Wrapped in a cloud...

Having recently knitted with a dk yarn that was more like 4ply, I have just gone to the opposite extreme and knitted with a dk yarn that was more like Aran.  This was the Peter Pan Cupcake yarn that was kindly donated to me by Loving Hands.  

It is listed on Ravelry as a dk yarn. But, very tellingly, it does not say that on the wrapper.  However, it does recommend needle sizes 3.5-4.5mm which would imply that it is a dk yarn. Believe me, it isn't.  So, for any project that has to actually fit, a swatch would be essential.

But I had already decided to knit a preemie blanket, so fit wasn't important.  I had 100g of white Cupcake which was enough for a 15" square.  This will eventually be going off to PreemiesUK.  Normally, a yarn this thick would be unsuitable for a newborn baby of any size. But this is so beautifully soft that it will be like wrapping a baby in a cloud.

I still have a lot of the Cupcake in other colours. Ravelry has some pattern suggestions for this yarn.  Many people seem to have made blankets and toys with it. A few brave crafters have knitted cardigans and hats.  I will probably err on the side of caution/cowardice!

I don't like to say it....

.....but I told you so.  Summer is still shining down on us in my part of the UK and the forecast for next week looks just as good with temperatures close to 30 C.  That will do nicely, thank you.  Some years, I don't reach September without turning on the heating.  This year, I am aiming for October.

I pressed on with the scarf that I have been crocheting with this very thin dk yarn.  I used just over 100g and stopped at 5" wide because it will eventually be going off to Operation Orphan for their Keep A Child Warm campaign.  The acrylic and wool mix is perfect for a strong but warm and soft scarf.  

The very long colour changes look great in this type of scarf that is crocheted sideways.  I used one of my favourite crochet scarf patterns.  I usually use a size 4.5 or 5mm hook.  But the yarn was so thin that I had to use a size 4mm hook instead. That is one reason this scarf took so long to make.  The other reasons might have had something to do with making the most of our SUMMER while it lasts.

Oh no, it isn't.....a bit of a rant.

Start of rant****

Since when did September 1st become the first day of autumn?  Maybe it was about the same time we dumbed down and started talking about "going to uni".  In my day(!), every school child knew that autumn started on September 21st and people could actually be bothered to say all five syllables of "university".  

This morning, I heard a chirpy weather forecaster say that we use September 1st as the first day of autumn because it is easier to remember.  Never mind that we might have several weeks of good weather left.  Using that logic, Christmas Day will be on December 1st this year.  End of rant****

But just to show that I can move with the times, here is what I am working on at the moment.  When I bought this King Cole Country Tweed at an outdoor market, the sun was blazing and it looked like pink and grey.  At home, I realised it was more like autumnal rust and brown. My original plan for a baby item had to change to a scarf.  It is beautifully soft.  But there is no way on earth that this is a double knit yarn.  It feels like 4 ply and takes forever to crochet with.  

I have made this scarf many times and know that I would be finished by now if this was a real double knit yarn.  The stallholder told me the yarn had been discontinued. I can see why.  It is perfect for a soft scarf.  I have checked on Ravelry and many projects made with this yarn tend to be scarves and shawls.  But there are also some cardigans and jumpers.  I can only assume that the knitters/crocheters avoided sizing disasters by making a tension square first.

So, if a double knit yarn feels more like 4 ply, then it probably is.  Likewise, if it feels like summer and looks like summer, it is still summer!

Decisions, decisions...

Do not adjust your brightness control.  This pink really is this shocking.  In fact, it is probably even brighter than it looks here.  I bought it very cheaply at a local boot fair. It weighs just under 300g and seems to be a 4 ply acrylic.  

I like rescuing unloved yarn.  It's only later that I think about what to do with it.  I rarely knit with 4 ply yarn and, when I do, it is usually something delicate for a baby. This is too bright for that.  So, I could combine it with another yarn for a speckled effect.  Or I could knit with two strands to make it roughly equal to a double knit yarn.

I have no works in progress at the moment.  I think I will use this pink shocker next. This afternoon, I watched a version of "Jane Eyre" that I hadn't seen before.  Probably because there are already so many versions of this story, the director spiced it up a little by using flashbacks which don't appear in the original novel.  My eyes were, therefore, fully occupied.  But my hands whiled away a couple of hours by rolling this yarn into smaller balls.  

Now I am ready, just as soon as I decide what to do with it.  Any suggestions would be very welcome!

A finished blanket....

I'm glad to say that the baby blanket I started 7 weeks ago is now finished.  It has served its purpose by keeping me company through some rather trying weeks as I recovered from one eye operation and prepare for the second one next week. 

I had a very thorough check-up on the operated eye recently and the hospital staff are really impressed at how well I can see.  I can read the bottom line on the eye chart which I have never been able to do before.  I'm happy and amazed by that.  The close-up vision for reading etc is also getting better, though I might eventually need glasses for very fine work.  But that is ok and I am actually looking forward to being able to go back to my optician and surprise her with my new prescription.

The blanket pattern is here on Ravelry.  For my version, I cast on 172 stitches on 5mm knitting needles.  Just 270g of dk yarn gave me a blanket measuring 30" x 33". The pattern was easy to remember.  Every fourth row involved yarn overs and careful counting and I'm pleased to say that I managed not to make any mistakes.

This blanket will go to a family baby at some time in the future. The 5mm needles have given it a lovely soft drape.  The Robin acrylic yarn that I used means that it will wash well and put up with a lot of use over the years.  I have more lovely baby yarn and will definitely make more of these.

Though my blogging has slowed down in relation to my knitting output, I am still enjoying reading all my favourite blogs.  Happy October to everybody and thank you for all the good wishes you have been sending me.  They really helped to cheer me up.

The last 50g...

I recently knitted some preemie items and had just 50g of white 4ply yarn left.  My 4ply mojo returned and I paired it with 50g of cream 4ply to knit these two hats. Combining the two colours produced a lovely shade of pale banana.  The white was a baby yarn and the cream was ordinary yarn.  Together they made a texture just right for a toddler.

I followed the easy Be Loving pattern which is really for Aran weight yarn, but 4ply doubled works just as well.  The pattern comes in many sizes from toddler to adult and I can definitely recommend it as well written, simple and quick.  I managed to make two toddler size hats with just a tiny amount of yarn left.  I think there might be enough to make bootees or pompoms.  Nothing is ever wasted here!

NB: there is a reason why my posts are a bit on the short side this month.  All will be revealed in a couple of weeks time!

The little and large preemie tops...

After crocheting five Aran wool scarves, I have gone from one extreme to the other and turned my hands to knitting with 4 ply acrylic.  I had 4 complete balls of white/cream and a few oddments.  This is exactly the yarn requested by hospitals as it is suitable for small preemie babies and is easy to wash.

The pattern for the sleepsack came from the Cuddles website.  I altered the pattern slightly.  As written, it does not produce the garter ridge across the chest.  I corrected that by knitting what should have been a purl row.  I then ran out of  yarn just before the end.  I had a remnant of cream that was more banana in tone.  The difference is only obvious in a really good light, so I didn't actually realise when I started knitting that I had 2 shades of cream.  There was a timely flash of sunlight just before I joined the new yarn.  I added another garter ridge and it looks absolutely fine.

I can't remember where the other pattern came from, but it was lovely to knit as it is a seamless top-down pattern.  The only sewing was to sew in the ends and attach a button.  I chose a lovely pearly button from my recycled collection.  I also had the same buttons in the perfect shade of cream for the sleepsack.  I have been saving these buttons for years and can no longer remember where they came from.  But I am glad I saved them.

I don't know why I am surprised at the huge size difference in these two items.  Preemie babies come in all sizes, so they will fit someone.

These items were a great way to use up what looked like quite a small amount of yarn.  The sleepsack used 30g or yarn and the sleeveless cardigan used 36g.  These will eventually go off to PreemiesUK for distribution to hospitals in the UK.

Now, what to do with the 4 complete balls of 4 ply........watch this space!

A hat sextet....

Apparently, the collective noun for a group of hats is a "millinery". But I think my version suits this collection better and is guaranteed to increase the visits to my blog! 

I had some Aran yarn to use up and I chose the Be Loving pattern by Melissa Simpson.  It was extremely easy to knit and I had memorised it by the second hat.  So I experimented with different stripe patterns to keep myself awake!

I never cease to be amazed at how far a ball of yarn goes.  The smallest hat is toddler size and used only 37g of Aran yarn.  The others are child size (41g) and teenage size (53g).

Most of the yarn was left over from previous projects.  The red yarn came to me as a donation.  Someone had wound balls of Aran yarn together to make a bulky weight yarn.  I decided to unwind them and use them as nature intended.  That was easier said than done, but it was worth the effort as it added some much needed brightness.

These will be going off very soon to Operation Orphan.  A few scrappy remnants of yarn will keep 6 children warm.  Good result!

The weather here is glorious this week, so I have declared the Aran knitting season to be over.  I am now going to concentrate on small and pretty 4 ply items.  Watch this space...

A new jumper...and a disaster averted

I had some lovely cream Aran yarn, quite a lot of green and cream 4 ply yarn and lots and lots of wooden buttons all needing a good project.  I settled on the Child's Top-Down Henley pattern which I found on Ravelry.  The pattern calls for the Aran yarn and the 4 ply yarn to be knitted together, so it makes a very thick and warm jumper. Bulky seams are avoided because this is basically knitted in one clever, seamless piece.

I had to juggle with my colours a little to make sure that I didn't run out of the 4 ply yarn.  The sleeves are the same length even though the photo makes one of them look shorter!  So I enjoyed carefully counting rows and switching colours until I eventually produced a wearable striped jumper.

The real disaster was averted much earlier in the knitting process.  As this is a top-down pattern, I started at the neckline and increased stitches regularly until there were 168 stitches on my long circular knitting needle.  I then knitted 2 more rows and was finally ready to divide the stitches for the sleeves and body. At the end of the second row I pulled my needle with a celebratory flourish and.....horror of horrors.....the needle tip separated from its cable.  The tip flew out of one end of the row and the cable whizzed back through at least 70 stitches.  Argggh!!  

Luckily, I am not a swearer.  Otherwise the air might have turned blue.  Instead I surprised myself by staying calm as I worked my way back through the dropped stitches until I had picked them all up.  This was made difficult by the fact that each stitch consisted of the 2 yarns held together and by the fact that my cat seemed to sense a problem and was trying to make it better by nose-butting me!

I considered myself lucky that the disaster had happened on ordinary stocking stitch. If it had happened on lace, I would have had to rip back the whole thing.  Eventually I managed to save the situation in 30 minutes and I learned a vital lesson.  Don't expect a cable to hold 168 stitches when it can really hold only 100.  The irony is that I have a longer cable and could have used that.  In future, I will.

The Aran yarn and the wooden buttons were donated to me by Joanne of the Cup On The Bus blog.  The 4 ply yarn came also as donations or in cheap bargain lots.  The jumper will go off soon to Operation Orphan.  It should fit a four year old child and will hopefully be strong enough to be passed down through a whole family.  It was that thought that kept me going when it was really tempting to have a knitter's meltdown!

A Cuddles crochet blanket....

I am still on a mission to use up my 4 ply yarn after deciding it is perfect for preemie baby items.  This week I sorted out the white yarn.  I have a few small oddments that will probably become hats.  I also have 3 or 4 larger balls that will have to be used for different projects as they are either different shades of white or different textures.  

I found the pattern for this preemie blanket on the Cuddles website here.  It is the pattern imaginatively called "Crocheted baby blanket".  It is very easy as every row is the same.....my type of pattern!! It was quick to make as it required very little concentration and could be done with various family distractions going on around me.  

The great thing about tiny blankets is that they give you a chance to try a new stitch before committing to a huge project.  This pattern could be easily adapted for a larger baby blanket.  It is also a great stitch for lap blankets and scarves in any ply with the appropriate size hook.

Note to self:

I used 4 ply yarn and a 3.5mm hook.  73 chains gave me a finished width of 18".  I had approximately 85g of yarn and kept going until it was used up.  That gave me a length of 16".

Preemie hats and an old memory........

Free time is at a premium at the moment and I felt the need to make things that I could finish quickly.  I have also been in denial for too long that I have a large bag of 4 ply yarn.  Most of it has wended its way to me hidden among bargain lots of other more user-friendly yarn.  I have decided to make serious efforts to use it up.  So I sorted out the pastels and knitted some preemie baby hats.  

I always remember an elderly lady who stopped me in the street when I was pushing my daughter in her pram.  She told me her granddaughter had no clothes small enough to fit her premature baby and she wondered if I knew where to buy them.  We were outside a major babywear shop at the time and even their smallest baby clothes were too big.  This elderly lady was quite upset and was prepared to trudge the streets until she had found some tiny baby clothes.  This was in the days before Internet shopping and she had no other realistic option.  I hope she was successful.  

Sadly, I wasn't much help on that occasion; but the memory has stayed etched in my mind.  One ball of yarn and a few hours work can produce preemie hats and clothes more valuable than the sum of the effort and materials that went into them.

In no particular order, here are the patterns I used:

Tiny Knitted Preemie Hat by Bee Rowert

Hat for Premature Babies and Bonnet for Premature Babies from Andycrafts

Three Hats from Cuddles

PS: the bobble hat and scarf that I gave my daughter for Christmas were a great success.  She wore them all day indoors!!

Balaclavas and gauge mattters...

I started by wanting to use up the festive red yarn and already had the perfect balaclava pattern.  There are lots of balaclava patterns available and this is my favourite as it is so easy.  Just 50g of yarn makes the age 3-4 years size.

The red yarn was a bootfair purchase in the summer.  I used every last scrap before reaching the ribbing around the face which is different yarn but such a close match that the difference is not obvious.

I also bought the brown yarn at the same bootfair.  There was less of this and I knew there would not be enough so I added 2 stripes of a tweedy green and brown yarn.  (The blue in the photo should actually be bottle green.)  This yarn came from a convent that was closing down a couple of years ago.  The nuns gave away a huge amount of yarn to  members of Loving Hands.

All the yarn is double knit weight but the brown hat is definitely smaller.  That just shows how important it is to check gauge before knitting if size is crucial.  In this instance, it doesn't matter as these hats will go to a charity and will fit someone!  

This will be my last post for a few days.  I hope everyone has a great week.

Happy Christmas!

Wednesday WIP...

This is what I am knitting at the moment.  It is a top-down jumper for a 3 year old child.  I chose this pattern because it is seamless which I think is important in a thick jumper.  I am actually combining 2 yarns:

• Pure Gold 4 ply yarn in light blue
• Borgs S.N.2 garn in light brown

The light blue yarn was part of a bargain joblot and the light brown yarn was kindly donated to me by Joanne of the Cup On The Bus blog.  I checked the Borgs yarn on Ravelry and discovered that it is 5 ply which I am not used to knitting with.  There is also a very limited range of patterns for 5 ply yarns.  So, by combining it with the light blue, I have been able to select from a wider range of patterns.  

I can't recommend the pattern yet.  I have just finished the raglan increases and have started on the main body.  So far, I have discovered 2 minor errors and 1 major error in the pattern.  This is a free pattern that has been translated into English from another language.  It is very good of the author to give away her pattern on Ravelry and she must be unaware of the errors.  For example, according to the pattern, if I have 220 stitches and place 48 x 2 onto holders for the sleeves I should be left with 200 stitches for the main body.  I don't think so!!!  I am actually left with 124 stitches and these seem to be enough for a roomy jumper.

I took a look at the French and Spanish versions of the pattern and can see that the sentence that is incorrect in the English version does not appear in those versions. So I have left a comment about the major error on the pattern page.  If it is corrected by the time I finish the jumper, I will definitely recommend it.  Meanwhile, the fact that only 9 knitters have completed this pattern is probably explained by the errors.  That is a pity as it is otherwise a simple pattern.

All beiged out.......

This is what I knitted with the Debbie Bliss 4 ply wool that Hubby gave me for Christmas.  It's a vest top and I might take a better photo when it has finished drying.  But I was so chuffed to have finally finished it that I whipped out the camera.  It looks a bit flat here, but I suppose it should as it is blocking.  This photo just shows the unusual pattern up the centre and on either side of the neckline.  The neck itself is unusual because it is a long strip of ribbing sewn on.  The edges of the short sleeves were finished the same way.  So, although it was boring to knit acres of stocking stitch, my interest was held by the pattern on the front.  

I am not a lover of beige but this colour will go with a lot of my blouses and I can see myself wearing it a lot.  Hubby and Daughter both like it, which is amazing.  It is not a colour or type of wool that I would have chosen myself, but I can tell that Hubby is pleased that I knitted something with the wool he (or the staff in his office) chose for me.  I have dropped a few hints that the wool is a little thinner than I would have chosen.  But I don't think they registered.  Oh dear!

I can't say how pleased I am that I can now start knitting something else....maybe something smaller, quicker and more colourful.

Just editing this to show the photo of the full top after it dried.  The photo makes it look huge.  It is actually just long enough to cover my hips and wide enough to be loose and comfortable over tops.

Vest progress report....

This is how far I have progressed with my Debbie Bliss vest.  I can't believe that I have used only 200g of yarn to knit the front and part of the back.  4 ply goes a lot further than dk yarn.  I like my jumpers to be long and this is going to be hip length rather than the waist length in the pattern.  Luckily I was given plenty of this yarn at Christmas.  I'm trying to use it up on this vest as I can't think of what else to use it for.

I haven't blocked the front yet, but the pattern up the centre and along the neck edge is visible.  The back is just stocking stitch and should knit up quickly.  Then I have to knit the arm and neck borders.  This will be interesting as the pattern uses a method that is new to me.  Instead of picking up stitches, I have to knit long strips and sew them on.  I could change that if I wanted to.  But I liked this pattern when I found it so I will stick with it.

I have other projects on the go, so I'm not rushing to finish this one.  If it is ready by the time warmer weather arrives I will be happy.

A vest in progress...

The most thoughtful gift I received last Christmas was 10 balls of Debbie Bliss yarn from my husband.  He says he put a lot of research into it....which I suspect just involved asking the ladies in his office.  I was thrilled with the present and Hubby was thrilled that I was thrilled. 

Not wishing to sound ungrateful, I wouldn't have chosen 4 ply or even this colour.  But I found a pattern for a vest top with interesting detail on the front.  It is actually knitting up very pleasantly.  The yarn is 100% wool but it is also machine washable.  It fits in with my 2014 resolution to update/upgrade my knitwear.  It is a splitty yarn which surprised me as I had heard good things about Debbie Bliss.  But the finished feel is smooth and silky.  The pale stone colour goes well with some of my blouses.  The ladies in the office have good taste.

I have set myself a target of knitting one pattern repeat each day.  It will grow reasonably quickly if I manage that and it should be ready if we ever get any spring-like weather.

One problem with the yarn is that it is almost exactly the same colour as my knitting needles.  That causes a bit of eye strain.  I told Hubby that I COULD buy different colour needles but I DON'T USUALLY KNIT WITH 4 PLY.  Hopefully, he might remember that next time he wants to surprise me with wool!

The Lily Pond Blanket.....

One of my 2013 resolutions was to conquer my aversion to sewing up squares.  This is an irrational aversion as I actually enjoy sewing.  I recently joined the SIBOL group on Ravelry and noticed a request for people to help with sewing squares into blankets.  These blankets go to residents of care homes in the UK.  In a mad moment, I volunteered and a few days later a parcel of squares arrived.

The first photo shows the squares in their "before" state.  

The squares were all garter stitch and roughly the same size but a mixture of double knit and bulky yarn.   The sewing method that worked for me was:

• block them into good square shapes.
• edge each square with a row of double crochet (UK).  This was easier said than done. The squares were knitted by different people and had a different number of rows and knitting techniques.  I eventually gave up trying to crochet the same number of stitches on every edge and just went with the flow.  I used King Cole Comfort variegated yarn that contained all the colours in the squares.
• experiment with layouts bearing in mind that I wanted the bulky yarn squares to be evenly spaced.  I then spaced out the bright green squares and then placed the others doing my best not to have too many plain blue squares together.
• choose a joining method.  I settled on invisible whip stitch as the easiest method for joining squares that have different numbers of edge stitches.  
• choose a joining yarn.  The variegated yarn didn't look right so I settled on blue.
• chain stitch along the joins to strengthen them and make them look more pretty.  I found a good tutorial for chain stitch here.  It teaches an unusual but very easy method.
• add a border.  This is where crochet beats knitting hands down.  It is much quicker even for novices like me.  But I could see I was going to ruin all my hard work by rows of wobbly crochet.  I looked online and in books for knitted edgings and eventually made up my own based on a stitch I found in a book.  I'm so happy with it that I will blog about it fully later on and maybe even add it to the Ravelry website. 
• strengthen the border by adding a row of simple crochet chain stitches anchored to the border at regular intervals.  This gave a lovely curvy effect which balanced the straight lines of the blanket. 
• add a water lily motif.
• stand back and admire.

Yes, it was a lot of work.  But I enjoyed it.  Here's the finished blanket.  

All SIBOL blankets are named before wending their way to the care home residents.  I chose "The Lily Pond" as it looked like that to me after I arranged the squares.  Giving them a name brings them to life.  I'm posting this one tomorrow.  I'm glad it's finished. But I will miss it as well.  I've even offered to sew another one and I mulling over other ways to join the squares.  SIBOL always needs people to sew squares into blankets.  If you think you would like to do this or even to crochet or knit a blanket,  take a look at the SIBOL blog.

I'm really pleased with the way my first squares blanket turned out.   Ta dah!!

More baby hats...

I recently went through my bag of wool scraps and used up all the pastel dk yarn.  A few days ago I made a start on the brighter/darker dk yarn scraps.  Some of the wool came in a bargain lot and some was kindly donated to me.  These are the baby hats I managed to knit.

• The rust hat was a great way to use up an oddment of brown and some very dubious beige wool.  I like the way the colours work together.
• The bright yellow in the next hat was from a ball of wool that had been used previously and was all crinkly.  A good soaking in special wool detergent has softened it up beautifully.
• The green hat was the biggest surprise.  I love this shade of moss green and would definitely consider using it again for baby blankets or hats.
• The variegated blue and pink yarn is one of my favourites.  I knitted a hat and scarf for myself and this is all that was left.  It is supposed to be dk weight but I had to add some fine coned yarn to it to make it the same thickness as the pink brim.

Most of these colours might seem strange for a baby.  But these are charity knits and will eventually go to countries that specifically request darker colours.  The charity I will probably send these to is Greenfields Africa.  This organisation gives baby clothes and blankets to pregnant women to encourage them to attend antenatal lessons.

I enjoyed knitting these hats.  There was a little bit of design skill needed when putting colours together and a little bit of maths skill needed when judging yarn weights.

The pattern I used is here.  I love this pattern.  It makes what I think of as a real head shaped hat and the decreases at the crown are very neat.  

My brighter/darker dk wool scraps are now nearly all used up.  But I have coned yarn and 4 ply yarn that is just crying out to be matched together to make more hats........so watch this space!

A quick scarf pour moi....

I knitted a hat with this wool so the obvious next thing to do was to knit a matching scarf.  This wool came as part of a bargain lot and has lost its labels.  It seems to be a type of mohair and I used the wraps-per-inch method to deduce that it is probably a double knitting yarn....though a bit on the thin side.  Clever shawl knitters could have used it as it was to make a lacy shawl.  But I just wanted a chunky warm scarf so I knitted with 2 balls of yarn together.

I only had enough wool for a short scarf but that is fine as I like to just cross them at the neck and tuck them into my jacket.  I love the colour.  It is a mixture of blue with bands of pink and very pale green.....just enough to cheer up a dull winter's day.

I remembered too late that the matching hat was knitted in rib.  If I was being super clever I would have knitted the scarf in rib.  But I didn't and life goes on.  Hey ho.  It's not the end of the world as the hat might get an airing once or twice a year, whereas the scarf will be worn regularly.

Note to self:
2 strands of dk yarn together
Size 5mm knitting needles
Cast on 29 stitches
Knit in garter stitch rows to desired length

Three more kiddy scarves....

it's been too hot to knit, but my fingers were itching to make something.  It's a long time since I did any crochet, so I picked up my favourite hook and produced these three children's scarves.  The pattern works up very quickly and is here.  I think I made all three in less than two weeks..  Knitting them would definitely have taken much longer.

I had quite a lot of 4 ply yarn in dark colours.  They were mainly single balls of each colour and not easy to use up.  So I combined them to make these scarves of roughly dk weight.  It's the first time I have ever crocheted with 2 yarns together, so that was a milestone in my crochet journey.

For the top scarf I used a ball of navy blue yarn  together with lots of oddments to make the stripes.  I'm really pleased with the way it turned out.  When I have enough oddments, I will make another of these scarves.

I started the orange and blue scarf on our hottest day of the year.  It will always remind me of the blazing sun in a cloudless sky.  I almost needed my sunglasses because the orange was so bright.  It's a bit narrower than the other two because I used up all the orange yarn.  I'm hoping there is a child somewhere who likes being "Tangoed".

The third scarf is bottle green and soft pink.  It was the only way I could think of to use up one ball of bottle green 4 ply.  This was surprisingly the most difficult scarf but only because the green yarn was unfit for purpose.  It had a couple of knots and SEVERAL breaks in the yarn.  I could understand that if someone had used it before.  But this was a new ball of wool.  How a manufacturer can produce yarn like that is beyond me.  I know someone who always rewinds new balls of wool before she uses them.  Now I know why.  Luckily, joining broken yarn in the middle of a crochet row is less of a nightmare than in the middle of a knitted row.  If I had been knitting with this yarn, I would definitely have given up and I rarely do that.  Hey ho; all's well that ends well.

These will all be packed off to a children's charity at some stage.  I just haven't decided which one yet.

The weather here is starting to cool down a little and I'm planning some knitting projects.  I think the first one will be slightly less colourful....to give my poor retinas a rest!