DIY French Knitting (toilet rolls and craft sticks)

Meet Flopsy - one of Jessica's beautiful toy bunnies. She's a very well treated rabbit and is even the proud owner of a very attractive scarf created from some last scraps of wool, a toilet roll and five craft sticks. 

I taped the craft sticks to the toilet roll and set about French knitting...

A traditional knitting doll uses four pegs but there is no reason, from what I can tell, why you shouldn't use more. The fewer sticks or pegs you use the looser your knit will be. I really enjoyed using the large scale tool for this. I have a knitting doll but I've struggled to keep everything loose enough to be able to use it with ease. I also had some super chunky wool by me so I've gone even bigger scale to make a dressing up scarf for Jess. How fortunate that David had a tube from his Christmas White Port that I could use!

Mini Ribbon Blanket

Inspired by my wonderful sister-in-law, Ruth, and facilitated by a trip to a fabric shop with her last week I have managed to steal enough time today to make a mini ribbon blanket for Jessica. Ruth gave us the one at the bottom of this post when Jess was born and the little lady decided that she adores it this weekend now that she can grab and hold on to things properly. Unfortunately she was a little sick on it yesterday so we obviously need one to wash and one to use. I had the ribbon and buttons (which are large and VERY firmly attached) by me so here is my version…

    

Ruth’s requires more skill and has a fabulous knitted back to the blanket. The elephant fabric came from the same shop. Here it is…

    

Mum tackles cable knitting

Mum actually knitted this cardigan quite a while ago. She’s knitted at least one jumper for Archie since but this particular piece was waiting for me to buy buttons and sew them on. You might question my choice and I would have to agree that other options might have been better suited (duffel buttons perhaps) but I saw these sparkly beauties and my inner-magpie just had to have them. It’s a really good stretchy cardigan that Jess will fit in for a very long time (look how much I’ve had to turn the sleeves up!).

Here’s the little lady rocking the cardigan and tights look!

    

Knitted Gifts

Yet more gifts for Jess that I need to report on. I’m very conscious that “Craft by Others” is incredibly prominent in my tag cloud to the right and I promise that I will get crafting again soon but for now I really do have to show off how many talented friends and family members we have. 

We had a lovely visit from the Haigh family a couple of weeks ago. They brought these knitted items with them for my little lady. She has a beautiful elf hat and an impressively mathematical blanket that will teach her all about the powers of two in time! As you can see below, they are beautifully crafted by Lib and we’re really very grateful. 

Princess Holly

The pattern for this character from Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom came from a copy of Woman’s Weekly earlier this year and was spotted by my Mum. Now, I have to admit to being a big fan of this programme so I sneaked the pattern away from Wales, laminated it and kept it just in case I had a baby girl (I probably would have requested it for a son too mind you!). So, when Gran and Grandad came down to visit four weeks ago I shamelessly asked if Barbara would make this fabulous knitted princess for Jessica’s collection of soft toys. She arrived this week when Auntie Ruth came to visit us and what a beauty she is. We (honestly it’s not just for me) absolutely love it and will be keeping our eyes open for patterns for Ben and Gaston too. Thank you, Gran!

A Growing Menagerie

Jessica is blessed with lots of talented friends and relatives who have already been busy making things for her. In particular, over the last few days her collection of handmade soft toys has been growing. Her Auntie Ruth delivered the fabulous crocheted giraffe on Sunday and then Gran gave Jessica the amazing knitted dog along with the customary knitted mouse (David has lots of these himself). We were also very cheeky and had Katryn’s knitted mouse repaired on Sunday, which is why it made it into the moses basket for the photograph below. We’re very grateful for the gifts and I’m sure that Jess is going to absolutely adore them for years to come.

     

More gifts for Baby B

I finished work and Brownies last week and was inundated with presents for Baby B. All of my sixth form classes had talked to each other about what they were getting and seemed to each take a theme, which was incredibly impressive! One group went for books, another for toys, a third for clothes and one group even named a star after the baby. My final Year 13 class opted to get creative and made this fantastic mathematical mobile for the nursery…

Year 11 came up with an equally touching idea as the designed this bodysuit which they then got made…

Meanwhile, other people have been busy knitting cardigans for the little one. The two in lemon were made by Steph and my mother-in-law was busy making the white one for Christmas. I particularly love the duck buttons!

Thank you everyone, this is certainly one loved and lucky baby that I’m having!

Clothes for Baby B

So, this explains my absence in recent months. My crafting exploits have taken a backseat whilst my body grows a whole new person inside. If the truth be told, I’ve been far too tired to pick up anything crafty during the first two trimesters but as I rapidly approach the third I think I’m going to have to pull my finger out and start making some stuff for Baby B myself.

In the meantime, my Mum has been busy knitting a selection of jumpers and cardigans for her third grandchild. Unfortunately she knitted them before David stipulated that he did not want his son or daughter wearing yellow but I will undoubtedly be the one dressing the little one when it arrives and so I will get plenty of use out of them. It’s been quite a long time since Mum did this much knitting and I’m thrilled that she’s picked up her needles again. It’s just a bit terrifying how small these items are!

By the way, they’re actually a much more subtle shade of yellow and turquoise than these photos suggest but my flash along with the black background has played funny tricks on them.

Thank you Mum!

Mum’s Monkey Business

Archie is really pleased with Mickey the Monkey now that Mum has finished her first (& quite probably last) knitted soft toy.

She spotted this pattern in Yours magazine and was brave enough to give it a try. You can see what she was aiming for and you’d have to agree, she did a pretty good job of it.

She twisted my arm to embroider the facial features but Mum did everything else. Sorry about the quality of the photos, I only had my phone with me up in Wales this weekend but here he is in all his glory…

Handmade says it better

Last week we officially said goodbye to the class of 2013. As usual, it was an emotional day (at least for me) and I can honestly say that this a year group that will be sorely missed. They’ve been amazing. Anyway, amongst many other touching gifts and cards I received these very special handmade pieces. Apparently they “just had to be handmade” for me!

The first card is an upcycled piece, which I absolutely love.

The second card is hand-drawn and I particularly liked that the student had started on the other side, wasn’t happy with the image and just turned over. I definitely approve of not having thrown it away and started again!

The third card was actually a booklet created by five of my form. Again, it’s all hand-drawn and mounted. The messages inside made my Mum cry!

Best of all… This year one of my form knitted me a teddy bear. You really can’t get much better than that. Not to mention the time taken, it’s thoughtful, creative and incredibly personal. I’m so very grateful.

The joy of finding craft in the most unlikely of places…

We’ve just had a weekend away in Exmouth. It was really good to spend some time together and relax. Naturally my husband had birds on his mind so on our way down we stopped off at Hose Hill Lake in Berkshire to see a Bonepart’s Gull. Lovely as it was, it didn’t keep my interest for very long so I went for a quick wonder and found this piece of craftwork…

Each clay tile is individually moulded and painted. I don’t know which group has done it (presumably a wildlife group or primary school) but I loved it.

On Saturday we headed for Prawle Point and Start Point and went for a couple of nice walks in the sunshine. It was glorious but after a long walk around East Prawle I needed some hydration so we headed to The Pigs Nose for a swift drink before moving on. A few spots of rain drove me inside where I stumbled across a real treasure. In the far corner of the dim pub was a knitting basket and an invitation to leave my mark on this place forever.

There were no two needles the same size and some of the knitting was quite suspect but I joined in very happily. What an amazing idea!
I failed to find any craft on Sunday but my need to do stuff was satisfied as I sat in another random pub with a pint of Guinness doing some hard Mathematics! Sad but true. Once a geek, always a geek I guess!

Knitted Baubles

These beautiful baubles were created by Lib as part of our Christmas present this year. Now I’m definitely going to have to actually put our Christmas tree up next year. Homemade baubles and homebrewed beer – well done and thank you, Mr and Mrs Haigh!

    

Knitted Phone Sock

It’s official – not only can I knit but I can also make useful (& pretty?) things from my knitting. This is the first piece of knitting that I have ever done (almost) entirely on my own. I just had a couple of tiny hiccups along the way that Barbara kindly helped me to fix this weekend. It’s tight and I used completely inappropriate needles for the job but my stitches are even and I’m really proud of the end result. I made it for my wonderful Mum who had a significant birthday this week. She says she thinks it’s wonderful but she has to say that! David chose the buttons for it and I think you’ll agree that he made an excellent selection.

So, here’s how I did it…

First I cast-on with 40 stitches, which took up about 14cm on my size 12 needles. I then knitted three rows before turning to stocking stitch (knit a row, purl a row). Once I hit 10cm I did a further three knitted rows and cast off. This left me with a knitted rectangle 14cm by 11cm.

I sewed the two 11cm edges together and stitched one of the 14cm edges together (inside out) to form a closed tube. I then secured three strands of wool inside the pouch and threaded them through to the outside before plaiting them and securing the ends back on the inside.

Finally, David selected the buttons and I sewed them onto the front of the phone sock – beautiful!