Washcloths to the rescue.

April 22nd 2020

Way is it every time I set myself a crafting challenge, I lose the will to craft. Since the starting the 30 makes challenge on the 1st of April I haven't touched any of my crafts. That was until I started sorting the stash and found an embarrassingly large collection of Knit Picks Dishie. With so many colours to choose from I find myself collecting skeins every time I get board.

Knowing I can knit a washcloth in about an hour I dived into the stash and started knitting up the Dishie. Using the yarn stash is the same as tidying up right? In one day I managed to knit 5 washcloths kick starting my crafty impulse.

The best part about washcloths is they are so quick to finish. I can cast on dozens of new projects every week without adding to the ever growing mountain of discarded projects.

With a mountain of washcloth growing in the corner of the room, the next challenge is what to do with them all. Last Christmas I paired up the wash cloths with home made soap for the standard toiletry gift with a twist. The gift sets went down really well and I got several requests for more of the same next Christmas and birthdays to.

With so many requests for gift knits I best dive back into the stashand find this years must make gift.

Stay home, Stay Safe And Keep Crafting.

Crafting Through Corona

With Social distancing turning to self isolation turning to lockdown, I can't help but wonder how people who don't craft will stay sane. With my ever growing pile of PHDS, Now is the perfect time to once again try and make a dent in the pile and get some projects finished.

Knowing how much I love to start new projects I trying another 30 makes in 30 days challenge with the focus on quick and easy gift projects. With a new caston everyday my almost empty git box should get a much needed boost.

I will be spending my isolation making washcloths, soap, bath fizzers, candles, hats and anything else I can put in the gift box.

To spread the love I will try and add a free pattern or tutorial for my daily make, some will be mine some from other people.

How do you plan to stay sane in this caotic time?

Stay Home, Stay well, and happy crafting

Catching up

As the winter cold passes its time for a mental heath crafty catchup. When I'm ill the first thing to go is my crafting and my mental health suffers as a result. Now I'm feeling better it's back to the craft starting with my nieces jumper.

I had almost finished her jumper when she had a growth spurt leaving me unsure whether to add length or reknit in the next size up. I finally decided to add length and finished the jumper.  She loves it. Then I moved on to the second of my Christmas knits.

Christmas 2019 I gave my Mum a Party On My Needles Shawl by Joji Locatelli. I knitted the shawl out of Drops Fabel and finished faster then the last one, Putting Party on my needles top of the gift knit list.

Then I remembered it's mums birthday and decided to knit her the jumper she has wanted for 18 months. With less then 2 weeks before my mums birthday knitting a jumper in a different gauge to the pattern should be no problem, If you do the maths. I didn't do the maths and the jumper was a total of 10 inches bigger then I needed, 14 inches bigger hen the pattern sizing. So I did the maths, Right. Wrong I guessed a different size and tried again. This time the jumper was a infuriating 2 inches to small, so near and yet so far.

So with just 7 days left until my Mum's Birthday it's 3rd time lucky. Heres hoping that I've got it right this time.

Remember when knitting garments always check your gauge and if it doesn't match the pattern either do the maths or try again.

Happy crafting.

Stash down update. Week 2.

With 5 skeins of yarn arriving in my knit in a box subscription I thought this week would have more yarn entering the stash then leaving the stash. Then I tried to put the wash cloth cotton stash away. The cotton doesn't fit in the cube I have to put it in. My solution as always was to stop tidying and start knitting. As I finished the second skein I spotted 4 Giant Skeins of Aran weight yarn destined to be 3 tops, 2 cardigans for my mum and brothers ex, and a jumper for my niece. Those skeins take up a lot of space so I finished one of the cardigans. To celebrate finishing a adult sized cardigan I cast on the shawl that came in January's knit in a box subscription.

This week I have managed to knit

• 7 Wash cloths
• 1 Blanket Squares
• and 1 Adult Cardigan

My total in meters is
Meters in 978.4
Meters out 1650.7
Result 672.3 meters have left my stash this week, So far this year my stash is 1,049 meters smaller then it was on new years eve.

With so many amazing yarns and patterns avalible I wonder how long I can keep the stash shrienking.
Wish me luck

Happy crafting.

All the KALs

As I take a break from spring cleaning and start catching up on podcasts, I started making a lsit of all the KAL's I want to enter. How many knit along's can I enter a pair of socks into, so far I have found 4. There is the Yarn Hoarders Free all the house elves 2020 year long sock KAL, Grocery Girls January sock bash, Craft House Magic Retro MAL, and The Bakery Bears Patron Race to the moon KAL.

I love looking at everyone's finished makes, Adding patterns to my queue, and yarn to my stash. I find joining a KA*L motivates me to finish projects in a reasonable amount of time. With a long history of never winning I rarely join KALs for the prize's, I join for the inspiration, motivation and conversation with other crafters.

With so many KAL's to take part in this year I should have no problem completing my gift crafts.

What motivates you when you lose steam on your projects?

Happy crafting

Post Christmas clearup

As the spring cleaning starts the first task is to tidy the craft supplies. Everything I own seems to get pulled out during the Christmas makeathon, unfortunately very little gets put away. I decided to start with the mountain of yarn that has snuck into my house and multyplyed. As I put the yarn away I am making sure it has been listed in my Ravelry stash and was shocked to discover how little I had listed.

I find the Ravelry stash is an amazing feature. When you look at patterns on Ravelry it has a link that says yarn ideas. As I update my stash and look through my pattern queue I was surprised to see how many patterns I already have yarn for. Maybe I will be able to shrink my stash after all.

My favourite find of the clean up so far is the 26 skeins of Drops karisma to knit the Silver dream Cardigan by Drops. I brought the yarn back in March and wanted to make the full set of hat, gloves, cowl, and cardigan but had never knitted colourwork before so I brought the Oh deer cowl kit from Deramores to practice on. I started knitting the cowl in May and haven't finished yet so thats the housework over. I have a colourwork Cowl to knit.

Knitting is the same as tidying up the yarn.

Happy crafting

Knit in a box.

For Christmas I got a 3 month subscription to the ladies Knit in a box. My first instalment arrived Saturday morning, and I couldn't be happier. When I opened the box the knit was exceptionally well packaged, with a great deal of thought and care going into the selection of each and every items included in the box.

 It contains a pattern, yarn to knit the pattern and a few extra goodies. I can't wait to cast on my new project and already know who the finished item will be given to next Christmas.

I love every item in the box and went straight to the website, saved it in my favourites, and will extend my subscription as soon as the gift subscription runs out.

Looking through the previous boxes I wished I had found it sooner. I can't wait to see what I get in future boxes as their arrival is sure to be the highlight of the month.

I would recommend Knit in a box to anyone and everyone looking for a crafty gift to give to a knitting friend. The boxes are definitely worth every penny.

Happy crafting.