Spring has sprung

The magnolia trees are blooming, the peach trees are about to, and the other trees are all looking fuzzy round the edges. Last week we had an 80 degrees day and my boys wore short pants and short-sleeved t-shirts. We played in the park after school. The monkey bars are still favourite :0)

Do you ever read Attic 24? Lucy is an avid hooker and is a big fan of bold colours. Her blog never fails to cheer. She inspired me to buy this pretty hyacinth for my kitchen. It even came in a bright yellow pot, much nicer than the usual brown. The smell is amazing,
and I love the little green edges of the petals.Happy Thursday

Disco xo

Honey Cowl

I'm on the bandwagon again. The Honey Cowl by Madelinetosh has been high on the popular patterns page of Ravelry for aaaaaaaaaaages! Not for no reason.

I caved a couple of weeks ago and bought 2 skeins of Madelinetosh dk from Eat, Sleep, Knit, in a beautiful dark navy blue called "ink". The yarn arrived in only a couple of days (great customer service and the shipping charge was downright cheap too) and I got right to work on the cowl. It took only 3 days to knit up those two skeins into this beautiful, squishy, comfy cowl.

The stitch pattern could not be easier to memorise - only 4 rows, 2 of which are knit, the other 2 are only 2 different stitches.

This one should be landing in England right about now, to my friend Maria, who's only been asking for a scarf for about 6 years!!!

And I think I'm going to make a couple more. I may have more yarn on the way already. Eep!

Disco xo

Sock Drawer Reflection

After blocking and photoging them, I went to put away the Blathnat socks I showed you yesterday. It occurred to me that I wanted to share with you my handknit sock drawer.

It is such a beautiful sight to me. Full of positivity. It's a reminder of friends. Friends who've designs I've knit, who've gifted me pretty yarn and provided encouragement in knitting and in life too.

Also, a reminder of growth. In my knitting skills and outlook on life. The first socks I knit are those cream coloured ones in the top right corner. I knit them in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. A really dumb yarn to make socks with, but they are very comfy cosy house-socks nonetheless :0)

Making those first socks was a challenge. The thought of turning a heel had my heart racing. But stitch by stitch, I did it. And so life goes, challenge after challenge is overcome.

I give you, the pretties......

disco xoxo

Blathnat Socks

These are Irishgirlieknits' Blathnat socks. They were the January mystery socks in the Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry.They start out with a super pretty cuff in a leaf shape. This pulls the top of the sock into v-shapes and makes for some interesting knitting.
One of the mods I made to the pattern was to incorporate Cristi's double gusset heel decrease. I absolutely LOVE this decrease. It leaves the patterning on the top of the foot clean against the stockinette sole and gives a wonderful fit against the arch of the foot. I've said it before, but it bears repeating - this is GENIUS. If you haven't tried it yet, please do on your next sock.I messed up a wee bit by not following the pattern, and did a standard stockinette toe. I should've kept the reverse stockinette going. Next time.

The yarn I used was Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in colourway Loden. It is a thin sock yarn, with what I think is a pretty tight twist. It wasn't as soft as Socks That Rock to knit with, but it's made what looks to be a hard-wearing fabric. Time will tell.

Altogether this was an enjoyable knit. I really like mystery sock knit-a-longs. A clue each week is about the right amount of sock-knitting I want to do.

The pattern is still free, through 29th February, so if you haven't already, do rush over to Ravelry to download a copy.

BeeKeeper's Update

So, now we don't have a guest room for this quilt to hang out in, it's becoming a quilt for my bedroom.

Progress so far is 32 "flowers". That's 224 hexis. It is about one fifth of what I'd need for our king size bed - I'm too afraid of the large number to calculate exactly. Maybe this'll end up as a throw, slung over the bottom of the bedframe. I'm keeping on keeping on, so we'll see how things go.
I have plenty of yarn yet to knit up and I'm not bored at all. Quite the reverse in fact :0) Most days I'll pop out at least one hexi - what else is a girl to do in the car line at school?! Slow and steady wins the race.

I figured out I can get 5 flowers out of one skein of yarn, leaving enough for maybe 2 or 3 more hexis. Perhaps I should mini-ize the leftovers and destash them to other beekeepers.

I took someone's suggestion of striping the greys and yellows vertically. The flowers are sewn together, although not sewn to each other yet. I want to wait until I have more, so I can play with colour placement. Maybe in a little while, I'll start sewing 2 flowers together - it'll be a heck of a job if I leave it til the end.

How do you like it so far?

Disco xo

A New Occupant for the Guest Room

So, in this post, I told you about our lovely, newly-decorated guest room. Well, no sooner had its 1st guest occupant departed, than it had a newer, more permanent bedfellow.

Matthew has been asking for his own room since we moved into this new house in April. I always thought he didn't really, and that he'd miss Teddy. Turns out I was wrong and he really did want his own room. Like really, REALLY wanted his own room.

Like willing to give up his thumb, want his own room!

We had already been told by the dentist and by his speech therapist that the thumb needs to go if he's ever going to have straight teeth or no lithp. So, the time had come. The deal was, give up the thumb and you can have the room.

I made these little thumbkins a good while ago, and both boys had been having some success with them. They do tend to fall off in the general thrashing around of the night-time, but at least they help with the daytime and falling asleep sucking.
Now, we (mostly) have no thumb-sucking, and my lovely grellow room has Pokemon posters on its walls (quiet sobbing).

But what of the grellow blanket in progress?.........

Disco xoxo

Trending...

Did you see Jo's post last night? It made me smile, 'cause look what I spent yesterday making...One turned into....Then this morning, a veritable parliament.....I couldn't help myself. They take no time at all to crochet, the time is all in the addition of eyes, beaks and tummies. The boys have asked me for 'some' for their rooms, so I'll be making more. I think a production line is the best way to go if making many of these hooters. I can't be going through the whole button stash for each individual owl.

Pattern: Austin Owl

Hook:3.75mm/US F5

Yarn: scraps of worsted

Happy Weekend

Disco xo