I Have Been Going Through an Orange Week

Silly title, but it reflects the little projects I have been working on this week! At the Mary Maxim tent sale in the summer (I can hardly wait for it to come again!), I bought a huge skein of orange Bernat Baby Sport yarn for a ridiculously low price. I just like to have many colours to pick from for my toys, as you know. So, this monster ball has been sitting on the bottom of one of the storage boxes for a while now, just waiting. Along came a tiger that needed a test crochet ...... he is quite a nice size and I will make some buddies for him soon!

Then, a little sleepy fox needed to have her pattern tested. Might try this one with a different eye, more of a semi circle like the other sleeping animals I have made. She is quite small in size.

And then came this Charmander (must check the spelling of that, it is a Pokemon and I was never into those characters). And he also needed orange! Overcast day here so the pictures are not the best of him. And, I believe the flash was turned off ... oh wait, the Playbook does not have a flash. Maybe I need to get my actual camera out for a better picture.

All of these are from the same pattern designer who is working to get her pattern shop up and running. The patterns are very well written and although some of them call for intermediate skills, I find them quite easy to make and follow. I don't really think I would class myself as anything but a beginner crocheter as I stick to pretty basic things. But perhaps I have gained more confidence in following those confusing crochet directions somewhere in the last year! Her patterns are for sale on Ravelry, under the design name Nerdy Knitter. She has started her own test group which I am obviously enjoying being a part of! Thank you Ashley for your great designs!

An Experiment with Entrelac

I have seen a few pictures of finished projects that were created with entrelac, and became intrigued enough with the changes in stitch direction to do a little research into how this is achieved. It did not look nor sound overly complicated, and so I took the plunge. I imagine the normal thing to do would have been to find a simple entrelac pattern and start with that ... but I just made my own pattern up to create (not quite finished yet) a colourful baby blanket, or perhaps a small throw.

I do like the appearance of the right side of the fabric. The little squares are quite three dimensional, and I think this extra puff will make for a thermal effect when it is being used. I have to work on meeting the corners a little more sharply, perhaps, but that will come with more practice. I am not overly awed by the reverse side of this kind of work so far. It is not a neat appearance. I think it will need a lining layer to be made for it. I am considering a flannelette lining as I think it will be warm enough as is.

To make this, I cast on 64 stitches. Each of the squares is 8 stitches long. There are many tutorials that explain how to do entrelac, if you are interested in trying it. I will not attempt to explain it as I am certainly a rookie at this myself. I used 6 mm needles, and Bernat Softee Chunky yarn. Another great use of some of the yarn I got at the Zeller's liquidation sale! The main colour is blue heather, and the other pattern rows alternate with taupe, baby blue and a soft green. I have 3 skeins of the main colour and 1 of each of the contrasting colours. I don't think I will need to use any of the 3rd skein but I imagine that depends on the edging I put on it. I think I will make an attached I cord edge.

Suggestions or comments are most welcome if you are familiar with this style of knitting and can give me some tips. I am eager to learn new knitting techniques!

More pictures once it is finished, washed, and blocked!

Spring Flowers Baby Blanket

I created a new pattern for a baby blanket! I think I am so looking forward to the spring flowers that it inspired me. It is basically a huge granny square built around a square of dbl crochet in the centre.

I started with some rose/white boucle for the centre, which is just rows of double crochet. Boucle is a real pain to corchet with, by the way! But, I like the look of it because it looks just like the petals of hyacinth flowers!

I then changed to yellow because that reminded me of daffodils. 9 rows of dbl crochet shells, then 1 row of boucle. I used only 2 sets fo dbl cr for the shells in the boucle because it is so bulky and so hard to crochet. I switched back to yellow for another 9 rows. Another row of boucle, then 3 rows of yellow. I changed to green for the border "leaves", 1 row of sc, 1 row of dbl cr then a scalloped edging. Finished size is 32 inches square, not blocked. I will wash it and lay it flat to dry, but will not aggressively block it. It could actually be machine washed and laid flat to dry or dried on gentle in the machine as it is all acrylic. Best to have east care things for babies.

I So Enjoy Making Toys!

I have been working on a few quick knits the last while:  a little duck family designed by Jean Greenhowe, and some Floppy Bunnies, by Susan B Anderson. The pictures tell you how cute these are! More info on my Ravelry A fast link to Ravelry, but you may have to be a member to see it page, but pretty much the pictures tell the story.

I will probably make a brown bunny and some more little ones .... the small bunnies will all be different as I did not use a real pattern, just kind of winged it with bits of other things I have made. And I think a few more ducks would be nice .... 

Catching Up

Gosh, I did not realize how long it has been since I wrote a new entry. Life just got busy I suppose! And I have been busy creating things! I have been keeping track on Ravelry and will do a fast update here ....

I finished my Low Tide cardigan. A few alterations ... made a single crochet edging around it and also made the shoulder seams wider. Those changes caused it to drape slightly differently, but I am pleased with it. I love the colour!

Then I made 4 little purses. This was a test for a friend of a friend on facebook. It was the first pattern she has written, so it was fun to test it. I made 2 of these bags in this size, then a smaller one, and finally a small one like a dog. I thought they would make a nice purse for little girls. I only have pictures of the first bag, alas.

For a change of pace, I then made a shawl with some lovely soft angora. I had to wrestle with the cats while working on this as they just love natural fibres and are always sneaking up on the skein to kidnap it and wrestle with it! 

A totally new technique presented itself to me in another test knit, by way of chaordic knitting. I love the way the colours are added with this technique, and the interesting patterns it makes. It will be so easy to incorporate this into other projects to add a band of colour. This was made from wool (the main body) so it will be quite warm. I was thinking it would be good for those spring days when it is not warm enough for a winter coat but too cool for just a sweater. Time will tell! It is a very warm shawl. It looks a little orangy in the pictures, but it is called currant. I think it is more of a rusty colour .... oh wait, rust is kind of orange! LOL

Time for some smaller things after those larger projects. Back to my toy making roots! A tiny knitted bunny, a small crochet lamb (meant to be a tape measure cover, but I just stuffed it as my tape measure is actually a square and I could not see buying one to put inside it!), a Valentine "cookie", and 3 small bags. The sheep is the original design, and I tried my hand at designing the cat on my own. It needs a little tweaking but you can see it is a cat! The bags were designed for circular knitting needle storage or as an ereader/tablet cover. I added a strap to them so they are more like small purses for little girls again. (And no, I actually do not have any little girls to make use of them! :D) I am going to enter a few of the craft shows in the fall to see if someone would like to buy some of my little toys and sweaters. 

Another toy, this time a window cat. I have had this yarn for a long time and it needed a special project. I think the striped effect on the cat is quite pleasing! I plan on making a few more of these, and also one in the same yarn as a parlor cat, by the same designer. 

Another little test knit that intrigued me, tiny socks that are really dolls. This was designed by a Harry Potter fan as it is called Mrs. Weasley. I furthered this idea by making 5 "tube sock" dolls. I have not taken any pictures of them yet, but they are all boys. Vince wondered why I would make boy dolls, but I have found that mothers don't mind having their little boys have boy dolls. I also thought I might make enough of that idea to bring to the hospital for the nurses to give to sick little boys (and make some girls for the girls) as they would be small enough to keep in the bed and are easily washed when needed along with regular clothes. They don't take up much room and would be a good "companion" if the children are confined to bed. So, I shall see where that idea takes me. I don't think it is really worth the effort in making the girls as real socks, although it was fun to make a few of them and I got many new ideas from them.

Onto other toys, I was inspired by a knitting magazine I splurged on in the summer to make some little hamsters, dressed for a party. The original pattern had them as Hamster Hippies, but we all know that patterns are just a guide (unless it is a test knit pattern in which case I am confined to following the directions as given ... which is a good discipline for me as I often find myself opting out of new things if they are presented in a pattern if I can think of a way to do it that I already know. The test knitting has been very good for me in that it does force me to learn new things, which I am then willing and able to apply to other projects!)  The same designer has dressed the hamsters as hula dancers, and they are so cute that I am sure I will be turning back to make those now too!

I have also made many little owls in crochet, which may find themselves hanging from the tree in the spring. I will write a blog about them at another date. This week I have been working on a granny square baby blanket. I have to admit I have never made anything from granny squares before, probably having  been discouraged by watching my mother make an afghan out of them that took her over a year to complete. However, my squares are much larger than those that she made, and it is coming together well. This one is not entirely masculine, but it leans that way, as the other blanket I made leans towards the feminine side. There are 2 babies due this spring, so I will have at least 1 blanket right and waiting! Again, more about this project later. The basic squares are done, and I am working on edging them today. I am also making another shawl in a crochet-a-long. I find I have to slow myself down some or I would be finished it before everyone else, and that kind of defeats the whole CAL idea, which is why I made the squares for the blanket! 

So, I am now caught up in my blog as well as on Ravelry! Yippee for me! 

Seashells Baby Blanket

This is a beautiful pattern and quite easy to memorize. It is from one of the pattern testing groups. I wanted to make something for the soon to be born babies, and this pattern caught my eye. I thought the multi coloured would be good for either a boy or a girl, but once it is knitted it is pretty heavy on the bright pink so perhaps it will be destined for a girl baby.

I used a yarn called Mega Plush by Premier yarns that I found at the Mary Maxim tent sale in the summer. I bought 3 skeins of the bright, and 4 of the white and another 4 in cream. I intended to make it all the multicolour but once I started I found that I was not going to have enough of it to make the entire large blanket (which I thought would be more useful than the small size). Some of the other testers made stripes using 3 colours, which is really nice, but I already had a good chunk made of the multicolour. I could have frogged it and started fresh .... but I improvised and decided to use some white to frame a rectangle of the bright colour. I am happy with the result. :D It is about 32 inches x 32 inches in size. I should have done 2 more repeats of the white pattern before and after the bright centre, and 2 more in the centre. But, I was not unhappy with the way it looked so left it as a square!

Before I added the white I looked for some more of the original colour but found that even the yarn company site does not list it any longer so I can only deduce that it has been discontinued, which is a shame. It is a lovely soft yarn and made a nice thick blanket but it still knit up to the gauge given for the needles size.

I will make a hat and some bootees to go with the blanket but first I need to finish the lowtide cardigan I have been working on. I just have one sleeve to finish on it. So there will be a post about it later this week!

More Toys!

I have had some fun making a few things from the books I got for Christmas. The penguin is from Susan B Anderson's book, Itty Bitty Toys. I wanted something easy to make as I sat at the hospital visiting and this fit the bill. My gauge must have been off some as I think the black and white should have been squares rather than rectangles, but I got them to work okay. I will make something with a little more challenge next, the bunny I think, ready for Easter!

I also made the French Bulldog and a Miniature Dashound from the Ami Ami Incredibly Cute Dogs book. I imagine I will work my way through all of these little doggies. Very cute. I find it challenging to have the colour changes for the spots etc in the dogs. I will need to work on that technique.

I also need to work on a more consistent way to do the eyes. I am considering trying some clear nail polish on top of embroidered eyes, but that would only be for toys that were not intended for very small children. The beads look good, but again, I don't like that idea for babies. Once the yarn store has moved (Len's Mill Store here is moving to a bigger place, yippee!) I will get some more safety eyes for the special toys. Some people use felt and glue that on but that seems to be the same issue for me as not wanting anything that might come off for little ones if they pull on it. Perhaps if I knew who I was creating the toys for, it might make my final touches easier to decide upon!
One of the groups I am in had the monthly challenge of bears, for which I made these two characters. They are quite cute! I think all children like teddy bears!