After making a too small red dress for the previous bunny, I thought I should make a new bunny to fit the dress. Pink wasn’t the best plan… it really doesn’t go well with the red. Also, as it turns out, she’s a bit small for the dress anyway.
Luckily I found a pink dress I’d made at some point which was, I assume, too small for the bunny I made it for, but a perfect fit for this one. However, you can’t really have a pink bunny in a pink dress.
So I guessed the needles (2.25mm), and made a new dress in yellow and grey instead. Success. (Forgive the photos, the colour balance is all over the place).
Now I just need to make rabbits for the red and pink dresses – this is madness! Still. I’d been thinking of practising colourwork again, and actually, knitting the dots was a delight. (Except for the bits I mis-counted and had to unpick). There’s something really nice about seeing the dots appear, and I’ve got half a mind to work on a scarf or a sock in a proper colourwork pattern now. I need to relax my tension though, it’s still far too tight.
This rabbit is quite small – and looks even smaller in photos:
She also makes the first small rabbit I knitted look like an absolute bruiser – these are the same stitch counts, just different yarn. The pink is Krea Deluxe cotton and the white is Cascade 220 + a thread of a mohair mix.
Aside from that, I’m in the middle of knitting the second sock of a pair, but need to start a new ‘pick up put down’ project after finishing the shawl. I was also wondering about a jumper, but what I really want is group in real life to work through a ‘first sweater project’ together. I think I need help on measurements and gauge and… maybe it would just be nice, too? I just need to actually find a group near me at a time/place I can get to. You would think that would be simple in London, but it really isn’t.
I made a mouse! This is only small, but saints alive, it took a long time. He must’ve had about 8 different faces.
I almost gave up (and err… took his head off to make a rabbit 🙊) but in the end I refused to be beaten. I don’t know why but I just couldn’t get his nose and mouth right. I almost left the mouth off, but I gave it one last try, and that was the one that stuck. Looking on Ravelry, I think a few other people have had trouble too. It’s not hard to do technically, but it is hard to make it look cute for some reason. I think perhaps I didn’t pad his cheeks enough, so his face is a bit pointy.
Here he is in my hand for scale. You can’t see clearly but I stitched a tiny white highlight in each eye. I’ve seen some of the brilliant Japanese knitters on Instagram do this, and I was desperate for anything that would make his face work, so I copied them. It’s not bad actually. Might do it again if I make another toy.
For the photoshoot I got out some odds and ends I made a while ago. A little basket, a toadstool, a strawberry and some acorns. I don’t know why I knit these things, but sometimes, I can’t help myself. Actually, I really like the patterns for the strawberry and the method for constructing the mushroom. The pattern is from Shinocraft – for the acorns too. Even just looking at that toadstool makes me want to knit another one. Or a radish. What is wrong with me?
In the meantime I’m still making a shawl that I thought I’d have finished by now. (Oof, just looking at previous posts – I started this shawl In February.) It’s okay, but a bit of a slog. I’m also knitting it on a cable needle and I the cable snapped, which wasn’t the greatest. I thought about unravelling the whole thing, but actually, I would like the finished shawl. In the end I managed to pick up about 200 stitches and get them onto another needle. I’m tempted to move into the ribbed portion of the shawl now, just to get it done. We’ll see.
Last night I was chatting to a friend who has started doing crewel work, but with silks rather than wool. I ended up showing her my tatting, (I’ve known her for about 18 years, not sure why this hasn’t come up before) and she loved the idea of it—so much so, she was going to look it up and buy a shuttle. I had a little panic that I wouldn’t remember how to do it, as it’s been so long, but luckily it’s all still there. I should probably start doing it again. I miss it.
A while ago, I tried to knit a unicorn, for a friend’s newborn baby. I knitted his head, and added different colour threads for his hair (which took a while). Then decided it just wouldn’t work, so knitted a bear instead.
But after a while I knitted the head a body too, just to see – still no clothes – and he sat in the yarn bowl, naked for a while.
Then, Julie released a pattern for a horse/unicorn/donkey, which was just what I needed, but a bit too late. This prompted me to make him a T-shirt. And once I’d done that, it wasn’t that much harder to finish him off properly:
Actually, I really like him, after all that!
He’s got pretty solid / robust ears, as originally they were made to withstand a baby pulling them about, and a little tail, which I’m too lazy to photograph. In the end, I think he worked out pretty well. Poor thing.
Now I’m trying to decide if I should actually give him to the intended recipient after all. She was so kind about the bear, and said that it was the perfect size for a newborn – the only thing he had that was the right size to hold. (The bear didn’t have any buttons on his clothes, in case you’re worried.)
In the spirit of tidying up, I also finally made the light grey elephant a dress. I can’t even remember when I knitted her she’s been waiting so long. Now I just need to force her onto someone who may appreciate her. (You can really see why Etsy took off as a business, right?) I have a horrible feeling I’ve given a knitted toy to anyone who may want one. Maybe it’s finally time to knit something else. Or knit neater and sell them for charity, maybe.
Anyway. Tidier. Fewer naked animals lolling about in the heat. Can only be a good thing… I think?
I’m a bit soggy. Just come in from the garden where it’s started to rain. But you can practically hear the happy sighs of the plants as their leaves stretch out in satisfaction. I’m really enjoying the garden at the moment. Everything’s coming back to life. I took a risk and planted out 2 small sunflower seedlings. I’ve been bringing them in each night for the past week or so. I hope they’re ok out there tonight. I think I might plant a couple more just in case.
I also planted some bleeding hearts the other week – which are doing really well, and some phlox this week. Fingers crossed for them. They’re all from bare roots I got in the post.
My dad (a master gardener) gave me 3 of his bonsai. Obviously bonsai are little trees – that’s literally the point. So of course they drop their leaves in the winter. But I’ve been waiting anxiously for them to sprout again. I’m happy to report all is well. The larch is as larchy as the day it arrived, the ginko (“It’ll never make a decent bonsai but if you want it, you can have it?”) has some wee ginko leaves and the 40+ year old chestnut grown from a conker has sprouted and is doing very well too.
I planted anemones in the winter. They’ve been amazing all spring – red ones, white ones and these blue/purple ones. Actually. All the anemones everywhere have been amazing all spring. I planted different types at different times, but didn’t really register that they were all anemones.
These little ones have been great. They open their petals when the sun comes out. Watching them open up each day and raise their faces to the sun was like having a little heard of pets.
Once I realised the small blue ones were also anemones I realised the white flowers in the woods were anemones too. Good year for anemones all round. I try to go for a walk every morning before work, and seeing the woods coming back to life has been really nice. It’s full of bluebells at the moment. And the field is full of oilseed rape.
I feel incredibly lucky to’ve had access to the outside over this last year.
I’ve been knitting too. I completely finished one sock, and while I was sewing up the toes, got distracted (mentioning no names…). This meant I lost my place and screwed it up. I guess I could’ve saved it but I was so annoyed I unravelled the toes, then the foot, then the heel and then the entire sock. A meltdown. A lot of swearing. I guess that’s frustration with the whole world manifesting in one sock.
Whatever. I started again. Realised I actually like knitting really boring socks.
I like it when you get past the cuff – which I do on DPNs – and on to the relaxing joy of just round n’ round with a circular needle. No need to count. No need to concentrate. Do when you’re watching TV, having a meeting, waiting for the kettle to boil. Like more productive worry beads. I like this picture above. A little knitted campfire.
Can you believe it? I bought the grey because I wanted to use up the yellow and orange. And then I ran out of grey! I didn’t think it was a good idea to buy more, so I ended up improvising. Maybe the next pair will match? Who knows. I’ve started a new pair now. They’re actually stripy and in different yarn. I’ll write more about them next time.
Someone I know also mentioned she’d really like a rabbit. She can knit. Probably better than me. But I said yes anyway. It was nice of her to ask.
I used Cascade 220 yarn (‘antique heather’) and the kidsilk haze – which I’d only used once before on a smaller rabbit. I like the extra bit of fluff. Seems to work quite well. The face of this one intimidated me a bit. It’s a big responsibility giving something a face. Sometimes you need to wait till you’re ready. And actually, this one was right first time.
Here she is. It’s quite hard to photograph bunnies actually, as their eyes are quite far back on their heads. Trust me, in real life she’s got a nice face. Something about her feels quite old fashioned. Not sure why. She’s been given away digitally but not physically yet. The recipient (who is in the process of moving house, hence the delay) seems super happy, so that’s nice. It’s nice when people like the things you make. And you can’t give something a face and not become attached to it, so y’know. You want it to go to a nice home.
I made 3 other bunnies last year. I’ve inexplicably decided I don’t like their clothes, so will remake them over the next few months. They’re for friends abroad. I guess I won’t see them for a while so there’s plenty of time to get things right.
Rewind / unwind / unpick / unravel / frog / begin again (Michael Finnegan). Just to give you a heads up, from the way things are going, these are the future titles of the next few blog posts. I’m just about to frog the sock again. Which is a shame actually, but also doesn’t matter.
After my last post I decided to start again, in grey. This time the cuff took forever because I did 2×2 twisted rib stitch, which is tighter than regular rib and so barely stretched across the needles. I like twisted rib stitch, but is it worth the hassle of trying to squeeze your way through every stitch? Maybe not for a sock. Weirdly, it stays stretched out once you’ve knit it, or it does for me. When I’ve done regular 2×2 rib it sort of sucks itself in and only stretches when you wear it. Twisted rib seems to stay stretched out. Wait – this photo will show you what I mean, twisted rib on the left, regular rib on the right.
Just me, or the same for everyone? Or actually, is it just this yearn? Anyway, once I got past the cuff I thought I’d make life easy and do some plain knitting. And then I thought maybe I should do some colour work after all. I know I said I don’t really like knitting colourwork, but everyone else’s socks on Instagram look really great – and… bleurgh. There you go.
This is an awful photo but I actually really like the sharpness of colour changes in knitting. I don’t think people make much use of it – often people try and soften the edges or try and create organic shapes in colourwork, but there’s something really nice about embracing the fact that slabs of colour just look good. So I went with colour blocks of 4 stitches. This is good because, 1) counting to 4 is easy to remember 2) carrying the other colour over 4 stitches is fine, you don’t need to do any weird ‘catching the float‘ techniques, which I know I’ll forget to do and then risk a flappy thread that’ll catch and break.
Somehow, I did pretty well with this. Usually, because I’m a tight knitter, the fabric gets really pinched when I knit in more than one colour. No matter how hard I try to keep the floats loose. But I think I did ok this time. Or maybe not.
I switched back to grey, measured it against the well fitting stripy sock and decided it was time to do the heel. I did an ok job with the heel itself, and for me, a decent job of picking up the stitches to get the whole sock back on the needle.
But here’s the thing. It just doesn’t fit well. I pulled it on to check the heel, and the colourwork section is just too tight. I can get it on alrightish, but it’s a slight squeeze every time. I would suggest if you’re (I’m) going to do this, and you don’t want to go up a needle size – which is what a lot of people do with colourwork, but I don’t want to do – then you’ll just have to add more stitches to account for the tightness of the floats. The yarn also shrinks ever so slightly in the wash too – even though it is listed machine washable at 30 degrees. If I did finish the sock it wouldn’t take long before I couldn’t wear it at all. So, I’ll unravel it and try again.
Who says knitting isn’t a cheap hobby? I’ve been using these same balls of yarn for entertainment for literally weeks. Maybe one day I’ll even get a functioning pair of socks out of them too.
I’m assuming someone’s written extensively about the fact you need to account for all this if you’re knitting colourwork socks, but never mind. Experience is a great teacher, as they say (when they’re being polite about the fact you’ve just screwed something up needlessly).
In more productive news, I knitted the bear a blue t-shirt. I think it’s better. Same as the rabbit in the previous post – which, it turns out, is loved.
So that’s where we’re at this week. A few steps forward in knowledge, and a lot of rows back in knitting.
There’s probably a sock pattern for every type of knitter. Assuming you’re ok with knitting in a circle, of course. Plain socks, colourwork socks, cabled socks and textured socks. Delicate lacy socks and chunky socks. Main problem, I think, is working out what kind of knitter you are. I’m still not sure. To be honest, I’m not even that sure I’m a knitter – but I have the needles, the yarn and I like making things, so for now, knitting it is.
I think when I started writing this blog I assumed I’d find a ‘craft’ that totally fit me. Something I’d stick with and get good at. I’m not sure I’ve done that – knitting ended up as a default, because its super easy to make *something*. It’s also pick up and put downable without too much fuss. You don’t need to get a sewing machine out or open a cupboard. You can leave it lying about and pick it up when you feel like it. (And usually it is lying about. We had a sock on the kitchen table for weeks. My partner is very gracious about eating his dinner with a sock staring him in the face, while I’m in the process of knitting another one). Knitting’s also pretty easy to take with you if you’re travelling – although not as good as tatting, which is much smaller.
Anyway, that’s long winded way of saying I’m making another pair of socks. (And no, I haven’t been travelling.)
I decided I should see if I liked knitting cabled socks. I used the Winwick Mum pattern, left over yarn from my first pair of socks, and the measurements from the second sock of the first pair. The answer? I don’t mind knitting cabled socks, but I am terrible at counting in the round. I don’t know why I’m so bad at it, (just put a marker in and make a note as you go) but for some reason I lost count, all the time. I also decided I don’t like this colour. Or I don’t like so much of this colour in one go. So I unravelled it and started again. And I bought some grey yarn.
Next I made a brand new cuff (groan) and did about 3 repeats of cable pattern in grey. That was ok. I’m still bad at counting but the cable pattern just didn’t show up in the grey yarn – too small a cable and too woolly. So I unpicked that – but not before totally forgetting to take a photo.
(The colour on these photos is terrible, sorry about that). So one of the other things I wanted to try was ribbed socks. I wanted to see if it added interest to knitting plain socks or just ended up being annoying. Jury’s out actually. It’s ok – but then this sock isn’t whizzing along at the speed of the last pair, so maybe it is a bit disruptive? It’s knit 3, purl 1. I also had a bit of a google to see how I could make the cuff neater. My knit 2 purl 2 ribbing never looks that neat, so I swapped it out for twisted rib stitch. That looks incredibly neat – especially if you do a good job of it, which I haven’t really. But try it. It’s easy to do and looks really nice. Downside is that I had to do it all on DPNs, as I couldn’t get it to stretch across the circulars. (I got there eventually, as you can see, but how do people have the patience to knit whole socks on DPNs?)
Technically speaking, the body of the sock so far is 2 rows of each colour. That’s pretty good as you can carry the colour as you go, so not too many ends to sew in. I say ‘technically speaking’ because practically speaking you can see at least one row of orange which is deeper than the others. If I’m honest, there are 2, but the photo is deceptive. I did tell you I couldn’t count. Also, I’m not in love with the grey and orange if I’m honest, but I’m ignoring that for now. I’ll switch to yellow at some point soon. The three balls look nice together, but just less good when knitted up.
The only other thing to try sock wise, was colour work. But I think I’ve finally got to the point where I understand myself well enough to know that it would drive me a bit nuts. I hate unruly things you have to keep untangling, and colourwork falls into this camp. I do it occasionally – some Little Cotton Rabbits clothing – but on the whole, I probably don’t find it that enjoyable. And I guess you don’t have to do hobbies you don’t find that enjoyable, right? Doesn’t stop me looking at everyone else’s work with envious eyes. Maybe I just need to try harder.
So I’ll stick with the ribbed socks, and probably make cabled socks another time, in another yarn. In the meantime I’ve been wearing the socks I have knitted and I love them. Especially the last pair. I can’t believe I made them.
I also made a small bear! I wasn’t really expecting small bear to be this small. She’s knitted out of yarn I’ve had for years, which just seemed to be a good colour for a bear. I used the head pattern from the Little Cotton Rabbits mini animals and the body from the 7″ pattern. What you can see above, left to right is – regular sized bear in small yarn, in the small size dungarees, a small bear in small yarn and small dungarees, and a small bunny in worsted yarn and small dungarees. I can’t believe how chunky the bunny is! I love her none the less. Small bear became a slight issue in that I was worried I didn’t have the yarn to make clothes that would fit, but Krea Deluxe cotton on 2.5 needles worked out ok in the end. I’m still in 2 minds about those colours, but they’re the ones I had. The colours of the Krea Deluxe cotton range are really lovely though. Even if the cotton is a bit splitty at times.
And that’s all for now. I need to go because I’m making a pie, and apparently we’re supposed to be eating soon. The pie is… not yet pie shaped. It’s in a casserole dish, waiting to be assembled. Onwards.
I’m really not feeling that great. I’ve been waking up around 4am every night for the last seven days with coughing fits. It’s getting really wearing. I’m kind of ok in the day, just this ridiculous chest cough at night. It’s steadfastly refusing to turn into something more, (like a proper cold) and just wearing me down bit by bit. Really tedious.
Anyway. That coupled with general ‘fear of starting a proper project’ and ‘oh my god, how did you end up with so much yarn?’ made me think I should take it easy yesterday and use up some more of the orange.
Actually when you pair this orange with white, it’s nowhere near as horrible. If you pair it with anything else it’s either too milky (It’s Rowan Wool Cotton – they’re all kind of milky) or just too… orange. Perils of buying yarn online I think.
I made this bunny’s head last year but wasn’t thrilled with it. Yesterday I thought ‘use up more yarn! Do something easy, lazy and finish-able!’ And so I decided to finish this off. It is, of course, a Little Cotton Rabbits pattern. I have a feeling it might be one of the first ones that Julie (the designer) made available.
While I was knitting it, I thought many things, mostly:
• Oh my god, what have you become? You’re knitting an egg cosy. Are you like, 90?
• Umm, are you sure this is going to actually fit an egg? You know you knit really tightly,right?
• Friend [X] keeps chickens and has 2 which produce tiny eggs. You can give this to her! It’ll be O.K.
• Damn it! How is it even possible we have no eggs in the fridge?
At 4.45am this morning I thought I should just get up, because lying down really wasn’t cutting it. As I made some honey and lemon what did I see in the fridge?! We did have eggs after all!
I did a little photoshoot there and then. It does it fit, just about – and you know what? I love it. It’s ridiculous, but I love it. I might even make another one. It’s really cheered me up.
I am still in Athens and still knitting! Just not looking at my laptop that much at the weekends, hence the silence. I finally managed to make the new Greek elephant a lighter dress (on the left). It’s made in cotton, which I bought from a great yarn shop in Athens. I had a weekend to myself a while back, so packed up my elephants and took them on a walking adventure. The yarn shop was wonderful – but so was the owner, who took one look at the elephants and said ‘Little Cotton Rabbits!’ He’d actually spoken to Julie (the pattern creator) via Flickr quite a few years ago. I bought some cotton just to try out, and it’s very nice. I’m undecided as to whether or not this dress suits this elephant, but we shall see.
I also made this small rabbit. He’s actually made on DPNs, which always ends up being way more stressful than a hobby should be, I think—but I do really like him. He’s very solid. I’m thinking he needs some clothes, but not entirely sure where to start with that. Maybe I’ll scale down some clothes from the Little Cotton Rabbits bunny pattern? Not sure. Never having gotten around to making human clothes, I’m not 100% sure how these things work!
Just for scale, here’s the small rabbit next to just the feet of a Little Cotton Rabbits rabbit (Which is still a WIP as a type).
THIS is just the head of a new bunny with a piebald patch, made with/by/via (?) intarsia. As you can see, I’m not great at it – so I think I’ll keep this as an experiment:
It’s annoying actually, because it’s very cute really – but I’ve managed to make the body much neater than usual, so I don’t want it to have a messy head! I’m making these as gifts, so I’d like them to be as neat as possible. I’ve got two bodies with legs sitting next to me as a type. It’s a bit of a production line at the moment. Slightly worried that I’ll run out of stuffing soon, but I’ll have to cross that bridge when I come to it.
I’ve also been thinking about tatting a lot recently, as I’ve only been knitting. For a moment I did wonder if I was forgetting how to do it, so after getting back from a huge walk yesterday to / from Athens central market (via the wine shop) I relaxed on the sofa with some tatting thread:
I was feeling too lazy to attach beads but might do that next time. This is my own pattern, so I’m glad it worked out. Could do with a bit of adjusting but I think it’s quite pretty. I’m not sure why, but I got into the habit of tatting all the bottom rings first and then the upper rings on top after. If you do them alternately as you go it’s much neater. Looking back at old photos, I think I’d changed my technique for the worse, for some reason? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ fixed now, hopefully! Will adjust it a bit and try it with beads next time.
And here’s a little story to finish. I ended up showing photos of some of the toys to my team at work. As I get a bit embarrassed about it (not everyone gets knitting!), I usually end up saying something kind of self deprecating. I said ‘I should probably make something useful – like a jumper or something!’. To which one of my team replied ‘NO! Why would you do that? You can just buy a jumper, you don’t need to make things like that. It sounds too stressful, you’ll get burnt out. You should use your time to make nice things that you enjoy, it doesn’t matter if they’re useful!’. And actually I do agree. It’s a hobby, right? It’s supposed to be fun, and you *should* be making whatever makes you happy. Pointless toys are less pointless when the point is enjoying yourself 😉
Hope wherever you are you’re enjoying what you’re making too.
Oh! And PS: I haven’t told anyone this (much like I’ve only told about 2 people that I have a blog) but I’ve got a crafty instagram account. If you have too, I’ll see you there: I’m occasionalcrafter
(sorry about the duplicate photos!)
There’s a lot going on at work at the moment, which I’ll probably talk about another time. Loads to think about and various different things that need to get done, both here and in other countries. So, I have made FULL use of the fact that knitting is a relaxing pastime! It’s nice to have something to focus on that keeps your brain still for a couple of rows at a time.
Over this week I’ve been making the cardigan (from this pattern). This is actually the second version—the first one was a kind of yellow (although I’m not 100% sure if it’s a good yellow) and a bit fluffy, despite being the same brand / size / make as the blue wool in this pic. I knitted the body on 3mm needles and it was a bit big. It looked like a padded life jacket to be honest, so I frogged it and started again.
This was on 2.5mm straights and these *lethal* looking 2.75 dpns. I kind of love these needles for the fact they’re just pointy metal sticks (no frills, no details), but honestly, they could have your eye out.
Its a very cute little cardigan. A little fiddly – I’ve not really knitted anything quite like this before, as the jumpers are constructed in a different way. I do understand why people like knitting top down jumpers now though, being able to try them on is great, even if it’s not you that’s doing the trying!
I’m still not a huge fan of repeated knit stitch, as it never looks as even as I’d like. How do you get a neat edge? This is ok but I’d prefer it if I could get that central edge neater… Anyone have any tips about that? Again I used the teeny tiny buttons, and they are the perfect size. The two dark ones match the buttons on her shoes, and there’s one bright red one in the middle.
She does look very cute with it on. A bit like she’s all ready for her first day at school. The only downside is that I’m still in love with her dress!
Yesterday was a bit of a weird one here, a bit disjointed. Weirdly I ended up with a lot of time to sit and knit while the world moved awkwardly around me, and so I set to work making Nell’s dress. (I’ve decided she’s called Nell. She doesn’t seem to mind).
While there is a dress that comes with the elephant pattern, I really like the dresses I’ve seen on Ravelry with capped sleeves, so I splashed out and bought the seasonal dress pattern, which has lots of different charts. Deciding which chart to go for is tricky, and in which colours—and then if you’re going to modify the way you use the colours… there’s a lot of choice. In the end I went for the blue to match the shoes (probably wouldn’t match shoes and main colour of dress again actually – which she’s sitting down there’s a lot of blue) and added the brighter green to make it a bit more cheerful. I knew I wanted the green at the top.
The given pattern for this dress has a solid colour all the way to the top – so I wasn’t completely sure when I should switch. The capped sleeves are made by wrapping the yarn to create more stitches, something I really wasn’t convinced I would get to work. Despite that, for some reason I decided to change when purling in to these wrapped stitches—and as it happens, it gives a really nice contrasting edge to the sleeves! Amazing. Anyone would think I had some idea what I’m doing (I don’t.)
I also added little buttons to her shoes. I wasn’t 100% sure I’d be able to do that, but knitting is so much more flexible than crochet it wasn’t too hard to bend her feet around and squeeze the needle through. I love these teeny tiny buttons. The people that make them must be amazed that anyone can find a use for a button so small.
You can see that I need practise on the colour work – the tension is a bit ropey. Also you *really* need to concentrate! I used the point of a pair of scissors to point at every stitch on the chart as I worked, otherwise you look up for a sec, look down and have no idea where you are.
The pattern actually recommends cotton for the elephant and the clothes. You can see that I’ve used wool for both, as that’s what I had available. I like Nell (the elephant) in wool, but you can already see that the dress is way too fluffy (and will probably pile). It kind of loses the detail. Seeing as I’m already planning more—they’re really addictive—I’ll probably use up the wool I have but think about buying cotton to try at some point.
After making the rabbits, I honestly didn’t think I could be more thrilled with a toy, but I’m so pleased with her! The pattern is amazing. I really didn’t think you could get knitting to be as nicely 3d as you can with crochet. And no DNPs! The construction and shaping is really clever. I have no idea how long it must’ve taken Julie to figure out these patterns and then write them down, but she deserves every penny and all the praise she gets! I won’t say they’re easy, but they’re definitely manageable, and watching them come together is a lot of fun.
Question now is… do I make her a little cardigan as well? Maybe I should actually do something useful first, like clean the house… Hmm.
The given pattern for this dress has a solid colour all the way to the top – so I wasn’t completely sure when I should switch. The capped sleeves are made by wrapping the yarn to create more stitches, something I really wasn’t convinced I would get to work. Despite that, for some reason I decided to change when purling in to these wrapped stitches—and as it happens, it gives a really nice contrasting edge to the sleeves! Amazing. Anyone would think I had some idea what I’m doing (I don’t.)
Occasional Crafter 