Foxy

December 2014

One of the ladies in my knitting group whipped up a couple of these cute hats for Christmas presents, and I couldn't resist following suit, they were so adorable.

I’d originally intended to make this using orange teddy bear eyes rather than buttons for the eyes, but I decided against, since they were on spikes, and so felt like they would make it a bit uncomfortable to wear.

Photographed in Hagg Woods, Dunnington. It’s amazing how cooperative a 3 year old can be when there are chocolate biscuits at stake.

I shortened the ribbing around the brim by about 0.25”. I made the smallest size, but with felted tweed (a dk) held double on 3.25mms. The main rationale being that I wanted to make it with something I already had stashed, and that was the only orange yarn I had.

I’m happy with how the sizing turned out. Here’s it’s modelled by a 3 year old boy. The intended recipient is a 4 year old girl. I think it will be fine.

George does look cute in it, though, and I do have some grey Cascade 220 stashed, so I expect I’ll be casting on a woolfie at some point, as this was a really fun pattern to follow, with shadow wraps, intarsia in the round and all sorts of interesting features.

This is a Christmas present for Emily. Since her brother is getting a sweater I also made her a matching toy fox in felted tweed to even things out a bit. The fox is here.

Pattern: Foxy by Ekaterina Blanchard
Size: Toddler
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed dk
Colours: 154 Ginger and 177 Clay
Needle 3.25mm
On ravelry: here

Atlas

December 2014

I’ve had a real soft spot for Jared Flood ever since his version of the Noro Striped Scarf persuaded me to have a go at making my own, and since then I’ve also made Cisco and Elizabeth Zimmermann’s seamless hybrid thanks to him. What I saw this pattern I knew I had to make it even if I didn't initially know who for. It was one of those patterns.

I really love how this turned out. Yes, the large areas of 4-ply stocking stitch were tedious, and yes bits of the yoke called for three-colour-colourwork-with-wraps which is not much fun at all, but my goodness it was worth it.

I did find the pattern to be a little bit overly wordy and prescriptive, but I guess some people prefer a lot of hand holding, and the short treatise on “colour dominance” was interesting.

I didn’t bother going up a needle size for the colour work. I know that stranding tends to make colourwork tighter than working in one colour, but I relied on blocking to sort that out for me, as I was in a bit of a hurry.

I got a message of thanks shortly after Christmas, assuring me that the recipient now referred to this as his "new favourite jumper" and wondered how I knew that blue was his favourite colour (I didn't, I just like it too). It's very satisfying to have such knit-worthy children in the family.

Pattern: Atlas by Jared Flood
Size: 6 years
Yarn: Garnstudio DROPS Fabel and Cygnet Truly Wool Rich 4-ply
Colours: Blue, black and white
Needle 2.75mm and 3.25mm
On ravelry: here