Browsing Category

knitting

Finger puppet fun

Listening to Master D play with his homemade finger puppets cracks me up. The other day his puppets were asking each other ‘are you naughty sometimes?’ to which another would answer (in a very serious voice) ‘ yes, sometimes’. LOL 🙂 Lucky for him (and his sometimes naughty finger puppets) they are super easy and fun to make.

Normally I have an animal in mind when I start – usually inspired by my wool scraps 🙂 Sometimes I sketch my idea to start me off (and I’m no artist as you can see):

Then I cast on around 12 stitches, before knitting about 18 rows of stocking stitch (knit a row, purl a row, repeat) before casting off. When I cast off I leave a good length of wool attached (I use this to sew my little creature up at the end).

 
Next I cut out my felt features; nose, ears, tail or whatever is needed and sew them on to the wool rectangle, together with googly sew on eyes.

 Then I sew up the creature using the wool I left attached, trimming off any excess. 

Then it is ready for play!

Just be careful around any Wookie dogs (you can learn more about this ferocious animal in my post ‘This is us #1: Wookie‘)!

Attacked!

 Thanks for reading, Kelly

October 17, 2011 by

Knitted love for Little Miss Q

While pregnant with Little Miss Q (who is now 17 weeks) I was super busy at work. I was looking after a high profile, high pressure project. After work I often found it hard to ‘switch off’… until I picked up some knitting needles.

My mum had taught me the basic knit stitch when I was a kid, but she’d always cast on and off for me. This time round I figured I should probably learn these for myself (I couldn’t see mum popping over to do it for me!). She did however lend me a book explaining how to do heaps of different stitches and basic ‘how to’ info. Soon I was knitting up a storm and because I was counting stitches and following patterns I was leaving work behind… at work (yay!).

Rectangles seemed to be the order of the day. I’m not quite sure why, but I just wanted to knit rectangles to try out different stitches and wool. Somewhere along the way (maybe around 7 rectangles?) they morphed into an idea for a baby blanket. Once I realised that was where my knitting was headed I was inspired; finding beautiful new wool and using it in different ways to make a blanket with wonderful colours and textures for baby to enjoy.

On my knitting adventure I learnt a lot, how different wool and stitches result in different sized rectangles with varying pull to them (I’m sure there is a more technical way of explaining this‽). When it came time to sew it all together this was a challenge, and I’ve ended up with a bit of a hodge-podge result, but I quite like the look of it.

A good friend of mine (who had knitted a wonderfully beautiful cream snuggle blanket for Master D) suggested how I could bring it all together. I had been thinking of using a fancy edge, but she suggested a simple cream border. Little Miss Q now gets to snuggle down under my handmade blanket, in her cot that both her father and nana-ma slept in as babies 🙂

This blanket was my start into rediscovering handiwork and crafts.

Thanks for reading, Kelly

October 8, 2011 by