Naughty nautical nautilus

Just a silly post with a funny title. I’m moving soon, the centre where I live has been deemed unsafe so we’re all moving out. I’m trying to use up odds and sods of yarn that are left over, and entire balls that were bought for small projects. I also want rid of all of my stuffing. They will think it’s weird, and they’re already saying I have too many things, so I’m looking to get rid of that. That’s where this came in. Odds and sods of yarn with more stuffing.

I’d had the patterned queued for quite a while and I was looking for something fun to make.

A weird sea creature.

So this is it. A nautilus, a strange creature that’s been around since the time of the dinosaurs pretty much in its current form. They’re in the same family as octopuses, which is funny. And they have a shell. Most people know of ammonites, which are also in the same family.

The pattern is free on Knitty, you can find more info here, it’s a bit weird to begin with, but once you’ve started turning the shell it’s very simple to continue. I cast on one morning and just went for it. Everyone was confused about what it was and it only took me two week days with classes to finish it. It’s a very quick project.

Propped up just after being finished.

I’m not sure how many facial tentacles I did, it said to do 8 but I just kept going until it looked right. People keep thinking it’s a snail though, which is weird.

It’s a hat for my beer!

Both pieces look weird when knitting up, the face worse than the shell I think. Although it’s a great stash buster using minimal amounts of yarn. You can find my full notes here from Ravelry.

I have two more stash busters on the needles too, and I think I’ve not got enough stuffing! It’s almost gone!

Valentine Hat

Valentines day really isn’t my thing. Love should be for every day. Hah, I just don’t see the point of having a special day devoted to tat with hearts and stuff on it, so I made myself a hat, with hearts. That after tomorrow will go away until next winter. Maybe. Nobody seems to associate it with Valentines day, which is awesome. So I’m free to wear it as I please apparently. I’ve been wearing it all week.

So this is that hat, with the hearts, and a pompom.

I used a purple acrylic as a maincolour, I think it’s King Cole Big Value but I can’t be sure. To be honest most acrylics are pretty much the same. And for the hearts I used King Cole Baby Comfort, in the purple colours, it has white, a dark purple and a light purple. Both yarns are acrylic DK weight.

I have a light weight scarf that goes really well with this. The thing behind.

I used to wear this colour a lot which is why I wanted it. The pattern was free from Ravelry, and can be found here, it’s called From Norway With Love. The whole thing is worked on 4mm needles, but I actually worked the main bit in 4.5mm needles because I find sometimes my fair isle is a bit tight. It’s quite a popular patten too, there’s over 1400 projects! Although very few have pompoms, that’s just me being weird again.

I shared this on Facebook and got a very positive response, people really seemed to like it.

And this is my only in progress photo of it. It was a really basic fair isle pattern. If you’re looking to get into colour work and can already knit in the round this would be a good start. I’m tempted to do another one, but I doubt I’d wear it. I’m really not a fan of beanies, and I’ve been forcing myself to wear this a bit to try and get into liking them.

This is my fourth hat of 2015!

And if you want to see my Ravelry notes, they can be found here! I didn’t finish it as quickly as I’d have liked, but three days isn’t bad with work/classes/social life.

Christmas 2014 – Scandiwegian Star

I didn’t blog this at the time because I was busy with packing to leave for my mum’s, and I only finished it the day before I gave it away. It was the last gift I finished, and it was a bit rushed. So here it is, my Scandiwegian Star. I don’t even know how many gifts I finished in the end. 5? 6? Meh. I did some.

A fair isle star beanie with a pompom. I made it a bit longer than I should have.

Again I was using odds and sods, the black was Charly by Phildar, a cheap but nice acrylic, so was the electric blue. The purple was Robin Double Knit, left over from my Tabitha hat, and the other blue was a Hema cheap thing that I bought for some unknown reason. I love the way these colours work together, the black does seem a bit bold and I’d like to do something similar with a cream, or a white or pale background to see if that’ll bring the colours out more.

The fair isle pattern in progress.

It knitted up very quickly and I wanted to keep it. But then I wanted to keep all the presents I made this year, and I’ve queued them to make myself too.

I didn’t get many photos of me wearing it, but here’s a good shot of the hat with the pompom, pulled down over my face to show the length.

I didn’t really take the time to get brilliant photos of this hat, as it was very rushed and I just wanted to get it finished and get rid of it, but I did it. I made one more Christmas gift and bought a bit of happiness to one more person.

This lovely pattern is also free from Ravelry and can be found here. The projects are beautiful and I really want to make another one. I liked the chart, it was really easy to follow. I recommend having a flick through the projects, there’s some awesome stuff on there. And as always my notes are here.

Christmas 2014 Gift #4

Christmas hat #4. Probably the most beautiful thing I have ever made. Maybe even better than my Heliopath vest.

This may not look like much, and it may have been made in a cheap acrylic yarn, but it is so amazing. I used Robin Acrylic, which you can get for around £1.50 a 100g ball if you’re lucky. However now I know that this pattern works, and I completely improvised it. I think after Christmas I may make another one for myself in a cotton based yarn. But we’ll see.

And yes, I know I’ve jumped straight from gift #2 to gift #4. #3 is currently being knitted, but I got carried away.

A while back I got a bit obsessed with doilies. You know, like your grandma will have. Or my mum had in disposable paper. I added about two pages to my Ravelry queue. And I have a friend who has an afro, so her hats need to be pretty big, doilies can get big on 2mm needles, so if I do the same thing on 4mm needles, I’m really onto something here!

And then I had insomnia. It happens sometimes, something bugs me and I can’t sleep. I was looking through my queue thinking that I’d get the third hat finished that night when I stumbled across this pattern, that was the one I wanted to make. So without questioning (I’d come downstairs with a bag full of wool in case I wanted to start a new thing or finished the current one) I cast on. I got to round 25, I messed up. I ripped back, I cast on, I started again. Two days later it was finished.

A better view of the lace

My instructions and project notes can be found here, but I’ll also include them in this post for those of you without Ravelry. The pattern is published online at this blog, you don’t need to log in and it’s free.

So I just cast on 8 stitches and went for it, although there is a fancy crochet cast on there. I then worked the doily on 9dpns. (yup…) until round 54. You could stop anywhere listed though for a shorter hat. I put the work onto a 3.5mm circular needle and just knitted in stocking stitch for 6cm. If you want a slouchier hat this is where you add the length. For one round I did knit one knit two together, putting the count from 180 stitches down to 120. I then did 3-4cm of knit one purl one rib, and finished with 5 rounds of stocking stitch to give it a rolled edge before casting off with a super stretchy cast off. Simple once you’ve done the doily.

And from the front. This is such a beautiful photo, apart from the spot. Damn hormones.

Yes, I would make this again, but not in the acrylic yarn, cotton, wool, anything of high quality with a good stitch definition. I’d even be tempted to try it in sock wool. It is so pretty! It’s had a few compliments while in progress. The best one being “How the hell are you doing that?!” as well as the typical pretty ones.

Making a doily into a hat is challenging, but at the end of the day all knitting comes down to mathematics, and that does make it much easier to think like that. Yes, I am crazy.

This was actually very quick to finish, even though it was too big to put in my handbag, I think the attractiveness of it really boosted me on.

I mean, look, if you were knitting this would you be able to stop yourself?

Yeah, towards the end with 180 stitches it was more difficult, but to begin with it grew so quickly, and I think that’s what pushed me to do it so much. And when it was transportable on the circular needles most of the work was already done. I just had a few more cm to do. Although I got a couple of weird looks in the train, but nobody really knits in France.

Christmas Gift 2014 #1

An in progress elf hat.

So yeah, I have around 20-25 thing to make and this is all I have for the first one. Yup. Not looking possible so far.

It’s actually a hat of hats, from a Harry Potter knitting book, based on when Dobby wore all the hats Hermione knitted for the house elves.

I like the happy colours of it, and it’s great for using up odd wool. That’s three hats I’ll be getting out of the yarn I got for my rainbow elf hat.

I made another two socks

Life is too short to knit matching socks.

So following the success of my first pair of socks I made two more. Socks that is, not pairs.
I’m figuring out my own exact size pattern, the cuff and foot length are perfect, but they’re a little baggy. I don’t want high top socks, but I found my Footlets were too low down. I also have a limited range of needles and not a lot of money. I’ve been working on a 3mm needle for a pattern on 2.5mm needles, and so far I think I’ve got it, or I’m close.

My mum’s pair are less baggy around the foot so I think I’ve found the right number or a better number of stitches.

 

Anyway, enjoy the photos of my socks. One is for me, the rainbow one, the other for my mum. Both yarns are by Regia, the pink one is Esprit Spray, 6€37 from Love Knitting, the other is Exotic Colour and costs 11€26, again from Love Knitting. I like them because they ship to Europe cheaply while still being UK based. My next order will probably be from them.

 

So now, sockky nonsense!

 

 

 

I will be making a twin to this sock, but my mum implied that she wanted a knitted pair, so that jumped to the top of the list and my pair got put on hold.

I really like knitting socks, turning the heel keeps me interested, and then afterwards they’re furfilling.

 

Here I was trying it on while in progress, I wanted it to be the right size, not too long so I did this a few times. I was really proud seeing it knit up too.

 

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