Magic Knitting

Used the teddy in a square knitting pattern as a project for my two grandchildren renaming it the Magical Mystery Square but did not reveal the end result. They were absolutely intrigued and after choosing five colours of wool each, could be seen for the next few days knitting the squares. Lots of guesses - could it be a glove or a sock? After sewing the seams and filling the tubes, James (9) thought it could be made into a rocket ship, but Emilia (6) decided it could be a lighthouse. When they had sewn the arms and legs, they were delighted with the dolls they had made. James decided to keep his as an invisible man without a face, but Emilia decided on a girl with plaits.

Horizontal scarf variation

Here's a simple horizontal scarf using one colour and made from soft wool donated to K4C last month. This was a partly finished item that I pulled down, skeined, washed and conditioned with fabric softener and recycled as a scarf for a homeless person. This is a variation on the Ingram scarf pattern - knit 2 rows; purl 2 rows - but using 12ply wool and 6mm circular needles. I cast on 210 stitches and used 150gms. The scarf measures 168cm x 13cm but would probably make it a little shorter next time.

Nellie the Elli

 Gift for a friend's little granddaughter. Nellie is only 18cms (7 inches) but is a bit special.

Vintage Lace

Just finished this vintage lace pattern for my DD. The original pattern is from the book Knit Vintage by M Weston & R Taylor, pub. 2012, London, but is a complete variation using BWM Luxury 4ply in the colour brick. Not an easy pattern but worth the effort and fits her perfectly.

Teddies & Humpties

These are the teddies and humpties that I made for some of the children at Maya's Rest Cottage near Yass, that was one of the charities for the April collection by the K4C group.

Just in time...

Finally completed these two projects that I have been working on for some months, just in time for Christmas. A knitted blanket each for my two grandchildren, Emilia 5 and James 8, each one made from 30 squares with different designs including their names. Used about 1kg of 8ply Luxury wool from BMW for each rug with 4.5mm needles. The tricky part was designing many of the squares to match each child. The finished blankets are 46 inches x 52 inches (111 cm x 132 cm) and squares were joined using a Bickford type seam that was flat on the reverse. The blankets were completed with three rows of crochet using a 4.5mm hook.

Happy Aussie Christmas to all

Winter projects

Moss stitch scarf for a gift for a kind person 

Lace cowl for a gift for someone generous 

Beanies and scarves for a charity group

Three pairs of slippers for a charity group - see page on right - How to make soles for knitted slippers

A new hat for myself

Learning to knit

 Making a scarf for teddy having made the needles from the wooden skewers from last night's dinner

Just finished

                                          Baby gift

                                          Felted slippers

 

Throw rug 104cm x 132cm (41inches x 53inches) in Jet 10ply wool/alpaca using almost one kilo of wool that I bought on ebay some time ago as a discontinued colour. The diamond pattern repeat is 16 rows and has edging of moss stitch. 8 diamond repeats in width and 17 repeats in length.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

This will keep you smiling http://www.wimp.com/spectacularmove/

Squares within squares

This is an experiment with large (33 cm) diagonal knitted squares using left over wool (4 ply and 5 ply). Two colours have been knitted in each striped section to give a variegated textured effect. Not sure where to take this next as a lot more squares required to make this into a bed rug, and have lost the inspiration for knitting more squares at present.

Baby gifts

Some recent baby gifts - Humpty Dumpty is about 23cm seated (9 inches) and the little Koala is about 15cm (6 inches)

The perfect Aussie Christmas... and a Happy Christmas to all

Log Cabin knitted blanket - finished

Completed 12 squares that were then sorted into four rows of three and edged with navy blue wool

 Sorting the squares into a suitable design

Finished blanket folded in half showing six of the squares. The squares were washed by hand in a fabric conditioner and dried flat in the sun before being sewn together, as some of the wool was old

 Joining the seams from the front of the blanket using mattress stitch after joining them in strips of three. Hint - don't pull the thread tight with 8ply or you will distort the shape. Makes a neat seam.

 Reverse of blanket showing thread ends woven into strips in stretchy figure of eight pattern

Detail of woven ends showing how ends were secured and disappear into the knitted strips

What did I learn?
How to weave ends so that they remain stretchy and disappear.
How to join seams of different types of edging using mattress stitch
Thank you Staci for this pattern and these very useful videos

Decided to complete the blanket with 12 squares as I had used most of my left over wool and wanted to move onto a different project. Suitable size for the flat surface of a single bed. Lots of time and patience required to sew up the seams. Would not make squares again but pleased this blanket is finished!

My grandson's comment - " Love it!" (He will go a long way with comments like this...)