Winter is Coming Cushion Cover

sewn side

knitted side

I was going to do a post about all three cushion covers I have made, but unfortunately realised I have no photos of the ones I made for DD in their completed state, just the progress photos. I have asked her more than once to take photos of them but I am still waiting...

This one was done for a Ravelry swap entitled Winter is Coming. For people who are not Game of Thrones fans, this is the motto of House Stark and was also apt as it was an autumn swap. The lady I got to send to likes autumn colours.

The sewn side (yes, I know this is a knitting blog, but sometimes things have to involve more than one craft!) is made from the cut-off bottoms of some friends' curtains, which I acquired in a craft swap meet. The border (down the left and right side in the picture) is the very bottom of the curtain. I cut two pieces the same and inverted one, so that the two halves (there is a seam down the middle) are (more or less) mirror image.

The knitted side is made entirely from stash, except for the burgundy, which I bought quite cheaply (so still sticking to yarn diet, more or less). I asked the recipient to imagine looking at a picture an autumn garden at the edge of a forest, then the picture is smeared (whether by hand or Photoshop) diagonally. The brown represents tree trunks; the two shades of beige (not easy to discern in a small photo, but there really are two) represent dead leaves; the burgundy represents copper beech leaves; the multi-coloured yarn represents a mish-mash of leaf litter etc; the yellow is the odd ray of sunshine through the trees; the pink is the odd faded rose in the garden; and the tiny bit of blue, which really should be at the top, not the bottom, is a little patch of blue sky. Yes, maybe I did get a bit fanciful and carried away with this, but it was that sort of swap and it was very well received, I am glad to say.

Minty Baby Cardigan

Can't believe I haven't put this on my blog yet! I made this for a work colleague, who went on maternity leave well before I left that job over 6 months ago.

This is not one of my blended efforts. It's almost as the pattern (the one I used for the stitch pattern for my blended cardigan) says, which means it is second size, which I sometimes do for new mums, as they probably get plenty of first size stuff, then their baby grows a bit and they have to start buying franticly.

I have modified the pattern a little (do I ever just do a pattern?) in that I didn't fancy doing the cable effect on the tiny needles that the ribbing is done on, so that is just k2 p2 ribbing (round the bottom, the bottom of the sleeves and the button/button hole/neck band)

Another colleague said she thought the pregnant lady would be pleased to get a hand-made gift, but I was not prepared for the mum-to-be's reaction. I was hugged and she cried, she was so pleased to receive it!

Entrelac baby blanket

Another one for the local hospital's SCBU. The stripy yarn was left over from the gloves I made my friend some time ago and the blue was in with a batch I bought cheap on ebay some long time ago. The colours seems to go all right and I thought they'd look good knitted as entrelac. I started at one of the short ends. I underestimated how big it would be initially and had to undo one triangle to make it about the size that SCBU requires.

When I had done all the knitting, I crocheted a border (doubles) in a fortuitously matching yellow I happened to have. I like my blankets to have borders - I think it kind of brings the whole thing together/makes a nice finish.

There was still a little left of both the stripy and the blue when I had finished this - the stripy has now finally been finished (further post to come...)

Blended Socks

First post of the New Year - still trying to catch up a bit. If I made New Year Resolutions, mine should be to keep up with my blog, amongst other things...

These are blended socks, because I blended two patterns. I used the same basic pattern and the same yarn (from the everlasting cone of acrylic/cotton blend as my last two pairs) as I did for my first toe-up socks, but added the lacy pattern from a cardigan in a magazine (Simply Knitting Issue 102 February). I had another idea initially, but it didn't work. I had some problems along the way - one heel had to be completely redone - but I am pleased with the result. (Not sure why the photo has come out sideways - I was looking down at my feet and the pic saved on our computer is as that would be...)

Little things please little minds - I am a bit pleased with myself that I started the lacy part of the second sock with the second half of the lace pattern, so these socks are mirror image. Also, as my toenails tend to go through socks (and shoes!) I decided to try to reinforce the toe area by using the same technique as the pattern uses on the heel. As there are increases to make the toe shape, this staggers the effect, which I think looks quite good - you may be able to see what I mean in the more detailed photo to the right. If you want more info as to what I mean, please do message me and I will send you a more detailed description.

Heartsease bags

A member of our knitting group brought some leaflets to a meeting early this year. Ruth and Belinda (www.ruthandbelinda.co.uk) have teamed up with Kids Company, which delivers services to vulnerable children, those 'not properly cared for' as the founder Camila Batmanhelidjh puts it, and set up a project for knitters to make heart-shaped bags for use in therapy sessions with the young people Kids Company work with. They are trying to get some large number (can't remember the figure) by 14th February 2014. I therefore set to and made a heart-shaped bag, using one of their patterns. Unfortunately I did not read the pattern properly and left out 12 rows at the sides of the heart, making it a somewhat dumpy heart, but I decided to leave it as is rather than undo and correct. I added a little i-cord handle, a tassel at the bottom add a butterfly I found somewhere.

It occurred to me, however, that maybe boys would not be keen on a heart-shaped bag. I consulted DS, who is not particularly vulnerable, but has been a boy fairly recently and he said in no uncertain terms that he thought heart-shaped bags would not be suitable for boys, so I emailed Ruth and Belinda to see what they thought. They said something to the effect that I had made a valid point and that bags of all shapes would be acceptable. So I then made a boy bag. It started like a scarf, but after about 8 inches, I started decreasing to make a triangle at the end, the folded it in half (minus the triangle) and sewed up the sides. I gave it a toning button and to cheer it up a little embroidered a little yellow thingy (supposed to be a sun with little rays, but it could  be interpreted differently - as a flower or just a funny blob). I also attached a long enough i-cord for the bag to be worn over the shoulder. I've shown two photos to show the length of i-cord in the top one and a bit more detail in the bottom one.

Both were made with acrylic DK yarn I already had, left over from previous projects. Thus they are machine washable and stashbusters (although I had quite a bit of yarn given to me recently... Oh, well).

I still have my doubts as to whether any boys would like any shape of bag, but nevertheless I sent both off with the Tunisian crochet one I made some time ago and some others made by members of the knitting group, including the stripy one made by my Mum mentioned way back. I do hope they'll do some good.

Pentagon coaster

Slightly odd this one. I found instructions to make a Tunisian crochet hexagon coaster and followed it, triangle by triangle, but after five triangles, there was no room for another, so I sewed it up and made a pentagon. This was actually the second attempt, but the first went off in a swap package without being photographed. The same happened with that one too. Hmm...

White diamond pattern cardigan

Oops! I realised it had been a while since I last added a post here and that I had a few things to add, but I didn't realise it had been eight months! I'll try to add one or two things a day for a bit to catch up.

This is obviously the V-neck version of the pink diamond pattern cardigan I did earlier. The yarn used was Keynote Acrylic Nylon, which was given to me by a knitting group friend for the purpose of making things for SCBU. You can tell from the name (if you're old enough) that it is quite old yarn. I think it is good that it has finally been found a use. More items to follow before long...

Third diagonal baby blanket

This one's made the same way as the previous ones (the pink and white one and the blue and cream one), except for the border. I used up a lot of tatty old bits in this and was a bit worried that it looked a bit of a mish-mash, but I think the white border (added because I realised I had made it a wee bit small) brings it together well enough. Some of the yarn I used was specifically given to me for the purpose of making baby blankets for the local baby unit and some was left over from previous projects (including some from at least 30 years ago), so as well as being a useful item, it has been a good stashbuster.

Dropped this in to the Acorn Suite last Saturday (23 March) along with the pink cardigan also posted today. Now I've finally got started on another pair of socks for myself, which will of course turn up on here eventually.

Pink Diamond Pattern Baby Cardigan

Yes, it's yet another baby cardigan for the local special care baby unit, but it's a pattern I haven't done before. Also I've been doing 3 ply ones so far and this one is in 4 ply and for a change it doesn't have raglan sleeves (I'm sure there's a proper term for the sort of sleeves it does have, but I'm not sure what it is). The Acorn Suite (SCBU) have stated that they want newborn size cardigans, but looking at the pattern (Sirdar Tops and Pants 3613) and comparing the number of stitches with other patterns, I thought their 0/3 months size would be a bit big, so I followed the instructions for the largest of the premature sizes - and it still looked a bit big for newborn to me, but the nurse who checked it when I brought it in confirmed that it was the right size. She commented that she was checking because sometimes people bring cardigans that are too small (may have said before, but they don't clothe the babies until they are newborn size - presumably keep them in temperature-controlled environment!).

Just as an aside, my Mum admired the stitch pattern of this and copied it for her next square towards our latest blanket for Refuge.

Valentine Hat (Woolly Wormhead's Ruislip)

I've cheated slightly with this post - just straight copied from what I've put in my projects on Ravelry. (I usually say things slightly differently here from there - dunno why).

Now that I know this has been received and fits, I feel I can write it up here. Didn’t want to before, as it would have spoiled the Valentine surprise!

Some long time ago (2 or more years?), I bought a mixed batch of yarn ridiculously cheap from someone on ebay. In among this batch were two large balls of red DK yarn wound double. They have sat in my stash ever since, waiting for me to have inspiration.

I signed up to the Sending Some Sunshine Valentine’s Day Swap 2013 in January. Then I received the March issue of Simply Knitting (it was still January! I know magazines come out well before the month on the cover, but really!) and saw the Woolly Wormhead pattern for Ruislip and it instantly popped into my head that it would look good in red and that I had red yarn already, so I wouldn’t be breaking my yarn diet, nor would it stretch my finances. All I had to contribute to it was time. So far so good. Remember that little phrase above - ‘wound double’? I thought, ‘I’ll just rewind one of the doubled balls into two balls of single wound yarn, then I can get going on this hat’. Ahem. I started rewinding it in the morning of 2 Feb, thinking I would just do that before going out a bit later in the morning, then I could get going on the hat at our knitting group meeting in the afternoon. I soon realised that ‘just’ rewinding the ball would take more than a few minutes, packed it up and took it with me (with needles too so that I could start it later). I did my DD a favour lunchtime, so fortunately for me, she owed me, so I enlisted her help with the rewinding. It was still taking a long time and two other members of the group got involved with the rewinding too. About half an hour before everyone left, we had got it sorted and I managed to get started on the actual knitting.

The pattern says to use dpns, but (a) I don’t have the right size dpns and (b) I have a tendency to give up trying to join knitting in the round with them and throw them and the knitting across the room. I considered using two circulars, like I have done to make socks, but then thought, why not just use one (interchangeable) circular, then I can use magic loop, which I had not done before, so I would be acquiring a new skill, even if it isn’t a very complex one. DD had said how easy magic loop is and she was right.

Then there’s the problem of what to do when you get to the decreases. It gets too small for the circular needle. I then used an idea devised (possibly not the first person to do this, but the first person who suggested it in my presence) by another member of our knitting group. Keep one end of the correct size on the interchangeable circular and attach one a size smaller end on the other end. Put the two other halves of the pairs on another cable and use the larger size to knit onto (knitting off the smaller one). Hope that makes sense. It would be easier to demonstrate, probably.

Anyway, it worked and the hat got finished. The only other modification that I made was to slightly round the end of the button tab.

I was going to put a heart-shaped button on, which seemed right for a Valentine present, but when I held it up against the hat, it didn’t look right. I rummaged through my button stash and found a red button, which was not only the right size, but matched perfectly. Voila! Sorted. Got it finished, not in time for the suggested deadline for mailing, but in time for it to arrive by 14 Feb. And now it has been received and fits. Yay!