Corrugated washcloths...

 This was a lovely relaxing pattern to knit, and
the washcloths are very functional and practical.

1 x 70gm ball of Sugar' n Cream cotton made a pair of cloths.

I used a pair 4.5mm (US 7) needles.

 

such a great pattern by Kate Schoren

You can find the pattern on her blog HERE 

and on Ravelry HERE

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The dish the washcloths are in is a sweet vintage treasure a friend found for me at a local market, I love the handles on the side.  It is Stamped on the reverse, Royal Staffordshire Pottery 'Honeyglaze' Made in England and numbered.

This is the design in the base of the dish. 

Hope you are having a lovely weekend,

~ Gillian ♥

sets of three....

Three more waffle knit washcloths for the bathroom.

I made these lovelies over the past week while I have been working hard on my son's Dr Who scarf, it is such a big and repetitive project that I need little breaks from it to keep me motivated.

I find I burn out quickly from large projects sometimes but working small projects at the same time as larger ones seems to keep my spirits up and things tend to get finished that way!

That is where these little treasures have come in ;)

 The Dr Who scarf is now over 80% done

but these little sweeties are 100% ;)

and this equals a motivated me!

Of course this means the Dr Who scarf takes a little longer to finish,

but it also means the Dr Who scarf does get finished!

so a many rows of Dr Who scarf each night is rewarded with a few rows or rounds of fun & quick little project. 

This time for these little washcloths I used 4oz ball of Lily Sugar'n Cream & a pair of 4.5mm (US 7) needles for the washcloths, This made 3 washcloths and with the small amount of left over yarn I made some more little garter makeup remover pads using 4mm (US 6) needles.

using the same pattern as I did HERE

You can find the pattern for the waffle knit washcloths

by Debbie Andriulli

on Ravelry Here

or on her blog Homespun Living Blog Here

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my little bottles...

I love little vintage bottles, particularly green glass ones

I always wonder what was in them ;)

The little ink bottle is special as it was a little one I gave my Dad  with some vintage calligraphy pens once as a present (he always had beautiful handwriting and enjoyed calligraphy) - very special x

The Tall one is rather nice as it has measurements down the side, the photo doesn't pick that up too well....maybe it was a medicine bottle?

and the little one, also medicine bottle I think....I dug this one out of my garden as a child and have had it ever since :)

have a happy day

~ Gillian ♥

Wribbed Wristers.....

 Love this pattern!

It is a simple 'worked-flat' pattern,

easy to adapt to make your wristers the right size for you...

Seamed along the thumb side with mattress stitch they come together beautifully and are totally wearable and quick to make.

You can find the pattern by Joan Janes

on Ravelry Here

I used 1 x 50gm ball of Cleckheaton Perfect Day 8 ply

- 70% Wool, 30% Alpaca

(matching wool to my Calm Cowl)

4mm needles (US 6)

and worked 50 rows for each wrister.

Hope you are having a creative weekend,

Gillian ♥



simple project & new skills.....

 Moving along with my knitting...

This simple little project has taught me two new skills

- knitting in the round with dpns (double pointed needle set)

& grafting using Kitchener stitch.

 as you can see it is a little iPod sock :)

knitting socks is high on my to do list

so learning these two skills is a must!

This was a great project to tackle both,

and get some practice in,
without the fear of messing up a bigger project, while learning.

I used Jillian Neary's pattern

iPod Sock which can be found on Ravlery Here
and when it came to learning the Kitchener stitch
I used this great YouTube by
Very Pink Knits which can be found Here 

I used Cleckheaton Merino Bambino 4 ply (about 1/4 of a ball)
and a set of 4 - 2.75 mm (US size 2) dpns

Have a great day

~ Gillian ♥



a slouchy beanie = warm head....

Next up in my knitting list was a beanie for my son

We both decided this was a cool beanie in the pattern book

so I set to work knitting away...

It is a simple beanie knitted flat and seamed down the back.

Perfect for a beginner and we were both pleased with the results.

The pattern comes from Lincraft Creative Book Volume 17

Knits for Men and Boys Comfort with style.

page 20, Boy's Slouchy fold-up rib brim beanie.

I used Moda Vera Pure Wool Extra Twist & 4mm needles

My son is 13 so I made the size for a 14-15years.

have a lovely day

~ Gillian ♥



waffle knit dischloth + more gartering....

 Still working on more wash cloths for our bathroom

this pattern was mentioned in the book Down to Earth

The pattern is called Waffle Knit Dishcloth

by Debbie Andriulli

It is a simple 4 row repeat pattern, great fun!

You can find the pattern here on Ravelry

or on Debbie's blog Homespun Living Here

I worked mine up in more Lincraft Bamboozle

in two colours I have used for my previous wash cloths.

and on size 4mm needles (US 6)

Because the Bamboozle yarn is a DK weight my washers ended up being around 18cm x 18cm square, which is fine for a face washer in our home.

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To finish off the balls of bamboozle I made some little makeup remover pads,

I have made many of these over the past couple of years, and they have all been round crocheted ones but while in the knitting mood I thought I would work up some little garter stitch ones :)

 

Made using Lincraft Bamboozle and 4mm needles (US 6)

cast on 14 stitches

knit 23 rows
cast off.

= cute little garter squares

ready to cleanse, tone and wash to use again :)

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oh and do you like my pretty leaf dish?

I thought I might start to share some of my pretty collectables on my blog from time to time...

I have collected many pieces over the years and thought you might like to see some of them.

I love this one I picked it up at a Charity Shop for $4.00!

(I was pretty pleased with myself that day)

It is English Ware by Lancaster Sandland Ltd, Hanley England.

Well I hope you are having a happy day

~ Gillian ♥

garter stitch ♥

 Moving on with my knitting practice

This pattern caught my attention because of that

lovely garter stitch and the beautiful leaf shape...

 this was an excellent exercise for me,

reacquainting myself after many years with the following stitches k2tog, m1,ssk….

I made an error at some point in my green leaf (my first of the three)

somehow I ended up with an extra stitch at the point.

oh…and I think I was a little over zealous with the blocking of these poor little leaves ;)

the bamboozle yarn is much better to knit with than to crochet with,

so it was very nice to work with on this project.

I used all of the left over bamboozle yarn from my washcloths from last week

each leaf only took 0.3 skeins = 24.6 yards (22.5m) of the Bamboozle

I used 4.5mm needles (US 7)

the leaves do need a good blocking when finished.
after blocking mine measured approx 21cm x 15.5cm

You can find the pattern by Megan Goodacre

on Ravelry Here 

and on her website The Tricksy Knitter Here

the pattern also has a Stocking Stitch version of the leaf :)

Hope you are having a delightful day

~ Gillian ♥

just love this pattern....

 I really do love this simple little pattern

great for my knitting practice!

 so I made a pair for my daughter in this lovely Teal Cleckheaton wool

and another pair for my son in Charcoal....

Both are made using Cleckheaton Country Tartan 8ply

and 4.5mm (US 7) needles.

The pattern by Roxanne Richardson can be found on Ravelry here

if you are new to knitting or just want an easy pattern this one is great!

hope you are all having a lovely weekend,

~ Gillian ♥

Easy Fingerless Mitts....

 What a simple knitted project these little fingerless mitts are!

 Knitted flat and sewn up along the thumb side,

 they are a perfect beginner pattern!

I knitted this pair with

1 x 50gm ball of Patons Australia Jet (70% Wool, 30% Alpaca)

and a pair of  4.5 mm (US 7) needles.

You can find the pattern by Roxanne Richardson

on Ravelry Here

I am really enjoying doing a bit of knitting again....

I am also working on a couple of crochet projects and

the ever growing tunisian crochet dr who scarf :) 

It has been cold and rainy here the perfect weather for working with yarn,

be it hook, needle or nook!

have a happy day

~ Gillian ♥

Prism Scarf....

 I really enjoyed working with knitting needles again
to make this cute little scarf.

I know there are a couple of small mistakes and maybe my tension isn't perfect...but hey, its warm and soft and pretty :)  and I am sure in time my knitting skills will improve, at least I hope so..lol!

I used almost 4 balls of Lincraft Prism (wool/soy) and 6mm needles

and the pattern can be found on the Lincraft website Here

My scarf measures approx 11cm x 185cm (unblocked)

I really love the way the colours of the wool worked with the stripe pattern of the scarf and it was a joy to work from start to finish.

I hope you are having a lovely day,

~ Gillian ♥

Two pointy sticks.....

 I've been toying with the idea of picking up some knitting needles again...

It has been a few years since I knitted a scarf
and even then it was only Garter Stitch.

When I was in high school, my mum and I went off to evening classes to learn everything you could want to know about knitting....

only thing was we seemed to spend the whole week knitting little sample squares ready for the next class and I got a bit feed up with only making them and not a real project.

This made me put my needles away for years and

I forgot almost everything I had learned except for a few basic stitches.

Recently I have been falling in love with many of the knitted projects on Ravelry and this morning I was reading Omlair's blog and her post inspired me to get on with it and relearn how to knit!  So off I headed down to Lincraft and bought some wool and picked up a leaflet and came home and started :)

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I am making a simple rib scarf called Prism Scarf (named after the yarn used)

and using Prism yarn, it is a worsted weight wool & Soybean yarn and has a lovely colour change working through the balls and I am using size 6mm needles

The pattern can be found on the Lincraft website Here

Actually I have found the rhythm of knitting enjoyable once again and hopefully I'll soon have another scarf to wear :)

Bye for now

~ Gillian ♥