A Well-Balanced Photograph

This week I gave my camera to my daughter to photograph something for Saturday Snapshot. This is what she came up with. It is a little desk toy, that suddenly had an eye-catching shadow.

But I also can't resist showing her in her Halloween outfit. This cost just £1.97 to make. Thanks to the lovely Fabricland: my favourite shop. (£1.50 for the orange felt, 30p for the green, and 17p for a metre of elastic.) I really don't know how they manage to make a profit. It is decorated with sharpie pen, and padded out with some cushions.

Frog Mittens

This week I have been knitting some children's fingerless mittens. I have so admired many of the cabled owls I have seen recently, so thought I would have my own go at producing my own animal from cables. So meet Cable Frog.

He is made from a combination of cabling and bobbles. These are not hard to knit, but the part I found most challenging was writing the cable instructions. Not simple as sometimes you need to cable one or two stitches, and are you on a purl row or a knit row?
 

But I do like these little frogs, with their big feet, and little open mouths. I have used them on the back of some child's fingerless mittens. The mittens are knitted with Aran wool, and although I think the cream frogs show up better in my photos, I also thought green was quite a suitable colour for frogs. The mitten pattern is for sale on ravelry, and I have also put on the frog motif as separate download, so you could use it in whatever way you wish: frog edged scarf perhaps, frog pencil case or bookmark.

I have a few more plans for the frogs, but just thought I would show you this one, which was a bit of a flop. I think it is a cute froggy hat, but the recipient was not happy. She says she would not want to be seen out looking a bit like my acorn fairy. I can sort of see what she means. I may have another attempt at something similar, but for a baby, or at least a younger child who hasn't yet got strong views on fashion and what is cool. I do think Mums would love it.

"Mummy, Why have you made me look like an acorn?"

The Problem With Ducks!

I don't think I need to add anything. Once again I have problems with my wildlife photography.

Dove Cosy

I know! Another phone cosy. This one is not heading to my shop though, as I made it for little one's new phone. 

She had her birthday a few days ago, and although I would have probably waiting a bit longer, she desperately wanted a mobile phone. So far it only seems to get used for game playing, but I guess next year when she goes to secondary school, it will be useful.

She requested no flowers for her cosy decoration, so this is what I came up with. I wish I had slightly positioned the dove a bit better, but she seemed very pleased with it.

This is just a bit of a filler, as I am working on a new pattern, which as ususal is taking much longer than I ever imagined. Just a few more reknits ....

My blog has had a lot of visitors this week. In fact more than I have every had. At first I could not work out where everyone was coming from, and hubby thought it was probably spam. (Not showing much faith!) But then I found out that my Starfish Pattern has been featured on Knit and Stitch Collection's facebook page. It's been an exciting few days. The power of advertising!

When Photos Go Wrong

Looking through my photos from the last week and trying to decide what to post, I realise that this is far from my best photo. In fact I nearly just deleted it from the camera. But it is my favourite one of the week. 

I think I had my shutter speed too slow, but the room was almost pitch back.  I like it partly because it has caught my son completely unaware and unposed, and also because he does spend a awful lot of time sitting at the computer (but it is not something I would normally photograph). In years to come I do think it will be nice to look back on photos that show our everyday lives, and not just special days. But mainly I like it because I do think of him (dare I say this online) as my golden boy.

More Phone Cosies

Wild Rose

Wild Rose and Guelder Rose

I promised you more phone cosies, and have been busy stitching away. I have had such fun deciding what flowers to do next, and then researching them.  Thank you for all the suggestions. I now have a few more ideas in the pipeline. 

I have tried to stick to wild flowers, and have been a little bit influenced by the flowers in my favourite flower fairy books. I have a fairly good knowledge of wild flowers. Lots of long walks as a child. But it is still useful to do a bit of research to get them just right.

These are a selection of the books I have used. The book in the centre called Our Country's Flowers I found in a secondhand shop. It dates from Victorian times, and is full of beautiful old plates.

Guelder Rose and Bumble Bee

Shepherd's Purse

I've gone slightly off theme with my final cosy: the Monarch Butterfly below. Someone on ravelry asked me if I had considered a knitting pattern for Milkweed, a favourite flower of the Monarch Butterfly. I think it is beyond me to knit, so I decided to embroider one on this cosy. The new cosies are for sale in my Etsy Shop.

Monarch Butterfly on Milkweed

The basic knitting pattern for the cosy is now available for free on ravelry. It is a pretty simple knit, but this will save anyone working out the sizing. The bits that I think are quite cool is that I have used a stretchy cast on technique, which makes the top easy to get your phone in and out, but also keeps it nice and safe. The bottom of the cosy is grafted, so it has a lovely smooth finish.  I have photo tutorials on my blog for both these techniques.

Grafting

I always found even found the word grafting a bit scary. Something that very experienced sock-knitters knew how to do, but I did not. 

But I recently learned how to graft, and now I just love it. So although I realise that for many this post is really teaching your grandma to suck eggs, if nothing else this is a reminder for me about this technique. The result of grafting is so neat, and once you have done it once or twice you will soon remember the stitching pattern.

Grafting is sometimes called Kitchener's stitch, and is a way of joining two end rows of stitches so you have an invisible seam. Named after Lord Kitchener of Khartoum, British military hero of Boer War and WW I. His design to make socks with more comfortable toes for the troops, today has been generally adopted.

To graft the bottom of my iphone cosy, divide the stitches between two needles, and arrange so your needles are together in your left hand, with the points at the same end, and the wrong side of the cosy is on the inside.

Thread a large needle with a length of your wool. You can use the wool from your last row of knitting.

1. Pass the wool knitwise through the first stitch on the front needle and pulling the wool through, slip the stitch off the needle. 

2. Pass the wool needle purlwise through the second stitch on the front needle, and pull through, leaving this stitch on the needle. 

3. Pass purlwise through the first stitch on the back knitting needle and slip the stitch off the needle.

4. Then pass the wool knitwise through the second stitch on the same needle, leaving this stitch on the needle. 

Repeat these four stages until you reach your last two stitches, where you will just do stage 1 and 3.

And there you have it. A beautifully smooth grafted bottom to your work. 

This tutorial will stay permanently in the knitting tips area in my right sidebar.