Farmer's Market Scarf

My scarf drawer is groaning under the weight of scarves that I either bought years ago or made recently.  The winter here has only just arrived.  So I am really pleased to have just finished this scarf that I knitted with wool Daughter gave me for Christmas.  I emailed a photo to her and she loves it.  That is real praise because she is someone who speaks her mind.  If she says she likes something, she means it.  If she doesn't like something, she finds it hard to be tactful!

The yarn is Wendy Festival Chunky and I used almost 100g.  The free pattern is the Farmer's Market Scarf by Rebecca Shepler.  She gave it that name because she designed and made it while working at a Farmer's Market.  Outdoor jobs must be quite challenging at this time of year.

I love this scarf because it it as cosy as a keyhole scarf but is less bulky and can be made with just one 100g ball of yarn.  The pattern starts with a clever shell design which, admittedly, takes a bit of concentration.  After that, it is plain sailing.   You can do a 3-needle cast off and spend time blocking it. Or, like me, you can have an easy life.  I just did a simple cast off and didn't block it. Report me to the Knitting Police!

Mochi Neck Cozy...

Daughter gave me two balls of Wendy Festival Chunky yarn for Christmas.  The perfect present!  She even surprised me by looking through a knitting book that was on my bookshelf.  I'll make a knitter of her one day!

I started a scarf for myself with one of the balls and made a neck cosy for Daughter with the other.  It used just over 40g of yarn so I have enough left for another one. The pattern I followed is Mochi Neck Cozy by Sarah Keller and can be found HERE.  It is well written and I followed the pattern exactly.  

It looks small in the photo.  But it is very stretchy.  Daughter is petite, so it will fit perfectly.  I chose beige buttons.  They are not an obvious colour choice for a blue/orange/purple scarf.  But they match her winter coat.  They will also look good against her mane of glossy brunette hair.  Sigh!

As this pattern is for chunky yarn, there are only 18 rows x 62 stitches.  This is a super quick knit! 

Knit For Winter 2015: the finished hats...

An amazing 55g of 4 ply yarn was all it took to knit these little bonnets for the Knit For Winter 2015 campaign.  Sunrise Senior Living organises annual campaigns and this year opted to help First Touch which supports sick and premature babies at St. George's Hospital in London.

Around 60,000 babies are born prematurely in the UK every year and 600 of these are born at St. George's Hospital.  Keeping them warm is very important and the hats and blankets that will be made by many knitters will be invaluable.  If you want to get involved, there is still time this winter.  You can download the knitting patterns here. 

Each hat takes only a few hours to knit and they are a wonderful way to use up small scraps of yarn.  I was able to knit one of each size in the pattern with just 55g of yarn.

I knitted these in the peace and quiet of the last couple of weeks. This is my first post of what looks like being a hectic 2016 for me.  Happy New Year to everyone!

Blanket finished....

Having said in my last post that I was setting this blanket aside, I then changed my mind and finished it.  It only needed a couple of hours work and it makes a lovely festive photo.  Here are all four sides completed in different colours.  I really like the effect and will probably do this again one day.  I followed this pattern from the What A Woolly Life blog.

There are 21 little pattern repeats along each edge.  These help to stop the strange phenomenon of a square diagonal blanket trying to turn itself into a rectangle. 

This blanket was crocheted with a new great-niece in mind. However, Hubby, who never usually says anything nice about my projects, saw it and said it should be saved for a really, really special baby.  I think the old softy (not) must be thinking ahead to grandchildren!   The great-niece won't go without.  I have a small stock of baby hats and blankets ready for all the babies that will probably start arriving in the next few years.

Vital statistics:  the blanket is 31" square and used 290g of dk yarn.

This is probably my last post of 2015, so here's wishing all my blogging friends and readers:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Knit for Winter 2015: Supporting First Touch Premature Babies

My mission for the next couple of weeks is to knit tiny bonnets for premature babies. I was recently contacted by Sunrise Senior Living and asked if I would be interested in supporting and publicising their latest  Knit For Winter campaign.  This year they are helping First Touch by knitting blankets and bonnets for premature babies born at St. George's Hospital in London.  I'm a Londoner and love to support local causes as well as those further afield.

Sunrise Senior Living very kindly sent me this yarn.  I would have used my own yarn if I had any left.  But I spent the summer knitting through my supplies of 4ply baby yarn and couldn't really justify buying more.  

I chose to knit the hats rather than the blanket as I already have a large blanket in progress.  I have set that aside temporarily even though it is almost finished.  The intended recipient won't be born until March!  So these little warm hats are needed more urgently.  I should be able to knit several with this 200g of lovely King Cole Baby yarn. 

If you fancy knitting a simple blanket or some baby hats, see here for details and patterns.

The blanket edging changes colour...

The diagonal baby blanket is still a work in progress.  I carried out my plan to knit the edging in 4 different colours.  Here is the first corner where I changed from green to yellow.  I'm liking the effect.  Next comes lilac, followed by pink.

I'm forging ahead on this blanket at the moment because a builder will descend on us soon to rip out our kitchen and install a new one....hopefully in time for Christmas! Living dangerously!

Blanket edging...and the winner is......

I have finished the diagonal baby blanket and have now started on the edging.  I recently sought opinions on which colour I should use.  The result of the very unscientific poll was soft green. This was also my choice, so I was pleased about that.  Thanks to everyone who voted.

Pink, yellow and lilac also received votes.  White received none.  A thought has occurred to me.  I could possibly use a different colour for each side of the blanket. My original thought was that green would calm down the brightness of the blanket. But now I love how bright it is and I think different colours would bring out all the lovely shades in a striking but pretty way.  What do you think?