Olive the owl

Given its been almost two weeks since my last post, and I've just finished a project so I figured I should write about it. I've also been making good progress on a cardigan that I've targeted to finish by the end of January (though that's not looking likely now - maybe I should target the end of February!) - the back is now complete which is the largest part so it feels good having that completed! I'll post a picture when it's finished.

So the project I've just finished is Olive the owl. I hadn't actually planned on knitting it, but it was a free kit with Let's Knit magazine a while back. I decided to have a go when my mum called to ask if I'd done it, as she also had the kit but had run out of the dark pink (and so wanted to know if I had any spare). Wanting to help, I started it that evening.

That phone call was last night, and I've now finished it:

Pretty cute, and a very quick knit. The pattern is fairly simple to do - three of the four rows of the pattern are stocking stitch, the other uses simple increases and decreases to give the curved stripe effect. It only took a few hours to complete. The pattern is available for free here.

Oh, and if you're interested I had 60cm of the dark pink yarn left. I'm yet to hear whether it's enough for my mum to finish hers.

Now I really should get on with finishing some of the many projects I've started already!

New year, new resolution

So I don't think I achieved my aim of finishing the year with fewer projects on the go than I started the year. So I will once again make that my aim...

I've actually made a good start. Helped by starting to use gentle sleep training techniques so my daughter naps in her cot not on me! Currently on day four and it took 5 minutes to get her down and she's been there for 45 minutes... At this rate I'll actually get housework done in the week!

So to the craft projects. Firstly, I started making a monkey rattle way back when my friend told me she was pregnant back in summer 2013. It's been knitted for a long time, it just needed making up. Anyway I've now finally got round to doing so:

I did make one mistake - around the eyes there is supposed to be a patch of cream, which I did knit, but then I sewed the nose over it! It's knitted in a cotton yarn, Rowan handknit cotton, and is in garter stitch so very quick to knit. However, because it's cotton yarn there is no stretch, which made it fairly tricky to sew up and turn the right way round. It is quite cute though, and my daughter likes it because it makes noise! That and the arms are nice and chewy.

The second project I've finished recently is one of the bags I keep mentioning. This one is grey, and was my first crochet project. It's essentially a rectangle of double crochet, folded and side seams sewn, and a handle added by making a chain of the length you want.

I then decided to line it in a floral blue cotton fabric to finish it off:

So to the third project. This one is probably the most complicated that I've completed to date. It almost went in the bin on more than one occasion! In fact it was only the first part that was tricky, once past the lace top it was rather easy. It was knitted in one piece from the top down, in a Rico cotton variegated yarn. Here it is:

I really like this, and once over the tricky lace it was really easy to knit. Plus the lack of making up is a bonus! I finished it off with cute flower buttons. The only problem is it would fit my daughter now, but it's winter and too cold! Yet there is no way I could guess that at nearly 7 months she'd only just be fitting into 3 to 6 month clothing.

Anyway, I think that's enough for today, if nothing else I've not finished anything else! I have a few things in the pipeline though, so hopefully I'll have a new post in a couple of weeks with a few more projects finished. Also I should have my new laptop up and running, so I can use my camera to improve the quality of the pictures.