Tag: amigurami

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Knit and Natter Round Up – March

Posted on by Jackie B

The group continue to knit, crochet and sew all manner of beautiful things. Here are a selection of their makes.

L has now completed her colourful Sweet Pea Blanket (pictured above), by adding the border.

This was a kit she received from her daughter at Christmas.

L has also been loom knitting this hat.

R has been making herself a cardigan in a self patterning yarn in soft shades of blue and beige.

She’s also been continuing a patchwork project that has been on the go for many years ands wondering how to do the border.

L came to the rescue with some advice as she’s made hexagon quilts before, including this lovely pink one.

That’s the beauty of social knitting/crafting. All that pooled experience means that there is seldom a question that cannot be answered.

We also put our heads together on this project that Y has been working on.

This is one of a pair of gentleman’s kilt stockings in a cable design made in very fine yarn. It involved purl twisted cable, which took some working out! Y is definitely the Sock Queen – she also made these colourful self striping socks, with bright shades alternating with black.

It took me longer to make my alpaca socks than she took to make both of these pairs!

C has made these lovely blue baby bootees….

…and has been working on a pink teddy bear!

A has been crocheting baby blankets, including this one in pretty pastel shades.

She also asked someone skilled in amigurami crochet to make this bunny – isn’t it lovely?

Another crafty friend, who is not in our online knitting group – showed me something she recently completed from a kit: a crocheted Harry Potter! The kit included the tiny broomstick!

Have you made any toys recently? I’d love to hear about them.

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Crafty Throwback – A Parade of Ponies

Posted on by Jackie B

A few years ago a lovely friend of ours gave birth to a daughter. I usually knit clothes for new babies but this time I decided to do something different. I thought it would be fun to make a soft toy. The new mum has been a keen horsewoman since she was a little girl and has several horses. I thought I’d make a toy horse and make it as much like her favourite one as possible. I found a crochet pattern on Ravelry but adapted it quite a lot, changing the hooves, legs and ears significantly. That’s how I came to make a toy version of Mr Messy the chestnut cob. He’s very showy with a blonde mane and tail. I copied his white feet, crocheting them in white yarn – this worked at the second attempt. I was working from a picture of Mr Messy that had been taken after he’d been through some mud so I didn’t realise he had any white on his legs at all! I used beads for eyes, sewed on a felt patch for his white face and embroidered on his other features then attached a fringe for the mane and some longer strands for the tail.

  • photo: A Heatherington

When our friend had a second child, a boy this time, what could I do but make a version of her second favourite horse, Hettie the black mare.

Having seen the two I made for the babies, another friend ordered one of each of her two horses, a couple of hunters, both bay geldings, Roper and Toasty. I only have a picture of Roper here. but when I made these two I became aware of just how many different browns there are. At one point daughter was following a horse around holding up three balls of yarn so she could find the best match. I only make them now and again, but if I ever set up a business doing these I’d have to call it “Fifty Shades of Bay”!

Before long that baby girl I first made a horse for was big enough to be riding a pony of her own. Here she is with Tansy the Exmoor pony.

Around this time I’d learnt how to do needle felting, and this seemed like a great way to do facial details so I surface felted the little white star or Tansy’s forehead, her nostrils and the lighter colouring on her muzzle.

The other detail I always add are the horseshoes, like on the latest mini horse that I just finished last week – a nice finishing touch!

They are fun to do (though I wouldn’t want to be making them full time) and once you’ve overcome the initial colour matching challenge they come together quite quickly. They’ve always gone down really well with their new owners, a sort of cartoon miniature version of a much loved horse or pony.

Many thanks to A Heatherington and A Straughan for the photographs of their children and horses!

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A Productive Week

Posted on by Jackie B

I finished off a couple of projects this week which is always satisfying.

I crocheted this horse – a commission from a friend who will be giving it as a Christmas gift to a horse owner.

He’s a sort of caricature of her actual horse and I’ve replicated the colour and markings. His eyes are glass beads and the details are needle-felted. He’s wearing horseshoes embroidered in metallic thread.

I’ve made several of these over the last few years. One of the hardest things is finding the right colour yarn. I’ve modified the design from a pattern I found online and have refined it a bit more every time I’ve done it.

The second item I completed was a pair of brioche hand warmers for K. They will be part of his Christmas present. He’d requested some similar to some I made for myself a while back, but he wanted them in a much more neutral colour than the bright pink and grey stripes I used last time. He intends to use these for fishing – hopefully his hands will stay warm and his fingers will stay unencumbered for tying on lures and so on. I used this from my stash. It’s lost its band but I think it’s Stylecraft Special DK 100% acrylic. Most importantly it’s machine washable as, depending of how successful the fishing is, could potentially end up slimy, wet and stinking of fish after every wearing!

With a knitted project done I had nothing cast on so I’ve started some socks for myself – the pattern was given to me by a friend at one of my knit and natter groups – I’m using the version with the contrasting welt, heel and toe and using more yarn from the stash – I have a feeling both may be from Flying Tiger. I’ve bought all sorts of crafty things from the Newcastle store in recent years but I hear that this branch has now closed – I’m quite sad about that.

I’ve also been prepping and spinning alpaca fibre. I spun some I prepped a while back. The three larger skeins are 2ply, each about 100 yards. The smaller skeins (the white is more alpaca and the blue is merino) are my first attempt at chain plying, using some singles left over on bobbins after plying. I felt that this got better as I went along, but I must remember not to overtwist next time.

I washed a batch of the alpaca fibre I skirted last week and hand carded it. I’m improvising with pet grooming brushes until I get proper carders (I have it on good authority that Santa Claus is bringing me some…if I’m good). I’ve braided the roving as I intend to dye it eventually. It does look rather messier than the braids of fibre that you buy, but in it’s current undyed state I thought it resembled the hair of Elsa from Frozen. I promise not to put it over my shoulder and start singing Let it Go!

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Knit and Natter 27th November

Posted on by Jackie B

We had another lively meeting of Online Knit and Natter on Friday. Having completed this Christmas stocking tree decoration…..

…this member is continuing with her waterfall front cardigan. Isn’t this a lovely shade of pink?

We’ve had more gorgeous colour work from Lorna. She’s finished this cowl……

…and made a pincushion….

… but has now begun this.

I’m crocheting a horse!

And we mustn’t forget the elephant in the room!

Even his toenails are taking shape!