Knitting epiphanies - When the wrong way turns out to be the best way

My reading week was spent knitting a load of snoods over the reading week for a craft fair my auntie was doing, I figured they're popular now and people are more likely to buy them (and they did), I just have one left. Here are some of them, note that they are smaller than my snood which is enormous and sit more closely round the neck which is much better!

I love the cabling on them and they were nice and quick to make!! The purple one is still left over though, one lady must have tried it on a million times but didn't buy it :-(

Anyway, I've since moved on to bigger and more challenging things, I've decided to start my most complicated knitting pattern to date, I'm knitting a Dr Who Dalek!! I'm so excited by this project and it's not at all repetitive, it requires a lot of concentration so it's more fun to knit than other things however it involves a lot of techniques I've never used before. I'm using double knit wool and 4mm needles but I think it's still going to be enormous, we'll see...

Knitting this dalek has caused me to have an epiphany, an epiphany related to knitting bobbles! My Dalek pattern has a lot of 'mb' in it, or 'make bobble' and I've never had the need to make bobbles up until this point. So I did what I always do, read up on it, watched you tube videos and followed the instructions on the pattern but my bobbles didn't really look like bobbles and they definitely didn't look like the bobbles on the pattern writer's Dalek. In fact every bobble seemed to look different! So I kept trying and today I came to it and was merrily knitting away at my bobble when I realised that I'd knitted my bobble wrong! I'd knitted where I was supposed to be purling and I changed back to the original coloured wool/yarn a little later than I was meant to. Swearing away at myself I feared the worst and went to look at what I'd done, and what had I done? I appeared to have made a perfect bobble, one which looked like the ones in the pictures! So to check it wasn't a fluke I used my new 'method' for the next bobble and that bobble looked perfect too. So I made a note on the pattern and decided to use my new technique for bobble making instead of the original instructions. Now, I am a person who tends to follow instructions religiously, when I'm cooking, when I'm crafting, when I'm putting together furniture... because I panic that if I don't it's all going to go wrong! So what was my epiphany? Sometimes, just because one way is meant to be the right way it doesn't necessarily mean it's the only way. And sometimes mistakes are a blessing because they open your eyes to a new way of doing things. And finally, just because it's the 'right' way it doesn't always mean that it's the best way. So if you stumble across something which makes your life a lot easier then don't be afraid to go with it because one size doesn't always fit all!

I'm sure I'll be back soon reporting on how my Dalek is doing! I also have another project in the pipeline, I bought a dress today from Asda for Christmas parties and I had wanted a dress with a bit of sparkle but this dress doesn't have any (however it looked good and was too much of a bargain to pass up)! Never fear, I plan to get myself some sequins and sew them onto my dress to make it a bit more sparkly and original! I'll definitely be back with pics.

What's in my head? A rundown...

I haven't blogged for a while and that's because there's nothing going on which lends itself to one post on a particular subject, and also because I've been wrapped up in a university essay! So instead I'm just going to write everything down that's going through my head (craft related of course!) just so you can all see what lies ahead.

Snoods: These are EVERYWHERE at the moment. Karen knitted herself one and Jane sneakily got her mum to knit her one! My friend bought one in Primark the other day for £5 and while she was trying it out I was wondering whether I could make one for cheaper. The decision was ultimately 'of course I can'! So I picked up some chunky wool that would go well with the colour of my coat (which is a plum colour so some colours might clash!) and have just started knitting myself one in a simple 2x2 ribbing.

As an aside, me and my friend can't agree, is snood pronounced with the 'oo' sounding like in food or like in hood? I was arguing for it being more like the oo in hood, so I say 'snud' and she says 'snoooood'. Haha.

Christmas presents: It's looming, I even went to the turning on of the Christmas lights in my city the other day (and there were lots of freebies and free wine on offer which makes a poor student very happy!) so I'm aware I need to get thinking about pressies. Last year I bought my mum a cake stand because she was insistent that she wanted one, however since I bought it for her it's never had any cake on it and spends it's life as more of a posh fruit bowl! So I've decided that I'm going to make her some Christmas cupcakes (in the style of mini Christmas cakes) so that she can actually put her cake stand to good use! I might also make her a dress, but am still a bit undecided about that.
For my dad, I want to make him my own version of a sweetie selection box. So I'm going to find a plastic toolbox or tupperware with lots of little compartments and fill it with his favourite sweets.
My brothers probably won't appreciate anything I make so I'll probably have to shell out for something for them as they're of an age where designer labels are the most important thing ever!
My housemates also want to do a Secret Santa and they've decided that we should try and make our gifts handmade where possible, this was decided on the same day I gave one housemate her knitted hat for her birthday so I think I may have swayed this idea! So it sounds like there'll be a lot of sewing and knitting going on in the next two months!

Other Christmassy stuff: I've decided I want to have a go at making my own Christmas crackers. I saw the snaps in Hobbycraft and thought I could have a lot of fun making my own and personalising them for my family members! However my mum usually has a specific colour scheme for the table at Christmas so I need to find out what that is before I get started! Toilet roll tube collecting starts now! ;-)

Sewing: I go home for reading week on Thursday which means I'll finally be reunited with my sewing machine and will be able to make the skirt I've been wanting to make for the past month! You see I bought this skirt from Topshop (well I bought it for 1/3 of the price off eBay!):

 

However, when it arrived it was a lot shorter than I would have liked so I sold it on eBay for the same price I bought it at and decided I'd make my own longer length version (though probably not identical to this) since it's an easy make! At first I was unsure about the colour and what I'd wear it with but I'm now at the point where I have so many outfits planned around this skirt that I need to have my own version! I haven't found any fabric yet so I'm just hoping I can find the right fabric in the right colour, fingers crossed for me please!
I'm also going on a night out so I might be making myself a dress/outfit for that too, but I'll keep you posted!

Other bits and bobs: I found these amazing Monkey Cop Cosies on Ravelry but I'm struggling with knitting the ears!

The first one I knitted was a bit pointy so I thought maybe I'd make a cat instead but the second one wasn't pointy and so far every ear I've knitted has looked different which is very frustrating so I've put the project to one side for now!