knitting lately

a cowl for my brother as a birthday gift
a cowl for me

currently on my needles - Gentian Hat

next project - Forge Hat for Keith, with Brooklyn Shelter.

obligatory resolutions for twenty fourteen

The first breakfast of the year

As I previously said, I am not one for resolutions. I never keep them.

However, with the beginning of a new year it is in the air...

• I would like to try and read books I own that I haven't gotten round to reading yet. I tend to visit the library and get enticed by what is there, ignoring the lovely books I have parted with money for. I have a lot of books. So I am adding them to my list of books to read this year...

• Menu planning is something that I think could greatly help with budgeting and healthy eating. So I hope to start using my collection of cookbooks more, try out new recipes and plan our weekly eats in advance. Astrid's post on this has inspired me.

• I'd also like to get exercising again, but am not sure yet as to what to do. I will be trying things out in January to see what I could stick with.

• I'll be starting Project Life, which I've already mentioned.

• Lastly, what I'm most excited about is knitting projects. Towards the end of last year, I started buying beautiful wools and got a lot more excited about what I was knitting. Although I only completed a handful of projects, I'm determined to expand on this in 2014. I've already lined up some lovely projects on my Ravelry page.

christmas knitting

The late hours of Christmas eve and early hours of Christmas morning were spent, not relaxing with a mulled wine in front of the open fire and a good book or movie, but instead frantically finishing this hat I had promised myself I would gift to my mother on Christmas Day. 

As it is the same hat I knit for myself a few months back, I thought it would be quicker this time. I was mistaken. The general busyness of the festive period meant I couldn't dedicate as much time as I would have liked to this. Also, no matter how many time you knit this, it is still a fiddly one, with the varying rows, cables and bobbles. 

I love the finished piece - this hat is pretty and looks especially nice in this colour. And my mum was very pleased with it. However, I'm looking forward to my next project, the Ammolite cowl from PomPom magazine. 

Orchids & Fairy Lights Hat

...aka my lovely new autumn hat.

The pattern is Orchids & Fairy Lights by Tiny Owl Knits, and the wool is Malabrigo Worsted. Super soft and lovely to work with. On a recent trip to London (the night before which I was frantically finishing the hat in order to wear it that week) I visited the beautiful shop Loop in Islington, where I picked up a couple more skeins of this wool in other beautiful colours. I'm reluctantly going to knit them up into Christmas gifts...

My head is currently whirling with projects I want to cast on, becoming more and more confused with the different wools, the different patterns and whether they will match up. Tonight I plan to lay it all out and make a plan. Using Ravelry is a good way to keep it organised, so i guess i'd better line them up in the project queue rather than continuously adding new patterns to the library.

Is anyone else planning on knitting some gifts for Christmas?

aran jumper

I have embarked on my first jumper. It isn't just a simple jumper. It's an aran jumper.


Up until recently, my knitting projects had mostly consisted of scarves, which were usually just row after row of garter stitch. Eventually, scarves began to get a bit tedious. There are only so many scarves a girl can wear. So I sought out a knitting class that would push me to learn new stitches and try more adventurous projects.

During the class, I completed a poncho and a beanie. I have since realised I will never wear the poncho, and so the wool will be pulled apart and put to better use. The finished beanie turned out a little small, but it was very quick and easy to do once I had gotten the hang of the stitches involved.

So although this may be a big leap from yo, k3tog....cables are the next stitch on my to-do list.

 I found this pattern book in fantastic little wool shop in larne (?!?!). My class teacher had the same one, from which she'd knitted a large cable throw. The jumpers and cardigans in it look so cosy and perfect for keeping warm in our drizzly climate... I decided pretty quickly to embark on my first aran jumper.

I'm only a couple of rows in, but I'm planning on devoting the next few evenings to it in order to begin the aran stitches. Hopefully it will be finished in time to wear this winter...