Simply Stitchy

A huge thank you to Jane over at the World Embroideries Blog for sending me these two kits from her giveaway a few weeks ago.      Both kits involve learning new skills.  The Golden retriever is in Tent Stitch which is something that I haven't come across before and I've never knitted with beads so I'm looking forward to getting started with these two! Thanks Jane, they are absolutely adorable.  I'm in the process of knitting handwarmers at the moment.  I've just completed my first pair, which Eldest can be seen modelling below. Youngest thinks that they look really cool so now I'm knitting a pair for her to.   The thanks for these go to Stacy over at Golden Bird Knits.  The handwarmers are based on her Fingerless Glove pattern, without which I wouldn't have had a clue how to even start knitting these. Its a lovely pattern, very simple and knits up very quickly. The pattern is on her blog site and it's well worth popping across to take a look. 

Moving on from the slight disaster with the floppy brim hat, I decided to have a bit of a break from knitting and turn my attention back to cross stitch for a while.  The cover kit in this month's Cross Stitcher Magazine was for gift tags. Ideal - small, quick and even better, simple!   And here are some of the finished items. What a brilliant way to spend a day.  Better still though, "Ice Cold in Alex" was on the TV this morning and "Dirty Dancing" is on in about an hour's time.  Two of my all time favourite films - on the same day.  Bliss!!  Could the day get any better? Wishing you all a perfect day to, Bye for now Olly

You may remember from a few posts back, I treated myself to a copy of "Knitting in No Time by Melody Griffiths.  I bought it because I liked the look of the wrap on the cover and wanted to have a go at knitting it.  As I hadn't really knitted anything large before, I thought that I should practice on smaller projects first.  So, this is how I got on with the Floppy Brim Hat on page 34. The pattern uses 339 Metres of Rowan Yorkshire Tweed DK (double knitting) in Revel, which is a deep purple, pure new wool. Its knitted using 3.5mm (US size 3) needles. I have neither. The wool is discontinued and the local wool shop didn’t have the needles.    Not one to let a small matter of lack of material stand in my way, I deviated from the pattern a smidgen. I used some unbranded acrylic DK yarn in a lovely shade of lavender on 4mm (US size 6) needles. Did I do a gauge swatch? Now, don’t be silly, of course I didn’t. The brim of the hat is knitted first. It is worked in two full rows f