Introducing... Barrington, Vladimir and Benedict bears!

Earlier this year I had a go at making knitted bears! Several of my close friends have had babies this year, and I have got a bit addicted to knitting them the King Cole Cuddles Chunky bears! These little dudes are knit from a pattern by King Cole specifically for the Cuddles Chunky yarn made by King Cole, and they take hardly any time at all.

The yarn itself is a furry yarn, which definitely lives up to the "cuddles" in the name! It was initially horrible to knit with, and I used much more yarn for the first bear than you need as I kept getting lost and confused, and having to start again as it's not very easy to "unknit". However by the time I finished Vladimir, the second bear, I was quite used to it, and I think if you are careful you could probably knit two bears out of one 50g ball. 

I started with embroidered eyes and nose, but switched to felt features out of pure laziness on the second two. I'm pleased I did as I like the effect and it takes some of the stress out, as I'm often on a tight deadline with these little guys.

So... meet Barrington! He's the first little bear I knit, and he is in his new home with his new friend Noah who arrived at the end of March. I used the blue "mottled" yarn for Barrington, as I knew Noah was a boy baby, and I liked the colour pattern.

Barrington Bear!

This, is Vladimir! He is now in his new home with his new friend Zoe. I used the brown yarn for Vladimir, who was so named as Zoe's Dad was threatening to name the new baby Vladimir (if Zoe had been a boy), so the girls at the baby shower christened the bear so he couldn't use the name for the baby! I think I like the brown yarn the best as it looks just like "proper" bear fur. 

Vladimir Bear!

And finally, this is Benedict! Benedict lives with his new friend Esme. I used the cream yarn for him as I needed a unisex colour and wanted something different to the brown I used last. He was named after Benedict Cumberbatch, as Esme's mum and I are both fans, and it's almost like "Benedick" after one of our favourite Shakespearean characters!

Benedict Bear!

I'm sure there will be more of these little guys - they're super quick and easy to make, and I just love how different they look depending on how tightly you stuff them, the position of the ears, and the facial features. And it's so lovely giving a new person a nice snuggly new friend you've made yourself.

Have you made any snuggly friends for anyone? I'd love to hear about them.

My first ever cardigan!

I've been a little absent from the blogging world this year. I hadn't realised just how much until I had a glance at the list of things I meant to blog about and noticed my last post was in JANUARY!!! 

I think the main thing stopping me is that I seem to always have some knitting on the go! Considering that a year ago I didn't knit at all, I actually can't imagine not having some knitting on the go now. 

Anyway, before Christmas I started my very first "big" thing - a knitted tank-cardigan from Let's Knit magazine. I was a bit daunted, but bought myself some budget wool from Leeds market, and off I went.

The completed back! Very proud moment!

 Early on I suffered a bit of a setback when I noticed I'd dropped a stitch in the ribbing. Thinking on my feet, I popped it into my bag and took it along to Purl City Yarns in Manchester to ask for help. They were more than happy to help and a couple of seconds later I was back in business!

When November hit, I stopped to make way for Christmas making, and picked it up again in January to finish the fronts and sew the whole thing together.

As this was my very first big project, I learned a few new skills in the process of making my cardigan including:

• making a tension square
• fairisle - OK, so it was only a polka dot, but it counts right?
• blanket stitch
• joining shoulder seams.

All in all I am very pleased with the results, but I've not yet managed to wear it for more than the modelling shots Andy took for me! I blame our temperamental English weather for either being too cold or too hot!

Me in my finished creation. Proud!

5 things for 2013

I have borrowed the idea for this post from my friend Helen, who's blog you can read here. Helen has been writing some blogs recently about the 5 good things that have happened to her recently, and this format really inspired me. Rather than copy it directly, I thought I'd use it here to look forward to 2013 and log some of my *whisper it* "resolutions". 

I know some people are not really big fans of resolutions, or using the New Year to re-evaluate what's going on, so if this is you, you might not want to read on. Personally I think that any time of year is great to do this, but a new calendar year just feels like a good excuse to do it. It also gives you a fixed timeframe to look back on to see how you got on.

So. What do I intend to refresh or start this year? Well...

1. Get healthier.

Yeah, yeah, I know. This is pretty standard, and probably the one I will fail at the most. But hey, I felt I should give it a go at least. I have put weight on this year. Quite a bit of weight. This I realised when I saw this photo of myself taken at Andy's graduation. Not good. 

Me and Andy. Absolutely horrified by this pic so it's my inspiration shot for this weightloss attempt. 

Plan is: carry on cooking yummy things from BBC Good Food Magazine, cut out "little treats", and try new things from Nadia Sawalha's new book Greedy Girls Diet ; exercise more. (Oh and Andy's doing it too, so I have some moral support). Wish me luck.

2. Crafting

I love craft. In particular I love sewing, and more recently knitting and crochet. So my crafty resolution(s) is/are to carry on with more. I need to get back to sewing clothes (not done any since July); knit some more including learning how to knit cables, finish my knitted waistcoat, and knit a gorgeous jumper I found in this months Let's Knit! magazine. I also have some baby stuff to do for this years crop of new little people; and I need to carry on my crochet blanket. I've only got 10% done so far, and I need this to be more by the end of the year or I'll lose the will to finish it!

My knitted waistcoat so far! 

3. Baking

I have been running a small business doing cakes for the last 18 months or so. It's been fun, but it's not really bringing in enough money to make it worth my while. So, my business will close at the end of this month. I will still happily do cakes for people, but it just won't be through my business (if you know me and need a cake/cupcakes then please do ask!). One day when I have more time to spare at weekends, or if I'm ever lucky enough to be able to try it full time I will come back to it, so it's "au revoir" rather than goodbye!

I'm doing cakes for my lovely friends Linzi and Steve for their wedding in May, and very much looking forward to these as there'll be several different batches with more natural decorations than usual.

I'm also hoping to continue with my cake decorating classes at Trafford College in April to develop my skills further. I'm looking forward to learning to make flowers and frills and lots of other things which I can use in the future.

And I'd like to make more bread. Tying in with resolution 1, I'd like to make a good rye or pumpernickel bread, and there is a lovely looking recipe in the latest Great British Bake Off book which I'm going to try, and after I'm happy with the results from resolution 1, then maybe the doughnuts too!

4. Read more

Since I got (addicted to) my iPhone a few years ago, I have gained the habit of reading facebook, twitter, pinterest, and BBC news before I go to bed. Which has totally taken over my traditional reading time. So this year, the book is going to claim back this half hour. I've got a few books I'd like to read to begin with so I'm going to read/reread:

• The Hobbit (started already)
• A book about how sewing helped the war effort in World War II I've borrowed off Mum (can't remember the title right now)
• Something Poirot or other Agatha Christie
• Some more Philippa Gregory. Not sure where I'm up to in her chronological series' but I'll work it out. 

5. Professional development

I need to get my revalidation for Chartered status done. This is a particularly dull one I know, but I need it to be here. I've started it, but too much of resolution 2, 3, and 4 always get in the way. So I think this is a good one to end my resolution list with. 

So there it is. My plan for 2013. Oh, apart from a sneaky 5a) blog more! I have really enjoyed my blogging so far, so will carry on as much as possible this year. Hope to see you along the way!

Felted slippers

When you think of knitting, slippers are probably not the first things you think of. But that's exactly what I ended up making for two people this Christmas (although one pair was actually a December birthday present to be fair).

As with a lot of my knitted items so far, I searched Ravelry for slipper patterns, and found this fabulous pattern by DROPS Design. 

I have never (deliberately) tried felting. (I did once manage to half felt a cashmere jumper by putting it in a normal wash cycle in the machine, but I don't think that counts!). Usually with a pattern I would try and find a yarn similar to the suggested one not necessarily the exact one, but because this was a new technique, I decided to try and find the suggested yarn. I went to Purl City Yarns in Manchester, but unfortunately they no longer stock DROPS, but the lady in the shop helpfully pointed me in the direction of an online stockist, The Crochet Chain, which many of their customers have used in the past. 

The Crochet Chain specialises in DROPS wool, and the best thing about their website is that it tells you which yarns are good for what type of knitting. In particular it told me which yarns were good for felting, and this was very useful as the exact brand was out of stock in the colours I had decided on! In the end I chose Andes, a gorgeously soft wool/alpaca mix. 

The slippers were knit flat in one piece, using 10mm needles and double thickness of yarn. This meant that it knit in super quick time. This is the largest needle I've used so far, but it wasn't any more difficult. 

Red slippers knitted flat in one piece per slipper.

Once the slippers were knitted, the sides were folded inwards and the seam knitted up the middle, and the toe seam. The back edge was also folded in and sewn tightly.

Red Slippers seamed and ready for felting.

Once they were sewn up, they were ready to go in the washing machine to be felted. I washed each pair on their own, with a towel to give something to help the felting along (friction), using non-bio washing powder on a 30 degree wash. I then left them to dry in front of the radiator to help them dry quicker. (Partly because I left both pairs to the last minute! This is typical of me.)

As a final flourish, I added a pom pom to each which I made by wrapping wool around three of the fingers on my left hand, tying in the middle and trimming until it was perfectly round. These were then sewn on to the top of each slipper. 

I was really pleased with the end result, and may even make some more in the future.

Pink slippers, ready to be given away!

Bedsocks for granny

I hadn't planned to knit for my Granny this year, but at the same time I couldn't think of what I could give her. Then my Uncle suggested she might like a pair of bedsocks, and after having a quick look on Ravelry, I found a really cute pair of bedsocks which were like large booties. 

The pattern I used can be found here. Because I wanted a size smaller, I decided to use double knitting rather than the worsted/aran weight suggested in the pattern. As the designer said that the pattern was forgiving and would stretch, I decided this would be OK.

The wool for these came from Purl City Yarns in Manchester, and I chose a lovely purple double knit wool by Adriafil. This is a standard wool/acrylic mix and so can be machine washed without any special instruction. 

The "booties" were knit up flat in one piece, and seamed using kitchener stitch for the sole and mattress stitch up the back. It was my first time using kitchener stitch but it turned out well. The design also called for making eyelets as you knit, which were made by using k2tog and yo (knit two together, and yarn over the needle if you're not a knitter!).

I was very pleased with the results, and after adding a ribbon to tie them snugly round the ankle they were ready to go. Hopefully they will keep Granny's toes snug!

Granny's knitted bedsocks

Wristlets for Christmas

I've said it before but I'll say it again - one of the best bits of Christmas is making home made presents for everyone. Since knitting is my new "thing", I decided to make a lot of knitted presents this year, and these lovely wristlets were my favourite, and the easiest too!

I found a very simple pattern on Ravelry on which to base my wristlets, and decided early on that I would combine the simple plain design with the heart motif from another project (the heart Christmas bauble I made with a pattern from Let's Knit! magazine). I wanted to make these for three friends, mum, and a pair for myself.

I took a trip to one of my favourite wool shops - baa ram ewe in Headingley, Leeds - and chose three shades of gorgeous Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran (purple, gold, and a petrol blue), and added a ball in cream for the contrasting hearts. While I was there I spotted some beautiful Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed Aran which I knew my Mum, who is also a crafter, would appreciate and chose a lovely blue shade.

The Cashmerino is a treat both to knit with and to wear. Beautifully silky soft, it is lovely to hold whilst knitting, and the items made out of it are lovely and warm. The Donegal Tweed Aran is less evenly spun than other yarn I've used, but still knitted the wristlets into a nice even-enough piece. The tweed effect is very pretty, and I like it so much that when we got given our Secret Santa people in work I decided to do another in a different colour for my recipient (they don't read my blog so the secret is still safe!). 

I only made one tiny change to the pattern to accommodate the pattern - the pattern fitted above the thumb hole, but needed an extra row before the ribbing to make sure that the top of the hearts had good definition. I found this out by making a practice version from some spare Aran I already had at home for another project. 

I also made a striped pair out of the remaining cashmerino (gold, blue, purple and cream), but I didn't get a photo of these or of my own which have been worn every day for 2 months now. They are so warm even though they are fingerless, and I think I'll be wearing these for some months to come too.

Gold wristlets in Cashmerino Aran being modelled by their recipient!

Blue wristlets in Donegal Tweed Aran, and petrol blue wristlets in Cashmerino Aran.

Hello Kitty Hat

I'm not really much of a fan of cats (or rather they're not too fond of me!), and am definitely more of a little-dog person. Having said that, in a twist of logic, I am rather fond of Hello Kitty, and have a mini collection of things with her cute little face on.

My other half's neice is also a fan of Kitty, so when I stumbled upon a knitted Hello Kitty hat on Ravelry, I knew it would make the perfect Christmas present.

The hat itself is knitted in the round in chunky wool, making it super quick and easy to do, and I had it finished in one evening. Ears and now were done in another couple of evenings, and that just left making up. I must admit I put off making up til Christmas Eve (I started the hat in October), mainly because I was terrified I would mess up the little face and embroider an eye on wonky or something. As it turned out it wasn't as tricky as I thought, and I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

As is Ruby, who as you can see was delighted with her new hat! 

Kitty Hat ready for wrapping!!!

Ruby in her new hat (best photo we could get of both!).