Wordless Wednesday

Laura's Penguin Hat

Over a month. Oh dear. I had two magazine patterns to write, which I couldn't post about, and which took up a lot of time. Then I was ill. Then it was the Easter holidays. Still is, really, because it's an inset day and Laura won't be back at school until tomorrow.

I did manage to make at least one thing though! Laura wanted a penguin hat (long story) so we looked at patterns on Ravelry. Then I mostly improvised one for her. We went out to a local open farm the next day and Laura wore it all day.

Now Emily wants a toy penguin. I expect we can manage that.

Linking up with Handmade Monday, go and look at all the lovely blogs! So many beautiful things people have been making.

Red Nose Day

You might have heard that my sister was in a group that climbed Snowdon at the weekend for Comic Relief! Jen wrote all about it here. Their team has raised over £5600 so far and if you would like to sponsor them you can do so here.

I have also been doing my little bit (though not nearly as impressive as climbing a mountain!). Juliet Bernard asked on Twitter if anyone would be able to knit some Red Nose corsages. She sent me some yarn and I've done nearly 3 so far.

I know they don't look like much yet! But they will be lovely corsages that are being sold at Spitalfields Market in London on the 15th of March. I'm hoping to get a couple more done in time to send back to Juliet so I'd better keep knitting!

Knit Now 19: Weald Oak Cushions

Today Knit Now issue 19 is out, and this is very very exciting for me, because it includes one of my patterns! This is my first magazine publication and I am over the moon about it. I think I finally feel like a 'real' designer.

This issue of the magazine has a 'Best of British' theme which made me think about the countryside and woodland and finally led to a cable pattern inspired by the bark and branches of oak trees.

(Image credit Dan Walmsley, Knit Now Magazine 2013)

I love that photo, and the pattern turned out just how I wanted, and the whole experience of working with the magazine was wonderful. The other patterns from this issue are all up on Ravelry now - I think I might need to make the Union Jack socks, and the fair-isle vest top is calling to me too! So many excellent designs and all from British designers, using British yarns. I'm so happy to be part of it.

Planting our carrot seeds

As you may know, Laura at Cupcakes for Clara recently started a little experiment, to see whether carrots would grow from the carrot seeds in some paper she made. She asked if anyone else wanted to try, and I thought it sounded like fun for me and my Laura, so I asked her to send some of the paper over.

Laura was very excited!



She put the bits of paper in the pots and covered them with compost:



Then she gave them plenty of water:



And I put them on the kitchen window sill to get plenty of sunshine (you can tell this was earlier in the week, there's snow on the climbing frame!):



So thank you Laura (both Lauras!), let's see if we get any carrots! Laura (my Laura) says she might even eat them if we do.

(apologies for all the photos in this post, it was just starting to get dark when we had time to plant the seeds and my little camera didn't like it)

Wordless Wednesday

Handspun Scarf

As I think I said before, one of the items on my Day Zero list was to spin enough yarn to make a scarf. I used the wool I bought at the Knitting & Stitching Show. And now it is finished!

I thought about spinning and plying all the yarn, then alternating skeins so that my uneven spinning at the start would not be as obvious. But I was impatient to start knitting it up and also I thought it would be a fun illustration of how much my spinning improved just over that much fibre. Which is the explanation for this, the starting end:



Very lumpy! But as I progressed I definitely improved. The first yarn was very overspun; by halfway down the scarf I was spinning much more evenly and the yarn was softer. I didn't separate out the colours, just span it as it came, which made it nice and tweedy.



The scarf is blocking now. It's not actually long enough for a scarf, so I'm going to sew it round into a cowl and add some pretty buttons. The blocking has made the overspun yarn bloom a bit and hopefully it will even out the width. But I'm pretty proud of myself! And I've even finished another item from handspun, more about that another day!

Linking up to Making Monday with Natalie and Handmade Monday with Handmade Harbour. Lots of lovely blogs on both of those so check them out!