Knitting again!

I guess you can tell from that title what I've been up to recently :)

Thinking off all the decluttering I've been doing recently, it occurs to me that there's no better way of clearing out your stash than actually using it :)

That thought, and clearing out my ravelry queue got me going. I saw lots of patterns that would go with the yarn I have (probably why I queued some of them in the first place lol).

The first pattern I decided to knit was Esperenza by Gabriela Ordenes. I've been meaning to make this for ages, and I've had the yarn planned for ages - a pure wool dk from Freyalyn's Hand-Dyed Yarns. So now that my head feels a little clearer after all the decluttering (weird, but it really does feel clearer!) I actually managed to cast it on and knit it!









I'm so happy now that I've made this cowl! I think it's a very pretty pattern :) I made a slight modification - cast on 55sts and added the extra sts to the garter stitch section.



One of my favourite features of this cowl is how people have folded the garter stitch section over. I had extra yardage than was called for, so I figured i'd be happier with a larger fold and it would use up more of the skein. Less clutter :)



And I also got to go through my button jar and find a use for these pretty blue square buttons! A win all round!

Some HPKCHC FOs

I rejoined the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup on Ravelry :)

I love this group, but I'd dropped out for a few "terms". Then I head Rachel on the KnitCents podcast talking about it, and it reminded me of how much I'd enjoyed it last time, so as soon as the new term was about to begin, I signed up.

In this group, they have "classes" where you get a task - kind of like an inspiration idea, some loose idea, and you craft something that's connected to that idea. This month I did Defence Against The Dark Arts, Astronomy, and Ancient Runes.

Ancient Runes: The task was to craft something that would enable or aid communication. I made some top-(fingers)-down fingerless mitts to "help keep my hands warm when I was texting or phoning my muggle friends on the tellyfone" :D





Defence Against The Dark Arts: This task was to craft something you would wear to the beach. I made a poncho/coverup using Cindy Kamps' Medallion Poncho pattern.



Astronomy: The task was to create something irregular (based on the asteroid belt) I made a cowl using chunky yarn, just going round and round in SC/DC (depending on what country you're in and what terminology you're using), and working bobbles randomly, just whenever I wanted to make one. I think the final effect turned out quite asteroid-y :D It looks quite interesting as a hat/head-covering as well as around the neck (actually I think it looks better that way!)











I turned them all in today (the last day of the month), so I could get my points for Ravenclaw. I'm in Ravenclaw, my favourite house, BTW!! Last minute as usual, it's just like when I really was at school, lol!

Small Warm Things

Oh my goodness, it has been freezing here! I know it's December now, but still! The weather forecast predicted a big snow on Thursday, which didn't appear :( I looked out of the window on Thursday morning expecting to be inundated with snow from the way the forecast was, and it was raining!!! I was very upset, I wanted to make a snowman! Still, at least with the rain, the temperature has gone up a little. It's now more like 0 degrees Celsius, rather than -4! My gas and electric bills are going to be so huge, the heating has been on all the time more or less.

It's been so cold that I had to make some small things to keep myself warm. Any excuse, eh? ;) I did want to make some more sweaters, but it's too cold. I want small things that are quickly finished and can be put on to keep me warm.

I made this scarf:



The pattern is from the CrochetMe book (amazon link) and is the Shades of Plaid (ravelry link) scarf by Julie Armstrong Holetz. It's my new favourite pattern ;) I've already made another, but I don't have pictures yet. It's great for stashbusting, and I love the tartan-y effect. Must be my Scottishness showing through!

The pattern calls for making a mesh then threading a crochet chain through it, but my chain wasn't big enough for my mesh holes, so I single crocheted (double in UK terms?) into the chain. That made it big enough, and also made it super super warm. I wore my other one out yesterday, and it definitely kept the chill away! I can see I'm going to make quite a few more of these. I keep looking at them and thinking of new colour combinations for it!

I also have become obsessed with cowls. I don't know why, two weeks ago I thought they were the silliest thing ever. I mean, why not just wear a scarf?

But then I made this



and have now decided that they are great. This one is the Darkside Cowl by Sarah Fama, and it's available as a free download on Ravelry.

I love this also. I love how it keeps my neck warm, and yet is not bulky at all. I'm getting a new jacket for Christmas (shhh, I'm not supposed to know, really!), and I keep thinking how great this will look with it.

There was a kind of convoluted process to getting to make this. I have this other yarn that I was trying to think of what to make with it, and saw another cowl pattern which I thought would be perfect, but the pattern got lost in the yarn. So I started looking through the patterns on Ravelry trying to find another one. I didn't find one for that yarn, so I've ended up having to design my own. But then I looked at my yarn on the shelf and saw this gold yarn. I remembered seeing the Darkside Cowl pattern and it just clicked that the two would go well together. It knit up really fast, about a day overall, and I'm very happy with it.

So now I'm designing a cowl for the other yarn that I originally intended to use, and when I was tidying my stash yesterday I came across another two yarns that would look nice as cowls. Some wider and floppier and some tight like this one. It's a bit scary, this sudden obsession, but I might as well go with it. Because of Christmas etc, the new cowl pattern probably won't be written up for a little while, but I'm planning to write it up and put it up for free. Eventually. ;)

Now I'm off to make more small warm things :)