Knitted Pumpkin & Pumpkin Purses

A trio of pumpkins....

I may have mentioned previously that I just love Halloween and pretty much all-year-round. So, the last few weeks have been great for acquiring spooky patterns and crafting goodies.

This little knitted pumpkin came from a PDF pattern from Catherine Ren's Etsy Shop. The pumpkin itself is knitted with a seam with 4mm needles. The orange wool is King Cole Superwash Merino Double Knit (not that I'm planning to wash it) and the stalk is Rowan Pure Wool DK. The stalk is also my first attempt at i-cord using evil double-pointed needles, so I'm quite proud. The pumpkin is a bit holey towards the top but quite cute with its flower button eyes.

This pumpkin purse was from a pattern in October's Simply Knitting magazine. It was knitted in two halves on 4mm needles, again with the King Cole Merino Superwash DK. It included make left and make right stitches, which were new to me, but which I think I got right. I actually sewed the two halves together after I had glued each half to the purse frame using Bostik All Purpose Glue. I've only used a purse frame once before and that was with fabric, which I found really difficult. The knitted purse, being stretchy, was quite a bit easier to poke into the channel of the purse frame. I got a bit of excess glue on the frame, but that was easily picked off when dry. The pumpkin face is made from scraps of black felt and simply glued on with fabric glue.

My final pumpkin product is this little felt purse made entirely from spooky items in my stash. The pouch was made from 10" x 6" of wool mix felt with an orange cotton spotty lining and a piece of sew-in interfacing in-between. I started by sewing the ribbon onto the front of the felt. I then sewed the layers of fabric right sides together on the sewing machine, leaving a gap for turning. After turning, I top stitched the whole thing and sewed the pouch down. To finish, I hand sewed a press stud to fasten the purse and concealed it with a cute pumpkin button. The left hand seam is in fact really shocking but you can't see it on this photo :)


So there you have my pumpkin tribute. Happy Halloween!

Melx

Knitted Owl and Mouse

Stalking Amy Gaines... 


I feel like I'm stalking Amy Gaines. I just love her knitting patterns and want to make them all!


This is Odessa Owl from Amy's recent book Little Knitted Creatures. The book is a supercute collection of all manner of knitted animals ranging from fish to birds to farmyard animals. Odessa is from the woodland creatures collection, which is my personal favourite.

As with Amy's other patterns, the owl is knitted on straight, albeit spindly (3.5mm) needles. One difference I noticed in the book is that a lot of the patterns use an invisible increase rather than the usual knit forwards and backwards for the shaping. I couldn't quite see how the increase worked so I used kfb as normal and it worked out fine.

I knitted Odessa using Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran in brown and camel. I'm still working on the neatness of my seaming but she isn't bad. The features are made from felt and Odessa has black safety eyes. I'm very much looking forward to making the rest of the woodland chapter except perhaps the gnomes...

Mousey here is an Amy Gaines PDF pattern from her Etsy Shop.

 I knitted the mouse using some leftover Sirdar eco wool for the body and ears. Unfortunately, I ran out before I got to the ears and had lost the band from the wool. I ordered some online and guessed the shade wrongly. Eventally I got the right colour (flint) in a wool shop in St Annes on Sea and no it probably wasn't the same dye lot either!

I decided to do a crochet chain for the tail. Mousey is currently whiskerless, however, as I can't get them to look right...

I think Amy's patterns are so appealing because they are really cute and impressive yet very easy to follow and make. I'm currently trying to persuade myself to learn how to use double-pointed needles but with patterns of this quality available for straight needles, I'm not too worried if I don't master the evil DPNs.

Melx

Halloween Fabric Hamper

Sew Hip Issue 22

I just love storage in all its glorious forms - boxes, baskets, buckets, jars, bags, drawers, compartments etc. As a multiple crafter, I always have plenty of stuff I need to store too. So, for November's Sew Hip Magazine, the Handy Hampers project by Niki Jarvis was a an easy choice for my monthly make.

I was also completely desparate to use this amazing My Minds Eye Boo to You! fabric I bought recently from the fabulous Seamstar. So you see, Halloweeen-themed storage combines two of my very favourite things.

For the lining, I used some plain lilac cotton drill I had in stash. I used quilting batting for the wadding in the side and base but sew-in interfacing for the handles to stop them being too bulky.

The method to create the side and base was fairly straightforward. You sandwich the outer fabric, lining and wadding right sides together and then turn and the hand sew the gap. The handles are also sandwiched in there - I was thrilled to find they ended up on the right side and untwisted!

The difficulty I had was with sewing the seam for the side panel and then sewing the side panel to the base. I was concerned that all the layers were too thick for my lightweight sewing machine and I wanted to ensure the side panel fit the base properly.

In the end, I decided to hand sew the panel around the base. I did this both on the outer and lining side for extra durability and neatness. I then overlapped the side panel and hand sewed that down too. My handles aren't quite in the middle, but otherwise I'm pretty pleased and I do love that fabric!

But what to store in my Halloween hamper? I think, as you can see from the piccie, it will have to join the other storage pressed into service to house my growing yarn stash (another eight balls came in the post just today!). The impromptu overlapped bit also creates a handy pocket for knitting needles, so you see these things happen for a reason...

Melx

Pink Charm Bracelet

Make Jewellery Issue 19


One of the reasons I started making my own jewellery is my love of charm bracelets. This is despite the fact that they are an utter pain to wear with the jangling and catching on things. So, it didn't take me long to select this pretty bracelet from November's Make Jewellery Magazine for my monthly make. It's from the Simply Charming project by Juliet Browse.


I was particularly attracted to the cube-shaped resin beads with fabric encased in them. Now, often when I get excited about resin beads I see in magazines, it transpires you have to make them yourself, which is a bit beyond me. In this case, however, I simply had to part with a mere £2.15 for a pack of three from Spoilt Rotten Beads. The millefiori rectangle and murano glass butterfly are from the same store. The pearl beads and the frosted glass bead were just from my stash.


The charm bracelet itself was a ready-made one with a toggle fastening that I found in a box I had helpfully labelled "bracelets". I can't recall its provinence. The beads were threaded onto sterling silver headpins using an assortment of tiny beads to stop them sliding off. I did like the sterling silver bead caps I used on the perarl beads, which came from Palmers Metals.


The beads are attached to the bracelet with wrapped loops. This was a bit awkward as the links of the bracelet are quite thick. Some of my wraps aren't very elegant but I noticed that the ones in the mag weren't super-neat either. The wraps on my pearl beads are pretty good though, probably because they were smaller.


As I didn't use all of the same beads as the magazine, I kind of let the design grow organically. That sounds great but in fact it meant I had to cut off and move several of the beads to get the spacing and balance of the bracelet right. Organic might be better when not using such a permanent method of attachment. However, the wrapped loops do mean that the bracelet is very secure and I shouldn't have bits falling off as you sometimes get when you use use jump rings.


So, all-in-all, I thought this was a cute, inexpensive yet durable piece for my collection pending me making the leap into doing my own resin beads.


Melx

Sirdar Indie Wrap and Tank Top

Grown Up Knitting... 

My knitting adventures to date have been largely based on fripperies - bags, purses, toys and the like. Although the ability to make such items was the reason I learned to knit, I wondered if I should attempt something a bit more substantial.

I had seen Sirdar's Indie yarn trailed in a couple of knitting magazines and liked the look of it. It's 51% wool and 49% arcrylic (handily, I've set my yarn snobbery level at 50% wool minimum). The yarn is self-patterned, knitted on nice chunky 12 mm needles and has a lovely soft feel to it.

I saw the yarn in the flesh at a craft show in Manchester and duly bought the Sirdar pattern book Indie Knits and 5 balls of Apache shade 150 (got to love the names they give the colours). With my 5 balls, I made this lovely ribbed wrap. Unlike my previous attempt at rib (a hat), the ribs stay in line all the way through. My husband pronouced it "very professional".

The making up instructions were a bit vague so I sewed a big lilac button through both halves of the wrap so that you pull it on over your head. I really like the Apache colourway and have bought some more to make a hat and scarf.

Flushed with success, I decided to be a bit more ambitious and try the tank top in Navajo (shade 151). This was a bit scary, especically when you had to divide the stitches for the neck and try to make sure both halves were the same size. I mysteriously went about quarter of a ball over the amount I was supposed to (and didn't check if the dye lot was the same for the extra ball I had to send for), but the thing appears to fit so I'm not worrying.

The making up across the shoulders is shockingly bad but not too noticeable. However, I was truly chuffed with my mattress stitch up the sides, which I managed after watching this video about a dozen times.

Despite this modest success, I'm probably not planning to attempt loads of garments. It's often not terribly economic if you like nice wool (the tank top came in about £36, which isn't too bad). Also, if you're a bit on the lardy side like me, clothes are going to take an age, especially if spindly needles are required.

Still, I've made two proper items from a proper pattern book, so I can made the pumpkin purse I've got lined up next with a clear conscience.


Melx

Mermaiden Doll

I like fins...

This sweet little mermaid doll is from a fabulous book called Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love by Hillary Lang. It's another one of those books that would be nice to look at even if you never made anything from it. However, on the principle that I should get value from my book purchases, I tried to pick-out an easy-ish dolly to start me off.

The mermaiden is made up of three basic bits: the body, the fins and the hair. All are sewn using a technique I'd never used before. Rather than cutting out the pattern piece and then sewing it with a seam allowance, you draw the pattern onto the fabric, stitch it and then cut it out to the seam allowance. I actually found this quite a good way of doing it as the pieces are quite small (the doll is only about 7" tall) and I could follow the drawn line with my needle on the sewing machine.

The body is made from plain cream fabric, the hair from baby pink corduroy and the fins from printed cotton. I don't think I made a brilliant job of embroidering mermaiden's face - it looks a bit, um, dented, which the book did warn about.

For the hair and the fins, you were supposed to free-motion quilt over two pieces of fabric to give a textured effect. I drew my lines in first with a trick marker, but I think they still look at bit jagged rather than smooth curves. I think I need more practise.

Assembling mermaiden was very straightfroward. You just pop some stuffing into the bottom of the fin and then sew her into it. Her hair is just pulled down over her head and stitched in place.

The patterm called for a ric rac ribbon hair decoration, but rather lazily I picked out a glittery star embellishment from my stash and glued it on. I say I, in fact my husband chose it from a selection I showed him. Nice choice though.

As mermaiden is quite a flat doll, I decided to hang her for display purposes (in the nicest possible way). I attached a small pieced of glittery pink ribbon to her head and now she's dangling from the wall in my study.

I have to say that one of best things about mermaiden is her lack of legs. I always find legs on dolls and toys difficult - they are either too spindly to turn after sewing or I end up sandwiching them the wrong way round, so here's to fins!

Melx

Pumpkin Head Zombie Brooch

Sequins for brains...

I was beside myself with excitement when I saw the book Zombie Felties featured in Sew magazine Issue 16. I love zombies and I love making things from felt, so what could be more perfect! The book, by Nicola Tedman and Sarah Skeate features 16 patterns for teeny tiny felt zombies. There's a zombie rabbit, a zombie, duck, a zombie puppy, a zombie zombie...

With Halloween approaching, I opted for the zombie Pumpkin Head. I had everything I needed in stash in terms of felt, embroidery thread, beads and sequins. However, these guys are really tiny - Pumpkin Head is only about 6cm finished size. At first, I was tempted to enlarge the pattern and I still might with some of the others, but I decided to bite the bullet and cut it to size. The cutting out was really fiddly. I made the pattern into cardboard templates as usual, but the smallest bits were really difficult to get right and some bits like the bandages I ended up cutting freehand instead.

The bandages and mouth are glued on, but everything is hand sewn. I didn't find the small size too much of an issue for the stitching part and hand sewing is so zen comparing with the stress of the sewing machine. The sequin brains were the toughest part of the sewing - trying to get them spilling out of the split in the head appropriately. The sequins in the book were pink. I only had green, but I think zombie pumpkin brains could equally be green don't you?

Due to their petite size, the felties are great for making into key rings, bag charms and other accessories. I made pumpkin head into a cute little brooch by attaching a brooch back to the reverse of his head. I wore him out shopping yesterday and he was admired by several teenagers.

I'm doing the Day of the Dead Zombie next. I've already cut the teeny bits out so I'm looking forward to growing my zombie feltie family.

Melx