Last Year's Pay-It-Forward

I have seen a few 'Pay-it-Forward' posts floating around Facebook this week. I decided not to try and do that this year. I did get gifts to everyone for 2013, but in my usual last minute fashion, most people got them in December! Seeing the posts did remind me that I haven't shared what I made on my blog, so here are the ones which went out in December....

Lavender Eye Pillow and Handwarmers,

Orange, Cinnamon and Poppy Seed Melt and Pour Soaps with crochet cloths,

and a Moebius Basket.

 

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Yarn Along ~ Sophie

My Goodreads page says I'm currently reading 5 books.  That is not quite true.  Those are the books that I was reading before I started more books.  I wish I could just read one book at a time but I can't.  Besides there being many ordinary books to be reading at the same time, there are now kindle books and audio books.  So, the real book I'm reading is 'I Left My Tent in San Francisco' by Emma Kennedy. This is my Artful Readers Club book for May.  I am ahead! The kindle book I'm reading is 'Crazy Sexy Diet' by Kris Carr and the audiobook I just finished was 'Eat, Pray, Love' by Elizabeth Gilbert.  I'm not sure what to make of that one. I started off hating it, then thought it was ok, then it just kind of ended. 

 

Here is my current knitting and audiobook...

 

 

 

...'The Universe Versus Alex Woods' by Gavin Extence. I started this today and it is hilarious so far.  I've been laughing out loud in the garden :) The knitting is my third piece for Wool Against Weapons.  The pattern is the Ten Stitch Zigzag .

 

I finished this piece last week.  A granny square with some extra rows added on at the ends to make it the correct size.

 

Linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along a bit late!

Wool Against Weapons ~ Sophie

 

I have started doing some crochet for this amazing pink peace scarf.  If you are a knitter want to join in you can find more details at

 

http://www.woolagainstweapons.co.uk/

 

Here's my first piece, just over half way done.....

 

 

....it is pink lol, dodgy photo! I'm doing this one plain but I think I'll get a bit more adventurous for the next one - I could become a little obsessed with this project!

 



Creative Pay-it-Forward

I'm joining in with the Facebook creative pay-it-forward which was going around last month.  I have 5 friends to make gifts for and this is my first, a ruffle scarf.

I've haven't knitted with this type of yarn before and whilst it is easy, I think it's also not easy if you are a long term knitter. I found I was knitting much slower with it than I would with normal wool. I think the colours of this scarf are lovely and I'm pleased with how it turned out. Hope my friend likes it!

A Little Different ~ Sophie

 

I'm knitting and reading things that are not my usual choices this week.

 

The knitting is a mesh triangular scarf which I'm doing with a yarn which my mum bought back from one of her crafty outings.  The colours in it range from browns, yellows and greens into turquoise and lavender.  I like it but I would have never picked it up myself as it's not a combination I would usually be drawn to.  This is excellent as my collection of greeny/purple scarfs is probably in danger of getting out of hand!  When I am knitting it up against my turquoise cardigan it looks great. 

 

I am also reading books which are a little away from my usual choices.  I tried a Terry Pratchett book years ago and couldn't get into it.  Someone recently suggested I try, 'The Wee Free Men' so after having it sitting around for ages, I'm giving it a go.  I'm still not sure to be honest!

 

The audio book I have on the go is called 'The Garden of Evening Mists' by Tan Twan Eng.  I am very excited to say that I chose this from my library's free audio book service which has been going for a while but I have been unable to access.  They have updated their system and it's now easy to use.  I am really enjoying this so far, it is incredibly atmospheric.

 

I also just finished listening to 'The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year' by Sue Townsend.  'Nuff said!!

 

Gaby and I started listening to this at the weekend......

 

 

 

.....I love Jacqueline Wilson's books.  We found this and more whist having a mooch around the charity shops the other day.

 

 

I was really pleased with myself until I got home and realised that I got rid of the cassette player in the kitchen!  We do have one in the house, just not where I'm usually listening to books, but they were a bargain!

 

I'm linking this post to Ginny's Yarn Along

 

Knitting More Green Stuff ~ Sophie

This is a bit of a test post on the iPad which suddenly seems to be letting me type posts having not done so in the past.  We have been without a PC for a while, which is why there has been a lack of posts here! A lot has been happening this year, good and not so good.  Bad stuff is that I had to make the sensible decision to hand the allotment back after my wonky hip got worse, but the good news is that this has made me get back to yoga class which I am loving.  We are also having a lot of stressful issues to deal with with our sons so yoga is of huge benefit to me in that respect too.  At the moment it's all about the knitting, yoga and reading so I'm going to link this to Ginny's Yarn Along. http://www.gsheller.com/2012/09/yarn-along-94.html. 

I just finished knitting the 'Hogwarts Express' shawl.  I am really pleased with how this has turned out and as I have never done any cable knitting before, I feel like I've learnt something too.

I've now started on a sleeveless wrap thing. I loved the colours of this yarn when I saw it knitted as a cardigan in our local wool shop, but I'm not so sure now - seems a bit 'old lady' so far.  I will see how it goes.  I'm reading 'Engleby' by Sebastian Faulks.  After a false start with the audio version from the library, I've now got a paper copy and am enjoying it so far.

Stripey Scarf ~ Sophie

I finished this scarf at the weekend.  The pattern is available here, I thought it was a really good pattern, very simple and effective.  I would have liked it longer but I was worried I would run out of the pinky stripe!  I'm happy with it though...

A late winter knit ~ Sophie

I finished my winter tunic, typically, just in time for spring!  (The pattern can be found here). 

I started this in November after deciding that I needed something warmer to wear and finding nothing I liked in the shops at all. Everything was brown and mustard colours - yuck!  I haven't knitted anything large like this for a long time and I'm quite pleased with it.  I really enjoyed the larger knitting in the round as I hate sewing up jumpers.  At least I'll have something warm for next winter!  

Reusable Gift Wrapping - Sophie

Having children has really opened my eyes to unnecessary packaging. As the years have gone by I've become more and more unhappy by the amount of rubbish we generate around birthdays and especially at Christmas, when it's not unusual for us to have 2 extra bags of rubbish just from wrapping paper and packaging. Over the past few years I've been trying really hard to find ways to decrease this.  Obviously you can limit unnecessary packaging by choosing your gifts carefully but wrapping needs a bit more thought. My favourite and easiest way of doing this is just to hold onto gift bags and recycle them.  They seem to get passed all around the family and come back again - I'm sure lots of people do this!  I have also started wrapping family gifts with fabric and ribbons. At Christmas we halved our usual rubbish by doing this. This week it was Gaby's birthday and it will be the second year I've used this cupcake fabric and although it did cost more to begin with, it was a nice feeling to get it out again and have nothing to throw away. I'm getting better at the wrapping now I think.....!

 It's a bit harder when it comes to gifts for friends. I think most people would find it a bit strange to be asked for their gift wrap back! I found a way to make the wrapping part of the present with this knitted face cloth pattern last year, so a couple of people ended up with these filled with soaps or bath bombs...

Here's the cloth 'unwrapped'...

....I really like this pattern.  It's enjoyable and easy to follow.  I've knitted 6 of these now and given them all away, I think it's about time I kept one, maybe it's a stash buster project for the future!

Stash Busting Challenging ~ Sophie

Oh blimey, I came across this challenge on the same day as we started this blog, so I'm thinking I will join in.  Actually I repeatedly promise myself that I'm going to use up my yarn stash before buying more but it never seems to happen so maybe this will help a bit.....(maybe)!

Since Christmas I have kindly been given a massive amount of yarn by a friend and I also bought some bargain purple yarn in a charity shop.  My boxes are bursting at the seams and there is no room for any more.

I'm already working on a crocheted cushion which I started last Autumn to use up some last bits of cotton left over from other projects.  It is sat in a basket nearly finished so I think this is where I should start!

I also have a tunic on the knitting needles at the moment which is getting close to being finished...

....and I'm trying hard NOT to start anything with the lovely colourful cottons which I bought before  Christmas even though I really want to make one of these cats.  I'm trying not to have too much on the go and once.

Famous......last.....words!