J is for Jellyfish & O is for Octopus

More Alphabet knitting - an ongoing project for our grandchildren.

And thanks to Hansi Singh's "Amigurumi Knits" for some great knitted toys for some of the difficult letters of the Alphabet :-) In fact, I've plotted all the alphabet now except for the letter V. V is a problem - vulture and vampire are rather scary for very young children and they are not Australian critters, same applies to viper. Vixen might be the best idea - unfortunately we have plenty of feral foxes. If you can think of a good knitted toy for the letter V - please leave me a comment ... it doesn't necessarily have to be an animal.

Meanwhile, here are J and O ...

Roses for Rosie

I've a friend whose name is Rosie,
she said that she would like a Tea Cosy ...

OK I'll stop right there with the - umm - poetry (?) but honestly I did not realise until this was over 1/2 ways knitted that there was possibly some sub-conscious nominative determinism in my choice of Tea Cosy pattern for Rosie. This is called "Rosie Posy" - a lovely pattern by Loani Prior. Knitted body, crochet roses.













I have Loani Prior's fabulous book "Wild Tea Cosies" but "Rosie Posy" is available as a free pattern.

Just sew sew ...

Have been doing quite a bit of sewing for the grandchildren in the last few months - I've given them these items and there's more to come. I think there will be twelve days of Christmas this year :-)

I like to use cute and/or unexpected fabrics for childrens' clothes and this year I've indulged in some fun prints intended for patchwork quilts. Here's a Christmas shirt with shiny buttons for our grandson -

and a close up of fabric and buttons on his new PJs.

He likes fun buttons (don't we all) and likes to do them up himself - so I've made larger than normal buttonholes to make things easier.



Our granddaughter has had her first ever birthday :-) and I'd made her a cute play-suit from a vintage pattern. Lots and lots of frills especially across the ample bottom (designed to be worn over cloth nappies)


Well, it is not just the bottom that is large - seems that sizing was just as unreliable back in the 1950's as it is now - the pattern says it'll fit a 6mth old and I knew it was large but I think this playsuit will be a nice fit next year !!!

Alphabet Knitting - B, D and G

Am slowly knitting my way through the alphabet - for my grandchildren when it's all finished. A great excuse to knit lots of little toys :-)

SO - B is for Bat ... a "Boo the Bat" from Mochimochi Land

Very sweet and quite easy to knit - I did change the ears and used slightly thinner yarn and needles than suggested which has made this Bat just the right size to fit in my hand.





here he is with wings unfurled ...
so cute!







D is for Dragon - well originally, and in keeping with the attempt to make this alphabet as Australian as possible, D was going to be a Dingo, but I couldn't find a suitable pattern then I was thinking of a Drongo which is a bird (as well as Aussie slang for a somewhat silly person) but then I rediscovered Norberta, on knitty.com a very cute baby dragon. Again I used 8ply (DK) and so this one is smaller than pattern suggests, and I used lots of different yarns including bright metallic for her "fairy wings".

Well, I'm not knitting these in alphabetical order - so skipping right along to G for Gecko - another clever and cute pattern by Cheezombie on Etsy. Self patterning sock-yarn made for some good banded effects and I just love the goggly eyes!

Halter-Neck Dress for Blythe Dolls - pattern

Long sun-dresses with Halter necks are so fashionable this summer here in Sydney, lots of bright print fabrics - making for a very 1970s look!
As part of an on-going project I knitted one of these dresses for Blythe -
in self-patterning sock yarn.


It was so successful I knitted some other versions

















A very adaptable pattern - if you would like to knit one for your Blythe - the pattern is here.

The usual copyright thingos - feel free to use this pattern and adapt but please do not reproduce or on-sell my pattern, please do not sell items made from this pattern and if you use my pattern and post the results on the www - I would like an attribution, thanks.

Enjoy :-)

Natural Pest Control and a Knit

I'm a bit of an Arachnophile - have to admire such wonderfully fine spinning :-)

This lovely and rather large St Andrew's Cross spider has taken up residence in a corner of our garden.

She has had (probably in more than one sense of the word!) at least one admirer - the poor wee male is so much smaller than she is! She was even more rotund for a while, then she disappeared for a few days and when she came back she was least 1 dress size smaller - wonder where she left those eggs! She has lovely yellow stripes on her belly and bright yellow knees. Today she has woven a magnificent X in her web but some days she gets a bit lazy and leaves off an arm or two of her cross.


Finished this micro-cardi a while ago but only got the buttons for it this week.

It is in Collinette yarns, Iona and Giotto, both in the "Bilberry" colour - a magnificent strong blueish purple. My own pattern and this knit is for ME :-)