Current knitting projects

I only have eight knitting projects on the go at the moment.

From left to right: scarf, fingerless gloves, socks, throw. The first two are Christmas presents, the third was intended to be one until it gained too many individualities in the pattern, so is now for me, as is the throw (probably).

Lilac jumper (for me as the yarn was a birthday present), poncho (also for me as the yarn and pattern were a Christmas present last year - the back is already completed, but is on loan to someone who wanted an example of something knitted with that yarn), sock (for daughter of a colleague, but on hold until I have confirmation of foot length), jumper (Christmas present).

The 'oldest' project is the poncho, which I started just after last Christmas; the newest project (and next to be finished) is the fingerless gloves.

Yarn stash challenge

While chatting with a friend last weekend, I was talking about economizing on spending and acknowledged that one of my biggest areas of spending is yarn. I love going to a yarn shop, seeing all the colours, touching the yarn, comparing this mix/shade/weight with that one - yarn-buying for me is a very visual-tactile experience and I have only rarely bought online (and then it's always been yarn that I've previously encountered in a shop, so I know what I'm getting).

So I decided to challenge myself to knit as much as I can using my stash rather than buying more yarn (spending of Christmas/birthday money excepted, as that is outside the monthly budget). Rather than wait until the New Year and make it a resolution, I am going to start straight away.

So here is my stash - I must admit, when I gathered it all together, I was shocked at how much there actually is - when it's a tub here, a basket there, a bit of shelf in a cupboard etc. it's not so obvious how much there is. I think this is all of it and there's not any squirrelled away anywhere else that I've forgotten!

I'd better get knitting - I'll let you know how I get on!

Patchwork progress

I laid out my patchwork this evening, so I could work out which hexagons to use for my next row. As it's a month since I blogged about it, I thought I'd update with another photo. It's not coming along as fast as I'd like as I'm focusing more on knitting at the moment, to get various Christmas presents finished.

Having sewn another couple of hexagons, it's time to go back to the knitting again.

Going potty

I saw how someone had turned an empty cotton bud container into something pretty and sparkly, and decided to have a go at my own version in my lunchbreak yesterday. Apologies for the state of some of the pictures - I think I need to learn some photography.

I started with the container, some fabric and some beads.

I cut a piece of fabric the right height to fit the tub and a bit longer.

And glued it round, leaving the overlap until it was dry. As mentioned in the original instructions, I left a gap at the top (bottom on this photo) for where the lid fits.

I worked out that the circle in the middle of a saucer was the same size as the top of the lid, so used that to work out how I wanted to arrange my beads.

I then decided I wanted to cover the edge of the lid with fabric to match the tub, so did that and also left it to dry for the afternoon, while I went back to my day job.

Once I'd finished work for the day, and the glue had dried, I trimmed the extra bits of fabric, then stuck the beads on the top, starting with the middle one (very conveniently the centre of the lid was marked with the company logo, so easy to find.

For finishing touches and to tidy up the edges of fabric, I added some ribbon (self-adhesive, but it would be easy to glue some on) around the top and bottom of the lid and the bottom of the tub.

And the finished result:

My husband referred to it as a desk dalek! Apparently this was a compliment.

Making progress

Since I looked at my projects-in-progress last Sunday, I've been trying to get some of the things listed out of the way. The bread, of course, got baked that day, has been eaten during the week and I baked some more today. I have finished up one of the bags of apples and started on the next bag. Some of the apples I stewed, added some sultanas and have frozen some/eaten some for breakfast. As I was given a bag of sultanas this is free food (apart from the gas for cooking), which is always a bonus!

I have labelled the jars of chutney and rosemary, and added them to my stash of preserves. I have sewn a few more patches onto my quilt. I finished the braiding I bought back from the Quilt Festival and I've finished two knitting projects

a cardigan for a new baby, using  some yarn a friend of mine dyed for the purple stripes

and the black snood (it really is black, not dark grey like it looks in the photo) my mother-in-law said she would like me to knit her for Christmas. I knitted her one earlier in the year, but she says that's too good for everyday use.

I've also progressed a couple of other bits of knitting a lot further, so I hope to finish those this week if I can.