Thursday 17 November 2011

Two presents down...

I haven't been online much but have been busy knitting over the past few weeks and now have two presents completed :-) although seeing the progress other people are making this doesn't seem like much.

First is a hat for my cousin, using some orange/red/brown variegated yarn I had in my stash using a pattern I made myself.

Next is a hot water bottle cover for my dad. I made up the pattern as I went along (with a lot of unravelling and re-knitting) trying out different stitches from this 1980s book - I went for a very plain dad-colour, but think the different textures makes it a bit more interesting, although it should be subtle enough for him.
Sorry about bad phone pictures, the quality isn't great and you can't see how beautiful the colours are in the yarn below. I saw it and knew I needed it for something for my stepmum. I finally joined Ravelry and found a lovely (and super easy) free pattern for this scarf with wavy lacy holes and a scalloped edge. The pattern is easier than it looks - 4 rows repeated, and 2 rows are plain knitting. I think it will need blocking when it is done as the edges are getting quite wobbly, but I've never done this before - do any knitters have any links to good guides for this?

I am a little annoyed that I couldn't get the scarf out of one hank, but at least I'll have some nice wool to make matching mittens or a hat. The scarf is approximately 160cm long now and I'm starting to get bored - how long should a good scarf be?

5 comments:

  1. My Auntie - an obsessed knitter - always puts her pieces under a blanket on the back of her sofa for a few weeks, so every time she sits there her body weight aids in the 'flattening'.Otherwise you would pin the piece to something flat like a big cushion or a board and stretch it in shape that way.

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  2. My Auntie - an obsessed knitter - always puts her pieces under a blanket on the back of her sofa for a few weeks, so every time she sits there her body weight aids in the 'flattening'.Otherwise you would pin the piece to something flat like a big cushion or a board and stretch it in shape that way.

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  3. I was told that a scarf should be longer than the height of the person wearing it.Whether you want to go for just a couple of inches longer or the Tom Baker Doctor Who look is up to you!

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  4. Love your pattern for the cherry berry beret! Been looking for the perfect hat pattern for my mum's present, and I think yours is it! At the beginning you mention 10mm needles, and then they're not included in the pattern. Is the whole hat knitted on the 5 1/2mm needles? Thanks :) x

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  5. Liz - my family is a tall family :-( I better carry on knitting.

    Becca - thanks for looking at my pattern :-) I swapped to the 10mm needles for the main hat, doing the rib in smaller needles. However those were just the needles I could find, but they seemed to work.

    Nic - I washed it and pinned it to a towel on my cutting mat. It looks really good, although the middle is slightly wobbly as I had to do it in two parts as it was too long!

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