Lucy – Page 2 – Hopefully Creative

Believe: An MKAL the Lasso Way

Another mystery knit, now in shades of blue.

I must preface this by saying that I haven’t watched a full episode of Ted Lasso, so most of the jokes in the pattern went entirely over my head. Still, the experience of participating in Believe: An MKAL the Lasso Way by Mary Annarella was a lot of fun.

Three skeins of yarn in shades of blue and one in yellow — Clue 1

It required 4 skeins of yarn, one needed to be high contrast with all the others but those three didn’t need high contrast between them. I settled on dyeing them in three shades of blue and one bright yellow. The blues are a combination of Aqua Tropic as a base with either Teal or Turquoise added. For the yellow, I had to dye a second skein because the first one ended up too orange.

Unfortunately, the main knitting method for this scarf was extremely similar to the other Mystery Knit Along that I was participating in at practically the same time: Funfetti MKAL. However, this one had opposite increases and decreases from Funfetti so I had to pay close attention to which one I was working on. What was fun was that these sections were much more manageable and different. There are some repeat stitch patterns but all in all that went very well.

Two parts of a scarf in three shades of blue and one of yellow. — Clue 5

Since there are many colours here too, there were a lot of ends to weave in. The forums quickly shared a good method for weaving as you go. So that made it all a lot less annoying. Once there were two equal parts of the scarf, we knit points. Those two sections were then three needle bind-offed together to get a nice diagonal stripe across.

Backside of a scarf in three shades of blue and one of yellow. — Backside

Scarf in three shades of blue and one of yellow being blocked — Backside

I like this scarf. The colours are nice and it’s very long so I can wrap it und my neck twice and still have length leftover. This was very unexpected as I was not on gauge and expected the thing to turn out much smaller. The yarn is decent enough, but it isn’t as warm and cosy as the alpaca sock yarn that I tend to want to use. It has already seen the outside world and I expect that it will do that more often when the weather calls for it.

Funfetti Mystery Knit

Knitting a mystery rainbow scarf.

January 29 was the start of my next Mystery Knit Along (MKAL), this one was
Funfetti MKAL by : : : Katie Degroff Knits : : :. It called for 200 grams ish of fingering weight yarn, and then 200 grams ish of two or six or twelve contrast colours. I opted to split two skeins of Alpaca 4 ply into three, so I wound up with six colours. Since I just purchased new yarn dye in almost a rainbow, I figured that would be a great way to test those too.

2 large purple skeins and 6 mini skeins in a rainbow. — Yarns

2 large purple balls of yarn and 6 mini balls in a rainbow. — Yarns

The main colour was then a combination of violet and periwinkle. The contrasts were A: Neon Red, B: Neon Orange, C: Neon Yellow, D: Blacklight Blue, E: Aqua Tropic and F: Crocodile Green. Most of the colours work well together although the Crocodile Green does feel like the odd one out. Out of my new dyes, Croc Green, Aqua and Neon Yellow are my favourites.

When it came to knitting, it was a lot per installment. The construction was interesting. We started with a diamond shape with rounds in the different colours. Then we put that one aside and started working on a section where you increase in the middle but eventually start decreasing on the ends, so you end up with a ‘house’ shape. We did that for a few of the clues before going back to clue one and starting to add to that one too.

The final clue was to fill in two rectangles to connect the two sections we had been working on. This was quite satisfying because it was the last clue and a much smaller number of stitches. I was debating whether to do the colour changes at the end because it would leave so many ends, and while I decided to go for it, I opted out of the last colour and only did five colours. I think this worked fine.

The end result is a long rectangular scarf, with one of the short ends straight and the other side pointed. Since there are so many colour changes, weaving in the ends was a project in and of itself. It really is quite big. I don’t think I should opt for 400 gram scarves in the future. This one will end up being gifted away since I’m not enjoying the purple colour for anything I would wear.

Still, the MKAL was well organized. The forums were fun and the designer was very helpful. I just chose colours that I didn’t like even though the yarn I used was great.

EDC v2

A nice new pouch for all the stuff I lug around on the daily.

Every Day Carry – the amount of stuff you just bring with you daily ‘just in case’. Mine used to be in a pouch I made in 2018, but recently I wanted to downsize. I had managed to remove some items from the original pouch and it just looked sad and floppy. I went on the internet and looked around for nice pouch patterns that I could make and stumbled upon the ‘Pencil case with layer‘, which is also a YouTube video.

So I wandered back upstairs for the bin with pouch materials and came down with exactly the same fabrics as the originals were made of. I liked the idea of the pocket on the top even if I didn’t want the extra layer for pen(cil)s. I also wanted a carrier strap. I made an estimated guess of how big the thing needed to be and made myself a ‘pattern’ in Microsoft Word-shapes based on the original.

I skipped all the interfacing steps, since the original held up for 8 years (and still isn’t breaking), I figured it was fine as is. I grabbed a fun length of zipper and got to work. Since I had a tiny bit of the black shrooms leftover, I made two parts out of that. I also opted out of finishing everything super nicely, this stuff doesn’t fray. I ended up with a nice little pouch with a pocket in the top for pens and my spoon, and enough space in the main compartment for anything else. I love that it’s flatter and shorter and so far, it’s been doing well!

Ps. for those who looked back at the original post. I did not, in fact, make a cover for my scooter in a reasonable timeframe…

Kingfisher!

A little embroidered kingfisher in different shades of blue.

I have been engaged in mystery knit alongs (tip, don’t try to do two at the same time that both require lots of knitting) and have had little time to do anything else. However, before I got distracted by those, I finished some more cross stitch patterns!

The first was a really small but super cute bird by LaSelvaDesign. It used more colours than most of the other projects I’ve done, but sometimes only three or five stitches. I love how it came out. The different shades of blue really complement each other and bring some sort of depth?

It’s framed in something that looks woodish but is actually plastic and flexible. Since I left so much fabric around it, it’s been a bit hard to get into this frame, but it does look really nice on my wall. Adorable, if I say so myself.

Project	Kingfisher
Author	LaSelvaDesign
Type	Pattern only
Search words	kingfisher; bird
Location	Drive
#stitches	353
Purchased	09-01-2026
Date started	17-02-2026
Date finished	20-02-2026

Mr. Frog

Victorian vibes with frogs, ghosts, cats and candles.

In the ‘big haul of small cross stitch patterns’, I also found this cute Family Portrait. It’s an almost Victorian looking frog in a top hat with a little cat looking in on the left, a big ghost looking in on the right and a tiny frog in a little frame in the back.

Partially completed Family Portrait embroidery with the beginnings of a frog and a ghost.

It was a lot of fun to see all the little bits appearing while working on it. I also liked the full coverage of this project. The cream from the shirt was the last colour that was working, so I could already envision what the end result would look like.

Completed Family Portrait embroidery with a frog, a cat and a ghost.

I now have seven bits of embroidery on the wall. The vibes of this one are a bit different from the others, but I think it still works together. I hope that another small thing will fit on the right string, so I’m working on that at the moment!

Project	Family Portrait
Author	nathnolu
Type	Pattern only
Search words	frog; ghost; black cat; striped wallpaper; top hat
Location	Drive
#stitches	1575
Purchased	09-01-2026
Date started	19-01-2029
Date finished	21-01-2026

Fishy!

Be what you want, now in embroidery.

It was a co-workers birthday recently, and I wanted to make a thing. So I looked around Etsy and found this cute fish with an attitude. It seemed to fit well so I bought and made it.

Completed embroidery of an orange fish in a fish tank wearing a shark fin with Mindset is everything under it.

Quick project with interesting colours. The oranges seemed extremely different from each other while working with it, but they go well together once completed. I later debated whether I should’ve done the background in a different colour, but I think the blue bowl makes it separate enough from the background. I chose to put it in a gold frame because my co-worker is a sparkly lady.

Project	Mindset is everything
Author	MaxStitchesArt
Type	Pattern only
Search words	goldfish; shark; mindset
Location	Drive
#stitches	1346
Purchased	09-01-2026
Date started	15-01-2026
Date finished	18-01-2026

Bubbles

Black makes this pastel bubble really pop.

I wanted some small approachable embroidery projects, so off to Etsy I went. The designer of this one had a few more creatures in bubbles but this one really caught my eye. The little manta ray is so like what you see when you walk through one of those aquarium tunnels in the zoo.

Embroidered pastel Manta ray in a bubble on black fabric.

Framed embroidered pastel Manta ray in a bubble on black fabric.

Since it was so pastel in its colours, it needed a dark base to pop. However, that also meant that I couldn’t really put a 10×10 grid on it, like I normally do. And with so many ‘free floating’ bits, this meant a lot more counting. I liked the outcome, but I didn’t enjoy working on black all that much because it is so much harder without the grid handhold. Still, lovely addition to the embroidery wall!

Project	Bubble Manta Ray
Author	TizaThreadArt
Type	Pattern only
Search words	bubble; manta ray
Location	Drive
#stitches	675
Purchased	09-01-2026
Date started	18-01-2026
Date finished	19-01-2026

Dinosaur Kisses

Black and white with a pop of love.

I haven’t yet found a ‘Ravelry’ for cross stitch. There’s Pattern Keeper, where you can store your patterns and mark which stitches have been completed, but you can’t mark when you started (or finished). That seemed to be the type of information I also found very useful in Ravelry so I started a spreadsheet.

Partially completed embroidery of two cute dinosaurs kissing.

For this project for example, I’ve got:

Project	Dino Kisses
Author	MegC
Type	Pattern only
Search words	t-rex; dinosaur; kissing; heart; skeleton
Location	Drive
#stitches	5175
Purchased	23-10-2025
Date started	26-12-2025
Date finished	07-01-2026

Completed embroidery of two cute dinosaurs kissing.

Framed completed embroidery of two cute dinosaurs kissing.

It took me two months from purchase to start but only two-ish weeks to finish the project. Pretty decent going with only three colours. I did the heart first, then the skeletons and then completed the bodies of the faT-rexes. I made two changes to the original pattern; I didn’t do one stitch on the bottom of the left foot of the right dinosaur, since it didn’t seem to belong there. On the right foot of the left dinosaur, I made the bottom toe-bean black and didn’t make it stick out below. I really like how they turned out, but endless black did become a little bit of a chore.

Alien Mob

Leftovers can make cute things.

Sometimes you just want to make little things with leftover yarn. Right?

Meet the Alien Mob! A collection of 7 knit aliens in different colours, all made from the same pattern: Mini Alien by Barbara Prime.

There’s Blue (from this sweater), White (from this sweater), Yellow (from this cowl), Turquoise (from this sweater), Mottled (from this shawl), Grey (from this sweater) and Green (from this project).

Knit in the round, very few stitches, quick and easy. They have antennae from different offcuts of the Cowlopus leftovers. There are 7 mm safety eyes and a tiny mouth from the Highland Tea Cowsy. It was fun to just make some tiny bobbly creatures and not worry too much about them.

Ophelia..Pants?

Some denim no-longer-overall-pants.

When I made the original Ochre Ophelia Overalls (Decades of Style 108), I immediately became interested in making some pants out of the pattern too. It took some time, but I finally got around to it. I chose a dark denim-y fabric of which the origins are unclear to me. From the original Ophelia I knew that I didn’t need the button plackets, so I left those off. The only pattern changes to make were to cut down the back pieces so that there was no strap section. I just left off the front bib pieces. There might have been more minor adjustments to the height of the top edge, but I don’t recall.

Front view of dark pants with big pockets and side ties.

Side view of dark pants with big pockets and side ties.

After putting all the pieces on my fabric and cutting them out, I set to work. I followed the instructions apart from installing the plackets, the sides were just sewn shut. For the topstitching, I wanted to have a contrasting thread along the major seams. Although, I didn’t feel like rethreading my machine every time, so I grabbed the hand crank from 1901 and threaded that one. The width of the foot on that on made for a lovely distance for the top stitching.

Detail of side of dark pants with big pockets and side ties.

To finish the waistband, I added a wide bias tape and stitched that down with my topstitch. I added the straps with d-rings and an extra one to hang my keys from. These pockets are again large and on the side and I love them. These pants are a lot stiffer than the Overalls, so they wear a little bit differently. I’ve also needed to develop a different technique for quick undoing of the sides, since these straps are stiffer too. All in all, I still like these and plan to wear them when the weather is nicer.

Pockets!

Category: Lucy