Special Starfish

I am pretty good at watching on Ravelry if someone has used one of my patterns and linked their project. On Etsy I sometimes forget, as comments and photos come at the bottom of the shop page. But every so often I do a catchup, and was delighted to see this beautiful make from my Starfish pattern.

Pat is from Canada, and has made it for her granddaughter, on Vancouver Island, who is having her bedroom decorated with a sea theme. I just love the wool she has used, the mixture of colours. The choice to line of the french knots is lovely, and these are made with yarn spun with merino wool and Samoyed dog hair. Just exquisite - I think her granddaughter is going to be very happy.

 

Christmas Sale Thursday

The next group of patterns that I am including in my Christmas sale are a little bit left field. The seaside themed Christmas tree decorations include - Scallop Shell, Sand Dollar, Starfish, Little Minnows, and I have included my Spiral Shell. 

It was 10 years ago that Mary Ann asked me to design a Christmas Sand Dollar pattern, to hang on her sister-in-law's ocean themed Christmas tree. I had a lot of fun with this design, which was helped by the real sand dollars that she sent me, which still decorate my bathroom. 

So while not completely traditional, why not have an ocean-themed tree? Tomorrow I will be showing the last group of Christmas decoration that are included in the 50% off sale, and publishing the discount code. The sale starts on Friday and continues until Christmas Day, and there will be a few more not very traditional decorations. 

Is It Too Early?

I think the answer to that question is probably "yes". Too early to be thinking of shopping, and I am very happy to have a husband who takes the lead with cooking. But perhaps not too early if you are thinking of making some Christmas decorations.

I am trying to design a pattern for a new Christmas decoration - which may not be done in time for this year. I would definitely put it in the non-traditional category, with my Christmas Elephants, Shells and Sand Dollars.

So I thought I would just make a collage of some of my other Christmas patterns. I love using the Layout app to put pictures together. Patterns for all of these Christmas ornaments can be found in my shops, with links to the patterns in ravelry in the lefthand sidebar.

Just a reminder that there are still is still plenty of time left to join in my Ginx Woolly Linx party for November. 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.

That Time of Year

That time of year is approaching, and as I still having nothing new to show you (working on the mystery pattern), I just thought I would remind you of some of my Christmas patterns. Here are photgraphs of some of the patterns that I label as Christmassy.
 

 Although my own tree is usually covered with some of my seaside creatures.

Just click on the photo to link to any of these patterns on Craftsy. (Feeling rather proud of myself for having worked out how to make a photo into a link!)

Sea Urchins

I have added a new pattern to my sea creature collection: a Sea Urchin Shell. Do you like my real sea urchins? They were my Christmas present from my husband. I know that is a bit odd, but I really like them. They sit on a shelf in the room where I make things with a few other seaside bits and bobs. I thought they would look good with the knitted ones in my photographs. 

Sea urchins are really fascinating creatures. It took me quite a while to find exactly the right wool. These are knitted with James Brett DK Marble Colour 5, which seemed to have exactly the right mix of grey and pink to give a natural look. This is the same wool that I used for my Our House project.

The knitting is done on two needles, and is not difficult. The dots are then embroidered on down the ridges afterwards. I refer you to my photo tutorial for some help with these french knots. I have tried to be very careful with the number of ridges, and there are five main ones with large bumps, each with two smaller ones inbetween. 

Seaside Christmas

No, I'm not at the seaside. Given the recent weather in Britain, I am perhaps quite pleased not to be at our windblown coast. I just thought I would post a few pictures of my own Christmas tree, with some of my knitted sea creatures that I have made into decorations.

It might seem a bit strange to have sea creatures on your tree. When I created most of these patterns I did not intend them as Christmas ornaments. (The exception is the sand dollar, which was a special request for Christmas.) But the scallop shell, sand dollar, star and fish do all have symbolic a link to Christianity, so perhaps it does seem apt to find them on a tree at this time of year.

There are links to my patterns for all these creatures on ravelry in my left sidebar.

"Oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside"

My recent family trip to the seaside, closely followed by a school trip to the Sea Life Centre in Brighton, put in mind that I should branch out a little from the insects and try my hand at some sea creatures, or maybe I should say beach creatures.

The knitting patterns for these sea creatures are available on Ravelry. 

I have a special offer running on Ravelry, where you can buy any two of my seaside patterns, including my popular spiral shell, and get a £1 discount. I also have a few of my seaside sets for sale for non-knitters in my Etsy Shop.

I have a few more sea creatures in the pipeline, which I am still working on.

I have tried to photograph them below so that you have to look quite hard I hope to see which are knitted and which are real. 

I have been working on the patterns for a while, and am pleased with the way they have turned out. The scallop shell can be knitted as one half, or as two and sewn together and stuffed. I thought it might be nice to make into a lavendar bag. 

Hubby suggested fashioning two shells into a bikini, but soon told him what to do with that idea. Scallops seem to come in a huge variety of colours and patterns, as you can see from the black shell that we found on a beach in Cornwall. So anyone who knits one could really let their imagination go wild.

This version of the starfish has a bit of embroidery, but this is optional. As usual I have tried to go for realism. I have put a page on my blog on how to sew a french knot, as I love using this stitch. I seem to use it a lot, and people think it is difficult, so hope I have shown how simple it is.

This is the underside, which my son says is where a starfish's mouth is?

I have a few more sea creatures in the pipeline, which I am still working on.