Category: News

Third time’s the charm…

Posted on by Alice Neal

Valentine's-blanket

Do you remember this?

In Wendy Aran wool.

It started off being called a Valentine’s Blanket, because I was making it for my love for Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day came and went.

So it became the Birthday Blanket.

His birthday is a distant memory.

So, jokingly, I called it his Funeral Blanket (yes, my sense of humour can, on occasion, be a little dark).

Then on Christmas Day he went and had a bloody heart attack!

So, I’m not finishing this one. It feels jinxed.

SO.

I started another, in one of my favourite yarns: Drops Andes. I figured, hey. On big fat circulars, back and forth, this will knit up quickly.

And it did. But it was soooooooooooooooo boring.

So I abandoned it and will use the wool for something else.

Now, I am making this, in Drops Nepal, and Drops Big Delight, with a 5mm crochet hook, and I. Am. Loving. It.

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It’s fast, and it isn’t boring. A lot like my knitted cardigan, in one plain and one colour-changing yarn, I just love the way the colour graduates through it.

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I’m already plotting the next 😉

 

To bare or not to bare…

Posted on by Alice Neal

… *snigger*

I have two patterns for you.

That’s rather the point.

One, I hinted at at the end of my last post and I cannot tell you how thrilled I was with the way it turned out.

Knitted in stunning Louisa Harding Amitola, with its shiny silken sheen and delicately changing colours, and Millamia naturally soft merino which holds a stitch like no yarn I’ve used before, the stripes kept me hooked throughout the working of this piece. I was forever impatient as to how the next colour would look blended into the rest.

Here, you can see what I mean:

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For the body, I used Millamia naturally soft merino in Putty Grey and Louisa Harding Amitola in Dark Rose.

The ribbing on the cuffs, neck and button band are in the same Millamia wool, in the shade Storm.

It is knitted in the round, top down, with a circular yoke and I blooming LOVE it. It’s light enough to grab as you run out of the door, and warm enough for a snuggly extra layer. I used mother of pearl buttons BUT whilst I think they look beautiful, I have already had to replace 3 broken ones. They are terribly fragile 🙁

Anyway, here it is, in all its glory:

If you fancy having a crack at it yourself, you can find the pattern here.

 

The second piece…

…is all together more risqué. But it was equally fun to create.

Knitted and crocheted in Cascade Yarns Ultrapima 100% cotton in sand and taupe, which look to me like a dull gold and silver, it produces a really lovely, airy but sturdy fabric. Perfect for super-hot days / evenings. I would recommend a little dress tape, though – no running after the kids in this one! 😉

So, you’ll need basic knitting and crochet skills for this one and you can find the pattern over here if you fancy giving it a go.

In other news...

This King Cole Galaxy with integral silver sequins became another piece of knitting / crochet fusion which I may well get around to writing up. It’s light and airy and perfect either on its own or as an off-the-shoulder top layer.

 

And, this jumper in Drops Karisma will be written into a pattern soon, too.

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And this cardi, knitted in Drops Karisma and a beautiful hand-dyed yarn all the way from The Flying Kettle in the ol’ U S of A (look her up on Instagram, her stuff is gorgeous!)

Oh, oh, AND, this sweater:

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I have an AWFUL LOT of pattern writing to do 🙂

By the way, do you like my t-shirt?

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Right, I’d best get on and start writing, then! TTFN <3

 

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A catch-up in beautiful yarns…

Posted on by Alice Neal

I’ve been playing with some serious beauties recently.

The first two I’m going to show you I have just finished writing up the patterns for, and they’ll be available on the loveknitting.com website, and in my Etsy shop very shortly.

The first I call In the Shade since the fairisle pattern is a row of trees with their shadows beneath them. It is knitted in Drops Karisma, in light and dark grey, on 4.5mm circulars. And I’m wearing it as I type 😉 Click here for the pattern

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The second is Drops Bomull-Lin, a lovely mix of cotton and linen, in brown and beige (the beige being more like pale gold with its lovely linen sheen). This is my Spring Tunic, knitted in the round on 6mm needles, with eyelet lace details. Click here for the pattern

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Also, I got a surprise parcel in the post: a parcel of beauty I would probably not have bought for myself. And I LOVED the challenge of coming up with something to make from it. It is a combination of Millamia 100% merino and Louisa Harding Amitola, which contains silk, shimmers stunningly, and changes colour gradually throughout the piece. Here it is in progress, but on 3mm needles, it’s a slow process – a cardigan in the making (now finished, click here for the pattern):

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And finally 🙂

Fancy making this?

Here’s how (in UK terms)

1. Using Drops Bomull-Lin in beige (pale gold) and a 4.5mm hook, chain 30.

2. Make a double crochet (dc) into the 2nd chain from hook, and into the next 5 chains. Then chain 16, and make a dc into each of the last 6 chains.

3. Turn, chain 1, insert hook into first dc in row and make a dc into this and the next 5 chains. Then chain 16, and make a dc into each of the last 6 chains.

4. Turn, chain 1, insert hook into first dc in row and make a dc into this and the next. To make the button hole chain 2 and skip the next 2 dc. Make a dc into the next 2 dc. Chain 16, and make a dc into each of the last 6 chains.

5. Turn, chain 1, insert hook into first dc in row and make a dc into this and the next 5 chains. Then chain 16, and make a dc into the first 2 of the last 6, 2 dc into the 2-chain gap, and a dc into each of the last w dc.

Repeat step 3. three more times. You will have 8 rows in all. Sew a button onto the opposite cuff part from the button hole and voila!

Hasta la proxima, peeps. <3

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A Spring Poncho

Posted on by Alice Neal

… in cotton and linen.

Ooh, I love how this knitted up.

I wanted to try something other than wool. I’m a bit of a yarn snob and only really like using natural fibres, but since Mother’s Day and my mum’s birthday fall in the same week this year, and my troublesome Mum is allergic to wool (aaaaaaagghh!!) I thought I’d better have a play with something else.

So I bought myself some Drops Bomull-Lin – a 47% / 53% blend of linen and cotton. It calls for 5.5mm needles, but I wanted something rather more drapey, so I used 6mm circulars. And drapey it jolly well is.

Humble beginnings:

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(and do forgive my stitch markers – in spite of having half a million of the pesky things, I invariably end up using knotted scraps of waste yarn)

Hiding away:

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I’m totally addicted to House just now. On Season 2. It’s the perfect knitting companion 🙂

Beginning the border:

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I chose a ridged eyelet lace for this one.

See? It progresses:

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Et voila! C’est fini…

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If you fancy having a crack at it yourself, you can find the modestly priced pattern over here.

This is not, however, for my mum. I have something else in store for her, so no surprises spoiled, you’ll be enormously relieved to hear 😉

Fat and Sassy Valentine

Posted on by Alice Neal

 

Loveknitting.com sent me this gorgeous, squishy bundle of delight that is Tjockt Fat & Sassy Merino and asked me to try it out, so I’m delighted to offer you a tutorial for this squidgy, tactile, chunky scatter cushion. It’s blissfully quick and easy to make.
And it is also a simple introduction to intarsia. This stuff is HUGE, requiring the biggest needles I’ve ever used, at 25mm, which makes it both very speedy and really fun to use.

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The cushion measures 30cm x 24cm

You will need:

250g Tjockt Fat & Sassy Merino in Cloud
100g Tjockt Fat & Sassy Merino in Raspberry
25mm knitting needles
Stuffing

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Step 1: Cast on 11 stitches and knit 2 rows of stocking stitch.

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(Knit 1 row, and purl the next – this cushion is knitted entirely in stocking stitch).
Then we follow the chart:

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The first pink stitch is introduced in the middle of the next purl row:

Turn the work and it will look like this:

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Now you are ready to knit row 4 of the chart. When you reach the first of the three pink stitches, wrap the pink yarn around the grey behind the work before making the stitch. This will avoid any gaping holes on the right side of the work between the heart motif and the rest of the cushion. Repeat this process each time you change colour.

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At the end of this row, the back of your work will look very like this:

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Turn your work and purl row 5, remembering to wrap the yarn around the contrasting colour at the back. It is also worth, once you are knitting a contrasting colour of more than 3 stitches, wrapping it around the original colour again before 4th (and so on, in multiples of 2 or 3 stitches depending on the number you are knitting).

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You can see in the following picture that the yarn was wrapped again after 3rd stitch:

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Continuing working through the chart, remembering to wrap the yarn with each colour change and in multiples of 2 or 3 stitches behind the work.

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The back:

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And continue working the chart:

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When you have reached the end of the chart and have 11 rows, bind off.

Your work will look like this:

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And now you need to make another exactly the same, and leave the last length of grey yarn trailing – you will use it to ‘sew’ the front to the back.

Construction:
Since the yarn is so beautifully chunky, no tapestry needle is needed to put it together. You can push the yarn through the stitches with your fingers.
Taking the tail from the second piece and with wrong sides together, right sides facing outwards, push the yarn through the stitch on the corresponding corner of the first piece.
You are now going to ‘sew’ with your fingers, pushing the tail under the outside loop of the one stitch and into the outside loop of the corresponding side. I have illustrated how the yarn travels using a crochet hook in this next image (and you can actually see the previous stitch, too):

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Employ the same technique around the sides:

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When you reach the fourth side, stuff your cushion to the firmness you like. Don’t be tempted to overstuff as the stuffing will be visible through the large stitches. But one advantage of this gorgeous yarn is that it is almost a cushion when sewn together without any stuffing at all!

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Use the same ‘sewing’ method to fasten the last side and weave in the end.

 

Enjoy your sumptuous new cushion!

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You can find more of my patterns on loveknitting.com – search Alice Neal
and in my Etsy shop.

Have a gorgeous weekend <3

A Fairisle Frenzy

Posted on by Alice Neal

Can’t stay away from it.

So, top down, in the round, circular yoke experiment #1

I am, suffice to say, chuffed to bits.

Knitted on 4mm circular needles, except for the last half of the bottom ribbing where I switched to 3.5mm for a snugger fit. In Drops Nepal for the body and Karisma for the sleeves, and using some of the beautiful stash of Finnish Riihivilla hand-dyed wool given to me last Christmas by my rather clever husband.

Here it is, in picture story form:

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This is the absolutely delicious Finnish wool I used for the motifs.

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This is the swatch I knitted to ascertain whether the Drops would provide the right match with the Riihivilla.

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And thus it began.

Confession: I didn’t really leave enough of a margin before starting the first motif – the little owls. So, when it came to finishing off, I had to find a way to deal with the neck. In the end, I folded it back on itself and sewed the top down, creating a funnel neck, rather than the little roll I had originally intended. I’m very relieved it turned out ok!

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A little one for Ted next, I think 🙂

A little pouch

Posted on by Alice Neal

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So I made a little bag.

I had a vague plan as I embarked on it, but it has turned out more beautiful than I had hoped. *whoop*! 🙂

It is, essentially, a pouch bag in a chunky yarn with a loop handle and top in lemon cashmere merino silk (by Sublime), and a drawstring fastening in contrasting vintage rose silk merino (also Sublime).

I stuffed a ball of wool in it for some pictures:

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And I am off to make another, writing up the pattern and taking pictures for a tutorial as I go.

So… more anon!

In the meantime, though, I have finally written up the pattern for these gorgeous snuggly-but-oh-so-stylish slippers:

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And you can find it here. Happy crocheting! <3

Project Caravan

Posted on by Alice Neal

This little beauty, a little long in the tooth but perfectly fit for purpose, has recently come into our possession:

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And while she is very comfortable, her age makes her one of the less well insulated, and she gets very chilly at night. We have countered that with a little oil-filled heater, but… you know… really there ought to be some wool in there, right? 😉

So, Project Caravan has begun! So far we have a cushion made in simple stocking stitch in Drops Polaris (dark grey) on 15mm needles, and what began as a stashbuster blanket crocheted in triple crochet (UK) in as many colours and as randomly as I fancy. It’s probably a little over halfway there.

So, ladies and gents, I give you: Project Caravan: The Beginning.

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