With another pair of tea cup coasters and more compliments under my belt, I was flattered to get requests for another couple of sets from my French friend – for her mother-in-law and her neighbour. At the risk of being boring, here they are…
Oh dear. The English are getting a bad name. I gave some knitted Christmas pudding covers for individual chocolates to use as table favours at Christmas to my French friends. They’ve since put a walnut in each one to preserve the pudding shape while they’re on display. Their neighbour, recently spotting them, is now convinced that the English like to keep their walnuts in little individual woolly covers… she couldn’t stop laughing. She laughed almost as much as she did…
Well, here they are, the hand warmers for birthday presents for three lovely girls. I had a huge (and I mean huge) ball of cream DK yarn which was very easy to work with. The pattern for the hand warmers is a basic 3k 3p rib, casting on 42 stitches and knitting until the work measures 20cms. After casting off, put the two long sides together and sew up, leaving a gap of 3-4cms or so for your thumb, 4cms…
I thought it was about time to expand my enthusiasm on a set of hand warmers for myself or, in this case, arm warmers. I estimated how many stitches I might need and just kept knitting in stocking stitch until I felt they were long enough. I sewed them together, right sides together, leaving a hole for my thumb. They were exceedingly plain, so I jazzed them up with three flowers each. This was a precursor to making a set…
It’s that time of year when I like to come up with something original, and…well…froggy for my friend’s birthday. Last time I produced a dishcloth, and after a year’s experience, voilà! Thank you oliverboliver – this was just what I was looking for. Although originally a hat for an Innocent Smoothie, this works just as well as an egg cosy, though do you really need a reason? How about this one? Another Innocent Smoothie hat pattern but, on a bottle…
Tea, teacups, teapots – to my French friend, these epitomise the English. From her family’s recent visits to London she has tea in beautiful patterned tins; she has bone china teacups, and now a teapot in a beautiful floral design. What else could I make as a quick gift but a set of cup-shaped coasters? A tea cosy is on the cards, of course, but an image of her sipping tea, little finger crooked at just the right angle, means…
A quick knit for Valentine’s Day with a long return – a cosy cup of Rosie Lea or coffee, and bags of admiration and compliments. As someone once said, ‘Knitting makes the heart (and the tea or coffee) stay warmer’ or something like that. This pattern was quick and easy to make, and my first attempt at cables. I reduced the number of rows by just a few to avoid woolly mouthfuls, and then found that it fits taller mugs…
As a change from dishcloths, I came across this little beauty on Ravelry to use up the remnants of cotton yarn from previous projects. The Tribble can be used as a scrubbie for your dishes or a wash cloth for your face and has just the right scrubbing attributes for both – either way it fits into your hand just fine. Paired with a bar of soap and a little effort in the presentation, another present sorted. Thank you, Abigail, for…