. I really like how it looks and hopefully I'll be able to pick it up when my elbow doesn't hurt so much. In the meantime small bursts of knitting seem to be OK, which is a relief as I'd get incredibly grumpy rather quickly if I wasn't able to knit!

And here's where the crochet blanket is up to so far, but with my sore elbow it will be a while before it gets much bigger.

 

Blanket2

 

Blanket

 

In other news, the garden is blooming. My squash and courgette plants are now in their permanent home and growing fast. The kale and broccoli are all doing well under the netting but the poor bean and pea seedlings have been decimated by slugs who come out to munch on them each night. Still most things are faring better and the chives are exploding like little flowery fireworks.

 

Chives2

 

Chives

 

Viola

 

Woodruff

 

Garden

 

The chickens are happy and laying an egg each most days – evidently I need to make more things that use eggs as we've built up quite a stock! You'll see there's a particularly large egg in the middle which I'm pretty sure is a double yolker as we've had a few already. I've not yet been able to work out which of the ladies is laying these but I don't remember having any with our previous hens so these are special.

 

Lotsofeggs

 

Eggs

 

The weather this week has been all over the place, sunshine one minute and huge cloud-burst downpours of rain and hail the next – not fun if you get caught out in it but the rainbows after the storms have been especially bright and lovely.

 

Rainbow4

 

Rainbows

 

Next week is school half term break but I hope to be back with some knitting news once we're back into our term time routines again. Until then, thanks for visiting and best wishes for happy times x