Swap: Christmas Decoration on CTNY

Here's the decoration I received from the wonderfully talented Carolinne... my lovely handmade felt snowman.

We had a Christmas Decoration swap on the Crafty Thread 'n Yarns forum a few weeks ago but this is the first opportunity I've had to post a piccie of him in all his glory.

I absolutely adore his little black felt hat! He's perfect. Thank you Carolinne!! :) xx

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Innocent Smothies - the big knit 2007

Following on from last years success, the Innocent Smoothies woolly hats campaign for 2007 is up and running.

If you want to learn more then drop by their website for further information. Last year they raised £115,000 for Age Concern and received 230,000 little woolly hats. This year they're aiming for 400,000 hats.

If you have a moment to spare, check out some of the hats that have been loaded up on the Flickr pool so far. The elephant is my favourite (for now).

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Knitting WIP: Lake Park Hat

In recent weeks, I've spent a little while each evening working on the Lake Park Hat by Marnie MacLean. It's an interesting knit for me - anything other than stocking stitch is a challenge and requires immense concentration (personally I blame my poor attention span on the medication)!!!

The wool is Arucania Atacama, one of 6 skeins I received as part of a swap for a needle roll a while back. I love the colours, and how the slipped stitches pick out the various colour changes. I'm hoping that when it's finished and blocked, the stitches will tidy themselves up.

Progress is slow (but that's just me) and I imagine I'll be working on this puppy for a few more weeks to come.

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Knitting FO: FLORA from Knitty

Gosh, it seems like ages since I blogged about knitting. There haven't been many FOs to blog about since I finished Backyard Leaves for ISE4 a few months back! That's not to say that I don't have anything on the needles at the moment.... I do. But I seem to be spending a lot of time starting new projects and then frogging them. I guess that's what I deserve for being an impulsive crafter. Maybe if I spent a little time thinking projects through, I would stand a hope in hell of finishing them. Hopefully this knitting indecisiveness will soon pass!

Back to FLORA from Knitty. This is a sweet litle scarf(ette) which I knit up in a few short hours last weekend. It's an instant gratification project (we like those) and ideal for those days in the autumn when the weather starts to turn and you need a little extra coverage.

I used about 1.5 balls of Patons Washed Haze - which is a cotton/acrylic combo. It's very soft against the skin and not at all difficult to knit with.

The scarf is basically a simple stocking stitch pattern with a seedstitch border, separated with a row of eyelets. The flower is knit in sections with each petal worked individually in the seed stitch pattern. The stamens are clever little cords which are twisted in situ and I could probably have done with adding a few more.

The flower is detachable: one large button secures the scarf, while two smaller buttons on the back of the flower hold it on the scarf (use two of the eyelets as buttonholes). I'm not entirely pleased with my choice of button but it was the best I could do at the time. Looking at it now, I think a natural looking or wooden button would look better.

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