Coffee and Cosy

Which one shall I send to Simply Knitting?!

Cafetiere Cosy

My Cafetiere cost is all done - wonderfully easy!  I used DK from my stash (hidden in the big wooden box).  Cast on 30 stitches and it fit my mini cafetiere perfectly.  I hemmed the ends and used Swiss darning down the sides to keep the piece flat.  More roses and leaves to decorate the middle plus another heart button and it matches the Kindle cover nicely!

Keeps my coffee warm and cosy!

The completed item!

Back

I sewed a lining to the back to keep the knitting firm and prevent it from stretching out of shape.  

Remind me to take a picture of both the cosy and Kindle cover together!!

Kindle Cover

I've finished the Kindle cover which was relatively easy, except for one hassle:  I grafted the bottom end with Kitchener stitch to make it look smooth and professional (I liked the way it looked on the hottie bottie cover I made) EXCEPT I misread the instructions and sewed it up with the RIGHT sides together, just as if one was sewing.  Oops.  It has to be done with the WRONG sides together!!  Much unpicking and swearing.  And unpicking Kitchener stitch is not the easiest in the world.  I ended up reknitting one row but in the end, it was worth it.  There's no real "pattern":  I used DK oddments, about 30 stitches.  I did a proper hem at the top which is simplicity itself:

HEM:  Cast on.  Knit 5 rows stocking stitch starting with a knit row.  Sixth row:  knit.  Then k/p/k/p/k the next five rows (i.e. stocking stitch).  That extra knit row is where you fold over the piece and forms the edge.  On the inside of the work, sew in the hem.  Nice, neat edge!

The flower pattern I found on a knitting calendar (!) and suit the cover as they are very small.  The roses I've knitted before (and other flowers) are all MUCH bigger and might have overwhelmed so small an item.  The leaf should have been bigger but I ran out of wool so had to finish it off rather quickly!  The heart button was free in a pack of six with the last issue of "Simply Knitting" (Feb).

Kindle Cover with roses

Back

Lined with pretty, matching cotton fabric to protect screen from woolly cover!

Happy New Year!

Only a day late!  I've frantically been making a pom-pom for my new hat and wanted to finish it before posting, but golly, making pom-poms is REALLY boring.  Got my daughter to do some winding for me! It's finally finished, though.

I bought the wool at a sale quite a while ago and didn't know what to do with it.  It was those deliciously long, silky wool wristies from the Hush catalogue that inspired me to knit myself a pair.  They are lovely and soft and very warm!  The hat is a very basic design with cool pom-pom but because of the silk wool, it looks lovely.  What a pity this yarn has been discontinued (from what I can understand) as it's gorgeous.

I bought that pretty bowl for myself at a gift shop at Somerset House and gave it to myself for Christmas.  It holds buttons and small knitting bits and bobs on the wooden box.

I recently discovered how lovely it is knitting on bamboo needles.  I'm now totally converted!  Does this mean I'll have to rush out and buy ten pairs in all different sizes?  

Over most of Christmas, I was knitting my experiment but by old year's day realised that it had gone horribly wrong.  Bit of a sour knitting note to end the year on but then, it was an experiment.  That wool seems to have brought disaster to my poor dear mother as well as myself.  This will be the third project that gets destroyed.  I think I'm going to separate the wool back into a single strand, the way it's meant to be, and then knit a cable cushion cover.  Surely I can't go wrong with that?!

In the meantime, I'm knitting small, easy projects to ease into the new year.  I've completed most of a Kindle cover.  It just needs to be sewn together and lined and decorated.  I've been using scraps for it and have been inspired to do a nearly-matching cafetiere wrap as well as a tea cosy.  Lots of flowers involved which I love doing.  Just hope my stash has enough bits and bobs to cope!!

Happy Birthday, me!

Or it was on Boxing Day!  My daughter got me all sorts of lovely things, including the most wonderful winter flowers:  various heathers and fancy pine cones.  Never seen anything like it!  I, naturally, got myself some wool!  12 balls of Sirday Big Softie in yummy Fanta orange plus an easy cardigan pattern.  My knitting efforts have taken a bit of a confidence knock and I thought I'd be slightly less adventurous and try something I know I can do and should (should!) work out.  My daughter fancies the pattern and colour too so I might be making two!

All my lovely pressies!

Can't wait to start knitting!

Nearly Christmas!

Two days to Christmas and I haven't posted for ages!  But I'm still knitting - working on that bizarre top, the likes of which have probably never been seen before and probably shouldn't.  About a month ago I finished some wristies and a matching hat which I haven't sewn up yet (and it needs a pompom) but haven't blogged about that at all!  Aaargh!  Also started a hat for my daughter but ran out of wool and the substitute I managed to find was disastrous so that's been shoved out of sight.  Will get back into gear again in the New Year with lots of photos and beautifully finished items!  This is a promise to myself!
In the meantime, this is the sweater I want for Xmas:
.....someone...?...anyone...?!...Santa...??!!

The Big Reknit

One of the reasons why I started this blog was to get going on reknitting projects that hadn't worked.  At last I've begun one of them!  If I've learnt anything this year, it's that you can't plan your knitting:  you just have to go with it and knit whatever whim takes you.  It's definitely a mood thing!

My mother knitted me a cardigan once, one of the last things she knitted for me, which, I'm sad to say, just didn't work.  She used to always knit wonderfully bright jersies which I loved, all sorts of colours that really suited me.  And that fitted well.  In effort to make the cardigan warm, she double-stranded the wool which made it hell to knit.  It also made it very stiff (not one for tension squares or correct needle size, my mum).  The body was rather tight and the sleeves - I can't describe what happened with the sleeves.  The armholes were just huge.  In an attempt to fix this up, my mother sewed in a big seam which meant that I had a big clump of wool under my armpits.  So not comfortable!  Also the sleeves were too short.  But the buttons were lovely.  And the colour is delicious - a really rich cream.  

Several years after my mother had gone off to Better Things, I found the courage to pull the whole thing apart (which felt sacrilegious, somehow) and knitted a pattern I found in a magazine.  One of the first things I knitted from a magazine, I think!

This is what it looked like:

To be honest, not much wrong with it, aside from the appalling sewing up of seams (I hadn't learnt magical mattress stitch yet, which I think is the best thing since sliced bananas) and a minor error which isn't noticeable.  However, it came out a tad small.  The size is probably correct (I did a tension square!) but it was too small in MY eyes.  I need things to be a little longer on the hip to be flattering.  The correct yarn for the pattern is Sirdar's Big Softie, so I think I might reknit it again one day - but with the correct yarn.  And a much bigger size so that it's got a lot of swing!

I also had a bit over to make a scarf:

....which, needless to say, was so big and huge and fat that I didn't like wearing it.  So that's coming apart too!

Do other people have the same hassle I do when unravelling???!!!  Everything all knotted and a great big mess.  Why doesn't it just come apart as easily as it was knitted??!!

This is a bit of an overly easy project that could be doomed to fail - no pattern, no inkling, wool that doesn't know what it is...!  I truly have no idea.  It feels a bit cheap, like acrylic and, of course, double-stranded, who knows what it should be knitted as (aran, chunky, unaccountable...).  Far too difficult to even try to unstrand it and start again.  I have a picture in my head of what it will look like but no guarantees that it actually will.  I got the idea from this Rowan ad:

She's a bit blurry, but you get the idea...

Obviously it won't drape like this as this is divinely soft and expensive silk or something.  I just love the idea of knitting a bunch of scarves, in different directions and no shaping, armholes or ribs in sight!  Easy TV knitting.

Check out my fab, colourful knitting needles!  (A gift from a knitting magazine, of course!)

If I'm lucky, I might get this project done quickly and then knit something sensible!!