Category Archives: Finished Projects 2009

Tropical Storm socks

I can’t actually remember when I finished these. They have been sitting on the arm of the settee waiting for me to photograph them for ages.

The toe looks a little weird here because my plastic foot model is quite a bit smaller than my foot.

The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, and I think the colour is Tropical Storm.

I experimented with a garter stitch heel for these, which I like very much. It looks nice and neat and is very comfortable.

I also did a ribbed hem.

I like how this looks. Very neat from the inside too.

It is a bit pointless though, since rib doesn’t curl anyway. You do get rid of a cast on edge, but the rib makes the cuff quite thick. It was an interesting experiment but I don’t think I will do it again. I think I will experiment more with hems in other stitches.

Every girl needs an elephant

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My friends James and Emma’s baby was born a couple of weeks ago (she was the recipient of the Baby Surprise Jacket and the booties) and I thought what little Megan really needed to go with her hand knitted bits and pieces was an elephant. Ysolda has a great pattern called Elijah, he is knitted all in the round and you stuff as you go so he has no seams.

Here is the top of his head as I was knitting him.

The yarn is Rowan All Seasons Cotton, 60% cotton, 40% acrylic. The pattern called for a DK weight yarn knitted on 3mm needles, but the yarn I had was aran weight so I went for 3.5mm needles and I think it has come out well. The yarn was left over from a blanket knitted by another of Emma’s friends, the blanket was mostly cream but with stripes in pale blue, pale green and brown. There was none of the cream left, but nearly two balls of the blue, and nearly one ball of both the green and the brown. I was concerned that there wasn’t enough of any single colour to make the whole elephant, and so went for a stripey body with head and ears in solid blue, the colour I had the most of. I think he has come out very nicely, although I may be a bit biased 🙂

Here he is with legs and arms, but no ears or face yet.

He was a really fun knit, although if I was going to make another one I think I would choose a more elastic yarn. The fabric needs to be quite firm so that his stuffing wont poke through, and that was quite hard on the hands and shoulders with a cotton yarn.

Here he is finished.

He is even more adorable in real life, and I have been dragging him round to the knitting groups I go to to be admired 🙂 I did manage to face the difficult task of giving him up so he can go to his new owner last week and she seems to like him.

My first handspun finished project

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I’m afraid I am in catch-up mode again. I have finally got round to downloading the pictures from the camera from about the last month, but I think it will take me a while to sort out.

I have sorted a picture though of my very first finished project from my own handspun! I am so ridiculously proud it is silly 🙂

There is a definite difference between the centre, which was my first skein of 2ply, and the edges, which was my first skein of 3ply, but I have decided it gives it character 🙂

Baby surprise jacket

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I actually finished the knitting for this back at Christmas, but it has taken ages for me to find buttons I liked. Finally Mummy found some good ones so here is the finished jacket.

I love it, and hope that the new parents-to-be will too, and that it will fit ok. There is still another month to go, but I will be seeing them this week so will ask them whether they would like it now or after the kiddie is born.

As a recap the yarn is 4ply weight, 80% superwash merino, 20% bamboo, dyed by me with Jacquard acid dyes.

I love this pattern so much I have already started doing tension swatches for an adult-sized one for me.

More cuteness

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I actually finished these over Christmas but have been very slow at taking photographs.

When I finished the knitting part of the Baby Surprise Jacket (I still need to find some buttons, so it doesn’t count as properly finished yet), I had nearly a whole ball of yarn left and thought it would be rather nice to have matching booties.

The pattern is Multicoloured Sockies by Maude Smith from Socks Socks Socks: 70 Winning Patterns from Knitters Magazine, but I tinkered with the pattern a little. My yarn was thinner than that specified in the pattern so after a trial run which ended up as a Christmas tree ornament, I decided to cast on 12 sts and work 22 garter ridges for the sole, using 2.5mm needles.

I also didn’t work the holes for the drawstring, and decided to go straight into 2×2 rib for the leg. Hopefully this will make a good practical cross between a shoe and a sock, which will be easy to get on. They are so cute!