Friday 27 November 2015

Flower garden cardigan for Darcie

I wanted to make a cardigan for my niece. So I adapted a pattern called Relish by Kim Hargreaves (from Rowan knits). I had knitted the pattern before and it was a great fit so I used the shaping and added a different trim on the sleeves and around the bottom. The yarn I used was the double knit from King Cole in a lovely petrol blue colour (named topaz). I added some little hand embroidered flowers in red as I loved the combination of the red and blue. Here is how it looks...




I am now working on another shawl. It is knitting up really quickly so it should be done for Christmas. Ta ta for now.

Friday 20 November 2015

His and hers hand knitted socks

I have got a bit of a thing about knitting socks. They are really handy little projects that you can carry around and they don't take too much room. I found a fantastic pattern in Socktopus by Alice Yu. I have had the book for sometime and could not decide which of the patterns to start with first. The patterns have really cool names as they are named after characters or concepts from programmes like true blood and supernatural, of which I am a great fan. The pattern I chose is called V junkie, inspired by the series true blood and the idea that the vampires in the series were addicted to this synthetic type of blood. Anyway I digress. The waffly pattern creates such a lovely squidgy texture and I used a really lovely yarn called Special merino lace in a gorgeous bright pink colour. I can't wait to try another of Alice's patterns. I knitted these socks for me, but I felt guilty as my fiance needed some new socks too so I knitted some plain socks from a really colourful yarn called Lanas stop iris sock yarn. I improvised the pattern, it included a slip stitch heal to make them a little more durable. I love the colours in this yarn, although they did seem to shed quite a lot of fluff on the first wear. Anyway enough chatting, here they are....







Tuesday 3 November 2015

Texture adventures

I attended a really great class a few weeks ago by Mary Mcintosh. You can check out some of Mary's work on her website the copper queen. The class was organised by the Norfolk quilters and consisted of a whole day of playing with texture. It was very inspiring, I am looking forward to trying out more creative ideas in the future. This is my finished piece, an eight inch square. I am planning on framing it at some point, but I am looking for the right frame.




Bye for now!