FO: Sweet Little Mini Cuffs

My 2nd Indie Designer GAL FO is a pair of Sweet Little Mini Cuffs by SarahJaneDesigns. This is a crochet pattern! Part of my ongoing quest to improve my hooking skills has me trying to be a bit braver - branching away from flat granny square type projects and trying some new things.

Little they may be but I actually learnt so many new techniques while making these. SarahJane writes a nice clear pattern and best of all includes links to youtube clips showing how to make the various crochet stitches in this pattern...perfect for an adventurous beginner such as myself.

If you click through to the original pattern, you will notice my version is missing the laceweight edging. I tried a couple of different laceweights I had on hand but nothing was quite the right colour and I ended up ripping out the lace, working another row in DK to add some height and then calling it good. I think they have a bit more of a modern vibe to them without the lace.

Yarn is Tri'Coterie DK Sparkles in Black Pearl. I used a 4mm hook.

Sarah Jane is an downunder designer who has some really neat crochet designs. If you're a steampunk fan there are a few of her patterns which might inspire you. Happy Hooking :)

FO: Little Spare Time.

One of the best things about participating in the Ravelry Gift-Along is finding lots of new-to-me designers and hence lots of new patterns to queue and favourite! On the hunt for a suitable sweater pattern to knit our 2yr old nephew for Xmas, I found Little Spare Time by Terri Kruse. Terri has some amazing designs - from adult sweaters (including a grown up version of this pattern), to shawls and hats and other accessories. I really felt drawn to her design aesthetic and Little Spare Time was a pattern that fit my need for something relatively easy and quick to knit, but still being stylish and that 'little bit different'. I think it looked like an easy to wear sweater for an active toddler, and I really liked the buttoned up shawl type collar.


 I used some Bendigo Classic 8ply in "Tasman". This is my first time using this particular yarn and it has an almost crepe like appearance. It was a little bit splitty and not my favourite yarn I've ever knit, however it blocked really well and this smoothed out any uneven stitches (I found the crepe made these areas really obvious so I am glad the blocking fixed it). I also think it would make a good hardwearing yarn for kids.

To make my sweater a bit more interesting I grabbed a ball of black crepe yarn from Spotlight and did a contrast collar. Unfortunately 50g wasn't enough for my initial plan of doing a contrast colour for the collar, pocket linings and all the garter hems - in fact I had to modify the collar a little bit so I didn't run out of yarn! It's been awhile since I knit something this size so obviously my yarn estimating abilities are a little bit off! I am still happy with how the collar looks though but it's just a bit smaller than the designer intended. I also found some cute pirate buttons at Spotlight which finished it off perfectly.

I made short sleeves as I am gifting this for Christmas which falls mid summer for us - in the hope this will be a good transitional/autumn sweater. I just hope Mr A likes it!!

 More details on my Ravelry project page: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/sweetp/little-spare-time-kal

Wayside

Wayside is a new pattern release from me. A slouchy Aran weight hat with a feature lace panel. This is the third hat in a collection exploring diagonal stitch patterns (hoping I have got that out of my system now!). This a quick and easy knit, ideal for last minute gift making.

I used Tri'Coterie Aran Donegal Nep and Tri'Coterie Aran SWM for these samples and designed the hat to showcase indie and hand dyed yarns. A bit of plain stockinette to show off the colours, and a bit of lace to keep the knitter interested.

Wayside is available on Ravelry for $4. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/wayside

Gift-Along

I can't believe it is November...where has this year gone! If you have been into any shop lately you will have no doubt seen Christmas decorations up already....apparently the silly season is almost upon us.

 If you have knitting on your gift giving agenda then check out the Indie designer Gift-Along. This is a Ravelry event - hundreds of indie designers have banded together for 2 weeks of discounted patterns, and 2 months of KALs/CALs.

Until 15 November 2013 you can get a 25% discount on participating patterns by using the code "giftalong". You can see all the designers/patterns involved by checking out the giftalong group on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/groups/indie-design-gift-a-long

The KnitAlong will run until the end of the year and there are hundreds of great prizes up for grabs so get involved and share your plans, wips and FOs with the group.

All my individual patterns are included in the promotion :)

 Happy Knitting!