Day Five: Something a Bit Different

Inspiration was a long time coming for this one, Cassie has been poorly and rightly has taken up most of my attention the last couple of days. Then, yesterday my new iPhone arrived and as I was playing I discovered I could do this:

The Woolly Wishes from Hannah Smith on Vimeo.
It's kind of silly, but fun I hope. I can't wait to see what everyone else came up with!

Day Four: Conversations Between Workers

I knew I'd regret the day my cruelly underused spinning wheel got an iPhone!

 

Day Three: Experimental Photography and Image Handling for Bloggers

Photographing my knitting is absolutely not my strong point and this topic kind of left me stumped for a while. I find that in a house with little natural light, 2 kids and 2 cats I am lucky to get a reasonable snap devoid of the aforementioned children or pets. So instead of trying to think of a way to work around my life to get these photographs I decided to just work with it.

To photograph my knits as I see them every day.

To spot interesting shots in the day to day

To embrace the inevitable photobombers

And to capture the sweet woolly moments as they happen

 

Day Two: Dating Profile

Name: Barry

Pattern: Barry by Lee Meredith

Yarn: Drops Nepal

D.O.B: December 12, 2013

Hanging with my friends

Me at work

Hiya! I'm a young, bright, fun and quirky knitted hat looking for a scarf, cowl or even a pair of gloves to keep me company and compliment me.

Some say that I'm very slouchy and I'll admit that that is a little true so a relaxed attitude is definitely desirable to me. I love bright colours and tend to shy away from 'sludgier' shades but don't let that put you off, we may go together really well after all.

My main joys in life are giving comfort and warmth to those I love. I thrive on social situations and always enjoy receiving compliments on my appearance and being asked where I'm from. I'm always very proud to say that I am handmade and one of a kind.

My dislikes are lacy types who tend to get caught up on my buttons and washing machines. I had a very close cousin who was a cardigan and recently got felted in a washing machine. Maybe you are the one to cheer me up after that terrible shock?

So do you think you could be the other half of my winter outfit, the companion to keep me entertained during the slow summer months? Give me a call, you won't be disappointed!

 

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Day One: A Day in the Life

Here we go, year 5 of Knittting and Crochet Blog Week has finally begun! I can't wait to read everyone else's posts, try typing 5KCBWDAY1 into Google to see them all.

Describe a day in the life of a project that you have made or are in the process of making.

Hello, I am Hannah's latest WIP and I'm going to write today's post and tell you about a typical day in my life. First allow me to introduce myself. When finished I will be a Marian Shrug, I'm made of Drops Nepal in off white. I'm one of three, my two little sisters are identical twins made of Drops Lima. In June we will be worn by three bridesmaids, which is a great honour.

So, what do I get up to? My days vary quite a lot. Hannah has two little girls, Cassie (2) and Felicity (4 months) and they keep her hands pretty occupied so there's not always time for knitting. First thing in the morning is usually a good time, Cassie takes a long time to eat her breakfast and Felicity often plays happily by herself so Hannah can usually squeeze in a few rows then. As Felicity starts to get a bit fussy we move down on to the floor to be close to her and we'll put in a few more rows then. Sometimes only a few stitches will go by before I get put down, Felicity likes to roll onto her tummy but she can't roll back again so she has to be turned over every few stitches. It's amazing how fast I can grow a few stitches at a time.

As the day goes by I get picked up whenever Hannah's hands are free, I get to spend the rest of the day hanging out on the sofa, ready to go at a moments notice. I sometimes feel a bit nervous sitting there, my worst nightmare came true recently, Hannah was busy on the phone and Cassie picked me up and handed me to Felicity. I don't think I need to explain what happened next, let's just say it was messy! Since then I'm always very grateful to be zipped up into my project bag, it's boring in there but I feel much safer.

Sometimes, if I'm really lucky Hannah takes me along when she goes a-visiting. It's nice because there are usually people to keep an eye on the girls and Hannah gets some uninterrupted knitting time. I think we both enjoy those times together a lot. Soon I'll be finished and it'll be time to move on so I have to cherish these moments. I'm nervous about the future, I know I'm getting to go to a wedding which sounds very exciting, but then I have to go to a new home. Will they like me there? Will I ever be worn again? I hope to be loved and worn again and again, becoming an old favourite and perhaps passed on to another child to be loved again. I'm sure that's not too much to ask.

 

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FO: Bridesmaid Shrug part one.

The first of the bridesmaid shrugs for my brothers wedding is done (bar weaving in ends and blocking), boding well for my chances of getting them all done on time. The intention was for this one to be for Cassie, then all being well it could wing it's way off to 2 year old number two to see if it fit her too whilst knitting a larger one for the 6 year old. I figured if the first one didn't fit Cassie it could still go to Rosie to see if by some chance it did fit her before knitting a different size for Cassie. My nightmare scenario was that it wouldn't fit anybody. Luckily it fits Cassie perfectly, hooray!

I'm about halfway through the larger one and I have to say, I'm really winging it. If this somehow ends up the rightsize I will be amazed. The pattern only goes up to age 4 so I'm using aran weight instead if DK and I've gone up a needle size. Wish me luck!

 

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FO: Tunic...meh

Before I start, just a note about photos. These days I exclusively use my iPad since the sad demise of my laptop. This is fine but I haven't got around to getting a thingy so that I can put photos from my camera on my iPad. I'm going to get onto this really soon so that I can take self timed pics of me actually wearing my FOs. For the time being I'm afraid I'm stuck with sad photos of garments hanging from coat hangars.

So, I've finished sewing up my tunic and you know what, it's ok. Essentially I was treating this as a practice run and I'm glad I did because it has some issues. I will totally give this another go though because I still love the pattern.

Firstly, it's too big. I'm not going to complain about that, having given birth not so long ago I kind of love it when things are too big! Next time I'll make a size smaller and lose some of the length too. I'm not a tall person but I've been tending towards nice long tops since having kids, this is too much though.

Much as I love the piping detail and I'm super glad I tried it out, I'm not loving the finish of it. It makes the shoulders a bit too structured and sort of pulls them out of shape a bit, although that is probably due to my amateurish insertion of it.

I also think that the contrast top stitching is way too contrasty. I wanted it to match the piping but it's really a bit much.

So I'll be giving this another go soon and hopefully end up with something a bit more wearable. First I'll be trying out a simple T-shirt from the same book. With only two pieces and bias binding at all of the edges, what's not to love?

 

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