Daisy, Daisy - Wrist Warmers and Hat Set

Daisy, Daisy.... well, if this set doesn't cheer up the bleak Winter months I don't know what will!

:-)


A lovely beanie style hat with a cute flower on the side and a pair of long wrist warmers that definitely will keep out all the nasty drafts. The set has been knitted (and crocheted) with Louisa Harding Willow Tweed in pale blue and Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in cream. Both are high quality yarns and wear fantastically well. The Louisa Harding is a mix of alpacca, merino and silk, the Debbie Bliss yarn is a mix of cashmere, merino, and microfibre.

The pattern for both the hat and the wrist warmers is all my own design. I am going to try and offer it as a download sometimes soon. :-)

Below you can see some of the details (from left to right) - flower on the hat, crown of the hat, cable on the inside wrist of the wrist warmers (to keep them nice and tight around your wrist) and flower and cable/bobble pattern on the front of the wrist warmers.

Here's the wrist warmer on:


The inside where you can see the nice snug fit around the wrist:


The inside of the wrist warmer laid out:


Once the set has been washed and blocked it will be available in my Etsy shop... unless you snap it up by sending me an e-mail.

I Knit Show Or Yarn Heaven

Last Saturday was taken up by a visit to London and the I Knit Show.

My blogger friend Caroline from over on Uniqart and her lovely daugher joined me and we trudged all the way from Waterloo to Westminster and got rather an indepth view of Westminster due to a terrible map (and some map reading errors on our side). However, we finally got there, and, yes, it was definitely worth it and next year's show is already marked in my diary.

The show was held in the lovely Lindley Hall Conference Centre, which is bright and airy and has great facilities including a reasonably priced cafe.

There were tables for people to sit and 'talk yarn' and lots of stalls with gorgeous, lovely, amazing, interesting yarn delights. :-) Yep, it's that bad. Really. LOL

I knew it'd be bad so I'd set myself a budget and resisted using the cash machine in the centre. I only bought things I really, really, neeeeeded. LOL

Here's my stash, partially wound up in balls already (couldn't resist playing with my yarn the minute I got home, footsore and exhausted but happy).

Like Caroline, I bought mostly lace weight yarns.


Below is some feathery pink yarn with black spots interspersed throughout which I'll be using as trim and also the black lambswool laceweight yarn.

This was one of my 'neeeeed-this': beautiful Malabrigo Silk Blend yarn in cherry red.

Rose and green alpacca lace weight yarn.



Feathery fluffy and, oh so soft, 'Guinea Fowl' yarn. Again, I will use this as a trim.


And this is the second of 'had to have' yarns: Louisa Harding Willow Tweed in a soft blue with little white dots throughout. Totally gorgeous!!!

And here's some Filatura di Crosa baby merino lace weight yarn. So soft and yummy. The colour is a pale silver. Very similar to the yarn I dyed - see this post.


Apart from the yarn stalls there were also seminars and stalls with 'made' things. One of the stalls was particulalry memorable. Unfortunately I didn't take a card, so can't remember the name of the lady, but she made the most beautiful sea creatures from knitted, very thin wire. Totally amazing. We also saw some people spinning - with spinning wheels and drop spindles. If there had been a spinning class.... one of the things I want to try before I die. LOL

A great day out. I'd recommend it to anyone.

Almost Done: Bluebells and Roses Shrug

Here's the shrug, finally, almost done. Note, it hasn't been blocked yet.

Unfortunately, it doesn't fit because I changed the yarn from the previous shrug and this one isn't quite as loose when knit. :-( Sniff. I really, really love it, especially the colour, but it will go into my Etsy shop to make someone else happy.



Here are the sleeves in more detail - I shaped them like bluebells and I love the little points and the way they make the shrug into something really special. The shrug still needs blocking to ensure the sleeves fall into perfect bluebell shapes.


Here are the three rose brooches. Each brooch is different and has been embellished with a little lace (some of it vintage with a teeny bit of aged staining).


The brooches make the shrug really versatile as they can be worn in a variety of ways, here are just some:

- wear them in a clump like shown,
- leave them off and make it into an every day shrug,
- wear one on each sleeve and the third on the collar or bow,
- wear them in a clump at the lower back or arranged on the bow.




The shrug would be perfect worn with a pair of jeans or with a wedding gown. It's been designed to be as versatile as possible. :-)

The yarn is handpainted and varies from an almost (pale) cornflower blue to turquoise to pale aqua green to silvery white. The 'overall' colour impression works with a variety of other colours - from a white wedding dress to a brown evening gown to a pair of jeans to a wine red or dark green dress.

Look out for it in my Etsy shop.

In Progress: Icy Shrug

This is what I've been working on when the mermaid shawl got too much. The shawl is very fiddly to do and sometimes I just need some time to think about what I'll do next or how things fit together (it is a bit like a jigsaw).

The shrug is knitted in the same way as the Smolder shrug, but with a few little changes to ensure a better fit (the red shrug is a little looser).


It's not quite finished - hence the stitch holders - because I ran out of yarn. Well, not quite, but I did not have enough to make the bell shaped sleeves I want for this. I'd like to wear it in Summer and Winter, and thought 3/4 length sleeves are therefore better and look prettier with this colour.

I ordered my yarn last week and unfortunately it wasn't in stock - BUT credit to Nicola at YarnBox she ordered it away and it arrived today - one day earlier than expected. :-)



Here you can see the beautiful yarn (Louisa Harding, Grace Handpainted in shade 02, aqua) in detail - I've used a seed stich for the tie:


And here is the plain stotcking stitch:



The yarn is absolutely wonderful to knit with. It has a well defined stitch pattern and the colour variation is well done and there's no pooling. It's half silk, half merino and light and very soft with a beautiful soft sheen. Perfect! I can only recommend it.

The shrug will also have some removable flower brooches (3 altogether) which I can use to dress it up or down. I can't wait for it to be finished as it's just so lovely.... :-)