Oliver Boliver

Spoiler Alert - A sneak preview of my next toy design

I'm very excited about my next toy as she is going to be bigger than my other toy designs. Here is a sneak preview of my progress so far......

Yes - she's a giraffe, much to the delight of my little boy who absolutely loves g'raffs! I'm working on her body and neck at the moment and have big plans for some lovely long squashy legs and beautiful long eyelashes. I've been toying with some intarsia designs but I may opt for patches and keep it simple.

So - for the moment, I'm hard at it and hope to show you some more very soon.....

Holiday Preparations and a Lovely Sock Pattern

Summer is finally here which means holidays, sun and lots of holiday knitting. Holiday knitting for me means making things for me and my family, instead of designing toy patterns. Although I do love designing, it's sometimes like having a permanent crosswork on the go and isn't particularly relaxing especially when I'm faced with frogging the entire section I've been working hard on! So given the especially cold winter last year and mostly because I want to relax whilst on holiday I'm knitting socks for all the family. I searched Ravelry at the weekend and found a pattern by Handwerks in a DK weight that was relatively plain but had a nice ribbing detail. I started yesterday and have used 3.25mm dpns rather than 2 x 3.5mm circulars. I've added a few stitches to make up the tension. It should be quite easy to adapt and should accommodate my other halves size 10s as well as Ollie's tiny size 7's. I'll let you know how I get on.

My wool arrived from Laughing Hens last week. More Artesano Hummingbird.

I seem to be a little transfixed by it at the moment. Everyone got to choose their own colours - some are more conservative (ie me - blues) than others (ie Sarah - pinks, turquoise etc!). Ol will probably get a pair in each colour seeing as his feet are so small and can use up the odds and ends. I'm sure he'll grow up resenting wool in some shape or another!

For the toy knitters, I'm sorry that progress has been slow with my latest design but I've been toying (sorry!) which a couple of ideas and the general body proportions are giving me a little grief.  I will get there I promise and the results will be available soon.

New Page - Errata

I have to admit it, firstly to my husband and then to everyone else. It's true, I'm not perfect and there's proof!  I'm afraid that a couple of errant typos have been spotted in 1 or 2 of my patterns. Frustrating all round!!  I will be correcting these for all new patterns and for those who purchased on Ravelry a new link will be available so you can download the revised pattern. In the meantime I have created an Errata Page which can be found at the top of the blog for ease of finding or in the left hand side bar under Pages of Useful Stuff which sets out the very minor corrections.

So I'll be off now to do my self imposed detention and 100 lines and sincerely promise not to do it again!!!

Pen x

Knitting Pattern for Jasper the Tom Kitten

I thought that Daniel Spaniel could use a friend, so my needles have been clicking away again and this is what I've designed....

He's very sweet and I've named him Jasper after the rogue ginger tom cat my husband brought with him when we got married! (Save that the real Jasper only had 3 legs but that's another story!)

I've knitted him in 2 colour ways - here is Jasper as a black and white tom kitten...

I can't decide which colour I prefer him in!  I absolutely loved knitting with the Artesano Hummingbird DK yarn (the ginger kitten). I'm not a big fan of striping/patterned yarns - although I know many of you are - as most of the ones I've seen feel a bit too 70's. The Hummingbird Range (which they also do in a 4ply) is lovely though and the stripes didn't feel too bitty and definitely gave the right effect for a ginger tom cat. Or at least I think so...! The best thing is that the DK range comes in 150g hanks which means you have plenty left over to either knit a whole litter of kittens or rather selfishly, a pair of cuddly warm socks ready for winter. It's spun from Alpacas so is very soft! Anyway... enough goldblumming...

He's fairly quick to knit and makes a good inbetween project or even distraction from a project that's driving you crazy! You'll need slightly over half a ball of the main colour and about a quarter of a ball of the second colour so he's a good pattern for using up your odd ball of this and that which you bought on a whim and have stashed away in a cupboard!

He's 16cm tall so he's good for little (and not so little!) hands to grab hold of. Oliver loves him! He's fully suited to an advanced beginner and I'm more than happy to provide email assistance if you are struggling with anything.

If you'd like to give Jasper a good home then I've listed the pattern on Etsy ($US) and Folksy (£GB) He's also listed in my Ravelry pattern store. If you've not joined Ravelry then do have a look, it's free to join and is a really good resource.

That's it for now although I might have an announcement in a few weeks which might explain why I've been furtively toy knitting.......! 

Pen x