Yes, I know, I have slightly wandered off the Spring flower theme. I was looking through my embroidery stitch book, and found a page where they actually tell you how to embroider a butterfly. I couldn't resist having a go.
Unusually for me, this is just a generic butterfly. I usually like to be precise, possibly with a latin name, but this time I just used the wool colours that I had to hand.
These shoes are for sale in my Etsy Shop, and the pattern is my Baby Bee Shoes.
Just
a reminder that my Ginx Woolly Linx party for July is now running.
Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I
would love to see what you have been working on this month.
In nearly the last of my series of baby shoes, I have strayed from Spring into Summer.
I have not been able to take a photo of the meadow I have in my head that inspired these shoes. I was going to look for a picture online, but perhaps I don't need to.
The meadow I was thinking of is a complete mixture of flowers: a few bold scarlet poppies, a smattering of deep blue cornflowers, some jolly buttercups, a cow parsley reaching above them all, and some daisies down low. Can you see the meadow now in your mind's eye? The sun is shinning and the flowers are blowing in a gentle breeze. It is a perfect day.
Just
a reminder that my Ginx Woolly Linx party for June is now running.
Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I
would love to see what you have been working on this month.
One of my favourite spirng flowers in my garden, are the wild garlic plants that come up every year in a shady corner at the bottom. (This last sentence gives the totally wrong idea about my garden - that it is huge and I live on the edge of an area of woodland. My garden is actually the size of a postage stamp, and I live in a town. Hubby planted the garlic, and it comes up every year.)
I think these flowers are so beautiful, so used them as inspiration for the design on these shoes. I'm not sure that garlic is a particularly popular theme for babies. But if you look at the beautiful flowerhead above it really should be.
These Wild Garlic Shoes are for sale in my Etsy Shop, along with a selection of other baby shoes inspired by nature. I'm getting near the end of the spring-flower inspired shoes.
Just
a reminder that my Ginx Woolly Linx party for May is still running.
Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I
would love to see what you have been working on this month.
I love daisies - such an unassuming little flower but so pretty. I have made daisy shoes before, but looking at the flower really carefully, I realized that by using daisy stitch I was not really reproducing how the flower actually looks.
So with the shoes above I have used a simple circle of stitches, which I think is closer to the real flower. I love the greyish wool, which I think looks like a stone wall. I was going to knit another pair from it, but don't have quite enough. Annoying!
The pattern is my Baby Bee Shoe pattern, and these shoes are also heading for my Etsy Shop. I still have to make some little drawstring bag for them, and am definitely GOING TO DO IT TODAY. (I am shouting at myself.)
Just
a reminder that my Ginx Woolly Linx party for May is now running.
Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I
would love to see what you have been working on this month.
So many Spring flowers seem to be appearing. I love this season, but you have to make the most of it, as with some of the flowers they are here for a week or two and then they are gone. So I have been out with my camera, and then using the ideas for some inspiration for embroidery on some new baby shoes for my shop.
These shoes were inspired by Apple Blossom, but also by this lovely blue wool that I found in my stash. I love it when wool changes shade, and for these I was careful to get the colour change to match in both shoes. The pattern is my Baby Bee Shoe pattern. It is a fairly easy knit, but I love to make them individual with a bit of embroidery. These shoes are heading for my Etsy Shop, although first I will make a little drawstring bag for them. I have some more flower-inspired shoes and photographs on the way.
Just
a reminder that my Ginx Woolly Linx party for May is now running.
Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I
would love to see what you have been working on this month.
I think I mentioned that I was going a bit baby shoe crazy. Here is a second shoe design. I have been dithering about a name, as it would be nice to come up with something northern like my Tundra Shoe pattern. Everything I think of seems to have been already used. For now it is the Wrap Over Baby Shoe, but if I would welcome any better suggestions.
This time my pattern comes with two sizes (newborn-3 months and 3-6 months). Once again I have tried to keep the knitting simple. The shoes are made with doubleknit wool, and I think the simple shape just emphasises the loveliness of the wool.
There are only two pieces to knit, and once again the shaping of the top piece uses short rows. You can see my tutorial for this technique here.
I have tried to find fluffy doubleknit wools for my samples. I think this gives them such a cosy look, as if they are felted. The brown shoes below have alpaca in the wool, so are lovely and soft.
Some of these shoes are going to be gifts, though I have now put a few for sale in my Etsy Shop.
If you do make some of these I think that it is really important to find some lovely buttons. The button flap is functional, so you can really easily put the babies feet in. I wanted my buttons to look natural, so opted for wood or mother of pearl. What I really wanted to find was a tiny wooden toggle, but as yet could only find really enormous ones which just looked ridiculous.
So baby shoes are done for now, and I may finally have reached that time when I face a baby garment!
Between other knits I seem to always fit in a few pairs of booties. I haven't tired of knitting these yet, and they do seem to be the most consistent seller from my Etsy shop. I guess no one minds treating a new baby.
I wasn't sure about the yellow ones to start with, but once now I have embroidered on the daisy flowers I find they are my favourite. The wool is a really nice cotton, and and unusual mix of yellow and white. I'm not sure of the brand, but wonder if it comes in other colours as it was so nice to work with. I wonder if anyone will recognize it.
And these green ones (Is this green? It is a bit hard to put your finger on this colour) are knitted in Rowan Calmer, which came from my sister. I decided to return to my little embroidered bumble bee. As usual they come in a cream dupion silk shoebag.
Some more baby shoes. These ones I have called Bug Shoes. I have knitted with this wool before, and just love all the different shades in it. I have no idea where it came from, and am a bit sad I only have the tiniest bit left. The bugs were my daughter's idea, at least the ladybird on the leaf. Then I thought it would be rather cool to have a different bug on the other shoe. I'm not sure that caterpillars are considered quite as cute, but I really like them, and it had to be something really small to fit on the shoe.
I then thought for these little pink shoes I would go back to my little bumble bee, and a sprig of white blossom. For these I used a wool that is 100% cotton. The pink in the photo is really accurate, and I love the gentle shade.
My neighbour told me this morning he has a few snowdrops in his garden. So for the last pair I have made a new pair of Snowdrop Shoes. Previously I have made these in yellow and green, but I thought a light blue would look good and wintery.
These shoes are all knitted from my Baby Bee Shoe pattern, and are off to my Etsy shop. Although the embroidery may look tricky, there are tutorials for all the stitches you need in embroidery corner in my right sidebar.
I've realised that my knitting has a bit of a pattern. I like to alternate working on a new pattern, and then for a bit of a relax I return to one of my own old patterns. So I've been chilling for a bit and knitting from my baby shoe pattern.
I've also been having a lot of fun with the embroidery. I've called these ones Summer Meadow Shoes. Can you see the cow parsley, cornflowers, buttercups and daisies? Although very fiddly to stitch I hope I have given the impression of a summer field.
The second pair of shoes are decorated with a cornfield. This time there are scarlet poppies, deep blue cornflowers, cow parsley and daisies amongst stems of yellow corn.
Both pairs are in the smallest size, so would be for a newborn. The pattern comes with details for a larger size too. They come in a little dupion silk drawstring shoe bag.
Sorry guys, but I told you there were some more baby shoes in the pipeline. Once again knitted from my own pattern, these snowdrops are not very seasonal for England, but I am sure there are snowdrops blooming somewhere in the world.
These were knitted in a lovely skein of Rowan wool, given to me by my sister in her pre-moving destash. She gave me some other skeins, in some lovely gentle colours which I am also going to knit up into little shoes.
