Knitting, knitting, knitting

After a brief hiatus I'm back knitting madly, creating new stock for the store, coming up with new ideas. The cabling was going well - I had managed to complete the 6-stitch twist and started on a braid, but I'm not very diligent when it comes to keeping track of my rows. I ended up completely lost after 3 repeats and decided to frog it. I'm not very sentimental when it comes to ripping out my work. Once I've made the decision it's actually quite enjoyable.

Finished braid

If/once I finish the cabled stripes, I'm considering turning them into a cushion. I have oodles of hobby fill left over from a failed attempt at an amigurumi alien and I think it would look lovely on an armchair or couch. Of course in the soft squishy acrylic yarn it would nice and snuggly. Come to think of it, it would match this blanket really nicely.

I've just the pair of lacy handwarmers and posted them to the site and I've also been thinking about a few other ideas - I'm going to try the knit/crochet combo which is new for me, and considering making a few longer pairs for something different.



Lacy black handwarmers and scary post-gardening hands



Cable Crazy

A supreme amount of unmotivation today has lead me to put most of the things I should have been doing to one side and do "fun things". The creation of pumpkin soup being one of those (Margaret Fulton rocks my world - her recipes are impossible to stuff up and taste fantastic), the second being teaching myself how to cable knit.

It's not that hard, well, not nearly as hard as I expected. As you can see I've only done 2 repeats of a stock standard 6 stitch cable (crossed every 8th row for those of you playing at home), but I expected much more drama than the occasional fumble with three needles - my cable needle is quite long.

These past few weeks of holidays have produced some exciting new crafty bits and pieces, not to mention the opening of my very own Etsy Store! Naturally after many months of zero research and lots and lots of thinking I just went ahead and did it. Hopefully as I bumble along I'll improve it, add items and slowly but surely take over the handmade world! Muwahahaha...*cough cough*... ahem, excuse me.

Have a quick look at what I've managed to produce this festive season- progress has been made on the granny stripe - it's so vibrant and colourful that even though it's so far from being finished it's still gives me a happy glow every time I look at it:

A new pair of handwarmers - my own design:

This is a ball of the kid mohair I used to make stoles for both my mother and my boyfriend's mother - it's spun from the wool gathered after the baby goat's first shear. A bit extravagant but it's like crocheting with a cloud. So soft! And the idea of the little baby goats getting their first shearing is too adorable.

Well, the cable calls - and I'm done fiddling around with these damn pictures to try and make the spaces between them and the text more aesthetically pleasing to my eyes.

Cheers,

Nik