Hand in glove . . . . tra la la!

Well, that was the October holidays . . . two weeks, of - well, to be honest nothing particularly remarkable.  Some beautiful Autumnal weather, a lot of chilling out - actually managed to switch off and read a book for once, which was very nice!  Knitted ONE sock - but more of that later, ooops . . . 

BUT far more exciting . . . I've knitted my first glove . . . . with FINGERS!  Yes, all five of them - well technically speaking 4 fingers and a thumb, but I digress :)   Earlier in the year I purchased some lovely 2 ply Shetland yarn to practice my newly acquired fair isle knitting techniques . . . I just couldn't resist experimenting with a lovely pattern from Ravelry by Robin Melanson (Hardwood Hill Gloves).

And miraculously . . . 

. . . there they all are - 4 fingers and a thumb - I don't know how but, they're there . . . it was touch and go, lots of angst and a lot of 'fixing' holes, but they fit, er 'like a glove' - what a fluke, haha!!

With the pattern in the background . . . 

A little of the detail . . .

Unfortunately, I really don't know how I managed to do the fingers.  I'm now back-pedalling like mad and doing a little online research before I attempt the second glove so I'll vaguely know what I'm trying to do - talk about the cart before the horse, ah well!

Today I'm waiting for more of that lovely dusky pink yarn to arrive in the post (from Shetland, of course!) so I can get on with the second one . . . I'm  feeling a little nervous!  Fools rush in, and all that . . . :) :)   Sometimes you just have to jump in with your size 10 wellies on though, I'm quite glad I did just that - I think my enthusiasm for my project spurned me on!

The lovely colours of the Shetland wool are very reminiscent of our own Harris Tweed yarn - I'm feeling quite at home :)  Talking of which, I should really be 'tweedying' to make some  cash to pay for all that yarn!  Tweedying or knitting, tweedying or knitting, tweedying or . . .

Actually, I'd better go and do the housework - paaaaah!! :-/

Later gaters :)
Alison x

PS Hand in Glove was  sung by the Smiths - can't stop humming it now!  Wonderful Morrissey has just released his Autobiography published as a Penguin Classic, much debate about that - what a 'to do' - I've just ordered my copy, well, I had to . . .  for research purposes you understand :) :)  Perhaps I'll do a little review of it here . . .

Socktoberfest :)

I've  just joined the Socktoberfest group over on Ravelry - I think it's just a month to celebrate sock-knitting, bust your wool/yarn stash, make your Xmas gifts, etc.  No pressure to produce a heap of socks at the end of it as far as I can gather - I hope not anyway!  I did feel a 'sock coming on' with my new knitty design so it seems to be a natural progression to devote October to knitting socks - OK, I was just looking for a good excuse, hehe :)  I'm a little late starting but October hols are coming up,  so . . . .

I've ordered some yarn to knit up my Scottie dog design into some socks - very exctiting!  In the meantime I've tried another design swatch and . . .  way hay, it worked out first time :)  This design has a sea-creatures theme and I've used the image to make some of my seaside 'tweedie' softies in the past.  It was quite nice to go back to an older theme and reuse it in a completely different way :) . . . 

The squiggly things in between the seahorses are starfish, just in case you didn't know, hehe!

Scribbly drawings . . . 

The swatch turned out so well that I've decided to continue with it and make it into a sock - hopefully two!  I'm just  using acrylic DK from my stash of Patons Fab (prob equivalent to Red Heart yarn in the US) so I think they'll be fun 'bed/loafing about' socks.  That's if they work out . . . they might not!

OK, at the end of all that I've set my self a challenge to make two pairs of socks - one, a wearable (ie. boot or shoe type socks) and the other a pair of 'loafing about' socks . . . :)  

Hopefully making some tweedie-stuff too - I'll be adding to my online shops as and when I can (when I'm not knitting socks, that is!). Details as and when this happens!  October is beginning to sound like quite a busy month, hmmmm, well the nights are drawing in . . . .  :)

Later, gaters :)

Alison x

The Winners are . . . . and the experimental piece complete :)

Big drum roll . . . . . . the winners of the Giveaway are:  Gretchen and Gabriella!  Congratulations ladies  - I will be in touch by e-mail, but feel free to send me your name and address details as soon as . . . . :) :)  Thanks to all for taking part - it was fun to do a little giveaway!

As I promised, I'll show you the results of the little experimental colour-work piece from last week's doodle . . . 

I'm quite pleased at how it worked out - considering it came from a VERY quick doodle!  It's basically a tubular knitting swatch (on 4 double pointed needles) but the pattern could be used for anything really . . . I actually think I might be feeling a pair of socks coming on, hehe!  Cute little scottie dogs adorning the top of a pair of woollie socks - what do you think?  I'm still tweaking the design a little ie. shifting the little motifs between the scotties and possibly adding another motif on the bottom but it's got lots of possibilities I think :)   Oooops, a whole new area of creativity - Oh Dear!

Hope you had a relaxing or productive weekend - I think mine was definitely more relaxing than productive, so I'd better get going now - byeeeee :)

Alison x

Giveaway closed, and a little experimental project . . . I'm winging it!

OK - Giveaway time is up :)  Thank you so much for entering it! -  it's been a  fun  way to ease my way back into my blog and to say thanks for still reading, even if my posts  have been a bit sporadic this year :)  I love using my blog to mull over new creative ideas as much as anything else - it's my outlet for creative thought, so thanks for listening to my incessant drivel, hehe!  I will announce two winners (one for each purse) by Monday at the latest : )  Good Luck!

Talking of new creative ideas, here's the current one . . . . . . a little doodle of a Scottish terrier to be magically transformed into the basis of a new knitted colour-work idea . . . 

some  paw prints as an additional design feature  . . . .

. . . my first very basic original design for a  knitted colour work project - bonkers!, yes completely, but when you get a notion to try something you've got to just go with it . . . 

Do you think it will work?  I have no idea either LOL :)  I'm having a go and seeing how it will look - this is fun though!  I just traced my drawing onto the squares of the graph paper . . . no, I don't really know what I'm doing - but that's the fun part!

I'm enjoying stamping my new 'handmade' logo onto craft bags and anything else I come across - if you stand still for too long I might stamp your forehead with 'handmade by Tweed Delights' - watch out, hehe!!

This week I've started on some new tweedie-work and added this matryoshka doll to my Etsy shop . . .

More to come hopefully . . . I'm still adjusting myself to my new (Linux) operating system on my laptop -  talk about a learning curve, I didn't know I had to become a computing genius to run my crafts business!  I'm sure I'll get used to it . . . . . hmmmmmmm :-/

Later, gaters - I'll be back by Monday to announce a winner - I'm off to knit up my little Scottie dog doodle, I hope to have something to show you - byeeee!

Alison xxxx