enzo_the_rhino

Last week Issue 4 of Knit Now Magazine came out and there is a pattern I designed in it :D.

Photo © Practical Publishing

Nexus hat and mittens are covered in intertwining cables and are really snugly making them perfect for cold weather (as can be seen by the fact they appear in a few other pictures in the magazine - the photoshoot was clearly freezing!) They come in three size: child's, women's and men's and you can always use the small instructions for the decreases but cast on a larger number to make a shorter hat.

A few mistakes cropped up when the magazine converted from the chart I sent into their preferred style so check Ravelry for the corrected charts soon.

In a few months I will be making the pattern available for download on Ravelry with full written instructions as well as the charts.

Current Mood: accomplished
Crossposts: http://enzo-the-rhino.livejournal.com/20103.html

Tags:

designs,
knitting

I think I have knitter's disease. Normal people, when they're cold, either wear some of the many woolly items they already own or go and buy one. Me, I decide to knit myself something. Luckily this was a quick knit and therefore finished before the weather was unsuitable for wearing it (and if the winter now turns out to be really mild just to spite me I'm not going to complain).

This uses a double mistake rib to make it extra stretchy which means I can do this:

Available to download free from Ravelry.

Crossposts: http://enzo-the-rhino.livejournal.com/19909.html

Tags:

designs,
knitting

While I am waiting for the yarn to arrive for my first design that has been accepted by a magazine (Knit Now, a new British magazine focussing on accessories - I've just about stopped bouncing off the walls), I thought I would take photos of my WIPs.

Cerus Scarf

I've had the wool for this for ages and not known what to do with it. Then I found a pattern that was designed with it in mind and realised that although it was simple, nothing else would suit the yarn so well. I'm alternating between a grey shade and a brown shade, two rows of each. I find it fascinating how the stripes form differently at opposite ends.

Bob and Weave Socks

I always like to have a big, medium and small project on the go at once, preferably with a range of complexity so that whatever I feel like knitting I don't have an excuse to start something new (because then nothing would get finished!) This is my travel project, the one that is small enough to take to knit on the train when I visit my parents and small enough to fit in my work bag so that I can go straight to the new craft group I've found (well found once the helpful lady walking her dog confirmed that if I carried on climbing the hill it was hiding behind all the trees and I would find it eventually).

The pattern comes from Toe Up Socks in a Box, which I think is a great idea. All the patterns are on little cards and there are also cards for things like turning the heel (which I almost always manage to mess up). This means that I don't have to carry a huge book around with me if I just want to check what I'm supposed to be doing.

Lady's Sweater

I love this yarn. It's hand-dyed BFL from The Yarn Yard who always has gorgeous colours (that I can never get to look as good on camera as they do in person) and this is really softy and squishy (as BFL always is). I had nearly decided on Audrey in Unst but then I got Issue 35 of the Knitter and really liked the unusual neckline of this. It's working up fairly quickly and the only trousers I could find in a 10 mile radius that vaguely fitted happen to have pinstripes that are almost exactly the same colour, which is convenient because I don't have that many other clothes that they will go with.

Crossposts: http://enzo-the-rhino.livejournal.com/19599.html

Tags:

knitting

I get both really cold hands and painful wrists and I found that fingerless gloves help with both of these (and are more comfortable than proper straps). In November I made a pair of Sweet Lifes from BFL which are wonderfully soft and cozy and kept me warm all winter while still allowing me to type (after I redid the bind-off to make it more stretchy).

The only problem with them is that they are very warm and when it got to summer and we were finally enjoying some sun, I found that I had a choice between sweating or getting painful wrists, especially problematic in exam season when I actually had to write things!

I decided I needed some fingerless gloves for summer and then The Yarn Yard uploaded a new bath of gorgeous hand dyed yarn and I was powerless to resist. So I had yarn but the next problem was which pattern to choose. I wanted it to be lacy to help reduce the over heating but I wanted it to be tight around the wrist to be supportive. The yarn is a lovely intense crimson so I didn't think leaves or anything too nature based would look right and I had the age old experience of nothing being quite right. (Or maybe I'm just fussy and indecisive...)

So after exams were over and I'd finished a few other projects I found an edging I liked in Knitted Lace of Estonia and thought I would start with that and see what happened. And so I knit and knit, and put in a placeholder for the thumb, knit some more, and changed to a more ribbed pattern for the cuff. Then I went back to the thumb and after trying several different methods decided I had put the placeholder in the wrong place and the thumb would always want to point backwards. This is what happens when you make things up as you go along!

Anyway, I decided to put the first glove on the naughty step and do the second glove first, or something along those lines that makes more sense. Now I have one finished glove, thumb included.

With the pointed top and narrower cuff, I think it looks like a room at the top of a tower. The pattern will therefore be called Turret.

Crossposts: http://enzo-the-rhino.livejournal.com/19399.html

Tags:

knitting

I just created my first knitting pattern :)

I bought two balls of Sirdar Balmoral at Christmas to make a hat from but couldn't find a pattern I liked so I made one up. I really like how it came out and the wool is really soft and squidgy.

So I decided to share it with the rest of the world. It can now be bought from ravelry for £2.50

Pattern Link

And if you don't know what Ravelry is and you like knitting or crocheting then you should really check it out. It has a database of thousands of patterns and you can see who else has made the same thing as well as lots of other cool features.