Learning New Things

Last night I finally started the faff that is making up a project. Mini Fox is getting there!

To make this:

Turn into this:

Not really... He should look like this (as modeled by Stephanie Dosen):

I have to...

• Sew up all the different parts
• Sew in all my ends
• Block his body and tail
• Stuff him
• Sew in magnets
• Wear with pride

So last night I sewed up his head using mattress stitch. Whenever I've sewed up a project in the past I've just gone for it as I thought best, but last night I thought I'd use YouTube to help me and actually do a proper job. I also learnt how to whip stitch (for the ears). Look how perfect it looks if you actually try:

My first proper mattress stitch seam. #FeelingProud

Headless Fox...

Sewing in the ends - bane of my life, has to be done though.

Another technique that I had never tried before last night was blocking. For me, when it comes to knitting I love the actual knitting part, and I love the finished product, but making-up is such a pain. That might be because I've never actually known how to do it properly, but thanks to YouTube and about.com I didn't really mind it. So I blocked Mini Fox's body last night, it should be ready for when I get home after work today...

The technique I used is called 'wet blocking' (I'm yet to find out how good it is, I'll put my results in a future post). You wet the wool, then pin it out how you want it on either a towel, a bed (as if I'd risk Miffy's wrath), or a clean bin liner. I went for the towel (the bin liner made no sense to me..). As you can see it looks like road kill!

It is currently sat on my floor having a lovely old dry and waiting for me to stick a magnet on its bum.

So that's the progress made on Mini Fox last night, and of course I did a few more rows of my scarf while we watched New Tricks and Neighbours. 

While I was looking at the Tiny Owl Knits website I saw this new pattern and IMMEDIATELY bought it (best £3.66 I've ever spent). She's made a charm bracelet and it's called 'Care of Magical Creatures'. As if the title alone wasn't enough for me to buy it! I had a look and the project is AMAZING. 

It's a knitted charm bracelet and the charms are all woodland creatures or magical things. It is like the most me project I have ever found: it combines knitting with Harry Potter! This is going to be my first project after the wool-athon, and the excitement of it is spurring me on to hurry up and get through that wool. 

I am going to add the list of required wools to the TOP of my Christmas wishlist.

A Few Of My Favourite Things

During the week I find it difficult to find time for knitting. I manage to get a bit done every evening while we watch telly, but I don't have the time to do much. Because of this I don't have much knitting to post about at the moment, but I do have a new one of my regular features to start: A Few Of My Favourite Things.

Today I'm talking about book-films.

I'm currently reading 'A Town Like Alice' by Nevil Shute:

I'm halfway through and it is brilliant so far. 

I love books that are made into films, it just proves how good they are...

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, an amazing book introduced to me by Miffy and one that has to be read more than once. The film is amazing as well, I mean you can't really beat Dame Maggie (first name terms). It is so hard to obtain a copy of this film on DVD for the 'region' that works in the UK though!!!

The Harry Potter series (Harry Potter geek and proud). The books are amazing, need to reread them soon; the films are wonderful. Both the books and the films were a significant part of my childhood and teenage years (cheesey cliché, do I care?) and JK Rowling has the ability to make me cry when she does interviews and speeches.

Pride and Prejudice, yes I chose the Kiera Knightly cover as it is one of my favourite films. Soz, Collin Firth. I read the book for English at school but thoroughly enjoyed it despite the well known fact that it is almost impossible to enjoy a book that you are forced to read. The film is one I have watched thousands of times and after googling the film poster just now I really want to watch it again soon.

The Great Gatsby - I cheated and went to see the film before I finished the book because I couldn't resist. We went to a retro picture house cinema in Newcastle, it was the perfect place to see that film in particular.

And of course: The Princess Bride. This is one of my favourite books and films. It's brilliant in every way; what more could you want from a book, as Peter Falk says at the start of the film it has got 'fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles...'

So those are a few of my favourite book-to-film adaptations. There are loads more out there that I probably haven't thought of today, maybe I'll do a repeat of this post one day with some more in.

Knitspiration

Introducing another one of my regular features 'Knitspiration', a feature that will appear randomly throughout my blog history and which will give an insight into the sorts of things I aspire to create, things that inspire me, or simply things I admire. 

Beautiful Blankets 

I've never had the patience, or enough wool, to make a blanket - that's more Miffy's area of expertise - but these two are stunning. If I ever managed to master the art of fair isle then this will be the first project on my list. I absolutely love that Swedish style and the colour combinations.

I love the delicate knitted section of this simple blanket contrasted with the chunky, funky crochet edging. Once I learn to crochet I may try this technique.

Black & White

I love this knitted head band and this girl. Her hair has the sort of volume I can only dream of achieving, and this retro style is one of my favourites. If I make this headband I will probably try and replicate this photo (!)

Bette Davis looking fabulous here.

Check out Russel Crowe! (He totes came to Jersey for the Superman premier).

Jumpers

I have a small obsession with knitted jumpers (preferably baggy, 1990s ones). I have knitted myself one and worn it to death, it is now safely folded in a drawer because if I wear it too much it may fall apart.

I love this arty photo, this stitch looks lovely along with the colour of the wool.

Christmas present please.

Woops she forgot to put on trousers... I realllllly love this jumper, this will probably be my first project after my wool-athon.

There are so many more knitspirations that I want to post today but I think I should spread them out a bit (even though the list will have doubled before my next post) otherwise this post will go on forever.

Just Another Miffy Monday

As promised here is one of my new regular features "Just Another Miffy Monday" staring my mum Michelle O'Connell, known to many as 'Miffy' because of a nickname from one of her many Godchildren.

Miffy is a knitter and Crochet Queen and constantly has at least one project on the go. She will often make a homemade gift for friends and relatives and is known island-wide - slight exaggeration - for her crochet bunnies (which will feature in next week's post) which she sells in her shoe shop for charity.

As this is the first "Just Another Miffy Monday" here is a quick random-fact-file:

• Crochet Queen
• Loves Emma Bridgewater
• Jersey girl
• Mum of three (amazing) children
• Owner of Ruby, the world's best labrador and Binkie, Springer Spaniel extraodinaire
• Domestic goddess
• Business woman
• Shoe lover
• Multi-tasker
• Style guru
• Eye for interiors
• Ex-conveyancing clark
• Wonderful wife
• Wool-aholic

Her current project:

A blanket for someone, most probably for our Landrover Defender...

She's using up some wool that she's had for ages and it's now discontinued. She says that the wool stretches quite a lot which might be the reason it has been discontinued, but as this blanket is probably just going to be in the back of the Landy, it doesn't really matter. I think the colours are really good together.

What's in her knitting bag?

Miffy's knitting bag

Her current project.

And of course: her iPhone and her nail cream.

Weekend Creativity // *regular features*

I have decided to take this blog seriously, and properly dedicate time to it. In order to do so I will be introducing some regular features; some of which I made up myself ("I'm in the fourth grade, I can make things up myself!"**) some of which were inspired by other blogs. These features will include:

• Knitspiration: I am constantly inspired for future knitting projects by images, other people, magazines, films etc. and I will post some of my inspirations in this regular feature.
• Just Another Miffy Monday: My mum is a knitter and Crochet Queen and she has agreed to let me do a regular post on her and her projects and inspirations.
• A Few Of My Favourite Things: What it says on the tin really, favourite films, songs, books, artists, singers, anything I can think of! 

So that's what's coming up, now for today's post...

My mum discovered this AMAZING new spread, it literally tastes exactly like those biscuits you get with your coffee: so good.

My dad put up this new clock and some pictures today, I thought it looked really stylish; a classic gentleman's study. I really love that photo of Sean Connery as James Bond. 

I went to Paperchase and treated myself to this cardboard folder. I printed off all of my free patterns and put them in there. One step closer to being a more organised and economical knitter!

Here are some of my magazines and pattern books that I found too.

I really love this folder, and it's perfect for patterns. 

Tomorrow is a bank holiday and I will try and finish my Mini Fox then, my scarf is coming on nicely, I've done two more colours since I last posted about it.

** This is a quote from one of my favourite films, Dan In Real Life, I highly recommend it if you are looking for a relaxing feel-good film.

The Long Weekend *yay*

Hello and welcome to the long weekend!

Plans for this weekend include:

Writing some (long overdue) letters to my friends
Washing the cars (in exchange for my Jersey Live ticket)
Making serious progress with my scarf and finishing Mini Fox
Continuing with my driving lessons (yes I'm 22)

Teaching myself to crochet

And best of all... my little sister is coming home!

Charlie-Clever-Cloggs-Cunning-Fox-Wise-Owl-Genius-O'Connell

My little brother Charlie O'Connell got his GCSE results yesterday and boy oh boy did he deliver. His results are amazing and he has made the whole family very proud. 

Celebrations last night in the form of champagne...

And jumping around!

Here's an interview with the Clever-Cloggs-Cunning-Fox-Wise-Owl-Genius:

How did you feel the night before results day?

Really really nervous. All I could think about was results and the day seemed to drag on. Time was going so slowly!!

How did you feel when you opened the envelope?

I couldn't believe it when I saw all my grades there!

What was your reaction like?

Shocked. I laughed!

What was your best result and why?

Best result was for English (A star) but best achievement was maths because I felt like I'd really worked hard and got the results!

There he is, looking all clever in this (professionally edited) photo.

In knitting news: the scarf is coming along nicely, I haven't had time to sew up my Mini-Fox yet.

Before the wool-athon

I currently have two projects on the go which I need to finish before I begin with my

MIGHTY WOOL-ATHON

I started a project during the Easter holidays and have all but put it together.

This will one day (soon) look like this:

He's called a 'Mini Fox Collar', the small version of the original pattern 'Mr. Fox-Stole My Heart'. I love all of Stephanie Dosen's patterns and her blog is brilliant too. The reason my Mini Fox is yet to be completed is because of one tiny little detail: magnets. You can see in the pictures above that Mini Fox's chin stays perfectly on his bottom, this is because there are two small-but-powerful magnets keeping him held in place. I ordered my magnets off Amazon and they took four weeks to arrive! By the time they had reached Jersey I was deep into final-year essays and didn't have time to sew him up. The end result will be posted shortly.

My other project on-the-go-at-the-mo is a simple scarf:

I was on holiday in the Lake District with my family recently, and my mum and I made our usual visit to our favourite Kendal wool shop "William's Wools". 

THEY HAD A SALE ON

I found this beautiful Rowan Handknit Cotton  for HALF PRICE - I couldn't believe it. I bought 10 balls and could not wait to get home and use it for something, anything, it didn't matter I just had to have that wool at that price. (I just went to the Rowan website in order to create the link above and took a look at the full range of colours... man I want them all now.)

I decided to make this striped scarf with the wool, it's kind of Tom-Baker-Doctor-Who-esque (massive Doctor Who fan, not even gonna try and hide it), and will help me to look studenty when I'm prancing around Durham doing my Masters. 

SO. When Mini Fox is actually a fox and my scarf is all finished THEN I will start the wool-athon. I have already found some patterns to try for little hearts, and I went through all of my Love Knitting emails and printed out all of the free patterns I have stocked up. 

I shall end today's post with a picture of my little helpers, Ruby and Binkie. Ruby is a helper, Binkie is a hindrance.

Ruby the helper...

... Binkie the diva.

The plan...

      I was chatting to my best friend the other day and told her that I was planning a mega-sort out of my wool in order to:

a) be more organised

b) be more creative

c) save money

      The idea is to sort out all of my left overs from years of my own projects and also my mum's (she is a great sorter-outer and I often benefit from this). I said that on the weekend I was going to sort it all out and assign a project to every last scrap so that I could:

a) tidy up

b) have lots and lots of knitting to do for the near future

c) not need to buy any wool for quite a while

      If I can get through all of that wool then I will really enjoy the next time I go to my favourite wool shop and buy something new. 

      I intend to make lots of Christmas presents (I'm particularly good at hats, and who doesn't love a good pom pom?) which will also save me money, and little accessories such as hearts and flowers.

      I am definitely a knitter, however I have always wanted to try crochet but have never plucked up the courage. I think another one of my projects will be to learn (thank you, YouTube) to crochet.

      So, the plan for this blog (among other things) is to record my progress with this wool-athon. 

      I have to add a thank you to One Sheepish Girl for completely inspiring me to be more creative and to start a blog. Thank you!