Riddari - Icelandic Lopi

I bought this as a kit from https://www.shopicelandic.com/. It arrived very quickly and everything needed to knit it was there, including the needles (which I wasn't expecting). The pattern came as a booklet of several designs.

Beautiful design and colours - just what my husband wanted. The yarn is authentic, but too scratchy for me to wear. He, however, absolutely loves it and as it is definitely a top layer garment the scratchiness doesn’t seem to bother him.

Eva's Cardigan

I wanted to say thank you to a colleague for some encouragement and support, so I decided to make a little cardigan for her new baby daughter. I had some yarn left over from making Millie's Cardigan and I really liked the simplicity of Gidday Baby by Georgie Nicholson so here it is:

Dragon Scarves

Dragon Scarf is what I call a scarf that has been knitted from the Hitchhiker pattern by Martina Behm. I love the sawtooth picot edgings and have even embellished these with beads on a couple of the scarves I've made. I have made 6 to date, including 2 that were requested and are now proudly worn by my husband!

Bergere de France Ideal, Vitamine

Araucania Botany Lace with beads

Katia Air Lux with beads

Knitted Knockers

I first heard of Knitted Knockers a few months ago. This is a charity I really felt able to contribute to, by giving my time and using my skills in a practical way, to help ladies who have had a mastectomy or lumpectomy. With my mother, my best friend and her sister having had to deal with breast cancer, this is a cause that is close to my own heart.

Knitted Knockers are prosthetic breasts knitted (or crocheted) from soft cotton and filled with light polyester. Knitted Knockers UK is a charity that supplies these knockers free of charge to ladies who request them. The knockers are made to order by approved volunteer knitters with yarn and filling supplied by the charity. In 2015 BBC Get Creative reported on how Knitted Knockers UK won the People's Choice Epic Award.

I became involved via the UK Hand Knitting's 'Commit to Knit' campaign for National Knitting Week. I applied to become an approver Knocker Knitter, or Knockerette as they call themselves, via the Knitted Knockers UK Applications Board on Facebook. I had to to knit some samples for approval and I am pleased to report that my work was deemed to be of the right standard and so I am now an approved knocker knitter and recently fulfilled my first order.

sample of knocker submitted for approval

Millie's Cardigan

A friend asked me to make up this little cardigan for her great-niece who is 4. The finishing touch are the stripy buttons that I found at Sew n Sew in Bath's Guildhall Market. I think it's rather cute. I had a bit of yarn left over so I made a matching hat with pom-pom.

Tiny Tea Cosy

The idea for the tiny tea cosy came about when I was watching some hardy tea drinkers sitting outside Coffee etc in Bradford on Avon in the autumn. The individual teapots looked as if they’d lose heat very rapidly in the open air and there’s nothing worse than pouring your second cup of tea only to find that it’s too cold to drink.

I decided to use double stranded DK yarn in a honeycomb brioche stitch to give a really thick insulating layer for the body of the cosy. To knit double stranded, I pulled the thread from the outside and the inside of skein together.

Pattern

Click here for the pattern as a downloadable PDF

Materials

Yarn

I used 30g of Life DK by Stylecraft (75% acrylic 25% wool, washable at 40°C), but you could use any DK that knits to the same gauge.

Needles

4mm, or size to get desired gauge, straight or circular knitted back and forth. Use a smaller size for the ribbing if you want the cosy to pull in more at the top and bottom.

Gauge

22sts and 30 rows using a single strand & 4mm needles, should give you the correct tension: if you knit a 10cmx10cm tension square in the honeycomb brioche you will have knit half the tiny tea cosy!

Dimensions

W: 16cm H: 10cm

Abbreviations

K knit

P purl

K1b knit into stitch below

K1p knit picking up the loose thread from the row below

K2togtbl knit two stitches together through back of loops to decrease by 1 stitch

Instructions

Make two identical pieces: the cosy is made as two pieces and joined at top and bottom ribbing only, to allow for the spout and handle.

Bottom Ribbing

Cast on 25 sts (using smaller needle if desired) leaving a tail long enough for joining.

Row 1 & 3 (RS): P1 K1 rib, ending with a P1

Row 2 & 4 (WS): K1 P1 rib, ending with a K1

Body - Honeycomb Brioche

Row 5 (RS): *K1, K1b (into the knit stitch of your last rib row). Repeat from * to last st, K1

Row 6 (WS): *K1p, K1. Repeat from * to last st. K1p

Row 7 (RS): *K1b, K1. Repeat from * to last st. K1b

Row 8 (WS): *K1, K1p. Repeat from * to last st. K1

These four rows make the pattern. Continue for 6 pattern repeats.

Row 33 (RS): *K1, K1b. Repeat from * to last st. K1

Row 34 (WS): *K1, P2. Repeat from * to last st. K1

Row 35 (RS): *K1 K2togtbl. Repeat from *, K1. 17 sts

Top Ribbing

Row 36 (WS): *K1 P1 rib to last st. K1

Row 37 (RS): *P1 K1 rib to last st. P1

Row 38 (WS): *K1 P1 rib to last st. K1

Row 39 (RS): Cast off loosely in rib, leaving a tail long enough for joining.

Finishing

Join the two pieces at the top and bottom ribbing using the cast-on/-off tails. Weave in the ends. Make an individual pot of tea and slip your new tiny tea cosy on the pot to keep the second cup warm until you are ready for it!

Copyright

Please respect my copyright; do not distribute this pattern, do not use it or items made with it for commercial purposes.

Northern Lights

I'm very pleased with my Northern Lights jacket knitted using the free pattern from Garnstudio. I used DROPS Big Delight in Jeans Blue with DROPS Nepal in Black.

The finishing touch is specially commissioned buttons from my very talented artist and jeweller friend ArtisAnne Studio who makes wonderful things from glass.