An update from eggbird

Since I've been a tad quiet recently blogwise, I figured I'd pop by and give you a little eggbird update :)

This afternoon, I've been working away on a new crochet pattern inspired by the design in the bottom right hand corner on this page.  For some reason, I started with a bit of a collage using scraps of fabric (MUCH recommended for the fun-factor by the way!) and sort of went from there.

The pattern isn't quite right yet, but it should be ready soon - looking forward to sharing it with you all :)

Since last posting, I've finished and blocked the Tilting Tardises...

...sadly, very very sadly, it's come out a bit too short.  Well, saying that, perhaps really it's just an average size, but I don't like to have scarves too tightly wrapped.  Still, it's a lovely pattern, and I have a few ideas about what I'll use this FO for instead - more on that soon :)

Once the Tardises were finished, I set sail on the Frost Flowers scarf.  Boy-oh-boy it's been slow going!!  This is what I have to show for approx 2 weeks...  on the plus side, at this rate it's gonna be ready for winter and that's the main thing! 

 

Image from wikipedia

Recently I've really been getting back into reading again, and making great use of the library in town.  At the moment I'm partway through Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger as well as a book about Houdini.  Both are brill.

If you have any book recommendations, I'd love to hear them.  I've been stocking up on things to read over the summer and it'd be great to hear some suggestions :)

Much love,

Kim x

If Superheroes Knit...

Picture courtesy of My Modern Met

It's not often that I share stuff like this on the blog, (my poor facebook friends on the otherhand...), but this is simply just too brilliant to resist.  Plus, I heard it from Derren Brown, and he's pretty brilliant too (not just for bamboozling with his tricksy beard, but also for doing unbelievably good portraits like this one).  Anyhoo, this is a picture of Superman, made upside down from spools of thread.  Click on the link in the caption for more brilliance (including a version of the Last Supper and some Van Gogh!).

And speaking of Van Gogh (tenuous link alert!!), fellow Doctor Who fans may remember the episode in which the Doctor and his companion Amy visited the great painter... In this episode, Amy wore a very pretty red lace scarf:

Image via Google

Well, after the episode was first broadcast, there was a fair bit of excitement about the scarf on Rav, and many nerds fans such as myself went on to knit something similar as a tribute.  Unfortunately, I move house a lot, and somewhere along the line, my scarf was lost (in a wrong-bag-to-the-charity-shop type scenario I suspect).

But look!

I have some wool!  And I'm going to make myself another Amy scarf, this time using the slightly more complicated frost flowers pattern.  I absolutely cannot wait to begin.

First though, I have to complete my Tardis cowl...

...it's almost there.  Only one more pattern repeat to go, a light blocking and some buttons to sew on.  Fingers crossed, I'll have that done by tomorrow.

Lots and lots of geeky knitting going on at the moment at chez eggbird then, and it makes me very happy indeed :D

Have a lovely week,
Kim x

Time to Knit

First off, thank you so so much for all of your lovely comments on the Psycho Delia ta-dah.  I don't always get chance to reply to everyone (in fact, I have a very bad track record on that front!), but I do read and appreciate every single one of them.  Thank you!!

After Delia was finished, I had a couple of "days off" craft-wise.  I was astonished at how antsy and irritable I got.  After the second day I was more forgetful than usual, feeling a bit confused and restless...  I knew that crochet and crafting in general had become something of a therapy (I honestly think it should be suggested as a relaxation technique to anyone with anxiety disorder or similar), but I hadn't realised quite how much.  Maybe it was all just coincidence, but it certainly feels very nice to have some needles back in my hands!!

Yesterday I cast on the Tilting Tardis Cowl.  It's satisfying both my urge to knit and my obsession love of Doctor Who :P

You can probably see where I went a tad wrong on the first repeat...  I've not knit since finishing the Potty Potter hat and it kind of shows, but oh well - I'll just overlap the cowl the other way when I wear it and you won't be able to see ;)

*

Going through my memory card the other day I realised that I seem to have a backlog of photos building up.  It's pretty dull here in Bangor today, so I thought I'd remind myself of how lovely it's been by sharing some recent pics with you :)

Lovely stuff!

Kim x

Psycho Delia: ta-dah!

It's here!  It's happened!!  Delia is COMPLETE  :D

Remember when it was all just circles?

...and the cirlces grew and grew...

...and the piles of circles got bigger and bigger...

...and then the circles turned into squares.  It started to get exciting...

...and the excitement grew at each step...

...and along with the excitement, the worry that it might not work...

...that maybe it was just too psycho...

...it required a lot of patience and persistence.

It felt giddy to be joining the last sqaure...

...and sad to find that the border colours just didn't quite reach.

But it got there eventually.  It was worth it...

...and the thousands of ends just celebrated the achievement.

Now take a deep breath.  Stand back and see: ta-dah!

Wow!  I'm a little bit stunned.  All along I worried that it was just going to be a massive mess, and all of that hard work would have been wasted.  And then it got to the end, and I realised that I loved it.  Strange, eh?

*

It's only fair to credit all the hard work that other people put in designing the patterns and techniques I used on this:

The main pattern is Lucy's Summer Garden Granny Square

And the general gist of the composition is inspired by Lucy's Sweet Flower Granny

The border follows this brilliant crinkle-free pattern

My Ravelry project page is here

I used mostly Sylecraft Special DK (you can read more about that in my post here, although I didn't end up using all the colours listed).  I also used some other balls of DK acrylic mixed in.

The finished blanket measures approx 153x108cm, with 13 large sqaures, 98 small squares and a grand total of 1002 ends.  It took approximately 1 month to finish.

It's also an absolute pain in the bum to get a decent photo of the whole thing!

Delia's Wedding Celebrations

Consider this my contribution to the Obligatory Royal Knees-Up Blog Posting bonanza ;)

I'd never really considered getting married before yesterday.  And then Kate looked stunning, and William suddenly became peculiarly attractive, and the little-est bridesmaid cranked up the "aaaww" factor with her hands over her ears on the balcony...  and for the first time EVER, I imagined what my wedding would be like should I ever have one.  This came as something of a shock to my mum (I've never had any desire to get married at all - my own mother once predicted that I would end up a cat lady!).  She's probably out buying hats now as I type!

Mostly we celebrated yesterday with Pimms and homemade battenburg cake (courtesy of my lovely friend Rachel).  Jolly spiffing, what!

Then when I got home, it was hooky time and while at the palace Kate was probably kicking off her heels and the Queen was probably shouting for someone to "get the kettle on", I added Delia's final square!

A monumentous occassion I'm sure you'll agree!  :P

I toyed with the idea of showing you where Delia's at now, but then I wanted to save her as a surprise until the border is finished, so you get to see her in all her Psycho glory :D

In the meantime, just imagine 13 large squares, 98 small squares, and 992 ends to tie in and you'll get the idea.  Needless to say that I'm VERY excited about it

Have a lovely bank holiday,
Kim x

[Before and After] The Two-Day Dress

The Two-Day Dress

Q: What do you do when even the Topshop sale rack prices bring a slight tear to the eye?

A: Make, Do and Improvise!

Before

After

After

Top bought at: British Heart Foundation

Made by: Next

Size: was 20, now 12

Total cost: £4.00

Suck on THAT, Topshop!  :P

Springtime Hexagon [Free Pattern]

I don't know about you, but Spring is making me VERY happy this year.  Especially now that all of the delicate little flowers are blooming

These little flowers definitely inspired me to make this hexagon... I hope you like it :)

Pattern

Before we begin, just a few little notes as a bit of a guide.  As you can see above, I made a few different sizes by stopping at different points and by varying the weight of yarn and the size of the hook.  The tutorial will guide you through all the steps needed to make the biggest hexagon (which measures approximately 4-4.5 inches before blocking), but hopefully the step-by-step pictures will help you to see how the hexagon looks after each round.

Notes

As usual, the pattern is written using US terms.  For this hexagon I used DK yarn and a 4mm hook.

sp = space
sl st = slip stitch
ch = chain
sc = single crochet
hdc = half double crochet
dc = double crochet

Round 1
To begin, ch4 and join with sl st into the first chain to form a circle.

Round 2
Ch1, and work 1dc, 1hdc, ch1 into the circle.  Then work *1hdc, 1dc, 1hdc, ch1*  Repeat between * 5 times - you will have 6 clusters in total.  Join with a sl st into the top of the first ch1.

Round 3
Change colour.  Join your new colour into any ch1 sp.  [Ch1, 2dc, 1hdc, ch1] in the same sp.  [1hdc, 2dc, 1hdc, ch1] in each of the next 5 ch1 sps.  Join with a sl st to the top of the first ch1.

Round 4
Change colour.  Join your new colour into any sp between clusters.  In this round you will be creating the "corners" of your hexagon:  [Ch1, 1dc, ch2, 1dc, 1hdc, ch2] into the same sp.  [1hdc, 1dc, ch2, 1dc, 1hdc, ch2] into each of the next 5 sps around.  Join with a sl st to the top of the first ch1.

Note that this was the point at which I stopped for the smaller hexagons.

Round 5

Change colour.  Join your new colour into any ch2 corner sp (ie: the 'pointy bit' of the hexagons).  Work (Ch1, 2hdc, ch2, 3hdc, ch1) into this sp.  *In the next ch2 sp, work (3hdc, ch1), and into the next ch2 corner sp, work (3hdc, ch2, 3hdc, ch1)*  Repeat between * 5 times.  In the final ch2 sp, work (3hdc, ch1), and then join with a sl st into the top of the first ch1.

Round 6

Change colour.  Join new colour into any ch2 corner sp.  Into this corner sp, work (Ch2, 2dc, ch2, 3dc).  *Into the next 2 ch1 sps, work 3dc.  Into the next ch2 corner sp, work (3dc, ch2, 3dc).*  Repeat between * until the round is finished.

If you want to make your hexagon bigger, just keep going!  Just remember that on each round you want to make a (3dc, ch2, 3dc) cluster into each corner sp, and a 3dc cluster into each sp between clusters along the 'straight' edges, just as you did in round 6:

And there you have it!  These would work great for a blanket, a cushion cover, a bag.... the possibilities are - as they say - endless!  Experiment with hook sizes and yarn weights to find what works best for you :)

ETA: there is now a Ravelry project page for this pattern here