An October Furtle

The end of October and a time to do my round up of what been happening this month.  Its been a productive one, especially here on the blog which I've not done so many posts in the month for a long time! This will be post number 8 including this one.

I've knitted, sewn, crocheted this month and we've been busy with other things too. At the end of last month we went to Yorkshire and I bought goodies at Yarndale and took some sock knitting with me and I finished the socks, even wearing these as I type.

Although you can't really see in the photo the self striping yarn has got glitter, which has got to be good for cheering up a dull day. Although I wasn't that brilliant at the strip matching it actually didn't matter too much.  The yarn is Opal which I bought a couple of years back in Shrewsbury when on holiday.

I finished off a cardigan for Flo for her christening a few weeks ago.  More glitter here as there it was in the yarn, which is called Baby Twinkle.  She had a lovely white dress which my daughter Sarah bought in France in the summer and this cardigan went well with it.

I've also had another knitting finish - I finished my cardigan.  At long last.  I'd almost finished a little while ago but I wasn't happy with the length.  Although I'm short I do like a decent length of cardigan so as it was a top down knit I just had to undo the garter stitch 'rib' at the bottom knit another pattern repeat and garter stitch rows to make it a bit longer.  I added on the button and button bands to the front and done.  I bought buttons the other day so they will be added on. Please excuse the rather grim face I had on when taking this photo!

On Saturday I had a new cast on - one of the purchases from Yarndale was this fingerless mitt kit from Lucy Locket with basic colour work.  I tried Estonian braid stitch for the first time (the arrow stitches at the bottom and top of the mitt.  I finished the first mitt last night, so the ends aren't sewn in but I'm pleased with how it looks.  I've just started the second mitt at the Knit and Natter this morning.

For crochet I made a couple of Yarndale Teddies for a friend in Knit and Natter to take out to New Zealand where she will be staying with her family out there.  She saw me crochet them for Yarndale and asked if I'd make two for her.  They were made from stash and I made a girl and a boy.  I gave them to her last week and she was really pleased and sure her grandchildren would love them. The Yarndale teddies pattern is by Lucy of Attic 24 and the post with the pattern is here.

Also at Knit and Natter we've made other things as well!  A few weeks ago another friend had bought along a cat she made out of a pair of socks and a week later some of us had a go.  This is mine

The body is made from one sock the head and tail from another.  It needed the addition of buttons for eyes and a ribbon for the bell which hides the stitching of the head onto the body.  I also added a nose and whiskers as well.  There are a lot of tutorials via Pinterest to look at about how to make.

Inspired by this last week we made a snowman from a sock!  Using rice to weigh down the snowman (it took a lot more than I thought!) it was made in no time at all and soon we had a snowman parade!! The hat and scarf were from two different patterned socks, with glue eyes, buttons and pipe cleaner nose were added.

Another crochet project I started was this one back in February.  I saw an Instagram post and decided to have a go at making a crochet rug (there's a post about it here).  I noticed just now that I've used half trebles in a sample but for this I'm using double crochet into the back of the loop in the previous row.  Think I might have to re-think this, but this is how it looks so far

With four strands of yarn and a thick hook this is growing quickly.

I've sent off some blocks to block mamas of the Siblings Together quilt charity.  Here are some quirky birds, made improv style

And some crumb blocks requested for a mini block drive - I ended up making 12 of them.  It helped that it was a rainy weekend!

If you'd like to help with some blocks here's the link.  They are addictive so there may be more of these blocks to come.

For the November block bee that I'm in the Mama this month wants a log cabin block and just the one of those, so that'll fit in a standard envelope for postage.

And lastly, for something completely different I made a felted soap at Craft 4 Crafters, which I mentioned in my last post here.

Blimey, this has been a busy month.  November is shaping up to be another busy one too.  Not sure how many posts I will manage then.

Linking up with this month's Mini Archie's Furtle Around the Blogosphere