Category Archives: children

no, it’s not the Easter bunny

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IMG_1625Another custom made birthday order – this time for my niece, the “best” follower of this blog… No offence to all other but can any of you say that they have clicked on my site over 200 times, within an hour ? 🙂

So after a bit of research on here she wanted me to knit a soft toy for her 6th birthday – either a bunny or a guinea pig.

And after some browsing through ravelry patterns (not sure how much time and how many clicks there) she chose Henry’s rabbit by Sarah Elizabeth Kellner in white with some flowers on the side as seen in one of the featured examples.

After such a careful decision making the pressure was clearly on …

The original pattern only has two legs in front but I decided last minute to add two more.

original Henry pattern

original Henry pattern

 

I think that makes more sense for a child who will be playing with it rather than just enjoying the look of it.

four legged Henry

four legged Henry

And after another careful decision making, this time by me, I decided to refresh my crochet skills and to actually crochet the flowers rather than embroider them.

I found this tutorial (in German) and as I did not remember the crochet vocabulary at all, I had to follow the video tutorial which made things really easy.

So, now the finished bunny has a few flowers on its side and will hopefully meet the expectations.

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I think I will be using some of these flowers to decorate our window when I come back from my holiday in Austria (with loooots of yarn in my suitcase).

 

Knit me a mountain chain!

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This request reminded me a bit of the scene where the narrator meets the little Prince for the first time and gets asked: “Draw me a sheep”.

I did not really take it for serious since it was actually my 7 year old nephew reacting to his slightly annoying aunt trying to be funny by offering to make him the same flowery hairband than for his little sister.

Later my sister told me that he had once asked her to make  him a “beaver river” which she did. So, I realised that rather than just laughing at an idea, I should just think about how to make it come true. I guess that is one of the things that we can really learn from children and I am now in fact really glad my nephew has asked me for a knitted mountain chain for his birthday! And here it is:

mountain chain

mountain chain

It actually reminds me of a particular view from back home. I guess my subconscious was guiding my needles when I tried to shape the top section. I wonder if anybody will recognise it or maybe be reminded of any other particular view?

Here is the link to my ravelry project

I had been looking for a green yarn with a few different shades and finally found the Stylecraft Vision DK. I was expecting shorter sections of the different colours to get patches of different greens rather than the stripes that I actually got. I have also randomly purled a few stitches in between all the knitted ones to get a more uneven structure, representing the different structures of nature – grass, bushes, trees,…

After talking to my sister and my nephew about his play experience with the beaver river, I have decided to keep it really simple so he can play with it as freely as possible and use his obviously very rich imagination to create by himself whatever is missing.

Initially I wanted to even only knit a plain rectangle but I realised that would get bulky and not “fall” nicely if he puts it over a frame or stuffing. So I started to knit in the round, with 4 stitch markers as indication for a  more or less rectangular base. I did then some decreases around the stitch markers, not always in the same place and also changing the direction of the line by alternating k2tog and ssk.

decreasing

decreasing

The colour change from green to grey is done over three or four rounds, I then split the whole thing in two half’s and worked to more or less mirrored sides which I sew together in the end to make sure I’ll get sharp  summits.

For the picture I actually stapled a few balls of yarn and a few tissues for the top section. I guess a frame built from lego will work fine too.

I crocheted a few blue and brown chains for rivers and paths…

rivers and paths

rivers and paths

although they do look a bit like giant worms, don’t they.

I am really curious to see or rather hear how this mountain chain will get used and what other little items my nephew will add to play with it. In any case, it has definitely been a fun project!

just a little something

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just a little something

just a little something

Last Wednesday was the last day of the summer term in nursery and therefore my first last day as a mum and I had no idea how to thank the teachers.

Chocolate? The key worker has allergies and can’t have chocolate, a few of the others were fasting.

Flowers? It had over 30C so they would have been withered before even getting there.

So, I needed to knit something…  just a little something as I didn’t want to overdo it.

The pressure was on, just a few days to go and all of a sudden I had plenty of ideas. So I made

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a bookmark

a book mark for the teacher who is in charge of the library. She was really touched as it was so “thoughtful”. I found it a bit too bulky to be actually useful to be honest and would have already better ideas… I guess for next year.

a phone case

a phone case

a phone case for the one who is really strict about the no-phones-in-the-classroom-rule. She was really pleased as apparently she keeps dropping her own phone.

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hairband with little arrows

a hairband for the key worker who has just really nice long hair and has often some kind of elaborate hair styling. And she was actually wearing a dress in a matching colour on that last day. And maybe I can make a matching scarf next year as it will be the final one for my daughter.

a small bag with i-cord and buttons

a small bag with i-cord and buttons

and a small bag for the head teacher as she doing her rounds with a small shoulder bag and I had already thought in the past that I should knit one for her. It is about the same size as her usual one, so it should really suit her needs.

In fact, I am really pleased how all these little somethings turned out. They are the perfect size for these kind of occasions and can be really personalized.

In fact I made a few other hairbands, both for girls and women.

trio of lace hairbands
narrow lace hairband
cotton lace
ear covering

I will definitely continue to experiment with hairbands, so far I did a few narrow cotton ones with a bit of lace to make them more interesting, a very simple red one with a knot and a similar but more girly one with a proper bow (I will try a flower version too), a few wide cotton ones with lace and a woolen one that should cover the ears as well. I guess that one could actually be even wider.

The other thing that keeps me busy knitwise these days is the fact that I will be giving knitting lessons for beginners starting from September. I am currently preparing samples and hand-outs. My students will be people who use the services of the Children Centers in the Borough, so I guess mainly mothers of young children like me.

Hairbands and little bags for their children will actually be the perfect projects for them. But I am still thinking of something a bit more suitable for little boys…. they all like bags but it would be nice to have something more boyish too. So any ideas of very simple and quick knits for little  boys are welcome.

 

 

bags, bags, bags

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As it has mainly been about my children knits so far, I would like to finally talk a bit about my bags.

But before I do so, I want to show you my last “custom order”. After finishing a hooded vest for the shop I asked my daughter if I should make one for her as well or rather a dress and she said: Both. I then made the second mistake of letting her choose the colours out of my stash…. and she chose all of them. Some of them really don’t go together so I first wanted to ignore it but then  I shouldn’t have asked her if I am not prepared to follow her wishes. And actually it turned out to be really great. It was only a matter of how to order the stripes.

I want them all

I want them all

I also love her strawberry skirt… I made it because she is just so thin that the ones that fit around her waist are too short.

And here the two vests together, they are both the same size except that the models wearing them aren’t

big and small…
left of 2 sleeveless cotton Little Rascal

But now back to the actual subject: bags

I have been knitting a few bags in the past, they are easy and quick and ideal presents for more normal occasions where you do not want to overdo it.

But I haven’t knitted a bag for myself yet, I have to admit. I always have to think practical, I have a huge bag (in fact, apparently not huge enough and therefore completely broken) in which I have to carry half of the household. And as I live in the UK, I also have to have a waterproof one. I have a few really nice bags but in the end, I always use the same for my everyday life. I have always been like that and I guess I will never really change… So no cute knitted bags for me but it doesn’t stop me from producing them.

So here are a few examples of what I have done in the past.

I made these sets of bags for children a long time ago. The shoulder bags were just an excuse to use up some left over yarn and both my children loved them.  They are tiny so only really to play with.

The bedside bags (with the intarsia) have open end strings so you can tie them to your bed and keep important little things in there.  You could also tie the strings together and use them as a shoulder bag. I think if I made them again, I might make them with a cotton lining.

shoulder bags for children
bedside bags

For the following water bottle bag I have used the  Bishi – pattern by Georgie Hallam. It is really nice and I like the whole combination with the dress (also made by me)

I have also made a few really small gifts for grown ups like a smart phone or a passport holder. Apparently the smart phone holder is also ideal to keep a dummy safe over day time.

smart phone holder
pass port holder

Bags are also a great way of personalising the present. I made the following one for my mum who uses quite often cotton bags. I have actually made a mistake in the pattern repeats which I only discovered once I had all ends woven in and cut. So it became “the design”.

cotton bag

cotton bag

I have sewn the whole bag using greenish- turquoise heavy cotton and added one knitted side with a bit of a lace pattern so the green could shine through.

I have used this design of one knitted lace side also in the following folder-holder for my sister. The back of the holder is a heavy burgundy cotton and the front has actually three layers: burgundy fabric, yellow fabric and knitted red-orange-yellow with a few eyelets to let the yellow fabric come through. I have decided on a middle layer as the yellow background looks much nicer than the burgundy.

folder holder

folder holder