In Praise of Kits
There is something so satisfying about kits, whether for knitting or sewing. Everything comes in one neat little package and you know you have all the material to do the job.
I was at Woolfest in Cumbria on Saturday, which was an amazing day out featuring some cute alpacas and a very grumpy sheep (I never knew what a hacked off sheep sounded like - now I do). I was pleased to snare three new knitting kits and a felt brooch kit during my shopping spree, although you'll have to wait for a bit to see the finished results.
What I have for you today is the Three Bunnies Knit Kit from Gift Horse Knit Kits who sell via Not On The High Street.com. The kit cost £20 including free postage. For your kit, you choose two colours of wool from which you make three bunnies; one in each colour and then one striped.
I went for the humbug variegated yarn and plain tan. The kit is very comprehensive in terms of its contents: yarn, knitting needles, felt for the facial features, buttons, thread, stuffing, needle and of course the pattern. I liked it that the kit included some extra yarn in case you ran out.
The yarn is a chunky weight but knitted on 3mm needles. I didn't use the bamboo needles provided but turned to my trusty Signature needles. I did find that I had to watch my tension as you can make the knitting too tight with the yarn being so thick.
Each bunny is knitted as two pieces, with a separation for the ears. The ears are pretty easy though, even, for a beginner as you leave the one you're not working on on the needle.
I decided to use safety eyes rather than embroidered ones so I put the eyes in before making up. I also glued on the felt nose and, for the plain bunny, added the cute little heart button provided.
To make up the bunnies, you sewed wrong sides together apart from the base and then stuffed with toy filling before sewing up the gap. The instructions suggested tying a length of yarn around each ear for additional definition but liked the ears just as they were.
As a finishing touch, the kit provided beautiful wooden buttons to use as the bunny's tail. If you position these correctly, they enable the bunny to stand up without support, which is pretty cool.
My personal addition was to glue on a cute fabric bow on each bunny's ear.
I really loved this kit and, for once, was quite happy to knit three of the same thing. You may at this stage be wondering what happened to bunny number three? I actually gave that one to my mum as a gift so she's not available for photographs this week :)
Melx
Happy Anniversary
It's just over a year since I learned to knit. I've knitted dozens of items of assorted quality during that time, building up from simple garter stitch to this week where I find myself in the middle an intarsia bag with nine yarn bobbins dangling from it (you might have to wait a week ot two to see the final results of this one).
However, to celebrate my first year as a knitter, I decided to go back to basics with this super simple glasses case.
I saw the project in July 2011's edition of Knit Today magazine in an article by Nicki Trench about teaching children to knit. I am never put off by designs intended for children to make - it tends to make me think I have a better chance of getting it right! I also thought the button design was sweet.
The pattern is a simple garter stitch rectangle of 10 stitches on 8mm needles. I used some Bergere de France Galaxie I had bought a little while ago after seeing it in a magazine. At only 30% wool, it doesn't really pass my yarn snob test but I was attracted to the sparkles.
Having completed the knitting but before making up, I sewed on an assortment of buttons in purples and pinks using a matching embroidery thread. As ever, the project suggested adding the buttons after making up, but that's so much more fiddly!
I sewed the sides of the glasses case up using mattress stitch rather than the recommended oversewing. One thing I wish I'd known as a beginner was how much difference it makes if you know how to sew up your project properly. I finished my glasses case with a purple ribbon bow.
Although I could have made this glasses case a year ago, it would have involved much more time, effort and stress, so it does make me realise how far I've come.
Now, back to that intarsia...
Melx
A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse...
Having successfully completed my dinosaur, I decided I'd go for broke with Issue 30 of Sew Hip and complete a couple of smaller projects too.
I was initially baffled by Philippa Harding's Horse Lavender Sachets project. I looked in vain for the horse-shaped template on the pattern page until I worked out that the horses were printed on the fabric. Doh!
The next challenge was to find some Kokka Dala Horse fabric. The recommended supplier in the magazine didn't have any and neither did any of the other places I know that stock Kokka. I know the project says you can use any animal print fabric but by this stage I had my heart set on horses!
Finally, I picked up a fat quarter on Ebay for, eek, £8.50 (it's "rare" now apparently). Having got that sorted, the technique was to roughly cut out a horse from the fabric and then cut a matching piece of backing fabric. I I used some dotty cotton I got in a fat quarter bundle from HobbyCraft. I attached the button on the front of each horse before machine sewing as it seemed easier than doing it at the end.
I put the right sides of the fabric together and then sandwiched a piece of ribbon for hanging inside. I then sewed carefully around the shape of the horse, which you could see clearly through the fabric, leaving a gap on the belly for turning.
I trimmed the horse shapes with pinking shears and then turned, which was no mean feat as you have to leave quite a small gap. On my first horse, I did exactly what it said not to in the project and caught my hanging ribbon in the machine sewing and had to rescue it with a seam ripper.
Stuffing the horses was quite time consuming as the shapes are quite small and I wanted to make sure I pushed the toy stuffing right into the corners. I did add some lavender but this was pretty challenging to get as the turning gap was so small. The project advises you to do the stuffing in a clear plastic bag and it's good advice!
Finally, I hand sewed the gap, but still felt there was a little something missing. A tail! My husband piped up with, "Do horses have tails?". He later alleged he meant carousel-type horses... Anyway, as a finishing touch I used some lengths of red yarn to make a little tail for each horse. Much better.
Cassie Ward's project in the same issue was Russian Doll Bunting, alternating little felt dolls with heart shapes. A whole string of bunting seemed like a lot of work, but whilst I was in the lavender-sachet-making-mood, I decided to make an individual doll.
The pattern was really easy and made entirely from stash. I used a yellow 100% wool felt from Blooming Felt for the body and various craft felts for the other pieces. I glued on the hair and cheeks as they were quite tiny but everything else was hand sewn with two strands of embroidery cotton.
I stuffed the doll with a combination of toy stuffing and lavender, which was much easier than with the horses as I had a nice big gap. I completely forgot to add a hanging ribbon when I sewed the front and back of the doll together, so used some felt ric rac, which wouldn't fray. Supercute and genuinely easy I thought.
So, a delightful smelling wardrobe awaits me...
Melx
Cheatersaurus....
I've been very slack in term of making things out of the last few issues of Sew Hip magazine. So, when Issue30 dropped through door at the end of May, I thought I should make a little effort.
Now, obviously I love soft toy projects so I was immediately drawn to Helen Smithson's Mr Zigzag the Dinosaur. However, I was slightly less drawn to the idea of making each of the spines on the dinosaur's back individually. I have another dinosaur pattern from A Bit of Whimsy Dolls that I haven't made yet that suggested using jumbo ric rac for dinosaur spikes and so a cheat was born...
For the main fabric of the dinosaur, woollen tweed fabric is suggested in the magazine. The only woollen tweed I had in stash was purple, which prompted a comment from my husband about whether there were any purple dinosaurs (apart from Barney). Having established that: (a) there might have been purple dinosaurs, (b) in any case, my version probably wasn't going to be used in any documentaries about the correct colour palette for dinosaurs, and (c) hubby didn't want to come shopping for green tweed fabric, I stuck with the purple.
The template for the dinosaur body was provided on the pull out pattern you always get with Sew Hip. I noticed in this issue that the patterns were all printed on one side and the quality of the paper has improved, which was a bonus.
I folded over the fabric and cut out both sides of the dinosaur body together to ensure a proper mirror match. As the fabric is pretty thick, I decided not to iron on any interfacing, but I did have to drown the edges of the fabic in Fray Check later on as tweed frays like nobody's business.
The next step was to sandwich the my mint jumbo ric rac (bought from Ebay) in between the two top parts of the body and machine sew the them together. After that, I inserted the black safety eyes before finishing sewing the body together, leaving a gap under the belly for turning.
Turning was fairly tough as the neck and tail are actually pretty narrow and I had to be careful not to poke through the seams with my turning chopstick. I stuffed the dinosaur firmly with toy filler and then hand sewed the gap.
I had also opted not to attempt to sandwich the tiny felt claws into the legs as part of the machine sewing, so I glued these on afterwards.
I decided at this point that my dinosaur needed a spot of decoration, so I glued a couple of felt hearts to each side of the body. I also chose on a whim to tie a cute pink bell around dino's neck with a ribbon. My husband also took issue with this, but had to accept he had no evidence whether dinosaurs might have worn little bells round their necks and what role, if any, this might have had in their eventual extinction.
So, in summary, a cute, girly, lazy dinosaur with a bell...
Melx
