New Magazine – Prima Makes

February 17, 2014February 17, 2014 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

I spied this little number smiling at me from the shelves of Eason in Dungarvan yesterday and was won over instantly. Containing a hefty 162 pages of things to make, knit, sew, crochet and bake what’s not to like?

Like many of the other ‘lifestyle’ magazines that are available at the moment it is a very photography heavy publication, leading you to aspire to all things quirky, vintage and floral. In addition to the numerous projects there are ‘Ideas & Inspirations’ and ‘Spring into Shopping’ sections. There’s also a great feature on craft courses and workshops and if that wasn’t enough the good people at Prima Makes have also thrown in a couple of sheets of fancy printed paper.

So I imagine you’d like to have a little look at some of my favourite little projects?

These 3 beauties are called High Flyers, Heaven Scent and Time for Tea. Soooooo pretty.

The very appropriately hat a Picture is so fantastic I’d actually like one please. The funky, patchwork laptop case ould make a great gift and Kitchen Stichin’ is for those of us that like a bit of crochet.

The pretty Tunic Top knitted in cotton has sizes from 6-12 months to 5 years and it would be hard to resist the little pairs of Baby’s First Shoes. Bobtail Bunny is a pocket sized pal worked in 4ply crochet.

Still more …..

For the bakers amongst us my 3 favourites are the Coconut Doughnuts, Shortbread Flowers and the Peppermint Marshmallows, yummy.

It shouldn’t come as any surprise to those of you that know me but Daisy Chain is my absolute favourite, isn’t it beautiful? I hope my crochet is up to it.

If you’re still in need of a little convincing, then the icing on the cake has to be that the magazine comes complete a free kit to make this little mousey pincushion.

Happy Knitting! (maybe that should be crafting?)

Sirdar Peekaboo

February 13, 2014 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

Snuggly Peekaboo DK is a gorgeously soft baby yarn that comes in softly printed, dappled colours that look extra cosy for girls and boys from Sirdar. It is in the same designs wonderfully soft blend as Snuggly DK – 55% nylon and 45% acrylic.

Each 50g ball contains 179yds/165m and knits to a tension of 22 stitches to 28 rows on 4mm for a 4″/10cm square and costs €4.45.

There are 6 beautiful shades that are reminiscent of the original, paler colours that Sirdar Baby Crofter came in when it was first released.




As is the norm with Sirdar they have created several beautiful designs to compliment the yarn although any standard double knitting pattern should work equally well.

Happy Knitting!

Guess What? It’s Stash Dash Time

February 8, 2014 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

For those of you that have been before you’ll know what it’s all about, the rest of you would probably best to read this previous post here http://knitmidleton.com/2012/07/23/everybody-keeps-asking-me/

Basically, we cover up all the shelves and lay out as many tables as we can fit into the shop; on top of these we put all the yarn we’re discontinuing. There could be whole ranges of yarn, shades of yarn and some you might not have seen before. There will be odd balls, several balls and packs of balls, no matter what, all balls are €3 each. (All sales are final, no returns)

There are things to consider: you have to book your slot if you’re coming in before 1pm. You only have 20 minutes (you’re timed), you have to prepare, dig out the patterns, check your favourites on Ravelry, make sure you know how much double knit/aran/chunky you need. There is nothing else available to purchase on the day and there isn’t usually the time to help you calculate yarn amounts, suitability, etc. You get the most out of the day if you’ve already worked out what you’re looking for.

Have a look at the post linked above if you’re not sure and make sure you book your place for the morning if you want one, quickly before they all go.

This is what you should be expecting.

Happy Knitting!

Peter Pan Hatti

February 1, 2014 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

Peter Pan have embraced the idea of ‘quick knits’ with their latest woolly release Hatti. (technically there is no wool, but you know what I mean)

Hatti is aimed at kids although the knitted hat fits me. Each ball comes with a free knit and crochet pattern on the ball band and one ball makes one hat complete with colour coordinating pompom for the top!

It’s made from 80% Acrylic / 20% Polyester and there’s aapproximately 95m / 104 yds in each 50g ball. The knitted hat uses 5mm needles and I had it made within a couple of hours. It’s a lovely simple pattern just 2×2 rib with no shaping.

Hatti is available in 4 shades and is €7.15 per ball.

There’s another similar yarn and pompom knit called Duo which I’m knitting up at the moment. I’ll post about it as soon as I’m done.

Happy Knitting!

Notes From Week Ending 25th January 2014

January 27, 2014 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

Wow! January will be over in a few days, how did that happen? I need to catch up quickly, does anyone have a magic ‘get everything done’ potion I could buy?

Rushing quickly on.

There were several deliveries last week most of which was restock although there were a few new goodies. Unfortunately, in my haste to unpack them I forgot to take photos of most of them although I did manage a quick snap of the new Candyfloss yarn from Robin.

Sadly, there’s one shade missing, if memory serves me correctly it’s a bright pink mix. Candyfloss is being sold as a super chunky with a recommended needle size of 10mm’s but it’s most definitely not. You could probably use up to an 8mm for scarves and neck warmers but for garments and hats I’d treat it as a standard chunky yarn and use 6.5mm needles. I hope to get a sample of the yarn knitted up for the shop so you can see what it’s like as there are no designs to go with the yarn.

The bright colours make it an obvious choice for children and it’s 100% acrylic so it’s easily washable. The 200g ball has approximately 280 metres/306 yards and costs €6.95.

Included in this delivery there was also 4 shades of the mohair yarn ‘Air’ from Wendy which is made up of 70% Kid Mohair, 30% Nylon and knits to a tension of 18-24sts x 23-34 rows depending on your chosen pattern. The 25g ball has approxamitley 200m in it and it’s €7.25 a ball.

It would be an ideal yarn to use for my Easy Lace Scarf

I’ve already started to knit a little communion bolero sample for the shop, it only takes 2 balls so I am aiming to have it finished by the end of the week.

One last thing before I go, with all of the controversy surrounding all things charity at the moment I thought I’d share the receipts and card we received for money collected from the bags of buttons on sale in the shop for St. Vincent de Paul. As promised the full price of the sale goes to the charity. (sorry for the bad photo)

Happy Knitting!

Age Action ‘Made With Love’ Update

January 23, 2014 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

As promised I wanted to let you all know that I’ve heard back from Age Action and can fill in some of the gaps now.

The official launch of the campaign on is today at The Lepreachun Museum so Age Action hope to get more media and retail interest after it.

At present they are still working on retail outlets in Dublin, Cork and Galway as well as drumming up support so they can sell on the streets for St. Patrick’s Day. Daragh the man that replied to my email didn’t give me a closing date so for us in the shop we’ll be sending off ours the in the first week in March. The last day for leaving your shamrocks in the shop for us to send off is Saturday March 1st.

I made a boob in the previous post sorry, the target is 20000 shamrocks not 2000. They’ll be sold at €2 each and proceeds after print and postage costs go directly to their services, including Care and Repair, Getting Started and their Information and Advocacy service.

Above is my first shamrock which is in need of blocking. It measures about 3.5″from the 1st to the 3rd leaf and it’ 2″ tall from the top of the leaf to where the stalk (which is 3″ long) begins.

Those of you that know me know I’m a straight talker, so therefore it seems only fair to tell you they’re a little fiddly to knit. Having said that though it only took me about 30 minutes from start to finish and it takes the tinniest amount of double knit yarn.

Perhaps, you’ll only manage to get one shamrock knitted but every little helps after all.

Happy Knitting!

The Final Count Is In – Didn’t We Do Well?

January 18, 2014 LeftFootDaisy3 Comments

My shop looks rather bare now because as you can see from the photograph I gathered all of the blankets for Armenia from their hidey holes in order to pack them up ready for Global Missions Ireland to collect them.

I’m not sure the photograph shows everyone’s efforts off to full effect. What you cant really tell is exactly how tall each pile is, or that they’re 4 deep. (Tom Hardy looking on in the top left hand corner can though – Yum)

Global Missions Ireland will hopefully be taking them over to Armenia in the very near future and we’ve been promised photos which I’ll pop up for all to see.

In the mean time after gathering, folding and bagging and most importantly COUNTING, there are ……………. no you’ll have to wait just a little longer…….

118

Yes you did read that right, 118 blankets. Everybody that took part should feel very proud of themselves, we did great.

News about our next collection will be coming very soon, but for now.

Happy Knitting!

New Year – Time For Change?

January 2, 2014 LeftFootDaisy4 Comments

Two days in to 2014 already and my brain has been working overtime on things to do in the coming year. I’m not a New Year Resolutions kinda girl, so whilst I’ve made a mental note to quit the indulgences of the past couple of weeks, get back on my anti-inflammation diet and try to do more exercise in the coming year I’m not going to be too upset if I fall off the wagon, so to speak.

There are however, things I am going to try to alter in the hope that some little changes will allow me a little more time to do some of the more important things like, dare I say it – Exercise more 😦

Top of my list is to get more organised, already I can hear my family groaning. I do try really hard to set myself deadlines, but it’s sticking to them that’s the problem. My head gets so full of ideas for the shop, designs, kids crafts, etc that I easily get distracted. So I’m going to get better at writing things down, that way hopefully, I won’t be constantly running through my ‘list of possibilities’ in my head.

I’m also extending this writing it down thingy to my ongoing projects too, as I’ve been slack with posting them onto Ravelry and have wasted at least a couple of hours mentally running through what I made in 2013.

From what I can remember I made the following, but I know I’ve missed some things.

1 cardigan for me

1 jumper for Dina

2 waistcoats (1 for the shop, 1 for me)

2 pairs of socks and 2 single socks (need to make a 2nd lace one and I’m now half way through the other 2nd sock, see below)

12 hats

8 scarves/cowls

Moody Blanket (must do icord border)

Poncho

Wrap

3 – tea cosies

6 Crochet bunting triangles

5 knitted/crochet brooches

Christmas Angel

4 Baby Cardigans

sample squares for the shop

Blanket squares for charity

Innocent Smoothie hats

If I’m honest, it doesn’t seem like a lot of knitting, must try harder. As a little extra note to self “should also knit from my stash a little more”.

Starting as I mean to go on here’s my last/first project of 2013/2014. I’m just about to start the heel flap so it should be finished by the weekend.

I’m also going to start another Il Grande Favorito with some beautiful Sirdar Connemara from my stash.

All sounds very good so far, but I have a small confession ……..

Whilst waiting for the photos for this post to upload I decided to clear up my email inbox a little and now I’ve become distracted by this lovely DIY Fair Isle Hat deigned by Meg Myers for Classic Elite Yarns.

Which yarn would work best now?

Happy Knitting in 2014

xxx

It’s A Little Nippy – Last Minute Knit

December 23, 2013 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

OK. So we’ve all seen the ‘super quick knit’ patterns that seem like a good idea until you realise that they’re actually referring to those amongst us that can break all kinds of speed knitting records.

I’m a steady knitter, neither fast nor slow and if we’re being extremely honest, I’m prone to distraction. However, this little neck warmer did actually take a little over an hour to knit up – PROMISE!

So what are you going to need?

I’ve used 10mm needles and 2 balls of Rico Fashion Elegance in shade 3. They’re 5ometres each so you need approx 100metres of super chunky yarn.

Cast on 20sts and knit every row in plain/garter stitch until work measures 56cms/22″. Cast off loosely

I slipped the first stitch of every row to keep my edges tidier but it’s not necessary.

Join by sewing your cast on and cast off edges together.

Ta ddah……..

Of course now my neck’s warm but I can’t see a blooming thing.

Much better.

I’m going to make a couple for my youngest to wear as he always forgets to put a scarf on and I’m sure my hubby whose a plumber and constantly working outside on dairy farm installations at the moment, might even fancy a couple.

In case your wondering it’s 20cm/8″ deep.

Happy Knitting!