Crochet Coral

We were lucky enough to be able to see this amazing crochet coral reef during a visit to Manchester Museum.  Its part of Coral Something Rich and Strange.  I left wanting to make my own but I am not sure my tiny terraced house would have space for a coral reef.  I have found some links in case anyone else feels inspired.  Unfortunately I have been too busy to make any yet but if you do please share your pictures as I would love to see how they come out! Patterns here and here, some more photos and ideas here.

A New Variation

I was contacted the other day by a lovely fellow crafter (she makes lovely crochet slippers, see her Facebook page here.) who wanted some mittens for her children.  For her youngest she asked if I could do  full mittens without a thumb.  After searching for a long time for an idea of the hand size of a one year old  here is the first of the pair.  I am really pleased with it.  The colours are fab, remind me of a clear sunny morning in late spring when all the fresh new leaves are just opening on the trees and are still that really bright green.  I also loved knitting them because I didn't have to do all that "slip thumb stitches onto a stitch holder", "pick up and knit" etc and of course less ends to sew in afterwards!

First Glimpses of Spring

After all the snow of last weekend we are actually enjoying our second sunny morning today!  Yesterday was lovely, I even managed a bit of Al Fresco knitting while the small peeps cycled madly round the local park.  In anticipation of sunnier days to come I have been crocheting some coasters.

This is my first test one.  It is now on its way to its new home at my little sisters work.  I quickly made another two and these are up in the shop.  Daisies are one of my fave flowers, another being sunflowers so I had a go at the daisy pattern in sunflower colours.

I liked it but it just isn't sunflowery enough.  At some unearthly hour yesterday morning when I couldn't sleep it suddenly occured to me how to adapt the points.  To any experienced crocheters its probably really obvious but as crochet is still pretty new to me (and still somewhat of a mystery at times!) I was soooo pleased when it actually worked out!

It is now pinned and blocking in my tiny airing cupboard.  I will post another photo of it in all its sunny glory when its all flat.

Chocolate Bunny

I decided I really should photograph this brown bunny hat alongside a Lindt chocolate rabbit (obviously just for the photo, nothing to do with having a Lindt rabbit to eat afterwards) but due to snow and grumpy children I never made it to the supermarket.

We have even more snow now, I haven't ventured out yet as all fell last night but I am guessing we have four inches or so.  The children will be over the moon, especially as Daddy is much more into sledging than I am and is off work today.  I am just hoping that the postman makes it to us as he should have some more yarn for me, and if I'm not able to get out anywhere I may as well be knitting ;)

A Little Grey Rabbit

My needles have been busy the last few weeks bringing to life a thank you rabbit for a very lovely lady.  I have to admit knitted toys stress me out as I have issues with sewing them up and adding faces.  Well not really issues, but I am a perfectionist and my sewing skills are far from perfect so the creating of a person/animal from knitting always provides a few challenges.  This little man (well Miss E says he is a she) has been very well loved throughout his creation by Miss E and I think she will be a little sad to see him go, but as her soft toy collection threatens to take over her room she really doesn't need anymore cuddly babies!

The photos are far from great I'm afraid but we seem to be in the midst of 40 days of rain, maybe more, and I gave up waiting for a bright day to take a better one!

He is from this rabbit pattern on Ravelry and is knitted using Stylecraft Special DK in graphite.  I used 3.25mm needles and reduced the length of the ears and legs slightly to compensate for the thinner yarn.  I also followed another knitters changes to creat a rounder tail, which I knitted in white.  A pom pom tail would have been nice but as this may get t be loved by a baby or two I was worried about bits of wool coming off.

One down, one to go

Look at this yarn!!  It is the loveliest softest hand dyed merino ever.  I bought it just under 3 years ago when Miss E was born to knit her a pair of longies.  Needless to say it never made it onto my needles then due to the demands of a newborn.  Over the weekend I was contacted by a talented crafty lady to knit her little man a pair of legwarmers and after a rummage in my stash I re-found my skeins of this lovely yarn.  It is hand dyed by another lovely crafty lady, Jenny Cook, who lives a few miles away from my Mum and Dad.  Anyway, I spent a restful morning yesterday on the sofa watching An Ideal Husband with Miss E (she loved it, think it was the dresses!!) and managed to get a good start on the first one.  I finished it off this morning so am now casting on leg number two!

Another earflap hat

With our dodgy internet getting online is proving quite a tricky procedure but has given me more knitting time!  Here is my new off-the-needles hat

The pattern is an adaption of this hat knitted up in King Cole Twist Aran.  I followed the 6-9 months instructions but did the body a little longer and a larger garter stitch rim.  I have put it for sale as unisex although it does have some cerise pink in it, the colours are really autumnal!

Red and White

Dare I mention the C word?!  How many days are there to go?  We have Miss E's birthday to think about first but I am beginning to try and think of some present ideas.  I am also trying to think of a few festive knits and have bought some red and white yarn.  I am wondering about a stripey hat or mittens, or mittens in a single colour with crochet applique sewn on.  Or maybe even striped baby legwarmers?!  In the meantime here is a collection of candy cane inspired Christmas goodies, can you tell how much I love red and white together!!

Christmas cards, Set of... MeeMeeMeeCreat... $3.50	Felt Reindeer, Wool Toy... GardenBirdie $25.00	Red Gingham Christmas D... DandyLane $10.00	Decorative Christmas Pi... TheFeminineTou... $28.00
Hand-knitted Red White ... Legyviel $42.50	Christmas Fabric Pocket... KaelaMills $4.50	Christmas Ponytail hold... Rotifera $5.00	Christmas Stocking with... inkmeup $5.00
CANDY CANE - Shea Butte... InseineCreatio... $5.00	Red white striped stock... Lepun $16.00	Red and White Striped C... HandmadebyKATu... $4.50	Red and White Polka Dot... handworkstudio $125.00
Christmas Tree Decorati... TataniaRosa $9.00	Christmas Red and White... OneElf $20.00	Christmas Set Egg Cup B... Magicpots $70.00	Elf gnome hat, candy ca... missbelluk $19.00

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

Autumn Twist Hat

Want to see my newest knit? I saw this King Cole Twist yarn in Bracken and wanted to knit up something autumnal with it.  I was going to try a leaf hat again but decided to do a plainer pattern so the colours take centre stage.

The pattern I sort of worked from is this one in that I only decreased every other row.  I started with 72 stitches and it has come out as about 9 months plus size.  

It is on Ravelry here and up for sale in my shop here.

Little boy blue hat

This lovely hat has just come off my lovely Mum's needles!  How funny that we were both working with the same yarn without realising it.

And here are my newest creations....see?!

It has been featured in this lovely Treasury along with some lovely starry goodies!

Flower Hat

I still had some of Jenny Cooks gorgeous hand dyed yarn left and found a lovely hat design on Ravelry.  I contacted Jolene about making a hat from this design and she sent back a lovely reply so I got knitting.  Here is the lovely pattern .  The hat knitted up really well but I found the flower really fiddly and ended up frogging it and following a different pattern from Knit With KT.  I like the big flower on weeny hat look but I think next time I make one I will do a slightly more in scale flower as I figure some people might think its a bit big.

A Surprise Project and New Wool

So today I had a first go at pattern designing!  I found the designing part quite easy but writing down the pattern was another matter.  I had an idea of a new hat design to sell in The Yarn Owl's Nest but couldn't find a pattern that I loved online so I decided to try my hand at designing my own.  I'm really please with how its working out but the embellishments are pretty time consuming and fiddly so I think it'll be a while before I make any to sell.  In the meantime I hope to bring you the pattern on here once I've written it in a way it makes sense to someone other than myself!


At the end of last week I had my first custom order.  The yarn arrived over the weekend so I got started after I unpacked (and photographed the yarn!!)

These three were extra colours I had fallen in love with and are waiting to be knitted into mittens.

And here is the beginnings of my first order!!!!!

Casting on...

...a few more projects!!

I am usually a finish one project before starting on another sort of person but I wanted a portable knit as well as the mittens and circular needles are much safer for moving about with than all those points!!

The lilac is another berry hat and the red is an experiment really, using the Debbie Bliss Glen to make an extra large sized baby mitten.  They are looking bigger than I expected as I was hoping they would be suitable for 5-8 year olds.  At the moment they look like they'll fit me!

Sunshine

The sun actually shone today.  Sunny days seemed to be in short supply this summer, we have had sooo much rain here that the lawn is still muddy.  I made the most of it though, not by sunbathing or going to the beach like normal people, no, I grabbed all the things I've knitted and got busy taking photos.

The hats look so much better in good light.  Miss E was playing with a toy pumpkin I knitted a few years ago.  I had totally forgotten about it, I whisked it away when she wasn't looking, it makes an ideal prop don't you think?

Girly and unisex baby mittens on the line, the difference a bit of sun makes is amazing.

All the mittens together.  The ones on the bottom right are the finished Badger Mitts.  I have enough yarn left to do another pair in reverse colours I think, watch this space.