Taking a knitting break

I'm slightly weird when I take a break from my serious knitting, I usually cast on something else. 

This week I've put down my pretty labour intensive miette cardigan (my phone kept a writing mistress then, not sure why? I'm don't think dominatrix wear cardigans) in favour of something lighter. I was getting to the point where all I could see were letters and they made no sense. so time to stop , but I know I'll pick it back up when I've finished my new project. 

I'm making a colour blocked knitted bear out of some stray wools I have, and I even have a recipient in mind. Assuming that is that I can get it finished. 

Heres a small drawing I did of how I want him to look. I'm so glad my art a level hasn't been wasted. 

Luckily it's coming together quite nicely the first time I made this bear was when I was reviewing the wool from little lamb wool. From what I can remember I finished it pretty fast and it turned out super cute. 

So far I've knit both of the body pieces and made a start on the head which isn't too bad to say I was also watching keeping up with the kardashians. Don't judge me I love trashy telly! And you just don't get awesome comments like these from intellectual documentaries!

 

I love kris Jenner I have no idea why because as a person she seems pretty deplorable, in fact I'd say most of them have questionable morals.... But.... They do wear fabulous clothes! 

I feel like I might NEED a pleated leather skirt in my life...

Much love

Frankie 

Little Lamb Wool - Part 3 , Little bear.

Its finished! after a little bit of cursing and learning how to knit into the front and back of a stitch! (yes I am still learning new stitches! and I'm proud!)

I have finished my final project using my wool from littlelambwool, and its an adorable little bear!

I used WYS Signature British wool 4ply Bird Prints in bullfinch Which is made by west yorkshire spinners, and boy is it nice to knit with, for starters the colour change combination is lush! That's really the way to describe it! There is two different shade of grey teamed with a creamy white and a bright pop of red, and the joy of this colour change wool is that it adds interest to a simple pattern without having to weave in lots of loose ends, plus I think it looks a bit like fair isle knitting! The wool is a 4ply so I knitted it up on size 3mm needles, which is what's recommended on the wool band. As its 4ply is quite a thin wool but its also very soft and springy! And it feels much nicer to some of the acrylic wools that are out there!

The bear is a free pattern from raverly that I found it on pinterest. It's an actual Debbie bliss pattern and is knitted in garter stitch.

Pattern wise its fairly easy to follow although I would recommend reading the comments with regards to the body section as the instructions are not quite as clear as they could be. And also read the comments if you an accomplished knitter because some people have worked out how to knit the body in the round which save time on making up! I think this pattern would suit an adventurous beginner, there's some slipped stitch parts which are easy to follow and knitting into the front and back of a stitch but I think that covers all of the slightly difficult bits. And as a bonus I'm sure he'd look lovely knitted up in stockinette stitch as well!  

My only quibble with the pattern is that it doesn't have a tail, and I'm from the school of thought that bears should have tails! But I'm sure the little baby who this is going to live with won't find the lack of tail to offensive!

All in all I'd say this has been a very successful project! I love how the wool looks with the pattern and I'm so pleased I managed to make a bear that doesn't look evil. The whole thing knitted up quickly and the bear is lovely and soft and squishy!

If you'd like to make this bear for your very own you'd need this wool , and as an added bonus it come in 6 different colours! I'm currently lusting after woodpigeon !

Thank you again to LittleLambWool for sending me such lovely wools to try!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Disclaimer: Although these items were sent to me free, all opinions are my own. I would never provide good reviews for items I myself would not use, as a teacher once told me I'm honest almost to a fault!

The evil bear of doooooooom!

A little while ago Mr knitwits nan gave me a bear kit that she hadn't got round to finishing. And when she offered it to me to use I jumped at the chance (mainly because it was highly probable that all the pieces were knitted and just needed sewing together , nans not a huge fan of sewing things together) 

I was very nearly right, I just had to knit 5 pieces , two paw pads, two leg pieces and a stupidly complicated looking body piece . 

Oh yeah I knit was of those! Surprisingly the instructions were pretty simple! 

Anyway here's are the decapitated pieces of bear. It was a brute to stitch together by the way.

Here's a wonky eyed bear face, with dainty nose (before I ruined it)

Here's what it's supposed to look like.....

All stuffed and well bloody huge! I was not expecting it to be this darn big! I had to make a couple of changes, for starters the arms are stitched together, it turns out that you can stitch them on upside down so they hang funny, and it also turns out that fluffy stitches in fluffy wool are dammed hard to unpick therefore a little bit of sticking magic made them look normal! 

I also changed the stitches around the hearts on the blanket and paws, the instructions called for big stitches but I didn't think they seemed very sturdy, so I opted for a simple running stitch! 

My nose also came out more pointy and triangly, and well not brilliant but not awful. 

The heart in the ear is a pretty cute feature though! 

And the feet are pretty cute!

But here's the honest truth! If I had brought/been brought this kit I would never have finished it! I'm not great at the whole finishing hard projects thing! So I am extremely thankful that nan lost her motivation and all I had to do was knit a few small pieces and stitch it up! 

That's what I call teamwork!

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

Arrrrrrrgggghhhh!

Christmas is coming!!! Has anyone heard! Everyone to panic stations! Man the wrapping desk! Someone grab that turkey! 

IT IS COMING! 

Seriously though I'm blaming Christmas for my sporadic posting, although hopefully It should get better soon! I've completed two orders and ones nearly finished (hopefully I'll be able to post about it later) and I've got some art coming along nicely! 

I've also got a hankering to make a Megan dress from love at first stitch, probobly a wearable muslin type thing and then maybe treat myself to some fabric after Christmas (or have a complete meltdown and get some anyway before Christmas!) anyway I'm going to have a zip rummage tonight and see what I can do! Although I bet a full button back version would look lovely! 

Other than that! Christmas is nearly wrapped up stress wise! (There's a pun in there somewhere) Christmas presents have all been brought and most are wrapped (insert smug face here) and I don't even have to worry about Christmas dinner as we are at mr knitwits nans this year! 

In other news I got to see my lovely aunty and uncle today in Nottingham! (If your reading HEYA!) and they have to pleasure of owning this 

Which I did for my mum to give my uncle one year! It's him sat on a fence (as a child) with rupert bear! My uncle has a love for rupert bear that is unrivalled by anyone I have ever met. No seriously! 

And for those of you wondering why rupert isn't white? I've had it drilled into me from a young age that whilst rupert is white inside to books he is always brown on the cover! 

I have a wealth of useless knowledge! 

Much love 

Frankie 

Xxx

Once, twice , three times a sleepy lady!

You remember not long ago I made myself my first pair of Margot pyjamas from love a first stitch? Well in an effort to really perfect my sewing I made another two pairs after that! both with variations! so without further ado ladies and gentlemen, please prepare yourself for some awkward posing and some props! Oh yeah its not just my awkward mug, its props as well! Id also like to apologise that you don't get a full view, but me and my tripod were having a bit of a row!

So grab a glass of wine, sit down and enjoy the ride! Go on have a giggle on me!

Here's my original pair! and no I haven't just woken up I thought the timer wasn't working! And here's Ted, if you haven't watched the Ted movie watch it! Its amazing and yeah it makes me cry!

 

Pair No.2

 

 

Is that an actual brew? Ill let you decide? But Frankie where's you hand?

 

 

Why its in my pocket! Yeah I made pockets! (smiles smugly) You can put things in them and everything!

 

Pair No.3

 

 

Short version, these don't have pockets but their still pretty darn sweet! Super awkward pose here!

 

 

This is snowy! I've had him since I was a little girl! we are inseparable! He's getting a little old now though, so don't be surprised if there's a post on here one day about me having to sew his head back on, he's got quite the floppy neck at the moment!

Anyway that's enough awkward poses for one day! But be prepared I've been doing a LOT of refashioning recently!

right I'm off to bed in pair No.2!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

I Wondered Where That Went?

We've been decorating for, well, what seems like forever! We did little Knitwits room and then we did what is formally known as the man room! But as with all redecorating projects we ended up finding lots of things that we thought we had lost or misplaced! One of which was this little teddy bear I made when I found out I was pregnant!

 

 

It was the first stuffed toy I had ever knitted and I have to say I was pretty proud of it. Now I know what your thinking. Yes he does look like he's been run over and yes he is fairly flat. But that was how I wanted him! When I decided to make my little bump a stuffed toy I immediately panicked ! I wanted something safe, something he could breathe through and something I wouldn't have to worry about, so yes when I started to draft out the pattern I made him as flat as possible (yep even then I decided making my own knitting patterns was easier than trying to read the Morse code crossed with abbreviated English of commercial patterns. I have never yet gotten through a commercial knitting pattern without ringing my mum, my Nanny or popping over to my old baby sitters house Auntie Audrey! )

But in my first time mum panic I decided that this pattern needed to be as child friendly as possible I even googled how long to make his scarf so there would be no risk of strangulation, and even then I hand stitched it on just to make sure!

 

 

 

Now I thought he'd been lost and although I enjoyed making him, he was never a favourite with little Knitwit who only has eyes for his Donald duck! So when it became apparent that he was lost I wasn't particularly bothered, I took the approach of "you can't win them all" and by then my knitting had progressed! I mean I know stocking stitch as well now! I don't use it very often, but I know it! 

 

But when I found it lurking at the back of one of little Knitwits cupboards, it all came flooding back to me. The memories of being a first time mum and of making something for my baby, placing it into the boxes of things we'd gather for him and waiting for the day I could give it to him in person. Now this little guy was in danger of getting thrown away , or at the very least harvested for parts! But now he has a very special place in a box of old baby things that I just can't bear (no pun intended) to throw away! He might not have been a favourite of little Knitwit but this little flat bear will always be a favourite of mine.

 

 

Even in the picture you can tell he's not impressed!

I would also like to add that this teddy does not look that evil. So it is possible I can make stuffed toys that haven't been possessed by the devil! Unlike this and this.

 

Have you kept anything that you made for your little ones? Even if they didn't like it or use it?

 

Much Love

 

Frankie

 

XXX

         

Attack of the evil Bear!

I'm starting to get worried about my crafting mental well being, everything I make is turning out , well, evil!

 

I should probably explain, it all started with a picture I found on pinterest (Its origin is here by the way)

 

 

Isn't he cute! I immediately wanted one! So I searched online for a pattern, this project went from Ooooh, to pattern, to cutting, to stitching at light speed!

 

I found this pattern also on pinterest, and immediately cut my felt.

 

 

Now in the gung ho style that is most frequently associated with Mr.Knitwit I decided I didn't need instructions and sort of went for it!

 

Luckily I already had a caramel coloured felt in my stash , and I stuffed it. And this is what he ended up looking like.

 

 

Do you see the evil in him? That eye! That pointy nose!

 

 

I don't blame the pattern I used at all, in fact I'm sure its me after the bunny rabbit incident, which I've already mentioned in a previous post. I'm starting to worry that there's some sort of evil spirit demon trapped inside me, trying to get out!

 

 

This is the standard horror movie dead body shot. Complete with broken legs.

 

 

I even tried to make him look cuter by giving him a tail!

 

 

But that ended up looking like a , well we all know what it looks like so I think I'll just leave it there.

 

But I'm terrified about what going to come next .

 

 

A rag doll that looks like Chucky?

 

 

Or like the creepy doll from saw!

 

Think I might give handmade toys a break for a while, before I terrify some poor child.

or some poor adult!

 

Much Love

 

Frankie

 

xxx