Love a Stripe!

After the dullness of a sock that should not have been dull you would think I would have been bored to tears by a basic sock. I am nothing if not fickle because I love it. As soon as I finished my poor gran's socks I cast on these. These are for my dad for Father's day. I really don't have a lot spare time to get them done but I don't think that will be a problem. I am loving my addition of stripes and as a result they are knitting up quickly even if they are man size. I am easily wooed by a stripe. I am thinking there will be a stripe pinterest post soon.
 

 Some of you know my mum and that she always has something on the pins. Her recent knitted item is this owl for me. I did not look through my mum's magazines and then hold this pattern in front of her until she agreed to knit it. Not at all. I also did not nag her and nag her and nag her. If she says otherwise she is telling porkies. This little pillow is actually meant to be a pyjama case. It knitted up too small for that and so my mum decided to lightly stuff it instead. I think he looks better as a pillow to be honest.

While shopping of yarn for my dad's socks I also picked up this pattern for a crochet throw. Cause I can follow crochet patterns now. Actually I would probably have picked it up anyway. It's just so pretty. I love the twirly stitching. DMC have brought out a range of cotton yarns (known for their cotton threads) and this is one of the patterns that have been brought out with it. I am not a huge fan of the colours but I would just substitute them. The back of the pattern contains a shade chart for the yarns which makes it easier to substitute. I have promised myself that I WILL make this for me.

I also picked up my very first quilting magazine. I bought it for the little hexies. I have saw people on instagram making these little hexies between other projects. I thought it would be a simple one for me to try. It's more complicated than I thought though. Most of the magazine is filled with lots of pretty images but it's all beyond my limited skills. Something for when I have more time to concentrate I think (whenever that will be).

I have also found a handy list tool. I love a list. I love post its. I love my academic diary filled with  lists and post its and I love my crafty filo fax. So of course I am going to love an app that combines the lot. So I have uploaded Evernote. I realise this has been around for a while and I am the last to hear about it. I have never been one to keep up to date with these things but man do I geek out with them when I do catch up. So as you can see from my few notebooks I have a fair mix of crafting, books and nursing. I have no doubt that will expand. There isn't much on there yet but I have been adding snapshots of inspirations from magazines, ideas for my blog and notes on the yarns and socks I am knitting. The downside is that you can't access them if you don't have the internet. So it's fine if I am at uni or at home or at my sisters. Not so fine anywhere else as my phone is rubbish and slow so I don't use the internet on it. This will change when I FINALLY upgrade.

One last thing before I go. This is an update on Callum's mission. He has breached his second target and it's going well. The auction for lots of crafting goodies is tomorrow at 8pm (that's UK time). So please check out For the Love of Yarn to bid for something. All the money is going to Cancer Reasearch UK. There are some crochet hooks that the kids designed on there too. As I mentioned before I am donating socks which I will make once placement is finished. There are loads of other fab things though. Sadly I am on night shift and so won't be able to bid. Gutted as there is a beautiful shawl and some lovely yarn on that list.