A new fo and wip

OK so I have been bad and not blogged for a week. In my defense I have been fairly busy with Uni and life in general, and the needles have been pretty busy too LOL

First a finished object - my shaker cushion cover. I finished this in 24 hours, my first time with bobbles and it was fine. The only problems I had were that I messed up the top centre bobble and threw the pattern out by one stitch and that after I finished it I realised I'd done a 14 inch cushion cover and had an 18 inch cushion!!!!! Typical of me really LOL

I made it from the same yarn I'm using on my bedspread so I will get a 14 inch cushion before I finish the bedspread (my very looong term project LOL).

My second new project is a bag - have you figured out I love bags yet? Its a nice knit, pretty simple but not so simple that I don't have to remind myself which row in the pattern I'm on before I start the next row. The bamboo gives it a luxurious feel and I'm seriously considering adding some beads to it later. I'm also doing a different handle to it, the original pattern made it a hand held bag and I like to throw a bag over my shoulder so I'm going to make a long strap for it instead.

The bag and the shaker cushion are both from my recent acquisition of lets knit magazines - can you tell I'm loving them? :-D

Other updates:

• The sweater jacket is slowly getting sewn together, both shoulder seams and one top sleeve seam so far - well I did say I hated sewing...
• I have just sent in my last assignment to my tutor - yay, just one computer marked multiple choice assignment to go on that course and an exam on the other and then I'm finished with Uni til September.
• I have run out of my home made washing powder so I really HAVE to make some soap very soon...

Doubling yarn

After doubling my cotton chenille for Finlay's bunny blankie I thought it might be a good idea to make a small reference for doubled up yarn equivalents I might use so here is my very basic table:

2 strands of	equals (approx)
4 ply (Fingering)	DK
DK	Aran
Aran	Chunky

A proper explanation of how this works is here

Knit Today back issues

Today I became the proud owner of nearly all issues of knit today (issues 4 and 22 excluded) along with a bunch of supplements. Big thanks go out to scruftydog from Ravelry who offered them for the price of postage.

I would link to the knit today site but it's been down (under construction) for a long time now so there doesn't seem any point. As far as I can tell the back issues are impossible to get so it's a double YAY for me :-)

I gave Eloise her bunny blankie yesterday and I've never seen a 5 year old so happy to receive a baby toy LOL. I do love making things for people who appreciate them :-D

Second bunny blankie

I gave the blankie to Finlay the other day and of course big sister Eloise (going through the jealousy stage) wants one too so here it is LOL.

Can you see where I missed two rows on the left ear? I'm pretty sure she won't notice ;-)

Updates

The chunky sweater jacket just needs to be sewn up now and I have cast on an a-line cardi for Cerys (my friends 21 month old daughter) with the yarn and colour Cerys herself picked. I did the design in knitware, its an a-line cardi with 3/4 length sleeves and one button at the top. This should make it suitable as a summer cover up when we have those chilly summer days that England is famous for LOL.

If the pattern works out OK I will post it here

Bunny blankie

Didn't even have time to add this as a wip as I cast on and finished in one night...

A very quick and relatively easy knit - the most difficult bit for me was embroidering the face LOL. This was my first attempt at double knitting (face), short row shaping (ears) and diagonal knitting (blankie). I think it was pretty good for a first attempt and I'm sure the baby will love it when he is a little older

My Ravelry notes:

Doubled up with my chenille d.k. and it worked great.

Next time I will use a little more stuffing in the head, do the face before I stuff the head and get the nose the right way round LOL.