designed by....me!

What a wonderfully amazing christmas, I hope you have all had lovely times with family and friends.

Before I get on to my festive knits and gifts I have some other knitting news, about 4 months ago a wrote about some news I had but wasnt able to share well now i can well actually i  could have done from the 11th but festivities took over. My first published pattern was printed in issue 42 of KnitNow magazine. It was my new year’s resolution to get a pattern published so I have achieved it just in time

Here I am picking up my copy :)

The pattern is one I am really proud of, a cute stylish Owl themed bag here it is before I sent it off to be professionally photographed!

And watch this space there is more to come!!!

On the festive front it was lovely to spend time with family and this year I gave the most hand made gifts I have ever done, the one I am most proud of has to be a crochet heart blanket for my mum to say thank you for the knitted one she gave me last year, other gifts included hot water bottles, a pepper pig, a red car, some angry birds and some hats, here are a few snaps of the items and people receiving them

I also like to make sure i do at least one christmas decoration a year too, unfortunatley one is still work in progress but i was able to complete a christmas wreath, i based it on a pattern and design that can be found here

The pattern is really cleary written and my changes were minimal - the first change i made was to crochet some of the wreath in white as well blue for the snow. I used a sparkly white yarn for the snow balls and snow man so they catch the light and finally added a gold crochet bow and some sequin ribbon to the top rather thab the bunting and here it is....

Now with just a few days left of 2014 its a year i am sad to leave behind, its been a year full of fun and special times including my wedding and first published pattern but i must say I am excited to see what 2015 will bring. Only one things for sure it will include a lot of knitting :) 

happy new year to you all x

Successful September!

Well on the knitting front it’s been a successful few weeks for me; some of the news I can’t share with you just yet but watch this space and make sure you return in December when all will be revealed!

 

But on to the news I can share – last year I kicked off planning a stall to raise money for charity, everyone in the stitch and knit group I attend got involved and we had some amazing items to sell. And to date we have made over £1000 for the Leighton Hospital Dermatology unit! How amazing is that! I am so grateful to all the ladies who donated time and materials to make this challenge such a success!

 

Here we are manning the stall on the day J

 

 

 

Doing this was a great way to use up all the oddments of wool I had and it also give me an excuse to knit items I wouldn’t usually!

 

I have also been teaching a friend to knit and check out her amazing first project completed, two fantastic cushions in alternate colours!

 

 

 

 

 

VERY proud of her!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Free Knitting Pattern Owl Egg Cosy

Owl Egg Cosy

Knitting Pattern

Materials

3.75mm Needles

25g ball of double knit wool in brown

Small amount of beige, white, black and yellow double knit wool

 

Final measurements

8cm high, bottom circumference 16cm

Abbreviations

K          Knit

P          Purl

St st      Stocking Stitch

K2tog      Knit the next two stitches together

Pattern;

Cast on 36st in dark brown

Knit 3 rows.

Now work in St st starting with a purl row;

Row 1; P10, follow row 1 on chart, P10.

Row 2; K10, follow row 2 on chart, K10.

Row 3 – 15; continue as above following rows 3-13 on chart

Row 16; K8, K2tog, follow row 14 on chart, K2tog, K8

Row 17; P9, follow row 15 on chart, P9

Row 18; K9, follow row 16 on chart, K9

Row 19 – 21; continue as detailed for previous 2 rows following rows     17-19 on chart.

Row 22; K7, K2tog, follow row 20 on chart, K2tog, K7

Complete the next rows in dark brown;

Row 23; Purl all

Row 24; Knit all

Row 25; Purl all

Cast off.

For the wings – make 2

Cast on 6st

St st 6 rows

Next row; K2tog K2 K2tog

Purl one row

Cast off

 

To finish – sew top and side seam, sew a wing on each side. Using yellow stitch on a beak.

 

Boil an egg and enjoy J

Switching the Needles for the Hook

I learnt to crochet at the same time as knitting and although the concepts are similar the method and end results are very different! Its knitting that got me hooked (no pun intended), but I do still often put down the needles and pick up the hook and that's exactly what I did yesterday to make some pots!

Perfect for trinkets, cotton wool buds, sweets . . . anything small basically . . . .unless your feeling ambition and go large!

They are so simple to make and can be made any size you want!

The bottom is made by doing 1 CH stitch and then 6 double crochet in to this. then you keep working in rounds, the first round you DC in to each one, then the second round you DC once in the first and twice in the second and repeat this until the round is done. Then the next round you do two single DC's and then a double DC. and keep going in the pattern increasing the number of single DC's you do until you have the width you want! This is a method used to create a basic disk!

Then to make the sides you do a single DC in to each of the stiches and keep going around until you have the height you want! when you have the height you can do an extra 2 rows so you can fold down the edge - looks pretty then and also helps it keep its shape and ta-dah you have a pot! 

 

 

But I didn't totally neglect my needles this weekend . . . .

 

 

I added a knitted element to my sisters birthday card! She loves ducks and who wouldn't love a duck holding a balloon :)

x

Love Lace . . .

. . .  not so much . . .  well not so much after my latest commission anyway . . . this commission was to purely knit the garment from the pattern provided.

Don't get me wrong lace knitting looks fantastic and in small amounts I enjoy knitting it but this was a scarf . . . a loooong scarf! 

So what is lace knitting - it is basically a combination of knitted stitches that create holes with in the work to create a pattern, these holes are made by doing a combination of stitches such as k2tog and YO; The YO creates the hole by creating the extra stitch so the k2tog is done to ensure the stitch count stays the same.

The great thing about lace knitting is the most simplest stitch pattern can look so complex, the worst thing about lace knitting is you must concentrate, the last thing you want to have to do is undo a row - picking up stitches when the row is made up of k2togs, YO's, ssk's is not fun at all! So that's why when it came to this pattern I only did it when I knew I have time to sit down get stuck and not get distracted, after a while because the pattern was repetitive I was able to remember the stitches and speed up, it took me 10 separate sessions to complete it in the end and if you follow me on Twitter you would have seen the progress . . . here is a couple of snap shots :)

But honestly don't let my moan put you off, lace knitting is always set to impress and there are some lovely patterns out there from edging on a hat or is your feeling adventurous why not knit a whole wedding dress (I cant say that thought ever crossed my mind).

The Happiest Day of my Life

Well firstly sorry, it’s been a while since I have blogged but I think I have a pretty good excuse . . .  I got married!!

 

It was such an amazing day from start to finish we could not have wished for anything better, it was on the 25^th May which was the same date the year previous that Ad actually proposed!

The ceremony was in the same church my Grandma got married which made it extra special and we then went on to a venue we fell in love with as soon as we saw it . . . big chandeliers, amazing cocktails and fabulous food . . . how could you not fall in love with it. Here are some of my favourite pictures . . . .

 

At the Church:

 

Some shots at the venue:

 

 

Cutting the cake:

 

 

Our First Dance:

 

 

 

The Perfect Day :)

 

We also did a video which was played whilst we signed the register, it was a great surprise for our guests and they all loved it! check it out what do you think . . .

 

http://youtu.be/eWwbi3sxYzg

 

We then had an amazing 10 days in Las Vegas . . .

 

We have now been back a few weeks and although its back to work and normality is slowly taking over I think we are still very much on a high and I think we will be for a good while.

 

Obviously with all this happening the knitting has had to take a back seat but I was able to get some love themed knits done, stay tuned for the patterns very soon x

A Happy Customer

I received a lovely picture the other day from a friend, I had knitted her sister a teddy bear hat for the arrival of her son and here he is wearing it! a perfect fit :)

It is so lovely when you knit something to see it being used.

The pattern is available of Etsy, Craftsy and Ravlery.

Ladies Funky Stitch Fingerless Gloves

I was messing around one evening when I discovered this stitch pattern . . .

 . . . . and I knew it would be perfect for fingerless gloves, it creates a lovely bounce to the knitting and fantastic detail.

Next was to pick the colours, I wanted to do the edging in one colour and then the bulk of the glove in another, I also wanted to bright block contrasting colour . . . . introducing Sublime extra fine merino wool DK. Shade 0019 Waterleaf and Sirdar Calico Double Knitting. Shade 0726 Spicy

 
Sirdar Calico Spicy makes a fantastic edge colour and after repeating the stitch pattern a few times I knew I was happy with my choices

When it came to increasing for the thumb I used the inc3 stitch to ensure the increase blended with the pattern and would also fit around the thumb nicely

And ta-dah the left glove was complete!!

The pattern is knitted so that the seam is hidden on the underside rather than being directly on the side and visible so the pattern was then created for the right hand

 

And I couldn't resist wearing them whilst I typed up the pattern for Etsy, Craftsy and Ravelry :)

 

Toby and Tina the Teddy Bear Hats

Sometimes my designs come from a set of requirements, or inspiration in things I see and other times I see the wool first and just think this would be perfect for. . . . .  and that’s what happened when I saw this SIRDAR snuggly speckled DK baby wool.

 

It is so soft it is just lovely to knit with and when I saw the beige speckled colour the first thing it reminded me of was teddy bears! And although not one of the most original ideas I have had I just had to knit a teddy themed baby hat!

 

My Design – Toby the Teddy Bear Hat;

I wanted to keep it simple, rather than a rib edging I decided to do purl stitch and then the ears with the purl stitch for the inner ear. Doing this purl stitch on both ears I think would tie it in nicely with the edging.

 

It was now time to bring Toby to life!

Once I started knitting with the wool I was really pleased with colour effect, it was just how I thought it would be. The wool also offers a nice stretch to it which was perfect considering I did not do a rib edging.

 

 

 

Once knitted a sewed the seam up using mattress stitch – for me the finishing is just as important if not more than the knitting – there is no point spending hours knitting and the rushing the making up!

Mattress stitch means two pieces of knitting can be sewn up and on the outside the join becomes invisible – it’s just a matter of picking up the bars between the knit stitch at the edge;

 

Pick up the bars between the edge knit stitches

And Ta-dah the seam is perfect!

 

 

When it came to the ears I was expecting it to take a few attempts to get the perfect size but I got it on the first attempt!

 

 

 

Once both ears were done a fastened them in place with a needle to check the positioning – I actually used two of the decrease lines to position them and counted the same number of stitched from the top for both so they are symmetrical! 

 

And Ta-dah the hat is done!

 

 

 

Perfect for a baby boy but for a baby girl I felt there was something missing . . . . a bow!!

 

Introducing Tina the Teddy Bear Hat . . .

 

 

 

It’s such a simple but effective pattern and I really think this wool adds that extra special touch and a perfect gift for a new born. If you are unsure of the sex you can make it in advance and then just add a bow if it’s a girl!

If you want to have a go at making this the pattern is available on both Etsy and Craftsy - the pattern has instructions for new born, 3-6 months and 6-12 months.

 

Christmas is Done and a New Years Begun!

I hope you all had a fabulous family Christmas and brought the new year in in style!

 

For me Christmas was a lovely family Christmas as always, the morning at my mums and then the afternoon with Ad’s family! The best part of the day for me was the gift giving and opening at my mums, it is always so much fun!!

 

This year  I knitted my mum a hat, one of the only knitted gifts I got round to doing and she totally put me to shame, she knitted 3 amazing blankets for me and my sisters! Here is me and Ad chilling under ours on boxing day J they are fantastic, the hours of work she has put in to them is just amazing!!

 

 

 

Continuing with the knitting theme one of my sisters got me a subscription for one of the many knitting magazines I buy religiously and did me a personalised card to open on Christmas day to show what it was . . . . I love it! The picture is of me in a chair done like a ball of wool with knitting needles sticking out of it! I would love this chair in my house but not so sure Ad would be quite as keen.

 

 

We have never really been ones to go out on new year’s eve, the packed bars, high drinks prices and queuing for a drink really don’t appeal to us so we had a nice chilled night in and of course I did some knitting ;)

 

Looking back on 2013 I can’t say I am happy to see the year end as for me it was a really happy memorable one; I got engaged, celebrated Ad’s birthday with a family party, went to Las Vegas, started selling my patterns online and writing this blog!

 

But I also can’t say I am not looking forward to 2014 . . . the year of our wedding!!!

 

In terms of Resolutions last years was to stop talking about it and actually start a blog and start selling my knitting patterns and I did it! So what will this years be . . .

 

Well given the size of my wool stash now I think the first one has to be not to buy any more wool without a design in mind – but I know I won’t be able to stick to this one but everyone needs at least one resolution they won’t stick to done they!?!

 

Another one has got to be around my knitting machine, since I got it I have learnt the basics and then not touched it! And next year I would love to have knitted Christmas jumpers done for everyone so I must get to work on that!

 

And finally and I may regret this one with being so busy with the wedding but this year I want to get a least one pattern published in a magazine! I don’t know how I am going to do it or where to start but I have a whole year . . .  plenty of time . . .  (I hope!)