Cosy Autumn Knits

With the start of autumn and the girls back in pre-school and school after a busy summer holiday, I’ve been able to get back into some knitting again.   Crochet seemed to be our family craft of choice this summer – I’ve been spending lots of time on Instagram with the lovely ladies taking part in the Homely Blanket Quest crochet along.

Check out my friend Heike’s fabulous blog www.madewithloops.co.uk for details – its not too late to join in!   I’m still very behind on my squares but I’m hoping to do a spot of crochet on a Monday evening – I might just have found a sneaky window of opportunity whilst listening to my daughter having her piano lesson!  I’ve just noticed that I’ve been drawn to using lots of blues and pinks  – maybe I’ll have to introduce some more bright and cheery colours now that the nights are drawing in.  What do you think?

Autumn and Winter Knits are now firmly on the agenda and I’ve loved looking at lots of new designs and scrummy yarns for the new season.  So much choice, so hard to choose!  Have you got any favourites?

I’ve also been working on a little design challenge that Rowan set their ambassadors recently.   The brief was to design an item using just one skein of the new Rowan Amore or Rowan Amore Shimmer.  More about this in another post 🙂

This month I’ve finished off my pair of Elton Fingerless Mittens that I started whilst on holiday in Dorset.  You can never have too many pairs of fingerless mittens – or is it just me that really feels the cold!?

You can find the pattern in the new Rowan Warm & Toasty Collection which is full of really fab accessories including snoods, capelets, scarves and hats that are easy to knit and use the gorgeous Chunky Alpaca and Tumble yarns, which are super quick to knit up.  The Elton Fingerless Mittens can be knitted using just one skein of chunky alpaca or a similar weight yarn.

I’ve also finished the Gala Loop Scarf  also from the Rowan Warm & Toasty Collection, using Rowan Tumble in Amethyst.  The pattern calls for two skeins of Tumble, but I think a just as lovely scarf could be knitted using just one skein as I have a lot of Tumble left over.  Its a super warm and cosy yarn made of 90% alpaca and 10% cotton – this scarf will be great for the cold weather.

My order of Rowan Cocoon arrived this week – I’ve just started knitting Derwent from the Rowan Autumn Knits collection, which is a lovely raglan and cable slouchy top designed by Marie Wallin.

And some Rowan Wool Cotton – I just love this colour ‘flower’ – I have plans to knit something for my little girl with this.

What’s on your knitting needles or crochet hook this autumn?  I would love to hear from you xx

Make-a-Monster Competition Results

We were THRILLED to discover that my daughter won runner up in the fabulous Monster Yarns Make a Monster Competition for her Ianto the Yetti! Thanks Monster Yarns – it was GREAT fun 🙂 Check it out:

Monster Yarns

It seems such a short time ago that the Make-a-Monster Competition was launched and yet the time has come to announce the results. A very big and genuine Thank You for all your efforts, sharing with me your wonderful creations and even getting your children to get Monstering! The competition has put many a smile on faces so I consider it a roaring success.

The judges were a hand-picked group of ladies of varying ages and crafting skills and two children in the young teens. Monster Yarns had no input except for arranging the photos in the appropriate categories and providing some rather delicious (if I may say so) cakes and lashings of tea. The judges’ decision was not always unanimous and sometimes led to heated technical debate which was only resolved after further liberal application of cake and tea. However the moment you’ve been waiting for…I shall announce the…

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