Santa Claus done and now a hat for the snow!!

Happy snow day!!

Last night I finally finished making the jean greenhowe santa (http://www.jeangreenhowe.com/christmas.html) just in time to wake up this morning to a blanket of snow! What a good way to begin the festive run up to christmas. I have attached pictures of the finished product.

                                           Cosied up next to the fire!!

You won't believe how hard it was to get those photos...my little dog Fred adores the camera and likes nothing better than to pose in front of it...he wants to be Irelands next top model it appears and he does not like it when the camera is not focused solely on him!! :p

                          There he is...sticking his head in!!!


So I have started my next project!! This time a hat for my lovely fiance! He saw a hat in this seasons knit simple mag (an american mag published seasonly - I find the american mags much better value than the monthly british mags). The website address is www.knitsimplemag.com and I have attached a pic of the hat from the mag below. He decided he really wanted this hat although I have never attempted anything like it before and upon first reading the pattern never thought I would be able.

Its knitted in the round on double pointed needles (so no seam)!! I have never done this before..first time..so I sat down and decided to teach myself...found a few videos on youtube which explained how to do it and got to work. Attached are some pics of how far I have gotten (without making any mistakes...well proud of myself!!).

It is supposed to be knitted with a mostly merino wool however I am doing it on the cheap and picked an acrylic cotton like wool which I bought in hickeys in Galway. I think it is tivoli but I will have to check that. I picked the colour to match a scarf that he already has..its not the exact same but close.You can see in the second picture I have a stitch marker placed to mark the end of the round. The stitch markers curtesy are of my mother when she went to the knitting and stitching show in the RDS.

When I finish this project I plan on starting a little winter jacket for Fred (just so he can pose in it for the camera - he will love that) and to keep him warm in the snow! :p

If anyone has any questions about anything I have posted please do leave me a comment!!

From snowy Galway,

Helena

An introduction to me and this blog!

Hhhhmmm...where to start..this is my first attempt at a blog so I guess I will start with a little bit about me and why I have decided to start a blog. Well as you can see from the above title..my name is Helena...or "d moms" as I am known as by my wee doggie Fred and my hubby to be! I am from the lovely little cultural city of Galway on Irelands west coast and a definate Galway girl to boot (minus the black hair and green eyes but a Galway girl all the same). I am a scientist by career but an art, craft and hobby enthusiast in my spare time! My favorite thing to do is knit..hence my blog "Helena ag Cniotail" which in English I think is "Helena Knitting"..although my ability to speak and also understand the Irish language appears to have deserted me upon leaving school! And although this blog will primarily center around knitting I would also like to mention that my love of all things crafty does not end there....I have also been known to do a little scrapbooking, card making, drawing, painting and so on. I will try my hand at anything and am always looking for a new craft!! And that is what I intend this blog to be about, all my creative attempts! At the moment I am focusing on mine and hubby to be's upcoming wedding and how I can get the creative juices flowing to make it a day that is unique to us and to our personalities (sooooo exciting :D) and in the rest of my spare time (if it is not all taken up by wedding preparations)...I plan to teach myself some new knitting techniques and step away from the size 3mm standard knitting needle and double knitting wool and also teach myself how to crochet! I can not believe I am knitting since I was seven and never tried to knit with double pointed needles or to crochet!!! Shocking really!!! :O At the moment I am finishing off knitting a Jean Greenhowe pattern for Santa Claus (http://www.jeangreenhowe.com/) to add to the festive decorations this year.  He is off the needles and in the process of being sewn and stuffed! 

Well that is all I have time for at the moment. I am graduating with my Masters tomorrow so I need to go get all my things ready so I won't be running around like a headless chicken in the morning!! I hope if I get time later to upload what I have done so far with the Santa and over the next week or so I plan on compiling a portfolio of pictures of some of my work to date (although I have a terrible habit of giving all my crafted items away as gifts so this may be difficult).

Until then,

from a knitaholic first time blogger,

Helena  :D