Tag: pattern

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.

f&s1

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

f&s2

f&s3

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

f&s4
(Knit 1 row, and purl the next – this cushion is knitted entirely in stocking stitch).
Then we follow the chart:

chart

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

Turn the work and it will look like this:

f&s7

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.

f&s8

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

f&s9

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).

f&s10

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

f&s11

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.

f&s12

The back:

f&s13

And continue working the chart:

f&s14

f&s15

f&s16

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

Your work will look like this:

f&s17

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):

f&s18

Employ the same technique around the sides:

f&s19

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!

f&s20

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

 

Enjoy your sumptuous new cushion!

f&s1

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

Have a gorgeous weekend <3

Chunky FTW! (a free pattern)

Posted on by Alice Neal

I have made (it’s official) the chunkiest hat in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD.

chunky1

I wanted to make a hat for my Beloved. He feels the cold a bit more than he used to, and of all the hats I have made, none is quite right.

I have a micro-stash of the chunkiest wool on the planet. Well…. it’s not. But it’s very chunky and it’s in my possession, and frankly, anything that needs knitting up on 15mm needles is pretty goshdarned chunky in my humble.

I’ve uploaded quite a few patterns for sale recently, so I thought I’d give the readers of my blog this piece of squishiness as a token of my appreciation.

Here’s what you need.
(Click the name at the top for a printable download)

The Chunk

2 x 100g balls Drops Polaris
15mm circular needles
A tapestry needle for weaving in ends
A large pompom maker (it’s so much less fiddly than all that faffing around with cardboard doughnuts!)

Method:
(This makes an adult-sized hat, which fits my 15 year old son rather too well. I may have to hide it).

Cast on 36 stitches and place marker for the beginning of the round.

Knit 1 Purl 1 rib for 14 rows. This gives a really chunky squishy turn-up around the base of your hat.

Knit 5 rows.

Make your decreases as follows:

[Knit 5, K2tog] around. (36 remaining)

[Knit 4, K2tog] around. (30)

[Knit 3, K2tog] around. (24)

[Knit 2, K2tog] around. (18)

[Knit1, K2tog] around. (12)

K2tog around. (6)

K2tog around. (3)

Cut the tail long enough to thread through the last 3 stitches, pull tight and weave in.

Make a large pompom, leaving the ends long enough to thread through the top of the hat and tie in a tight double knot underneath, inside the top of the hat.

Weave in all ends.

Ta-dah!

Enjoy keeping warm <3

In the meantime, if you’re looking for other patterns, you can now find these ones both in my Etsy shop and on the loveknitting.com website:

ponchette1
The Ponchette pattern can be found here.
JJ10
The Juno Jumper pattern can be found here.
snake5
The Ssssidney Snake pattern can be found here.
cream2
The Snuggly Slippers pattern can be found here.
CJ16
The Simon Cowell Yorkie Christmas Jumper pattern can be found here.

 

PS I have always wanted a really chunky hat. Apparently, this one is a bit ‘too girly’ for my beloved. Imagine my chagrin… 😉

A little pouch

Posted on by Alice Neal

pouch-bag4

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:

pouch-bag1 pouch-bag2 pouch-bag3

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:

Merion2

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

A Jack Russell, a Tunic and an Adventure.

Posted on by Alice Neal

Oh, I know, I know. I’m rubbish.

Life hurtles along at breakneck speed and before you know it months have flown past and now… SPRING! And hallelujah, because frankly winter can jolly well do one. There have been enough bugs under this roof to sink a small fleet of battleships and this family is emerging, battle-scarred but undefeated, blinking into the sunlight.

But I have been busy. Honest.

First of all I have this to share with you:

JJ10

I mean loooooooook! And before people get all stuffy and snippy about dogs already having coats, take it from me that the harsh blooming winters up here do not agree with our dear teeny skinny Juno’s demeanour. Admittedly, pure wool may be treating her rather more as a Princess than warranted 😉  but she is most grateful for an extra layer.

If you fancy making something similar, have a little look over here, where you can download the pattern for free.

In other news, I have completed a granny square tunic, which will be on the backburner till autumn:

square2 squares2 squares4 squares5 squares6 squares7

And I have just embarked upon a little after-school adventure with 14 of the children from our village primary.

This afternoon, armed with a great mountain of goodies from loveknitting.com (bless their hearts), I headed off into the unknown:

club1

The hour flew by in a flurry of

“Miss, I can’t do this! Miss, is this right? Miss, what’s happened to this?”

(I know… “Miss” >.< It cracks me up)

But they were little troopers and are coming back next week for more punishment, and I am proud to report that we have a few already managing garter stitch, along with a valiant few who have yet to ‘click’, but we’ll do it!

And here are the fruits of the first session’s labours:

club2

I will be very happy to report on our continued progress next week 🙂

Tunisian Crochet rules…

Posted on by Alice Neal

Remember these from my last post:

glasses-case2

You can find the method and pattern by clicking here

Well, I confess, I went a bit crazy with them, as you can see, and they are now available in my shop if you fancy one but don’t have the time / inclination to make one yourself.

brown1 grey2 pinkbrown1multiThen, the most wonderful thing happened. The post arrived. I may, in my impatience, have ordered several different sets of these from several different places. But look!

hooksThey’re like a fabulous cross between a knitting needle and a crochet hook, since the Tunisian method requires going from one to many stitches on a hook at a time, and the noggin on the end stops them all falling off thus averting your subsequent three-day flip-out (or is that just me?)

So, of course, I had to try them out.

And I managed to sit through an entire action film without the necessity of following the plot last night (Denzel Washington was involved, though, so it wasn’t a total wash-out) to design this, to which I put the finishing touches today:

2bag1 2bag3 2bag4 2bag6 2bag7It is quite a simple construction of two rectangles joined by a single strap that starts on the right on the front of the bag and finishes on the left on the back, with a button-down flap to keep it closed while in use.

And I have to say, I’m rather pleased with it.

Off to play some more – toodle-pip! <3

Back so soon?

Posted on by Alice Neal

Why yes, I am 🙂

How’s this for a New Year’s Resolution not to fall off the face of the earth for a few months? Twice in one year – hurrah! 😉

So.

What’s happening?

Well, this morning I happened upon this video:

[vimeo 6723357 w=500 h=375]

DROPS Crochet Tutorial: How to do Tunisian crochet, Afghan crochet or Tricot Crochetfrom Garnstudio Drops design on Vimeo.

And I thought to myself ‘Now that doesn’t look too tricky!’

So I gave it a go.

tunisian-crochetIt’s hard to express how gorgeous this is. It’s thick, and springy, and sturdy and yet still incredibly soft.

I wanted it to be something, so I carried on, and here we have my new glasses case:

glasses-case2 glasses-case1

And in case you fancy trying this yourself, here’s how I did it:

Tunisian Crochet Glasses Case

Drops Andes 65% wool, 35% alpaca (about half a ball)
7mm crochet hook

Chain 12 stitches (you end up with 11 on the hook once you have begun)
Follow the directions in the video for simple tunisian crochet

I did 22 rows of grey which I could rest my glasses on and fold about 1/3 back over.
I then changed the colour to chocolate brown and made another 16 rows.

Do not bind off, but fold the two colours together at the colour switch and single crochet back around the edge to create the case. I put a line of single crochet along the bottom as I went around, too, for aesthetic reasons. When you have joined the sides, continue up around the top of the case and when you reach the middle stitch put in one single crochet, chain 3 for the button hole and make another single crochet in the same stitch. Then carry on around.

If you’re clever (or is it lazy?) you’ll then cut the tail long enough to be able to weave it through the inside of the front and use it to secure your button before fastening it off and weaving in the ends.

Does this make sense?

If you try it and get stuck, please let me know where I have confused matters and I’ll try to clarify 🙂

In other news…

I made a bag over the weekend. That is, I found a ‘blanket’ (ahem) I had started and decided to give it a new destiny. So here it is:

bag1 bag2 bag3And that’s my news for now, so toodle-pip till next time! <3

A Spring Scarf in Natural Wool

Posted on by Alice Neal

OK, so the spring scarf I mentioned last time? It’s finally finished. Here it is, being modelled by… well, me.

The finished article in its rightful place
The finished article in its rightful place

First things first. The materials used were:

1) a 2.5mm crochet hook, and
2) three different colours of natural, undyed wool.

The palest I bought on eBay many moons ago and no longer remember from whom. But the two darker ones are from The Knitting Gift Shop, which is owned and run by the gentleman who also owns the printing company that does all the printing for our own beard oil company, and his wife. Yes, that’s a bit convoluted. But I’m glad to know them – apart from the wonderful job they do with our printing, their wools are all locally sourced, fabulous quality and reasonably priced. And I loved working with them (and no – I’m not on commission!) 🙂

So, onto the construction.

It started with the Japanese flower.

This is a free pattern and there are many blogs (mine too, now) that tell you how to make it. I saw it, made it, loved it. And then worked out how to join the motifs, and then decided on a scarf.

So this is how it works (UK terms):

Chain 6 and join into a circle with a slip stitch in the first chain.

round1: Chain 3 (counts as one double crochet) and make 11 double crochets into the ring, for 12 in total. Slip stitch into the first ‘chain 3’.

round 2: Chain 5, then into each gap in the circle, make one double crochet followed by a chain 2. You will have 12 loops all the way around. Join with a slip stitch into the first ‘chain 5’.

round 3: chain 3 (counts as one double crochet) and make three more double crochets into the first 2-chain gap. Into all the remaining 2-chain gaps, make four double crochets.

round 4: *chain 5, miss 2 double crochets and make a slip stitch into the third. Slip stitch into the next** repeat from * to ** all the way around. Slip stitch into the previous round. These loops are the beginnings of the petals.

Making the petals
Making the petals – you can see all the loops around the circle, and the first three petals of round 5 complete.

round 5: make 8 double crochets into each of the loops, with a slip stitch into the last round between each petal.

Done!

So, the next task (other than the ever-taxing weaving in of the ends) is to join them. For this, I made the next flower up to the end of the 4th round. Then I made 10 petals. For the 11th and 12th petals, I made the first four double crochets, put my hook behind the fourth or fifth double crochet of a petal on the back of the first flower, drew the yarn through it, and continued on with the next four. I repeated the process on the next petal and we have a join.

Joined at two petals.
Joined at two petals.
Joining in rows
Joining in rows

You can see the construction of the scarf very clearly in the above picture. They are all joined to at least one flower by two petals, and if you join as you go along (you can use this picture for reference) it makes the whole thing much easier than trying to figure a way to do it all afterwards.

Coming along nicely
Coming along nicely – don’t be fooled! It’s still a scarf, just folded in this picture.
I took it everywhere
I took it everywhere

It’s an incredibly portable project, too, so you can bundle it into a small bag for the car, bus, queue, waiting room… or in this case beach 🙂

neutrals3
Almost finished.
Finished and blocking
Finished and blocking

Finally, the blocking. I’m not sure how useful this was really since the flowers are intrinsically quite flat and the petals designed to curl up a little. But I’ve just got these blocking mats and pins and, frankly, I still get a bit excited about using them. So I did 🙂

And ta-dah! That’s it!

If you fancy giving it a go, and my explanations are a little too woolly, or assume too much knowledge, or… whatever difficulty you might stumble across, I’m more than happy to attempt a better explanation or answer any questions – just holler 🙂

In other news, I have a bit of a plan for a lot more of these,

But what will it be?!
But what will it be?!

but you’ll have to watch this space 😉

Spring Tulips Sleeveless Sweater

Posted on by Alice Neal

Or tank top. Or vest. It’s difficult to know what people call them these days, as searching for any of those terms can bring up such a variety of garments, including waistcoats and cardigans…. I thought a vest was a sleeveless t-shirt you wore under your top when the weather turned chilly.

To me, it’s a tank top. Although I do accept that it isn’t a very delicate or romantic term.

Anyway, here’s the story:

I’m a mum. I have five children. I run my own business. I don’t often need to dress particularly formally. But occasionally, just occasionally, I do. I wanted a slipover – there’s another word for it! – an extra layer to go over a shirt when I wear smart trousers.

I chose a beautiful yarn – Drops Lima, which is a wool/alpaca blend – in grey. It may have been dark grey, or charcoal. Here it is:

Knitting a swatch for gauge
Knitting a swatch for gauge

I didn’t have a pattern. I figured, how hard can it be? *cough* and in my usual rather-too-gungho fashion, I embarked.

On 4mm circular needles, I cast on 176 stitches. Not sure why. I’d like to say it’s because I had worked out my gauge, measured my size and done the calculations, but it isn’t. I suspect it is because a similar jumper in a similar yarn on similar needles required the same number of stitches. And I knitted 5 rows of rib.

Off we go.
Off we go.

Then I rounded the number up to 180 stitches, making four at relatively equidistant intervals around the row.

Then I got knitting.

And knitting.

And knitting.

And knitting.
And knitting.

And, after all the fair isle I’ve been doing lately, I got really bored.

So I googled fair isle patterns and came up with a google image of a flower. And guess what! It had 9 stitches across, which meant I could do exactly 20 repeats without altering anything. So I ordered a couple of balls of the same yarn in contrasting colours – an off-white and an ice blue – and put a fair isle strip in there.

The flowers have emerged
The flowers have emerged

Then, I was faced with the shaping. I found a wonderful resource on YouTube. She is far more organised, methodical and scientific than I, and I watched her like a good little student and then forgot it all and did it my way, incorporating some of the lessons she had managed to make stick in my memory. You can find her here with her lesson on shoulder shaping. I also watched her v-neck shaping videos, did my own rather slapdash workings out, and got cracking. One of the most useful things I picked up was the tip to knit both sides at once, using two separate balls of wool. Genius! Then you can’t go wrong 🙂 (in theory…)

Amazing - it looks like a v neck tank top!!
Amazing – it looks like a v neck tank top!!

When I had done front and back keeping all the stitches live on waste yarn, knitted my short rows (for the very first time!) to shape the shoulders, and front and back had reached the same height, I turned the top inside out and fused them using the three needle bind-off.

I hadn’t made the v neck quite deep enough for my liking, so ribbing the neck was going to be a problem. I decided on a row of crochet in the grey followed by a row in the contrasting off-white which rather neatly echoed the edges of the colour join I had chosen before the tulips.

Drops LIma 4

Same around the armholes and ta-dah! We have a v neck. Blocking (on my new Knitpro blocking squares which I love):

Blocking into shape
Blocking into shape

And the finished result.

Drops Lima 6

I am wearing it as we speak 🙂

In other news, I have picked up an old WIP and am determined to finish it. My stashbuster crochet blanket:

Stashbuster blanketAnd finally, I’ve been given a rather fabulous camera, so the very first finished object I ever made – a crochet camera strap – has had new life breathed into it:

CameraAnd look – it takes lovely pictures!

Cherry blossom
The ornamental cherry in our garden
Teddy and JEm
Teddy and his Daddy

The Sweater of Many Random Stripes

Posted on by Alice Neal

Ooh, I’ve had fun with this one!

Having done a couple of top-down, seamless yoke jumpers and been thrilled with the results, I was in danger of creating an entire wardrobe of very similar jumpers for myself – I tend to knit for myself until I have mastered it, at which point I feel more comfortable about giving things away or selling them.

So I embarked on a bottom-up jumper instead.

I used Drops Andes in a beige and a brown. It is the same as I used for this jumper, which until now was my stand-out favourite. And, clearly, I massively over-ordered on the yarn (*blush* “Hello, my name’s Alice. I am a yarn-addict”) I believe this jumper took around 6 x 100g balls.

Drops Andes 100 sts on 8mm circular needles. Random stripes begun
Drops Andes
100 sts on 8mm circular needles.
Random stripes begun

I cast on 100 stitches to an 8mm circular needle and knitted stripes willy-nilly until I reached a length long enough to reach my armpit from mid-hip. I purposely didn’t knit rib around the bottom as I had a vague notion to crochet a border around the bottom and cuffs.

Body almost done
Body almost done

I then embarked on the sleeves: 26sts on double pointed needles, increasing gradually to 34 by the time I reached the armpit. For example, I made a stitch at rows 11 and 13, then a couple more at around elbow level, and four more gradually on the way up to the top. I kept a note of where I increased so that I could recreate it for the second sleeve. I made the sleeve around 14 rows longer than the jumper body: I have long arms and hate when my wrists are bare in the winter!

Sleeve underway
Sleeve underway
Body and sleeve
Body and sleeve
One sleeve complete. The second started.
One sleeve complete. The second started.

I then put 6 sts at each side of the jumper body onto waste yarn, and 6 stitches of each sleeve onto waste yarn, too. They will be knitted together using the 3 needle bind-off at the end.

Then comes knitting across the body to the waste yarn, (place a marker), knitting the live stitches from the first sleeve onto the circular needle up to the sleeve’s waste yarn, (place a marker) knitting across the back of the jumper and repeating with the second sleeve. At the end of the second sleeve, you have your new row beginning.

All on one needle.
All on one needle.

I then knitted two rows before beginning the raglan decreases which, when you have the hang of them, are really quite simple. Two things to remember: Every other row is just a knit around, and use markers!

Every decrease row involves slipping the two stitches before the marker onto the right needle and knitting through them with the left needle. Then, after the marker, knit two together. So much easier in practice than it sounds!!

The raglan sleeves!
The raglan sleeves!

Then, basically, knit till you have the size neck you require. You can stop decreasing and switch to rib for a big chunky roll neck, or end up with something more boat-neck like mine.

Once finished, and all ends woven in, I crocheted three rows around the bottom, using a *single crochet, chain 1* pattern, crocheting into the spaces on subsequent rounds, and just a single row of the same around the cuffs. And ta-dah! No curling!!

The finished article!
The finished article!

I haven’t taken it off yet:

Taken by my son
Taken by my son
Tricky mirror 'selfie'
Tricky mirror ‘selfie’

I must now attend to my severely neglected works in progress children 😉

These two, amongst others, are still on the needles:

Cotton fair-isle for spring / summer
Cotton fair-isle for spring / summer
Wool / alpaca tank top.
Wool / alpaca tank top.

Until the next time.

And if anybody fancies attempting the jumper, and I can help at all, please shout! <3