Debbie Bliss Galore

Pictures at last!

Finally some pictures of all my knitting projects! My mum's digital camera finally has some reliable batteries in it, and I have finally realized it's a better idea to take pictures of everything without using the flash or lamplight.


Anyway, in the first picture you can see all my deep red Alpaca Soft stuff: my bamboo needles, a scarf, a hat and a tiny little MP3 player cosy.

Then the second picture! My Fair Isle stuff I am so proud of! (Sorry, but I made all this while I was ill, and I had never done Fair Isle before, so I was suddenly rather surprised at my own knitting skills.) In the picture are my Fair Isle baby hat, my first bit of Fair Isle baby scarf, a fresh ball of Rowan Pure Wool DK (Marine) and the beady stitch markers (red ones!) that Gracie made for me :) The hat looks a bit narrow, but that's because of the brim which has a lot of stretch in it... I also love how the top of the hat looks...a bit like a tuft of whipped cream :)

Then a few close-ups of the Fair Isle bits... The third picture is the pattern on the baby hat, and the fourth is the baby scarf...on which I'm using the same pattern, only with the colours the other way round :)

Molly

Elementary :)

Deary me! I have been knitting all day again! Thank heavens I have something useful to do while I sit on the couch all day, trying to recover from my sudden flu attack :S My Fair Isle Baby Hat is finished and looks absolutely adorable (if I may say so), and I like the Fair Isle-ing so much that I have decided to try the same I pattern I used for the hat on the scarf :)

And...I'm planning another project: a knitting bag! I need a nice bag to put all my needles and yarn in, and preferably a bag I have knitted myself... Also, I want to try and make my own patterns, so the knitting bag would be a great opportunity to try that... I am going to use acrylic yarn for the bag, as it is MUCH cheaper and I'm going to need a lot of it...

And...as you can see in the picture: I'm going to do a Holmesy pattern! (I love Sherlock Holmes. I really do.) I made a sort of grid, then placed a sort of vague Holmes silhouette over it and then put little dots in the squares so I got a pattern... (I may seem like a terrible amateur, but then again...I am.) If you squint at the picture, you can really see what it'll look like :) Anyway, I'm probably going to get yarn for that this week! But first, the scarf needs finishing :D

Molly

Fair Isle Fun :D

Just a tiny post to tell you how well my Fair Isle baby hat project is going! I got the flu (or something similar) yesterday, but I'm feeling a lot better today (though still slightly wobbly) and I've been Fair Isle-ing all morning! The colours go very well together, and working with different colours is definately easier and more fun than I thought it would be :) Oh, Gracie...about the baby perhaps being allergic to wool...I asked the yarn shop lady and she didn't say anything about the wool not being suitable for babies...and my mum also thinks it'll be okay...so I'll just have to go with that :) In case the baby does turn out to be allergic, I'll knit my cousin another hat and scarf and give these to Julia to use on her dolls ;)

Molly :)

New Stuff!

I have just been to the yarn shop and bought stuff for my new projects. My cousin is having a baby next month, so I've been planning to knit a baby hat and scarf as a present. I am going to make them now, but I want the baby to be able to wear them next autumn/winter, as I don't know whether the weather is going to be as cold as this in a month from now...and if it isn't, the baby won't be able to wear his presents. I bought three balls of Rowan Pure Wool DK: one ball of Glacier (005) and two balls of Marine (008). I also bought new circular needles and DPNs (both 4mm). The hat is going to be a variation on the Madison pattern I used for my own hat. For my own hat, I left out the Fair Isle bit, but I'm going to give that a try now. As the baby hat is for a boy, I'm not going to make it with the curly brim my own hat has, but with a less girly, folded brim. I'm not going to use Fair Isle on the scarf, because I'm not experienced enough to do woven Fair Isle (and the stranded Fair Isle I'm going to use on the hat will not work for the scarf). So for the scarf, I think I'm going for broad, horizontal stripes. Let's get started!

Molly :)

I'm on a roll!

Wow, I bought the yarn and needles for my hat only three days ago, and it's already finished! I finished it yesterday, and I was SO surprised at how easy it was to knit with five needles and the decreasing of the stitches also went very well... Yay! I'm very happy with it, and tomorrow afternoon I'll actually be able to wear it, because then my hair will be short and I won't have a lump on the back of my head anymore (the bun I always wear my hair in).

Also: a picture of my scarf! It's not actually that colour, but it came out that way because of the flash, and when we didn't use the flash, the lamplight made it look slightly orange :S So I guess we'll have to take a picture outdoors to catch the real colour, and we'll take pictures of the whole outfit: scarf, hat and...MP3 cosy!

Yes, that's right... I'm making an MP3 cosy with the leftover yarn from the hat! I got the idea from Licketyknit, and it was easy to make, except for...the buttonhole. Yarrrgh! I definately have to practice knitting buttonholes...I had never tried before, and it ended up as a complete mess. Now I'm just going to attach a little loop to the flap that closes it and use that as a buttonhole :D (Never despair, my friends...)

Anyway, I'm finishing the cosy tonight and I'll get Gracie to take pictures of my wonderful, new and incredibly red outfit :P

Molly

A new challenge!

Well, as I'm the only dog-owning knitting person on this blog (Pippa and Gracie are both cat-owners), I have to defend my faith by posting a picture of my dog here, who is completely insane, by the way.

So this is my dog (well, mainly his nose). He is a Drentsche Patrijshond (better known in English as Dutch Patridge Dog), almost two years old, and his name is Willem. He loves sniffing and licking my balls of yarn when I'm knitting, and what he even loves more is steal the yarn when you're not looking (or when you are looking). So in case anyone thought only cats did that sort of thing: nope. Dogs, or at least mine, love it just as much as their feline colleagues do. Yup, my dog chases pretty much every single thing that moves, and every single thing that doesn't. (His motto seems to be: If it doesn't move, I will move it myself!)

Anyway, today all of us Yarn Owl Bloggers went to our favourite yarn shop again to get new stuff for new projects. I bought circular needles, a set of double-pointed needles (all bamboo), and two more balls of deep red alpaca yarn to knit a nice hat to go with my scarf! Gracie and Pippa also bought new stuff, and Gracie took pictures of everything, including a few finished things! Yay!

Molly

Back in business :)

I've been away from internet for a week, as it was time for my traditional Christmas holiday movie week with my cousin. No knitting news from me, but I have been wearing my self-knitted scarf a lot this week! Now I have to get someone to take a picture of me wearing it, so I can show you... Anyway, I see a lot of changes have been made to our blog, and don't worry: I like them very much! Gracie has obviously done her best to make the whole thing look more personal and stylish, and I love the little progress bars! (Very cute!) Am beginning to miss Gracie and Pippa very much by the way, now that there is no work, theatre or writing to be done... We have to meet up soon...although I did find out my next exam is actually on 8 January instead of 1 February (whoopsadaisy), so I'll have to spend next week studying like mad :S

Have a great New Year!

Molly

P.S. I just have to include the list of films I watched with my cousin this week, just to impress you: Seven Years in Tibet, Troy, Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers, The Holiday, Hoodwinked, Keizer Kuzco II: King Kronk, History of the World Part I, Kinsey, Conspiracy, Pirates of the Caribbean II: Dead Man's Chest, Girl Interrupted, Minoes, Soldaat van Oranje, and a few episodes of Friends! I might have forgotten one or two though :P

Merry Knitmas! :P

First of all, as it's Christmas Day, I'd like to wish all my knitting friends a wonderful Christmas! Also: I finished my scarf yesterday, on Christmas Eve. The only thing I stil have to do is get rid of all those loose ends of yarn that are still hanging from it, but I'll do that this evening, as we have Christmas dinner to prepare today. I'm making Clear Vegetable Soup, a nice wintery English Stew and Almond and Apricot Crumble for 27 December, when my aunt and uncle are coming over for dinner (hurray for Jane Grigson's English Food!). I'm going to make the stew and the broth for the soup today, so my scarf will not be finished before this evening. But I promise I'll take pictures of it and post them here as soon as pos. And I'll have to start thinking about a new project! Wishing you all a great day with lots of nice knitting and/or cooking and eating,

Molly ;P

p.s. Hurrah! Pippa's first post hath arrived! I'm very curious about your Soft Tweed scarf (from a fellow-scarf-knitter's point of view :P), can't wait to see some pics!

New Stuff

Hurray! Pippa, Gracey and I went to the yarn shop this morning, and we all bought some things for our new projects! I bought new bamboo needles, and also four balls of beau-ti-ful deep red alpaca yarn to knit my warm winter scarf with! There were lots of other great colours and kinds of yarn I liked, such as the porridge coloured chunky Scottish tweed. Pippa said I shouldn't buy it because it made her feel hungry :) I just got started on my scarf, but I really have to get used to the messy texture of the alpaca wool...it's a bit loose, and so different from regular wool. It feels very soft and cuddly though, and I am absolutely in love with the colour! The bamboo needles are very nice, but I have to get used to them as well, as I've only been knitting with metal ones until now. (And my new needles are also thicker than the old ones.) New experiences all round, but very nice ones :P I'll get knitting now.

Molly