Knitting - Some Finally Finished Knits

Excuse me, but this is NOT a gum tree!

Well - time for a little bit of a catch-up post - catching up on some of the things that have (amazingly) been finished in the last month or so.  As always - I've been knitting a lot!

This Koala Tea-Cosy is a for a friend who is a very proud 'Bear' and he asked for pink !!  So - Pink mohair yarn, with primrose lemon lining, thick black felt for nose & claws and button eyes.  The pattern is a blend of Vintage Tea Cosy and Barbara Lennon's Koala from an out of print Cleckheaton pattern leaflet (please don't ask for a copy - it is still in copyright).

Human necks need to be kept cosy too - and I've put a couple of hand-knit (to my own pattern) neckwarmers up on Etsy.  This one I've dubbed the Mermaid -


the yarn is my own kettle-dyed and hand-spun - there are green aventurine beads on each of the points.








There is one made in white alpaca yarn and this one in grey wool.  With the very different yarns - each collar is quite different in style.














With the cooler weather starting here it was time to finish this jumper for my grandson.  I started it back in 2009 - it was turning out too large for grandson back then but he has grown!

Pixie inspects the knitting

And as I'd only got as far as the arm-holes I could add length ... but I ran out of yarn - hence the grey stripes in the sleeves.


The pattern is Chaos from knitty.  And I love the random cabling, it produces a fantastic texture. 

I used a thicker yarn than the pattern calls for and this is a very warm jumper.  I used Bendigo Woollen Mills 12ply in Guava.

It should fit for this winter at any rate!

For my Granddaughter - a bolero from a vintage pattern - Bernat Handicrafter book no. 47 (dated 1956).  I dyed the yarn myself (it is Bendigo Woollen Mills again - it was white).

 The bolero is in a modified Moss Stitch and I think the variegations look quite nice.

The one button is a heart shape - of course :-)











As always - a lot of knitting has been for Blythe Dolls.

This is my donation to the BlytheFest 2012.  The theme is CandyLand - so I knitted a Candy Cane dress.  Knitted from sock yarn, the dress is all asymmetrical & twisty and it fastens with a fake bow on one shoulder.

Audrey has been rather spoilt of late - I bought a vintage Vespa for use as a prop in photographs but Auds has claimed it as her own ...

 You'll have noticed the beret ?  When I gave this to Auds she wasn't sure what it was.

Is it a Blanket?

Perhaps it is a cushion?

Oh! it is a Hat!

 Yes Audrey - it is a hat!   I was quite pleased at how the colours in this self-striping sock yarn (JigSaw I think) distributed themselves on the beret, the dark maroon was going to one side and the white all went to the other ... I tweeked things a little to maintain this as the number of stitches decreased.  But depending which way you turn this beret (or tam) - it is a pastel hat or a boldly striped one. 

Ciao people ... I'm sure that there will be more photos of me in the next post.

Knitting for my Grandduaghter

Finally - Finally - finished ... the vintage style dress. This languished all neglected for a while but I finally bought some buttons (with shiny pearl finish) and dealt with the dilemmas caused by the collar. Thankfully I had knit it rather too large and so it will still fit my little granddaughter, she's 19 mths old now.

I think it'll look even prettier on her :-) it is a combination of 3 very vintage patterns (I think the earliest was from the 1930s) and I dyed the yarn myself - and ran out so I had to dye up some more the same !!! (see my post from March).

Here is a close up of the front bodice & collar


and the back with those buttons (from All Buttons Great & Small in Newtown)











I'm so pleased with how pretty this dress has turned out :-) here's another picture, this time of the skirt with its graduated waves ...

I'm also making a twin-set for my sweet little granddaughter - also vintage inspired but not quite a classic, conservative Twin-Set. The styling will be totally classic; all in 4ply (sock yarn) the jumper with short sleeves, in a lace stitch and with buttons at the back neck - the cardigan with a medium buttoning V neck, mostly stocking stitch with panels of the same lace stitch as the jumper. Very Classic - Very 1950s.

However, the colour is not classic & conservative at all ...
I kettle dyed that yarn too - both the mad, psychadelic purples and the aqua for the dress are Bendigo Woollen Mills "Luxury" 4 ply - originally "Frost" which is white. I dip dyed the purples twice - the first time most of the colours were really quite pallid, so I mixed up more colour and dipped again. Much Stronger Colours!

Well granddaughter looks lovey in all shades of purple and mauve so why shouldn't she have them all at once!

Finished the jumper this morning - here is it in all its eye-popping, digital camera confusing glory!

Been away but now ... I'm Baack!

Had a lovely time with our daughter and grandkids :-) spent some wonderful quality time together. Ahhh if only we all lived in the same city - or state even!

Gave daughter the big, warm cardigan with "random rabbits" - finished it just in time :-)


the Back and a Sleeve.

My intarsia is far from perfect but the bunnies looked OK with some knit-stitch embroidery - gave them all very fluffy tails with some eye-lash yarn. Daughter says that wearing the cardigan is like "a hug from mum" :-)

Grandson got a Pirate's Beanie ... he loves dressing up as a pirate, and pirates ALWAYS wear stripes! I incorporated his favourite colour - green - and based the shape on a vintage pattern, the motif is a purchased sew-on type.

Darling grandson also did some 'modelling' of his Retro Vest (see previous posts ... it is based on a Vintage pattern called "Lance").

I've several knitting projects for our granddaughter that are not-quite-finished ... but so she doesn't feel left out of this post, here she is modelling a beanie I made some time ago.

A Cleckheaton pattern # 951 "Cocoon Baby" - I dyed the yarn with “blossom spots” in pink and green.