Introducing SIBOL.....

Just a quick post today to introduce a lovely organisation called SIBOL which is an abbreviation for Sunshine International Blankets of Love.  It is run by the tireless Sue who is really good at drumming up support from knitters and crocheters.  The completed blankets and shawls are dropped off at care homes in the UK and we have recently started to make some smaller items such as hats, gloves and scarves to give to the residents as C******** gifts.

Sue always lets you know when your items have arrived and also when they have been delivered to the homes.  It is so satisfying to see a blanket that you made actually in situ in its new home.

For people who use Ravelry, there is a friendly SIBOL group here.

Fingerless gloves...

Three nieces are coming to visit next month and I wanted to give them a little gift each.  I thought fingerless mitts might be welcome at this time of year.  I phoned their parents just to make sure and they suggested the colours of the girls' favourite football team.  They don't simply follow this team; they are IN it.  The team strip is dark blue with light blue trimmings including 3 stripes.

I found the following Catchy fingerless mitts pattern which gets good reviews on Ravelry.  I amended the pattern slightly as I wanted only 3 stripes.  I'm really pleased with the way they turned out.  I have knitted simple fingerless gloves before.  But these are the first that I have knitted in the round and with thumbs.  They fit my smallish adult hand snugly and I'm keeping my fingers crossed (pun intended) that they fit the girls' slightly smaller hands.  I want them to be a surprise so I couldn't ask the parents to measure them!

These gloves use a tiny amount of yarn and could be knitted at the rate of one per day.... if I had nothing else to do!  I knitted the first four fairly quickly and then developed the dreaded "second sock" syndrome.  I just couldn't find the impetus to cast on the fifth glove.  Eventually I had to as the stress of thinking about the unfinished project began to outweigh the missing mojo.

I recommend this pattern and will probably knit it again in the future.  But, for now, I am really glad I have finished all six.

A quick peek....

My big crochet blanket has already passed the halfway point.  This is now it looks now.  The photo shows the colours very well.  (Please ignore the creases....it has been folded up.)  I think I was very lucky to find the job lot of teal Aran yarn in a charity shop.  It complements perfectly the cream and beige that was donated to me by Joanne of the Cup On The Bus blog.

I'm being very good about crocheting at least 2 rows of this blanket at the end of each day.  That doesn't sound like much but I have other smaller projects in progress and the calmer life I was looking forward to after a hectic summer has been put on hold by some big DIY projects at home.  

Another week, another hat...

This hat was a bit of a double experiment.  Firstly, I wanted to knit it to the same size as the last hat but I had slightly less yarn.  So I decided to knit the main body of the hat as stocking stitch instead of rib.  It made a huge difference and I had quite a lot of yarn left, whereas I would definitely have run out if I had kept to the original ribbing. 

It still fits my head model easily and looks fine.  It obviously has less yarn, so will possibly be less warm.  But our winters here are rarely Arctic, so it should be perfectly comfortable.

Secondly, I wanted to see what the very neat way of shaping the crown looked like in stocking stitch rather than ribbing.  This shaping is what attracted me to the original pattern, so it was worth trying.  I think it was a success.  The photo is a bit fuzzy.  But the crown of the hat is very easy on the eye and I will definitely use this method of shaping again.  Sadly, I can't go into detail about how the crown is shaped as the pattern was written by someone else and is her copyright.  But I definitely recommend it.

The head model came in useful once again.  It's OK trying on a knitted hat for size.  But it's very difficult to see the top of your own head!

***STOP PRESS***  I've just discovered that this blog is listed in the online version of Yours magazine here so I would like to extend a special welcome to all Yours readers.

The third time lucky doily...

I had a ball of sparkly purple yarn and decided to make s present for my sister.  One of her rooms has a mauve and white theme and she likes to protect surfaces with cloths. I know because she sent me some to hem a few months ago.  She doesn't have a sewing machine or the time to do it herself.  I decided a doily would be perfect even though it would never be a delicate doily as the purple yarn is dk weight.

I made a couple of false starts.  My first effort was a round coaster which turned out well but was, unsurprisingly, coaster sized.  I tried a bigger pattern which gave me lots of practice but turned out very weird.  

I then hit on the idea of sticking with what I know I can make i.e. a granny square made a bit more special by the addition of a frilly edge.  The tutorial I used for the granny square is:

It is very detailed and perfect for beginners.  

I also found an easy pattern for adding a frilly edge to a granny square on the Attic 24 blog here.  There are so many clear photographs in the pattern that it is the next best thing to hand-holding.  I followed the edging pattern but didn't go as far as adding the scallops.  I tried them out and they looked great but I didn't have enough yarn left this time.  

I'm quite pleased with the way this doily turned out for a first effort.  I used all the purple yarn and some oddments of mauve and white yarn.  It doesn't compare to some of the beautiful doilies I see in Blogland.  But at 11" square it will come in useful for something.  It would look even more sparkly with a table lamp sitting on it.  I couldn't crochet until 2 years ago and it is still a complete mystery to my sister.  So I think she will be suitably impressed.