What a week!!!

We were going to share Helen’s tales from Ireland this week, but guess what...technology failed us!! Helen’s computer is quite poorly and needs some major treatment to make it better! Hopefully we will be able to retrieve her lovely pictures and share them with you next week. Our first blogging lesson...always back it up!!

We hope you have all had fun either seeking out yarn, or actually crocheting...and maybe even completing your cowls this week. We would love it if you could share them with us using the comments box at the bottom of this post or even email them to us at hankandskein@gmail.com. We would love to show them and get them up on the blog!

So what about this week? I am off to Switzerland for the week and am finding it very hard to pack for a cold weather holiday! I would love to be packing my blanket & slippers from Jem Weston’s Cute Little Knits book make.jemweston.co.uk because they are so warm and snuggly! I would also love to be sneaking my lovely Rachel Coopey Hector socks in coopknit.blogspot.com and of course my grey hat, snood and mitts combo (at least 3 shades of grey!!!). Plus, my Martin Storey oversized jumper in Kidsilk Haze Trio, I love it!! 

But...I must be practical with a 22kg baggage allowance between two!!

My Lovely slippers & Blanket

My cosy socks

Martins fabulous oversized Jumper

At least 3 shades of Grey!!

The good news is Helen has finished her hat and we have taken a picture to show, it may have to come away with me too!!

The perfect hat for Spring

       

My next dilemma is which project...or maybe projects to pack. As we have mentioned, both Helen and I often have numerous projects on the go at once…the question is, what can I manage to fit in without taking up too much of my hubbies luggage quota? I have been making these two at a time toe up socks for quite a while now, so this may be the perfect opportunity to get them completed and off my needles! Plus they are very portable in my super small project bag, which in true Blue Peter style…I made earlier! Maybe...just maybe...I will find a small yarn shop whilst I am away!

My two at a time toe up socks and project bag

I am not a skier, but am looking forward to a little Aprẽs ski and of course some lovely Swiss chocolate, especially as I have been on the British Heart Foundation Dechox for March...I have even dreamt of chocolate! I think an airport Toblerone may be purchased on the way out!

Anyway I will be waving goodbye to Helen this morning and heading off to Switzerland now and will try to get lots of chocolate box pictures to share with you in a couple of weeks!!!

Happy crafting!!

Our Stash Busting Cowl

We promised we would be sharing a pattern with you this week and true to our word here it is!
The pattern is for a cowl which quite honestly uses up any yarn you have hanging around and is too beautiful to get rid of. Here are just a few mixes, which Helen has put together from her stash...

Wow!! Lovely Oranges and aquas with a little texture too!

We love the acid greens and yellows with the purple here!

A lovely Spring feel with this one!!

You can almost feel the warm summer sun in this fabulous mix!

So, you get the idea, just mix and match your favourite yarns in a colour way you love. Use as many or as few colours as you want. Now all you need is the pattern!! So.... here it is!

Crochet Cowl

Foundation Row:

With 4.5mm hook and first colour make 200ch, sl st into first ch to form a ring. (taking care not to twist the chain)

Round 1:

Change colour. 3ch (counts as first tr), 1 tr into each ch to end, sl st into top of 3ch at beg of round.

Round 2:

Change colour . 3 ch (counts as first tr) 1 tr into each tr to end, sl st into top of 3 ch at beg of round.

Rep round 2 throughout, changing colour every row until cowl is required length.

The finished item will look like this, only it will be individual to you!!

Wear it long!

Or double it up!!

The joy of this cowl is that you decide how long or short you would like it to be; just increase, or decrease the number of stitches on your foundation row to suit yourself. We hope you love this as much as we do!! Happy hooking!!

If you decide that you would rather buy one of these ready made, or simply want to purchase a pack of wool in small balls with colours of your choice to start crocheting, then please visit Helen's Etsy shop. Just follow the link below and click on contact shop owner. She has lots of other lovely items to browse too! Take a look for yourself...
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/HelenArdleyKnits?ref=search_shop_redirect

Has a whole week gone by?

I don't know about you... but I find that time just slips through my fingers at the moment and I don't seem to have enough of it either,however Helen and I managed to get together this week and we both had so much to share we thought we were going to burst! We both have community projects on a Monday night and last week was the First birthday for the Knit and Natter group, which I set up at the local library. They made us a beautiful cake to celebrate! I love getting together with like minded ladies and sharing knitting and crochet knowledge especially when I see the pure joy when they complete their first project. I cannot think of a nicer way to spend my Monday evenings. 

Our lovely Cake!!

I am pleased to share the picture of my completed Skinny Fit Mitts. I have worn them so much!  I am sure I will be knitting them soon in another colour because I love them so much!

A perfect fit!!

I showed you my tension square and promised to let you know what I was knitting...well the yarn is from my stash and must be about 7 years old, but it is a yarn which I love. It is Rowan Calmer, they have sadly now discontinued it, but you can still get your hands on some at http://www.blacksheepwools.com/. I am working on Erin from Kim Hargreaves book; Heart Felt The Dark House Collection www.kimhargreaves.co.uk. I know that Helen and I both Love Kim's designs because they always fit well and are very flattering. I hope to have this knitted for the Spring/ Summer as it is a perfect jacket to keep the chill off. This is my progress so far.....

Do you love it? I do! The colour is beautiful and the fabric of the knit feels so soft!

I am also pleased to tell you that I came runner up with many others in a competition run by Rowan Yarns and Aardman studios featuring Shaun the Sheep; we had to place Shaun in an unusual environment (for a sheep that is) and post the picture on the Rowan Facebook page. 

As you can see my entry was based around the Great British Sewing Bee! And the picture on the right is of the fabulous gift I received in the post from Coats Crafts! I was so pleased!

Helen has spent her week creating fabulous fancy dress outfits for her two children, can you believe that world book day and Red Nose Day were within a week of each other plus a Grecian day in school? Poor Helen! She truly was Super Mum this week! But just like the rest of us Helen juggles work and motherhood and she was also preparing for her weekend in Belfast at The Glen Gallery Crafts in Cullbackey Ballymena, where she is teaching a course on knitting and crocheting with colour. I am sure all the ladies will love It! The bundles of wool she was taking looked like bags of rainbows. I can't wait for her to get home and let me know how it went. 

Next week we will be sharing a stash busting project, so dig out those odd balls of wool that you haven't the heart to throw out, with lots of texture and variation and in colours you love. It is a lovely pattern.

Until then I will leave you with a recently finished project, an adaptation of Lucy’s Jolly Chunky Bag pattern - on Attic 24 http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/jolly-chunky-bag.html

It makes me happy!

Cabled Hat

I know its getting warmer everyday, but I still have to finish my hat I started months ago. I still do the school run with my son so I have started knitting a cabled hat to keep me warm in the mornings. It is a Kim Hargreaves design called Starr from her book, Misty. Go to www.kimhargreaves.co.uk for all her lovely designs and knit kits. It is knitted with 3 balls of Rowan Handknit cotton, a yarn I love to knit with as it really shows the stitch definition well. Go to www.knitrowan.co.uk for all there lovely yarns.

 As you can see I haven't got many rows left to knit so when it's finished I shall share it with you along with Sarah's mittens, but I bet by then the sun will come out and we won't get to wear them for long.

My next project is a crochet stash busting cowl using lots of colours and odds and ends from my bags of many balls of yarns I have in my loft . We will share this with you soon, it's a great way to use up lots of bits and it looks great as well. 

March Is here!

Well I don't know about everyone else but I just love the thought of Spring being just around the corner, although looking out of my window today at the grey skies and rain I still think I am better sitting in knitting than going out!

I tend to have a few things on my needles at once and I am pleased to say that my new mittens were the last of my latest projects to get close to coming off the needles. I don't know about you but I love mittens but do find them a little bulky, that was until I found this Skinny Fit Mitts pattern by Andrea Black on Ravelry  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/skinny-fit-mitts They are fabulous, the pattern is easy to follow with both written instructions and a graph. I used Rowan Pure Wool Worsted shade 00112.

As you can see I used four needles but the pattern suggests a circular needle. Just the thumb to go now............. Like most knitters when I come to the end of a project I cannot wait to start the next and I do not like doing tension squares, but to get a garment that fits I must!! So here is the tension square for my next project using Rowan Calmer from my very large stash, I will share what I am doing next time, I am going to complete those mittens now! Speak soon, Sarah