New projects!

My oh my... It's been quite eventful as of late! I am coming to the end of my MSc so work is jam packed! I got to go to the Silverstone Grand Prix for free thanks to my awesome brother (who is an aerodynamicist for Maclaren F1) and it was an awesome weekend. Never seen so much mud, especially in the field we camped in!! 

mmm muddy campsite

I had an interview for a biological crop protection company, then got called back for a second interview (in which I had to give a presentation and carry out an experiment--- SUPER SCARY!). The best thing though was that I GOT THE JOB!!!! Doing the masters has paid off already, as I have got into the industry that I wanted to. (I get to travel too :D )

As if last week wasn't exciting enough (having the second interview, getting the job--- even cancelling another interview I was to have on the Friday). I was gifted tickets to the Olympics!!! (Lucky I'm currently located not too far away from London) It was so exciting! I have to admit, I have always hated the olympics, and the build up to it just made me hate it even more... every advert on TV was games related. But I embraced it and ended up watching more of the olympics than I ever would have anticipated! (I think I watched a hell of alot... theres not much I didn't watch... lets hope my MSc project hasn't suffered too much from it). So on Sunday I took my one of my brothers for his birthday (which is today!! HAPPY 25th CRAIG!!) to the male bronze volleyball final... It was so exciting and fun! Volleyball is awesome... I love getting to play it here on campus when the weather is nice!

(went to christmas world in Harrods... I know, I know its only August, but I'm a December baby so I look forward to December ALOT)

So as a treat to myself for getting the job. I treated myself to the yarn and pattern I have been wanting for AGES!! I bought cheap acrylic yarn for it because I want it to be machine washable (my housemate knitted a jumper from the same yarn and it was super soft and made a gorgeous jumper, sometimes its not worth being a yarn snob). The pattern you may ask? Well I do LOVE Tiny Owl Knits, so I bought her wear the wild things are jumper! Cannot wait to cast on!!! (I hope the yarn comes tomorrow!). Here is a picture of the awesome jumper (mine is going to be in grey).

Another pattern I have seen which I feel is a MUST KNIT is Fighting words by Annie Watts in particular the slighly different version knitted by raveler Sazzles... Just look how AWESOME they are!

Anyway! I hope all is going well in your own worlds! Will try and knit something worth posting pictures of soon!

x

I'm BACK! with needles and hooks at the ready!

Where to begin I'm not sure! I guess I will start with my O w l s jumper. ITS FINISHED!!! I frogged it for ages when I realised I was four stitches short but after my exams in March I decided to pick it up again and finish it. Its sooo lovely and I'm so happy with it. Sadly I haven't quite had the chance to wear it (despite the 'summer' weather being cold, I thought it looked a bit to wintry to wear). So here it is!

On my last post that I posted picture on I said I was going to knit Ships & Seaside which the lovely Eilair on Ravelry had gifted to me! I got the yarn as a birthday present from my brother too So I knitted like crazy over christmas and finished... It is super warm and I got to wear it multiple times over the winter :D

Here I am wearing it on a trip to Beachy head.. and boy did I need it!

I also mentioned the Basket weave scarf from the Debbie Bliss magazine in the last post, well its not finish and its a slow knit. I'm not constantly working on it but it has proven useful to waste time on train journeys and such! One thing I must say is that I LOVE THE COLOURS!

and the pattern is awesome too!

Staying on scarfs... I also got a ball of Kidsilk haze stripe and knit a cowl from it. I chose the colour way circus as a love bright colours. It turns out that I can wear this as a ponch type thing, a top AND a skirt!!! but I will stick to wearing it as a cowl!

sorry for the poor photo

Oh and I just remembered I finished my toast scarf!!! Here it is in all of its toasty delight!

It was my best friends birthday recently and I decided to make her the Deer with antlers hat (which I got the pattern gifted to me by Ginargh on Ravelry for my birthday!). I used Debbie bliss Paloma yarn and boy oh boy is it lovely!!! I would love to make a jumper out of this yarn its like a little piece of heaven! I didn't have any yarn to felt for the antlers so I left it as a Doe!

I also decided to try out some colour work in the form of a Totoro Norwegian style glove  I may have given up for a while but I am pleased with how it is coming along!

OK so now I think I will switch to some amigurumi!!

Here is some from Teeny Tiny Mochimochi by Anna Hrachovec:

I made the volcano for a friend who was having a bad day

Another of my housemates had a birthday, and since she loves ants and is going to be doing a PhD on them I knitted her an ant from the book Amigurumi Knits by Hansi Singh. She loved it :)

Where I currently live at the moment campus is teaming with rabbits! They are everywhere!!! Which is probably the reason why they have become the logo for Silwoods music festival SILFEST. 

I WARN YOU NOW YOU MAY BE OFFENDED BY THE NEXT PICTURE... if so sorry 

This is the logo...

So I knitted some humping bunnies!!! (the top bunnie was knitted by my lovely housemate Adriana)

I also might sell some knitted bunnies if so this is what it might look like....

I also made the super cute cloud that Crochet Ninja recently posted for free on her awesome blog... Great pattern love it!

Last but not least I have brought the Star blanket, I started knitting last summer, to campus with me to finish for Dad...

Phew that was alot! and I think that was it!

Wait no I also knitted another Orchids and Fairy lights hat for my housemate.. I will try and get a picture of it and post it in another post.!

I will try and keep my blog updated again! (as long as uni doesn't become too hectic again!)

x

Sorry for the silence!

Wow it's been SOOOOO long since I posted a blog! Though it has been a stressful 6 months at uni!
I have still been knitting and crocheting so I have a few things to show you which I promise to post about this weekend!
x

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

I'm back but with only a few photos and not many finished objects. I cant believe I have finished a term at Imperial already! Time has certainly flown by! But it means that I have an exam on the 6th January so no time to play, just do the torturous revision. I ask myself at every set of exams 'why am I doing this to myslef?!?!? I hate exams and revision' But hopefully I will get a job I want at the end of the day and earn some decent money.

Anyway enough of me moaning about exams.... So first I got a request off a fellow masters student to make a bdelloid rotifer so he could give it as a gift. So I got him to give me a line drawing and the species name so I could get pictures and set about doing it. I completed it in an evening :) and it was fun to make and I only unravelled it once. How do you crochet a teeny tiny transparent marine animal though and show features?!? It was certainly a challenge but I think it came out quite well.

So here is a picture of the real thing Adineta vaga

And here is my version

Anyway the guy liked it and the receiver of the rotifer did too. I guess its not everyday that you get a crocheted rotifer for christmas. (I should point out that the receiver does research with rotifers).

Next is secret santa time, after finding out we were going to do secret santa I knew exactly what I was going to make! The teeny tiny mochimochi snowman which I have had my eye on for some time. So I bought the pattern and got to it!. Its such a cute pattern and I didnt want to give it away at all once I had finished it! I attached some yarn so it could be hung up as a christmas decoration.

I have quite a few works in progress at the moment. I am halfway through ships and seaside by Tiny Owl Knits. I got the yarn off my brothers for my birthday :)

I have started the baskestweave wrap by debbie bliss in Candy colourway rather than Heather (because candy is much brighter than heather). I got the yarn off my mum and dad for my birthday :)

I have two orchids and fairy lights hats to make, one for my mums birthday and one for my housemate, which I look forward to making.

OOO and Tiny owl knits brought out a little FREE pattern on saturday... look!

Its called heartfelt rings and they are so cute (I think I use 'so cute too much, I need another phrase) So I made a quick one out of chunky yarn (I had no 4ply with me) and knitted it with pencils because I had left by bigger DPNs back at uni... but here it is

Sorry for the crap photo, I took it with my webcam.

If only I could spend all my time knitting/crocheting rather than revising GRRRBLE!

But anyway insects are cool. (thats right I study insects). Speaking of insects look at the AWESOME birthday cake my housemates got me...

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Where is the cold weather?!?!

Alright! OK so I'm trying to keep up at least one blog post a month. Where I would like to say that I haven't done much because I have been studying hard, its the contrary :/ So I have completed quite a few projects and have many more planned, but I have to wait til my Birthday for the yarn for them (luckily its not too far away :D )

Queue the gallery of finished objects!

Firstly my orchids and fairy lights hat! WHICH I LOVE!!!!!! I'm soooooooooo happy with how it turned out and the malabrigo yarn is sooooooooooo soft. This hat is like a little piece of heaven!

 

And bonus... it fits :)

I made another Tiny owl knits hat as well. The pattern is free rapunzel and was gifted to me by the lovely LilyLaLu on ravelry. I'm not adding the braids and I'm not sure about the bobble on top but I am chuffed with it despite making a few oopsy daisies.

In the spirit of Movember because I cannot grow facial hair myself I knitted some using the awesome free pattern 

It's a moustache, for your fingers!

it has provided much amusement

Last but not least, I finally got round to doing some crochet again! It feels like it has been forever since I picked up a crochet hook. So I made a Pug from the book Ami Ami Dogs and named him BARRY.

Tadahhhhh.

Ok thats my FO's for now but I'm guessing by christmas there will be many more (as I will have to revise for exams, which usually means I get a lot of knitting/crochet done).

Anywho... I hope you like them and I'll see you next month!

Spiders aren't insects: Spinning workshop and WIPs

Hello again!

Spinning workshop


In september I went to a spinning in Ormskirk, it was taught on spinning wheels and was so much fun! I will definitely be buying a spinning wheel when I start earning money! The lesson was taught by Lazy kate and what a great teacher she was. It took some time to get used to all the things you had to do and be aware of when you are spinning but boy it was fun. At the end of the lesson I had two skeins of 2 ply yarn that I had spun myself :D

If you can get on a workshop with her I recommend it. Check out her blog on the lesson.

Here are some pictures of my spun yarn! It varies in thickness but one ply of it is much more consistently thin which is when I had got the hang of it.

Unlike the others in the class I decided I was going to make something from the yarn. So I made some simple fingerless mitts

They are really snug even though they dont look so neat. I love them as I know I spun the yarn :)

LazyKate also has her own etsy shop where she sells yarn she has spun and roving she has dyed herself. At the class I bought some lovely blue Leicester roving dyed in a beautiful colour. I will spin this on my drop spindle. So check out her etsy shop!

Works in progress


I haven't done much at the moment but here is what I have done:

Left glove of my Noro fingerless mitts

Left glove of my white rabbit wristees

I think I should start making some right gloves now!

Here are a couple of patterned hexipuffs (and a pic of them all):

Progress on the hexipuffs is going slow!

Also my jumper is almost ready to join the body and the sleeves, so I can start on the owl yoke soon!

Finally, I bought another TOK pattern last night! Its orchids and fairy lights hat. I have been looking at this pattern for ages wanting it, so I finally went and bought it. I ordered the yarn too which should arrive this week. Cant wait to cast it on and I hope the weather will get cold enough to wear it!

From Tiny Owl Knits 

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/orchids--fairy-lights