knitting chicken

As promised here is the link to the free knitting pattern that I used for my scarf - it's a fantastic website with hundreds of free patterns, you have to have an account to access the patterns but they don't charge you any money and they don't fill your inbox with junk - so well worth it!

http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/81054AD.html?noImages=

I was however, a bit of a chicken with this pattern...

I had never knit a cable before, and it seemed a bit simple to be true so I wasn't up for spending quite so much on the wool as suggested.

For my variation of this scarf I used:
* 2.5 100g balls of a chunky weight fluffy wool that I bought at a charity store

I knit the pattern as directed with size 10mm needles and 2 strands held together (I don't want to scare anyone but the pattern was wanting 8 strands held together and there was just no WAY i was carrying 8 balls of wool + unfinished scarf on the bus to work every day!) I had a few problems with the instructions for the cable because it has the instruction the opposite way round from the pattern - just watch out!

this scarf knitted up VERY quickly - or rather it would have done if i hadn't hidden it in the cupboard for about 2 months.

Good luck to anyone who is going to try it out - i cant wait to get started on my next project which is a big floppy hat!

New post? First post!!!

generally speaking i am very bad at this... I always keep a detailed diary up until about January 12Th, I have about 3 weeks of the year when i remember to write to people and I flit about from one project to another at breakneck speed. So this is sort of a new-years resolution. I will write things here. I will post lovely photographs and talk about things and post completed craft projects (that's another new years resolution - actually finish things...). I have finished my first project for this year. I think I started it around September last year. You should not imagine that this reflects the difficulty involved or indeed the volume of work - its just that i wasn't sure who i was making it for and then i got put off finishing it and then i got distracted by something else, and then there were Christmas presents to make and it got forgotten about. anyway - now i have a new project that i want to get started on and I needed the needles back! So here are my first photos for 2010 - new year's weekend snaps from the North Irish coast (it's God's own country to me!) and my newly finished object!

here is my lovely other half modeling my first ever cable knit scarf. i found a free pattern online and thought i would have a go but it was going to end up too expensive for me so i modified some of the pattern. I'll post a link to the pattern and also the changes that i made at some point shortly. He's a little shy!


and here are a few of the pictures i took this weekend! Ireland is gorgeous!