Posts tagged knitting
Yipee! I can knit again
Jan 19th
After some tentative knitting before Christmas – I can now safely say “I can knit again!”
It is wonderful!
Before Christmas I finished off my niece Amy’s lovely selection of knitted cakes (plus an apple, to keep the doctor away!)
and made a red cardigan for the doll Amy had for Christmas.
Over Christmas, my Aunt Rhiannon helped me make a pattern for a dress for the same doll and it turned out rather well! I had some denim fabric from the scrapstore and some red spotty fabric in my fabric stash… a little red stitching and voila – a lovely little dress! Amy so enjoyed playing with it – putting it on and taking it off again and again!
I also made some lovely bunting for Amy and my cousins children Jasmine and Oliver. Here is Amy with hers:
I’m currently knitting a jumper for my lovely husband Peter to an Elizabeth Zimmerman’s pattern. I think set-in sleeves will look best on him, so am going for that pattern, in her knitting workshop book. In 10 days, I managed to knit the 16.5″ of the body in gorgeous 100% wool from New Lanark. FAB!
This new lease of knitting life is allowing me to think about what I’ll make next. I’m rather tentatively becoming excited by all the patterns I see around me.
Ooooo… this is wonderful! Next in my queue is:
Apres surf hoodie (from interweave knits)
Alpaca cardigan (still struggling to find a pattern for this 2 ply yarn)
Hot water bottle covers (from Susan Coopers pretty knits)
Happy Knitting to me!! (and Yes, I’m still remembering to stretch my tendons out!!)
Knitting David’s jumper
Oct 30th
David is a great friend of mine. He’s one of a few who have a hand-knitted jumper from me. I made him a sleeveless jumper, knitted in the round until the split for the armholes. I spent a long time working out the pattern and had lots of help from Mam (my grandma). There were beautiful swathes of colour sweeping across the jumper like lightening bolts.
Then David met a style guru and together they decided that the ‘stripes’ across his middle didn’t do him any favours… would I please knit the bottom half again so the colours weren’t in stripes?
I said yes! (Like I said, David is a great friend!) So I snipped a stitch under the armhole, unravelled downwards and have re-knitted a significant part of it. It seems shorter than before, but there may be more wool in the wardrobe! I’m still pleased with how it looks:
David's Jumper
David's Jumper (back)
Knitted cakes
Oct 20th
Hmmm… cake!
I’ve started knitting some cakes for my niece Amy. She’ll be 2½ this Christmas and so will be about the age for imaginative play. I would have loved to have had knitted cakes to play with when I was small… so Amy’s going to get some.
So far, I’ve finished a battenburg cake and a swiss roll slice! I’m working on an iced doughnut at the mo… and that should be finished tomorrow after my train journey home! One of our pillows has gone lumpy, so I’ve demoted it, cut it up and am using that as the toy filing – marvellous! It’ll be able to go in the washing machine AND it’s fire resistant. We’ll not ask about how fire resistant the acrylic or cotton is eh?
I’m also attempting to make liquid soap. I left work late and so started late. My large slowcooker wasn’t getting hot enough for it, so I switched to a saucepan on the hob – but that got too hot, like way too hot – but I got a trace in about 15 mins. As it’s now too hot, I’ve left the soap paste to cook off the heat with the lid on… I’ll give it a blast every so often to keep the heat nicely up at around 160F. It’s going to have to be made in two parts as I’d like to go to bed soon! Hope it turns out ok!
Advent Biscuits
Oct 18th
I can’t believe I’m prepping for Christmas already – but yes, I’ve made some advent biscuits…. They take a month to mature, so I’ve been ultra organised and have made them now, so I’ve got time to eat them in mid November, before having to make them at the end of November, in time for Christmas.
I wish I’d photographed the massive pile of biscuits on the plate – they looked great… you will have to see what they look like in the jar instead.
Have also spent this weekend on the sofa knitting more of David’s jumper. This is a real labour of love – having already knitted it once already. I’m not enjoying knitting it as much this time as I’m constantly worrying that I’m going to be hurting my finger again… I’m hoping with time that it will pass.