My new blog

I have finally taken the plunge and set up my own blog, Nicola Knits.

When the four of us set up Four Friends and a Blog at the beginning of last year, I'm sure we had no idea we'd have so much fun with it. We knew nothing about blogs at the beginning, but soon learned, and our readership has grown satisfyingly and is being maintained at a good level.

However, I've been wondering about its potential for continued success for some months now. First Katherine started up her own blog, and then Heather. All those lovely quilting photos and garden photos are appearing on their blogs, and our communal blog is the poorer for it.

As you know, I tend to post a lot, but now that I have my own blog I'll have to consider how to divide my time between the two. Certainly, any rants that might offend will be confined to my own ;o} And knitting posts will probably now appear on Nicola Knits, which also happens to be my Ravelry ID.

I hope you find the time to come and visit my new blog - but keep reading Four Friends and a Blog too!

Holding hands mittens

Finished at last! I have been letting these languish in the knitting bag, but the deadline was looming so I had to finish them. I have tossed these into the washer this morning and am hoping that a good tumble in the dryer will soften up the acrylic.

Note to self: only knit with yarn I love.

More yum!

I know, I know...Easter is over. But, look what was on sale at the check out of my local health food store.

How could I resist, when they are so cute? A friend from Denman Island brought me some Denman Island chocolate this Summer, and am I ever glad that she did. She introduced me to a whole new chocolate source. :-)

E ate his and then says to me, "That's good chocolate."

"I know!!" says I.

You see how much my kids are learning with this whole homelearning thing? Brilliant, I say.

Floppy Rabbit

I made this Floppy Rabbit today for a friend’s 1 year old twins. I bought the Bernat Soy yarn with the intention of knitting two Tomtens (see photo at the bottom of this post). Well, only one was knitted in time for the children’s birthday, so I decided to make this toy with the three colours I had left. It was inspired by a rabbit that my sister was given as a child - I still remember it - I loved its long legs.

I didn’t start with full skeins, but I expect you could knit this with one skein each of the oatmeal, seasalt and celery. Or just make it all one colour.

I used Keyplate #2 on my Bond Classic knitting machine. I made it up as I went, with no gauge swatches or measuring, so feel free to adapt it as you wish. My toy measures about 27 inches tall. The arms seem just right, being about the length of the body, and the legs are extra long, on purpose.

Body

E-wrap cast on 50 in blue, hang hem
Knit 35 rows blue
Knit 25 rows green
Bind off (I used the 'sewn with a darning needle' method)

Head

E-wrap cast on 40 in white, hang hem
Knit 40 rows white
Bind off

Ears (make 2)
(with hindsight, these could have been bigger, or you could make 4 and sew them together in pairs to stop them from curling in)

E-wrap cast on 4 in white
Knit 2 rows, add weight (I use a bulldog clip with a magnet attached for such a small piece of work)
*Carriage on right, push a needle out to working position on carriage side, knit a row (one stitch increased)
Carriage on left, push a needle out to working position on carriage side, knit a row (6 stitches)
Knit 2 rows
Repeat last four rows (from *) until there are 14 sts, ending with the two even rows.
Knit 14 rows straight.
**Carriage on right, transfer the stitch on the right end to the needle on the left, knit a row (one stitch decreased)
Carriage on left, transfer the stitch at the far left to the needle on the right, knit a row (12 stitches left)
Knit 2 rows
Repeat last four rows (from **) until there are 4 sts left.
Bind off.

Arms (make 2)

E-wrap cast on 20 in white, hang hem
Knit 10 rows white (for “paws”)
Knit 40 rows green
Bind off

Legs (make 2)

E-wrap cast on 30 in blue, hang hem
Knit 90 rows blue
Knit 7 rows white (for “shoes”)
Bind off

Sew around all pieces, stuffing gently as you go. I made sure my seams were on the centre back of the head and body and the underside of the limbs. When sewing up the head and body, I rounded the corners a little. Sew the head and limbs to the body, and the ears to the head. Embroider features.

The completed Tomten jacket ------------->

Warm up already!!

Yesterday I was out fiddling about in the garden. I planted more peas and wandered about looking for some sign of sprouting action in my veggie garden beds. Am I just getting more impatient every year or is it actually a colder, slower-to-sprout Spring than normal? Next year I am doing a cold frame for sure. I want to be eating my own lettuce and spinach already.I did come across this little bloom on some of my rock cress. It was tucked in near a rock on a small stone wall that we have.

Seems like I just can't shut up today!

Third post today!

First, I'm going to whine about my day, hobbling around like an old lady. I woke up at about 4.30 this morning with a pain in my back, and whatever position I tried to lie in, it hurt. I have had to miss Taekwon-do tonight and have been moving slowly all day, occasionally wincing at the recurring pain. I assume I strained something while trampolining with the boys on Tuesday - and for some reason it took until Thursday to make itself known!

Hopefully, it will be better soon.


I cleaned out the small freezer above the fridge yesterday - THAT job was way overdue. Once I'd emptied it and given it a good scrub, I only put back the stuff I really wanted to keep. Some old tomato soup went into the compost bucket along with some 5 year old habanero peppers and some commercial sweetcorn which we never eat. I put three bags (about 9lbs) of homegrown prune plums into a large bowl to defrost, and this morning I made them into two plum crumbles. Good breakfast food!


And I am delighted to announce that my Sunrise Circle Jacket is 100% finished - not just the knitting, but the buttons too. I found some lovely glass buttons at my LYS the other day and I can now wear the jacket. Yippee!

Cute kids

Aren't these such cute faces? Of course, I am totally biased - they are me and my husband as babies! I scanned these old black and white photos in last night....and I'm glad I did, because if the photos ever get damaged, I'll have them on my computer.

Now I'm challenging my blog partners to show us photos of them and their dear husbands as babies or children.