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Acht Fair Isle Hat

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I really enjoyed knitting the beautiful Acht Fair Isle Hat designed by Hazel Tindall.

“Acht is the Shetland dialect word for a valuable possession – hopefully you will find that is a good description of your finished hat. The sides are quite long – in Shetland’s windy climate it’s good to be sure your hat won’t blow off.” Hazel Tindall

Having the sides quite long is also a benefit for our cold wet Northern Irish climate too. It is nice to have warm ears!

Acht Fair Isle Hat

The Acht Hat uses 2 dark and 2 light colours of Shetland wool.[Read More]

WYS Wood Pigeon Socks

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Some yarn combinations are just too tantalising to put off knitting for long. I fell in love with these two yarns and couldn’t wait for them to arrive in the post. I love the beautiful colour combinations in the WYS Signature 4ply Sock Yarn Country Birds. The Wood Pigeon sock yarn is soooo perfect. The delicate colours match the colours from the Wood Pigeon’s breast, head and wing wonderfully well. Who wouldn’t want to wear these gorgeous WYS Wood Pigeon Socks?

WYS Wood Pigeon Socks Wood Pigeon photo by Stefan Berndtsson via Flickr

I used WYS Signature 4 ply Sock Yarn in Wood Pigeon from the glorious Country Birds range and its beautiful partner Pennyroyal from the Spice Rack collection.[Read More]

Art of Swatching – Autumn Landscape

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In the Art of Swatching I thought it would be great to share some of the knitting that I used to do for Sasha dolls on Sasha Doll Style. I am starting with the Autumn Landscape Collection that was completed a few years ago.

The colours of Autumn were the inspiration for the Autumn Landscape Collection that I designed for Sasha some years ago. I love to walk on the Cavehill in the early morning with the shadowy shapes of the trees still shrouded in mist.

The autumnal colours , deep russets, taupe, shades of green and brown, natural and sparkling frost glow against the blues and stormy greys of the Autumn sky.

“Autumn time, thy scenes and shades, Are pleasing to the tasteful eye.” Autumn by John Clare

Sasha Autumn Landscape Collection

I had great pleasure gathering the materials and wools for the Autumn Landscape Collection. The colours were a joy to work with. [Read More]

Fingerless Mittens

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There is nothing as lovely as Winter Pansies. So pretty and now planted in our window boxes so we can enjoy their cheerful faces  over the next few months.

Fingerless Mittens

These fingerless mittens were knit using my basic fingerless mitts pattern with a few tweaks. I wanted the mitts to be a bit longer at my wrist and slightly shorter on the hand section. I also narrowed the hand section slightly before knitting the cuff at the fingers.[Read More]

Bubbles Scarf

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It is so much fun learning a new knitting technique and a scarf is the perfect project to practice on.

Now and again as I browse through the patterns on Ravelry a new one jumps out at me – screaming – knit me, knit me! The Bubbles Scarf designed by Lucy Neatby is one of these beauties. I couldn’t resist buying the pattern.

Bubbles Scarf Neutral Collage

Having read through the pattern I was so smitten by Lucy Neatby’s original colour scheme that I ordered the Kauni Effekt wool in the same colours that she had used EQ and EN. I bought the yarn from SKD yarns in the UK. I bought more yarn than specified and was glad that I did as when I had finished knitting the pattern I knew that I wanted my scarf to be longer.[Read More]

Death in the Cotswolds

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Death in the Cotswolds is the third in the Cotswold series of murder mysteries by Rebecca Tope.  In a departure from the first two books in the series, this one is told from the viewpoint of a new character, Ariadne, who observes Thea and Phil as they continue their courtship in the quiet Gloucestershire village of Cold Aston.

Death in the Cotswolds

Quiet that is, until Ariadne stumbles across the body of her friend, Gaynor, murdered with a knitting needle!  Ariadne had been making preparations to celebrate the festival of Samhain, on a local burial ground, when she finds Gaynor’s body.  Phil, as a police Superintendant, is called upon to take charge of the case and Thea turns to Ariadne for companionship and the two share her thoughts on the murder.[Read More]

Baktus Scarf

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Suddenly it is getting chillier and the nights are closing in. It’s dark in the morning and dark again by teatime. As the days get shorter and colder I certainly have a need for a cosy soft scarf that keeps my neck warm and isn’t too bulky.

Mauve Baktus Scarf

The Baktus Scarf designed by Strikkelise is perfect.[Read More]

Fair Isle Swirl Socks

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Who doesn’t love the lively combination of stripes and a touch of fair isle? One of my favourite combinations. Stripes have become a common theme in my sock knitting recently, but more about that in future posts! For the Fair Isle Swirl Socks the fair isle is worked as a wide stripe filled with an all over swirling two colour diagonal pattern. This is balanced by the wide dark stripe on the foot.

Fair Isle Swirl Socks

I chose two colours of Artesano Alpaca 4ply for the plain stripes as I liked how they contrasted with my main yarn choice. I have no idea how well the alpaca will wear so chose not to knit it on the heel or toe area where it would get a lot of heavy wear. The alpaca is a wonderfully soft warm yarn. The paler pink is Sweet Pea CA13 and the darker magenta is Venezuela 4345.[Read More]

Granny Square Scarf

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I started learning to crochet last year and after practicing the different crochet stitches decided I was ready to start my first project. I wanted to crochet the Flower Throw – a lovely granny square blanket pattern in the “Cool Girl’s Guide to Crochet” by Nicki Trench.

Granny Square Scarf

I started making squares and finished about 20 for the blanket, but I wasn’t happy with them. They weren’t “square” enough. In fact at times they looked decidedly lop sided! [Read More]

Sea Breeze Crochet Scarf

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Sea Breeze Crochet Scarf was not a planned project although I do love the finished scarf. After I finished crocheting Mr Murasaki the Amigurumi Owl I had quite a bit of the yarn left over so I decided to practice crocheting the treble stitch in clusters and working a straight edge on either side.

 Sea Breeze Crochet Scarf

This turned out to be a very relaxing activity while watching tv and it was not long until the ball of yarn was finished. [Read More]