Knitting

In May I received a really nice email from Sonata in Lithuainia. Sonata was asking permission to use a couple of my patterns for World Wide Knitting in public day, held on the 19th June. Sonata explained "The same night will be the great cultural night (Let There Be Night!

On Tuesday evening I went out for a drink with two fellow knitters, we had a show and tell of things we had made. Nothing could trump, for comedy value, the Harry Hill ski mask Rachel produced. Who says knitting is boring? Rachel entered the mask into the Harry Hill's TV Burp K Factor competition, it didn't even get a mention. I think this fine piece of fibre art deserves a bit of recognition and a wider audience, it made me laugh.

I love old knitting patterns, for many reasons, comedy value being just one. This pattern for helmet (silly me I thought it was a balaclava!) and caps caught my eye, mainly because all the hats sport a lovely pom pom on top, I'm a sucker for a pom pom. The helmet is my particularly favourite, very attractive. 10p well spent? I think so. In the same shop I bought a water colour painting of shells, for 50p, I think it's quite well executed, just needs a frame.

There's still time to knit these 'Just Hatched' chicks for Easter. The pattern is so easy and takes about 30 minutes to an hour to produce a fluffy bird, to contain a Cadbury's creme egg. My free chick pattern is easy to follow, give it a go!

These flowers are so simple to make and look as fresh as spring!

Basic Flower 

I knitted a length of i-cord 25cm (10") long, you could make it from French knitting. From this I formed a five looped petal flower then attached a button for the centre, piece of cake!

Flower Hair Band

Another bead necklace. This time instead of knitting one of the beads, I purled it, in the round, to give a different texture to the bead. Basic knitted bead necklace here 

Using my basic Free Pattern for Knitted Easter Chicks (containing creme egg)  I made some additions. To make the chicks I used Fancy Yarn (Fur), instead of the DK yarn and a pair of 3.75mm (9 UK, 5 US) size needles, you may need larger or smaller size needles depending on your knitting tension. I'm very pleased with the resulting fluffy chicks, they just look so comical. For the hatchlings eyes I used beads.

I think this is a lovely idea, it would make the perfect, unusual, present for a new baby. The full instructions can be found on Knitty the pattern is called Flock. Meg said "You can use any combination of colors you like for your birds.

I couldn't resist these little rubber ducks, but at this time of year I think they need jumpers. With Christmas on the horizon what could be better than to emulate their festive cousin, the robin. I devised a little pattern, very simple, and the red breast I achieved with Swiss darning.

Utilising the tube property of i-cord I thought I would cover a hair band with it. I used hair bands made of metal, you could use plastic but metal is more durable.

On two dpns size 2.25 mm (size 13 UK, size 1 US) and Double Knitting yarn cast on four stitches, leaving a 15 cm (6") length of yarn at the beggining. 

Knit a length of i-cord long enough to cover the hair band.