Crafty Like a Fox: Food for Thought

Crafty Like a Fox

Food for Thought

Howdy All! Still fasting away over here, just reached the mid-way point, only 9 days left to go…but I am sure you can guess what has been occupying my mind a lot of the time! Yeah…I love food. I love eating. So not eating while the sun is up means that I spend a generous portion of my day planning, imagining, shopping for and then usually not making food and instead heading up to my folks house for a proper slap up meal!

The foodie thinking has seeped into my crafty life and I collected up a few of my favourite food-related patterns and projects…ridiculously useless, cute and colourful crafting…hope you enjoy…

Obviously breakfast is the most important meal of the day and I couldn’t pass up this incredible pattern for an entire felt Pancake Breakfast, coffee included! It wasn’t until I lived in the States that I got eating pancakes and bacon together but I am dedicated lover now. Yum!

buggabugs ‘Pancake Breakfast’ pattern set on Etsy

Fruit and veggies are a must as part of any well-balanced diet and avocado is my current love, all thanks to the giant, creamy ones you were able to get all the time in Australia. You know avocado is a fruit, right?! I am in love with this Twinkie Chan Avocado scarf and would happily wear it everyday of the week. And you can never go wrong with peas. Especially if they are knitted!

Twinkie Chan’s crocheted ‘Avocado scarf’

Hansi Singh’s ‘Peas in a Pod’ from Amigurumi Knits

Finally dessert, served up by Lee Meredith’s yummy ‘Double Scoops’ earwarmers…you can even get them with sprinkles on top! Too cute and finally a food related project that is actually functional as well. Jackpot!

Lee Meredith’s ‘Double Scoops’ pattern on Ravelry

And remember when in doubt KEEP CALM AND BAKE ON! That’s what I plan to do anyway…off to make some gooey brownies. Oh and can anyone recommend a good Blondies recipe? Would be super grateful!

Have a great weekend!

electromagnet’s ‘Keep Calm and Bake On’ magnet on Etsy

Pattern: Big Herringbone Wristwarmers

Big Herringbone Wristwarmers

Sunny but cold. A beautiful Irish spring day…

A wee while ago I was waxing lyrical about Purlbee’s ‘Big Herringbone Cowl’, my new wardrobe staple when I’m leaving the house. I love it! I love it so much that I had to have some wristwarmers/sleeves to match it and so I came up with these! I really hope you enjoy making them and I would love to see your finished set, cowl & wristies, wrapped up warm.

The thickness and size of needle I choose to use gives a really squishy, dense fabric that clings comfortably to your hand. They’re super quick to knit and they only take one ball of yarn. Want extra length in the sleeve or a shorter top cuff? Just go head and customize as you go. Easy peasy!

If you’re on Ravelry don’t forget to check out the pattern page there and upload your photos so we can compare notes and what other beautiful yarns they could be knitted in!

Isn’t this teacup gorgeous? Anthropologies finest!

Materials: 8mm double pointed or circular needles, 1 ball of Sirdar ‘Hug’ in colour 043 (50g, 75m/82yds, 50% wool, 50% polyester)

Gauge: 20 sts x 16 rows/4″ x 4″ in herringbone stitch

Finished size: 7.5″ long, 8″ circumference

Cuff:

CO 24 sts. Being careful not to twist your stitches, join in the round…

Row 1-4: (ktbl 1, p 1) repeat to end

Row 5:  (ktbl 1, p 1, m 1) repeat to end (36 sts)

Herringbone Pattern:

Row 6: * k2tog, slip off only 1 st from left needle* repeat until 1 st remaining. Turn remaining st (see Purlbee tutorial to see photo of how to do this). Place this st on first needle/start of round…

R0w 7: * k2tog tbl, slip off only 1 st from left needle* repeat until 1 st remaining. Turn remaining st (see Purlbee tutorial to see photo of how to do this). Place this st on first needle/start of round…

Row 8 – 15: Repeat this pattern (row 6 – 7) 5 more times…your wristie should now measure approx. 4″ from CO edge.

I wanted to drink this coffee so badly but I didn’t…fasting prevails! Yeay willpower!

Thumb hole:

Turn your work so you are now knitting with the ‘wrong side’ facing you. You will be knitting the next 4 rows forward and back, not in the round.

Row 16: *p2tog, slip off only 1 st from left needle* repeat until 1 st remains. Slip this last st onto right needle. Turn work.

Row 17: Do as for Row 7. Slip last st onto right needle. Turn work.

Row 18 – 19: Repeat Rows 16 – 17 once more. At the end of Row 19 turn the final stitch and place on first needle/start of round.

Top cuff:

Row 20 – 24: Going back to knitting in the round, repeat Row 6 – 7  twice more.

Row 25: *k2tog tbl, p1* repeat to end (24 sts)

Row 26 – 28: *ktbl 1, p1* repeat to end.

BO in pattern. Weave in ends and block to fit. And, Voila! Pretty Herringbone wristies to match your funky cowl or pair up with any other manner of cold-busting accessories! Hope you like them…

~ If you have any questions, queries, thoughts or opinions on the pattern, I’d love to hear them. Always looking to learn, adjust and improve :)

Crafty Like a Fox: Owls & Such

Crafty Like a Fox

Owls & Such

What up crafty people? I’ve been having a busy week. Was struck by inspiration lightening and am now furiously writing knitting patterns and trying to churn out samples at the same time. Phew! Super fun but you realise that just because you can imagine yourself knitting at the speed of light doesn’t mean you can!

It means I haven’t kept my promise of publishing the Big Herringbone Wristwarmers to match PurlBee’s Big Herringbone Cowl. My apologies for keeping you waiting and I will let you know as soon as they are up and ready to knit.

So what have I been perusing this week online? I shall tell you! OWLS! I love them, I collect them (if you want to send me any that would be really cool) and I found this brilliant Owl Collection round-up by The Craft Revival, all from her own personal collection. Oh, the owl ring, sigh!

Owl bunting courtesy of an Owl Swap…anyone want to swap Owly stuff with me?

I was also directed to a most awesome free knitting pattern by lovely tweep ‘Sweat Shop of Love’ I’m knitting furiously so I can clear my knitting ‘schedule’ and make these lacy legwarmers, designed by Pam Allen.

Specially loving this pair knit by Falling Stitches…you can read her blog post on them right here…

Also on Falling Stitches blog is a great regular round-up of what’s hot on Ravelry, definitely worth a look if you can’t think of what to knit/crochet next! (And she’s from Montreal which makes her automatically cool! I know, I have cousins from there…)

Lastly you must. must. MUST take a look at Knit the City‘s Valentine’s Day inspired Yarnstorm in the centre of London. How they got those hearts all the way up that statue I will never know…

How did they get that high up?!

Check out the blog to see the knits close up…including the cutest naked Cherubs and a knitted PRINCE WILLIAM & KATE holding hands and generally looking loved up :)

~ Making anything fun?? I’d love to hear about it! Comments make my world go round…

Have a great weekend everyone!

Crafty Like a Fox: Hug Bots, Hearts and Herringbone!

Crafty Like a Fox

Hug Bots, Hearts and Herringbone!

by Rob Lee, via Flickr Creative Commons

Hey! How’s it going out there in the blogosphere? All well I hope. I was busy writing up my epic labour of love 101 Ways to Spark Inspiration. I really hope you enjoyed it and got something useful out of it. It’ll always be there so feel free to refer back anytime you need to!

As for my very first ‘Crafty Like a Fox’ Friday here’s what I’ve been eyeing up in the crafty world this week, including a free pattern or two. Yup, yup!

Socktoberfest thus far

I am addicted to sock knitting.

For those of you reading this who just a) laughed out loud at this statement,or b) rolled your eyes, this blog post is not for you.

However if you feel the same way, or even just love the feeling of a cosy pair of rainbow-coloured, soft socks on your poor worn-out feet as you lovingly lift them onto the couch beside you and tuck them gently under a cushion (even though you secretly know that you kill anyone else who did on your beautiful couch) then could you please tell me you feel this way so I know that I’m not crazy?! Thank you!

My lovely handknit socks have been completely useless to me these past two years (Australia, and in particular Queensland, are no place for cosy wool socks) but now as the temperature drops I finally have an excuse to get them out again and feel complete self-love…from my toes up!

Strong words indeed, but really, with £2 packs of socks available from Primark in every colour and pattern under the sun, you have to love yourself or whoever you are knitting for to make socks. I never thought I would love turning heels or knitting pain-staking 1×1 rib cuffs with tiny needles and fine yarn, but I do. I love it.

I cast on my Socktoberfest socks, the mystery pattern ones from Through the Loop, and finished the first part of the pattern in one sitting. Knowing I couldn’t wait a whole week for the next part of the pattern without going insane, I trawled through the bomb-sight that is my livingroom to find a ball of sock yarn…any sock yarn…and immediately cast on another pair of socks. They are knit using yarn I dyed myself during college, using food colouring. I have been hoarding this yarn for years waiting for the right time, the right pattern…and now I am knitting it up at a rate of knots dreading the moment when either the socks are finished or (horror of horrors!) the yarn runs out! Then during the week I took photos of all my hand knit socks that I could find. Now I have ideas for designing sock patterns.

Socktoberfest does not seem to be a very balancing event for me!

p.s. what a brillaint date…10/10/10…happy tenth everybody…