Magazine of the Week: Woman's Weekly

Hi Everyone!! Happy Friday!! I hope you are all well!!

Today's book/magazine of the week is Woman's Weekly. After People's Friend last week, I wanted to show another of the great weekly magazines that come with knitting patterns. Woman's Weekly is a great example of this. Each week, there is normally a pattern for knitting or crochet, and they have been known to get great licensing deals so there are lots of popular childrens characters in them. To name just a few from recent magazines- Hello Kitty, Fireman Sam, Rory, Peppa Pig. This is also normally the only time you can get these patterns too because many of them are only available for a short amount of time, so you can definitely find most of these on ebay!!!

As well as each magazine having a pattern in, every three months or so Woman's weekly publishes a knitting and crochet special. These have so many patterns in, from many popular designers such as Alan Dart and Debbie Bliss. I actually found these particular magazines in our local Cancer Research shop at the same time as it is published and at over half the price, so it is always good to check out your local charity shops for old magazines and knitting pattern books

The mitts from this little baby set were created from a pattern from one of these magazines, and I have always found them to be great magazines and I check out woman's weekly on my trip to the newsagents every week along with People's Friend. Its worth a quick flick, who knows what pattern you might come across?

Have a great day all!!

YOTD: Robin Chunky

Hello All!! Hope you are all having a great day!! Happy Wednesday!! Work with me dear readers whilst I get this blog all sorted. My work computer is not happy at the moment so posts are a bit thin on the ground, but I promise to get them sorted this weekend. I have a few ideas for the blog, as I started originally writing it for me to share what is going on in my life too, where this journey is taking me, and now I want to work on that part too, not just the YOTD and POTD. I promise to have everything up and running by the weekend. In the meantime, enjoy this yummy yarn and ladybird (yep keep scrolling!!!)

Today's YOTD is Robin Chunky. This is a great basic budget chunky yarn that can be used for pretty much everything. The yarn comes in 100g balls and you get 140 metres on the ball, which is great for chunky yarn. Its tension is over 10cm on 6.5mm needles and is 14sts over 20 rows. A ball from Deramores will cost £1.99 and I paid this too in my LYS, Pats in Lordswood. It is 100% Acrylic yarn.

Now this isnt the best picture of the yarn, but that is because this is probably one of the most used things I have ever made. This is the close up shot of the big ladybird footrest I made. Actually it looks fantastic now even though it has been used for over a year. The Blattman has his head on it as I type actually. I am so pleased with the final result with this yarn. I normally knit in DK as you can probably tell, but this ladybird has to be in the top ten of all the things I have made, and the yarn does help that. It was so easy to work with, gave a great result and has really worn well.

Here he is from above, and below is the front of him, looking at you. The black and the red are Robin Chunky, and the white on this is actually DK, and my mother's fantastic crochet skills, and she made this up as she went along, and I think he looks fantastic.She made the eyes on this ladybird. She was just as happy with the yarn as I was. The pattern came from Knit Today magazine from the UK and I believe it was issue 46 but I will check on that.

This took me about 10 hours to finish this guy, and the yarn was so easy to work with and didn't split at all. A great acrylic budget yarn for this project, and I would most certainly use this yarn again. Love it. It is also wonderfully machine washable!!

At Deramores, they have 20 colours in stock. You are looking at Cherry Red (042) and Raven (044). There are also 3 varigated colours as well as the 17 solid colours.

Have a great day all!!

Book of the Week: Jean Greenhowe Bazaar Knits

Hi Everyone!! Happy Friday to you all!! Today is another Jean Greenhowe book, but I can never get enough of them, and hope to get the newest one soon, so I will still be showing her work off on this blog. I've knit so many of her patterns over the years, as has my granny before me, and she is sure to go on in generations again! I grew up loving her patterns that were knitted for me, and my family now love the patterns I can knit for them. So all in all, it is a winner.

This book, Bazaar Knits, was one of my later acquisitions in her range, and I love all the cute patterns in this book. This book was originally created as fund raising ideas, and all the patterns are perfect for any stall or fundraising event, they are quick and easy patterns and very popular too. There are 20 patterns in this book, but each one has many different versions within so you are getting a good amount of patterns for the £5.29 price tag. I bought mine in a shop, and it cost me £3.99 so have a look around to see where you can get it.

The patterns included in this book are message medals (I've made one of these before for my Step-Dad), Baby face brooches, the Cactus (see Senor Prickly below), watch pincushions, flower brooches, liquorice allsorts jewellery, egg cosies, hand bag accessories (of which I have knit the tissue holder) scented sachets, picture frames, hot air balloons, bugs, bracelets, airplane toys and mobiles, pincushion cakes, money banks and desk tidies, and finally the Pedlar doll from the front cover, with all the little pieces she has in her basket.

I made this cactus for a Mexican dinner night we had at our house, he sat on the table and it just decorated perfectly. This book is great and I cannot recommend it enough. I love her patterns, they are so easy to follow, as are the instructions for making up. They are fun and different patterns.

Have a great day all!!!

Book of the Week: Jean Greenhowe's Little Gift Dolls

Happy Friday Everyone!! I am in a good mood today, I am at work, and singing along to the radio, Good Old Ken Bruce!! The Blattman woke up to a puncture this morning so he is totally Not Happy, but we have tracked him down a new tyre and he is off to get that sorted before he goes to work. Today is Book Review Friday and I am going to review a book that has been a staple in my knitting arsenal for ages and I have knit so many different versions now I can almost remember the pattern now!!

Here is the book and it has the patterns for a selection of little dolls. Little is a bit misleading, they are about 6 inches tall and there are so many differing patterns including a witch for halloween, a snowman- see below, a bride and groom, chimney sweep, nurse, and a bunch of really cute jelly babies too. The pattern is great and they are really quick to do, and make great gifts. I may add more pictures later for you but as I am at work I don't have many here. I've knit a witch and a couple of versions of the groom with various attachments. I even made a Blattman too- which I will find when I am at home and edit this post

Hvae a lovely day everyone, its a bit chilly here but it could always be worse!!

POTD: Little Sugar Mouse

Happy Thursday Everyone!! Hope you are all well today. We are back to the miserable weather, but it is so perfect for knitting and staying warm and dry so I'm Happy. I have been knitting away with a yarn that I love the end result but HATE knitting and will feature on the next YOTD but today I am sharing with you a really cute little toy pattern that I knit up for my Grandma and it is so quick and easy.

This little Sugar mouse has been made from a pattern by PhoenixKnits on Ravelry. She specialises in a variety of fun creatures and a lot of the Harry Potter Characters too- Hagrid and a gorgeous Hippogriff. Even a Fraggle!! This little mouse uses basic techniques, and uses I-Cord for the tail. I was totally afraid of I-Cord before I tried it, and now I love it as a technique. You use 2 DPNs (Double Pointed Needles) and instead of turning the yarn like you normally would to purl the back, you simply slide your stitches to the other end of the DPN and knit. I am going to feature I-Cord in my Techniques Saturday soon so hopefully you can pick it up there. Don't be scared of it, it is good and easy, and you will find lots of things to use it on.

Tomorrow is Book Review Friday, so I hope to see you all then, and of course, don't forget to enter the competition and win either yarn or a Jean Greenhowe book that has been out of print for years!!

YOTD: Hayfield Bonus

Happy Saturday everyone!! Hope you are all either relaxing at home, or working and its a good day full of happy people who don't ask silly questions or moan. Can you tell I work in retail?

I am knitting my little fingers to the bone to get the YOTD up, but  sometimes you just cannot knit quick enough. I am working on it, I promise, with a beautiful silk and bamboo yarn which I am loving, but it will take time. Perfection takes time. So for these next few YOTD I am going to focus on some of my toy yarns that I love to work with, and find really easily in most yarn shops, and is really quite cheap. I don't mind spending money on more expensive yarns but for toys, the cheap acrylic is so perfect, and available in every single colour under the sun. But keep reading even if you don't knit toys. I use it for other things too.

The first of these yarns is Hayfield Bonus. I am using Deramores again as a yarn shop, but they really do show a great amount of the colours, in good swatches, so you can really see what colours you can get. They are also a good price. Bonus comes in 100g balls, which really is plenty when you talk about toys, as you get 280m on there. It knits up on 4mm needles for the tension, but normally when you knit toys, you go down a few sizes of needles to get a thick tension so the stuffing doesn't show through. Normally this yarn is about £2 a ball, but at Deramores currently they are £1.69 a ball.

Here are just a few of the toys that I have knit with a variety of yarns, including Hayfield Bonus. It is a great yarn to work with, easy to knit with and the stitch definition is very good. You get a really nice finish with it. It is also washable, but of course with toys, you would probably only want to make it surface washable, but with these yarns, you know it is going to be safe. It also doesn't fluff so it is pretty safe for little ones.

Not everyone knits toys. I know that. And I have used this yarn for other projects too and they have been really successful. I like to use the cheaper acrylic for the projects that I want to wash a lot, or is going to be used a lot. For example, this tea cosy and teapot stand. This is a stranded tea cosy and a mitred pot stand that I made for a present for my granny, who actually won't use it, despite the fact it is knit in washable acrylic. She uses it on display in the kitchen, over her display teapot.

Toy knitting does really need cheaper yarn. Don't be a yarn snob. You don't need the expensive cottons and silks for these. The cheap acrylic is perfect, mostly because on some yarn you will only need a very small amount. You can buy smaller 25g balls in some brands and I will be showing these soon, along with a specific post about skin tones, as that can be a difficult thing to find.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, we are off tomorrow to celebrate my Sister In Law's birthday with family, and I apparently need to go make a pineapple upside down cake for the Blattman. And a Swiss Roll. Knitting might be on the back burner for a little more!!!

Nunchuks Away!! New Pattern

So what do you knit as a christmas present for a man who owns an armoury?

Nunchuks. Obviously.

So if you have a wannabe Ninja in your ranks, or maybe someone who needs nunchuk practise and is fed up of the bruises, knit a pair. They are so quick, takes about three hours and you are ready for anything!!!

You will need: 5mm needles (2 straight and 2dpns)

                       Black Chunky/bulky yarn

                       2 colours of grey DK wool, or one grey chunky

                       Tapestry needle

                       Stuffing

There isnt really a gauge for these, just make sure your needles are about 2 sizes too small for the yarn you are using. This is to create a tight fabric so you cant see the stuffing through the knitting.

Abbreviations

sts- stitches

K- knit

P- Purl

kfb- knit in the front and the back of the stitch, a form of increase

st st- stocking stitch (knit a row, purl a row)

k2tog- knit two stitches together

DPN- double pointed needles, in this pattern used for I cord

Nunchuks

Using 5mm needles, Cast on 4 sts

Row 1: kfb in all stitches (8 sts)

Row 2: Purl

Row 3: Kfb in all stitches (16 sts)

St st for 7-8 inches, ending after a P row. Here is where you can add length or shorten your nunchuks depending on the size of your ninja.

Change to grey (i used 2 strands of DK held together- if you have chunky/bulky use one strand)

Next Row: K

Next Row: K

St St for 6 rows

Next Row: K2tog across row (8 sts)

Next Row: P

Next Row: K2tog across row (4 sts)

Put these stitches onto a DPN

I cord for three inches

Cast off the 4 sts.

Sew the i cord into a loop at the top of the nunchuk. Sew up the side seam of the nunchuk and then stuff. Close and you have one half of your nunchuk. Make one more.

Chain Loops (make 3)

Cast on 4 sts using DPNs

I cord for 4 inches

Cast off.

Thread through the loop and sew together. Complete all three and link together as shown in the picture.

Then hide your valuables!!!

Hope you enjoy. I have knitted this up, but it has not been tested, let me know if there are any problems.