Ginger Knits UK

I've been a fairly faithful knitter over the last couple of months, working almost exclusively on the Box-Set Blanket . Nephew Two is due at the start of July so I'm hoping to have it finished by then. I'm on the final round of colours, although this is deceptive in terms of knitting as the last few stripes include some pretty wide sections. One upside of the miserable summer here is I don't feel guilty about staying in watching box sets and knitting. We visited my brother-in-law and Nephew One a few weeks ago and it was lovely to see Blanket One being used every day. The kid takes it to nursery for his afternoon nap and it goes in his pushchair when not at nursery. Makes all the knitting worthwhile! Hooray! I'm enjoying the garter stitch though I'm starting to hanker after something a little more complex and have plenty of WIPs sitting idle which I'm looking forward to picking up once the blanket is done. I did have a fling with a pair of bab...

After all my decision making in my post yesterday, and my eagerness to cast on, my brain interfered again and I spent most of the evening playing with colour combos in Excel. It looked like this: I stared at it for ages, showed it to my other half, stared at it again, showed it to my other half* *repeat until bedtime. I decided to get stuck in having whittled it down to two possible layouts. I'm still not one hundred percent sure but I'm hoping I'll have a better idea by the time I'm at the next colour change.

Almost two years to the day that I cast on for what has so far been my biggest FO, I'm casting on another. When I found out my first nephew was on the way I um'd and ah'd over what to knit for him; i.e. I spent hours browsing Ravelry looking at ALL THE BABY THINGS. I wanted to make him a blanket, something he'd hopefully use and keep for several years, maybe into adulthood. While I like knitting modular patterns, crocheting motifs and generally being a clever clogs, my brain kept on returning to a simple yet effective pattern. #knitting pattern is Teddy blanket by Millamia A photo posted by clarestorry (@gingerknits) on Apr 20, 2014 at 9:44am PDT I've worked with MillaMia in the past and their oh so cheerful Teddy Blanket had always attracted a lot of attention at yarn shows. It's a very easy knit though it is an exercise in stamina. After doing more browsing (thanks again Ravelry) I decided on it but using Rico Essential Cotton, not Mill...

There's a crochet photo thing I'm joining in with over on Instagram. I'm enjoying it though it is mostly a sea of pastels and perfect home decor  there are moments punctuated with humour and insight. Today's theme ties in nicely with FO Friday. Out of pure laziness I'm re-posting here. Any questions? Ask away in the comments. Cheers and happy weekend! BIG WOOL got me back in to knitting after a 20 year hiatus. The satisfaction of finishing a scarf in days, rather than weeks was a revelation. I bought lots of BIG WOOL. As my technique improved, my yarn weight decreased and big wool was sadly redundant, relegated to the bottom of the stash. A few years later I discovered BIG HOOK and the #crochet circles project was born. This took me ages to make, mostly due to distraction from other projects. It also failed as a stashbuster as I had to buy more #colours, I really did! Is it a #blanket? Is it a rug? Is it a blug or a ruket? Who cares? It's toasty, col...

I have so many WIPs on the go that WIP Wednesday should be WIP-every-day for me. I'm pondering getting them all in one place so I work through them and actually finish them however that can feel a little overwhelming and in a way less fun. Who knows, maybe I'll get round to it. Having said that, not all my WIPs are lost causes, though some are slow burners. It's grey and miserable outside today so here's some #colour #wipwednesday #WIP #knitting #garterstitch #blanket #yarn #knittersofinstagram A photo posted by clarestorry (@gingerknits) on Mar 9, 2016 at 7:17am PST I started this blanket during last year's Tour de France. I'd made a garter stitch blanket for my nephew  and had enjoyed the mindless knitting, perfect for watching men in lycra cycling up hills. While having a stash sort out I realised I had accumulated a fair amount of aran weight tweed yarn. I did a fair bit of pattern browsing on Ravelry and decided on making another gart...

Here's another one of my learn to draw sketches. One of the aspects I'm really enjoying about the online course is it mixes up simple and complex shapes. This encourages concentration for some challenges and giddy fun for others. Yesterday's challenge was candy/sweeties. I decided not to watch the full tutorial before drawing as I wanted to see what I would produce without influence. "I know a guy who's tough but sweet He's so fine, he can't be beat He's got everything that I desire Sets the summer sun on fire I want candy" Yum yum in my tum. Yesterday's #CBDrawADay challenge was a sugar rush. This was a fun doodle, I'd forgotten how sinister jelly babies are when closely examined. Coloured in using Derwent Inktense - the colours really pop when washed. #sweets #colour #bowwowwow A photo posted by clarestorry (@gingerknits) on Mar 8, 2016 at 8:30am PST This isn't the most skillful of drawings but I had fun doing it a...

There is knitting action going on at the moment, I just haven't got round to blogging about it yet. I've also been doing more #CBDrawADay challenge. Here's birds from Sunday's lesson. I wrote about how I was approaching Sunday's #CBDrawADay subject with anticipation over on my blog. I love #birds. I #bird watch. I have binoculars next to my garden facing windows at home so I look like a freaky Rear Window type when I'm just looking at who visits my garden. I go on holiday to places where I can do some serious birdwatching. I watch wildlife stuff all the time. Love it! This is something I'd like to be able to draw well, ie field guide illustration well. As Pam the tutor says at the end of today's video " Just go with it and have fun" which is something I found tricky, unlike yesterday's challenge. I started off drawing cartoon-like birds but started getting irritated when I couldn't get the lines right, especially the back between ...

"What! You don't post for months then you write two in a day?!?!?!?" Yes, I hear you, my sly subconcious, and yeah, what of it? So what if I blog like buses! Anyway brain, get to it, your readers (hello dear reader, thanks for stopping by) are getting impatient. I had a little moment of self realisation today. I was being a good student taking part in today's #CBdrawaday challenge. The subject is Loving Cups. Loving what? Indeed. To save retyping here's my Instagram post with my homework and thoughts on the actual topic. When I saw 'Loving Cups' coming up as #CBdrawaday day five I wondered if it was something that would flag up inappropriate google searches. It's not a term I've heard before and my puerile British mind went to the wrong place. Oh, its trophies and the like. OK, still something that I don't see very often. I googled images - using trophies, not loving cups as my search term - as I don't have an inventor...

A lot has happened since I last posted here. I realised about halfway through last year that my job was having a very negative impact on my life so after much trying to fix it, taking time out, reflection and soul searching, I quit. Hooray! Best decision I've made in a long time. I miss my co-workers but that's about it. I'm still getting my head round it as the side effects of my job have taken a larger toll than I realised. Hindsight is 20:20 and all that. I may write more on this later, or I may not. I started writing about it  just now and it turned into an angry and upset ramble so it's something I'm still working on. Pushing that to one side for the time being, I'm taking a bit of time out from the rat race to rebuild me and work out what to do next. You'll be pleased to hear a big part of my rebuilding process involves craftyness. Now, I have all the blog ideas, but don't always have the impetus to actually write things down. I've ...