The Molly Socks 

Just as autumn began, and my knitting ramped up with the onset of chilly evenings, I had a request.

Lover of all things Nordic, and liver in white and grey, my very stylish sister asked if I would make her some slipper socks, and The Molly Socks were born.

Here they are on her lovely London legs.

If your feet need a little classy warming as winter asserts its grip, and you fancy whipping yourself up a pair, you can find the pattern here. 

Oh, and not to be left out, my lovely bro-in-law now has a pair of equally monochrome Beauteous Gents’ Socks (click for pattern)

Right.

Think it’s time I had a pair myself. Now… where are those needles…

*tootles off humming happily*
(Photo credit for last 2 pics: @paintandhaven instagram)

Chunky FTW! (a free pattern)

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

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

Because winter, that’s why.

 

 

So, it started with these. Well, with this one to be precise. And I loved it.

grey1But… do you see that seam curving up the side? Well, I loved that too. Until I realised that it would be exactly the same on its partner. Hmmmm. Which would make it look like two left (or right) feet.

 

grey2grey-constructionSo I tweaked it. But that didn’t quite work. Don’t get me wrong. I believe they’re beautiful. But I see their flaws all too immediately.

I decided to attempt a little embroidery on them, in an effort to draw the eye from the seam. But now I just see beautiful, embroidered, flawed slippers.

So *shucks* I guess these ones are mine:

grey-embell1

embell1

grey5 grey4 But armed with this experiment, I tweaked some more. And… Ta-dah!

cream1 cream2 cream3Of course, now the whole family needs some. So here are Teddy’s in a bit of a clog style:

Ted1 Ted2 Ted3I’m now experimenting with soles, so nobody breaks their neck on our wooden staircase.

Will report back soon.

TTFN <3