Filmknitter

Bride and Groom bears

For my sister's wedding last weekend I decided to make little bears wearing imitations of her wedding dress and the groom's suit. For the basic bears I went for my usual favourite bear pattern from Sandra Polley's fantastic 'The Knitted Teddy Bear' book. My sister and her new husband are both fairly tall and thin so these beautifully lanky-but-cuddly bears worked really well. I knitted them in Rowan Cashsoft 2ply in a light beige colour, with dark brown pads for their paws. I stuffed them both with normal toy stuffing (kapok) and gave the bride bear a little less stuffing so she looked more svelte than her groom.

I had planned to also knit the dress and suit, but after looking in vain for a suitable pattern on Ravelry and on some doll-clothing websites I realised it would take a lot of designing and more time than I had. So instead I made them clothes out of fabric. This was the lesser of two evils but, having blithely assumed that making miniature versions of a super-fancy wedding dress and three piece suit would be easy, it still took a lot of trial and error to get them looking acceptable. I also left myself only one weekend to get the clothes made - not clever.

I made the bride's wedding dress first:

I made a toile of the skirt first out of some muslin, so that I could practice the pintucks. I think it's a pretty good approximation of the real thing:

I couldn't get the top half exactly the same, and on Helen's dress there was lacing down the back, but owing to the bear's lack of shape it would have been fairly tricky to get it to look good.

Next the groom-bear. On the day Mike wore a morning suit with jacket, waistcoat, fancy shirt, the works, but I realised that I would have a breakdown if I tried to reproduce that in bear-dimensions. In the end I went for suit trousers and a waistcoat, with a purple cravat (and still ended up shouting at my sewing machine and having to take a 'time-out').

 
These bears are a really funny shape when you get down to brass tacks, and fashioning trousers for a small bear who has a long body, with a stout tummy, and very short legs, was not easy. After many toiles for both waistcoat and trouser, and the aforementioned time-out, I was happy with the way he looked. The tiny buttons came from Boswells in Oxford, which is truly a place of miracles - I expected to struggle to find buttons the right size. The cravat was made from some purple silky material which had ensconsed an Easter egg once. I cut a rectangle and hemmed the edges then tied around his neck and tucked the ends behind his waistcoat. Sadly I wasn't paying attention when I sewed his arms on and he looks like he's shrugging, but you can't have everything.

As it turned out Mike's suit was much darker grey, and he had a silver cravat (the ushers and dads had purple ones), but he was still really pleased with his bear. Here's Mike on the day with Helen and me:

 

Helen and Mike were really pleased with their mini-bears so all the stress was worthwhile, but I wouldn't make wedding bears again in a hurry, and if I did I would leave a lot more time to make toiles and properly plan the design. I just have one more bear to make, a commission from a friend, and then I'm having a definite bear-hiatus. In the meantime I plan to knit some new fingerless gloves to replace my favourite ones which I shrank in the wash last month!

Cap-sleeved Eyelet Top

Despite the uninspiring name this pattern has been heavenly to knit. As blogged previously, I started it at the beginning of April in the hopes of finally making a jumper that would fit my slightly troublesome dimensions, and would look sophisticated enough to wear to work etc without it being too obvious that it's handknit. And, after 6 weeks of work, here is the result:

 

Finished, blocked, and already been worn twice, it fits remarkably well. I almost can't believe I made it!

 

Despite the fact that I appear to be smirking in this shot, I'm actually delighted with my handiwork!

 

So, it was mostly smooth sailing in the end. Everything fits just right, and required no ripping back and reknitting, which I was fully prepared to do for this project. Knitting in the round, and the reduced sewing-up time meant a world of inconvenience avoided! I still had to set in the sleeves, always hair-raising, but I got them both right first time, despite being worried that the armholes looked too big for the sleeves. The only annoyance I hit was the neck, which involves picking up stitches and knitting on after the thing has been sewed up and blocked. Unfortunately the pattern doesn't specify exactly how many stitches to pick up, and not being experienced with jumpers I couldn't tell instinctively myself. This meant a couple of false starts - I reknitted it three times - the first one was too big, the second too small, and the third just right. It was completely worth it though, and I would feel more confident about doing it next time. So, hurrah for Hannah Fettig's pattern for finally giving me a wearable hand-knit jumper!

Yes, this is a blog about knitting too...

I can't even remember the last time I wrote a knitting post it's been so long. I don't know why really. I guess I haven't been doing any exciting knitting for a while. The last genuinely new project I did was a couple of Yarn Harlot's Pretty Things, one for me and one for my mum, back in January. I was really excited about making this pattern as Steph's looked so pretty in the picture, but to be honest it didn't really float my boat. I enjoyed knitting them: the pattern is interesting to knit but not too challenging, they knit up really fast, and I got to use beautiful floaty 2-ply yarn, but once they're done they're kind of meh. The one I knit for myself is a bit too wide to fit snugly round my neck, it just sort of flops and puddles at the bottom, but if I'd made it narrower it wouldn't have gone over my head. To be honest I haven't worn it since I made it. My mum liked hers though and has worn it a few times, so maybe it's just me. Below is my mother modelling hers:

 

Since this I've been furiously knitting blanket squares, with the result that my ongoing blanket project has grown to about 9 squares wide/tall. I've also been dressmaking, and have a lovely linen shirt to show for it, but this has meant less time with needles and yarn and more time at the sewing machine over the last couple of months. But then, at the beginning of the month I decided to bite the bullet and have another go at making an actual proper garment, as opposed to accessories and random knitted things such as sat-nav cosies. While I was on holiday in Canterbury I bought 6 balls of this:

 

Rowan Cashsoft, one of my most favourite yarns, and in a fit of self-belief embarked on knitting this:

 

It's from 'Closely Knit' by Hannah Fettig (she's a genius, read her blog here), which is full of some of the most knittable patterns I've ever seen. I bought this book about this time last year, ostensibly for a baby hat pattern but really because I wanted to make this, and about 90% of the rest of the patterns in her book. I'm hoping that unlike previous knitted jumpers this will be a success and I'll actually want to wear it, you know, in public. Previous jumpers I've knitted (there are but three) have all been, to a jumper, short in the body. I'm tall, and have finally realised that this means I need to make longer jumpers. This is a pattern for a long jumper, therefore the length problem should cease to be a problem. And this pattern has more good points:

- It's knit in the round, which makes the thing go a hell of a lot faster and means much less sewing up afterwards

- I actually measured myself, checked this against the pattern measurements, then knitted and measured a swatch to be absolutely sure I'd got the right guage and therefore the finished object would match my measurements, as opposed to my usual technique of doing very little measuring and hoping for the best (I blame the dressmaking for teaching me that measurements are important)

- It's lightweight and pretty as opposed to the chunky jumpers I've made in the past which can really only be worn when the temperature is below freezing, therefore I can wear it as soon as I've made it

- I adore this pattern and have been knitting on it like a bat out of hell for the last three weeks, et voila:

See that? That's three week's worth of work and it's looking better than I could have imagined. True, this is the easiest bit done and I now have to worry about shoulders, and sleeves, not to mention this:

 

That's the back of it, I had to slip the stiches onto a long piece of yarn to hold them while I work on the armholes at the front. Eugh, having all those live stitches sitting there not doing anything just bothers me. I don't know why, the rational knitter in my head tells me they're safely slipped onto that pink yarn, with a knot tied in it so they can't possibly escape, but the paranoid knitter in my head says that they're live stitches and they're not on a needle where they should be. It's perverse frankly.

However, stitch holders aside I'm thoroughly enjoying this project and will be sort of sad to finish it. But also excited to see if this is finally going to be a handknitted jumper I can wear with confidence. Watch this space...

Cocoon mittens

What a very speedy project this was, after the weeks that I spent on the Rosalie scarf! I bought a ball of Rowan Cocoon at Christmas and it has taken me this long to decide what to do with it. Cocoon is my favourite yarn at the moment, it's the softest yarn I've ever felt, and the colours are so beautiful and vivid, and it's so heavenly to look at and knit with. If God could knit (and existed obv.) he/she would knit with this yarn!

I wanted to find a project that would only use the one ball of wool, would show off the yarn to its best advantage, and would mean I could feel the stuff against my skin as much as possible. The solution - mittens! I've tried knitting mittens for myself before and have had trouble finding a pattern to suit me. I have skinny hands with long fingers so most patterns were too short and wide and just felt like I had my hands in a couple of bags. I decided to invent one myself so that the mittens would fit, and also so that I could use moss stitch, which suits this yarn down to the ground as the texture really shows off its jewel-like colour and shine.

 

Apparently it's really difficult to take a good photo of your own hand in a mitten, I have discovered. Doesn't it look cosy though? Now if the weather could just get a bit chilly again...

Rosalie Hale scarf - completed at last!

Finally, it has been blocked, and it had its first outing on Thursday. I had two meetings at work and found it remarkably difficult to resist announcing to the room at large that I had knitted it myself, inviting them to stroke and admire the handiwork. Fortunately for my career, I did resist, and my colleagues remain unenlightened about the wonder and beauty that is the Rosalie Hale scarf. Here it is, however, in all its glory:

It's based on the scarf worn by Rosalie in the film 'Twilight' in the first cafeteria scene. You can see an image of Rosalie wearing it here (stoopid IMDB won't let me copy the picture). My scarf is slightly different in that it's knitted in 4-ply as I wanted it to be very lightweight and diaphanous, whereas I suspect the film version is knitted in DK weight as the horseshoe pattern is larger. The yarn I used is RYC cashcotton 4 ply and the scarf took 4 balls, though it could easily be made with 3 - it would just not be quite as long as Rosalie's version. This yarn is beautiful and very soft and warm, with a lovely colour, just the correct shade of cream. It's a little fluffy up close but doesn't shed too much, and has very good stitch definition, perfect for lace. I blocked this one to make the stitches lie flat, and emphasize the points on the end of the scarf, but you could get away without doing so. For picture of the unblocked scarf see my previous post.

The pattern I used is Horseshoe Lace, though I changed it slightly from the book I took it from so that the 'horseshoes' were longer and more like the Rosalie version. As you can see from the picture above, the important thing to remember is that the scarf has to be knitted in two halves, and then seamed together. I used a three-needle (seam) bind-off but actually I'm thinking I should have used Kitchener Stitch as it might have removed the rather obvious seam on the other side. Knitting it in two halves mean that the horseshoes all point the same way when you're wearing it, rather than one side being upside down. I'm immensely proud of it, as it's the first time I've knitted lace on a project so large, and it's turned out beautifully well. I'm not much of a scarf-wearing person in general as I worry that it's more of a middle-aged thing, but I'm determined to persevere and wear this one despite my preconceptions.

Rosalie scarf - the latest

I've finally finished knitting the Rosalie Hale scarf, as seen on Rosalie in the film 'Twilight'. It's been a joy to knit and I actually feel a bit sad to be done. This is my first proper lace knitting project using 4-ply and I've discovered how truly addictive it is. It's a bit like crack, except, you know, less harmful and with a much more lasting effect. However, this scarf is not yet finished, as it has now to be blocked. That will happen on Sunday or Monday night so that, fingers crossed, it will be wearable by the end of next week!

 

Scarves

I thought I'd already blogged about this, but it looks like I didn't so I must have dreamt it (curse that dream-blogging). Anyway, I finished this scarf a couple of weeks ago now, it's the pattern 'du jour' - Striped Noro Scarf, which I started just before Christmas. It then had a hiatus of two weeks when I ran out of wool and had to source two more balls. I can't remember the shades I'm afraid but it's four balls in total: two of the blacky-brown colourway, one of a greeny/bue colourwar, and one of a rainbow colourway that had all sorts in it. To be frank if I'd chosen the second two balls from a shop I wouldn't have gone for the rainbow one, but I had to get it off the web and it looked ok in the photos. It still looks ok, and I do like the more rapidly changing colours, but if I could knit the scarf again I'd have gone for something different.

 

Rainbow colourway on left, bluey/green on right.

It's about 6 feet in length so I can wrap it round my neck twice and it keeps my chin and neck warm all at the same time. As expected with Silk Garden it's a wee bit scratchy, but I washed the scarf as soon as it was finished which softened it up somewhat. Generally though I can get past the scratchiness and this scarf has already had a lot of wear. Especially in the crazy arctic weather we've been having.

Moving onto my newest project, which I am officially half way through, here is the Rosalie Hale scarf that I also started over Christmas. It's based on the scarf that Rosalie wears in the first canteen scene in Twilight (yes, I'm obsessed, don't judge me). More details to come once I've finished it!

Christmas knitting

So for the second year running I did my level best to make as much Christmas stuff as possible, which this year meant a few more Christmas decorations for the tree and two gifts. Decorations first:

Two mini-stockings, knitted from a pattern found on Ravelry, though I'm afraid I can't remember which one. Aren't they cute? When I was little my mum made one each for me and my sister and crocheted our initials on each one, then she'd put a little chocolate bar in each one, which we weren't allowed to eat till Christmas - it was torture!

However, my favourite 'discovered' pattern of the holiday season was for the adorable 'Jultomtar' gnome from the genius that is Alan Dart. I'd seen these little guys usually sitting unobtrusively somewhere in yarn shops, never for sale, just keeping an eye on proceedings from on top of the yarn shelves. Anyway, I was browsing the internet at work back in November, one particularly boring afternoon when our systems had been well and truly buggered and we couldn't access anything except the internet (honest!). I think I was just looking for Christmas patterns on Ravelry and spotted this one, linked to the Alan Dart website. So, here in all his glory is my first 'Jultomtar':

They're gorgeous when they're done but let me warn you that they're tricky to make, especially for a beginner. The sewing up of the hands and feet nearly beat me, they're very fiddly but because they look so good when they're done it's worth taking the time to do it properly. I would also recommend using the eyelash yarn doubled for the beard as it makes it look much bushier. This is the wee guy halfway through manufacture, looking remarkably like a cuddly skittle:

I also made one for my mum for Christmas, which she was delighted with. Here he is making friends with the elderly angel who lives on top of our Christmas tree at home:

Note the bushiness of the beard (this is gnome mark II)

Finally, the other gift I made was a pair of 'Dashing' mitts, the male version of the 'Fetching' pattern. These were for my sister's fiance, who plays lead guitar in a rock band in his spare time (Freedom's Cry, check them out on Facebook here). He's been after a pair of fingerless gloves which he could wear whilst playing the guitar and I very sneakily decided to make him a pair as a surprise. I had to phone my sister back in December to check his hand-size, her reply was "oh, about the same size as mine", which while not very flattering to Mike was very helpful in deciding on the sizing as I have the same size hands as my sister. Here they are on the receiver's hands:

I love this pattern, it's a bit heftier than 'Fetching' and the random cables look fantastic. The pattern does have them very long though, practically up to the elbows I would say, I took a couple of inches off what it said and they're still pretty long.

So after all of that I treated myself to some yarn for a couple of scarfs, first of which is the Noro stripe scarf, now completed (pictures soon), and a scarf copied from one Rosalie wears in the Twilight movie. A full blog post on both coming soon!

Noro scarf

Once again the latest knitting craze has swept me up. First it was Fetching mitts now the current obsession is with knitting single rib striped scarfs in Noro Silk Garden.  First I saw them here on the YarnHarlot blog, then all over Ravelry. Finally I gave in. I adore Silk Garden anyway and the idea of combining two shades to produce maximum colour combo glory was irresistible to me. As soon as I got back to Lichfield I headed over to The Knitting Corner to buy the yarn. Using this guy's pattern I cast on on Saturday and I'm now about 1 1/2 feet into it.  Unfortunately I realised I need 4 balls and I only bought 2.  Evidently this scarf isn't going to come cheap, but it's so pretty...  As soon as the yarn shop's open next week I'll be over there for the next two balls.

Innocent Big Knit 2008

Finally a knitting post!  I had a mini-hiatus from knitting for a while and then got back into with a vengeance when I realised it was that time of year again.

Yes, it's Innocent's Big Knit, where they request small bobble hats for their smoothies from the world of knitters.  Then over the winter for every smoothie they sell that's wearing a hat they donate 50p to Age Concern.  I made 21 this year, sadly not beating last year's total of 22.  However, that's worth £10.50 to Age Concern so not too bad really.  I plan to start much earlier next year, I'm sure the deadline's earlier than it used to be - 17th October this year.  They're aiming for 500,000 hats and the current total is 304,988.  I reckon they'll make it, they tend to have a last minute rush of hats, despite asking people to send them well in advance.  But really, people want to make as many as possible so of course you're going to keep working right up to the deadline.

This one's meant to be a strawberry, knitted from one of Innocent's patterns.  It looks pretty good but it was a bugger to knit.  I have to admit I'm not terribly good with intarsia, holding yarn in both hands just doesn't work for me, I'm not co-ordinated enough.  Mostly I just went for stripy ones, which are quick to knit but still look special.  As you can see I had a lot of leftover pink and purple yarn from a beret I made for my sister a few years ago so I used that up as well as a good portion of the collection of brightly coloured acrylic yarns I inherited from my nan when I started knitting.
So now that the excitement of the Big Knit is over for another year I guess it's time to start thinking about what I'm going to knit for Christmas presents...