Knitter Knatter

Posted on by April-Rose Appleby

So its Knitter Knatter number three! What have I been doing?

Well one of my co-workers is pregnant so I have been working on doing a few little baby bits on the fly using only size 4mm needles and some baby wool.

 

So as you can see the first thing I wanted to make was baby booties, it was about an hour or two max but I did it on a car ride. Safe to say I didnt really have a pattern strictly I just sort of went at the knitting of it to make a t shirt shape.  When its done it gets folded over and it makes a sort of fortune cookie easy sock bootie.

I need to get some ribbon to add to it to be honest.

Next up I worked on a little hat, I figured a little rib hat would have some stretch and style to it.

This is the little hat all sewn up.

I need to add a little bow on this too, I’ve been waiting to find out if they are having a boy or girl… well now I know I need to take a trip to the craft shop to get some pink ribbon. Mint and pink or something should go together quite sweetly. I better do some mittens to match too… OOPS!

The 2019 Project

Posted on by April-Rose Appleby

I am working a more on number 1 (write one book). Carpe Noctem is really becoming more fun the more I write.

I have booked a west end show, so that makes 2 a certainty.

The first to be completed! The successful goal was to complete one knitting project, the baby things for my work colleague is the first thing I can tick off although I am sure I will keep knitting more things this year in general.

 

24/7 Goals:

  1. Write one book
  2. See a west end show
  3. Write a second book
  4. Create/keep a writing schedule that works for me
  5. Keep working on arappleby.com
  6. Work with an agent/publisher
  7. Complete one knitting project
  8. Complete some crafting cross stitch project
  9. Keep doing daily positive aspects
  10. Complete one minor savings goal
  11. Get Christmas wrapped up early (ie. Halloween)
  12. Learn a new song on guitar
  13. Work on the schedule and make it work for this year
  14. Do another “on the fly” project
  15. Draw or sketch something to a point that you are happy with it
  16. Learn how to do winged eyeliner freehand
  17. Win the lottery
  18. Dress up and go out for an evening
  19. Buy a Kat Von D eyeliner
  20. Read five books this year minimum
  21. Get a tattoo (either finish one or get a whole new one)
  22. Create a budget that works really well
  23. Go ice skating at least once
  24. Enjoy 2019 as much as you possibly can!

Author Update (February 2019)

Posted on by April-Rose Appleby

I hope you all had a lovely Valentines or Galentines or whatever you wanted to call it this year. I spent Valentines day this year sat in front of the screen doing writing! Which was if I am honest long overdue. I procrastinated a lot recently. But we celebrated Valentines day a couple of days earlier, for those interested, we had a great day playing Mario Party and we even cooked a delicious dinner, and we watched a nice movie, and decided on an adventure together this year…

So I hope you are liking the new projects on here, knitting and wording alike. It seems this years writing trend for me has been the new Carpe Noctem story and Knitter Knatter although admittedly I haven’t exactly done much writing for the big project although there is a lot of change in the air for it.

I have been really enjoying writing Carpe Noctem but more so the fun of having an endgame to be working towards. It’s not got the same sort of certainty as the big project. Mind you, having thought about it, it doesn’t have to. I have found Knitter Knatter a bit tricky mainly because stopping and taking the odd pictures when I remember that I am meant to be doing it messes up with the flow but it is interesting to see it materialising from nothing. Though it feels unusual to write about knitting in any way other than a passing comment.

The writing schedule is still pretty easy to procrastinate on so I might need an entirely new tactic… Just got to work out the best way to move forward.

February has felt a bit more stressful than usual. I would guess putting too much pressure on myself for things beyond my control. Plus beating myself up for not writing as much or as often as I believe I should be. I love writing, but it is easy to give into the feeling of being tired. A distinct lack of energy to do anything. I’m working on that.

That no more spending rule didn’t go well this month, simply because there’s too much fun to be had. Maybe next month, there’s no Valentines day in March so more chance then…

I hope I stick to the “schedule” for March and manage to smash a few goals.

Nothing changes here in terms of throwing plugs in for my amazon books on my author page…

May luck and adventure be on your side!

ARA

xxx

Knitter Knatter

Posted on by April-Rose Appleby

So its the second Knitter Knatter and this does still feel a bit weird, I don’t normally write about knitting… Not like this anyway. So I put down the spiral knit blanket for a while for a break and have been back at it working on the cable knit jumper from hell! I think I originally found this pattern a few years ago in a library book, god knows which one, so I was cheeky and made a copy of the pattern so I could give it a go… Sure I’ve written on my notes…

It helps to write on notes but to also make yourself a cheat sheet, especially with a cable knit to see how you are doing and where you are in the pattern, especially when parts of it have to match up… I used a cheap red and blue biro to be able to work everything out and be able to spot it easily.

I found a curved cable needle much easier than a regular straight cable needle easier. The cable pattern is done over 25 stitches so it is a bit of a mission to get perfect and its a repeating 14 row pattern at that.

This is the front panel and it has the extended collar pattern which means that stitch holders were my best friends in this instance. But It came out pretty well, though its very “boxy” looking.  Continue reading →

The 2019 Project

Posted on by April-Rose Appleby

Well so far I am working on 1. write one book already, and part of that means 4. create/keep a writing schedule that works for me is a given. Hopefully this new balance will help with number 5. keep working on arappleby.com to really make this more of what I had thought it could be.

Lets see how next month will go but there are a few goals going at once this month to see what I can start to tick off one by one. fingers crossed.

24/7 Goals:

  1. Write one book
  2. See a west end show
  3. Write a second book
  4. Create/keep a writing schedule that works for me
  5. Keep working on arappleby.com
  6. Work with an agent/publisher
  7. Complete one knitting project
  8. Complete some crafting cross stitch project
  9. Keep doing daily positive aspects
  10. Complete one minor savings goal
  11. Get Christmas wrapped up early (ie. Halloween)
  12. Learn a new song on guitar
  13. Work on the schedule and make it work for this year
  14. Do another “on the fly” project
  15. Draw or sketch something to a point that you are happy with it
  16. Learn how to do winged eyeliner freehand
  17. Win the lottery
  18. Dress up and go out for an evening
  19. Buy a Kat Von D eyeliner
  20. Read five books this year minimum
  21. Get a tattoo (either finish one or get a whole new one)
  22. Create a budget that works really well
  23. Go ice skating at least once
  24. Enjoy 2019 as much as you possibly can!