You're the one for me, fattie
More sewing this week. This literal ball of fluff is a kit from Cupcakes for Clara's Etsy Shop.
Now, as the possessor of a substantial stash, I don't tend to be concerned by how complete a kit is in terms of having absolutely everything you need to make the finished product. However, I was massively impressed by this kit, which contained absolutely everything you needed, down to the needle and thread. It was also beautifully packaged in a sweet cardboard box and the thread came on dear little spools. Most cute.
To get started, I glued the pattern pieces to thick cardboard and cut them out to make sturdy templates. I then used a trick marker to cut out all the pieces from the high quality felt. There was even enough felt left over to cut additional pieces if you made a mistake, which came in handy when I pricked my finger and bled onto one of the ears.
The body of the kitten is made up of four segments. I used the sewing machine to stitch them together as it was quicker and more sturdy. I was particularly careful to make sure the segments were joined correctly at the top and bottom. I left a small gap in the last join and then turned and stuffed the ball. I then top stitched the body seams by hand as per the pattern, which I think is a really nice design feature.
The next step was to embroider the facial features. I still don't think I'm great at this but I guess practise makes perfect. I then blanket stitched the tail onto the back of the kitten.
The appendages (front paws, back paws and ears) are all made by hand stitching the pieces wrong sides together, lightly padding and then sewing onto the body. At this point, I realised I wasn't sure how to replicate the stitch style in the photograph. One quick convo to Laura Clempson, the designer, and I discovered you needed a neat running stitch in both directions and then a whip stitch over the sides. Mine isn't as good, but it's something I'll definitely be trying on other projects.
Anyway, there's my fattie kitten. I happen to also have a pattern by Laura for a bluebird in the same round design from the book Little Birds, so I'll be tackling that soon..
Melx
Happbee Easter
These are my makes from the Easter weekend. Nothing like a theme is there?
First up was the crochet bee from a PDF pattern I purchased at Yarnabee's Etsy shop. The bee is made with aran yarn and a size F (3.75mm) hook. The pattern suggested using a size G, but I've found F is about my right size for amigurumi crochet. I went for mostly non-traditional bee colours, using up some leftover Rooster Almerino Aran from a teapot kit I finished recently. The pattern called for a colour change and to carry the second yarn along. I'd never done that before, so I watched a few YouTube videos and gave it a shot.
The bee is crocheted from a magic circle of 6 double crochet (single crochet for you US folks) and then in a spiral. As usual with amigurumi crochet, you add the safety eyes and stuffing before you close the whole thing off by decreasing. The wings are cleverly made by replicating just the first two rounds of the body pattern and then stitching on. The finished size is a cute but not minuscule 2.5 x 2.5 inches, including the wings.
Next was this knitted busy bee pin cushion from a supplement that came with the May 2012 edition of Knit Today magazine. The pattern book is entitled 50 Quick Knits. Now that's the sort of pattern book I can get excited about, rather than 5 lace patterns that will take you a lifetime to finish (I know, I have no patience).
I used leftover DK from my stash in slightly more traditional bee colours and 3.25mm straight needles to knit the body in stripes. To make up the bee, I backstitched most of the body together and then turned for stuffing, before closing off the cast on edge. I glued some googly eyes onto my bee's face and made a little mouth from red DK.
Now, the pattern didn't include any wings for the bee, which hubby and I both thought made it look a bit odd. So, I used the crochet pattern to make some slightly bigger wings for my pincushion by adding an extra round. Much better don't you think? This bee is a chubby 3.5 x 3.5 inches around without his wings. Seems a bit mean to stick pins in him but I probably will :)
So that's it for my bee crochet/knitting bee. Let's see what creature I get obsessed with
next..
Melx
I'm sure the chicken is perfectly safe....
I thought I would give the knitting a rest this week and give my sewing machine a workout instead. I've recently become obsessed with foxes, which as just as well as the house is full to the brim of owls, so time for a change. Hence, I jumped at the chance to purchase this new Baby Fox pattern from Bit of Whimsy Dolls.
Handily, I already had a lovely fat quarter of orange fabric from Fabric Rehab. I had actually bought it for another fox-related project but inspiration had struck so I nicked it for this pattern.
As usual with toy projects, I printed out the pattern, glued the pieces onto thick card and cut them out to make sturdy cardboard templates. I drew round the templates onto the back of the fabric with a disappearing pen.
I cut out most of the pieces from the orange fabric and used white felt for the face and inner ears. The fox also has a cute toy chicken (that made me chuckle), that I cut from spotted lemon fabric from Hobbycraft.
I sewed the face to the head by hand - you are supposed to attach it with the sewing machine but I don't have that sort of confidence. I then attached the safety eyes and embroidered the nose.
The sewing machine part mainly consisted of sewing the matching bits right sides together and turning. This was tricky on the arms, legs and ears as you are supposed to use a 1/8th of an inch seam allowance. I had a few issues with seams splitting, which I bodged by hand stitching afterwards.
Once you have the body, arms and ear pieces ready, you make a sandwich with the ears and arms pointing inwards and sew the whole thing together.I had to go back over a couple of areas twice, but it mostly went okay. I then stuffed the fox firmly with toy filler. To finish the fox, you turn up a hem on the bottom of the body and sandwich the top of the legs inside to sew with a visible seam, which actually came out quite neatly.
The little chick is made by sewing two halves of the wings together for each side and then sandwiching them in the body. My chicken's wings are actually on upside down, but hopefully that's not very obvious. The chicken is attached to the fox with a hook and loop circles sewn to the fox's paw and the back of the chicken's head. My hook and loop pads are self-adhesive, but don't work on fabric so I ruined two needles sewing through the adhesive.
The finished size of the fox is 12 inches. His head is a bit lopsided, but he's mostly quite sweet. As ever, I couldn't resist the embellishments box and glued a little orange sparkly heart to the fox's body and tied a rust coloured ribbon around his neck.
Now for a name....
Melx
Simply Knitting Issue 92
My favourite knitting magazine for quality freebies is Simply Knitting. April's issue was no exception, arriving as it did with a set of bag handles and a pattern supplement of cute bag patterns. I selected Amanda Jones' Petite & Pretty grab bag because (a) it looked the easiest, and (b) I had most of the yarn for it in stash.
The majority of the bag is knitted in Bergere de France Galaxie in a shade delightfully christened Supernova, which I happened to have a couple of balls of. Unfortunately, I didn't have the contrast shade, which should have been a green with the slightly less glamorous moniker of Norma. I didn't want to have to send for one ball of yarn so I had a quick look round and decided that some Sublime Lustrous Extrafine Merino DK in pink used double would do. It retrospect, it was still a bit thin, but I went with it.
The bag is knitted on 7mm circular needles from the bottom up. As the body of the bag is in garter stitch, I found myself in the slightly odd position of having to purl using circulars. The top of the bag was knitted 1x1 rib.
As with all circular knits, the finishing was easy - I weaved in the ends and then mattress stitched the bottom seam.
To attach the handles, you simply oversewed them onto the bag in the contrast yarn. I decided against knitting the flower embellishment in the pattern and instead used a vintage style lace motif from my stash (I think it might be from Melody Ross).
To line the bag, I cut two rectangles of lilac spotty fabric from a fat quarter pack I got from Hobbycraft. I sewed the sides and bottom together on my sewing machine and then folded over the top edge and pressed. I hand sewed the lining into the bag, but then decided it was a bit messy. To cover up the dodgy stitching, I glued a ribbon trim to the top of the lining with fabric glue.
I pronounce the overall result "quite pretty". However, this is quite a delicate bag, possibly useful for carrying feathers or maybe a lace handkerchief. I have a long history of wrecking bags by carrying far too much in them. Hence, it will only be getting an outing when my luggage needs are minimal...
Melx
Let's Knit Issue 53
Why oh why oh why do I torture myself with toy knits. I usually spend the entire project worrying whether I'm going to produce an acceptable cuddly toy or something that will frighten children. I then have to knit faster and faster until I get to the end to see which it will be. Nancy Atkinson's Derek project from April's Let's Knit magazine was no exception.
The pattern used Debbie Bliss Paloma, which I didn't like the look of as it's a chainette yarn. So, I opted for the suggested alternative of Rowan Purelife Chunky in Blue Faced Leicester, which I've used before and loved. The project called for 6mm needles. In retrospect, I think I should have used 5mm as the Purelife has a recommended needle size of 7mm and the Paloma 10mm. I found my bear a little gappy when stuffed in places.
The bear was a traditional toy knit, made flat in mostly stocking stitch and sewn together. As usual, I sewed and stuffed as I went along to prevent getting fed up with making up at the end. So, my husband came home from work to the incongruous sight of a completed bear's head and two arms sat on on the coffee table. That really would frighten children.
My one gripe about the pattern was the feet. You were supposed to separate the stitches and pick more stitches up to make more of a 3D foot. The introduction to the project described Derek as "a quick knit for beginners who have never ventured into toys before". To me, that sentence should not be followed with any instructions that require the picking up of stitches. So, I altered the pattern to do a simple increase row to make the foot shape.
I have to admit that I thought the bear might fall into the "frighten children" category but he began to grow on me once all his parts were assembled. To finish Derek, I knitted him a simple garter stitch scarf on 4mm needles with a lovely variegated yarn I had in stash. I even made some tassells.
Finally, the renaming of the bear. I wasn't keen on Derek. I like to name things after my favourite Sci Fi and Fantasy characters (my cat is named Dexter after Michael C. Hall's character in the serial killer show of the same name). So, Derek is now Eric, named for the hunky Viking vampire in Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series (not the Eric in True Blood but that's a whole other blog...).
Melx
Knit Today March 2012
One of my rare forays into grown up knitting this week with Pat Menchini's A Little Luxury project from issue 70 of Knit Today. This was also a big knit for me with no fewer than five balls of King Cole Merino Blend Chunky and three balls of King Cole Luxury Mohair.
The magazine used Eucalyptus in the chunky and Montreux in the mohair. That was a bit, well beige, for my taste so I opted for the French Navy with Roma for a nice variegated blue effect.
The shrug is knitted in two halves on 9mm needles using the chunky and the mohair held together. Each half comprised six repeats of an 18 row x 40 stitches pattern. As it was kind of challenging, I limited myself to one pattern repeat per day.
The thing I found most tricky was the cables - I haven't done many and find it challenging to keep hold of the cable needle. I was also perturbed to find holes in the back of the work. I looked this up online and apparently, this is perfectly normal. On close inspection, I even found holes in my shop-bought cabled cardigan. I did read some stuff about how you could avoid the holes by twisting this or knitting into the back of that, but decided if you were meant to do such a thing it would say so in the pattern.
With the odd gained and lost stitch, I finally got to the end with something that vaguely resembled the magazine picture. I weaved my ends in carefully (I've discovered recently that I'm very sloppy with my weaving in and ends keep popping out on things that get a lot of use). I then mattress stitched the two halves together and tried it on. Not sure I look much like the model in the magazine but it definitely looks like a shrug.
One thing I really liked about the project was that I could tell early on that I wasn't going to run out of yarn. Indeed, I had a reasonable amount of both the chunky and the mohair left. I liked using them together so much that I made this little pouch with 15 stitches of 5 x 5 x 5 rib on 8mm needles. I used a lovely ceramic Injabulo hedgehog button with a crochet chain to fasten the pouch.
So, I feel like I've pushed myself a little bit on this project, but perhaps not quite enough to be contemplating knitting a sweater any time soon...
Melx
Or wide awake owl..
Another kit this week, this time from my long-standing favourites The Little Knit Kit Company. They have just launched this super cute owl kit and, given how rewarding I'd found their previous kits, I was keen to try it.
The kit cost £15 and came with everything to make the owl - yarn, stuffing, felt, thread and plastic needle. I passed on the knitting needles as I have just strimmed my vast collection down to a reasonable number of pairs per size.
Like many of the other Little Knit Kit Company designs, the owl is knitted entirely in garter stitch on 4mm needles using a chunky yarn to give a nice firm fabric. What was intriguing this time was the use of stripes and multiple colour changes. At first, I was tempted to try and join in all the colours without knotting and weave in the ends to show how clever I was, but then I realised that was kind of dum and followed the pattern. This advocated the far more sensible approach of joining the new colour in with a knot and then simply hiding the ends inside the toy.
To make the owl's body, you make two identical pieces and I'm proud to say that mine actually match stripe for stripe. I then back stitched the sides of the body together, hiding all the ends and then mattress stitched the top.
To create a more owl-like shape, I pulled the ears out and also stretched the lower half of the fabric a little. I used the toy filling provided to stuff the owl and also added a bag of plastic pellets to weight the bottom and enable the owl to stand up on his own a little better. I then closed the bottom of the owl with mattress stitch.
The owl's wings are simple garter stitch rectangles that you gather at the end to create some shape and then stitch onto the body.
As I'm still on a bit of a crochet jag, I decided to substitute the sleepy felt eyes that came with the kit for some safety eyes surrounded by a white crochet ring.
Idiotically, I mislaid the templates for the beak and feet, so cut them freehand from felt and glued them on with some Tacky Glue.
And there he is, so simple to knit yet a really nice finished design with (in my view anyway), quite a sophisticated vintage look.
Melx
