Jewellery for knitters
Posted by: Vicky on: 6 July, 2009
I was having a browse on Folksy this evening and came across this crafter who makes brooches, earrings and necklaces with mini balls of wool and knitting needles.
http://www.folksy.com/shops/MaxsWorld
They look really cute. I might treat myself to a brooch!
Looking for a knitting group
Posted by: Vicky on: 23 June, 2009
In my experience, it’s not always easy to find out whether there is a knitting group that meets somewhere near where you live. Your local yarn shop might run one or know of one, but you might not live particularly close to a yarn shop, especially if you’re in a rural area. Or maybe the group meets during the day when you’re at work and you’d like to find another evening group.
There are threads on various forums and Ravelry where people list details of where and when their knitting group meets, but I’ve never thought that is a satisfactory way to list them. It’s not easy to search and the threads can get really long so you could simply not spot a group that might be suitable.
Therefore I decided to build a simple website, where people can add details of their group, and where knitters can look for a group that meets near them. The groups are organised by region so it’s easy to search.
The site is called Knit Together and can be found at www.knittogether.info
Please visit the site and add your knitting or crochet group.
Knit in Public Day
Posted by: Vicky on: 22 June, 2009
Last Saturday was World Wide Knit in Public Day and I joined a group of ladies to knit in Plymouth city centre.
I was with them for about three hours and we had a hilarious time! The more outgoing members of the group enjoyed stopping passers-by, teaching them to knit and asking them to do a few rows on a giant scarf, started by another of the ladies. I’m not sure the shoppers in Plymouth quite knew what had hit them! Great fun though 
FO: St Ives Cushion
Posted by: Vicky on: 12 June, 2009
It’s been ages since I last blogged, but I have finished a couple of things in the interim, one of which is the St Ives Cushion.
The pattern is from Little Luxury Knits by Alison Crowther-Smith, and uses 3 balls of Rowan Kidsilk Haze. I’ve never knitted with Kidsilk Haze before and quite enjoyed it. It’s not that easy to rip back though, so you need to be careful not to go drastically wrong.
The clever thing about this pattern is the way the two shades of red are blended together. You knit every row with two strands of yarn, but the two strands are not always the same. What I mean is this: you start by knitting a few rows with two strands of blue. Then a few rows with two strands of dark red, then a couple of rows with one strand dark red and one strand light red, then a few rows with two strands of light red.
I backed this cushion with a piece of Amy Butler fabric, called French Wallpaper in duck egg blue. I love this fabric. It’s such good quality and the pattern is so pretty.
Tomorrow is World Wide Knit in Public Day and there’s going to be a gathering in Plymouth which I’m planning to go along to. I think there’s a group planning to come up from Cornwall, but it will be nice to meet other knitters from Plymouth. Maybe they’ll be interested in coming along to our Knit and Knatter group. I hope it doesn’t rain!
Knitted model village
Posted by: Vicky on: 19 May, 2009
A branch of my family tree come from Mersham in Kent, so this held twice the interest for me!
From Telegraph.co.uk:
A model village which took 23 years to create entirely from wool has gone on sale
Many of the landmarks of Mersham near Ashford in Kent – population 1,022 – have been knitted by members of the village’s Afternoon Club since 1986.
Creations include the local primary school, the church, both pubs, the local shop, residents playing cricket, and even some of the local teenagers smoking a cigarette outside the bus shelter
Many of the houses have also been stitched, complete with flowers occupying the gardens and cars on the roads, to help capture a slice of everyday life of the village.
Thousands of hours of intricate handiwork have gone into creating the knitted village over the past 23 years by members of the 40-strong Afternoon Club.
FO: Sparkle Cardigan
Posted by: Vicky on: 10 May, 2009
I finished this cardigan a few weeks ago now, but have only just taken a photo of it.
The pattern comes from the Rowan Classic book 16 and is knitted with Rowan Silk Wool DK in Bramble. The wool was nice to knit with, although had a few lumps in it where it hadn’t been spun quite right. I think that maybe that was to do with the silk element.
I was given the wool for Christmas but had to go and get another ball as I didn’t have enough to finish it off. As I got nearer and nearer to the end of the final ball, and saw that I still had half the collar to knit, I tried to convince myself that I’d have enough wool, but telling myself that it was enough, didn’t actually make the yarn grow! Fortunately the yarn shop still had some from the same dye lot.
The stitch pattern makes quite a dense fabric and as such, the cardi is very warm. I didn’t quite get what the stitches were doing at first and as such, got it wrong right at the start and had to begin again.
I also had a ‘mare when I was adding the collar, which is knitted in two pieces. I’d sewn it all together, and even woven in the ends, tried it on and something looked odd. The collar just wasn’t sitting right. I took it off and looked at it… I’d sewn the pieces on the wrong sides of the cardi. So I had to undo all my neat seams and redo it. After a few tantrums and throwing down of the knitting needles in frustration, I finally got it finished by bedtime that night. It was a relief to get it done.
Knitting Superheroes
Posted by: Vicky on: 7 May, 2009
I was recently having a conversation with some friends about “if you were a superhero, what superpower would you have?”. You know… as you do…
Someone suggested I could be “The Knitter” a superhero who catches the baddies and wraps them up in wool.
So what would your superpower be?
Ripple scarf
Posted by: Vicky on: 27 April, 2009
I was looking through a book we had at home on ripple stitch patterns and decided to use one of them to create a striped scarf.
Here it is so far:
I love the pattern but I’m not very happy with the edge where I’ve been carrying the yarn up the side of the stripes. I’m twisting the yarn as I go, but it’s looking a bit messy. I’ll probably find that I get the knack in the final few centimetres!
My Clever Mum’s Kaffe Fassett Quilt
Posted by: Vicky on: 27 April, 2009
My Clever Mum has recently made two similar quilts. How she did two in such a short space of time, I don’t know! But they are stunning. I would never have thought of putting all these wonderful colours from Rowan’s Kaffe Fassett range into one quilt.
The design is the Rainbow Garden Quilt from the Kaffe Fassett book “Country Garden Quilts”. She made two quilts, one for her queen size bed (she had to add extra blocks to make it the right size) and another the size given in the book, which she is now selling.
Kaffe Fassett Rainbow Garden Quilt
If you would like to buy this quilt, then it is for sale from my shop at www.hulucrafts.co.uk. More details about the quilt can be found there.
Spring sewing
Posted by: Vicky on: 8 April, 2009
I think the warm, sunny, Spring time weather that we’ve had recently is what has given me an urge to do some sewing. Now those of you who regularly read my blog will know that sewing scares me. But it’s something I want to get to grips with and finally master (well become competent at it anyway!)
So I started with something simple – an A-line skirt. I used Amy Butler’s barcelona skirt pattern and some of Amy Butler’s fabric which I think is perfect for summer.
And here’s the result:
Amy Butler Barcelona Skirt
The instructions that come with the pattern are good and the pattern pack also includes the instructions for making a layered skirt and an apron. I might well try the layered skirt next. I’ll need to do some sewing again soon, to make sure I don’t forget how to do it! I think I should have taken step-by-step photos to remind myself of what I did at each stage.
I didn’t know how to put in a zip, and the pattern asked for an invisible zip which I didn’t have, so I asked Mum to help me with that bit. Otherwise I did it pretty much by myself, which is a massive achievement for me. And I did it in a weekend too.
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