Adventures in Knitting and Crochet

So I am not the most organised of people. Between a hectic job, ninja training, parenting and life in general, I never get it all done. I was one gift down so I whipped this blanket up over the weekend. Its knitted in chunky on 7 mm needles so it works up really quickly. The Scheepjes yarn from Rainbow Valley ( https://www.enfys.me.uk/)  is lovely to work with 10/10, highly recommend.  Enjoy! Felicity Pattern Using Scheepjes Chunky Monkey in Juniper and 7mm needles cast on 86 stitches Row 1: K1, P1 across all stiches Row 2: P1, K1 across all stitches Row 3: K1, P1 across all stiches Row 4: P1, K1 across all stitches Row 5: K1, P1, K1, P1, K79, P1, K1, P1 Row 6: P1, K1, P1, K1, P79, K1, P1, K1 Repeat these two rows 18 times Row 41: K1, P1, K1, P1, K20, P2, K2, P2, K2, P6, K2, P6, K2, P6, K2, P2, K2, P2, K21, P1, K1, P1 Row 42: P1, K1, P1, K1, P20, K2, P2, K2, P2, K6, P2, K6, P2, K6, P2, K2, P2, K2, P21, K1, P1, K1 Row 43: K1, P1, K1, P1, K20, P2, K2,...

  I love this yarn. In comparison to the yarn I used on my previous blanket it is a world away. I got it as an impulse buy. I had to have a broken filling fixed and after surviving the dentist I figured I deserved a treat. I popped into Sew Much to Do and it was on sale. It is so soft and light I cannot begin to describe. It was like holding a warm fuzzy cloud. I knew it had to be a blanket. Its pure white, so an incredibly impractical blanket, but a blanket none the less. As usual I got halfway through the pattern and had to take a break when I realised I didn’t have enough yarn, spend hours on the internet and calling yarn shops to track down the missing balls and then fight with royal mail to get them to reluctantly release the package, but it was worth it. I love the finished item and while I will probably still gift it to charity like most of the things I make, I do actually have a pang letting this one go. I have left the pattern below. Enjoy! Felicity The blanket is made i...

  I know things have been very quiet the past few weeks. It’s been the start of term and that always means several things at work 1) Everything gets manically busy and there is no time for anything fun. 2) All the students come back and give everyone Freshers Flu. This is never a fun experience and this years delightful viral episode meant that for two whole weeks I felt so awful I didn’t even knit. However, I am back, and I have a new blanket pattern for you all. A not insignificant amount of the delay was due to the yarn I chose to use for this blanket. It seemed like a lovely cranberry with a silvery twist through it in the yarn shop. However, it is truly horrible to knit with it splits, stretches and is impossible to block. The blanket will knit to any gauge (although the size will obviously change) so I highly recommend ignoring this yarn and using something, anything, nicer! Enjoy! Felicity     Pattern Using 12mm needles cast on 104 stitches (I highly ...

I got the yarn for this blanket over 12 years ago. It was originally planned as a turtleneck aran jumper which I got halfway through before I remembered that 1) I hate turtlenecks and 2) I do not have the figure to pull of chunky cables. It got frogged put back into the stash and largely forgotten about. In fact, after going through my stash recently to introduce one of my friends to the beauty of yarn, I didn’t manage to find any yarn which I have kept longer. It has served its time. I was pondering different projects for the yarn. With clothing ruled out and the need for the project to be a portable size I decided on a blanket knitted in strips. Whenever I look at the yarn I still see cables. This is a problem for knitting projects at the moment as I am doing a lot of long distance car journeys and I always lose my cable needle. My other half is very understanding of my compulsion for all things yarn related but even the best husbands draw the line at repeated stops so that you can...

  There was no real inspiration behind this blanket. I love sunsets and saw the yarn at https://www.enfys.me.uk/ . It seemed too good an opportunity to miss. It is one of the easiest blankets to do as the crochet is absolute basic and the design comes from the colour blending. I hope you like it! Felicity   Pattern The pattern uses English crochet terminology throughout The pattern uses double stranded yarn and a 7 mm crochet hook.   Using two strands of Cygnet pure wool superwash DK in navy Chain 77 stitches Row 1: DC into third chain from the hook and every following chain Row 2-29: Chain 2 then DC into each stitch along the row Change yarn to double stranded (1 strand Cygnet pure wool superwash DK in navy and 1 strand Cygnet pure wool superwash DK in damson) Row 30-44: Chain 2 then DC into each stitch along the row Change yarn to two strands of Cygnet pure wool superwash DK in Damson Row 45-76: Chain 2 then DC into each stitch along the row ...

  This scarf was inspired by reader Ellen who commented on my secret message scarf post. After reading her comments it occurred to me that very few people who are blind will be able to read Morse code. Therefore, the obvious decision was to design a scarf with a happy birthday message in braille! In real life I spend a lot of my time in a lab trying to develop new treatments to prevent blindness and making things accessible to blind people is a cause very close to my heart. It has been a fun experiment mixing work and knitting. I have used DK weight yarn for this project and doubled it so that you get very strong stitch definition so the braille pattern can be easily made out through touch alone. The scarf would work with a chunky yarn but I have found that the braille doesn’t stand up as much as doubled DK. I hope you enjoy it!  Felicity     Pattern: Yarn: Sirdar snuggly cashmere merino double knitting (use two strands simultaneously). Needles: 7mm ...

So I managed to escape from work for a week and have a holiday up in the North East of England. I thought I would get a lot of knitting done with all the driving. However, the roads in Durham and Northumberland are not conducive to knitting!! I still managed to get this blanket finished. It knits up really quickly. It took me two evenings to make but if you aren’t exhausted from all day hiking it would probably only take you one. I hope you like it! Felicity Pattern: Yarn: DMC Cocoon from https://www.enfys.me.uk/ Needles: 12mm zings Abbreviations: dec1 – slip one stitch, knit one stitch and pass the slipped stich over. Yo – yarn over Cast on 3 stitches Row 1: K3 Row 2-7: K1, yo knit to end Row 8: K1, yo, K2, P2, K4, Row 9: K1, yo knit to end Row 10: K1, yo, K2, P4, K4, Row 11: K1, yo knit to end Row 12: K1, yo, K2, p6, K4, Row 13: K1, yo knit to end Row 14: K1, yo, K2, P8, K4 Row 15: K1, yo knit to end Row 16: K1, yo, K2, P4, K2, P4, K4 Row 17: K1,...