Jan's Regia socks

Jan has been on a sock mission lately. She has knit several pairs, but I am having a hard time persuading her to bring them in for Show and Tell. I strongly suspect that they are snapped up by the recipients before she has a chance to let us admire them.


This pair is for her lucky granddaughter. The yarn is Regia sock wool by Kaffe Fassett, 4254 Mirage, which has beautiful subtle earthy colours. For some strange reason this photograph looks rather blue on my computer monitor, in real life imagine a more purple and brown tone.

Jan has used an older pattern for her socks, she thinks it is an Heirloom pattern, but has been using it for so long that the origin is a bit of a mystery. I love the knit1 purl 3 rib, it looks terrific and is snug yet stretchy.

Stitch Bliss, Gympie, Queensland, Australia. We love knitting, wool, yarn and stitching.

Green Beret

Recently we held one of our Next Step Knitting classes at the shop. It was great fun, although unfortunately, I forgot to take photographs of the finished objects.
Except, of course for my finished object. I knit along with the class to demonstrate different techniques in the pattern.


This yet another version of my cable beret pattern. I have used Shade #710,Cardomon Silkroad Ultra for this one, I love this colour. I am now fancying a co-ordinating scarf for next winter.

Quick knitting

My niece turned 4 last week. I had bought her a book, my stand by present, but I really wanted to make her something.

I hunted through the stash, and found 2 balls of powderpuff in a colour I am sure should be called "4-year old pink". I am not a huge fan of powderpuff, but it is soft, machine washable, and I had some, which made it quite attractive all of a sudden. I knit two strands together on 7mm needles, and this garter stitch scarf took less than two hours.
Sometimes making a gift takes less time than shopping.

Baby Blanket in Baby Bamboo

When I came into the shop the other day, I saw this new display by Sharon.


(I told you she was keen on baby things right at the moment)

It is made from Sirdar Baby Bamboo shade 155, Limey. This shade is not on the website shop yet, but I will have it up soon.



The pattern is simple, but the stitch changes give it lovely texture and make the blanket interesting to knit.



The pattern book is Baby Bamboo Too, 346

Moorland Lass Pam

I was all set to show you Sharon's baby bamboo blanket today, but Pam visited me this morning to show me her Moorland cardigan. She is feeling shy and asked for a headless shot, which is a real pity, as she is very happy with this project, and her lovely smile shows it! .




Pam bought this pattern and yarn a little while ago, planning to use it whilst she was travelling to West Australia. However, she knitted it up so quickly that she was able to wear the cardigan through almost the entire 3 week trip, but unfortunately had left herself nothing to knit. She told me that she and her friend had to knit one end each of her friend's project. (I think she was joking). Personally, I am always quite worried that I will run out of knitting whilst I am travelling, and take several balls of yarn "just in case". I think it is a bit like packing food for a picnic - far better to come home with left overs than to not have enough whilst you are out enjoying yourself. :)



The pattern is Moorland Lass, design F from Crofter 349. It is clever of Pam to have spotted this gem of a pattern in the book, as it is practically hidden - no big photo in the book, and not even pictured in the small photos on the back of the cover.
Pam chose colourway 60 - Loganberry, of the Sirdar DK Crofter for her cardigan.

Almost Instant wrap

A friend of mine has just sewn a fabulous wrap, and on seeing a photo of it, I was inspired to write a knitting pattern (OK, I should really finish some of the WIPs, but this was soooo quick)



I used a novelty yarn - "1 hour scarf", which is sort of a stable chenille. It is unusual in that a stocking stitch does not roll at all at the edges. I am not sure if you can see in the photo that the wrap has quite a strong diagonal top edge.

This took an hour and a half to knit. I am writing it up for the shop!
I am also knitting another version in purple Del Sur.

My daughter "borrowed" this one to wear to dance class, and I haven't got it back yet.

Something nice for Saturday

I really appreciate the comments people leave on the blog. It is lovely to know that our knitting projects are appreciated!

If you read the blog, I would like to give you a discount coupon to use at the website shop this month. Type in SEPT10, and 10% will be taken off the cost of the products you order.

This can't be applied to backorders or out of stock items.

2 steps back, 1 step forward

When I write patterns, I do not tend to start with the maths.
I tend to start with the yarn.
This does not always work, and I thought this delay in approaching the matchs was the main reason I spend so much of my pattern development doing reverse knitting. I do plan to improve on this one day. Just not this week.
I started this last night.


I have done a lot of frogging today, and this time it was the yarn that did it to me - the maths was just fine. It was a bit disappointing,

but I like the next version better already.



Picky, Picky!

Hat for camp that rocks

My daughter suffered a hat crisis on Monday night. No warm hat for school camp, except a “boring” beanie. She begged, she pleaded, and I gave in. Free pattern Snowboarder hat that rocks (blog link)to the rescue. Very, very cool pattern according to my daughter. Very, very fun and quick pattern according to me.






I used Sirdar Crofter Chunky yarn (#59, Rambler Rose), which is probably less bulky than the yarn called for in the pattern, but the hat looks fine anyway. Using this yarn, it might not fit a large man, which is the size given in the pattern , but it fits my daughter nicely. I love stretchy, forgiving cables.

I used DP needles, as I prefer them to circular needles, and used more strands of yarn for the plaits, but otherwise knitted this up exactly as written.
I got lots of Mum points for this one.