Little things

Sometimes when you need something really quickly it's best to stick to little things. And that is just what I did recently. I needed two gifts in a hurry. So I looked at my knitting books and I surfed the patterns on Ravelry and found just what I needed.

The first is Baby Bear from itty-bitty toys. I used some left over Noro Kureyon Sock yarn and 3.25mm circular needles.

The second is a seahorse knitted with half a skein of Anchor Magicline on 3.25mm circular needles.

Both toys are knitted in the round with a minimum of seeming and both knit up really quickly. I love not having to sew seams.

Twenty and counting

In answer to your question Annie, I have knitted 17 shawls and 3 scarves so far this year. And of course I still have quite a few on the needles or in the queue! Now its your turn to total all your beautiful projects.

Here are the latest two shawls. The first is knitted from Val's handspun aptly named The Hungry Caterpillar. This yarn is a lovely blend of angora/superwash merino/merino twinkle bunny. The shawl is the Romney Kerchief and it was knitted on 5.0mm needles. I really like the way the pattern compliments the long colour repeats in the yarn.

The second shawl is a shawl I knitted for someone on Ravelry. It's the Little Leaves shawl. The yarn is Wollmeise 100% Merino Superwash (I don't know the colourway) and the needle size is 5.0mm. This yarn comes in such a generous skein that I was able to add an extra pattern repeat as well as a couple of extra rows of stocking stitch after I completed the short rows. I think the extra rows of stocking stitch causes the neck to role a bit so after a few different experiments I added an eyelet row followed by 2 rows of garter stitch and a very stretchy cast off. That seems to have done the trick. And I still had several grams of yarn left. I wasn't prepared to play yarn chicken by adding yet another pattern repeat! I also added  Matsuno beads 8/0 in a silvery colour which look like dew drops on a tropical rainforest.

Now to continue to whittle away at that queue!

Crimson Tide

While I was in Denmark earlier in the year I bought a couple of skeins of Kauni effect garn and I have been on the lookout ever since for the right pattern. Originally I thought of a Birgit Freyer pattern but couldn't find quite the right one. In my searches on Ravelry I finally came across Lagune and decided that this pattern might just work.

 So the yarn is Kauni wool 8/1 and needle size 4.5mm and I used almost the entire 50g skein.

And why Crimson Tide? Well because this project made me think of a red tide and reminded me of a time we went looking for mussels in Cape Town. Do you remember the occassion Helen?