Monday 15 October 2012

Little Spooks


Hi There,




I'm quite excited this week, as I have finally designed and made my own knitted...things! 

I have left Christmas behind in the last couple of weeks, and have designed some Halloween decorations, as it is nearly time for Trick or Treating!


The first decoration I made was the grimacing pumpkin. It was an experiment really to see if I could knit a circle. (Which I quickly found I couldn't) so in order to make the roundness of a pumpkin I knitted a square (much easier) and then gathered the sides at the top to make the round shape. I then knitted another green square for the top and a triangle for the leaf. I have recently discovered i-cords, the way to knit back and front to make the long cord, i have become slightly obssessed with them and finding ways to use then again and again. I used an i-cord to make a stalk at the top of the pumpkin.
The second I made is the little ghost. I sat down and designed the shape just by increasing and decreasing the shape. I made 2 sides and stitched them together as easy as that. Then I used my favourite ICord techniques to make the arms, I just made fatter cords for the arms. The good thing about ICords is that they bend naturally so it did add to the ghost look.



The Witch is the thing I am most proud of, it was supposed to be a simple design like the other two, but I ended up adding and adding to it till it was a quite complicated design. the shape started like the ghost and was made by increasing and decreasing 2 sides of the dress. then I used techniques I have learnt from past projects to make the green hair, and the i-cords for the spindly legs. I also made a cape for the witch and a pointy black hat, and you can't see the bottom but she does have orange knickers too.

I wanted to make the witch a house decoration so it would be able to sit on the side with her legs over the edge. I'm planning a little range of these spindly legged characters like the witch, so watch this space.

My first designs are full of flaws, but I really enjoyed knitting without checking a pattern every 2 seconds. My favourite is the witch, but the pumpkin and the ghost are also cute. I'm calling this range 'Little Spooks'


Lots of Love
Bomo Knitting





Monday 1 October 2012

Stars in their Eyes

Hi There

It's Christmas. Well nearly in exactly 85 days or there about, and I decided it was time to get a head start on my Christmas makes. Last year I made a lot of scarves and mittens, this year I wanted to make some decorations. I bought a lovely little book in the summer. It's called '20 Mini Christmas Makes' by Sue Stratford. It's really sweet and it has lots of little quick things to make, like Christmas trees, Christmas puddings and wreaths. I plan to make a few of everything and spread some woolly Christmas cheer this year. For my frst few experiments I started with stars.


So I made some stars. These stars are made for tree decorations or hanging up in the home. It's a relatively easy pattern to follow, you make the five points, or triangles and then place them on stitch holders and then you knit them all as one decrease to make the middle and hey presto a star. You make 2 sides and stitch together in garter stitch. I've decorated these with buttons, jingle bells and ribbon and they're really great for using up odd ends of wool that need using up. I did buy some metallic gold crochet wool to make the stitches round the edge.

The first one is made with a chunky marbled red wool, so is a bit larger and sturdier than the other two. I decorated it with a wooden button sewn on with the golden thread. I then stuffed them with toy filling.

The other two are made with DK wool in red and green, I decorated them with the gold thread and a bow with a bell I saved off a Lindor Rabbit last Christmas. (Yes I do save the bells off Lindor chocolates). The third one I decorated with red thread and a spotty red and white ribbon. I think they're nice and I plan on making lots of different woolly decorations for my tree and the trees of other's this year, and I'm on the hunt for sequin wool to make some more sparkly ones.





Whilst I made these stars, I also knitted up a snowman just for kicks.



Lots of Love
Bomo Knitting