Knitting

Knitted kitty

Isn’t it funny how you can put a project aside for a while and it becomes difficult to pick it up again? I started this kitty last year, got the head and body finished and then just didn’t feel like picking it up again.

Over Christmas the weather was very warm and I was very tired. The whole family was tired. So we spent quite a bit of time watching movies and documentaries together and keeping things quiet. I get restless hands if I just sit and watch something, so it was the perfect time to pick up a bit of knitting.

It didn’t take me long to power through the rest of the pieces, and when she was finished I felt she needed a dress, so got straight onto the sewing machine, no pattern, no fussing around (no excuses!) and whipped up the dress in no time.

She’s pretty cute without the dress too 🙂

She was promptly gifted to my 8 year old because she is the only one who doesn’t have a knitted toy from me yet. They now share the same bed and kitty is never far away, yes, she loves her!

Now for the pattern details – Girl Cat by Little Cotton Rabbits. If you are not too confident with knitting, these patterns are really great, step by step, lots of photos, very well written. Most of the patterns come with instructions for knitted clothes and the designer has plenty of other gorgeous little animals to choose from.

Completed cardi and more spinning!

by Kelly 2 Comments

Hooray, the cardigan is finally done! And it’s perfect, there is room to grow and she is just so warm in it. It’s hard to believe this little sweetie is turning 5 on Sunday, can’t I wind back the clock just a little?

I knit this with my hand dyed 8ply merino. The buttons are from Buttons by Benji, and though it’s hard to see from the photo, they are totally gorgeous. The pattern is “Annie” by Tikki.

On the wheel currently is my “By the shores of Lake Violet” colour way on merino roving. Loving these colours!

And here is an idea of what it looks like randomly spun and plyed.

Breaking knitting rules.

by Kelly 5 Comments

I have a golden knitting rule. At least, I did. Now I’ve broken it. The rule was only one knitting project at a time. Then the cooler weather happened and I started to think how I needed to get a move on with my little one’s cardigan considering her old one is too small now.

Project number 1: Annie (pattern by Tikki) cardigan in my “Pink Princess” colourway.

Then the news of a new niece or nephew mid year came. I immediately thought of the beautiful (and free) pattern by Julia Stanfield, and how I had been longing to have an excuse to knit it. I’m dyeing most of the yarns for this one too.

Project number 2: Western Hills Baby blanket.

When we went on holidays in early March I was itching to take a relaxing knitting project with me, and I did have that beautiful wool I dyed with madder just sitting there and a crafty friend suggested a scarf, that also happens to be by Julia Stanfield (did I mention that her patterns are fantastic?!)

Project number 3: Fernleaf Scarf

So these will keep me very busy knitting over the next few weeks (months?!) but i have been thinking how much I’d like to knit a cardigan just for me, at least, it wouldn’t hurt to pop over to Ravelry and browse some more patterns…..

Linking up with Natural Suburbia Creative Friday.

Pink Peacock and Soft Coral and a cardigan to be!

by Kelly 1 Comment

Some new colourways from me. Technically, Pink Peacock isn’t “new” – I’ve dyed it before, but now it’s available in my shop and as a custom order.

Some pastels…

And some rather strong pink for my youngest girl’s new cardigan to be, just cast on tonight. She has outgrown her old cardigan and is my little woolly girl – she loves to wear hand knitted clothes.

Completed projects this week

by Kelly 4 Comments

Not one but two projects completed for me this week, this is almost unheard of!

First up, the Primrose dress for my 4 year old princess. I knit this in 8ply superwash and hand dyed it just for this project.

A little lace detail on the hem.

And some ladybird buttons to finish off with. There is lace detail on the shoulders and sleeve trim too.

I was really thrilled with this pattern – it was simple and easy to knit, the sizing is accurate and it was all explained so well that I didn’t feel like tearing my hair out like I normally would with a knitting project! The pattern in by New Zealander, Julia Stanfield.

Next up, some tea towels off the loom. I wove these with 4ply Bendigo Woollen Mills cotton.

I’m pretty happy with how they turned out, despite the wonky edges! I learned that weaving with 4ply is more challenging than 8ply.

It seems that as I grow more confident as a weaver and knitter I also increase in speed, which is a wonderful thing, it means I can turn out more beautiful things for my family!

Linking up with Ginny’s Yarn Along 🙂

Customer’s beautiful work.

by Kelly Leave a Comment

I do so love to see what you all do with my hand dyed yarn!

Zofia, who is a very talented and prolific knitter used some of my rainbow cotton to knit up this gorgeous little piece for her daughter. I think she chose the perfect pattern to showcase the yarn, doesn’t it look stunning?!

If you’re interested in the pattern, it is Shannon Passmore’s Poolside.

In case you hadn’t noticed, I have a new blog address!

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Always making

by Kelly 3 Comments

It’s true, I’m always making something and more often than not I’m making many things! Here are a few of my recent and current projects:

I’m quite in love with this Primrose already, lots of knitting to go but I’m enjoying every stitch. I dyed the yarn especially for this dress and it looks better than I envisioned. It’s going to be for my littlest woolly lover, she is a most grateful recipient of anything knitted.

Always dyeing yarn….sales have dropped off a little but it’s only natural considering it’s Summer here. Anyway, my Etsy shop is stocked with plenty of yarn at the moment.

I have tea towels on the loom and things are going pretty slowly. I’m hemstitching them on the loom which always adds a bit of time and I’m also using 4ply cotton, so the weaving is not quick. These are my first tea towels so I hope they are a success after this time investment!

I dyed and made a top for me – it didn’t suit me at all so I cut the main part down to make a top for my eldest girl along with some Euro fabrics from my stash and one of my favourite top patterns for my girls – CZM Mareen. This girl just won’t stop growing!

As usual I have about 1000 ideas for things I “must do” but don’t have the time or money for, but they keep me ticking and I’m grateful to the time that I currently have to be creative. I have a couple of exciting happenings cooking up in my mind for this month, so stay tuned for those!

God bless you all 🙂

Caring for knitted garments

by Kelly 1 Comment

Today I am very happy to welcome Natalie of Aunty Nat’s Knits to talk about how to care for knitted wool pieces. I asked Natalie to write for my readers knowing that she has plenty of experience! Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us Natalie.

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Mention knitted clothing to some people and the first thing they say is ‘They’re so hard to care for!’

They’re not really you know. Wool being a natural anti bacterial means that your woollies only need to be washed when they get dirty, as dirty woollies attract pests, or they start to smell a bit.

And washing is easy. This is how I take care of mine. Depending on how many you’ve got to wash you can either use the laundry tub or a bucket. Try to wash ‘like’ colours together just in case of any excess dye run – you wouldn’t want your favourite baby cardigan to end up a different colour.
I usually use a bucket for mine so here’s what I do. Simply fill your bucket with warm water, not so hot that you can’t put your hand in it – and the wool wash of your choice; my favourite is Soak, available in a number of different scents and also scentless. Check the instructions on your wool wash as to whether you need to rinse your garment once it has been washed – with Soak, you don’t need to rinse. Make sure you have enough water in your bucket so that your woollies will be fully submersed. Place them in the water and hold under the water until air bubbles stop coming to the top – this way your woollies will stay under the water.

How long you leave them in there is up to you but I like to leave mine in for at least half an hour, but its usually longer as I forget about them!
Once they’ve soaked for long enough, prepare your drying station. You’ll need at leat one, if not 2, towels. Lift your woollie garment out of your bucket, supporting as much of it as you can in your hands so that it’s not hanging down, reducing the risk of stretching. SQUEEZE as much water out of your garment as possible – DO NOT WRING as this can cause felting and runs the risk of ruining your garment.. Once you’ve squeezed as much water as you can out, lay it down on a towel – I use a towel folded in half. Smooth your garment so that it is fairly flat and then roll your towel, with your woollie garment inside, squeezing as you go to get as much excess moisture out as possible. Again, do not WRING the towel. You may need to use a 2nd towel if the first one becomes too wet. Once you’ve squeezed as much water out as you can, it’s time to lay your garment out to dry. A clothes airer is perfect if you have one as it lets the air circulate all around. You may like to lay a towel under the garment to stop it from slipping through the gaps in the airer. Most of the time I use cake racks – living in an apartment I don’t have room for a clothes airer inside and these are the same concept. I have 3 that I bought from KMart that are specifically for drying woollies. I also have a couple of rubber camping floor mats for items that need to be blocked, such as items with lace.

Gently push your woollie garment into shape to dry. Be sure that you garment is not in direct sunlight as this can cause the wool fibres to deteriorate over time. Leave to dry, which depending on where you live and what season it is, could be overnight (as it is sometimes here in Brisbane) or a day or 2. Once dry, either fold and put away until the cool weather comes or put on straight away and enjoy!

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All the beautiful garments you see above are currently for sale in Natalie’s Handmade shop.

You can also find her on her busy Facebook page.

Knit and weave

by Kelly 2 Comments

Lots of yarn activity here lately! I finished a Rainbow Dress using my hand dyed yarns in 10 ply. I love the look of it but I’m not sure how much wear she will get out of it now that the weather is warming up. Being 10ply, it’s pretty thick and heavy. As others have said, it will make a great long tunic next winter.

I’ll absolutely be knitting this pattern again, perhaps a cotton one for the warm weather. The pattern is by Tikki.

And this is my first ever project off my new rigid heddle loom – a stash busting scarf. I intentionally used a wide variety of yarns to see how they perform differently for weaving.

I learned so much from this project, and it doesn’t look nearly as rough as I expected for a first piece. I discovered that hand dyed and handspun yarns are perfect for weaving 🙂

My joy of all things yarn is not showing any signs of slowing and I’m very happy to say that my hand dyed yarns are selling really well. I’m waiting on my next order to arrive so I can start dyeing again, there will be cotton too 😀

The spring weather is so fabulous here at the moment and there is so much good, productive work to do. I hope you’re enjoying it as much as I am.

God bless!

Felt food and wrist warmers

by Kelly 7 Comments

It’s cold. It’s wet. It’s the perfect weather for working with wool! I knit these wrist warmers for myself originally, but they fit my eldest daughter better. In fact, the morning after I finished them they had disappeared from my sewing table and were seen on the wrists of a smiling lassy 😉

These were a really easy knit from leftover yarn. The pattern is in “Learn to knit love to knit” by Anna Wilkinson.

Today is also our youngest daughter’s 4th birthday and I found myself in a bit of a panic 2 days ago when I realised I didn’t have any hand made gifts for her and my sewing machine is still being serviced. It’s a bit of a tradition now for me to give at least one Mama made gift.

I went through my wool felt drawer and thankfully found some pieces big enough to make some donuts. Since my eldest daughter started sewing and embroidering, my wool felt stores have been seriously depleted!

What’s your favourite flavour, strawberry?

Choc?

Or vanilla?

Once again, if you would like a tutorial on how to make these, just let me know. I don’t mind doing tutorials and sharing patterns but I mostly only do tutorials nowadays if somebody asks.