Time for Tea on Tuesday, and exciting news!

 The last project I finished was these fingerless gloves from the Furls Crochet Along. I loved doing them, took three attempts to do the first. It was too tight, then I realised I had made a mistake, then realised I actually madEe two mistakes so I began again. The yarn is King Cole Riot, and the bowl is a Furls bowl. I will probably give these to someone for Christmas.

I also finished the mystery CAL which is called Jennika and was by Melody of Melody's makings. It is meant to be an accessory that you can wear multiple ways, sew it up and wear it cross body (I don't think I will wear it like that and mine seems to be too long to do that, it is the correct length so maybe I should have gone a size down), or sewed together as an infinity scarf, or left as it was for a scarf or on the head and round the neck as a cowl. I decided to add borders and buttons so I can wear it either way, infinity or straight scarf and it is lovely and warm, and the exciting bit is there are patterns to come for a hat and mittens to match!

Bought some yarn from Love Crochet and found this cute ball in the pack!

Selfie, Sooty and me!

The most exciting thing that is happening in my life right now is this little lady called Luna. She is in Cyprus and I am adopting her, and I just heard I can have her on Dec 31st which works out great as the fuss of Christmas will be over and she can settle in quietly. She is living in kennels now, so there could be some house training to do, but Sooty's new little sister is going to be here soon. I wish it was sooner, but it takes time to do all the work to get her to fly. She has been spayed today. She is just 18 or 19 months old and is a Cyprus poodle. I had a home check and now I have more work to do on the fences to stop her escaping if she tries to. So I have several rolls of wire netting and some posts, just need someone to put it up now.

I'm now getting the full story, she was tied up outside by her previous owner so was rescued into kennels, so I doubt she has any house training at all!

This is Sooty's new jumper, I made it to fit him, not from a pattern but loosely based on a previous pattern and another one I saw a photo of. Looks quite Christmassy I think. I made it in Marriners Aran yarn which has some wool content.

This is the shawl I showed you last time, now it is blocked you can see the pattern and points. I love the colours together. Yarn from Pook GB on Etsy.

This is another dog jumper in progress and it is for Luna, hope it fits because I think she is the same size as Sooty, if she is bigger I will donate it to the dogs home and start again!

This isn't the same pancake stack as the last post, I just realised I had the same thing again! It is T on Tuesday at Elizabeth and Bleubeard's place, and I owe comments from the two previous ones - I am so sorry, I just haven't managed to do it and I don't know where the time goes!

I made it to the I Made This blog, with my Easter bunnies, quite exciting too!

Birthday infinity scarves.

For a week I dropped the Persian Tiles blanket and instead I made birthday scarves (one each) for my brother and father. 

Here the denim one made with Stylecraft Life is finished, the tan one made with Rico Essentials 100% Marino wool in Pebble.

The Rico wool was tightly twisted and reminded me more of cotton in use and appearance, when squished the scarf is soft enough, but not sure it looks as good as the denim one. Also I found myself researching different methods of joining yarn, and on the pebble scarf I used the invisible knot, the Russian Join and the Braided Join. I hope the invisible knots will hold, I was led to believe they do then read comments left by people on the other two which said otherwise! The Russian join made the yarn bulky so there was a lump in the scarf, the braided join tutorial said that it wouldn't add bulk and you wouldn't notice it - maybe I haven't quite got it yet, I tried twice and it was just as bulky as the Russian join.

You can also see the Furls yarn bowl in use here. This bowl while very beautiful is quite small, I was a little surprised when I first saw it here. You can only buy it direct from Furls in the US and I guess I carried away, it was on sale when I bought it but it still was slightly over the limit for Customs, so I had import tax and fees to pay and the Post Office fee is a flat rate £8, which is ridiculous when it is many times the actual tax. Made the bowl around £40. It still worked out cheaper than any wooden ones I have found over here! It is only suitable for one colour at a time too.

 It works really well with round balls of yarn, or cakes wound on the wool winder. Larger oblong balls of yarn really don't work at all. I have tried finding the yarn in the centre on these and failed many times, I just checked on definitions and I see that Red Heart explains how you can't use the yarn from the centre of a "ball", well I will stop trying! The Americans call what most others seem to call a skein a ball, and a skein is a similar but different arrangement.

I found a good definition of hank, skein, ball and doughnut, even cones here.

I always thought skein and hank were the same thing, and this is backed up in this definition and it seems is a U.K. thing.

When you buy a hank you have to wind it into a ball or cake before using it, the doughnut, ball or skein (oblong ball) can be used as it is. I know a lot of people always rewind their yarn into a cake, it makes it easier to store and easier to use, you can find the beginning of the yarn in the centre easily. 

The Rico wool I used would best be described as a doughnut (US donut). The Stylecraft Life is in skeins, or if you are in the US it would be a ball. I have had to wind some of these into cakes recently, and I will explain why when I talk about the new tote I bought recently.

If I buy a huge skein of yarn (maybe it isn't a skein then as the term also seems to refer to a specific quantity according to some definitions) of 200 grams to 400 grams it is better to cake them.

If you use skeins as they are they bounce all over the floor, and there is no good way of stopping that - except for winding into a cake it seems.

I must give my model a makeover - anyway here the finished wool scarf looped over twice.

Here is a better photo of the little scarf I made for me in hand dyed yarn from Woolly Wonders, and I am still debating whether to frog it and make it with a different pattern. I like how the colours worked up though. It is shorter but still loops over twice easily which surprised me. 

See what I mean? Looks almost stringy.

I might just keep it as it is, what do you think?

Yarn totes, new stash and infinity scarf.

Storage is always a headache when you collect yarn and other craft supplies! Some people are very disciplined, I can't resist a bargain every now and then!

I have had the ArtBin yarn tote for around a year now, the large black tote is a recent acquisition, as are the Baaag and blocking board, and the Furls yarn bowl has only been here a couple of months.

I think I will review each of them but not tonight! I can give an opinion of the yarn tote, but not the newer black one - that needs some "road testing", I have used it a little so far.

So the reviews will come along later.

When I saw this bag at an introductory price from Eweniverse I just had to have a couple (mini flock), and if you love sheep and punny gifts you should check it out! One might be a present for someone, unless I stash more yarn in them both!

Remember the gorgeous 100% hand dyed Marino wool I bought from Woolly Wonders Yarn? Well this is how it looks made up into a summer infinity scarf. I will take a better photo soon, and I'm trying to decide if I should add a crocheted flower like the pattern shows, and if so what colour. The scarf pattern is a free one by Elk Studio and has a very interesting waffle like stitch throughout. To make a flower I have some chunky 100% Marino wool in cream and in black, or I have 50% Marino wool in several colours - decisions.

 The blocking board underneath the scarf arrived from Wool Warehouse yesterday. I've never done any blocking with a proper tool, only with pins on the ironing board. This particular board is Dutch and you can buy it direct from the makers, who make it in several colours including purple, they even make one with a photo of your own on it! It is called a Granny Block station.