I have very little inspiration for writing this post if I’m honest as I didn’t massively enjoy making these gloves. I started them about three times and kept messing the cable up – only to discover there was a mistake in the pattern on the cable bit, when I checked there was an errata but it was still pretty annoying!

The thumb placement and by extension the fliptop are off centre (and yes I followed the instructions exactly – wish I hadn’t, should have used my own judgement) and the top is too pointy for my liking but now I’m being picky

However I was really pleased with the cable, it’s very pretty and the gloves are ever-so cosy with this lovely alpaca yarn!

Many years ago (okay 2 and a bit) when Simon got his first iPhone I happened to have the sewing machine out and he asked me to make him a case for it. He despised the hard ones as they ‘ruin’ the smooth clean sleekness of  the design. But rather, he wanted a slip case to protect it in his pocket from keys and change and the like.

I threw a couple of pieces of of fabric together in about 3 minutes (as I had far more interesting things to be sewing) always intending to make a better one at some point, but he never wanted one. He stubbornly clung to this wonky, too long, ratty scrap of fabric over a more polished (and bloggable) item. It was also embarrassing as people must have judged my crafting skills based on that shitty thing!

Anyway, recently it has gotten so frayed as to be useless to protect the screen and so Simon comissioned another, he asked for a knitted case in a reddy/orangey variagated sock yarn I had left over from some delicious socks. It’s a perfect use for it as it’s strong but slimline, ideal to fit over the ohone and in his pocket.

It took me about 2 hours to knit, I’m sure you don’t need a pattern but anyway, here’s how:

You will need:

Leftover 4ply sock yarn
2.5mm dpns

Cast on 36 sts and join in the round
Work in K2P2 rib for 6 rounds
Knit for 50 rounds
Kitchener the live ends together

That’s it!

You could add a button or similar but why bother, it’s only going to get worn out.

PS Apologies for the shit photos, they were taken on my phone in the evening. The proper camera is buried under kitchen stuff in a cupboard somewhere whilst we spend all our daylight hours renovating…

I’m aware this isn’t a great photo, it was very difficult to photograph without putting it on a child, and a) I don’t have a child and b) the child for whom it was made was not born yet, annoying.

Anyway this was made for a beautiful baby boy called Harrison, he’s the son of my jitsu sensei so it had to be very boyish indeed, and it’s hard to find good baby-boy items to knit. But I think this is ideal and I really like the contrast edging and the button band construction.

This is the first time I’ve made a pieced item of this kind and I WILL NOT BE DOING IT AGAIN. It was a fucking nightmare, it took me about a week to do all the knitting and then at least another week to sew it all together, if someone ever re-writes this pattern to be knitted in the round I would definitely make it for another boy as it did turn out really cute!

I used King Cole Baby Comfort DK which is really cosy and soft, plus it’s washable at 40, which I’m pretty sure is important when you have a small child.

I made it for a size 12 months but my gauge must have been off as it is a 6 month size in my opinion, not a big deal, it will fit at some point

Anyway, look at the cute baby bear ears!

I started making these a while ago for my friend’s gorgeous twins Max and Lily, the pattern was suggested to me by Lizzy and I made a newborn one for baby Ailsa in bright red (which I failed to photograph!) and liked the pattern so much I decided to make some more.

Lily and Max had their second birthday recently so I have made the 3yr old size in the hope that they will fit at some point over the next year.

I really like the cable on Lily’s vest, it’s ‘hugs and kisses’ (or noughts and crosses to you and I), weird to block though.

I wanted to make Max’s vest a bit more boyish so I finished the bottom in rib rather than garter stitch but I don’t think I cast off very well. I have since learnt of the variety of cast offs available, the crochet cast off would have made this much neater, sigh. Live and learn.

I decided to make this after the success of the noname mitts, I really enjoyed the pattern and it was fun to knit whilst in Geneva visiting a rather cute little girl named Beatrix.

Again this is apparently worn by Hermione in one of the Harry Potter films, but whatever, I just like the pattern. I made this from the most amazingly soft wool which we bought as a pack of 10 very cheaply from The Black Sheep, I say we, what I mean is my mum bought it, I had 5 balls, Amber had 2 and my mum got the rest, a fairly good deal for her to be honest. It’s Sublime organic merino dk and it is lovely, I would make a sweater out of this if I could get some more at the same price.

The pattern I used was great but I made the ‘child’ size hat, the adult one is the same size around, just longer, but another whole pattern repeat would have made this way too long so unless your head is massive the child size should be fine. Having said that there are a few differing patterns for this ‘Hermione’ hat so it might be worth checking out the other versions too.

I know it’s a little late in the season for a hat (with the daffodils being out, by rights I should be in flip flops) but it was perfect for a walk along the canal last weekend when the wind was still a little nippy.

Ooh how exciting, more classroom craft! To be honest this is a fairly flat ending to a long overdue project, not because of the overall effect just due to the time it’s taken to get it finished. In the end it was a family effort, I knitted the majority of the pennants (although Amber and Lizzy did some too) and my Mum embroidered the letters onto them. I finished the knitting for these in September of last year, just as my sister (Amber) was taking her own class for the first time. All the classes are named after rivers of the world, although on closer inspection the Yarra isn’t even a good one! The Yarra is a river in east-central Victoria, Australia (see you’ve learnt something today), it’s not the longest, or most important, just ‘a’ river in Australia, lame.

The pattern for the bunting is from Green Mountain Mama, and it’s a piece of cake, however, I would recommend charting the letters into the pattern rather than embroidering them afterwards just for speed really. I used the never-ending Rico cotton, which knitted up really nicely for this project.

Anyway, this is the best class sign I’ve ever seen, if you’re class had/has better; let’s see it!

I made these for my little brother for Christmas, I say little, it makes him sound about 10 but he’s actually 26… I know he likes a fingerless glove as opposed to full gloves or mitts, that way he can wear them when working (he’s an electrician), hefting kit for his band and a variety of other outdoor tasks: feeding the rabbit, walking the dog, etc.

This is my second colourwork attempt, not as neat as the headband but I think that’s partly due to the wool I used, which was a basic dk. However, he loved them, in fact the comment when he opened them on Christmas day was ‘coolest gloves ever’, sweet.

Photos kindly provided by Dean and Jo – notice how the colours match his tattoos. Dean was very sick but he dragged himself out of bed to take these photos just to please me, isn’t he a good brother?