Knitting Patterns by Lyndell

Halter Neck Dress for Neo Blythes - here
Design your own Dress for Neo Blythes - here
Gum-Nut Hat for Neo Blythes - here

Who? What? eh?

This is the blog of a constant crafter - a 'showcase' for some of the things I make, some hints for crafting & recylcing - lots of photos and some words. I hope it will inspire.
Please Note: all photos are Copyright.



Monday 14 June 2010

Mostly Brown

There are many browns, some are evocative of the earth and nature, some speak of chocolate and cakes.

Current knitting project is a quick, big, warm cardigan for my daughter - Bendigo Woollen Mills 12ply Classic in a sweet tan colour they call "Ginger". When it arrived it reminded me of those South American Alpaca / Llama jumpers worn by all cold uni students and hippies in the 1970s - yes, you know the ones! They usually had a row of alpacas / llamas marching around the chest or hem and they are vaguely trendy again. So, I grabbed another ball of the 12 ply in almost white and consulted daughter about what sort of critter? Answer: rabbits.

I've a lot of charts for rabbits and bunnies, mostly from vintage knitting patterns for children - decided to use them in a random manner. So Random Rabbits and Bouncing Bunnies ...

That's the back - this chap is on a sleeve.

Picture knitting / intarsia is my least favourite style of knitting, I just can't get the stitches to stay neat, they always get twisted about and there is always show-through of the un-used yarn. However, with a bit of blocking and some over embroidery I'm sure these bunnies will look OK.

Have also been spinning - and whereas that knitting is definitely in edible brown, this is brown a la nature.

Naturally soft brown coloured, corridale fleece spun with about 12% alpaca, also natural and undyed. The alpaca is mostly a light tan colour but there are cream bits too, the alpaca had patches or a pale chest? I spin this deliberately thick&thin with the alpaca thrown in as tufts - then it is plyed with the corridale done plain and quite thin. The result looks just like wood or bark, and it knits up like that too; really natural.

Not Brown. Just can't resist sharing this with you - the sunlight was shining through the petals.

We've 2 of these camellias, darling hubby rescued them 10yrs ago, they were very nearly dead when he brought them home - poor thin twigs in dried up pots. Well it has taken 10 yrs but they are glorious now.

Sunday 6 June 2010

Knit knit knitty knit

Just off the needles - 1 very small pretty project and 1 large & rather ugly theatrical project.

The pretty one first - a neckwarmer or scarflette for my niece. She likes all the mermaid colours and when Bendigo Woollen Mills sent me a card about their newest yarn "Highland" I thought she would the teal blue shade (called Loch) for a quick little birthday pressie.

Invented the pattern as I went, using a couple of lace patterns that have wavy edges, nice blue/green buttons and some beads on the points for added prettiness.

Now the less than pretty theatrical project - a shawl to be part of a very tatty and broken down costume. By the time it gets to the stage it will have been dyed and will look somewhat different - but here it is as it left my needles.

Tatty costumes are actually rather difficult to make - when they are part of a long running stage production they have to look the same in the last performance as they did on opening night. A previous run of this show had a shawl made from some machine knitted fabric “broken down” with holes and lots of ladders. Of course, this had continued to disintegrate - so I had to replicate that “look” in hand knitting that will be relatively stable with permanent holes and ladders :-)

They also wanted the fabric between the ladders to have a bit of a roll / not completely flat. I’ve never knitted a Clapotis but remembered seeing them and remembered that they have a bouncy roll between the dropped stitch ladders … looked up the pattern … there are Knit through Back of Loop stitches either side of the ladders, an idea I copied so I'm calling this a "Clapped-Outtee".

As the ladders and holes had to be quite random, the Clapped-Outtee Shawl was actually rather difficult and time-consuming - I was using 26 colour-coded stitch-makers at the widest point. I am quite proud of this completely tatty and rather ugly shawl :-)