Felting Fun

My first attempt at felting brought on by the fact that I have a supply of mohair wool that I don't seem to have a use for. I noticed that after sitting around for more years than I care to admit to that it is naturally felting a little. So a little bit of research and it would seem that mohair is going to felt well. After the slippers I made (previous blog) were not too big I needed to make something else. So a hat, I have always wanted a felted hat and they are always quite expensive!

Settled on this wonderful pattern and with 2 strands of my mohair on size 8mm needles it only took about 2 hours to knit. It came out the size of your average bucket, sorry I forgot to photograph it. Then the exciting part. After some research I knew that I wanted to do this process by hand. We have a front loader washing machine and it would seem like a big waste of hot water as well as the fact that you can't keep checking the size of your garment.

 I donned the rubber gloves squirted a little dish washing liquid in and rubbidy-dub-dub!
















It took about 3 sessions of 10 minutes and of course you have to try it on... wet! But you literally stop when it fits... Simple! What a great process!

I wrapped it in a towel and squeezed as much water out as I could, even stood on it to help the process. Then it was time to finalise the shaping. Each time I walked past it I would run my hands around the brim that I wanted to curl up. It was very easy!

I am more than happy with the result..and its so warm... Roll on winter!

A Cute Little Outfit

This was fun to knit in sock wool 4 ply. It is knitted across (the jacket) and this means you have to be careful to determine the length of the jacket right from the word go. 

Once again I used Opal wool and a free pattern from Knit World

Hats for Winter...

Something to do with that left over sock wool and makes a smart looking hat that goes with lots of clothing! A little stocking stitch rolled hem to makes it look nice.

Two different hats. One to go with the local rugby colours (thats the black and yellow in case you didn't guess!) To make the other one a little different a wide contrasting garter stitch band makes the contrast stand out a little. 

Singlets or Vests

I knitted these 2 vests a couple of years ago and thought that they would be quite useful as singlets but was thrilled to see the clever mother use them as vests as well. They went easily over the onsie merinos I had made and bubs was lovely and snug. So that led me to thinking that this is a really good idea and practical garb for babies. For the next babies I was knitting for I decided to make prettier versions. First off I made this one from Ravelry in double knit

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/milo-3

Then I lauched into this one with the 4 ply I had on hand. I have particularly enjoyed knitting in the round and knitting from the top down. So little sewing up to do at the end.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/little-sisters-dress-kjole-til-lillesster

Then found this free pattern and thought this would be great for some more of that left over sock wool. This wool is so clever the way that it lends itself to making such wonderful patterns. However when hubby looked at it he said it looked funny because the 2 fronts were just out out of alignment... sigh. So it is languishing at the bottom of my ironing basket now!

Neck Wrap

Have been wanting to do some real 'lace' knitting for quite a while so bought myself some yummy 2 ply (silk/merino) and then set about looking for a pattern. I was keen not to have a 50 row pattern as I wanted to to this on the train and was keen to make a scarf/shawl for my Mum for her birthday. Then I found the perfect pattern for free on my most favourite site ravelry. I went to Holland yarn to buy a super smooth, and lovely to work with, circular needle. It was well worth the outlay. I am a fan of these needles now.

Baby slippers

I have had some mohair in my stash for a long time. I was about to hand it on to someone who might love it more than me when I thought it would make some lovely sock-type slippers for a colleague's toddler. So to my trusty ravelry I went for this pattern. The first attempt was so big and after attempt 4 I got it about right. Making such a huge slipper first made me think about felting. This wool had lain about at my place for so long that it was already beginning the felting process itself. Hmmm, that would be my next project...
So in less than an hour the first slipper was off the needles...

Then clever colleague said she had read that you could use glue gun to put some non-stick spots onto the bottom. Simple! We tried dots and the spidery effect.. One is definitely prettier than the other!

This seems like a useful style as they stay on the without any ties or elastic.

More Baby Knitting

So many babies coming along just now!
I have gone back to my lovely Sublime book for these two cardis.

This is a sock wool with a lovely little bit of added mohair.

A nice soft merino in 4 ply from the same book.

Then there was a wedding.!

Such a long time since I posted.. so much sewing and knitting has happened in the meantime. A little over a year ago my daughter got engaged and one of early questions in the planning was.. "Mum, would you make my wedding dress?" Of course, I was delighted, proud even. Then it grew, to cut a long story short I made the (4) bridesmaids dresses, 3 flower girls dresses, 7 waistcoats and my own outfit. Then just before the day I made shoe bags with the girls names embroidered on them and a bag for 'the' dress itself..
For the brides dress I was lucky we found a pattern that was a starting point but then I had to cut and slash it until there wasn't much of the original pattern left. The detail just under the bust are flowers cut out from my mother's wedding dress lace. That was something my mum the bride and I all enjoyed!

A simple design but I think quite effective

From the back

The waistcoats were quite easy and was lucky enough to buy the fabric at a half price sale, so chose a silk satin and silk taffeta for the backs. The fronts were made from a heavy embossed cotton and the clever sales person at The Fabric Warehouse (they don't have a website but this will give you the details) suggested that I use this same fabric for the flower girls bodices, this was an inspired thought! I can't recommend this shop highly enough. They have excellent staff with creative ideas and suggestions that they give out freely. They have an awesome range of fabrics that are moderately priced.

As a little extra touch I pokerworked their names on a wooden coat hanger for them to keep. The covered buttons made the waistcoats I think, I would really recommend this if anyone else is considering doing this. 

It was nice that the little girls dresses matched the waistcoats, this was not in the original plans but pleased we did it. The silk chiffon overlay hem should have been double neatened.  Did the same as for the bridesmaids dresses which were polyester and slightly circular and the single neaten after a row of short straight stitching worked for this. I have learnt so much about handling these fabrics and different tips and tricks. Big learning curve for me. 

Not a professional photo but one that included all four (girls) one of the girls couldn't make it on the day so we took her dress and had it on a mannequin. The colour worked really well on the day with all the greenery around them. The girls were comfortable, not a strapless dress in sight and were able to hide some sheer elastic straps for those who wanted or needed them.

Then it was my outfit and I got to let the creative monster loose! I bought the material because I loved it and saw Italy on the counter together at the above mentioned store. It consisted of 3 types of silk, chiffon, a really textured but light weight and then just light weight plain fabric all the me colour. The grey guipure lace was quite hard to fit into this but I was determined to use it. I crushed some fabric,cut out flowers and then layered one on top of another. Such fun!!