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Just a quick little post to tell people this blog has a facebook page. I have two, one for my old blog that I update rarely, and a shared one with my mum where we both post our crafting things.
I’d love if you could stop by and like this page.

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Alexandros’ ear hat

Fish hat photos.

Sorry I’ve not posted this week. I’ve had another horrible winter cold, dehydration, and my son has lost weight.
He’s always been thin, and growing slowly, recently he’s been losing weight and last week he fell off the growth charts. He commonly refuses to eat too. The only possible diagnosis I’ve had so far is infant anorexia. The doctor at the hospital today tried to pass it off as nothing because he’s a very happy, active boy. We’ve got an appointment in a fortnight, so I’ll know more then.
We’ve got a pushchair now so going out is easier. He loves it. I’m sure I’ll miss baby wearing though, I’m hoping when I get money I can buy a proper mei tai or something.

Anyway! Enough of the mummy rambling.
I’ve not had much luck knitting recently, I want to make a shawl, but I’m struggling with the lace, I keep losing count of stitches. I tried making some mitts, but dropped a stith, so all I have finished at the moment is this dead fish hat.
I’m not sure what to make next, even though my ravelry queue is already 2 pages long.

If you want the pattern it should be findable by googling dead fish hat knitted pattern. I’m sorry I can’t remember the name, you can also find this on ravelry. I modified it a lot for my one year old. I’m really pleased with how it turned out, everyone else seems to like it too. And it’s a great stash buster, I made mine from off acrylic wool.

Sadly I’m missing an action shot.

Update!

I went to find the pattern, to save everyone time. Here it is!

And my ravelry page is here.

Finished! Neon green and grey cardigan. 2-3 years.

Well I finished it. Took me months because I kept getting distracted and then ran out of green before I could make the button band. I used Phildar charly yarn, it’s 100% acrylic, and when I bought the extra green it was in the sale!

It’s 2-3 years so still too big for Sandy, but he’ll grow. And that gives me plenty of time to find buttons.

Double Pointed Needles?

About six months ago I decided I wanted to knit in the round, mainly to make some hats for my son. My mum bought me some circular needles and said it was fairly self explanatory, cast on as normal, then bring the start and end together and knit as normal but keep going in one direction AND DON’T TWIST THE STITCHES!!
Well I tried, and I tried, and I tried, but after two weeks of failed attempts I gave up.

Knitting in the round wasn’t as easy as I had thought, and I couldn’t do it.

Afterwards I asked my mum why she got circular needles and not double pointed, she explained that DPNs were harder and I’d have more problems, but I wasn’t sure.

Something about DPNs seemed much easier, like the round was always the right size and there wasn’t an annoying wire.

So on Thursday when I was out raiding the sales I stopped and grabbed a set of 5 4mm DPNs, and 10 balls of wool.

That evening I was trying to make a sock because it seemed smaller and easier than a hat. I cast on and did a round only to find I’d twisted it! So I unraveled and tried again.

In the end working on four needles with a fifth was tricky, so I did up until the heel with two needles and worked with a third. My mum said the heel would be really difficult, so I was dreading that.

I turned the heel with little effort, then cast off for the toe. I was left with 8 stitches and a tail of yarn, my sock was soon to be free and it was so easy!

And that was it, I successfully knitted in the round, I’m very proud of this, and my odd sock.

Free Knitted Octopus Pattern

My first knitted octopus. He turned out really nicely.

I wanted to do something with some odd wool, I wanted to make a toy for Sandy. I was looking for something small so he could hold it, and something quick so I could finish it. This is the end result. Since then I’ve made four, but two of them don’t have limbs because he was enjoying using them as balls.

They took me around a day to knit each one, but this was knitting while my son was sleeping so they can be done much quicker. I’d guess around four to eight hours.

The wool I used was Phildar Charly, which is 100% acrylic. It comes in 50g balls and it’s really nice and soft, it doesn’t seem to get fluffy either.

The pattern was very simple to follow, all knitted flat in garter stitch and then sewn up. It seems great for beginners because it’s small, quick and easy. Even sewing it up is fully explained. I tweaked it slightly by not using the cardboard stiffener and skipping stuffing the legs. You could also put a big bell inside wrapped in the stuffing to make a little baby rattle.

I did make one of the hats, but it got lost and for a baby it’s not really needed. Although they are so cute. These would have been an awesome stocking filler for christmas too. And even better there’s actually a boy octopus and a girl octopus in the pattern, or a unisex one if you don’t knit the accessories.

So that’s enough of my rambling, you can find the online pattern by Jean Greenhowe here. You can either print it, or work off of the screen like I did.

I’m happy to read your comments and answer any questions you have too. Thanks for reading and happy knitting.

Three little octopi(?) sitting on a chair. I’ve lost the forth one and I don’t know where.

2014, a new year and a new blog

Baby monster and monster mum

 

I already have a blog. So why am I starting another one? Well, this is my forth blog, but my last one has just got a little messy. I’m not abandoning it, I will still write there. This blog is for posts that I am proud of. Not my depressing rants and garbage like that.

My mum’s blog is hosted on wordpress and looks much neater than my blogspot. The community seems nicer too.

So who am I? What do I write about? My name is Andi, I’m 20, I’m a young, single parent. I’ve had two sons, my first when I was a teenager at 17, my second at 19, but at the moment I’ve only got my second. I’m from the UK, but I’m living in France with Sandy, and Neil is somewhere with his dad. I mainly write about my parenting choices, and mum things like nappies, and toys. Sometimes I write about knitting or sewing too.

Sandy is almost 13 months old, he’s still breastfed, he doesn’t cry much. And he has a big, fat cloth bum. He’s a very social, energetic little boy who crawls everywhere and gets into everything.