Kilt Hose - Knitting WIP

When I was made redundant on 2nd January 2009 ("Happy" New Year!) from my job at Battersea Park Children's Zoo I tried to make the best of a bad situation. My then boyfriend had gone to study in Holland for three months, and I figured I'd finish those Kilt Hose I'd promised when I'd made the little anteater socks (see earlier post).

The yarn was pure wool, Dream in Colour, Night Watch, Double-Knit, absolutely gorgeous colours, came together beautifully and was soft and easy to work with, and smelled like sheep (not really)! Bought from Stash Yarns in Putney at a ridiculous price this was a work of art, a labour of love and would have been a gift to treasure forever. The pattern, John Anderson Kilt Hose, can be found here.

Problem is, he broke up with me about three inches away from having the second hose of the pair finished, and when I sobbed every time I tried to finish them my mother confiscated my knitting and so they are still not finished!!!

Tam o' Shanter - Crochet

Another gift for my ex-boyfriend, wasn't he lucky! Here's it's worn by me... Hideous!

*Ahem* Problem is, I don't have a clue how I made this. I just made it up as a went along, and if it was going a funny shape I'd just undo it and start again. That's the beauty of crochet as opposed to knitting, because you can't just undo a bit of knitting up to a certain point before it went wrong, it doesn't work that way! Because you're never having to hold stitches when you crochet, it's already binding itself off as you're making it, you can create and correct to your heart's content! However, you do not get the variety of stitches and shaping that you get with knitting, so I love both arts! :)

Watford United football scarf - Crochet

This was a birthday gift for my good friend Tom who supports Watford United Football club and had always wanted a supporters' scarf! It's crocheted in doubles, acrylic yarn (for easy washing, you know what boys are like!) in the club's colours. Making a crochet scarf like this is very easy, you just cast on (or whatever the equivalent is in crochet, I don't know) until you reach the width you want the scarf to be, and then crochet away! I've made several scarfs in this way, one in Gordon clan colours to match one of my friend's kilts (see below), one in "Magpie" colours for an ex who loved magpies, and one for myself to match my uniform where I used to work, to name a few!