So much for good intentions!

So much for good intentions, i.e. more time, therefore more blog posts. Afraid I got all caught up in knitting Xmas prezzies for everyone. Seeing as I no longer have an income, they all got something knitted. Not a big cash outlay as I have a mountain of stash yarn, but certainly time consuming - which is something I now have in abundance.

I spent a bit of time thinking of the next project I wanted to tackle. It's been a toss-up between a new doggie jumper or coming up with new products to sell. I've ended up juggling the two instead. I was fiddling around with the original Drops pattern and decided to do a bit of a 'fair isle' cable. Imagine that the actual cables are in a different colour to the background, or better yet I'll just show you. Unfortunately, it turns out that my compensating for the looseness of the previous doggie jumper has resulted in a far too tight fit. Think I'll have to frog all the way back to the neck ribbing, and start all over again with larger needles. Lucky I've got plenty of time to do that ... lol.

On to the new designs. I was trying to come up with a collection, something cute and appealing, but a little practical or perhaps with a dash of purpose. I was trolling around looking for inspiration and came across a crochet ladybird toy from Lion Brand. It caught my eye, so I decided to whip it up to see if I liked it as a candidate for our local 'Stich, Knit, & Natter' charity knitting group. It passed with flying colours.

Once I was done, I wondered if I could put together a knitted version. A bit of fiddling and before I knew it I had a little critter all done. I liked the shape and tried to think of other animals that I could make with the same shape, and came up with my little menagerie of pin cushion critters. And so you've guessed where the dash of practical comes in by now. I can see these little guys adding a little cheer in someone's sewing room, whilst for fulling a purpose. I know I'm always looking for a pin cushion, and not just for sewing. I'm always misplacing my darning needles too. I've also found myself popping these on my desk and catching myself smiling every time I see them. Maybe they would make the perfect Mother's Day gift?

Every time I completed one, I got another idea to try. So far I've got the original ladybird, a tortoise, a sheep, a hedgehog, an octopus, and just recently a spider. I've had other suggestions of animals to add, including a pig and a cow. I'll have to try those out and see how they turn out. If you have any suggestions to grow the family, let me know and I'll see if I can do it.

Knit two socks together on a single circular needle

So it's been a while since I've posted anything, for a couple of reasons, but mostly because I've just not had much time to do any projects. I thought I'd share my current one as I think it's a great idea to get a pair of socks walking off the needles quickly.

I saw a book on Amazon whilst shopping for some knitting needles that had me interested enough to look inside. It's called Knitting Circles around Socks: Knit Two at a Time on Circular Needles. However, having seen it, I thought to myself I don't have another set of the same size needle tips, as I usually knit with my favourite KnitPro - Deluxe - Interchangeable Needle Set - Cubics. That got me to wondering if I can still knit 2 socks at once with just one circular needle? The answer my friends, was a resounding yes!

How you ask? Let me tell you ... or better yet show you. In this case the socks are knitted top down, so I did my standard 'long tail' cast on, only I cast on half the stiches from the first sock, then with a separate ball of wool, all the stiches from the second sock. I then pulled the cable through the middle of the stiches of the second sock, so the stitches were facing each other, before casting on the remaining half of the first sock. This means you end up knitting the first half of the first sock's stitches, then knitting the first of of the second sock's stitches, before turning the work over and continuing with the remaining stitches of the second sock, and finally completing the rest of the row of the first sock.

The socks are being knitted inside out, so I thought I'd turn one right side out to show you the pattern. For those whose may like the pattern, I'm knitting from one of my favourite sites, and the pattern is aptly named September Socks. I'm using DROPS Cotton Light so that these socks can be worn for most of the year and not just for winter.

I have been so amazed by how quickly these have grown. I've decided that this is how I'll do all my socks in future. This means I won't grow bored of the project half way through and sit with one sock all lonely waiting for me to get enthused enough to finish it's pal. So far I've managed to knit 20 cm of sock times 2, all in roughly a weekend with some major interruptions. I may actually finish these in time for someone's Christmas pressie, with loads of time to spare!

It's a boy!

A while back I shared my pattern adapting baby hat with ear flaps. It's been a favourite pattern of mine and all the moms who've received it. So far all the little recipients have been little girls. Well, would you know it a colleague is expecting and she knows it's a boy. How to adapt this wonderful pattern so a little man will be happy to wear it?

First things first. Colour makes a huge impact on perception of "girly" factor. The original pattern called for pink, yellow, white, and lilac - all pastels. Just not macho enough. Digging through my wool stash, I came up with some bold bright colours: orange, blue, yellow, and red.

 

The second hurdle to overcome - hearts. No self-respecting little boy would be caught dead in hearts no matter what colour they were. I didn't want to have to work out a replacement pattern as it was only six rows that needed changing. What better way to replace the pattern than using existing elements. I decided to pick out the middle five rows from the snowflake, and work in the additional row in the top band in order to keep the same number of rows before decreasing for the top of the hat.

Now there's no way this little chap will be mistaken for a girl!

Adapting a baby hat to add ear flaps

I often buy knitting magazines for inspiration. Most of them include 'free' items, such as wool or stich markers, in addition to the patterns. I like to use the wool for small projects like knitting baby hats for expectant colleagues. One of my favourite patterns comes from the January 2012 'Lets Knit' magazine available in the UK. It's a fair isle pattern called 'Faith', but I've found that in the chilly winter months here in the north of Scotland, baby hats should really have ear flaps.

Luckily the same pattern pull out included a pattern called 'Maisie' which did have ear flaps. That got me thinking about how I could combine the two patterns to add ear flaps to the pattern I wanted to knit.

Pattern adapting to the rescue!
You could apply this to any baby hat pattern designed to fit 0-6 months, knitting from the brim up, using yarn equivilant to Sidar Snuggly DK, and knitting stocking stitch at a tention of 19 sts x 26 rows on 10 mm needles. I include the pattern for knitting the ear flaps so you can adapt any pattern you already have.

Ear Flap (make two)

• Using 3.25mm needles, cast on two stitches
• Next row: kfb*, k1 [3 sts]
• Next row: k
• Next row: kfb, k to last st, kfb [5 sts]
• Next row: k
• Next row: Rep last two rows until you have 19 sts
• Break yarn, leave sts on spare needle

*kfb

Technicalities over, this is how I did it. With my ear flaps in hand and a total of 38 stitches, I subtracted this number from the total number of stitches I needed to cast on for my hat pattern which is knitted in the round (in this case it was 80 stitches in total). I then took this figure and halved it to give me the number of stitches I needed to cast on inbetween my ear flaps. That meant I cast on 21 stitches, then transfered over the 19 stitches from my first ear flap, cast on another 21 stitches, and transfered over the 19 stitches from my second ear flap, joined the round and jumped straight into the first row of my hat pattern.

If your pattern is not in the round, you would need to do the following. Halve the number of stitches you need to cast on between the ear flaps, which was 21 stitches, and cast on this number of stitches. Obviously, if the number is not a whole number, as is the case in my example, you need to round up to the next whole number and cast on that many stitches (in this case 11). Now transfer over the first ear flap, cast on the number of stitches between ear flaps (21 stitches), transfer over the second ear flap, and then cast on one less stitch than what you cast on first (this would be 10).

This is the finished project.

Warm feet

In case you're wondering, I do enjoy crochet, but I'm finally getting into knitting. It might have something to do with the wonderful climate here in Scotland. Knitting actually contributes to keeping my lap warm. Knitting on the tropical east coast of South Africa just wasn't practical. What with humidity of 110 half the year, and it being far too warm to actually wear anything I'd made.

I have to admit that I've usually got about 3 or 4 projects on the go at any given moment. It's in case I get bored with my current project. I can then pick up something else and get on with that instead. I thought I'd share some photos of a recently completed project. A pair of merino wool Norwegian socks. Admittedly started a year ago, but worth it. I've already worn them over 5 times this winter and they really kept my toes cosy with my sheepskin boots. Ah ... bliss ... warm feet!