Moths and knitters block

First post in quite some time, I had a fight with a blanket and have been away from knitting for months. I should really try following patterns rather than just making it up since I'm not really experienced enough to know what works and what doesn't! I was trying to make a mitred square like a envelope kind of pattern with square stripes. I roughly followed a pattern I found on another blog http://resipsaknit.blogspot.com/2006/07/circular-mitred-square-blanket.html which has sort of worked but not quite! But then I only sort of followed the pattern. I tried it about 4 times in various different ways so got really fed up of restarting. After getting really hacked off with the blanket and taking a break for a month or so I was appalled to find a moth infestation in my knitting basket! :( Had to throw out my lovely crochet japanese cat :( . This meant I have been basically to sad to go near wool for months and months until this week. I have now got the blanket about 2/3 finished and although its not perfect it'll be cosy. Probably won't give it as a gift after all though as its going to be kinda lumpy! Glad to be back to it though.

Cable Jumper

Cable Jumper, originally uploaded by Stinky Malinky.

This is a cable jumper I started over a year ago and didn't do anything with all summer. Its actually for me so I look forward to finishing and I hope it fits! This is the back and I am part way through the front. When finished it will be a polo neck, its from a pattern in a Rowan book. The yarn is Rowan Softlux which is dead soft and has a cool glittery thread through it.

Catherine's Blanket

Catherine's Blanket, originally uploaded by Stinky Malinky.

This blanket was made after a request from Mogron last Feb (2008), I started it in the spring, but I had to restart it about 4 times which led me to start hating the project, it was supposed to be finished in June 2008 for Catherine moving to Oxford but instead I eventually finished it this Feb and took it down south with me. She seemed to like it and sent a lovely card. I'm glad its finished, but I think it was worth all the effort!

Steven's Granny's worktable

Steven's Granny's worktable, originally uploaded by Stinky Malinky.

This is a cool table/sewing box that was kindly given to me by my parents-in-law. It belonged to both of their mothers at various times so I was really touched to be given it. Plus its cool and useful, excellent!

Beautiful new Cath Kidson Sewing Box

Beautiful new Cath Kidson Sewing Box, originally uploaded by Stinky Malinky.

New Knitting Stuff

I haven't posted for a million years, I got tonnes of new knitting stuff over xmas which was great, and amazingly I managed to finish the lacy scarf for Steven's mum and the hat for my sister-in-law. I hope they were appreciated.
I have included a few pics of some of the stuff I got as I was soo excited about it!

So I had an annoying experience with my lacy scarf, I have never tried lace knitting before, and as I also crochet, when it says to yo, I did it like I would when crocheting. This created a pretty pattern, but not like the sample one in the shop, which looked much more impressive. It was also quite difficult to knit the next row. So I decided to swallow my pride and go back to my book, I was predictably doing it wrong. I have now had to unravel the scarf yet again!! It better be appreciated by its recipient.

A pic of the scarf as was, before unravelling can be found on my ravelry page
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/knittymalinky/easy-lace-scarf

Will hopefully get working on a beautiful lace scarf, perfect in every way later this evening!

Sorry, I forgot to post a photo of the hat so far, its a bit small for me, but you get the general idea!

Scarf is on hold while I make a hat. I bought a pattern for a nice hat with a flower from Etsy, but I am having trouble following it, so I decided to go off-piste and make it up as I go along! Its coming along quite well, although I have had to unravel a few rows. I want the hat to have just the merest hint of a brim, and I had added too many increase rows and it was starting to look a little 80s!

I am determined to finish this weekend so that I can go back to concentrating on the scarf for my mother-in-law, I reall need to get both these things finished by the end of november, I want o mke around another 3 present during december!

lace scarf

I am now attempting my first lace knitting, its a free pattern I got with some lovely Rowan Kidsilk Haze in John Lewis. Unfortunately its proving to be a bit more challenging than I thought! There is only one row of pattern every four rows, and it consists only of knitting 2 together and yarn overs, simple I proclaimed when looking at the pattern in the shop. Wrong. Its difficult to follow what you are doing and although there is no problem with the pattern row, the subsequent row of knit seems to keep going wrong! However persevering and restarting several times seems to be paying off and its now starting to look pretty good, but there are still several holey bits that look more holey than the rest *sigh* nevermind!

night night x

I seem to be pretty rubbish at adding to this blog, but I haven't been knitting much this week. I did have a gift of some rather nice yarn from a friend of mine who has been in Peru making a film for Amnesty International. Its baby alpaca, so now I have to think of something exciting to make from it!

The blanket in the background is one I made a couple of years ago from Rowan Plaid, which is sadly no longer available. Its very welcome on cold nights!

Here is a cute as anything cat I crocheted from a fab pattern available on the internet at http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/~mite/index.html
The original was in Japanese, but the creator has also translated into english!

He was quite easy to make, but I had loads of problems getting plastic pellets for his beany-bum, in the end I used lentils-but these aren't really heavy enough. Later my friend found them on the internet, but I still don't understand why no knitting or haberdashy shops in Edinburgh sell them!

Not really sure what this blog thing is all about!

I am keen to set up a blog, buts its all a bit new and mysterious to me, will anyone read it?