Mini World Magazine

You will have found me recently lurking in the motoring magazine section of WHSmiths, where I have been eagerly awaiting the Janaury issue of Mini World Magazine. My Mini Knitting Pattern has been featured on their shopping page.

I was really pleased with how prominently it has been placed, and that they were happy to use my own photograph. Perhaps it will lead to a few orders, although it is always hard to predict these things. The patterns is for sale, and I also make minis to order (which can be ordered through my Etsy shop), so I have been stocking up on wheels, to give me a head start, in case anyone wants one for Christmas.  

I try to make each mini as close of the owner's car as I can, so a photograph to match colours and model is useful.  I love the Mini Traveller on the cover of the magazine, and if you click on Mini Cooper in my labels you will find the posts with minis in that I have made. I really enjoy adapting my pattern, and would love to be asked to make one of the checkerboard roofed minis.

So now to settle down with a nice cup of tea, and read the rest of the magazine.

"Goodbye Reading Ninja Wizards"

The title of this post probably needs to be explained. I am changing jobs, and have just come home from my last day at my current school (where I work as a teaching assistant). I am moving to a new school to work in the school office. Exciting times, and I am very sad to say goodbye to a lovely school where I have made a lot of friends.

To say farewell to one group of children, with whom I read every week, I have made them a Flat Rat bookmark, from a pattern by Susan Glinert Stevens. With this group we don't just practise reading (they are all pretty good readers), but some of the skills that help comprehension and inference. So we talk about what we have read, ask questions, try to predict what might be coming next, etc. All the things that you probably do when you are reading without even realising it. When choosing a name for the group the children couldn't quite agree, which is why they became the "Reading Ninja Wizards". 

I used this pattern which is free on ravelry, although I knitted the head flat and sewed up a seam. I also slightly went my own way with the paws and ears. 

It also means I will be saying goodbye to my lunchtime knitting club, run with the lovely Joyce, which also makes me sad. But I am also excited about facing a new challenge. 

"Watch out, we may be flat, but we are coming to get you!"

Tundra Baby Vest Pattern

At last I have my new pattern ready to publish - Tundra Baby Vest. It has taken a little while, as you will see there are different wrapovers for boy or girl, and two different sizes 0-3 months Newborn, or 3-6 months Older Baby. The pattern contains some pictures to show how the boy/girl versions differ. These samples are knitted from James C. Brett Marble Doubleknit. I love these vibrant colours, but the same wool maker also does a Baby Marble Doubleknit or Baby Marble, if you want something more traditional. (I have put links to LoveKnitting where I see some of these wools are in a sale.)  

The knitting for this vest is not terrible hard, but I think it makes a really cosy and pretty top. I am toying with the idea of larger sizes, or a version with arms, but for the moment I think I need to make something a bit more seasonal.  The main sections are knitted in rib, which make it very warm and stretchy. The neck is finished off with a length of icord. You could leave this off, put it is not hard to do, and I think gives it a neat looking finish. I managed to find cute little toggles, although you could use buttons.

It is getting colder here in the UK; There has been some frost on the window panes in the early morning.  I quite fancy wearing a cosy knitted body warmer myself.
 

Boy Wrapover

Girl Tundra Baby Vest - Newborn and Older Sizes

The pattern is available on Craftsy, ravelry, Etsy and LoveKnitting at present.

Colours and Scents

It seems a long time since I wrote on my blog, and I still have nothing completed. But I thought you might like to see a little section of my baby vest which I am knitting in a larger size. Isn't this wool absolutely lush! The colours really are as lovely as in the photos. I may have to knit myself something in this wool.
 

At the weekend we went to Kent to visit my mum. She lives in sheltered housing, and with a little bit of help from family and carers, is still (fiercely) independent. We had lunch out, and a shopping trip. As we left she once again gave me the cut lavender, picked from the communal gardens. Nobody else seems to want it. So I have spent the morning in a lovely scented haze in my living room removing it from the stems.  I love the way that she has properly bagged it up. So now just to think of an interesting design for some lavender bags ...