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.

Tea Cosy Pride

I’m glowing with pride right now because the Loani Prior aka “The Queen of the Tea Cosies” has included my “Rosie Posy Tea Cosy” on her blog where she has a whole garden of lovely Rosy Cosies. They look so pretty :-) check them out here

The pattern is in Loani's first book "Wild Tea Cosies" - my cosy is on the RH side, middle row, 4th set of photos. And some more photos ...

Been busy

Lots of sewing in the last week - including some shirts for grandson. With short sleeves in a classic stripe -





and long sleeves in tartan - this is a lovely light weight cotton fabric.






As grandson is left-handed I've placed the pockets on the RHside and because he likes to do up his buttons himself - "I can DO it" - I've used biggish buttons with slightly larger than normal b-holes. Buttons on the tartan shirt look like old-fashioned records (those black vinyl things) - they have different coloured 'labels' & I had fun matching the colours of the tartan :-)

Have also finally gotten back to that mega-project I started last year - to make an alphabet for the grands with knitted toys for each letter ... T is for turtle & tortoise and so I'm knitting a Sheldon a great pattern and I love the way he 'comes out of his shell' :-) but at this stage in his progress I think my Sheldon looked rather like a tick with a full tummy ...
On Sunday we went to the Leichhardt Public School Fete - because of the Tea Cosy competition. Lots of wonderful cosies - here are the children's















and the grown up's






Wonderful creativity. My Anna Karenina got a prize and I'm inordinately proud :-) Bought all sorts of things at the fete, 2nd hand books and clothes and a really big metal colander - which with a bit of adaptation will fit perfectly inside my dying pot - and make it much easier to dye roving / sliver without it felting up. Yea!

Well, I'll leave you with yet another native orchid flowering in the garden right now - Dendrobium falcorostrum (aka Beech Orchid) and it seems this is another orchid getting reclassified and getting another name Thelychiton falcorostrus all these names make our lovely native orchids sound like hardened criminals!

And this one is such a pretty thing - love the fancy shape to the tip of the labellum, like one of these { The scent is classic native orchid - sweet and powdery.

More Blossom & Anna Karenina the Tea Cosy

More blossom inspired yarn - hand spun and (the coloured parts) hand dyed. Pretty peach blossom



I was thinking of citrus / lemon & orange flowers as I was spinning this, but now it reminds me frangipani -









A little while ago I had been busy torturing a doll and promised to let you know more about the project ... well here is that poor tortured dolly

She has become a tea cosy - my entry in Leichhardt Public School P&C Association's "Creative Tea Cosy" competition. Entries available at "A Coffee and A Yarn". It's a good excuse to knit up an idea I had a while ago when a friend said that she liked Russian Caravan Tea ... surely a tea pot full of Russian Caravan Tea would require a suitable cosy? BTW: she is sitting on a ball in the photo, she does have the side splits for spout and handle.

Tea Cosies are essentially kitsch and some of the kitschiest cosies are those with a dolly - they were often dressed as "little Dutch girls" but sometimes as very frilly crinoline ladies. It is probable that those tea cosy dolls were the ancestors of toilet-roll dolls. But back to Anna Karenina ... thick chenille yarn (beastly to work with but it has that velvet look) with white eye-lash yarn (even worse to work with). There is a knitted lining, of red wool. Glass beads for the 'buttons' and on the hat which also has feathers.

The tips of ordinary feathers picked up when walking through parks - thoroughly washed and I curled the barbs.

Today I also made some hair clips for my granddaughter - went through my stash of bits & pieces, stitched things together and a bit of hot-glue gun for good measure -

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.