Tag Archives: flickchickknits

Plans for 2024

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Starting the new year with 2 WIPs, the first is Kyra a kit from Tribe Yarns. I may have to unfollow her as she has so many beautiful posts that inspire and tempt me. This was one of those. The pattern is a simple roll neck sweater in a bulky yet light yarn , which is my favourite type of jumper to wear, I could not find the pattern on Ravelry as it is one of those with a number not a name, so I gave in and bought the kit. It’s knitting up nicely and I will definitely be knitting at least a second from stash, this yarn is so warm . My only slight annoyance is that if you like to work from a printed pattern the writing is quite small compared to all the patterns I’ve worked from recently.

Kyra pattern
Tribe Yarns Kit

The other WIP I have is the Anthology shawl which I think I am going to do the lace edging early as I am not enjoying this as much as I did. We shall see.

My plans for next year are not hard and fast but I want to work from the patterns and stash I have , get tempted from the stash. The exception will be if I need something that cannot be substituted with something I have to finish a project. I have snuck in a last minute pattern for a KAL in January, another project I found through Tribe Yarns, this is the Artus shawl . I will be using a different colour palette and have already put my yarns together for this from stash. I may use an extra colour if one runs out but am hopeful it won’t.

Yarns for Artus
#Artus pattern

I want to make some skirts, a Christmas fabric dress, some birthday and Christmas cards, knit though a hat pattern book I have , sew another adventure land baby quilt, keep my sewing table clear , sew each of the bag patterns I have, sort through the boxes and condense. I have a pile of bags and stuff I need to sort through. The sorting has started but it is such a pain, there are groups it is sorted into, sell, charity shop, recycle, bin and keep. Stuff to sell has a cupboard that I have set aside for the items once full I shall send the rest to the charity shop. I have an old bin with a bin bag to put all the charity shop stuff in and once it is full it is going straight down there. Recycling is the same, once full put in the relevant bin. The stuff to keep has to be put away and if no where to put it can be found, given to charity shop. I also need to go through my wardrobe day to day clothes and do the same although none of those will be binned.

Afternoon Tea Blanket

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I cast on this blanket back on 2010. It never really grabbed me, I think it bored me to be honest. Now with being in self isolation and working remotely from home, it is the perfect project to pick up between calls. So far I have completed 25/81 squares. The blanket is worked using four colours and the cream is used in most squares.

I am knitting this the Debbie Abrahams way, knitting a square, casting off and then picking up stitches from the cast off square to knit the next one until the strip is completed. To save sewing in too many ends I have found a way to ease this. This works on most strips but in particular the even number strips.

Strip four use the pink and a full ball of the cream for the first square, then cast off in pink but leave the cream attached and pick up stitches for square 2 using the same cream. Once this square is cast off pick up stitches for the third square and carry on using the cream. If you wish to you can thread beads for the fourth square at the start and push them to to middle of the ball and continue until end of square 5 using the same cream ball. I didn’t do this, however I used the cream yarn from square 6 of strip four to complete the strip.

When knitting the 19a and 19B squares I left the cream attached after the first one and when it came to the next cream row and the yarn was at the other end I just slipped all the stitches across until I was at the cream end and purled the row.

This means less weaving in and using less yarn. I hope this helps, Stay Safe everyone

Blinded by The Light

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I love going to the cinema, I go at least once a week and see a variety of films, some of which I probably wouldn’t see if I didn’t have my Everyman membership. Blinded by the Light is not one of those films. As soon as I saw the trailer for the firs time I knew I was going to see this film. It looked funny and interesting. Friday I went to see Blinded by the light and I wasn’t disappointed, I really enjoyed it. The film blurb states “Set in 1987, during the austere days of Thatcher’s Britain, ‘Blinded By The Light’ is a joyous, coming-of-age story about a teenager who learns to live life, understand his family and find his own voice through the words and music of Bruce Springsteen. ‘Blinded By The Light’ is inspired by British journalist Sarfraz Manzoor’s memoir “Greetings From Bury Park.”

It was a joyous film, what the blurb doesn’t state is that it also show a true snapshot of the racism and the rise of the National Front in the eighties, the miners strike and unemployment. There were moments I had tears running down my face, which I hadn’t expected. One of the reasons for the tears was that my Uncle who passed some time ago was a huge Springsteen fan who would have loved this film, the second reason was for the memories it brought back. I am mixed race my mother was Burmese and my father English. Although I don’t look Asian, at secondary school, I was bullied and called a Paki. In the eighties in the suburbs, there was only one Asian person in my school so the ignorant people I went to school with picked on me. The worst was being locked in the woodwork cupboard and having to find alternate routes home, so I wasn’t jumped. There was one incident where graffitti was sprayed on my home which my father tried to shield me from. Despite this I grew up to be a well adjusted compassionate person. This is probably one of the reasons I HATE inequality and injustice and I am sucker for the underdog. Luckily this stopped when I left school apart from one incident.

I urge everyone to see this film wether you are a Springsteen fan or not you will enjoy it, and you get an insight into the music of the Boss. Support British Independent Films.

Now for the crafting part! My current cinema knitting is the Epic Scarf by Jo Storie. I am knitting it in Rowan Alpaca Colour from Stash, the colour isn’t really doing it for me but the yarn is gorgeous to knit with, if a little hairy.

Epic Shawl