I hope everyone had a lovely Easter! My weekend started out well, we went to collect a sofa from the lovely Kate at work, which prompted several shiftings around our living room to see what worked best. We’ve been living with a futon as a settee for the last 2.5 years (see photo in last post) and it has been gradually depressing me.  This seems to use less space in the living room and it actually feels like a grown-ups room now, as opposed to something more studenty.

Shifting turned to decluttering and soon I was sorting through all my knitting books and giving them their own shelves.  Although it seems the odd few other tall books may have snuck in there too!

Just as everything was starting to look nice, we hit a few problems. A persistent leak dripping from the bath into the kitchen, which has been going for years un-noticed, is now quite apparent. And wet.  Then an avalanche of paper-work, books, musical instruments, a stereo and a printer in Chris’s studio, as the shelves containing them decided enough was enough.  Oops.  This led to taking a car-boot full of stuff to the charity shop and a couple of long days tidying and reorganising EVERYTHING.

Isn’t it funny though how sometimes it takes something that seems like a nightmare at the time to make you sort yourself out? It was so refreshing to throw things out, relabel stuff we wanted to keep in boxes, and make everything so much more minimal.

Freeing up plenty of space to do some crafting 🙂

Here’s a quick preview of my new hat pattern – Agnes.  This hat was designed by mistake when I was following a stitch pattern wrongly and liked the way it turned out.  The result is this cosy, soft woven fabric, which knits up really quickly on 5mm (US8 ) needles.

For full details, sizes, gauge and materials then please see the Agnes pattern page.

So I still can’t decide on which lace pattern to use (see previous post) and it’s seriously holding up my knitting process! I’ve been looking at the swatches over and over and not getting a lot done.

I’ve decided to set myself a little blog challenge and be a part of the Knitting and Crochet Blog Week 2012.  It runs from the 23rd to the 29th April and looks like fun 🙂 Though I wish I’d thought about it sooner to allow time for planning, I think I’m just going to jump in feet first and see what happens!

I’ve never taken part in Blog Week before – as many of you may have noticed I don’t always post every week, so this will be a real challenge for me! The idea is that knitting and crochet bloggers all over the world post simultaneously on daily set topics for a week.

If you want to take part or find out about Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, more details can be found on Eskimimi Makes

Hello! I just wanted to share some of the images I took from the last few days. This 365 project is proving hard during the week as the area I work is so uninspiring! I have noticed that I am becoming much more aware of things though – this was actually one of the reasons I wanted to do the project – small things like flowers, and trees with nice leaves, repetition and colours.

15th January 2012

14th January 2012

13th January 2012

12th January 2012

11th January 2012

The first picture is from yesterday, taken in The Old Duke during a jazz gig. The second is from Saturday and was the result of a lovely afternoon walk in Leigh Woods. The third picture is from a very frosty Friday morning, taken on my way to work. I’m trying to make myself get up earlier so I have time to take photos on the way in, as there are a few interesting stops on the way, and it would make for nicer pictures. The forth picture is from Thursday – it is the building I work in lit up by the sunset – it looks almost attractive! And finally, some trolleys at Sainsburys. I wasn’t feeling too inspired on Wednesday but I’m quite pleased with the result.If you click the photos it will take you to my Flickr, where there is a better description of each.Thanks for looking!

2012 is the year of knitting patterns, I have decided.

So to start things off on the right foot, there are two new patterns now available.
The hat is a simple childs beanie that can easily be knocked together in a free afternoon, using just knit and purl stitch in the round with decreases.  The cowl will take a little longer, around 7-10 hours for an experienced knitter, and the lace pattern is good fun to knit.  If you like it, check out the matching hat and fingerless mittens!

Nordic Lace Cowl

Elana's Corkscrew Beanie

Please see the knitting patterns link at the top of the page for more patterns, including a couple of free ones!