Knitty Nerd

I have now tried my hand at miniature knitting. My first attempt is this knitting project for a doll living in a dollhouse with what I think is an Edwardian style (but I might be totally wrong about that). The dollhouse is 1:12 scale (compared to our regular sized houses), and very impressive.

The knitting was made with a 1 ply cotton yarn and 1 mm needles. I used two pins with round metal heads as knitting needles for the doll, and I made an additional skein of yarn to put next to it in the basket. And yes, it was very fiddly and time consuming to make.

The masks became a little loose with the cotton yarn, it was a little stiff, so maybe I should try with softer woolen yarn to get a tighter finished fabric.

And here is a picture of the knitting in the room where it will live.






































Until next time,

Happy Knitting

I tried to make one of the beaded bows with a lovely cotton yarn, but the whole thing came out all flopsy and droopy. It kind of looked like a sad clown bow.

So, instead I had to find a pattern that fit a cotton yarn, and Drops provided again. This lovely set of socks and bonnet for a baby was made in a jiffy and came out quite well, I think. The yarn would be soothing and cool on a summer day, and provide warmth on cold days.

The free patterns from Drops is now making it on to my useful links for knitting, as a fledgeling pattern designer, I've found it very helpful to have a large resource for looking up solutions that others have had.

And I'm learning from my red experiment, now I know that a cotton yarn is not very firm and can not provide a shape on its own. If I want to make something that isn't clothing and should stay in a particular shape on it's own, choose something else. Although, cotton yarn is definitely nice for clothing.

Until next time,

Happy Knitting

So, I've knitted my red bow in several red yarns now, but needed a break so I tried a new pattern for baby booties. I found the pattern at Drops and knitted it in a cotton yarn using 3 mm needles. It was a very simple pattern and definitely suitable for beginners, and they turned out quite cute.

I didn't add the crochet edges, and now they kind of look like doll booties, but they are in baby size.

So, back to testing out yarns and trying to come up with another pattern.
































Until next time,

Happy Knitting

I wanted to crochet a turtle and found a nice free pattern for a small striped turtle. The pattern is clear and makes for a nice turtle, however, mine looks like it was made by someone who's never seen a turtle.

So, what happened was, I made the body and feet, just as the pattern says, and it looked fine. Then came time for me to make the tail, but I ended up making the head.


The placing of the feet, made this the back of the turtle and I couldn't simply turn it and put the tail on the other end. So I ended up making a kind of teddybear head with suitable ears and a few stitches on the front for a face.

Now this mishap turtle is my monster and tends to show up cuddling in my knitting projects.

Until next time,

Happy Knitting

I knit a few baby booties. They are made from a traditional nordic pattern. Well, not that traditional, probably from the time just after the war. Most knitters at that time probably knew the pattern by heart, at least it seems to have been very popular.

I used this Danish pattern (free) from 1945, but if you don't read Danish, not to worry it's been typed up in lots of languages at ravelry.com. It's a quick and easy knit, and lots of yarns can be used. A nice project for leftovers.

I also made a blue set with a hat.





























The hat is just a standard pattern for baby hats, don't know where I learned it. I just added a top that can be tied.

Until next time,

Happy Knitting

One of my absolute favorite knitting designers is Alan Dart, and a few years back he made a series of designs with the Beatrix Potter characters. (Almost all of them, I think.) I am the lucky owner of some of these patterns, who can no longer be sold due to something, something copyright. (Although you can get them used from amazon: Jemima Puddle-Duck (Knitting Pattern)). And now I have made my very own Jemima Puddle-Duck.

I made her almost as the pattern is written, the only exception being the scarf.

She was made with Silja yarn in the colors white nr. 302, black nr. 301, yellow nr. 358, blue nr. 307 and pink nr. 323. I used 3 mm needles and ordinary toy stuffing. The pattern says to use "washable toy stuffing", but I've never been able to find something that dries up properly after a wash. Maybe it's something they have in England, and not here.

As with all Of Alan Dart's creations, the pattern gives a nice facial expression.






































The bonnet is put together from quite a few flat pieces, so the sewing takes a bit of time, but is really does look like the Jemima Puddle-Duck drawings in the Beatrix Potter books.






































The feet are put on a little crocked, by mistake originally, but it turned out to be quite pretty and gave the figure a sense of being in motion, just like in all the images from the books.





























Often Alan Dart patterns call for swiss darning, witch I hate, with a vengeance. So I knitted the pattern on the scarf. I took a long time to chart, but was well worth it to not have to swiss darn.























The only thing I would have done differently if I were to do it again, was to put a little lead or heavy stuffing in the tail to give the figure a bit more balance. Now she is a little wobbly.
































So from me and Jemima,

Until next time,
Happy Knitting

Outside the sun is shining, a bee is buzzing and a cat is chasing something unseen through the grass; in short, summer is here. But every summer is a sign of what is to come next, and so, even though I don't live in the same world as the Starks of Winterfell, winter is coming.

In a few months a cold breeze will caress my neck, a leaf will turn to more earthly tones and the weekend music of lawnmowers and hegdeklippers will no longer flow through the neighborhood.

And so I prepare.

The wify wanted something to warm her head and neck, and I knitted a hat and a cowl.

They are knit from this free pattern, with drops eskimo yarn in the shade chili. I used 8 mm needles. It was a nice project and I liked the pattern, and the yarn. I made a small change to the cowl, and used stocking stitch in stead of garter stitch.

I also made this one for her.






















This one is also knit from a free pattern, with the yarn drops eskimo, this time with two threads, one in the color purple, and one in plum. I used 10 mm needles for the hat, and 12 mm for the scarf. It came out well, but if I were to make one more, I would have made the scarf longer.

Until next time,

Happy Knitting

I wanted something to hold my water bottle as I went for walks and found this brilliant pattern on ravelry. I worked the pattern just as written, and it came out very well. It holds a full water bottle without stretching too far and fits people of most sizes, just vary the length of the strap.

Until next time,

Happy Knitting

I wanted some reusable lunch bags and found this brilliant pattern on ravelry.

I made two just as the pattern is written. One in the smallest size.






































And one medium sized.



I also made two with a slight alteration. I did not make the buttonholes on the lid, and in stead I made small holes around the top of the bag, and thread a cord through. It worked quite well.

Again I made one small.

And one medium sized.






































And here they all are, ready to go.






































The pattern was a quick knit and a great stash buster. I used some old yarn I had in my stash and the smaller ones took less than half the skein, while the medium ones took a bit less than one skein.

In addition these little bags have so many uses. The small one with buttons is, for instance, a practical skein holder, for those who have the tendency to walk and knit. I just love all multipurpose things, it makes me feel so practical and space saving. Ok, so these little things wouldn't take up to much space anyway, but in general, multipurpose is great for space saving. Not to mention environmentally friendly.

Until next time,

Happy knitting.