June 16th 2012
Filed under General
Earlier this year another of my lovely knitting friends had a baby – a gorgeous little baby boy – so of course this meant I would have another chance to knit Elijah! Well doing through my stash I didn’t have any appropriate yarn, so I though maybe I could adapt the pattern and make it using sock yarn.
Remember in my last post how I mentioned I was always knitting with the same yarn? Well I figured Sokkusu Original, would be perfect, great stitch definition and soft enought for baby’s little hands. As the pattern originally calls for DK yarn on 3.25mm needles I figured sock yarn on 2mm would create a tight enough fabric. What I didn’t could on was the awkwardness of knitting so few stitches (for the arms and trunk) on such small needles, let alone the picking up of stitches.
However, it was a really quick knit! So I figured as I hadn’t made anything for the little boy’s older sister, why not do another one (this time in pink). Well when I was working picking up the stitches on the second leg, I managed to completely bend the needle (it was almost semi circle), But I figured I would be alright, afterall I could manage this with 4 needles (as these a pack of 5), but of course I couldn’t find the final needle anyway, so somehow I managed to knit the leg with a bent needle and without having to buy more needles.
Luckily, I have now found the other needle (in another project bag) and both Elijah’s are now safely in the arms of their new owners. 
March 13th 2012
Filed under 101 Things
As any reader of my blog will know whenever a friend has a baby girl, my go to pattern in Poppy as a gift. When Alice announced that her little blueberry was in fact going to be a pinkberry, I figured yet another doll to be made, but having thought about it I knew I wanted to make something extra special for this little baby. After a quick search on Ravelry I found the perfect pattern – Socktopus!
I adapted the pattern a bit to knit it with sock-weight yarn and make it a decent size – mainly with the increasing and decreasing. I also knitted the legs separately than then grafted them on to the main body, as it was VERY awkward knitting with so few stitches and all the legs flying around!
I actually finished it in January – but waited until the little one arrived before posting it. As I had some time to kill and some yarn left over (I think there is enough for another toy), I thought I would finally knit a pair of Saartje’s Bootees.
I loved this pattern so simple, I did try and make the the normal way – but as I was so daunted my all that seaming, I opted for Fleegles’ Version, which is knitted on the round with a Turkish Cast On. I think I will be making a lot more of these in my future – a great way to use up all that left over sock yarn.
January 30th 2011
Filed under 101 Things, General
- Vanilla Cupcakes. As I was running out of time during Week One to finish a knitted item, I opted to bake some cupcakes! Boring vanilla, but I figured it was essential to perfect this recipe before moving on to something more complicated.
- Wollmeise Stripe Socks. A really simple easy knit, these sock clubs where finished in a few days. Even if I didn’t follow the Sock Club pattern, I still love these socks.
- Elijah. It took me two evening to finish this little sweetie. Ysolda’s pattern is amazing well written and easy to follow. I would say the pattern is aimed for an intermediate knitter as it does involve a few complicated techiniques (short rows and picking up stitches), but should be in everyone’s Ravelry queue.
- Crowley Socks. The final installment from the 2010 Knit Love Club! Again another really quick sock to knit (taking me a week to knit each sock). This pattern looks a lot more complicated that it is, with traveling stitches and cables, but mainly it is simple 2×2 rib
August 31st 2010
Filed under General
Several of our friends have recently had babies, and after years of fighting knitted gifts for babies, I decided to make some toys rather than clothes of all the new bambinos. As everyone has had a little girl, Poppy seemed like the perfect pattern!
I wanted the dolls to be perfect so I decided to have a trial run, a first pancake if you want, yet to see test how complicated the pattern was and also make any modifications. As it turns out the pattern is written just perfectly and I was extremely impressed with the finished version. The only think I would change is knitting some “knickers” on the little doll (I have seem a few people on Ravelry do this).
This Poppy, is now living with my older sister, who has named her Dolly! Seeing as I have a lot of scraps of yarn (and buttons), I think Dolly might soon has an amazing wardrobe.
