Stephcuddles's Blog

Hello hello!

I’ve been having a bit of a hectic few weeks and it certainly doesn’t seem to be letting us anytime soon… the one thing that I’ve been able to do consistently is knit on my bus commute to work. It’s particularly good as my flying elbows discourages people from sitting next to me – brill!

The perfect project for my bus rides to and from work are the lovely little hexipuffs to make a beekeeper’s quilt. I’ve started to keep them in a jar and the colours make me smile when I catch sight of it in the morning.

So, what have I been up to? I’ve been doing quite a lot of work for my music editorial course – editing orchestral parts is fun but hard! And last weekend I went to the inaugural Yarnporium at King’s College London organised by the Yarn in the City gals. I had a brilliant time and won a ticket courtesy of the lovely Jo of the Shinybees Podcast.

Sadly I haven’t been to any yarny festivals in quite some time and so may have gone a little overboard… My first stop was Gem at The Little Grey Girl to get some project bags – one for me and one as a present for my friend Kate:

MINE!

Kate’s

I met the lovely Rachel from Coopknits and got her new book – Socks Yeah!

The next stop was a gorgeous skein necklace from Maxsworld:

I got a couple of skeins of yarn from Travelknitter and Ginger Twist Studios:

I had a lovely time and met a few people, even saw someone that I used to know at University who lived in my halls! In all, a brilliant day out in London. I then went on to John Lewis to look at coffee machines and got completely overwhelmed – so many makes and models and decisions.

Sorry for the massive absence of posts in January – it was one thing after the other all month. I have been really busy with work, went on holiday to Bulgaria snowboarding and then got ill – I only just feel like I’m getting back to normal.

So, Laika – I started knitting this in the Summer and finished it in October so why the wait for blogging? Well, though it fitted – I knew that it could fit a lot better. I finally got around to taking some pictures last Sunday and I absolutely love my new hoodie.

Pattern – Laika by Ysolda Teague

Yarn – Wollmeise Lace-Garn in Fritzi Frizzante.

Size – 36″ bust

Buttons – Vintage look yellow buttons (love!)

Needles – 3.25mm Knit Pro metal interchangeable circulars (managed to

bend one of them majorly)

Started – 26 July 2012

Finished – 2nd October 2012

Comments/Mods – Absolutely love. No mods made and feel like knitting another one (maybe – what is wrong with me!? It took so long!) with a zipper.

Ravlink – here

Following Andi‘s format here:

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

I’ve saved the best for last – can’t forget the Epic TARDIS

And all the best for 2013

I had a lovely time this weekend. On Saturday I made an awesome chicken casserole in the slow cooker and then went out for the day with a friend I have met through work. We went first of all to the farmer’s market at Snape Maltings where I bought a couple of Christmas presents for my mum and her partner.

We then got back in the car and drove to Woodbridge. We went to visit the lovely yarn shop TWIST. Kate needed to get a ball of Cocoon to finish her project and I just like looking at yarn.

After drooling for a little while I ended up buying…

Araucania Botany Lace in a lovely greeny/blue

Schoeller+Stahl Fortissima Color in a manly grey.

The Araucania is for me me me, the Schoeller+Stahl is going to be a pair of socks for my mum’s partner. Maybe one of them will be in time for christmas…

We then had a look around town, got some awesome coffee from Honey and Harvey and picked up some magazines from WHSmiths.

On Sunday after my run in the freezing cold, I settled in with a coffee, a bowl of porridge and my magazines…

I also worked on my second pair of Waterhouse Mitts…

All in all, a brilliant weekend – a perfect mixture of company, places and relaxing at home. This week should be an alright one at work as last week was more than a little hectic. Also looking forward to next weekend as I’ll be going to a couple of concerts.

Things have gotten a little…hectic at Stephcuddles HQ. I found out on Wednesday that I had been linked to by the Yarn Harlot on her ‘gifts for knitters’ feature. Since then there has been a lot of views, a lot of favourites and a lot of orders through my etsy store. I currently have a pile of packages which I will be taking to the post office first thing tomorrow morning. But yes, things are a little hectic as I’m working full time at quite a demanding job and then spending any other available time packaging orders. I loves it though

Right, onto the FO.

Pattern – Waterhouse Mitts by Patricia Martin

Yarn – Old Maiden Aunt Merino Superwash 4ply in Mormont and Targaryen

Needles – 2.75mm DPNs and 4mm for the cast on and cast off

Started – 28th November 2012

Finished – 2nd December 2012

Comments/Mods – Unchanged still love this pattern and I have started knitting a third pair – this time for me! Mwahahahahahaha.

Ravlink – here

Last Christmas I said that I would knit my Aunt Jac some fingerless mitts. She chose the colours (purple and white) and the pattern (Ysolda Teague’s Cottonreel Mitts). I started them on holiday but they ended up awful and gaping and ugh!

I took a big long break from even thinking about what to knit Aunt Jac…until this Sunday. I had a little look at my Ravelry queue and found a perfect pattern!

Pattern – Waterhouse Mitts by Patricia Martin

Yarn – Old Maiden Aunt Merino Superwash 4ply in Ultraviolet and Natural

Needles – 2.75mm DPNs and 4mm for the cast on and cast off

Started – 25th November 2012

Finished – 27th November 2012

Comments/Mods – No mods, totally love this pattern and I absolutely love how neat the reverse is!

Ravlink – here

I love this pattern so much I have started a second pair already…

This is the second pattern in the OMA-KarieBookish yarn/pattern club. I absolutely LOVE this yarn – I really want to get more of it and knit up a gorgeous jumper.

Pattern – Baskerville by Karina Westermann

Yarn – Old Maiden Aunt Bluefaced Leicester DK in Grimpen Mire

Needles – 3.25mm and 4mm Knit Pro interchangeable circulars

Started – 12th November 2012

Finished – 18th November 2012

Comments/Mods – None at all, just knit to the pattern with lots leftover (mitts???).

Ravlink – here

And for Viv – the dress went over well and I will try find out what the grey knitting was when I go to knit and natter tonight

This weekend I finished Baskerville.

I finished the first sock of my Back to Basics socks. The yarn is Hot Socks India by Four Seasons Gründl.

And I received the most gorgeous yarn in the post today which was a lovely gift from FleecedHandspun (on twitter) THANK YOU SO MUCH ESMEE!!!!!

I hope everyone has had a great weekend. I journeyed to Ipswich on Saturday to do a bit of posh dress shopping for my big work function on Thursday and I met up with the ever lovely Vivianne. Viv needed a bit of knitting technique help and I was happy to oblige! (Viv’s blogpost on the subject is here)

So, last week I went to my first ever WI meeting and I met some lovely ladies who are interested in starting a Knit and Natter in Aldeburgh. Our first meeting is going to be tonight in a local pub – I’m really looking forward to it!