My what a pretty dress you're wearing...
This is a lovely 100% wool knit kit that I purchased from Made by Ewe's Etsy Shop for $26. I have also purchased a couple of the cute sheep kits on sale in the store but they are in my "queue". For some reason, bunny got to jump to the top.
She is knitted on 4mm needles, which seemed a little larger then usual for DK toy knits but it worked fine. The kit includes British wool for all the parts of the rabbit so I started with the grey for the body. The bunny is a traditional toy knit made flat and then sewed up, so there was a head, four ears, two bodies, two arms and two legs to wade through.
I adopted my usual technique of sewing up and stuffing as I went along. As with most toy knits, I had grave misgivings until it all came together at the end. My husband was no help at all when I asked him if he thought I had sewn my bunny's arms on too low (rabbits don't have arms apparently). As it is, my bunny is about 3 inches smaller than the kit suggests it should be, but t looks nicely in proportion so I refuse to worry.
The dress was the most fun yet the hardest to knit. I've done my back in quite badly and had just started some new pain killers that didn't really help (my concentration - they were quite beneficial for my back). Decreasing whilst in rib was a whole new experience but I'm giving myself an A for effort.
Finally, I knitted the little garter stitch heart in two pieces and sewed it together. The kit did include some lovely natural fleece to use as stuffing for the rabbit, but I forgot all about it and used ordinary polyester toy filling. However, I did use the fleece for a subsequent project and can attest it is really nice.
Well, there she is - ever so cute and the wool she is made of is just fabulous. This may just motivate me to get on with my sheep kits and also the owl kit I just bought...
Melx
Ood to my Valentine...
Ever since my husband and I started dating, some 17 years ago now, we've always made each other something handmade for Valentine's Day. This used to be simple cards but in recent years the tradition has escalated to a highly competitive form of expressing our love for one another. A couple of weeks before Valentine's Day, we each disappear into our respective creative spaces to plan our "concept", which much remain highly secret until the big day. Supplies must be smuggled into the house and the other spouse kept out various rooms until the creation is complete.
For my offering this year, I chose this supercute amigurumi Ood from a fantastic free pattern from Megan DeLancey that I found on Ravelry. For the non-fan, the Ood is a creature from the BBC1 show Doctor Who. The Ood are a peaceful race, whom The Doctor (played by David Tenant) liberates from slavery in the fourth series with help from his companion, Donna (played by Catherine Tate).
My husband is a massive fan of Doctor Who and I thought this would be the ideal handmade gift, except for the small matter of making it. I have been crocheting for less than a year and my skills are significantly less advanced than my knitting ones (which aren't that advanced either).
Anyway, despite my ambition outstripping my competence, I set out in faith and bought some Rowan Creative Focus Worsted for the body and head. It was probably a fluffier yarn than ideal for crochet but I needed a proper buff colour so the white I used for the brain(!) would stand out properly.
I crocheted the body with a size F (3.75mm) hook. I made the two legs and then crocheted around them to start the body. I turned the crochet inside out so the "right" side was showing (I read about that in a book - it never seems to get mentioned in patterns though). I then switched to the buff coloured yarn for the head. I think I did an okay job of keeping the stitches tight, which is essential for amigurumi. However, my decreases for the top of the head were a bit holey so I patched them up a bit with a needle and yarn. Before completing the head, I attached the black safety eyes and stuffed the toy with fiber fill.
Funnily enough, the bit I found hardest was the Ood's arms. My treble crochet just didn't look right so I simplified the pattern a bit and hoped for the best. For the tentacles, I used some left over DK red and a size E (3.5mm) hook). They were a bit awkward to crochet as you start them with a slip stitch into the face so you don't have very much room to move. I don't think I did them quite correctly, but I don't think they look bad.
Finally, I made the brain from some leftover white DK and attached it the Ood's hand. I was secretly rather pleased with it when I'd finished and I'm very grateful to Megan for her ace pattern.
Come Valentine's Day, hubby was suitably impressed with his Ood and all the hard work I had put in. Then he ruined it by giving me this.
This is an 8mm crochet hook on which he has sculpted and painted a Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas, my favourite film. He even made it a coffin shaped box. Hubby is sickeningly talented and his gift is always better than mine (his protests than my Ood was superior were a bit weak).
Maybe next year...
Melx
Who said garter stitch is boring?
This creation is my birthday gift from my husband, which I knitted within exactly one week and two days of receiving it. The kit came from Toft Alpaca and was fairly dear for a scarf at £69 (not that I should be looking as it was a present).
The kit comprised three 100g balls of alpaca aran from the range of natural shades Toft stock. I chose silver, which is not the same as grey, honest. The kit comes with four alpaca fur pom poms, which are unbelievably soft. Now, I never thought I would have any clothing featuring real fur. However, according to the Toft website, the fur comes from young alpacas who have died from natural causes in Peru, so the poms poms are both ethically sourced and fair trade.
Knitting the scarf was actually a real joy. It was made on 4.5mm needles all in garter stitch. You start with some simple increasing, then work straight (for a long time!) and finally knit three prongs of 10 stitches separately. The yarn was lovely to knit with and the whole thing was very zen. Some people find excessive garter stitch dull, but I found it rather relaxing.
After weaving in the ends, the final stage was to attach the pom poms. They come with a sort of string that I sewed and then knotted through the starting end of the scarf and then through each prong.
The scarf is almost too nice to wear. I caught my youngest cat, Dexter, eyeing up the poms poms, so perhaps I should make good use of it before he does!
Melx
Making friends with moss stitch
I can't help noticing that quite a lot of my knitting has been recently has been, well, grey. There were my grey bunny slippers last week and my grey cat the week before. This week, we have a grey purse and a grey cushion. I could argue that technically they are not grey but rather "pigeon", which is the cute name given to this particular shade of Rowan Alpaca Chunky.
The patterns come from the Rowan Winter Warmers book. I always feel terribly grown when I knit Rowan patterns, even though I'm not keen on them as I find them rather stilted and inaccessible as a fairly newbie knitter.
Anyway, first up was the purse. For some reason, I've never quite got to grips with moss stitch even though knit one, purl one doesn't see that hard. Anyway, this time I managed to produce a 17 stitch rectangle on 10mm needles. The pattern used a loop closure, which I wasn't keen on so I made a proper button hole between a few rows of garter stitch instead.
I mattress stitched the sides of the purse and then sewed on a nice wooden button to make up the purse. The pattern suggested making a lining for the entire inside of the purse, including the flap. I don't think this works too well (fabric too floppy) and besides you only really need to line the bit where you are going to put things. So, I made a lining excluding the flap from a Cath Kidston fat quarter and some interfacing on my sewing machine. I then slip stitched it by hand into the purse.
The second moss stitch make in the same yarn was this cushion. I followed the chart to make the moss stitch heart on the front. It's very subtle but you can see it in the right light (but possibly not in this terrible photograph!). I had to pull some rows back when I forgot to change stitches for the centre of the heart as well the edges. Doh!
The pattern used a fabric backing for the cushion but I had (by the absolute skin of my teeth and I had to weigh the yarn to check) enough pigeon left to knit a stocking stitch back for the cushion.
I back stitched three sides of the front and back of the cushion together, stuffed it with toy filler and then mattress stitched the final edge. In retrospect, I wish I had made a cushion pad instead as you can sometimes see the stuffing though the heart if you plump the cushion the wrong way. I now obsessively reshape it every five minutes so you can't see the filling.
So, I feel like I've got to grips with moss stitch at least a smidge. I'm now knitting an alpaca scarf. Can you guess what colour it is?
Melx
Acts of faith...
I think felting projects require a peculiar combination of faith, imagination and courage, as what you are knitting bears pretty much zero resemblance to the finished article until the magic trip around the washing machine.
Happily, my faith was eventually rewarded with these supercute felted bunny slippers that I made from a PDF pattern from Tiny Owl Knits' Etsy Shop.
The pattern suggested using Sirdar Eco Wool DK. Eco Wool is actually discontinued but I picked up four balls from Ebay and for half price too. I was a bit dubious about the shade ("shale") when it arrived in the post but again the magic of felting seems to have made it into a nice grey.
I knitted the slippers on 8mm needles with the yarn held double. Each slipper is made in one piece, with a garter stitch sole and toe and stocking stitch sides. To form the slipper, I simply had to whip stitch the heel and toe into place. The pattern kindly emphasized that all the stitches would be hidden so there was no need to do it neatly (just as well).
The bunny ears are knitted separately in stocking stitch with some simple shaping. So, at the end of my knitting, this is what I had:
I have to bless the designer, Stephanie Dosen, for including a picture of the pre-felted knitting in her pattern so I didn't throw the whole lot in the skip right there and then.
Stephanie recommended hand felting the slippers, but I've felted successfully in my washing machine many times, including with Eco Wool, so I popped the slippers on a 60 degree rapid wash with a little detergent.
Once the slippers were out, I put them on (a trifle soggy but necessary) to shape them to my feet. Once dry, I followed the making up instructions and sewed the bunny ears to the slippers. I used some leftover pink DK to make the noses and black to embroider the eyes. Finally. I used my smallest Clover pom pom maker and some white DK to produce two small pom poms, which I sewed to the heels.
At that point, I erm, decided the slippers were too big (I blame hubby for trying them on). So (and this is the courageous part), I gave them another cycle in the washing machine in their finished form.
After holding my breath for an hour, I got the slippers back out of the washer and put them back on my feet - much snugger this time. I reshaped the ears and also found the face had felted rather nicely. Unfortunately, the pom poms were in a bit of a state, so I lopped them off and made two more, thanking my lucky stars that I had mostly got away with it.
And there you have it - a triumph of hope over what the hell was I thinking...
Melx
Beyond the comfort zone...
After last week's easy-to-knit-but-pig-to sew-up project, I thought I'd try it the other way round. This is Greta the Captivating Cat, a PDF pattern from Rebecca Danger's Etsy shop. I love Rebecca's patterns, but having knitted one before, I also know they involve knitting almost exclusively in the round with picked up stitches and the like. The patterns are supposed to knitted with a combination of double pointed needles and magic loop, but given I still can't use DPNs, I knew I would have to do the whole lot with magic loop. The reward, though, would be minimal sewing up and a pleasingly seamless effect.
For the project, I chose Twilleys Freedom Purity Chunky in grey. The yarn is 85% wool and 15% alpaca and very good value at £3.79 per 50g ball (I ended up using two out of the three balls I purchased). The pattern allows you to use any weight of yarn with needles a couple of sizes smaller than recommended so I worked with 5mm needles and a 100cm cable from my brilliant Knit Pro rosewood interchangeable needles set.
To start with, I knitted each leg individually on the circular needles, which went pretty well. Then the tough part. You have to arrange both legs and four additional stitches onto the circular needles so you can pick the whole lot up to made a seamless join between the legs and the body. This took two attempts and a little botching but I got there in the end. The first few rounds of the body feel a bit tricky as you bring together the legs, but once I got going I couldn't stop and finished the body in record time.
The pattern suggested you should leave the seam at the top of the legs open for stuffing and close the head with three needle bind off, but I opted to close my bottom seam early as the yarn ends were bugging me and the gap wasn't that large for stuffing and inserting the safety eyes and nose. So, I stuffed the body and created the cat's face from the top of the head and then closed it with mattress stitch. The final step for the body was to sew on the little belly button, which is such a cute touch.
By this stage, all the hard work was really done, with just the appendages to go. I made the two ears on the circular needles and sewed them on (probably the messiest bit of the whole thing). I then produced two arms and, as per Rebecca's instructions, stuffed just the paws before attaching them. Unlike for the ears, I mattress stitched the arms closed at the top first, then sewed them on, which seemed neater than sewing them on open.
Finally, I made a circular tail. It's a bit shorter than the pattern as I was getting to the end of my second ball and didn't want to start a third for the sake of a few rounds. I think the tail looks long enough though?
The final flourish was to raid my considerable ribbon stash for kitty's neck bow. I finally settled on a cute paw print ribbon. Greta is also a tall cat, standing about 15 inches high.
I'm not sure this is a very girly cat but I'm mighty impressed with her and a little bit impressed with myself for managing to knit it. More Rebecca to come I think...
Melx
How hard can it be?
Regular readers will know that I do love a knitting kit. None is sweeter than this Make Your Own Knitted Cat and Mouse Kit from Red Rose and Blue. The kit came with 100% wool to make the cat and the mouse, stuffing, knitting needles and a tapestry needle for making up. It all arrived in a cute little bag and cost £15.50.
Now, upon perusing the pattern, I observed that the knitting bit for the cat looked easy; one square for the tail and a rectangle each for the head and tail. However, a glance at the picture of the cat on the front of the kit suggested it was all a bit more 3D and therefore some effort would be required with the making up if I wanted it to bear any resemblance to the designer's vision.
Anyway, I set off in faith with the garter stitch knitting for the pink cat. The kit provides some intriguing knitting needles that are supposed to give the feel of ivory but I stuck with my own 3.25mm Signature Needles, which are ace for knitting small things.
I was just getting towards the end of rectangle for the cat's head when disaster struck. I ran out of yarn! This was a bit of a shock as I'd kept the tails short and not wasted any by starting again etc. Anyway, it was all sorted with a quick email to Tola at Red Rose and Blue and soon more yarn was on its way.
In the interim, I knitted the mouse, which was garter stitch with some simple shaping. I sewed it up using mattress stitch and then made the tail from a crochet chain rather than attempt the finger knitting suggested in the pattern.
Once my new supply of pink yarn arrived, I finished the cat's head and made its tail. The making up was indeed tough - the body and head need to be shaped quite a lot in the both the sewing and the stuffing.The yarn kept snapping whilst I was doing the sewing, which was hugely aggravating but not really uncommon. The wool looks really nice on the finished kit though.
Anyway, there you have it. A lovely Waldorf-style kitty and mousey. I have two other Red Rose and Blue kits; one for a bunny and one for a family of chickens. I'm looking forward to making them once I've had a little lie down...
Melx
