Found - The Lost Pattern

I am in love with Ravelry. How else could I have found the pattern for the childhood toy my boyfriend has owned for 26 odd years? What are the chances of a Raveller stumbling across my plea for help, and finding an A4 page ripped out of a magazine all those years ago? Now we have a purple knitsput to match the original red sputknit.

Poppy Cakes

A week or so after Poppy was born, I had a couple of peeps over my place for tea and cupcakes. Poppy was conceived on the same day that my folks planted their first crop of carrots so I decided to make carrot poppyseed cupcakes in her honour.

I took the recipe from Maxine Clark's wonderful book, Comfort Food. Her recipe for carrot cake is the best I've ever come across, full of carrots, poppy seeds and pineapple. Just writing about it makes me want to cook up a batch.

The poppy's I improvised as I went along. I rolled out marzipan, cut out poppy shapes and painted them in three coats of red food colouring. Then I painted them with red icing and topped them off with some liquorice. The leaves were made in the same way but with green food colouring.

21 March 2009 - Poppy is Born

Clo's bubby was born on 21 March 2009, brave Clo delivered Poppy on gas and air only. Isn't she beautiful....and in the Debbie Bliss Cardi I knit for her, it's a little big now but with sheer quantity of milk she demands she'll grow into it pretty soon.

Baby Boom - Dr Zeuss Cot Blanket

I finished this in December 08 and I can only just bring myself to look at it now. Me and my sis Clo used to love the Dr. Zeuss books and at age 9 (or thereabouts), Clo reproduced the front cover of One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, which Ma framed and hung pride of place in the dining room.

So when Clo announced that she was "with sprog", I thought I'd knit up a Dr Zeuss cot blanket. Designing it was the fun bit, I love graph paper and coloured pencils. But knitting it!!! Oh the pain!!! Apart from the fact that I'd never attempted intarsia before (check out all the scruffy outlines) I used 2mm circs and somehow managed to create a mobius twist so I had to steak the darn thing a quarter of the way through.

Then we come to the choice of yarn. I decided to buy online and couldn't for love nor money find a decent yellow. Why is yellow yarn so difficult to find? I ended up buying cones of machine knitting cotton. I hand knit with MACHINE KNITTING COTTON, I must be crazy, it was so thin I found it near impossible to get a good tension.

It took near enough two solid months to complete, I backed it with a cute blue and white polka dot fabric and gifted it to Clo for Christmas.

I quite like it now five months later, but never ever ever again.

Baby Boom - Sharky The Cat

Taken from one of those Bazaar knitting booklets. Naff City!!!

I've come to the conclusion that I'm not cut out for knitting toys, apart from the fact that I found the knitting really tiresome the bloomin' thing looks rather dopey.

Named after a childhood pet, meet Sharky the floppy moggy.

...and the original from the Bazaar booklet.

Baby Boom - Debbie Bliss Booties

These were so quick to make and so cute. I'm a bit Debbie Bliss'd out now...

Help! - The Lost Pattern

!!!WANTED!!!

I desperately need the pattern to knit this alien. It's my boyfriend's childhood "teddy" and my sister has demanded one for her bubby. Please help!

One Skein - The Shibori Experiment

It's frustrating that I can't knit up some of the beautiful patterns that I'm lusting after, but I can't give up one week into the stash challenge. Anyway, choosing a pattern for the yarn rather than the yarn for the pattern requires a completely different mindset that is pushing me to be more creative.

I had a beautiful skein of black 100% alpaca but no idea what to do with it, so I googled for a bit and then decided to get on the shibori bandwagon. Cue a day of stocking stitch with my trusty 4's. Yawn. But I kept going because I knew the fun bit was to come.

I couldn't cast off quickly enough! I don't have enough control with my washing machine as there is no way of prising open the door mid-cycle (it doesn't stop the bl**dy thing leaking though), so after I shaped the material with five and two pence pieces secured with elastic bands, I immersed the lot in a vat of boiling water.

The water quickly turned pee-pee yellow and although I have never encountered an alpaca, after a couple of minutes on the stove I had a pretty good idea how one smells.

Three minutes in, I checked how the felting process was getting on. It wasn't.

10 minutes later I checked again, and swooshed my scarf round the pan for good measure.

After 30 minutes I gave up. It hadn't worked.

I achieved the below effect with a hairdryer and my boyfriend's hairspray. I'll never be able to get it wet ...therefore I'll probably never be able to wear it out ...therefore it's a totally unpractical scarf.

Lesson learnt: Knit a sample before you commit to knitting a garment up for felting. Thank heavens it was only a scarf.

As an afterthought. My fellow likes the smell of soggy alpaca.

Bargain Knitting - A Tam and a Scarflette for £1.65!!!!!

The first challenge! A lovely 100gm ball of pea green Hayfield Bonus DK. 100% acrylic, but surprisingly soft. Cost - £1.65. This yarn screamed Tam at me, so I had a look online for free patterns and came up with a wonderful wonderful site http://www.woollywormhead.com/, where I found a lovely pattern for a hat called the "meret".



This is the finished article. I made the medium size hat with smaller needles than called for in the pattern, (I used 4mms). I didn't knit in the round as suggested because it was a little too tight ...probably because of the needle downsize ;-)


I stitched some vintage buttons onto the front ...I'm in LOVE with them!

...then - and this is the best bit - I had enough yarn over to knit a scarflette. It's what I call an "organic" design, i.e. I made it up as I went along, and I'm really happy with the finished effect.

Another vintage button to secure the scarflette round my neck.

Pea green isn't to everyone's taste admitedly, but I adore my little duo and I recieved plenty of compliments when I took them for their first outing.

A hat and a scarflette for £1.65. I'm starting to like my little challenge :-)

The Promise - I Will Not Buy Any More Yarn

...until I've used up the yarn I already have. In the spirit of make-do in the current financial climate etc etc, I'm trying to save money.

I love our bedroom and so does my fella, but my yarn stash is starting to take over. It's over-spilling it's designated basket and is getting in the way.

That said, it's not exactly the biggest stash ever and so it's not that daunting. I can do it. I can resist.



It's a bit of a mixed bag. I've got some nasty nylons ...but I've also got some vintage delights, leftover cashmerino and two skeins of rowan kidsilk haze...

Why did I buy these!!! I don't machine knit!!!

Baby Boom - Free Pattern - Mittens

My lovely fella's lovely mother gave me some lovely yarn, so I designed some baby mittens with my brand new stash of pastel Wendy Peter Pan yarns.

As it was free I thought I'd give my pattern away for free :-)

EQUIPMENT
One pair 3.25mm needles; one pair 2.75mm needles. Scraps of wool. 2x buttons.

INSTRUCTIONS
RIGHT MITTEN – REVISED FOR 3.25MM
With 2.75mm needles and white cast on 34 [36 : 40] stitches
1st row: K1, P1, to end
Repeat 1st row once more
Next row: (K1, P1) to last 3 stitches, Sl1, K1, PSSO, P1
Next row: K1, M1, (K1, P1) to end
Repeat 1st row once more
Next row: Cast off 7 stitches in rib, P1, (K1, P1) to end – 27 [29 : 33] stitches
The remainder of the mitten is knit in a blue and white stripe every two alternate rows
Next row: With 3.25mm needles and blue beg with a K row work 6 [6 : 8] rows in stocking stitch
Thumb
1st row: K19 [21 : 23], Turn
2nd row: Cast on 5 [6: 6] stitches, P11 [12: 12] , turn - 11 [12 : 12] stitches
Work 6 [8: 10] rows in stocking stitch
Next row: (K2tog)5 [6: 6] times, K1 [0: 0] - 6 [6: 6] stitches
Leaving a length of yarn long enough to join seam, break yarn and thread end through stitches, draw up tightly and fasten off. Join seam.
Next row: Right side. Pick up and K6 [6: 6] stitches from base of thumb, K to end
Work 11 [13: 15] rows in stocking stitch


Shape top of mitten
1st row: *K1, Sl1, K1, PSSO, K8 [9 : 11], K2tog, rep from * once more, K1
2nd and 4th rows: P to end
3rd row: *K1, Sl1, K1, PSSO, K6 [7 : 9], K2tog, rep from * once more, K1
Leaving a length of yarn long enough to join seam, break yarn and thread end through stitches, draw up tightly and fasten off. Join seam.

LEFT MITTEN
With 2.75mm needles and white cast on 34 [36 : 40] stitches
1st row: P1, K1, to end
Repeat 1st row once more
Next row: P1, Sl1, K1, PSSO, K1, (P1, K1) to end
Next row: P1 (K1, P1) to last two stitches, M1, P1, K1
Repeat 1st row once more
Next row: P1, (K1, P1) to last seven stitches, cast off remaining stitches – 27 [29 : 33] stitches
The remainder of the mitten is knit in a blue and white stripe every alternative two rows
Next row: With 3.25mm needles and blue beg with a K row work 6 [6 : 8] rows in stocking stitch
Thumb
1st row: K14 [15 : 17], Turn
2nd row: Cast on 5 [6 : 6] stitches, P11 [12 : 12], turn – 11 [12 : 12] stitches
Work 6 [8 : 10]rows in stocking stitch
Next row: (K2tog)5 [6 : 6] times, K1 [0 : 0] – 6 [6: 6] stitches
Leaving a length of yarn long enough to join seam, break yarn and thread end through stitches, draw up tightly and fasten off. Join seam.
Next row: Right side. Pick up and K6 [6 : 6] stitches from base of thumb, K to end
Work 11 [13 : 15] rows in stocking stitch
Shape top of mitten
1st row: *K1, Sl1, K1, PSSO, K8 [9 : 11], K2tog, rep from * once more, K1
2nd and 4th rows: P to end
3rd row: *K1, Sl1, K1, PSSO, K6 [7 : 9], K2tog, rep from * once more, K1
Leaving a length of yarn long enough to join seam, break yarn and thread end through stitches, draw up tightly and fasten off. Join seam.

Baby Boom - Duck Cardigan

Next up was this little sweetie, a vintage Sirdar pattern I found on e-bay. ...I've no idea who Doris is.


I chose a pale blue Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerinio yarn and designed little ducks to embroider on the front to make it a bit more girly.

Baby Boom - Peppermint Cabled Mittens

I'd never made mittens before, so gave it a go with the leftover peppermint Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino yarn from the vintage jumper.

I chose a vintage Teddy pattern. They turned out a little long ...I guess they'll stay put on baby's hands.

Baby Boom - Merino Coat

A change of yarn for my next knit. I chose a chocolate brown Rowan Merino for this vintage knit.

...but I wasn't too keen on the coller

So I designed a hood in the same broken rib as the rest of the coat.

I completed the coat with some mis-matched vintage buttons

I LOVE this blue button!!!

Baby Boom - Peppermint Jumper

I found a beautiful vintage pattern for a broken rib baby jumper in an old patterns booklet. Here's the original:


...and here is the version I knitted up in a gorgeous peppermint yarn from the Debbie Bliss Baby cashmerino range. I'm a little obsessed with this yarn at the moment.


The Front

The Back


It was so simple to knit and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Baby Boom - Matinee Jacket

I couldn't resist it. I knit another garment from the first Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino book. I knit the matinee jacked in cream baby cashmerino yarn.



My first go at knitting a decorative border

I love moss stitch...

...and the original pics from Debbie Bliss' baby cashmerino book.