Stripey New Year
I hope everyone has been enjoying the festivities over the last few days. An important part of Christmas for me is getting some time to make things. This might include the challenges inherent in attempting to do this whilst mildly inebriated but I find a bit of sherry tends to improve my performance if anything.
Over Christmas, I've been working on a couple of makes from January's Knit Today magazine. First up was this lavender heart from Lynn Rowe's Sweet Hearts project.
The lavender bag used Rowan All Seasons Cotton. Now, on the plus side, I had some in stash. On the other hand, we haven't been getting on and the leftover balls had been earmarked for the charity shop. I originally bought the yarn to try some amigurumi crochet, which was a disaster (maybe not entirely the fault of the yarn though). Later, I used it to make a knitted elephant, which was abandoned three quarters through - on that occasion I'm fairly sure the yarn was at fault.
Anyway, I pressed on with the All Seasons Cotton and 3.75mm needles. The back of the heart is knitted plain and then the front in stripes. I stuck to two colours as I haven't done stripes for a while and didn't want to get my wool too tangled.
To make up, I back stitched the two hearts right sides together (I find mattress stitch on shaped pieces a bit of a nightmare) and then turned. I stuffed the heart with a combination of toy filling and lavender that was secured in a bag made from one foot of a pop sock. I used mattress stitch (poorly) to close the gap.
Finally, as per the project, I fastened some ribbon to the front and back of the heart with a pretty button. I used nice non-fraying felt ribbon and a couple of pretty heart shaped buttons I had in stash. I made a couple of stitches to secure the ribbon at the top.
This to my mind is a perfect magazine project - quick, simple and made entirely from stash.
Next up was this slightly less simple cat from Ann Franklin's The Owl and The Pussycat project in the same issue. You might at this stage be wondering what happened to the owl and indeed the pea green boat. Unfortunately, the owl was odd-looking and the boat looked time-consuming so I pared down the story a bit.
In the magazine, the cat is done in yellow and black stripes, which my husband said made it look more like a bee. He agreed that my effort in green and cream Bowland Wool Blue Faced Leicester looked much more realistic.
The project is a traditional toy knit, with all the pieces knitted flat on 3.25mm needles and then sewn together. Based on long experience, I did all my sewing up as I went along so I didn't get bored and just abandon it at the end. I also find it more encouraging as toy knits tend to look odd until they are made up (and sometimes afterwards too).
Once again, I back stitched the body and tail pieces, filled them with toy filling and then turned to mattress stitch the gap closed. I added a bag of plastic pellets to the cat's body for ballast, although they keep moving around inside.
I don't think I did a brilliant job of the face - the eyes are too low down, but I think the yarn looks really good in the striped pattern. To finish, I tied a grey silk bow around the cat's tail (which also hides the slightly dubious stitching of the tail onto the body).
So, stripey fun all round. I'm back on the amigurumi crochet now (minus the Rowan All Seasons cotton), so let's see how that turns out...
Happy New Year!
Melx
Happy Holidays
I don't do a lot of Christmas knitting for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I figure you don't get the wear. Secondly, I largely don't start in time for the project to be ready for Christmas. This stocking would be a case in point. I promised to make my husband a Christmas stocking for last Christmas and I only got it done for this year by the skin of my teeth.
I was looking around a few months ago for a suitable pattern or kit. I didn't want anything too tricky or that would take the rest of my life to knit. Hence, I was delighted to come across this Knit and Design Your Own Christmas Stocking Kit from The Little Knit Kit Company, which specialises in children's and beginner kits. I've made a few of their kits before, including most recently, my surf van bag.
The stocking is made in two identical pieces with chunky red yarn knitted entirely in garter stitch with some simple shaping. I used the 5mm sparkly Pony needles Julie kindly sent me with my kit as I already have several pairs of the ones that normally come with the kits.
The kit provides some white felt to make the top of the stocking, but I opted to make the top with some leftover Rowan Pure Life chunky and did a little section in stocking stitch finished with rib. One side has 1x1 rib and the other 2x2 rib because I forgot which I'd done, but it's not very noticeable.
The stocking is a fair size at 16 inches long, although I think that's good as hubby's presents are quite chunky and I don't want to stretch my precious knitting. It took a while to sew the two sides together though. I did it all in mattress stitch, which I don't find as traumatic for garter stitch as I do for stocking stitch.
Again, the kit provides felt to make some embellishments for your stocking. I went off-piste a little here too and made a couple of pom poms using the white yarn and my trusty Clover pom pom maker. I also sewed on a couple of bells to the heel for a satisfying jingle.
For the felt embellishment part, I opted to use my Cuttlebug to die cut two reindeer for each side using a Tim Holtz Sizzix Bigz die and some green felt with silver sparkles. I glued the reindeer on with craft glue as they were a bit spindly to sew.
So, hubby is very pleased with his stocking and hasn't once commented about it being 12 months late.Now, if I could just motivate myself to make another one for myself. Maybe next year...
Merry Christmas
Melx
Keeping Hello Kitty Warm this Winter
One small pleasure of having a bit more experience with knitting is the ability, in a very small way, to design your own makes when you need to.
I purchased this delightful 2012 Hello Kitty diary from the fantastic Strapya of Japan and I was most concerned about keeping it in pristine condition as it bounced about my handbag. A diary cover was clearly called for.
For this endeavour, I decided to use some pink Debbie Bliss Glen that I bought on impulse when I was last in London and had the opportunity to visit the delightful Tricolette yarn shop.
For once, I used the tension advice (14 stitches to 10 cm) to calculate the number of stitches I would need by measuring the diary and compensating for the fact I planned to use 6mm rather than 6.5mm needles.
Although it's a bit of a faff, I have got quite addicted to knitting in the round using magic loop on circular needles with a long cable because it gives such a seamless result and saves tons of sewing up. I read an interview with Debbie Bliss recently saying she advised learning to love sewing up as you had to do such a lot of it, but I'm still in denial...
So, I cast on 32 stitches and did several rounds of 1x1 rib to ensure a flat top for my diary cover. I find rib surprisingly difficult as I find it's easy to forget whether you're supposed to be knitting or purling.
Anyway, once that challenge was out of the way, it was just round and round until the piece was long enough. Another advantage with doing it as a circular knit was that it was very easy to keep trying the diary inside the work in progress to ensure the size was perfect.
I used three needle bind off to make the bottom of the diary cover, so no sewing at all and just a measly two ends to weave in. Woo hoo!
To embellish my diary cover, I sewed on a pretty wooden button from my stash and then glued on a felt flower embellishment from my favour purveyor of felty things, paper and string.
So, a cute and cosy cover for Hello Kitty, custom made to fit with no dodgy making up. I feel quite proud...
Melx
Anyway, I pressed on with the All Seasons Cotton and 3.75mm needles. The back of the heart is knitted plain and then the front in stripes. I stuck to two colours as I haven't done stripes for a while and didn't want to get my wool too tangled.
