Sunday, February 28, 2016

Cute Color Block Poncho at Mar's Site

There's another fun pattern at Marzipan Knits:

http://marzipanknits.blogspot.com/2016/01/machine-knit-stripilicious-patchwork_31.html

Friday, February 26, 2016

Look at the heart pillow pattern - made into an ornament by Eli!

Eli commented that she was making ornaments out of the little Valentine's pillows for which I recently put up a video and pattern.  Aren't these cute?  She's hand knitting them as well as machine knitting them.

http://rettogvrangstrikk.blogspot.com/2016/02/strikk-et-hjerte-knitting-hearts.html

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Darling Baby Set at Yarn Harlot

Yep, I do watch the Yarn Harlot blog.  I watch logs of HK blogs; don't often link to them, as they contain so much non-knitting material. 

This is a clever use of beads:

http://rettogvrangstrikk.blogspot.com/2016/02/babystrikk-pa-pinnene.html

Beads are easy to add on our knitting machines!  And easy to sew on later, too.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Inspiration at Rhythm of the Needles

More great looking Fair Isle!

http://www.rhythmoftheneedles.net/2016/02/fair-isle-friday-winter-snows-mittens.html

Note how good her tension is!  I often see hand knitted fair isle where the stitches are just TOO uneven for my liking.  Seems like it's great to have it look hand knitted, but not sloppy.

Saturday, February 6, 2016

New Video for February - Stuffed Valentine Hearts




Happy Valentine's Day!

So...I'm a week early.  Well, it's a week for you to knit one of these little pincushions, or pillows, or sachets, or whatever-you-can-think-of little stuffed hearts.  It only takes a dab of yarn, can be done on almost any machine, and is great short-rowing and Kitchener practice.

Here's one that I made with tightly-knit wool yarn on the standard gauge machine (the 100 stitch size), then filled loosely with rice for a heating pad.  I hope the picture of me putting my hand under it shows how it has a little weight and molds to your body.







 
And, here are some little ones that I made for pin cushions (filled with bits of waste yarn).  Now. I find that I've gotten quite happily used to having a pin cushion next to my machine with tapestry needles.  They're very handy.

Below is a brief chart (not really a written-out pattern with complete instructions - you'll need to watch the video - with some different sizes you can make.  I'm not going to give gauges and measurements, because you could do this with a bulky gauge, mid-gauge, or standard gauge and use various yarns.




Stuffed Heart Chart
Cast on with waste yarn
over ____ stitches1620304060100
Chain to main yarn
Knit ___ rows plain45681225
Short row decrease
to ____ stitches222222
Short row increase until
all stitches are back in work
Rows to knit plain45681225
Put half of needles in hold
Short row down to
___ stitches468101424
Increase until all
stitches are back in work
Do other side
Take off on waste yarn
Kitchener stitch