NURSERY RHYME KNITS

















I really like this book. It is full of great color charts and photos for adorable hats, mittens and scarves for kids. It isn't for beginning knitters though as there are many 3 and 4 color rows and some really long floats. The author gets around this by lining her stuff but still I'd wonder about the tension. (The tension of the photographed garments is great.) The hats and mittens are knit in the round but for the scarves she suggests if you need a particular color and it is on the opposite side of the row to just make a long float. Yikes. Still I love the colors and charted designs and there are some neat charted children's poems. Just don't give it to someone who is inexperienced at colorwork or they'll go completely nuts.

And the winner of the mitten book is....................... Wanda Rollins. Congratulations Wanda and thanks to Anne for thoughtfully sending me
the book in the first place. I had 20 knitters sign up for the drawing which was more than I expected. If you didn't win this time the good news is that I'll have another drawing for a giveaway in a couple of weeks for a little colorwork Christmas stocking booklet from Schoolhouse Press and some individual holiday stocking patterns.

Check out Sandrine's beautiful version of Merike's Gloves - scroll down on her blog to see them. She used Koigu and finished them in record time while mine seem to be taking forever. I promise to have an in progress photo next week along with some photos of how I tack down long floats on the back of colorwork. In the meantime, I scanned one of the Sanquhar gloves so you can see the details better. I wear them on our late night walks and the Sanquhar pattern really looks neat by the light of the moon.

I'm going to reprint one of my blog posts from last summer. In the comments yesterday Erica asked about knitting for the HRS.







The Chapter Manager of the Colorado House Rabbit Society asked for bunny-themed knitted items for their gift shop, auctions, and fundraisers. I'd suggest asking your local HRS chapter if they can use anything or just send stuff to the Colorado HRS.



I contacted several pattern writers for permission to use patterns to knit and send to the CO HRS. I was lucky enough to receive permission from Anne Bosch of Blackberry Farm to knit and donate the rabbit socks from the Pet Socks Pattern and from Barb Telford of Woodsmoke Woolworks to knit and donate her adorable Bunnies and Carrots hat. Barb also said I could use her other patterns for this purpose so I may also be making her Bunnies and Carrots baby sweater - both patterns are available for Naked Sheep.







Here's my first attempt at the Bunnies and Carrots hat in Lamb's Pride. As you can see there are tension issues with my stranding efforts between each rabbit. This weekend I made two more versions of this hat and I've decided not to strand but instead to leave long floats instead. I figure long floats really don't matter in a hat as much as they would in mittens or socks.



The Bunnies & Carrots hat is done in worsted weight and can be done in any size from baby to adult large, with or without ear flaps. If you decide to knit this particular hat, I have a recommendation. Start the ear flaps with your I-cord, then directly go from there to the bottom of the ear flap and then knit the ear flaps on the rim of the hat as specified. I made this hat for a four year old who managed to lose the cords to the ear flaps the first day he wore the hat so this method may help counteract that problem. In the photo above, the green hat was done in this method but the brown one simply had the I-cord cords attached to the ear flaps.



Also, don't strand the yarn between the bunnies because you will get puckering. This will result in some long floats but will look a lot better. You can tack down the long floats later if the hat will be for a child. If you hate bobbles (the bunny's tails are bobbles) you can double or triple your yarn and just do French knots instead. I stuffed the carrots with plain old cotton balls.



And here are two other photos of bunny stuff I donated - the mittens are just plain mittens (any pattern will do) with rabbit ears added. The bunny slippers are just Theresa's Fuzzy Feet done in size 6 needles with rabbit ears added.

FLOWER POWER











Here is the Reverse Bloom washcloth and various 3-D flower knitting experiments, none of which really turn me on. The problem with the flowers is that I think they are not three-dimensional enough for what I planned and even though I used fingering weight yarn, I suspect what I'm wanting will require crochet cotton and lace needles. I don't like the way the petal edges look on the Reverse Bloom washcloth - I used size 3 needles and some Stahl Socka Cotton as I prefer smaller cloths.



I'm back to work on Malin from Alice Starmore's In the Hebrides and size 7 needles as I'm noticing all this fine work is getting to my eyes. Lately I do most of my knitting late at night and even the Ott-Lite isn't enough.

I'm feeling a bit behind on my knitting. I'm working on Merike's gloves from Folk Knitting in Estonia - it will be a slower project than I thought. Thirdly, I want to scan some photos of how I tack down floats since several people asked about that. And finally, I want to knit some 3-D flowers for the Whimsy-along on ASOFlives. So far I've collected a few patterns from my new Furze Hewitt book and from Nicky Epstein's hat book. I believe her book Knitted Embellishments also includes some flowers so I'll get that from the library. Does anyone else know any sources of patterns for knitted flowers? I'd like to add floral tape and wire to them and make a mini-bouquet.



I'll get to all this stuff this week. For today I'll show the multi-directional scarf done in my Easter egg dyed spindle spun mohair. I haven't blocked it yet as you can see.







I've had a few people write me about getting pet rabbits. I highly recommend the House Rabbit Society. Their web site has a listing of chapters and contacts all over the U.S. along with independent rescue groups where you can adopt a rabbit. The advantages of getting a rescued rabbit are many - they are already spayed or neutered and they usually live in home environments so the fosterers can tell you which rabbits get along with small children, cats, or dogs. There are many breeds to choose from including long-haired rabbits such as Angoras. You can also search for specific breeds of rabbits at Petfinder. And if you're in NM, do check out our local rabbit rescue web site, Four Corners Bunnies, which I update. We have the most wonderful rabbit named Rusty who had an awful experience but now is recovered. If I hadn't already chosen Breezy I would have taken Rusty myself.

MITTEN BOOK GIVEAWAY!



Anne, whom I'd traded with previously, kindly sent me a copy of the Mitten Book by Inger and Ingrid Gottfridsson. I already have a copy so I'm offering to send this book to anyone who wants it. Just let me know you're interested via my tagboard or comments or email and I'll put all the names in a basket and let DH pick the winner. It is a book of traditional Swedish mitten patterns with graphs and photos and a basic mitten pattern. Overseas blog readers are invited to enter the giveaway also. Anne, thanks for your generosity in thinking of me. Let me know if you're interested by this Thursday and I'll announce the winner on Friday.

I can't remember the last time I knit less than I did this weekend so nothing much to report on that front. DH went to Colorado this weekend to ski and managed to visit with our future bunny Breezy who is in foster care at a rabbit rescuer's house there. Breezy is HUGE - DH estimates she is about 12 lbs and definitely larger than our cats. More bunny to love I say. She moves in with us in a few weeks. I've been busy cleaning and setting up a nice room for her full of bunny toys although she'll be a free range bunny when I'm home.

I hope you all had a nice holiday season!

I finished a reverse bloom washcloth and have started on Merike's gloves from Folk Knitting in Estonia. I will have a photo on Monday.



Here are the final Santa Fe photos. First we have DH at a colorful art gallery on Canyon Road.







Here is the Pink Adobe restaurant.









This photo was supposed to show the Cross of the Martyrs which overlooks the city.







And Miriam's Well - a small knitting/weaving store nearby.