Lent 2015 Challenge : P.I.G. number 5

Lent 2015 Challenge : P.I.G. number 5

The Union Jack Gargoyle Patterns and Wool bag

Goswald of Graveney St George was the first pattern I bought for myself and the second item I ever knitted, the first I finished. Since then I have developed a little obsession with woolly gargoyle patterns




 *ahem*

This bag contains:
Little Uns Gargoyle
Stone The Gargoyle
Percy Pandragon
Simon The Baleful
Some random balls of wool that sneaked in 
The doll and jewellery drill bits I’ve been hunting for for about a year. 

Little Uns Gargoyle


This is my first attempt at amigurumi, this also learned me starting in a magic loop.

Stone The Gargoyle
This was my first try at knitting in the round AND using double pointed needles (DPNs) I got jabbed violently in the booby while knitting him… repeatedly … DPN knitting is jabby and painful when you first start.

Percy Pandragon

Percy has lovely big feet with toes, like his brother Goswald.

Simon The Baleful


How can he be baleful when he’s all soft and squishy??

Maybe it’s because he’s smaller than his brothers? Small Gargoyle Syndrome?

Lent 2015 Challenge : P.I.G. number 4

Lent 2015 Challenge : P.I.G. number 4

The Handsome Man Moustache bag




Why have I called this one The Handsome Man Moustache bag? I haven’t a clue. I don’t actually like hairy faced men, the only time I like a moustache is when it’s fabric print, jewellery, just not on a face.

This one contains:
Alan Dart’s Pirate.

 At one time I went through all the patterns I was in the middle of making, and made a list of everything I needed to finish them all. Then promptly lost the list. This was one of the things on the list. I’m assuming there’s a whole lot of sewing together and stuffing involved with this, I think I remember it needing drinking straws, or pipe cleaners, or something, too. But looking at all the little pieces I’m a little overwhelmed…

Lent 2015 Challenge : P.I.G. number 3

Lent 2015 Challenge : P.I.G. number 3

The bag of mummies and bones. 

£1 shop finest Halloween decorations! 

I got these after Halloween intending to make Dia De Los Muertos decorations. I am very drawn to the original Halloween (not axe murderers and horror, that is NOT Halloween, it’s just nasty) and Day of the Dead spirituality and celebrations. The thought of playing cards, and dancing, and playing music and riding bikes after we leave this world is incredibly reassuring to me. 

These were too bone coloured and realistic and that FREAKED ME THE EFF OUT, so I have to paint it white before I start to decorate. I managed to spray paint some of them but I bought a non full can and it ran out pretty quick. 

The only task that I set myself was to paint them white, and now I’ve found them again, this might happen on the next sunny day that happens... might. 

 

Lent 2015 Challenge : P.I.G. number 2 : Ravenclaw Corvus Scarf Update

Lent 2015 Challenge : P.I.G. number 2 : Ravenclaw Corvus Scarf Update


I had never heard of Double Knitting until I got this pattern. I was fascinated.

Double Knitting seems to be the sort of delightfully creative thing that any self-respecting Ravenclaw would take on. What better than a double knit (Corvus) Raven (Crow, Jackdaw) scarf in the Ravenclaw house colours??

I had no idea WHERE to start, and watched many youtube videos, each left me more confused than the last.

FINALLY I found this one from RJ Knits

And I understood. Hoorar!

My yarn and the pattern didn’t get along too well. Knitted single (1 ball) the scarf was too narrow, knitted double (2 balls of same colour together) it was too stiff, so I added 8 stitches each end (4 stitches for each side/colour). I also added an extra stitch to the ends because I twisted both yarns together and I didn’t like how it went straight into the pattern instead of being a boarder or edging. Every instruction I’ve seen has said you work the pattern knit purl, because I knitted the first stitch/twisted boarder edge stitch, and was too impatient to work out how to do otherwise, I’ve had to work it purl knit (I was part way through the second foot print when I realised I could have purled instead of knitted the edge stitch. Doh!) . Because of the extra stitches I also had to adapt the foot print part of the pattern, I just made them a few stitches further apart, but I re-drew it on square paper, representing the new number of stitches, so I could follow it easily. I’m also using a lot of stitch markers, marking each side of the footprint centre, and the 4 added stitches at each edge, this also marks where the furthest stitch for the foot goes. They all look a bit scary but it would be harder for me to work without them!

One thing that I did that as super helpful was print the corvus part of the pattern again, making sure I had one facing each way (one for knitting one side, one for the other when I turn it around) stuck them back to back, making sure they lined up (used window as a lightbox to do the matching, but that’s cos I’m a bit OCD about that sort of thing), then laminated them, so I could draw through the rows as I knitted them, before doing this I really cocked up the pattern early in because I couldn’t keep track of what was happening and had to unravel by about 10 rows. It’s wipe clean and can be cleaned for the raven at the other end of the scarf. If you can’t ge to a laminator, I guess taping it inside a polythene folder pocket would do the trick too. I didn’t do the mirror image of the footprint I adapted, and it’s pretty annoying having to think in reverse.

What looked like this at the start of Lent is now looking like THIS!
 

Available from Alasdair Post-Quinn’s Ravelry

Lent 2015 Challenge : P.I.G. number 2 : Fairy House Pencil Roll Update

Lent 2015 Challenge : P.I.G. number 2 : Fairy House Pencil Roll Update

This was a much bigger task than anticipated. When Lent began I thought I had to finish only 1 roll and make one, but I had to make 2. I don’t know why but each one took a really long time. It is knitted in a sort of fair isle style (although the wool is the same colour) and each one took me a couple of days if I stuck at just that. 

I made a few changes to the original pattern, which requires a lot more wool (2 lots of wool held double = 4 balls all together) but I was rolling balls from a yarn cone and misunderstood what was happening, so only did one lot, which is just as well, because I don’t think I would have had enough had I made up all the balls needed! 

I also changed the cast on stitches to around the length of A4 paper, a couple of inches bigger than the most of one colour of pencils, which was more stitches than the crochet hooks and less than the knitting needles. I also did my knitting to the lengths of the pencils, rather than the hooks and needles the pattern is originally for. 

The roofs are the colour of the pencils inside, and are made of knobbly bobbly yarn, which I think looks like moss, in this case it’s so thin I wound up to 10 balls off to make it the right thickness. That many balls mean absolute chaos at times, they like to twist around each other, making big ol knots and loops and it take hours to undo them (more time has been spent unknotting the blue roof than knitting it!) 

This has been paused for the moment because one of my blue threads has run out and the yarn cone has done a runner, and I can’t start another roof because they are my only set of DPNS in that size. 

Original pattern from Tiny Owl Knits

Lent 2015 Challenge : P.I.G. number 2.

Lent 2015 Challenge : P.I.G. number 2. 


I originally planned to finish one bag then start on another, pah!, any crafter knows THAT’S NEVER GONNA HAPPEN. 

Here is P.I.G. number 2. 

Primarni Zebra in Heels bag. 

Left to Right 

Corvus double knitting scarf 

Tiny Owl Knits knitting needle / crochet hook Fairy House holder, 

A whole heap of unravelled wool 

Double point needles, 

Tiny Owl Knits knitting needle / crochet hook Fairy House holder 

I have been planning for a couple of years to make a pencil roll, with pockets matching the pencil colours. I haven’t gotten around to it (disgraceful) partly because I couldn’t work out how or whether to make a boxy pocket or leave it flat, and partly because I couldn’t be bothered to work it out!

Then I saw these delightful Fairy House hook and needle holders. Crochet Hooks and Knitting Needles are roughly the same shape as Pencils… Aha!

Corvus Scarf

Available from Alasdair Post-Quinn’s Ravelry

  

Double Knitting seems to be the sort of delightfully creative thing that any self-respecting Ravenclaw would take on. As soon as this Ravenclaw saw it, I thought What better than a (Corvus) Raven (Crow, Jackdaw) scarf in the Ravenclaw house colours?? 

Lent 2015 Challenge : P.I.G. number 1 : Fox Stole Update

Lent 2015 Challenge : P.I.G. number 1 : Fox Stole Update

Mr Fox Stole is all sewn up, but not finished cos I wanted to add a great big pop stud, I had a few of them, but they ran off when I needed them! 

It wasn’t until after I sewed them on that I realised I had put the ears on the wrong way, they are meant to go on with the decrease stiches up the middle, but I had them at the side, making a crisp edge, rather than a “vein” up the middle.

I might as well mention the Primarni Fox Mittens while I’m here. 

The ears, and eyes and nose are done the same as the stole, the ear pattern being from Tiny Owl Knits Mr Fox Stole My Heart pattern. 

A far greater improvement to the original… 

 

Look at that lovely little face!