Giveaway!

Hello!

I've been dyeing more yarn and it's gone in the shop.

Here's a mosaic.

In celebration of the shop launch, I'm having a giveaway.

This is one of my favourite from this batch ~ Raspberry Ripple.

To have a chance of winning this, leave me a comment, if you'd like to be a follower that would be great too! The winner will be the first drawn out of the hat on the 3rd April.

Today I've been taking advantage of the spring sunshine and had a potter and weed in the garden. I love this time of year ~ finding shoots of things that had been forgotten.

One of our cherry trees has come into flower ~ later than some in the valleys around here ~ being 'up on the top' really does put us back a few weeks.

Only a short post today ~ I need to go and soak in the bath to get rid of my aches and pains.

Have a lovely week and don't forget to enter the giveaway!

Bye for now.....................Clicky Needles.

P.S. I've now amended the date, shows how tired I was from the gardening last night! In case anybody is wondering who the cryptic message was from it was my Mum!!!!!

We Have Lift Off!!!!!

Hi There.

I am VERY pleased to announce that ClickyNeedles.com is up and running.

Pop over and have a look ~ I hope you like it.

Now I know I said in my last post that I would FINISH my Autumn Cardi BEFORE I started any thing else but I've caved in and cast on that Cotton Bolero.

I just couldn't resist ~ maybe it's all the lovely sunshine we've been having over the weekend.

The garden is coming into bloom.

Primroses.....

........double primulas (these are a family plant, my Mum and Dad have this one too)....

miniature daffodils....

hellebores (I've got loads of them)......

and in the 'pond'...

...tadpoles.

It isn't really a pond, just an old tin bath in a hole! the birds use it as a bath and we have lots of frogs in it too.

All of this sunshine and springness has had Mr CK and me washing the cars. You could be forgiven for thinking the colour of the family car is 'mud' rather than black but I can now confirm that after much washing and polishing it is now sparkling.

Let's hope the sunshine keeps up this week ~ although it is showing up my dirty windows ~ never mind I'm sure I can find something much more interesting to do.........

Have a great week............Clicky Needles.

A Basket of Yarny Goodness.

Hello all!

Here we are, a preview for you!

All my yarn ready to go onto the website. I'm having some problems with the 'add postage' element, which is really frustrating for me, but hopefully I'll get it sorted soon.

I'm feeling a bit frazzled this week with work and home but I have managed a bit of the Autumn Cardi knit. Yes, I have decided that it is a cardi, I've done the fronts and back and still have 5 balls left so the sleeves are on the go. I hope to get it finished soon because I got some cotton for the pattern I showed the other day. I couldn't decide which was the best out of this 100% cotton in lime green .......

.......or this blue so I got them both.

The Sirdar Simply Recycled is made from 51% waste from T-shirt production and 49% acrylic. It feels lurvely and soft. A big incentive there to get the Autumn Cardi finished then. I've been REALLY good lately, not letting myself cast on for new things before finishing the current On The Needles Project.

Today has been a bit mad, our friends B and S dropped by on their way back to London from Wales, well they were passing, and a quick cup of tea turned into lunch. It was so lovely to see them and have our usual giggle.

Ah well, must sign off now.

As always have a super week............Clicky Needles.

Blimey!

Well everyone, just a very quick interim post.

JosieKitten has had a count and 'fessed up.

She has 100 pairs of socks to make.

Oh gosh.

Do you feel better Louise?

I wonder if M can come near?

Sunday again!

Hello all.

Hope you've had a good week and got some of the sunshine that's been around.

Time for me seems to have whipped by ~ where does it all go?

Mr Clicky Needles picked up some more undyed yarn for me and this weekend has been spent making it look pretty. It's drying at the moment.

DS has been getting creative as part of a science project. He's made this volcano out of Mod-Roc which is a bit like the Plaster of Paris bandages used for broken bones. I gave him a hand painting it this evening.

I thought I should show you the extension at my school as I keep going on about it. Before half term it looked like this.......

..............and now this. The excitement is mounting!

Back to knitting!

I'm about half way through this waistcoat/cardi, in Stylecraft Signature Chunky, a bargain from (where else!) Kemps. I say waistcoat/cardi because I can't remember what I decided to make when I bought the yarn. I think I should have enough for a cardi ~ we shall see. Notice it says easy knit, which is about all I can manage at the moment ~ it's on 6mm needles so growing quickly.

I received February's squares in the Phoenix Friendship Blanket swap.

And so another week starts.

Oh! I nearly forgot. Did anybody notice JosieKitten's comment about sock yarn? She said she wouldn't tell us how much sock yarn was in her stash after I thought Louise's enough for 82 pairs was, well, a lot. Some come on JK ~ TELL US how many socks can you make? We all want to know.

Well I hope you have a good week.

Byeeeee.....Clicky Needles.

Back To School

Yep Half Term's finished.

When we get back in tomorrow there should be a big change with the building. The new extension should be up ~ with a roof! We shall see!

What a week of contrasts.

One lovely sunny day, but for the most it's been dreary, foggy and rainy.

On a dreary day what better than comments from people to cheer you up, so when Louise from Ontario left a comment that she was making a Girly Shawl and might have a go at A Bit of a Frill as well, I had to have a look at her blog. She's been sorting her sock yarn stash and (oh my) has enough sock yarn for .......wait for it.............82 pairs!!!! Wow that's going some, I've got enough for 16 pairs and think that's quite a lot. You've made me feel a whole lot better Louise, I am now following your progress.

The other lovely lady whom always leaves a kind word is Teresa from Oregon. Two of my 'real' friends mentioned her this week and her kind comments and although we've never met and would probably pass each other on street I feel ~ like I'm sure many of you who follow her blog ~ I know her quite well. I know this 'virtual friendship' is in someways a bit weird but I love looking into her world ~ this scenery is breathtaking ~ I thought it was pretty round my way!

Isn't Blogland great?!!!!!!

I took a basket of Hand Painted to the Butterfly Knitters on Saturday.

It was lovely to see them all again and chat about MiJu the new yarn shop, and have a bit of a laugh. My basket had 10 skeins in it when I went and only 4 when I came back which is wonderful and I'd like to say a big THANK YOU, but it now means I need to get some more undyed quickly ~ I can't launch with just 4 yarns can I? so the web site will be a little later than I'd hoped. The good news is that it is mostly built now although not published.

I've come across some new Sirdar patterns. I make loads of things from Sirdar ~ some great patterns and these two are no exception. These are made in their new Summer Stripes DK which isn't quite me, but there is also Simply Recycled cotton/acrylic mix which I've been lucky enough to squish in Along Came Polly and can confirm it's very soft. The little cardi only takes 4 x 50g balls so maybe.....

...it's ok I've not bought it yet!

Well, I hope you have a super week and you get a bit of sunshine!

Byeeeee....Clicky Needles.

A Bit of a Frill pattern

Here's the pattern for a Bit of a Frill.

Sometimes yarns can be quite 'busy' and need something really plain to show them off.

My first Hand Painted came out a bit like that so I made this:-

100g of 4ply sock yarn.

I used Clicky Needles' Hand Painted! 424 metres or 463 yards.

3.75mm Circular Needle at least 80cm or 32 inches.

Finished size 50cm (20") down to the point 100cm (40") across.

M1R pick up the bar between the last stitch you knit and the one you're about to knit, bringing the needle from back to front. Knit into Front of this stitch.

M1L pick up the bar between the last stitch you knit and the one you're about to knit, bringing needle from front to back. Knit into the back of this stitch.

kf+b ~ Knit forward and back into same stitch.

yo ~Yarn over needle.

The shawl is knit from the neck down.

Set up rows.

Long tail or stretchy cast on 5sts.

Row 1. Knit.

Row 2. Knit.

Row 3. Knit

Row 4. k1 kf+b, k1, kf+b, k1 (7sts)

Row 4. Knit.

End of set up.

Main Pattern Section.

Row 1 (right side) k2, M1R , k1, M1R, k1, M1L, k1, M1L, k2. (11sts)

Row 2. k2 purl until last 2 sts, k2.

Row 3. k2 M1R, (border) k3, M1R k1 M1L (centre), k3, M1L k2 (border) (15sts)

Row 4. k2 purl until last 2 sts, k2.

Carry on increasing 4sts on a right side row at the borders and centre as set.

When you've got about 20g of yarn left start the frill.

Row 1. K2 *Yo K1* to last 2 sts K2.

Row 2. K2 purl to last 2 sts K2.

Row 3. As row1.

Row 4 As row 2.

Cast off sew in ends and block.

There are about 900 sts on the last row of the frill but I think it's well worth while!

There you go!

You can also download the pattern here.

Enjoy. Clicky Needles.