Design notes: Stars and stripes crochet fingerless mitts

Learning a new crochet stitch inspired these warm and comfy fingerless mitts, the pattern for which is my first on Love Crochet

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THIS pattern was inspired by a video on how to crochet the star stitch, which popped up on my Facebook timeline. How might I use that stitch? I asked myself and these fingerless mitts were what I came up with.

The star stitch creates a very thick, stiff fabric that I thought would make a really cosy mitt. The yarn I used was left over from another project, but I thought it would be ideal for this one. It’s acrylic so hard wearing but also very soft. An aran weight, it crochets up quickly and the colours really show off the pattern.

I really like the stripped effect and the way the yarn really shows off the star pattern

I wanted a ribbed cuff at both ends of the mitts. These are to help keep them in place, while the one that covers the fingers can be folded back to free up those digits if you need to use them – great for if you’re shopping at a farmers’ market and don’t want to take off your mitts and risk leaving them behind (or is it just me who does that?). I’ve been on crutches recently and discovered that the mitts are a great way of keeping your hands warm while having your fingers free to grip the crutch handles.

I adapted the star stitch slightly from the instructions given in the video. I think the resulting pattern stands out more, it looks more ‘starry’. As well as amending the star slightly, I also had to work out how to create a thumb. I figured it would simply be a case of adding some extra chains at the right place in the mitts and then working these stitches until the thumb piece was big enough.

I tested out several different ways of working the stitches: double crochets, half treble crochets, slip stitches, working just the front loop, the back loop and so on. In the end I went for the simplest option and I really like the way it turned out.

Please do check it out, let all your crafting friends know about it, and maybe even consider buying it

This is the first – and as yet only – pattern I’ve got on Love Crochet. So far I’ve had no sales; obviously I hope this changes. But my timing wasn’t great – I uploaded the pattern at the end of February, when crafters would be thinking about spring and summer makes rather than cosy mitts.

The pattern is available here. Please do check it out, let all your crafting friends know about it, and maybe even consider buying it. It’s never too early to start crocheting those Christmas presents ...

All sewn up: the Rainbow Picnic Blanket

My latest finished object is a crochet blanket that I’m really rather proud of

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It’s taken four months, but my Rainbow Picnic Blanket is finally done, and I love it.

When you’re not following a pattern, just making it all up as you go along, you don’t really know how the thing is going to turn out. I didn’t know if the squares I’d chosen would work with this particular yarn. I didn’t know if the colours would go together. I didn’t even know how big the blanket would turn out. Did the squares need a border or just the blanket as a whole?

The finished blanket. The colours work well and I like the scalloped border.

But half the fun of creating your own pieces is the experimentation. I liked the way the squares turned out, they both really showed off the varigated nature of the yarn. But I wasn’t sure what to do about the border. In the end I decided to join the square in strips. I was going to crochet a border around each strip, but some good advice via Facebook meant I didn’t. Instead I sewed the strips together and put a border around the whole thing.

I really don’t think I’d change anything about this design

My concern with simply joining the squares was that the colours might get lost next to each other, but I really didn’t need to worry. The colours work really well and definitely stand out. I always knew I wanted a white border around the whole of the blanket, finished off with scalloped edging using a fan stitch. So that’s what I did.

I really like the finished object. The colours are lovely, the yarn is soft but hardwearing (ideal for a picnic blanket), it’s just the right size and the border finishes it off perfectly. I really don’t think I’d change anything about this design.

The blanket has got the all-important Betty seal of approval.

All sewn up: The Jane Deep V sweater

My latest finished project is a sweater that I designed to replace a worn-out but favourite item of clothing

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I recently put the final stitches in my Jane Deep V sweater. This is a sweater design based on Jane Norman piece I bought secondhand. The original was starting to fall apart and really needed replacing, so I took some measurements, bought some gorgeous alpaca yarn and started knitting.

I’ve changed a couple of things. The Jane Norman sweater has this thing at the front that I can only describe as an insert. I don’t really know what it’s there for – I guess it’s so that you can wear the sweater without something underneath, but why design a top with a deep V neck and then chicken out and put in that insert? It’s surely much better to keep the V and then use a different range of tops underneath to vary the look?

The Jane Deep V Sweater. It's very pink, and I'm not sure about the shoulder shaping, but overall, I'm
pleased with how it's turned out.

I also wanted more contrast between the collar, cuffs and hem and the main body of the piece, so I went for a pale pink for the latter and much brighter shade for the former.

It’s taken ages to finish this piece. It really has. Knitting the sweater was simple enough; it’s just a 2x2 rib for the edges and stocking stitch for the main body. But working out the maths to get that V right was complicated. Then I made a few mistakes as I went along and had to undo it several times. I forgot how to shape the sleeves at the shoulder, too, and had to redo those three times. I’m still not entirely happy with how they’ve come out. They look a bit puffy to me, but they’re close enough.

Can anything really be too pink?

I’m not sure about the colour either. I never thought I’d say this, but maybe it’s too pink? Can anything really be too pink? I’m not sure. The size and shaping are pretty spot on, though. It fits really well and I love the way I can change the look just by changing what I layer underneath. A plain black polo neck with jeans and I’ve got a work outfit; a lower-cut lace-fringed strappy top and I’m set for going out.

I’d quite like to make this again in different colours. I think white with black trimming would work well and allow for some really bright colours to be worn underneath.

Overall I’m happy with the result. I think it looks better than the Jane Norman sweater it’s based on. What do you think?

My take (left) on the Jane Norman sweater (right). I think I prefer my version, although I might be biased.

All sewn up: Sirdar hooded baby jacket

I’ve got several projects on the needles at the moment, so it’s been nice to finish this one off

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I have finished the Sirdar baby jacket I’ve been knitting for the past few months, and I think it’s looking good.

The finished article. I really like the way this has turned out.

I really like the way the yarn has knitted up. The speckle effect works really well and the yarn is super soft (read my full yarn review), so ideal for baby clothes. This is the first time I’ve used this yarn and I’m pretty impressed, although it did get rather splitty when reknitting after having undone a few rows.

I really enjoy learning new techniques, and this pattern involved two novel things for me: making a hood and raglan sleeves. The former was great. Hoods are so easy! This is good because I want to make a Little Red Riding Hood cabled cape with a hood. So now I should be able to work out how to make one in the right size.

Overall I really like the finished piece, but I’m concerned about the size – I just hope the recipient gets some wear out of it

It’s really just a case of casting on sufficient stitches for it to go all the way round your head, knitting until it’s the right height, casting off a third of the stitches, working a third and then casting off the remaining third. You re-attach the yarn to the remaining stitches, and continue working on them until the piece is deep enough to cover your head. This forms the top of the hood.

Hood detail. Photos by Idoru Knits.

The raglan sleeves, on the other hand, were a bit more tricky. This was down to different tensions, and is explained in more detail here. But after a few attempts I got it right and they look OK. I’m also pretty impressed with my seaming. It’s so neat.

Overall I really like the finished piece. But I’m concerned about the size. I made the 6-12 months version and it matches the measurements given. In fact if anything it’s a few milimetres over. But it seems really small. I know babies are small, but they do grow quite a bit in their first year and I just don’t know if this will fit. But there’s not much I can do about that now. I just hope the recipient gets some wear out of it. And that both mother and baby like it.

Knitting for others

For once I’ve been knitting for other people and here are the results

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Knitters tend to be a generous bunch, spending much of their time making things for other people. Not me, though. I mostly knit for me. This is because I design and I need a model to design for – it just makes sense for that model to be me. Honest, it’s not just that I’m selfish. And to prove that point, recently I have been knitting for other people.

There are loads of gorgeous baby blankets I’d like to make – so can more of you start having babies please?

First, my niece. It’s her birthday this month and I wanted to give her something handmade. The Champs-Elysees wristwarmers were a pattern I found on Ravelry a while ago. At the time it was free from Knit on the Net. Unfortunately it’s not available any more. Knitted in Rowan’s Kidsilk Haze, these are pretty, feminine wristwarmers that are gorgeously fluffy and light. My niece is quite a girly girl so I think (hope!) they’ll be perfect for her.

I actually started making these quite a long time ago, but I managed to lose my print out of the lace chart. By this time the pattern was no longer on Knit on the Net, and I just couldn’t track down a copy. I emailed Knit on the Net, but didn’t get a reply. I thought I was going to have to give up, until I found the designer on Ravelry. She’s Laylock on the website and more of her designs can be seen on the site – check them out; they’re gorgeous. I sent her a message, not with much hope of getting a response. She did reply, though, and took the time to track down the chart and set it up so I could download it from her website. Now that’s customer service.

The finished Champs-Elysees wristwarmers.

I finished the wristwarmers last weekend while I was visiting my parents, so I could leave them with my mum to give to my niece on her birthday. They are quite lovely. This isn’t a pattern for beginners; the lace is really quite complicated and you really have to pay attention to what you’re doing. But the finished product is beautiful.

I’ve also been making baby things for a pregnant friend. First up was a blanket. I was looking for a crochet pattern because I wanted something was a bit ‘antique-y’ and I just think crochet looks more antique than knitting. I also don’t agree with gendering clothes, so there was to be none of this blue or pink business. Sticking with – my idea of – an antique theme, I wanted a sort of deep golden cream colour. Again, this just says antique to me; I don’t know why.

I found the ideal pattern on Ravelry and a lovely soft, machine-washable yarn from King Cole. For once I had no disasters making this and I really like the finished product. I had loads of yarn left over so also made a hat. Another free pattern from Ravelry, this was another nice and easy make.

Baby blanket and hat.

In my searching for the ideal crochet baby blanket pattern I found hundreds of gorgeous baby blankets I’d like to make. So can more of you start having babies please?

The Comme Ca top redux

My latest finished object: what I think and what I’d do differently

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So the Comme Ca top is finally finished, seaming dilemmas and sleeve difficulties and all. I’ve worn it a few times already and I’m actually really pleased with the result. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t change things if I did it again.

The verdict
I like it. The fit is great and it’s a good replacement for the original top. In fact I think it looks better than the original. It’s got more structure so is more fitted. The deep ribbed hem clings nicely to my waist and there’s plenty of room to wear a top underneath.

I had to teach myself several new techniques to complete this sweater: seaming three pieces of material; making the crossover; creating cap sleeves; inventing the single line of white on the sleeves and neckline. These are all skills I can apply to future designs and which will no doubt improve my knitting.

I love you, now change
To be honest there’s not an awful lot I would do differently. When I was sewing it up I did think it might have been better in a 4 ply, as the seams would be less bulky. But now that it’s done it doesn’t actually look that bulky. I still think it would work well in a 4 ply though.

I also think I should have put in more decreases on the crossovers, creating a more obtuse angle. This would have opened up the front, meaning that more of whatever top I happen to be wearing underneath would be on show. But this is a minor point, really, and overall I’m happy with the way the piece has turned out.

Comparing the original top (left) and my remake (right). I honestly do prefer mine. Photo by Idoru Knits.

Is there a right way to design?

Charts and sketches or straight to the knitting – which method is better? Or does it all come down to your preferred way of working?

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I’d really love to know how other designers go about designing. Do you meticulously measure, chart, make sketches and so on so that when you come to the actual making you know exactly what you’re doing and how it’ll all turn out? Or do you jump straight in with the knitting? I do the latter, it’s the way my brain works – I’m not great with paperwork and making charts just doesn’t appeal. I want to knit. I want to see the real thing taking shape.

I make a sketch of what I’m designing and I always do a swatch, usually in stocking stitch, but sometimes in the relevant stitch pattern. I use this and either my own measurements or general ones to work out how many stitches I need for each piece, and then I start knitting. That’s the extent of my planning.

When I came to sewing on the sleeves it quickly became apparent they were the wrong size

But this leads to problems. I should have finished the making up on my Comme Ca top ages ago, but when I came to sewing on the sleeves it quickly became apparent they were the wrong size. Too long and too narrow, so they didn’t fit the armholes properly and would have been too tight on the tops of my arms.

Spot the difference? The sleeve on the left was the first one;
it's too long and too narrow. The one on the right, however,
fit perfectly. Photo by Idoru Knits.

Now, if I was the charting type I’m sure this wouldn’t have happened. I’d have known exactly how many stitches and rows I needed to make the sleeves the exact size. Instead I estimated the extra number of stitches needed to make the sleeves wide enough and started experimenting with rows and decreases to see how to make them the right length. It took a couple of goes, but I’ve got it now, and I like the way it looks. I’ve still got to sew on the second sleeve and then weave in the final few ends, and then it’s done, and I can finally wear my new top.

All change?
But does this mean I should change my way of doing things? I’m sure the top – and many other items I’ve designed – would have been finished a lot more quickly if I was more methodical in my approach. A proper drawing on graph paper would mean I could work out numbers of rows for each piece, heading off problems like the one encountered here.

I worry that this would take the enjoyment out of it all, though. I knit because I like it. I design because it’s creative. Making it more methodical is surely going to make it more like, well, work. And I don’t want that.

Those sleeves pinned in place ready for sewing.
Photo by Idoru Knits.

Finishing things

It's time to bite the bullet and finish off some projects that have been hanging around for a while

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Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been trying to finish some things off. This has meant some blocking, some sewing and little bit of learning.

Blocks off
First up was the blocking. These squares are for a crochet blanket design. I’ve made 10 of the circles-in-squares motifs and thought it best to block a few and start getting the blanket put together. I soon ran into a problem: I’ve got more pink inners than I’ve got red. So I’ve blocked what I’ve got and started joining. But it’s back to the crocheting for that one really.

Blocking the motifs, with help from Poppy.
Photo by Idoru Knits.

Sewn up
The knitting was completed on my Comme Ca crossover top quite a while ago, but I’ve been putting off the sewing up. I wanted to start wearing it, though, so out came the pins and the darning needles.

The complication with this top is that there are three bits: a back and two fronts to create the crossover. It didn’t actually occur to me that having three pieces of fabric would require more sewing until I got to this stage.

It didn’t occur to me that having three pieces of fabric would require more sewing

I’ve never joined three pieces of knitting before, and according to the internet no-one else has either. This obviously isn’t true, but a Google search didn’t turn up any information on seaming three pieces of material, although there was plenty on sewing together two.

Trying to join all three layers in one go seemed a bit complicated, so I decided to join two in the usual way and then sew the top layer on afterwards. This appears to have worked, creating a neat seam that’s not appreciably different from normal.

The seam looks to be shaping up well
and is as neat as my usual sewing.
Not sure if that's a good thing!
Photo by Idoru Knits.

The Shetland hat

My newest knitted design and some thoughts on saving money.

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My latest design, the Shetland hat, is a red and white bobble hat. It was inspired by Shetland, a TV show based on the books of Anne Cleeves. A thoroughly enjoyable crime thriller show starring Douglas Henshall, it is, unsurprisingly, set on Shetland. Shetland is very cold and very windy, so there was a lot of knitwear, much of which was stunning. A second series is coming soon – check it out.

A very important part of a Shetlander's wardrobe is, of course, a cosy hat. This one is knitted in Erika Knight’s bulky-weight Maxi Wool in Marni (red) and Canvas (white). The wide ribbed band keeps the hat firmly on your head, while the denseness of the reverse stocking stitch will ensure you stay warm. And the gorgeous red pompom just finishes the whole thing off!

The Shetland bobble hat in Erika Knight Maxi Wool.
I really like this colour combination,
and the weather's definitely turned, so I'm
sure to get plenty of wear out of the hat.
Photo by Idoru Knits.

 The chunkiness of the yarn means this is a very quick knit; it’s simple too – ideal for pub knitting. The yarn itself is lovely; soft to the touch and a joy to knit with. It isn’t cheap, though, and this got me to thinking. Knitting can be a rather expensive hobby and this is something I want to address in my designs.

Maxi Wool costs £8.95 and the pattern requires one skein of each colour. I know we don’t necessarily knit to save money, but I still think that nearly £20 just for the materials to make a hat is quite costly (although I did get two hats out of it). I’m not saying it’s not worth it – the yarn is beautiful and I’m really pleased with finished product – but not everybody wants to, or even can, spend that much.

So my plan from now on is to always find two different yarns that can be used for every project: a ‘save’ yarn and a ‘splurge’ yarn. In this case the Maxi Wool is the latter. If you want to ‘save’, however, I recommend Wendy Pampas, which I picked up for £4.50 per ball. Another bulky yarn, the gauge is marginally bigger than the the Erika Knight, so might require a smaller needle.

A 'selfie' of me looking happy in my new hat.
Photo by Idoru Knits.

This pattern will be available for free at some point in the future ...

Projects finished and projects in hand

Blogging has been suspended recently for reasons of illness and being in Portugal for work. Knitting, however, most definitely hasn’t. So here’s what I’ve been up to.

First, I finished the sample for Knit Now magazine and managed to send it off in time to meet the deadline. I will of course let you all know when the magazine is in the shops.

I also completed the baby cardie commissioned by a friend. She was very happy with the finished product and I hope the final recipient will be too. I made this in Rico Superwash Merino, a lovely soft yarn that’s (the clue’s in the name) machine washable – a somewhat important consideration when it comes to baby clothes. I also made a baby hat using the leftover yarn.

Hat and cardie. The buttons are tiny blue teddies.

This swatched up slightly bigger than the recommended Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, even knitted on 3.75mm needles rather than the suggested 4mm. But I figured it wouldn’t really matter if the finished piece was a bit bigger than anticipated. The baby will grow into it after all. I actually much preferred the tension achieved with the smaller needle. I think the Superwash tends to knit up a bit too loosely on 4mm needles. So an experiment that paid off.

Finally I’ve been knitting Champs-Elyssees handwarmers for my niece. These were meant to be for her birthday which was last week, so I’ve missed that. Oh well. This is really quite complicated lace pattern, which has been a lot of fun to do but I have made several mistakes and had to undo it a few times. On the plus side I’ve learnt how to make a thumb hole using M1 increases. This is the benefit of following other people’s patterns – you learn new stuff.

This is just the first handwarmer. I've still got number
two to make.

 All photos my own.

Finished tablet cover and free pattern

The finished article.

Last week I blogged about the crochet tablet cover I was designing. Well it's now finished, complete with button-down flap and slip-stitch border. I added a mother-of-pearl button as the finishing touch.

I've written up the pattern and I'm making it available free to blog readers. You can copy the pattern below, or if you’d prefer a fancy PDF, leave a comment and I’ll sort one out.

Candy striper tablet cover
Yarn: Sirdar Click chunky
Yarn A: colour Bloom
Yarn B: colour Lamb
Gauge: 20 rows and 15 sts in 10cm

Chain 55 (for 7" tablet) or 85 (for 10" tablet)

Row 1 with yarn A, ch1, 1dc in 2nd ch from hook, 1dc in all ch, turn
Row 2 ch 1, 1dc in all dc through the back loop (tbl) only, turn
Rows 3 + 4 Rpt row 2, but at end of row 4 change to yarn B, turn
Row 5 with yarn B, ch 1, 1 dc tbl in all dc, turn
Rows 6-8 rpt row 5, but at end of row 8 change to yarn A, turn
Row 9 with yarn A, ch 1 1 dc tbl in all dc, turn
Rows 10-12 rpt row 9, but at end of row 12 change to yarn B, turn

Repeat rows 5-12 until the cover is deep enough to fit your tablet - it should be slightly bigger than the tablet to ensure it fits in safely; it doesn't matter what colour you end on but do finish with a complete set of four rows of the final colour

Button detail.

Fold the piece in half. Join yarn A to the top corners of the held together sides and loosely slip stitch the two sides together, carry on along the bottom and up the other side. This last side doesn't actually need joining, this is just to ensure both sides look the same. You should now have a pocket that your tablet can fit in. You could leave it at this or carry on and add the flap

For flap
Join whichever colour you didn't finish with (so if your final stripe is yarn A, you'll join yarn B) to one corner of the top the cover
Row 1 ch 1, 1 dc tbl in every dc along one side of the cover, this then becomes the back of the cover, turn
Row 2 ch 1, dc2tog tbl, dc2tog tbl, 1 dc in every dc except final two, turn
Row 3 ch 1, dc2tog tbl, 1 dc in every dc except last one, turn
Row 4 ch 1, dc2tog tbl, dc2tog tbl, 1 dc in every dc except last 2, join 2nd colour

Repeat decrease pattern, while sticking to the stripe pattern, until you have 8 dc

Button-hole row ch 1, dc2tog tbl, dc2tog tbl, ch 4, skip next four dc, dc2tog tbl, dc2tog tbl Next row ch 1, dc2tog tbl, 1 dc tbl in next 4 ch, dc2tog tbl

Carry on decreasing, sticking to the stripe pattern, until only 1 dc remains, bind off
Join yarn A to one corner of the flap and loosely slip stitch all the way round, bind off
Join yarn B and loosely slip stitch in each sl st, bind off
Weave in all ends

Flying the flag

Recently I figured out how to use two or more colours in a row of crochet. I call this technique tapestry or Fair Isle crochet. I googled the terms and found that this isn’t a new way of doing crochet, in fact it’s been around for a long time. There are various ways of doing it, including my version of carrying the yarns along the back of the work. This means that with a flat piece of crochet the back is a mess of strands of yarn. Other methods fix this, so I’m going to give them a try.

Stranding the different colours along the back of the work
does produce something of a mess.

Anyway, I decided to use my new (to me) technique to create an iPhone cover in time for the London Olympics. The obvious motif was the Union Jack. So I sat down with some 4ply cotton and dutifully made my gauge square. This is important with tapestry crochet, as you need to know exactly how many stitches and rows you have to play with when designing your image.

Just in time for the Olympics!

Next it was a case of finding a picture of the Union Jack and drawing it onto grid paper. This is the simplest part - one grid square equals one stitch, so you just draw a rectangle with the right number of squares to stitches. Then draw a few straight and diagonal lines to make the flag. Next I copied the grid onto an Excel spreadsheet so it could be saved as a colour PDF.

Plain blue back.

I followed the grid to crochet a Union Jack, and Hey Presto! I had the front of an iPhone cover. In order to save time, the back of the iPhone cover is plain double crochet, which can be done in red, white or blue, for obvious reasons. The edging is single rows of double crochet in, again, red, white and blue.

Available from my Craftsy store.

The finished article in use.

Free pattern and a how to

Everyone likes free stuff, right? Well you’ll love this post then, because I’m giving away a pattern for an iPhone cover. Well Covered is a simple crochet cover done in double crochet throughout in cotton, with a choice of edgings.

The cotton I’ve used is Rico Essentials DK, which is available from SoSusie Yarns for just £2.50 a ball. She’s at Archway market every other Saturday, so if you’re around pay her a visit. There’s a cupcake stall at the market too, if you need any further encouragement to go.

For your free pattern, go to the end of this post, click on the image of the pattern and the right-click (or Control-click if you're an Apple Mac user) and then save the image. If this doesn't work work, email me and I'll send you a press-ready PDF.

The Well Covered iPhone cover, with edging I
(back cover in red) and edging II (front, in blue).

The cotton is actually a really lovely yarn. It’s mercerised yet still really soft. It’s hard wearing, so will protect your beloved iPhone and it’s machine washable. It comes in some gorgeous colours. Double crochet is the easiest of stitches and there’s no shaping, so even if you’re a complete beginner this is a very simple pattern to follow. In fact the most difficult bit is the picot edging, and you don’t even have to do that. If you want to give it a go, however, here’s a how to.

How to picot

I’ve got a pattern for a lovely lacy crochet top. It incorporates a picot stitch, which I had never done before, so I looked up how to do it. I couldn’t work it out, so I left the stitch out. Recently I decided I wanted to do a picot edging on an iPhone cover, so I looked it up again: chain 3, then chain into the first chain. It still didn’t make sense. I can’t see how chaining into that first chain works. You’re going back on yourself, which is surely going to be very difficult and look very untidy.

So I had a look on YouTube and found plenty of video tutorials on the picot stitch. I watched the videos and it didn’t look that complicated, so I gave it a go. And I was right - going back and chaining into that first chain was incredibly fiddly and didn’t look good. I watched the videos again, tried the stitch again. Same thing. It was time to start looking at the construction of the stitch.

Normally with a crochet stitch you work into the upperside, inserting your hook under the two strands that make a ‘V’. This is what I was trying to do with the picot. But it’s also possible to work into the underside. Try making a few chains and then turn them upside down. Each stitch has a single loop making up the underside. So instead of trying to go backwards and into the top of the first chain, move your hook as if you’re going to work the next stitch in the row and insert your hook into the single loop of the first chain in your picot. As you’re now working forwards, the stitch is easier to complete and looks much neater.

Nead and tidy picots!

Maybe everyone already does their picot stitches like this, but nowhere did I see it described as such and it certainly didn’t look like that on the videos I watched. With my new technique perfected, I could do a picot edging for my Well Covered iPhone cover, and I’m pretty pleased with the way it turned out.

Free pattern: Well Covered iPhone cover. Please
click on the image, then right-click
(Control-click) and save the image to download.

Patriot games

The stripes are shaping up well.

With Liz II hitting 60 years on the throne, England doing well in Euro2012 and the London Olympics fast approaching, it’s surely time to get patriotic. So I’ve designed a red-white-and-blue iPhone cover.

This striped cover is crocheted in double knit cotton. It’s double crochet throughout, but going only through the back loop. This creates a stretchy fabric that’s crochet’s equivalent of ribbing.


Stripey fabrics, whether knitted or crocheted, are a bit of a pain in the backside (that’s a technical term). Not only is there all that swapping of yarns, there’s a whole lot of ends to weave in when you’ve finished, and let’s be honest, none of us like weaving in ends. The yarn swapping can’t be helped. Unless you get a self-striping yarn, which, quite frankly, is cheating. The plethora of ends, however, can be.

The strands running along the edge
of the fabric can be disguised with a border.
Take care not to tangle the yarns - untangling
can get annoying.

When you do Fair Isle knitting, you don’t cut the yarn every time you change colour - that would be silly. Just think of all that weaving in. On second thoughts, don’t. So, I asked myself, why cut it every time I change colour with stripes? I can just keep all the yarns attached and when I need to bring a new colour into play, run the yarn along the edge of the material. And it works. When you take up a new yarn, just give it a bit of a tug to keep the crochet nice and tight, making sure not to pull too hard so the fabric doesn’t pucker, then yarn over and pull through the loops on the hook. Simple.

It leaves strands of the yarns along the edge, but these can be disguised at the sewing up stage or if you create a border. With the iPhone cover I did a border of one row of double crochet in each colour, and hid the strands behind this.

The Go Team GB iPhone cover is available on my Folksy store for £10 (plus p&p), while the pattern can be bought from Ravelry, Folksy or by emailing me, for £2.50. A colour PDF will be sent via email.

The finished item in use.

Well covered

When people think of knitting they tend to think of winter woolies, gloves and hats and cozy blankets. Which makes selling knitwear during summer something of a challenge. So recently I’ve been thinking of things I can make that don’t conjure up thoughts of open fires and hot chocolate.

What I came up with was iPhone covers, and then I decided that I wouldn’t knit them after all - it was time to get out the old crochet hook and cotton. I’ve come up with three different iPhone designs so far: a plain double crochet one; a ‘RING, RING’ one; and a lacy one that I’m going to line. The first two are cotton, the final one was made from a bit of leftover wool.

Plain iPhone cover. This is a simple double crochet design in cotton.

Double crochet (or single crochet in American) is ideal for iPhone covers. It creates a nice thick, tight fabric that will protect the phone, while cotton is hard wearing and machine washable. The plain cover is simple: make a chain that’s about the same length as your phone and then do double crochet rows until the fabric is long enough to wrap around your phone; join along the edges and bottom. I also did a double crochet border in a different colour along the top to provide contrast.

The back of RING, RING. The trick, as with knitting colourwork, is to make sure
you don't pull the threads too tight.

RING, RING was much more fun. I wanted to write ‘RING’ into both sides of the cover, using crochet rather than embroidery or Swiss darning. So I would be using two colours in the same row, kind of like crochet Fair Isle. I’ve used crochet to make stripes before, but I’ve never actually done colour work using crochet before. This was going to be interesting.

I remembered from doing stripes that the trick is to use the alternative colour to do the final step of the stitch, so with a double crochet, you insert the hook through the stitch below, wrap around in your main colour and pull through, then use the second colour to complete the stitch. You now have a finished stitch in your main colour and a loop on your hook in the second colour.

It worked! One RING as ordered.

The next step was to work out how to do the actual writing. This involved working out how many rows and stitches are needed to make one side of the cover and then drawing this onto graph paper, with each square representing one stitch. Then I drew out the letters, and it was time to start crocheting. That was when it got complicated.

To change colours in a row, you run the different threads across the back of the work, making an unholy mess of the back of the work; however, when you get to the end of a row, you turn your work, making the back now the front. This meant I had come up with a new way of crocheting so that the mess remained on the back. Crocheting on the right side was simple - just go ahead as usual - but with the wrong side showing I had make sure the non-working thread was at the front of the work. The working colour I could use as normal, but once I’d finished with that thread I had to pull it over the work and hold it tight to the front of the fabric, then bring the new working colour into play by pulling that over and to the back of the fabric, and then crochet as normal.

The finished article. This was the test piece, done in what I happened to have handy,
so the contrast isn't great, but you can see what I'm aiming for.

Have I created a new way to crochet? Probably not - I’m certain that I’m not the first person to think of this, but does open up a lot of possibilities with crochet colourwork. I’ll be crocheting Fair Isle-style jumpers before you know it.

Luscious lace

I recently finished my first ever lace shawl. It’s Ishbel by Isolde Teague, and a quick look at Ravelry shows that it’s certainly a popular design - more than 11,000 completed projects. Wow! I knitted it in Sea Silk by HandMaiden Fine Yarn, a silk/seacell mix, in a variegated purple. I bought the yarn ages ago at Stash in south-west London when some knitting chums visited. I had no idea what I’d do with it, but it was so soft and silky and purple that I just had to buy it. And it turned out to be ideal for Ishbel, so how’s that for serendipity?

The finished piece. Prior to blocking, the lace isn't all that impressive.

It did take a while, mostly because I kept getting sidetracked by other things (designing, mainly. Designing is so much fun). But also because of a few mistakes. The biggest one was in the simple stocking stitch section. That’s right - the section that should have been easiest. To make the shawl a nice triangular shape, the centre stitch is flanked by a yarn over on either side; somehow I managed to move my centre stitch and yarn overs combo by one stitch. This meant there was one too few stitches on the first half (and conversely one too many on the second). I didn’t notice this until I got to the lace sections and there weren’t enough stitches for the pattern repeats. I had to undo the whole thing. Damn.

Blocking really brought out the lace pattern
and pointed edging.

But undeterred I carried on. My advice? Use a stitch marker! I don’t know how that stitch shifted but if I’d had a stitch marker in place it wouldn’t have.

The pattern is easy enough to follow - the lace sections being a set of repeated stitches to the centre then the same stitches in the reverse order to the end. Once you’ve got the repeating bit for each row in your head, off you go. My only criticism is that stitch counts aren’t given at the end of each row, just each section, so it can be difficult to keep track of things. In the end I figured that if I’ve got the right number of stitches to repeats then I must be doing OK, and this seemed to work.

The problem is that when you do make a mistake - and I made two - you don’t find out until you’re on the next pattern row (there’s a purl row between each), and when you’re knitting more than 200 stitches this can take rather a long time and involve quite a lot of counting, undoing and redoing. Both my mistakes involved missing out a yarn over, which was easy to spot so I could just make a stitch in the appropriate place and merrily carry on without too much fuss. If you’ve forgotten a k2tog or psso, however, it’s going to be a tad more frustrating as you will have to undo (and redo) nearly three rows.

This is a project that needs to be blocked. Once I’d cast off (nice cast off method, by the way: k2tog, slip stitch back onto left-hand needle and repeat. I’d never seen that before and it creates a lovely cast off edge), the lace section looked, well, a bit rubbish. All scrunched up and ugly. But after a bit of work with some pins and an ironing board, the lace really came into its own - a pretty, leaf-like pattern with a pointy edge.

I’m certainly pleased with the finished object and I’m planning on taking it on holiday with me as a posh evening cover up. Now I just need to go somewhere posh.

Lovely! Now I just need an invite to some place posh so I can wear it.

Shawl thing

I have a confession: I’m a little bit tired today. You see, I stayed up till gone 1am to get my Ishbel shawl finished. We’ve all done it - just a few rows to the end, so you might as well carry on. But when those rows are around 300 stitches long, it takes a tad longer than you might hope. But at least it’s done.

This really is a project that will benefit from blocking. At the moment it doesn’t look that great. The lace is all bunched up, rather than light and airy, which a good blocking will sort right out. I'm pleased with it though, and I've decided I really do love knitting lace.

The finished shawl. It will be much bigger and much lacier when blocked.

Lace detail. It will look much better when blocked.

Easy stocking stitch centre section.

Creating crochet flowers

I want to set up my own design label. There, I said it. That’s why I’ve been adapting jumpers and designing t-shirts. It’s also why I spent much of the weekend just gone (30-31 July) making up crochet flowers. I’ve invented seven, of differing sizes and designs. They’re pretty quick and easy to make and they can be made in different colour combinations and joined together to make new and exciting flowers.

There are two points to this. First, I’m going to write the patterns down and then hopefully sell them. The plan is to give one pattern away, but if you want all seven - along with instructions on how to make them in different weight yarns - then you have to cough up. It won’t be much - maybe £2.50 for all seven patterns. I don’t think that’s too much is it?

The second point is to make loads of these things and then sell them at craft fairs. They’re very cute, and when made in pretty colours or fluffy yarns (as oppose to my horrible purple practice yarn), they’re sure to look lovely. They’re versatile too - use them as embellishments, put them in your hair, secure them to a pin to make a flower brooch. I’ve got some lovely alpaca leftovers that are sure to look gorgeous ...

A belated update

Pattern: Candy reconstructed


The problem with a craft blog is that there’s not much point updating it until you’ve got something to show off. And when you’re making a jumper without a pattern it takes a long time to finish. When I started this jumper, my first that I’ve designed myself, I had every intention of posting regular updates - a record of what I got right, what I got wrong, what I did to fix the mistakes, the changes I made to my original idea. In short, everything I learned about designing my own knits. But when it came to it, I was far too busy knitting to write.

Finished object
The important thing, though, is that my jumper is finally completed. And you know what? It looks pretty good! There was a lot of trial and error involved. Making sure the sleeves fit the armholes was particularly onerous, and I’m still not sure I quite understand how this works. I was going to do a ribbed collar, but once I’d done this and cast off, I couldn’t get my head through the resulting hole. So a simple double crochet finish has had to suffice. As it happens, I really quite like the new collar.

And all of this was part of the learning process. I now know to leave a bigger gap for my head, and to cast off very loosely! I’ve learnt how to make frills, and I love that effect around the cuffs. I’m also knitting a lot more quickly than I was at the beginning of this project.

Work in progress
The other thing with crafting is that, even before you’ve finished a current project, you’re thinking about the next. And true to form, I’m already on my next design. This time a cropped t-shirt with what I’m calling a ‘climbing vine’ lace pattern. I say I’m already on it, what I mean is that it’s nearly finished. Which will give me the topic of my next blog!

Off the cuff

Pattern: Cold Office Cuff

This was inspired by two things. The first was coming into the office on a Monday morning to find it bitterly cold. That ‘the heating’s been off all weekend and it’s going to take all day to warm up’ sort of cold. I wrapped up in my cardi and put all the heaters on, but my poor hands were turning blue. I couldn’t wear my gloves, because then I wouldn’t be able to use my computer. I needed something that would keep my hands warm without covering up my fingers. Hmm.

Second was a jumper. The first jumper I ever knitted, in fact. At the time I was hugely proud of myself. Now, though, the cheap acrylic had stretched to the point where the jumper was just a shapeless mess and the bright purple was doing nothing for anyone. I really don’t know where I was going with that colour. I suppose I was thinking something like: purple is good, therefore lots of purple must be even better. I was wrong. A paler purple, lilac maybe, might have worked.

The yarn makes more sense. It was my first attempt at making a jumper - I was hardly going to make it in cashmere. So it was time to recycle the jumper, giving me lots of acrylic to play with. And so the Cold Office Cuff was born.

Easy does it
It’s incredibly simple. Essentially 1x1 rib for a bit, 2x2 rib with some increasing, 2x2 rib straight, 2x2 with some decreasing, 1x1 rib, cast off. Sew up, leaving a gap for your thumb. Repeat.

Originally I was going to do some cables, but I couldn’t find the pattern I wanted to base the cables on, so I gave up on that idea. Also, I wanted something very quick to knit up - these most certainly were. My cuffs are now kept at work, and as the last few mornings have been pretty cold, I’m rather pleased with myself.

Next I shall work out those cables and maybe figure out a way to make a thumb.

The Cold Office Cuff - my first ever design!