My Mitts....

My first attempt at knitting with double-pointed needles. It's a little stretched where I had a few issues with keeping the needles together but not too bad.  Hopefully the second one will be done by next week.

Please excuse the pizza boxes!

One present down and a little crafty rant....

One positive thing has come out of being off work. I have been able to plan and make a few Christmas presents. The first completed item is my cable hot water bottle for my niece.

This is from a pattern in Lets Knit Magazine and was made using Sirdar Supersoft Aran yarn. My favourite bargain Aran yarn. It is so soft and yet the 100g balls are only £3.15 in my local sewing shop and I used less than one ball. I bought 3 so I am trying to think of something else to knit with it...possibly a cover for my netbook if I can find a good pattern.

As much as possible I try to use the yarn specified in the pattern and did so in this project. Sometimes though it just isn't and this is where I start a little rant if you don't mind. There are some beautiful yarns available made from exotic fibres that are obviously much better quality than the man-made alternatives but why do they have to be so damned expensive?! I simply refuse to spend more on yarn to make a project than I would spend in a shop to buy the finished article. It's just ridiculous! I found a lovely tank top pattern the other week that would cost £60 just for the wool! OK, rant over.

Coming soon (hopefully) a chunky bag. x

Of illness and a bit of knitting....

I have had a horrible cold and I am not feeling good at all. I am at the sneezy, running nose stage which hopefully means it's on it's way out but it means I have to endure the blocked nose stage which seems to happen at night and affects my sleep. To top it off, my smoke alarm keeps beeping (I think the battery is running out) and I can't reach it to sort it out and England lost in the Rugby Quarter Final.

Anyway, despite my ills, I have managed to make a start on my Christmas gifts. I have started making my hot water bottle cover (pattern from Lets Knit Magazine) and you can see my progress on Ravelry.

Here is the cover so far. This is the first proper attempt at cabling and it's going pretty well. I'm not sure if you can tell but there seems to be an error in the chart I am following . It's not my error because I am following the pattern exactly but I am almost wishing I had changed it myself. Of course there is always the risk if I do that of messing up further along which is why I stuck to the pattern so I am hoping no one will notice! And, if I do knit this again (and I definitely bought enough wool to do another) I will change it.

I found some really nice patterns by Kind Cole in Snip today (the wool is a bargain too) so I might have to go back there in the next few weeks. I hear another project calling already! :)