Archie The Wonder Dog

 Care to guess what I’ve finished?!  . . . Did you guess socks? If so, you’re right; if not, what did you guess? These socks are for a friend and will be the only socks I knit for someone else for at least the rest of this year and Mini Archie has his firm face on to prove it *quivers* Yarns are “Red” and “Turquoise” from  Made By Penguins As always with  Made By Penguins ’ yarn, it knitted up beautifully!   Mr Random Number Generator has chosen the yarn for the next socks and I don’t even have to do any winding as it’s leftovers from previous Made By Penguins socks: For mine next trick, you will turn these into socks!  That’s one thing crossed off my Fettling List  and we’re not halfway through the month yet! (The advantage of not finishing a relatively small something last year is that you’re almost guaranteed an early finish if you keep working on it until it’s done.) 

A quick post to let you know that the link party for your Fettling lists is now open. You can link up below or on the  main post , it doesn’t matter which as it’s the same link party on both posts.  Hooray, it’s time to link up your lists! You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter

  Hello, and welcome to the fourth full year of  Fettle Those Finishes!   It lasts for the whole year so I’ll leave it open until 28th February to give you chance to think about and assemble your list - it’s not something to rush into and can take quite a while unless you’re like me and there’s a tendency to be able to copy and paste from the previous list to populate the new one and only need minor tweaks *sighs*   Adding stuff to your list (or taking things off if you’ve changed your mind about a project) through the year is perfectly acceptable. Encouraged, in fact, as there’s no point in sticking with something you no longer love/need just out of habit. Just make sure anything added is added before you finish it, it’s up to you how you define that. There’ll be a progress link up on 1st July (which I also tend to use as an opportunity to write a new list) and I’ll (try to) remind you in the June  Furtle . The rules Be kind. Be encouraging. Be honest. Don’t pu...

It’s time to consider how Fettle Those Finishes! 2024 went and see what progress we made on our list. I’ll go first, shall I? This year was the first year I had a table at the top of  my list  right from the start and I’m definitely continuing with that (while also wishing I knew more (anything!) about writing code). I have made progress compared with the progress report from July , which is always satisfying, so let’s get down to the nitty gritty, shall we? I’ve knitted nine pairs of socks : I say this every year but next year I really need to remember to take all the finished sock photos  in the same format, not a mix of square and rectangle! Fettling Score = 9 I’ve also knitted a hat: Read about it here Fettling Score = 10 Revived a clock: Read about it here Fettling Score = 11 And replaced the labels on my scrap and FQ boxes: Read about them here Fettling Score = 12 This means I’ve scored (just) less than a third of last year’s total but twelve Fettling Points is stil...

  Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something As usual, this is going to be a quick post as I have my Fettling List 2025 to sort; my end of year report to write, which is available now and the link party will remain open until the end of January; and the Fettle Those Finishes 2025 post to write, which will be posted tomorrow and the link party will be open from 10th January (at 11pm GMT) until the end of February. This month I have knitted a pair of socks! Yarn is “Red” from  Made By Penguins I have one pair left to knit and then that’s the 2024 list of “socks for others” finished! As I’ve only knitted for other people this year, once the next pair are finished, I will only be knitting for myself for at least the remainder of 2025 and possibly beyond - I need to not spend all my (limited) knitting(/sewing) time and energy making for other people so I’ve decided that I am going to say no/not offer next year. I would have liked to get the final pair mad...

    Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something Hello! It’ll be a quick post this month as I’ve run out of energy! I have, however, done some knitting and finished the socks I started last month: Yarn is a mulberry silk/yak mix from  Coastal Colours I’ve not worked with this mix of fibres before but it was lovely to knit with and knitted up beautifully, I imagine the socks will be warm but light to wear.  Mini Archie is gearing up for Advent: There’s still time to knit I a nother Christmas jumper *hopeful face*  No? *disappointed face* Maybes for next year? *hopeful face*  Linking up to the November Furtle  If you're linking up, please add a link (one per person, please) to your blog post, which could contain: a mosaic of all you've made in the month, something you've made/started/worked on, a goal which you'd like to achieve in the next month (and then in next month's post you can reflect on that goal and set yourself another...

  Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something Hello! This month has been a bit more productive and I’ve actually done some knitting! I knitted the second sock to complete the pair I started in June: I’m thrilled to finally have them finished. The yarn is a sock set from  Yarn Unique  but there wasn’t enough of the main yarn for me to knit the whole of the second foot so that sock has a bigger pink toe section: This is another thing crossed off the Fettling List  and I’ve made a start on the next thing: Once again, these are for a friend and the yarn is a Mulberry silk and yak mix from  Coastal Colours . Mini Archie is particularly keen on it: It’s a bit big but this is a verrrrry cosy hat you is making I *beams* Linking up to the October Furtle  If you're linking up, please add a link (one per person, please) to your blog post, which could contain: a mosaic of all you've made in the month, something you've made/started/worked on, a...

Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something I finished two things this month! Unfortunately, they weren’t on my Fettling List  but I really enjoyed them: My first jigsaw in quite a number of years, why did I stop?! Three pieces missing, the perils of buying a used jigsaw from eBay, I suppose. And that was where this post was going to end but Mini Archie caught wind of my plans to not tackle those sock ends before I published the post and did this: I is going to sit here and stare at you until you does these ends *hard stare* So now I have one finished sock and have just cast on its pair: All those ends! *dramatic face* Linking up to the September Furtle  If you're linking up, please add a link (one per person, please) to your blog post, which could contain: a mosaic of all you've made in the month, something you've made/started/worked on, a goal which you'd like to achieve in the next month (and then in next month's post you can reflect on ...

  Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something I’ve finished two things this month, which was a considerable shock, albeit a very pleasant one. First finished was this little clock: Read about it here And then I glued more fabric onto a background, this time rectangular: Read about it here I’ve also finished knitting the sock I started in June but haven’t yet darned in the ends, hopefully I’ll have that done and the second sock cast on by the next Furtle. I love the way a contrast cuff, heel and toe look on socks but it quadruples the number of ends to deal with (from two (very manageable) to eight (feels like a mountain to climb at times!)) so I’ll need to make a large pot of tea and then force myself to tackle them. (My rule is that I can’t start the second sock until the first is finished and that includes the ends, unfortunately!) Yarn is from Yarn Unique Mini Archie is keen to get the next sock cast on: Chip chop, let’s get these ends sorted *chivvying...

Back in 2011 when I changed my scrap storage from the ‘stuffed in freezer bags according to colour’ method to something a little better , I used sections from Dulux colour cards as the labels. Then, as the fabric collection expanded and I needed a second box for many colours, I went back but the cards had changed and the shades weren’t available so I ended up with Valspar cards instead which weren’t as good (thinner and smaller). This is what they looked like, you can see how poor the fit is of the newer cards: Where there are two boxes of each colour, the black boxes  contain FQs and the white boxes scraps Over the years, I’ve vowed to change them as the smaller cards kept falling out and being wonky, etc. but it never rose to the top of the list: I think you can see why I found them annoying! The plan had been to sew tiny scraps on the labels which came with the boxes (and which have been kept safe all these years) but that’s had to be adapted for something I can do mainly while ...

One morning last week, I went into the workroom to open the blind and realised that the little clock which has been sitting on my Fettling List for far too long awaiting a makeover for its sun-faded face had stopped several hours before. I decided that I wouldn’t put a new battery in until it was off the Fettling List, put it in The Cupboard Of Possibilities and left the room. A few minutes later, I wandered back in and started looking at anything which could become its new face: I didn’t know whether I wanted paper or fabric which is partly what has held me up but that decision was made for me as I didn’t have any suitable paper. I did toy with the idea of using this really cute panda sticker but decided against it because it looked odd when the hands were over his face and given that that’s quite a few hours in the day, it felt like he’d spend more time looking odd than looking like the panda version of Hercule Poirot with his enormous (and magnificent) moustaches. Admittedly very c...