I think I’ve knitted and crocheted with wool from four out of the five animals below, I’ve never tried rabbit though, how about you?
I don’t think I’ll be needlefelting with Vicuna any time soon!
I’ve had the whole rainbow of Planet Penny yarns in play and twiddled around until I perfected a pattern for these colourful eggs. (I can just about do them with my eyes closed now!) I’ve written a pattern, which is here…
… and played around to my heart’s content arranging the eggs in jolly ways as Easter decorations. Would you like to see?
These are the smallest flowers I’ve made and they work really well with a french knot or a bead in the centre when you stitch them on. I think they will now turn up all over the place!
Don’t forget, you can buy the whole rainbow of colours to make these crochet eggs at the Planet Penny Etsy shop, and there are other patterns there too. (Made with this yarn the eggs are about 5cm/2″ long. If you use your own choice of yarn make sure you use the appropriately sized hook, the size will vary accordingly.)
See you soon…x
We are all knitting hats, scarfs, gloves and mitts which will be donated to various charities to be sold in their stores so they can deal with issues such as people not being able to afford to run their heating in cold weather.
I was sent some pretty pink yarn and a pattern for Peekaboo Mitts, and I’m just about to pack them up ready to send off. They are extremely cosy!
Sunrise Senior Living are planning to extend the Knit for Winter campaign next winter, so if you would like to join in with this very worthwhile project, head over to their blog where you can find out more, meet some of my fellow knitters and explore some new blogs!
Will you be joining me to Knit for Winter this year? I do hope so…
Unfortunately it seems it was a victim of it’s own success, selling out quickly and having to go to reprint. I know there were a lot of disappointed people because I followed the story via the Simple Stylish Knitting Facebook Page. However, it’s now back and available via subscription and very happily I received a bulky parcel in the post containing the next 4 issues and a folder in which to keep them. I really like that sort of mail, don’t you?
Each issue comes with a new stitch to learn and a ball of yarn with which to knit a sample square so eventually these can be sewn together to make a blanket.
This couldn’t have come at a better time because I have just persuaded my mother to try knitting again. As I’ve mentioned, my poor mum has had health problems over quite a few years, but once upon a time she was never without some knitting on the go, complicated fair isle and aran, baby clothes, a cobweb shawl… nothing fazed her. But once she was ill this all seemed to fall by the wayside, and when she couldn’t sit and knit for hours at a time, she just stopped all together, and then said she couldn’t do it any more…
So sad…
But I’ve just taken round a pair of needles with cast on stitches, handed them to her and said, go on, give it a go, and it worked! I’m really, really hoping that she’ll get back into it, even if she has to do a few rows at a time and then rest…all my fingers and toes are crossed, knitted squares could be perfect for her.
I’m sort of overwhelmed with projects I want to make having four issues arriving at once (so many things, so little time!) but I’ll share some now and some in another post. I love the moss stitch cushion, but I’d have the Planet Penny Moth to contend with…
I really wish I had pink wellies, but I don’t think they’d go well with Norfolk mud…
and there are no baby girls on the horizon at the moment but when there are…
Adorable!
Issue 3 with it’s ball of golden yarn has these jolly little egg hats…
…and a fabulously cosy cowl…
So I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take the Simple Stylish Knitting Magazine folder round to my mum very soon and see if she having a go at something a bit more adventurous than the garter stitch I’ve started her off on. Wish me luck, I’ll let you know!
See you soon…x
I don’t know why I stopped, but I started again over the Christmas holiday when the seasonal cold germ dropped in, uninvited, and ground everything else to a halt.
I was rummaging pathetically around in the studio looking for something to do which required no flash of inspiration, no tracking down of supplies, no complicated instructions to follow and there in a little bag I found…the yarn…the pattern…the needles…and one completed sock just waiting for it’s mate to be knitted up – perfect!
I’m embarrassed to say that just now whilst looking through the archives to find past sock adventures I discovered when I made the first one of the pair…2011! We were taking Aimee to Uni when I made the first sock and in the time it’s taken for me not to finish the second one she’s graduated and is well on the way to being a qualified teacher! Oh dear…
Anyway, not only has this lone sock been matched with it pair, but I whizzed out for more yarn when I was feeling better and I’ve just completed a second pair. To add to the mix my friend Kit arrived with a little cheer up bag containing…pink and green socks, so I’m well on the way to replacing all the ones which have succumbed over the years to the four legged sausage shaped ‘moth’ which makes holes in soft furnishing and garments willy nilly.
The Planet Penny Moth!
…and the socks he has chewed!
So what’s so good about knitting socks?
Well, the little pattern I use is probably the most basic one you can find, it came free with a ball of sock yarn a while ago. And when you’ve used it a few times it sort of lodges in your head, and you can trundle away, following the plot of Broadchurch or The Killing (with subtitles) without getting flustered.
It’s a bit fiddly to start off with, casting on 60 stitches and dividing them between three DP needles and getting that first rib row set up, but then you are off. Once the rib is done you’ve got rows and rows of straight knitting, and because you are in the round, every row is a knit row and you still get stocking stitch!
I like to use the self striping sock yarn because seeing what colour is coming next gives you something to aim for, ‘I’ll just finish the blue, or the pink, or the green’…
Turning the heel is an event, (you should have seen the first one I ever did!) but once you see the logic of where you are going it’s a little challenge in the middle of the project to keep you on your toes. and then you are off again, round and round until the toe arrives, a simple little decrease which makes an elegant seam each side.
And then…the wonder that is Kitchener Stitch! It’s a fabby way to end your sock, weaving in and out of the stitches with your needle to make new knitting stitches so you can’t see the join. It took me ages to get to grips with it so don’t shudder and turn away at this point, it can be done, believe me. I can be heard muttering ‘Front – Purl off, Knit. Back – Knit off, Purl’ a little mantra to keep me on the straight and narrow.
And then, when you’ve finished, and tenderly pressed them (about the only time I like to get the ironing board out!) you’ve got something warm and delightful to enjoy yourself or to give as a very special present. What a joy!
If you feel like joining in with a little relaxing sock knitting therapy one of my favourite online ports of call is The Sock Yarn Shop, where the most difficult thing is choosing! This what I’m hankering after at the moment…
It’s like a spring sunrise, something to dream about just at the moment!
Are you a sock knitting fan, or have I inspired you to have a go? I do hope so… If you are looking for some help, the Sock Yarn Shop recommends this set of tutorials.
I’ll be back soon with Happy Friday. I’m going to try and get it posted on Thursday evening to give more people a chance to join in so look out your happy photos or jolly moments and get ready to link up…see you soon…x
I don’t know about you, but I rely heavily on my spell checker when I’m using a keyboard, my spelling is much worse when I’m typing (and it can be a bit erratic when I’m using a pen, I must confess!) However, that’s no help at all for typing crochet abbreviations so it’s quite a slow process. And that’s after dreaming up the idea to begin with and then making it a second time so the pattern can be recorded.
By the time you get to the point where you make the item again from what you have written down it’s hard to judge whether you have explained yourself properly. By then you know the pattern inside out!
My latest make is a granny square cushion cover using the Planet Penny Cotton Colours with Snowdrop yarn which I backed with one of the PP fat quarters – jolly red and white spottiness.
I’m very happy with it, but now there is the question of the crochet pattern, and the making up instructions, and making sure it all makes sense.
What I need are some testers, and I’m trying to work out the best way to make it work.
So…
…if you are a Planet Penny customer with a Rainbow pack of yarn who would like to make a cushion, I’ll provide the pattern, the fat quarter and a ball of Snowdrop yarn in return for trying out the pattern, giving constructive criticism, and sending photos of the finished article. How does that sound?
If you could help test the Granny Square Cushion crochet pattern I’d love to hear from you. You would need to have some crochet experience, be used to working from a pattern, have basic sewing machine skills, and be able to produce a clear photo of the finished article.
You can leave a comment, or get in touch via the contacts form with some details which will help me choose. I need 2 or 3 people to get a good cross section.
I’m really looking forward to hearing from you and hearing about your crochet pattern skills!
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