Heirloom knitting

I think most knitters would agree that they want their knits to be used by their loved ones and passed on through the family.

Our family has one such knit – it was made in 1978 for mine and my sister’s Christening day. I was 4 so I didn’t wear it but since then it has been worn by at least 6 members of our family (both on the paternal and maternal side) – 2 of which were my son’s.

It was made by my paternal grandmother, who still knits today but suffers from arthritis so can’t do anything so fancy. Before her arthritis got too bad she made my sister and I blankets to match the gown.

It’s a bit more cream than white and my youngest only just got into it at 5 months (he’s a big boy) but I love it and it is safely packed away for the next baby in the family (maybe the one in the pregnant belly showing beside me in the picture).

P.S. there’s still free shipping in my shop if you mention my 2 year anniversary at checkout – till the end of September.

 

My Adventures in Felting

Back in January I took part in a Ravelry swap based on new techniques – I chose felting. I only got around to trying it out a few weeks ago but it took off from there.

The brown and pink bag is made from the Althea bag pattern and wool that I was sent as part of the swap. The turquoise and purple bag is crocheted from lopi (which I wasn’t sure would felt but did beautifully) and the odd shaped object was supposed to be a felted tie – a work in progress as my husband won’t wear anything knitted (his mum used to run a yarn shop) so I tried to fool him. Unfortunately it felted to well and is now too small and too thick to be a tie – it may transform into a snake like draught excluder!

  

 

Hometown swap

On Friday I sent off my package for the hometown swap in the ‘Knewbie Knit Kit’ swap group on Ravelry.

Today my parcel arrived – from Idaho!

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The smell was intoxicating and I soon found out what it was – Huckleberry! The parcel was an explosion of purple with gorgeous yarns, huckleberry sweets, coffee and tea, huckleberry soap and pictures and magnets from Idaho. Thank you so much for a little slice of your hometown Kikipotamus.

 

I’m being Stalked! (in a nice way)

I may have mentioned Ravelry – once or twice – before in this blog. Well one of the groups I belong to is the Knewbie Kit Swap. It’s the first time I’ve ever tried ‘swapping’ stuff and I’ve just posted my third monthly package.

This month is a secret swap – we won’t know who is spoiling us until the end. We all filled in questionnaires, were given a person to send a package to and were free to stalk their profiles and blogs and forum posts. This afternoon I received this:

I read the lovely card:

And the back:

Before ripping off the paper to find:

A gorgeous gingerbread man finger puppet – with hidden treasure:

My spoiler must have been reading my forum posts as I mentioned in one group that I wanted to knit one after seeing Alan Dart’s pattern in Simply Knitting.

 

As you can see I’ve lost him already – so I will still have to dig that pattern out 🙂

 

a little ‘me’ knitting

you may have noticed that I haven’t been showing you the ‘latest’ in my shop for ohh at least a fortnight (it’s still there!). I’ve been doing some ‘me’ knitting. I’ve made myself a cowl in the same designs as those in my shop from some lovely mohair and alpaca pink and grey yarn I received on a destash swap. Some fingerless mitts that I’m trying to pluck up the courage to felt (they are currently too big for that purpose) and I’m back to knitting some preemie cardigans for Loving Hands – from some yarn I received from a fellow charity knitter in a yarn swap and some beautiful merino and silk yarn I received from Yarn box. I hope to post pictures of them all later this week (you can see the Yarn box yarn in my flickr photos below).

On chatting with my mum I explained that I now find it hard to put the knitting needles down, it’s my way of relaxing, so no matter how busy I am with work I always have to have one project on the needles – today she gave me a pattern and her choice of yarn for a cardigan she’s fallen in love with – solves what to get her for Mother’s Day!

 

Hug a hottie

Just before Christmas my little sister asked me to make her a couple of hot water bottle covers as she’d got some without covers and didn’t like not having that extra layer.

I looked in a few mags for patterns and sort of followed one but I wanted to do something different. So I put a pocket in the front – just right for giving your hot water bottle a hug when you need a bit of comfort or need to warm your hands. I didn’t follow the guide in the pattern to knit in 2 pieces and insert the bottle by rolling it up and dropping it into the neck so I made one with a flap at the back to insert it instead.

My first attempt was completed just before she left after Christmas. The trouble was that I had lots of bits to sew up – the second one is still sitting waiting for me to sew it up.

After making these two I started to think about the pattern, surely it could be done with minimal sewing. I’ve therefore been working on a pattern to sew the cover in 2 pieces – the cover and the pocket.

I’ve had a lot of positive feedback about it so I need to perfect the pattern and perhaps put that in my etsy shop too.

 

Introducing Doris

In a bid to make more of my etsy shop I’ve had to bring in a new model – please welcome the beautiful Doris!

She’s modelling my latest creation made with yarn that I bought from this shop on etsy.

Here are a few others I’ve made since Christmas:

 

 

Some of my Christmas present knits

Not all as I forgot to photograph most of them.

I’m particularly proud of the teenagers scarf and fingerless mitts set – he didn’t take them off all day.

 

Happy New Year

Happy 2009. Phew Christmas was a blur … well, did I finish it all in time?

Finishing a cowl in 4ply (seemed like a good idea at the time) – finished Dec 23rd

making fingerless gloves and hat to match a scarf already made for grandad – finished gloves at the cinema on the 23rd (13 yr old cousin was not impressed!) decided to leave the hat for now.

scarf in fun fashion wool – finished Christmas Day afternoon but went down well when it was opened on boxing day.

2 x hot water bottle covers (late special order) – after speed knitting in Christmas day my hands needed a 2 day rest so my sister had one to take home with her on the 30th. Waiting to hear if it is fit for purpose before sewing the other one up and posting it to her.

sewing up at least 2 of the 5 bags I’ve got cut out – I managed to do the 2 – finished the 2nd on Christmas eve.

sew up 2 tasselled hats (for adults!) – done.

finding and adding some pearl buttons to my mum’s present – didn’t get pearl but raided her button stash and got some that looked a bit like mother of pearl. She’s on the lookout for ones that she likes.

making a start on the none too small pile of editing I have to do ‘over the holiday’ – I’ve done a bit, well half.

write the last Christmas cards for the neighbours – delivered Christmas eve

make my traditional rum truffles (let alone the fudge I usually make but I’ve already decided not to) – finished Christmas eve, eaten by boxing day.

WRAP presents (buy the wrapping paper in the first place). Finally completed at 10pm on Christmas Eve (last year it was 3am Christmas morning so an improvement).

Since Christmas I’ve knitted 2 hot water bottle covers (though only sewn one up), made a pair of fingerless gloves for my aunt and I’m halfway through another cowl for my etsy shop.

For Christmas I was given lots of sewing cottons by my OH and yarn and knitting needles by my mum. My dad found some more ‘vintage’ knitting patterns and my sister bought me three knitting books. So I think I’ve got the family’s permission to keep on with this craft thing.

I managed to buy a lot of my presents on etsy and I hope to be showing you a few of them over the coming weeks.

 

Etsyknitters Advent Calendar

One of the great things about Etsy is the ‘community’ aspect. By being a member of a street team you get support from all over the world from people that make the same type of things as you or from those local to you or those who have the same interests as you. 

One of my street teams is the etsyknitters team.  For the countdown to Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year and Three Kings Day the team have contributed to a calendar that will appear on their blog.

Pay a visit – it’s not all knitting – there are great craft ideas and recipes on there too.