YOTD: Stylecraft Life Aran

Happy Thursday Everyone!! I had another successful trip to Bluewater and the good old Odd Ball Bin in Johtsn Lewis and found some fabulous Aran weights so I decided to start this Aran-Fest with a good basic reasonable one. 

Today's YOTD is Stylecraft Life Aran. Stylecraft is a great brand and does some really reasonable yarn at a great price and lots of yardage on the balls. I love the brand, and use the DK a lot for toys. I had a 100g ball for a pair of slippers for my mum, and it wasn't enough so I had to buy another. With the leftovers I made this hat below. 

This yarn comes in 100g balls and is a blend of 75% Acrylic and 25% Wool, so it is very durable. You get 198m on a ball, which is great for aran, and it comes in lots of colours. It knits on 5mm needles and the tension over 10 cm is 18sts over 24 rows. It is a really soft yarn and very pretty. This is normally about £3.00 a ball. The link goes to Deramores and they have all Stylecraft on offer this week, so you get 10% off. 

The colourway I have here is Parchment and is a very light tan brown. It is great to work with, and easy to care for. I loved knitting with it, because it was not in any way problematic. Not splitty, no knots or fluffs, just a good yarn. It is a basic yarn that is useful for all types of projects. It also comes in pinks, reds, blues and the parchment I have. This hat pattern will be coming up in a POTD soon. The other great thing is that all the colours available in aran are also available in chunky, DK, 4 ply and super chunky.

Now this yarn is machine washable, tumble driable and you can iron it too so great for clothing for anyone, as is so easy to take care of. A great yarn and I will most definitely buy it again, a great stash staple.

In Stash we Bust

I can safely say...Yes! Lots of it for that matter!! This week has most definately been a productive one, especially where my stash is coming from because I had an organising week. I sorted it all out into its new homes (a laundry bin for the DK and a box covered in airplanes for the rest of it) and now I have a great list of all of it, weights and amounts. Fabulous.

Now what I am going to do with it? Well I was originally knitting a lot of baby bits and pieces, being inspired by my baby nephew (who is over the 8 pound mark now-yay) and our first cuddle two weeks ago. But this has been put on hold for stash busting, and later this week, shawl and veil knitting. 

I used this pattern yesterday to knit a hat for the Blattman, and he wore it all night so Im guessing he likes it. This is a ravelry pattern so you have to sign up to see it, and frankly you need to. If you are a knitter and not on ravelry, you have problems!! The picture below is from the pattern itself and not mine, mine is knit in Life Aran in Parchment.

Hats are great for stash busting, you can get one or two from a skein and normally three from 2 skeins and they are quick knits and you feel really productive which is always a winner.

This week for our Lent Prayer shawl KAL/CAL I am intending on knitting the half lace chapel veil in black for our trip to Rome hopefully this year, so I can cover in the presence of the Pope. Its going to be a nightmare I think but Im going full Lace, and hopefully the prayers in it won't just be for me to finish the row without a mistake!

Also on my mind this week... The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir and new Revlon Scented Nail Varnish in Watermelon Fizz

The Blattscarf- Our first knitting pattern

Hi All,
welcome to the blog again, this is going to be our first knitting pattern, its not overly technical or very difficult, it was in fact the first thing that the Blattman knitted, and is fantastic for the beginner knitter. It takes one ball of wool and you just keep knitting until the ball is finished. You can make it as long and as wide as you want as you get more experienced.

Needles: 10mm
Yarn: Stylecraft Life Superchunky 100g ball

Cast on 15 stitches
Garter Stitch (knit every row) for 80cm or 31 inches.
Cast off knitwise

Wear it out and about. This is a nice thick scarf and great for men, the Blattman has made a few of these now for the fussy men in our family and it has gone down really well

Happy Knitting