Knitting

I am one happy lady this week, I am on my very last slipper, hooray!  This is pair eight, I cannot believe I have now knitted fifteen of these.  I am hoping this will be off the needles by the end of the week then I have the small matter of sewing.  I will need to sew on twelve soles, I have already done this on two pairs, four by Christmas Day the rest by New Year's Eve.  I think I can probably have this done in time....

Then I am looking forward to casting on something else, in fact I can't wait.  I am not going to knit so many of the same thing next year, you would have thought I would have learnt from last year with all the socks I made.  So I have a jumper for my eldest, a shawl for my mum and a shawl for a friend to make.  I have decided on the patterns for the first two, but not the last can you help?  I have a skein of 4ply, which is in my picture above, about 280m/305yds but cannot decide on a pattern, any suggestions?

In between times, in those free moments, I have also knitted a few bowls which I have felted!

I am still reading 1215: The Year of the Magna Carta, nearing the end now.  I am really enjoying this window into a significant period of history.  I studied so few parts of history at school, it always seemed to be the Romans, that I am really enjoying expanding my knowledge now, it is never to late to learn as they say!

Joining in with Ginny for this weeks Yarn Along, head on over to see what others have been making.

Knitting

I am still working on slippers a different pair this week, the green pair are now off the needles and awaiting their soles.  It's weird how each Wednesday when I write a knitting post I am at the exact same stage of the next slipper, just starting the instep, all my picture look the same.  Despite having plenty of Christmas knitting to be getting on with I needed a diversion this weekend, and my husband had an day off work so I couldn't knit the slippers anyway.

We recently changed our seasonal table to mark the change to winter and I thought it looked a little bare.  I have some ideas for bits and pieces I would like to make, but am saving them until after Christmas when I have more time.  I thought making some holly leaves and berries would be an easy and easy addition.......but after a scan thorough my flower pattern book and online I could only find crochet patterns, I cannot crochet and now is not the time to be learning!  So I had a go a making a pattern up, after all I have nothing else to do, right?  After several attempts I finally came up with a pattern I am happy with and I thought I would share it with you all, in case anyone else has a burning desire to knit some holly leaves too.  You could use any yarn to knit these, the heavier the weight of yarn the bigger the leaf will turn out, just use the appropriate needle for the yarn you are using.

Holly Leaf Pattern

Cast On 3 stitches

1. P
2. K1 m1 K1 m1 K1 (5 stitches)
3. P
4. K2 m1 K1 m1 K2 (7 stitches)
5. P
6. K3 m1 K1 m1 K3 (9 stitches)
7. P
8. K4 m1 K1 m1 K4 (11 stitches)
9. P
10. Cast Off 3 K1 m1 K1 m1 K5 (10 stitches)
11. Cast Off 3 P to end (7 stitches)
12. K3 m1 K1 m1 K3 (9 stitches)
13. P
14. K4 m1 K1 m1 K4 (11 stitches)
15. P
16. Cast off 3 K to end (8 stitches)
17. Cast off 3 P to end (5 stitches)
18. ssk K k2tog (3 stitches)
19. P1 p2tog (2 stitches)
20. K2tog

Berry Pattern

Cast on 3 stitches

1. P
2. K1 m1 K1 m1 K1 (5 stitches)
3. P
4. K2 m1 K1 m1 K2 (7 stitches)
5. P
6. K
7. P1 (p2tog) 3 times (4 stitches)
8. (k2tog) 2 times 
9. Cast off

Cut thread and sew through stitches and pull to make a small berry.

I have left a small loop on each leaf and berry so that I can hang them on our little tree…..

I finished The Winter Ghosts and really enjoyed it.  I am now stepping further back into history with 1215: The Year of the Magna Carta a description of what it like to be alive in that momentous year.  Thus far I have read about the houses people lived in, the shape of the landscape, the towns, education, families, tournaments and the forests.  The forest were strictly managed you could pay with your life if you broke the rules, they were managed by forest officials who sound like they were the modern day equivalent of traffic wardens in my country!

For those of you interested in such things the date today is a special one if you write your dates, day, month, year it is the 11/12/13 you won't be able to do that again for just over 86 years I will be long dead by then.  If you write your date month, date, year you have missed your last one but I have just realised that it was my eldest's ninth birthday!

Joining in with Ginny for sharing of knitting and reading and Tami for this weeks work in progress, head over to see what others are up to...

Knitting

I thought I was going to be sharing exactly the same picture as last week but I have made progress especially on the knitting.  I am on the second of this green pair which I am hoping will be off the needles by the end of the week, then I will have three left to make one pair and a half.  These are all the biggest sizes so no surprise they have been left till last, at a week a slipper I will just get them finished in time......I hope.  I shared pictures of the finished baby knits.

I did eventually find a solution to my sole quandary.  I had hoped to be able to buy a second hand wool jumper, felt it and use that for the sole.  The jumper I bought felted a little but not enough to be able to cut it up, my eldest is now enjoying wearing it so it has not gone to waste!  My other thought was some sock stop which I had seen in my local craft store a few weeks ago.  As is always the case when you go back to buy something, because you needed to think about it, it had sold out.  In the end I visited a haberdashers near to my mums whilst I was done visiting and bought some felt, enough to make soles for all eight pairs I will make, I hope it is durable enough.  I needed something quickly otherwise I would have had to drive back home with two pairs of slippers, sort out the sole and then post them back.

I finished the wonderful book by Ben Law it had chapters on how he started off living in his wood and the observations he made over time, the surrounding lands and how they have been used and managed, his learning about the different types of trees, their uses, how to manage them and the skills needed and building his first house in the woods which was featured in the programme Grand Designs.  His connection with nature and his descriptions of the interesting skills we have lost make this a wonderful book to read.

I am now reading something completely different.  A book I was given as a present a few years ago, The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse.  I have read a couple of books by this author and really enjoyed them, they sparked an interest in reading more about that period in history.  I am already about half way through the book and am really enjoying it, it is a compelling story hard to put down....

Joining in with Tami and Ginny head on over to see what other bloggers have been making and reading.

Knitting

It feels like I have been in a knitting frenzy these past few weeks.  I had to finish off certain projects by the end of this week to deliver them ready for Christmas.  I have managed to finish most of them they are waiting, wrapped up, for when we travel south to family tomorrow.  When you spend time and energy creating something it can feel strange wrapping it up to give to someone else can't it?  Maybe it is just me but it feels like you giving a little bit of yourself a way, which I suppose it is!  I will share pictures later in the week.  The slippers are still waiting for a sole, I was going to sew on leather but I have abandoned those plans I have two more ideas which I am going to investigate today when I pop into our local town I will let you know how I get on....

...meanwhile I am still knitting slippers...

I am loving the wool for this pair, beautiful greens, it was really hard to get a good picture this morning in the November gloom, it goes rather well with my reading matter this week don't you think?  I have this one and it's pair to knit, along with one more pair and an a half and that is all my Christmas knitting left to do!  Hopefully I won't be knitting on the way to our new year gathering with friends like last year.

I am still reading Woodsman by Ben Law, rather slowly at the moment with all the knitty distractions.

Joining in with Tami and Ginny for sharing of all things yarny.

Knitting

This past few weeks I have knitting as fast as I can to get some of the Christmas presents made.  I have made plans to visit some of my family at the end of the month to deliver their presents.  We are staying at home for Christmas this year so the alternative is to post everything.  So I have a deadline for some of the presents which I need to meet.  I needed to knit another pair of slippers for my niece, finish off the slippers for my nephew, finish off a cardigan for one of the twins and find a pattern, some yarn and knit up a second cardigan for the other twin, not much then!

I have cast on and off a pair of slippers for my niece.  I had been knitting these in much bigger sizes for some of my friends and they were taking ages.  This pair were super quick, I can understand how some knitters could knit these up in an evening as I have read about!

The Stripey Cardigan is off the needles and I am slowly, and somewhat tediously, weaving in all the ends.  The downside of knitting in stripes are all the ends to weave in, 36 be precise, I have done half of them only another 18 to go.  I spent ages finding this pattern because I had some odd balls of yarn I wanted to use up, so needed a pattern that had been or was easy to adapt into stripes.  It was surprisingly easy to find another pattern, thankfully.  So this week I have cast on a hooded cardigan with some yarn that was on offer, hooray for offers!

I have also cast in another pair of slippers this time for my eldest.  I popped into a craft shop in my local town to top up some crafty bits and found a couple of balls of this yarn in their bargain bin exactly what I wanted.  That doesn't happen very often so I am always glad when it does.

I am reading a great book at the moment, Woodsman by Ben Law. The author has lived in the same woods for the past twenty years building the most beautiful house, working and living in the wood. He has gained a wonderful understanding of how to live amongst trees and this book is his story.

Joining in with Tami and Ginny head on over for more yarny things.