Yarn Along.....lots on the needles.

Hello my friends, how is your week going? I'm writing this hoping the rain will stay away this morning so we can take my niece and nephew to the park. Well, I seem to have cast on quite a few things this week, including something using these gorgeous mini skeins from Fivemoons Yarns.

I'll start with this project first, though these aren't my usual colour pallet but they jumped out at me at Unwind Brighton. They came in a little wooden box called A Big Box of Sweeties and had 10 x 10g mini skeins of Luna Plus 4ply, 75% superwash merino/25% nylon. I resisted at first and bought the Fade to Grey which I knit my Pebble Beach shawl in.

As I sat in the Pavillion Gardens, knitting on my shawl, Zena said those mini skeins would be perfect for the Leftie Shawl by Martina Behm. I'd had my eye on this pattern for some time and thought what a great idea and those colours I'd been looking at would be perfect, so later that afternoon I headed back to the Marketplace and bought them.

The main colour needs 150g of yarn so rather than having to buy 200g and having leftovers, I started looking for 50g skeins. I found some Artesano Alpaca Silk 4ply which is 70% alpaca/30% silk. It is beautifully soft and has a very slight halo, I love how it looks against the bright colours.

After speaking to Zena, we decided to cast on and knit it at the same time, I then found out Rachel from The Good Yarn Guide wanted to knit it too, so we are having a mini knit along together. We were all just about ready last weekend to start it and I cast my Leftie on Saturday evening, managing to get six leaves finished.

My only reservation with this pattern were the short rows, I've always had a problem picking up the wraps and making it look neat. I looked on You Tube to see if I could find any tips and after the finishing the first two leaves found it wasn't too bad. After avoiding short rows when I could, I'm now finding them not to be a problem. If I need any help with knitting, I tend to use the tutorials by Very Pink Knits, she is very clear and does great close up shots.

My next new project is by Mel, she has a brand new look blog with a new name and podcast, if you take a look at the first video, you can find out the reason for this new look and name, it's wonderful news, you can find the first video here.

Mel is such a warm, kindhearted person and loves to bring people together, she has come up with a great idea for knitting together. On the first episode she encourages us to pick up 100g of fingering/4ply, some 4mm needles and cast on a gorgeous, easy to knit shawl that she's designed especially for her podcast listeners.

She talks us through the intructions and also has them written on the video, so grab a note book too. It didn't take me long to finish the first part and was ready for the second episode.

As promised, Mel was back the following week with episode 2 and the next part of the pattern. I'd got 460 yds of yarn so I wanted to make mine bigger which Mel explains how to do that, leaving enough yarn for the border. She then goes on to tell you the instructions for the first part of the border which I'm just about to start. I just think this is a wonderful idea, the pattern hasn't been released yet, this is just for her podcast viewers at the moment, so go check it out.

I've also cast on a mini version of the Georgie Blanket by Helen Stewert, I've cast on 81 stitches rather than what's given in the pattern. It will be the perfect size for the carry cot and car seat. I'm using some leftover Rooster yarn which is one of my favourite commercial yarns, it's a dream to knit with.

We went up to see her on Sunday, here she is with just 8 weeks left to go.

We took all the baby things up that she'd been storing at ours until the nursery was finished including this sweet little Mose's basket we bought them, you can just about see the first Georgie blanket I knit for him.

Now on to the book I'm reading this week, it's a great thriller that I have on my Kindle called Abducted by T.R. Raglan, it's an on the edge read and I'm loving it. This week I'm linking to Yarn Along, WIP Wednesday and Keep Calm Craft On.

Thank you for stopping by have a great week.

xxxxDebxxxx

 

Yarn Along....Georgie Baby Blanket and Giveaway.

Hello my friends, I'm back today to share with you, the test knit that I was working on last week, all I showed you was the yarn I was using!!!

TaDa!!!! It's the Georgie Baby Blanket by Helen Stewart, a beautiful modern deign. I love the simple graphic lines of this blanket. The main section is knit in one piece and then the border is picked up and knit in the round.

It's a very relaxing knit using slip sitiches to create the eye catching stripes so you are only ever using one colour at a time. The pattern is written for sport weight but works with any yarn weight, I used Drops Merino Exra Fine DK. The contrast colours only used about 24g each colour so great for using up those half used skeins.
If you are using a heavier yarn, check the yardage, you will probably need slightly more than the 5 that Helen used. I used 6 balls of the main colour as Drops don't tend to have as much yardage as other manufacturers. I used every little bit of it and was playing yarn chicken until the end, the problem was half way through every new ball of yarn had been joined with a knot so I had to keep cutting them out and joining back to my blanket. I would have had plenty if this hadn't happened, I know Drops is an economical brand but surely that shouldn't have happened with 6 out of 6 balls!!! Never mind, I was probably just unlucky, apart from the knots the yarn is beautiful to work with and very soft, perfect for babies.

Jodie has seen the blanket and loves it, it's all wrapped and tied with a ribbon, ready for the little man to arrive.
Now if like me and you love Helen's designs and would like to win one, she has kindly offered three single patterns for me to give away to my readers!!! Leave me a comment letting me know you want to enter and I will pick three winners who will be able to choose a pattern each, take a look here at all of Helen's beautiful designs. I would love to know you're favourite and if you've knit any of Helen's designs.

This is what I'm currently reading, The Zookeepers Wife by Diane Ackerman, it's part of the summer read over at Camp Aloha Friends, I'm linking this to Ginny's Yarn Along.

I'm now working on the Twinkle Twinkle Blanket, I'm hoping I can get some of my WIPs finished before I start something new, mmmmm I wonder if I can do it!!!! I'm linking this to Tami's WIP Wednesday and Nicole's KCCO.
Have a great week and don't forget to leave a comment if you want to enter the giveaway, I'll leave it open until next Tuesday and will announce the winner on Wednesday, good luck!
xxxxDebxxxx