Yarn yarns pt3

but wait, there's more!

An ombre Potae -

A Pink Orchard cardi for Lexi -

A Fierce Little Dragon for a little boy's birthday -

A pair of Zigging hats -

A Kaipara shawlette for the ravellenic games -

and a Zagging skirt -

and there's still a couple of things that I haven't got finished photos of yet!!

Yarn yarns pt2

MORE forgotten knitting..

A Kaia Babydoll for Lexi - 

A pair of Doodlepants longies that I was meant to make while pregnant with Eli..

Yttrium for the knitted periodic table project - 

(Y? Because I could, lol!! *groan*)

A Pinny for a playgroup Dolly -

(plus new denim pants & shirt)

Mini hotshots -

Chunky beanies for sale -

A Dolce Beret for Lexi -

A Spring Butterfly & Poppy hat set for a friends baby -

A Little Winifred tunic -

still to be continued!!

Yarn yarns pt1

I haven't done any knitting in a couple of months, at least! Just lost the mojo entirely, but I'm sure it'll come back soon enough.. luckily it turns out I have over a years worth of projects unblogged.. oops.

Like....

A Hotshot for Eli -

A Puffy Sleeved Shrug for Maia - 

A Sprout hat, which I sold (was a test knit for a designer who had already published, but needed feedback)

( that kid is 2 now!)

An Andalucia crochetted skirt -

A Daisy Sue babydoll - 

A Gail shawl for our playgroup fundraiser (sold for $100!) -

to be continued lol...

My baby's baby

I finished my first proper waldorf doll!

Not the best photo I'm afraid, but here she is-

Since she was for my youngest's first birthday, she has a lovely soft bamboo velour body, with just the head & upper torso fully formed under her 'clothes'. In the traditional waldorf style she is made from 100% natural fibres - cotton stretch skin fabric, the bamboo velour, carded wool fleece for stuffing, and a strange but very cool feeling wool/soy blend yarn for her (immense amount of) hair! 

I knit her a little dress to wear, and crocheted a blanket too, which I haven't got a photo of yet.

I'm rather pleased with how she came out, except that the velour has a tendency to 'wick' the stuffing out :(

I'm working on a second one now, for our kindergarten's gigantic Advent Fair!

Super Secret Sea Squirrel!

Not like Sandy Cheeks on a mission though..

A very clever lady I know is running a yarn club this winter!

And as part of the package you get an exclusive pattern with each installment, two of which i had the pleasure of testing in april, ready for the release... i've had to keep them a secret since, so as not to spoil the surprise for anyone getting the yarn club ;)

The first club installment has just been sent out, and has a mermaids & mermen theme, the first pattern of which is Amphitrite-

it's a beautiful little girls vest, with lace & cable detailing on the front

it is completely seamless, using a cunning provisional cast on at the back

and the boys/unisex pattern is Poseidon -

this one has more cables, but also has the option of doing the 'seaweed' lace side panels

and is also seamless, but this time with a full V-neck, rather than scoop...

they're both very cute patterns, especially with their mer-tail themed central panels, and we use these vests a lot!

At the moment they're only available to the lucky few who managed to nab a club spot, but they should be available for general release early 2012!

three....

(well actually, what i gathered from years of watching sound techs do sound checks is that "three" in "testing, testing, one, two, three" is really redundant, so they don't do it. in reality sound checks often sound more like "one. one. one. one two. two. teeeooo. teeeooo. yeah. yeah. yuh. teeooo. puh. puh. one teeooo..." ad infinitum. no three.)

annnnnyway....

another test knit, this time thankfully an item that i had been intending to knit this winter!

though i was intending to knit it for ME.

it's a Lizette Beret, part of a beanie/beret pattern just released by my friend Sheryl!

it's got a very nice cable & lace combo, but is surprisingly easy to knit!

i'm not normally a hat kind of person, so i'm being a wee bit adventurous! i'm really enjoying wearing it though, so it's well worth it!

two....

my little china girl..

another test knit - this pattern, tentatively called the Chinatown Jumper (there is a jacket too), hasn't been released yet :-)

it's a seamless, top-down jumper, with a very cute collar detail -

i striped a variegated yarn with a plain one that matched to get a milder variegated look :-)

the matching jacket continues the lace collar section right down the front, with buttons to finish it, and it is also very cute!

keep an eye out for them being released on ravelry!!

Testing, testing... one...

My crafting life (ok, *whole* life) of late has been dominated by test knitting...

testing knitting is great because you get to try out new patterns, sometimes with very little, or even no, idea what the finished product will look like, you get to help out designers with their new patterns, checking for proof reading errors, technical knitting errors, and checking for how the pattern fits.. sometimes the patterns are pretty much perfect, but the testing process kicks off the nice pattern project gallery bit on ravelry!

and it has the bonus of sometimes meaning that you get patterns for free, that would otherwise cost money ;-)

one recent effort was my Danube Cowl -

it's a great big loop of cables..

i really, really like it, but won't be knitting it again.. once is enough! but i do love it & wear it often :-)

it was what inspired me to invent my own grafting technique, because when you have a big loop of swirly waves, who wants to have to think about where the seam is, and where to hide it?!?!

*shrug*

another test knit i've just done was a puffy sleeved shrug for lexi!

it's a brand new design & very easy to knit

i used some yarn that i had spun myself from purple & white hand-dyed merino fleece that i was gifted!

i'm very pleased with how it came out, it's very snuggly & soft, and fits lexi well! It used just under 100g of yarn for a size 6 shrug too..

and it has very cute princessy puff sleeves!

(my poor sweet baby was having a particularly bad outbreak of psoriasis, or eczema - as yet undetermined - at the time, hence the slightly obtuse pics!)

Somewhere....

i get accused around here of everything being a song cue, but really, who can help it with this one?!

this is a "Little Sister's Dress" (seemed appropriate!) that i made for maia!

i used the embroidery charts from the very cool Watermellish website-

since i had a great big blank canvas & a yarn colour called Sky...

it was kind of asking for it really!

unfortunately because i'm not as smart as i think i am, instead of following the pattern & using 4ply (ugh!), i decided to use 8ply + the 3 month size pattern, with the hopes of getting a 6-12 month size....

umm...

oops.

it's more like an 18 month size as a dress, but on the upside i've got a headstart on next winter's knitting, and i know it will work as a tunic top until she's almost 3!!

Let it snow, let it snow..

or maybe, no...

i'm rather enjoying the last dregs of summery weather we're having, but since i have a deep-seated dislike of being even the slightest bit chilly, i've already got my knitting plans sorted for winter, and my yarn all ordered!!

my yarn stash for projects this winter.

that is 2.5kg of yarn, or roughly 4.7 kilometres that will pass through my hands over coming months!!!

and that isn't including anything that comes out of my existing stash as well... AND that doesn't include any particularly large projects either! crazy when you think about it...

but the first one off the needles was this-

another babydoll, this time in 6 month size, modified to use 12ply for the skirt part

it has a cute lace detail at the hem, which i really like, but must get around to blocking to stop it curling! oops...

it only took me about 3 days, which is the kind of knitting i like best!!