Blanket games

Meow humans, it's Flo here today. Do you want to know a secret? Well Mum thinks that I have taken a dislike to her latest blanket! But I'm just having a little bit of fun, lulling her into a false sense of security and then, when the moment is right, I shall take rightful possession of the Harmony blanket! I've done everything possible to convince her that I don't like it, not one little bit! Usually, when there's anything woolly around, I'm first on it and in my book, possession means everything! But I've been playing it very cool around this blanket so far. 

One strip wide - not even worth a sniff!

Two strips done - nope! Not interested!

Three strips joined - boring! Zzzzzzzzzzz!

Four strips - that's more like it but I'm playing it cool!

Five strips - looking more like a blankie but I must resist the temptation to try it out! Tee hee!

Six strips finished - I'm going to look out of the window to pretend I'm not interested!

I've even taken yarn out of the project bag and had a play with it, chewing the end to make it all fluffy! Mum was not best pleased when she saw that and had to cut the yarn!  Ooops!

I also looked at the pattern to see what colour yarn she needed next and hid that ball behind the sofa! A stroke of genius if I do say so myself! 

Of course, when Mum's not been looking, I've tested it out for squishiness and snuggability and it gets a definite paws up from me!

She's joining strip seven on now so I shall have to feign disinterest when it's laid out on the floor for a photo. It is getting so hard to resist setting paws on it. But as soon as it's finished, I shall be plonking myself squarely in the middle! Just you wait and see. Meow meow meow! xx

Stylecraft Blogtour and Frosted Blooms

Hello there! Come right on in and make yourself at home. I'm super-excited to be taking part in Stylecraft Yarn's Blogtour again this year. Yesterday you will have visited Polly Plum at Every Trick on the Hook and tomorrow's host is Emma Varnam.  The yarn that is being showcased is the new Bellissima range alongside its baby sister, Bambino, which was released earlier this year. As soon as the Blogstars were introduced to Bambino, we all fell in love with it - soft and springy with great stitch definition and a rounded merino feel. We wanted more colours and lo and behold, next time we got together in July, we met the gorgeous rich shades of Bellissima. The yarn is absolutely delightful both to knit and crochet with, and I really hope that there will be even more colours introduced very soon. I chose the 'Summer Pudding' yarn pack to design with as I love purples and blues.

As the Blogtour coincides with the start of Autumn and cooler days, I decided to knit an infinity scarf and cowl using the yarn. There's nothing nicer than being all cosy and warm, snuggled into some knitted accessories, when there's a nip in the air. And dare I say it, the patterns are both pretty quick to knit and would make perfect Christmas gifts for family and friends. So let me introduce you to Frosted Blooms. You can choose to knit an infinity scarf or a smaller cowl, or both! I made them out of one yarn pack and still had almost three quarters of each of the colours left, but a lot less of the cream. So if you don't mind which colour is the main one in the infinity scarf, you can make several variations!

Frosted Blooms Infinity Scarf

Copyright - Stylecraft Yarns

Copyright - Stylecraft Yarns

Frosted Blooms Cowl

Copyright - Stylecraft Yarns

Both the infinity scarf and the cowl are knit flat and then joined once all the kniting is done. They feature snuggly garter stitch along with a pretty floral star motif - it looks complicated but it isn't! This was one of the stitches that I learnt when I took a shawl class with the amazing Melanie Berg and I have been wanting to include it in a design for some time. 

You can download the patterns free from Ravelry for the duration of the Blogtour so make sure you get your copy now! The link to the pattern is here.

Thank you too to my lovely friend Julia who I persuaded to model for me. She looks fabulous and her little dog Benny couldn't miss out on the action either!

If you'd like to be in with a chance of winning your own 'Summer Pudding' yarn pack, then Stylecraft are having a giveaway and you can enter here. The giveaway closes at 10am (BST) on October 5th. Good luck - may the yarn gods and goddesses be with you! xxx

Stylecraft Blogtour 2018

Today sees the launch of this year's Blogtour, organised by Stylecraft Yarns. Every day, for the next 17 days, there will be a pattern showcasing one of Stylecraft's new yarns, Bellissima, and the chance to win a yarn pack so you can try it out too.

When the Blogstars were first shown Bambino, the baby version of Bellissima, way back at the start of 2018, we pounced upon it, fell in love with it and wanted more colours! So the lovely people at Stylecraft did just that; they came up with Bellissima, the grown up version of Bambino, in 14 great shades. The yarn is completely interchangeable with Bambino, which comes in 8 softer colours. The DK yarn is 100% acrylic, very soft and knits up with great stitch definition. It reminds me of knitting with a cashmerino type yarn. Take a look at the colours. I've been making myself some yarn pegs as I want to use the yarn in a new project. 

Bellissima

Bambino

All 22 beautiful colours of Bellissima and Bambino

Stylecraft put together two yarn packs and invited the Blogstars to choose one to use for their Blogtour design. Summer Pudding uses three yarns from Bellissima and two from Bambino.

Autumn Leaves features five yarns from the Bellissima range.

I wonder if you can guess which yarn pack I chose?!

Visit a different Blogstar's blog each day to see what they've designed and enter the giveaway to win a yarn pack. Here's the list of blogs:

September 29th - Crystals and Crochet

September 30th - Crochet Between Worlds

October 1st - Cherry Heart

October 2nd - Lucia's Fig Tree

October 3rd - Every Trick on the Hook

October 4th - The Woolly Adventures of a Knitting Kitty (me!)

October 5th - Emma Varnam

October 6th - The Twisted Yarn

October 7th - Catherine's Crochet Corner

October 8th - Hand Knitted Things

October 9th - Annaboo's House

October 10th - Crafternoon Treats

October 11th - The Patchwork Heart

October 12th - Get Knotted Yarn Craft

October 13th - Zooty Owl

October 14th - Stylecraft

October 15th - Jane Crowfoot

You can read more about the Blogtour on Stylecraft's blog here. Hope you are able to join in all the fun! xxx

Playing hooky and other nice things

I'm making great progress on my Attic24 Harmony blanket. The second strip is now complete and joined to strip one. I tried a different approach with the ends this time and sewed them in as I completed a round. I found this more motivating so I wasn't left with all the ends when I'd finished a square so I'll be adopting this method for the rest of my squares. 

Flo wasn't impressed with strip 1 - not wide enough to be a blankie yet!

But she is testing out the squishability of the blanket at regular intervals!

Still unimpressed by two strips! That cat is hard to please sometimes!

As well as working on this blanket, I've cast on a pair of socks in West Yorkshire Spinners yarn; it's their Marie Curie colourway and I'm hoping to knit a couple of pairs for an Instagram friend who is a doctor at a Marie Curie hospice. Last year she managed to get enough socks so that every single patient in a Marie Curie hospice received a pair of socks for Christmas. What an amazing lady. 

I've had a couple of Happy Post days over the past fortnight too. My fellow Blogstar and friend Heather, aka The Patchwork Heart, very kindly sent me one of her gorgeous hot water bottles to snuggle with. I love it and it's already been put to use as we've had a couple of rather chilly days recently. If you'd like one of your own, Heather often has them for sale in her Etsy shop. 

I also received a lovely parcel from an Instagram friend, Busy Pottering, who also has an Etsy shop selling her project bags. She sent me the most perfect black cat bag to bring me luck during my hospital visits as well as some stitch markers which she chose especially for me. I love the extra detail of the bell sewn on the bag. I will jingle my way around hospital!  I feel very spoiled to have such kind friends. 

The next two or three weeks are full of hospital appointments and then I should know more about what's going on. I have been so impressed by our wonderful NHS and all the doctors and nurses I've met so far. They have all been so nice and caring, and I can't say enough good things about them. 

Don't forget that there is still time to enter my giveaway to win a ball of Stylecraft Head over Heels All Stars yarn in my colourway, Woldgate, along with my new pattern Tiptoe. You can find the details here. Have a good week. xxx