Scottish Piper

Here is the masterpiece of my knitting adventures so far....

He took almost forever to knit (a few months)!

Here is his back:

I made him for my lovely work friend Debbie as she wants to send him all the way to the USA for Christmas! Amazingly, I actually managed to get him finished in time for Christmas.

Here he is from the side, where you can see the sprigs of heather in his cap:

I knit him using Stylecraft Special DK in soft peach for his skin, matador red and white for the tartan (Aberdeen FC colours), black shoes & jacket & cap, silver sporran chain & buckle, copper hair & beard and oddments of yarn for the green & purple heather.

He is based on the Macscarecrow Clan patterns by Jean Greenhowe

I can't recommend her knitting patterns enough. They are so easy to follow and have amazing detail and look wonderful. I can't wait to try more! Having said that I did adapt the piper pattern to make him more tall man than dumpy toy and designed the jacket myself (a first!). I gave him lace up shoes and made his socks ribbed with mock cable turnovers for a bit of interest.

If you look up his kilt you'll find he's a true Scotsman! There's no photos of that as he's a bit shy (unlike so many true Scotsmen) and he tells me it was a bit cold!

I am rather pleased with him and I think Debbie is too as she bought me these gorgeous flowers as a thank you! 

Thanks Debbie, it was a pleasure to knit him and I might even make some more in the future.

Sail away dishcloth

I've made a dishcloth to keep for myself instead of giving it away!

Whilst in Florida I picked up a free pattern for a sail away dishcloth and here's the one I made using Lily Sugar n Cream. 

I love how the pattern turned out and t does a fantastic job of wiping up around the house.

Jo Ann

In October I went on holiday to Orlando in Florida. It was lovely and while I was there I couldn't stop myself from visiting a craft shop. Move over Hobbycraft, they really know how to do craft shops in the USA!

I visited a shop called Jo Ann. It's for fabrics and crafts. It was massive! I loved it!

I took a few pictures just to show how spoilt for choice a I was.

Outside.

Loads of yarn to choose from!

And more!

And even more!

And more yet!

It was amazing. And cheap! 

I bought some 454g balls of Aran weight yarn for making baby blankets and some huge balls of cotton yarn in self patterning shades to make dish towels; and also some multicoloured purple, pinky, blue coloured Aran yarn just because it was gorgeous!

And the good news was that I managed to fit it all in my case to bring home!

Little Birdies

Recently I discovered that Poundland sell cheap wool just perfect for making novelty items to sell through Kintore Knit and Stitch group to make money for local charities. 

I've hardly been to knit and stitch lately as I've mostly been going to bed after working at the time that I need to be getting up and going to the group!

Anyway I thought I'd still make a small contribution for the Christmas stall and found a pattern online by Amanda Berry for festive birdies. They were red, green and white to be festive but of course I had to be different so here are the ones I made with sparkly yarn from Poundland.

They're only little but took a while to make by the time I stuffed them and sewed them together. They do look quite cute and hopefully someone will buy them to,hang as baubles on their Christmas tree.