Archie The Wonder Dog

It’s time to tie up Fettle Those Finishes! 2023 and for us all to write a report about our progress this year. I’ll start us off, shall I? Here’s list I and list II and my progress report from July, plus my  end of year report from 2022 . At the start of the year, I sorted out my sock knitting records and now they’re all transcribed onto a card for each person (or more than one card if a lot of socks have been knitted, I think I have three!) and the system is working very well, much better than the pile of paper I had previously. Read about the knitting record cards here Fettling Score = 1 Throughout the year, I’ve knitted twelve pairs of socks for other people (well, thirteen but one wasn’t on the list *shakes head*): Fettling Score = 13 In July, I had 60 socks-in-waiting in the sock lucky dip album (yes, it’s a thing) and I’m ending the year with 56 despite having knitted ten pairs for me, which means a few have been added in the last six months (not always by me, honest!) so I ne

Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something Hello and welcome to our final furtle of the year! This is going to be quick as I’ve got my end of year report to write for my Fettling List and the 2024 Fettling post to write as well as sorting my own list *gulps* This month, I have finished two pairs of socks: Read about these socks here Read about these socks here And I’ve started another pair: Yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners ‘Wood Pigeon’ (864) Mini Archie has enjoyed the festive season: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Linking up to the December 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 one - I find this particularly handy if I'm in the midst of a

I love this sock yarn (Opal ‘Weather Peak’ (11155)) but it was a bit of a sod to find the right starting point for the second sock so that it would match the first one - I ended up winding off quite a bit to find it and even then I wasn’t sure I was right until I was at the heel. I probably could have got away with not even attempting to match them, but I’m glad I did. It was well worth the effort, though, and I think the leftovers will work well in a future pair of scrappy socks.  I think I’m going to have a sort out of the leftovers box soon and check I’m happy with all the ‘kits’ I assembled in 2022 and place any new leftovers into new kits/incorporate them into existing ones. This will help me write my 2024 Fettling List once I’ve sorted my end of year report. The link for the end of year Fettle Those Finishes reports will open on 31st December, as will the (separate) December Furtle. Then the link for the 2024 Fettle Those Finishes will open on 1st January. I’ll try to give you lo

Surprise, I’ve knitted another pair of socks! They’re incredibly difficult to photograph: I took these photos (in the same room) within seconds of each other but on different backgrounds and I’m not convinced the colours are quite right in any of them! The dark sections are a mix of blue and green which is, I think, why they tend to look green or blue but not a mix of both. They’re really pretty when you see them in person. The yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners ‘Woodland Awakening’ (1025) which is part of the collaboration they did with Zandra Rhodes and watching where each colour was going to land made them quick to knit as there was always another colour coming up in a few stitches. It won’t surprise you that I’ve already made a start on the next pair: Yarn is Opal 11155 ‘Weather Peak’ I has been telled in no uncertain terms to vacate mine spiffing hooded sleeping bag. It must be so it can be finished *confident face*

  Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something This month has been another sock month. I’ve knitted this pair using the leftovers from two balls (a friend bought both of us a ball of this WYS Brightside and she gave me her leftovers so I could make another pair): Yarn is WYS Brightside (874) And this pair, which are the one hundredth pair I’ve knitted: Yarns are all from  Made By Penguins , five minis (she has lots for sale and they’re perfect for socks) and a leftover from a previous pair I’ve also knitted the first sock in pair one hundred and one: Yarn is WYS Woodland Awakening (1025), one of the collection by Zandra Rhodes Mini Archie has been watching all of this and wondering why none of it seems to be for him.  No, I isn’t practicing mine knitting pattern poses, I is watching for Pirates *dignified 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 mosa

I recently realised that I was approaching my one hundredth pair of socks and Mr Random Number Generator thrilled me by choosing a ‘kit’ from my Sock Lucky Dip album which consisted entirely of yarn from  Made By Penguins . I started with these: And after not very much knitting at all (we all know that stripes go faster), I had these: Usually, I make socks which match but for these I fancied stripy and co-ordinated but not matching, just for something different. I started by choosing two cuff colours and decided that they would swap over for the toes. I also decided that I’d use one of the six yarns for both heels and that I’d do regular (ten round) stripes. I also decided that I wouldn’t weave in the ends as I knitted as I’m not keen on the uneven stitches I get as a result so I thought I’d see how tedious darning in all the ends afterwards was. I was pleasantly surprised and found it very satisfying, which bodes well for future scrappy socks. I did my usual diagonal path, darning the

Continuing with my unintentional year of the sock, I’ve finished another pair. These are made with the leftovers from two balls of WYS Brightside, one from a pair I knitted and the other from a pair my friend knitted. They’re both the same dye lot so I assumed that it would be as easy as knitting two socks from the same ball and getting the colour changes to match but that was very much not the case. The first sock, which was knitted all from one ball, went smoothly but when I came to knitting the leg of the second sock, from the other ball, I had constant trouble trying to get the changes to match. Fortunately, once I got to the point where I could swap back to the first ball, things went a lot better. A (different) friend said that although they’re the same dye lot, that will be comprised of many hanks and if one has a tighter twist than the other, they won’t knit up exactly the same. Which makes sense when you think about it and made me feel a lot better about my knitting consistenc

Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something This month, I’ve sewn up the Luna Lapin jumpers knitted eleven dishcloths and knitted a pair of socks Yarn is ‘Rimjhim’ by Dusty Dimples The yarn has lovely speckles of colours, it really is beautiful. Needless to say, Mini Archie is still a bit miffed that the dishcloths aren’t blankets for him and his chums and, well… These is ours, I is merely reclaiming them *firm yet dignified face* 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 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 one - I find this particularly handy if I'm in the midst of a big project and finding the making of hundreds of blocks to be interminable), anything crafty

I’ve got another tick on my Fettling List to report which has increased my Fettling Points total quite nicely. Last week, I’d made two from each ball of cotton and now I’ve made three more using the leftovers: The bottom two are made from alternating two yarns, the top is broad stripes of each one: I love the way the bottom two look like they’re knitted from whole balls rather than striped leftovers.  Here they are laid out with the non-scrappy cloths on either side of them so you can see the difference between the scrappy and the non scrappy: And here’s them all in a nice neat pile, eleven* Fettling Points all stacked together and looking, if I may say, lovely: Sheila  said that each cloth deserved its own point and I agree, so a point a cloth it is. From this to this, with over 50,000 stitches in between: Dishcloths from dk cotton: Cast on 60sts on 3mm needles, knit 80 rows, cast off.  For I, yes? I and mine chums is in need of new blankets for winter…

 Having added dishcloths to my Fettling List after receiving some gorgeous hand-dyed cotton, I decided that they would be my reward for finishing the tiny jumpers and I set to the moment the jumpers were finished (I’m really not kidding!). This is how they looked in the skein: Yarn is from  Made By Penguins This is how they looked wound: And this is how they look knitted into dishcloths: Each dishcloth weighs about 38g and I have about 31g left of each so I’m going to combine them to make scrappy dishcloths; I’m hoping for another three. I’ve started by combining the two yarns on the right in the ‘wound’ photo (bottom two in the photo above) in simple stripes, two rows of each, and it’s going well: I’ll hopefully be back with more dishcloths (and no yarn left) quite soon and then I’ll have to make up my mind how many Fettling Points I award myself: one for each dishcloth or one between them *dithers* or an option I haven’t yet thought of.   Are you making good progress this month?

Earlier this year, several felty chums of Mini Archie were worried about how they would keep warm this winter and I was tasked with providing jumpers to keep them toasty. Firstly, to check the fit,  I made a test jumper which fitted all of them well , they placed their order, it was added to the Fettling List  and Mini Archie put it to the top of my order of works list.  I started them last month and by the time it came to furtle for September’s progress , I had three jumpers in pieces which had been soaked and blocked, ready for sewing up.  Penny had already bought some gorgeous metal buttons from Cool Crafting  (as used in the jumper on the pattern ) and had them sent here so there was nothing stopping me from making a start with the sewing up.  Well, nothing bar my dislike of sewing up knitting, that is. However, Mini Archie gave me a stern talking to and then pulled on my heartstrings with tales of nithered chums. Naturally, I set to.  At first, I was going to sew up each jumper