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
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
