Debbie Bliss Teddy Bear

 

About once or twice a year I get the urge to hand knit an entire piece.  I've admired Debbie Bliss's teddy because I thought the pieces were nicely shaped.  Wouldn't want to do it by machine since it's garter stitch so I "cheated" and knit it by hand.  ;=)

I combined 4 strands of thin-ish coned yarn, two of which are fuzzy.  They didn't rise to the occasion, so to speak and he doesn't look that fuzzy.  The resulting color is ok for a bear, though.  I checked out other examples of her bear on Ravelry and several said it was a "fast knit".  O MY!  I'm not a fast hand knitter, but I'm not that slow either.  Took me two weeks of nightly knitting to get him done.  Machine knitters and hand knitters have different definitions of the word "fast".  

I was faithful to the instructions except I omitted the muzzle and added a belly button.  Embroidering the face kind of gave it some shape.  Here are some more pictures of this cutie;

I think, but am not sure, that Debbie uses a machine for lots of her patterns.  Clues to me are that many things are knit flat rather than on circ needles, she gives row counts along with inches or cm's and the gauges seem to work on our machines.  Could be totally wrong, though.  I might do this  bear on the midgauge machine with stockinette and see if he turns out as nicely.  Some pieces might need to be knit upside down since changing the number of stitches so quickly is better done by decreases rather than increases.  A fairisle bear might be cute.  Her pattern is free, by the way.  There's a link on Ravelry.

Now, what should I name him???  I'm sending him to California along with some other little things for an Easter present.  Suggestions are welcome...

Marley's Ghost...an unusual scarf to knit

I've been wanting to knit this funky scarf for some time. It's a fun one to do and is really simple. Here are three versions of the chain link scarf:

HAND KNIT VERSION I believe the original idea (not 100% sure) was posted on Knitty. Here's the “link”appropriately enough to the hand knit version. The author called it “Marley's Ghost”. http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter05/PATTmarleysghost.html It's fulled/ felted, so there's an idea for you. The circles ended up being more round than the unfelted version, it looks like. Eye-catching, no?

MIDGAUGE VERSION Knit by Jane N. who is a member of my mk guild, knitter extraordinaire. She casts on with contrasting colored waste yarn, knits main yarn 60 rows of 10 stitches in stockinette letting selvedge roll so that stockinette shows on right side. Leaves a tail of main yarn long enough to do the kitchener stitching. Knits 10 rows contrasting color waste yarn and removes from machine. Knits the rest of the strips, alternating black and color, 15 links in all. Jane says,“This was such a hit with my god daughter that I made one for myself. It is surprisingly warm and made me into a scarf convert.” (She is 'janeknits2' on Ravelry if you'd like to see her other projects.) You can see her scarf on her project page. http://www.ravelry.com/projects/janeknits2/chain-link-scarf

STANDARD GAUGE I made one out of some neon hot pink yarn... hopefully some little girl will like it when our guild donates to the Salvation Army. I used a standard gauge machine, T8, Mary Lou's Symphony (any yarn that knits on your machine will work), 22 stitches, 80 rows of main yarn, 14 links. Notes: Kitchener stitch the first link into a circle. Remove waste yarn. Next links, slip one end through finished circle and kitchener shut to make a new link. Easiest to do kitchener stitch from the purl side and then roll it so that the stockinette side is outward. Difficult to take a pic without a person or a dress form.... Just a few ideas for you. Now and then I get bored with all knitting so I have to do something different. This filled the bill. OH! and, Happy Mother's Day!

Free Machine Knit Pattern for a Baby Bee Hat

I've been trying to get back into the swing of knitting. I always seem to be able to muster up the energy to make something for the new grandson, even when there are other things I should be finishing.

This pattern actually wasn't my original idea. A hand knit version of the hat was shown at one of the knit clubs I go to and I thought it was adorable. So, since it wasn't my own design, I thought I should share it with you rather than selling the pattern. If you want to save the pattern, highlight what you want and copy it, then paste into a word processing program.

Machine knit Baby Bee Hat by Mar Heck
Machine standard gauge (no ribber required)
Gauge 7 st x 10 r = 4" (10 cm) T 7
Yarn Small amounts that will knit to gauge. Black and gold. I used Mary Lou Solo.
Finished sizes 0-3 months (6-9 months in parenthesis); About 13 1/2" (15") circumference unstretched.
Directions
Cast on with waste yarn over 95 (105) needles. Knit a few rows. Knit one row ravel cord left to right. Change to black. T 5, knit 9 rows. Knit one row T 8. T6, knit 9 rows. Hang a hem from the ravel cord. Change to T 7 and knit one row.
RC 000.From here on out, knit 4 rows gold, 4 rows black. Carry unused yarn up the side. Don't snip the yarn when you change colors. Knit 44 (54 rows). Begin decreases. Remove on waste yarn or garter bar if you have one. Decrease every 8 stitches across. (Double up stitches 7 and 8 with no empty needles.) Knit 2 rows, remembering to keep to the color sequence. Decrease every 7 stitches across (double up stitches 6 and 7 across). Knit 2 rows. Continue in this manner until you have decreased every 5 stitches across (doubling up stitch 4 and 5). Decrease the tension to T 5, Knit 2 rows. Take off on 12" piece of yarn and cinch up tightly. Remove the ravel cord and waste yarn. Mattress stitch the seam, being careful to keep the stripes going nicely across the seam.

I cord Antennae: Make 2. With black yarn, bring out 5 needles. (Yup, 5 to make a fatter antenna.) Set machine to slip one way, knit the other. Ewrap onto the 5 needles. RC 000. T 3, Knit 30 rows and bind off, leaving a 3" end to secure the antennae to the inside of the hat. Make tiny pom pom for the end of each antenna and fasten on securely. Put both antennae (the un-pom pommed ends) into the hole at the top of the hat, making them even in length. Turn the hat inside out and tack the ends of the antennae securely with the 3" end you left on. Hide the ends. DONE!

I have the hem turned up, but it could go either way--folded up or not. If you wanted to make a larger hat, just use one of your tried and true patterns to get the dimensions right and follow the bee-themed idea. Would work on any other machine too once you get the dimensions you want. I'm selling the finished hat in my Etsy shop too if you are interested in just buying the hat!

Now I'm thinking of knitting a baby fish hat.
The hand knit pattern is on Knitty. http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter08/PATTfishy.php The description: Do you smell something fishy? No, of course you don’t! Don’t worry that bad smells will scare people away when you wear this hat. This 100% odorless fish will attract people to you instead.

I think it would be easy to convert to mk. Oh, the patterning possibilities. I'm thinking red lips, scales, snowflakes??? Stay tuned.

Cheer for scarves!

As in, shake your pom poms! For a little change of pace....got this yarn on the cheap at Joanne Fabrics. One skein makes a hand-knit scarf. Size 9 US needles, cast on 7 stitches, knit every row, two stitches between pom-poms, until you run out of yarn. (Pattern is on the ball band for the yarn.)
It's a temptation to knit more than two stitches at times because this makes a really loose weave. But the pom poms cover up everything so all is good.

Reminds me of the chenille bedspreads from the 50's. So soft. Actually the pinks are even pukier, and wonderful than my scanner portrays. The yarn also comes in black/gray/white and blue/turquoise/blue combinations. I thought the pinks were the most outrageous/good.


And so the love affair with scarves continues...


Later: I found other yarn colors on Ravelry. They just didn't have them at my Joanne's. The pink/red combo is a more accurate representation of mine. The one with the arrow pointing to it would have been something I'd have been seriously interested in. Darn!

First Machine Knit of 2011

I have some lovely Noro Kureyon in my stash and decided to make some of Midnattsol's slippers with it. You can see the pattern on her blog: http://hurpeknagg.blogspot.com/
Her pattern is for hand knitting, but since it's just a strip of rectangles, it's easily (and really quickly) done on the machine. I love the colors of Noro and they slide into one another even more deliciously when you felt the yarn. I used: Silver Reed midgauge, T10+, two skeins of Noro Kureyon, one for each slipper. Each rectangle was 24 stitches x 32 rows. These fit a women's size 9 American with socks on. Since I had to run the slippers through the wash four times to get it them to felt down small enough, if I were to make them again I'd do 22 stitches x 30 rows, or even a bit smaller.


Some hints if you want to make these slippers with this yarn: Noro is really "sticky" when used on a knitting machine so a lot of weight is required. Since each rectangle is not distinguishable from the next, run a strand of red yarn through the stitches after each rectangle is knit so you know where to sew the rectangles together. Unless you are a genius at origami, you should use 7 different colored yarn markers in the spots specified in the pattern to aid in sewing up. Finally, use a seaming technique that butts the rectangles together with a really flat seam. Doesn't even matter if it is beautiful. What matters is that it is flat so that when it felts, there isn't a bunched up seam. Pull out the red yarn at the very end of seaming. One thing I did which varies from the pattern is that I crocheted a single crochet row around the opening (after seaming is done) and then did a second row of backward crochet, also called a crab stitch. I thought it would add some stability to the cuff, but it wasn't really necessary.

This is the sole of the slipper. I kind of wish these colors were topmost, but it's almost impossible to predict.

I'm wearing them as I type. It's 11 degrees F outside and I'm toasty inside. I still have 4 skeins to use up. I think I'll knit a cowl but won't felt it. Stay tuned!

Pattern for Baby Boy Booties

I decided I'm going to have to live a lot longer to use up this pile/mess/mountain/stash of mine. Although machine knitting would use it up faster, I'm also doing little hand knitting projects because they are portable for sitting and waiting for appointments. If you're a hand knitter, perhaps you can make use of this easy bootie pattern. I always think it's hard to come up with cute things for boys, but this one came out pretty good. I apologize for not telling you the brand of yarn, but I misplaced the band and can't remember what it was. Anything worsted and heavier would approximate my sample. Another couple of ounces of yarn constructively disposed of !!! Who are they for? One can only hope...

BABY BOY BOOTIES--- an old hand knit pattern
4-09 I found this pattern scribbled on a yellowed piece of paper when I was organizing my knitting patterns. There was no author indicated, so I’m assuming it’s one of those patterns that just got passed around and people knit it with their own variations. The booties take a very small amount of yarn and knit up really quickly. For my version, I used two kinds of yarn~ scraps from my stash. With size 6 American needles, the finished size is about 9 months. These two yarns were a little thicker than worsted, so of course a thinner yarn would make a smaller bootie…Directions (both booties the same):
CO 30 sts with color 1.
Knit 6 rows in stockinette stitch for a rolled top. Change to color 2. Row 7: Make eyelet row- K1, YO, K2 tog, *K3, YO, K 2 tog, * repeat from * to * across, ending K 2. Row 8: Purl. Rows 9-12: Change to color one and knit stockinette for 4 rows.
Next row: Change to color 2. K 20, leaving 10 stitches on the left needle, turn work, P10. Work on the 10 middle stitches only for the instep. Knit 14 rows stockinette, ignoring the 10 stitches both sides on the needles. Next row: Pick up and knit 10 sts from the side of the instep, then knit10 sts left on needle. Next row: Knit to the other side of the instep stitches and pick up and knit10 stitches from the other side of the instep. Continue knitting to the end. You’ll have a little pouch sticking out for the toes and foot.
Change to color1. Work in garter stitch over all the stitches for 5 rows.
Change to color 2. Decrease for toe in garter stitch:
Row 1: K 2, K 2 tog, K 20, K 2 tog, K 20, K 2 tog, K 2
Row 2: Knit
Row 3: K 2, K 2 tog, K 18, K 3 tog, K 18, K 2 tog, K 2
Bind off. Seam the sole and back of bootie with a mattress stitch, hide yarn ends.
Make a 2 or 3 stitch I cord long enough to thread through the ankle stitches and tie a bow.

Sarah Bradberry's Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl

I finally finished the Comfort Shawl. Usually I don't let projects go this long. I started it at the end of August and it languished in my closet for a while. Had to spend some time in the hospital waiting for my husband's treatment last week, so it was a good time to finally get it done.

Spring seemed to be on its way but it snowed overnight and turned cold. So, I'm sitting at the computer with this comforting shawl over my shoulders. There's nothing like 100% wool to do the job. I used a few skeins of Noro Kureyon and mixed it with some worsted that I needed to get rid of. The four skeins of Noro were a gift from my daughter. They were color #211, I think it was, and couldn't find more of that number so that's why the hybrid-ness. I like it anyway, even if the purist probably wouldn't. I used a size 8 circular needle to accommodate the width, but knit back and forth.The pattern can be found for free here:
http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns/shawls-shrugs/comfort-shawl.htm

There are almost 600 examples of this shawl on Ravelry. Pretty popular, I'd say!

Hard to take a picture without assistance. Looks like it would fit the shoulders of a football player. O well, you get the idea.

Sarah Bradberry's Comfort Shawl...YUM!

Next project: a hand knit shawl designed by Sarah Bradberry. Thank you, Sarah, for the beautiful pattern. My daughter gifted me with some Noro Kureyon and it seems perfect for a shawl. Although we have had a wonderful summer weather-wise in Minnesota, from experience, I KNOW it is going to be cold again. (Understatement...) A shawl is a nice thing to have when that happens. The pattern is here:
http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns/shawls-shrugs/feather-and-fan-comfort-shawl.htm

There is a section on Flickr showing shawls people have made with this pattern. Go to the Flickr website and search on Feather and Fan to view. (Not sure if you need to have an account or not.) If you're a member of Ravelry, there are lots there too. Some very elegant and richly colored ones.

With the Noro, it's hard to go wrong with colors. Every now and then I'll put in a couple of rows of a contrast color from my wool stash to break up the pattern. I'm not at all a fan of fringe, so mine will have the undulating bottom edge. It should block nicely being 100% wool.

Even though machine knitting is probably my favorite of the two arts, every now and then I need to have some hand knitting to do. The blues and greens are a little easier on the eyes than my red stuff of late.