Little Boy Blue

I have the last of my pre-Christmas bears to share with you today.  I made three little bears and two rabbits as presents for some of my young friends, but my timing was very tight and I only had time to grab a quick photograph before wrapping them and sending them off to their new homes.

This little bear is one of Julie Williams patterns, this one is called 'Boy Bear' and it is available from Ravelry.

He is made of a powder blue baby double knit and his clothes are made of cotton 4 ply.

Dionne

One Little Bear

Back again today with the second of my three last minute little Christmas bears.  He is another one of Julie Williams patterns, this one is called 'Boy Bear' and it is available from Ravelry.

Like the little bear last week, he is made of a alpaca/wool mix double knit and his clothes are made of cotton 4 ply.

Dionne

Little Ted

I'm back today with another of my 'Little Cotton Rabbit's Teddy Bears.  He is one of three bears that I made just before Christmas.  As I finished each bear I took a quick photo and wrapped them, so there was no time for me to take a group photo this time.

This little guy is one of Julie Williams patterns, this one is called 'Boy Bear' and it is available from Ravelry.

He is made of a alpaca/wool mix double knit and his clothes are made of cotton 4 ply.

Dionne

Happy Families

In recent weeks I have been sharing with you all of the Little Cotton Rabbits, - and their friends, which I made last year to give away as Christmas presents to my family and friends.

They have all gone to new homes now but, before I started my wrapping, I took a couple of group photos to show them all in one place.

There were too many to get them all into the basket, you should be able to pick out six teddy bears, four cats, four mice and elephant and a couple of rabbits.

You have seen them all either individually or in family groups but I thought you would enjoy seeing them all together.  Trouble is, after I made and wrapped these knitted friends, I went on to make quite a few more ...... such a shame they did not make it into the group photo.

Dionne

Four Little Bears

You have met my Four Little Mice and the Four Little Cats.  Today I have Four Little Bears......

As with the above, these are a Julie Williams pattern in her 'Little Cotton Rabbits' range.  This one is actually called Boy Bear.  No they are not transvestite bears, it is just that I was in a hurry and it takes longer to knit the tights and shoes the girl bears are wearing in their pattern.

The bears are made with an alpaca/wool mix double knit yarn.  As the children are related I made each bear slightly different so they do not get them muddled up.

The same goes for the dresses, each one is the same yet different - a two toned stripe - sometimes with a contrasting colour near the waist, and a knitted bow.

Each dress is made from soft 4 ply cotton and are fastened at the back with a loop and tiny button.

Now for the n*ked shot!  Opps, did you spot that there are five bears in this shot, we have an infiltrator.

Here she is, bear number five is wearing a 4 ply cotton dress.  The pattern is based on Pam Clyde's Tulip Dress.

Dionne

Four Little Cats

Do you remember the four little mice I shared with you last week?  Well, today I should like to show you the four little cats I also made for my nieces for Christmas.

This is another of Julie Williams charming patterns called Cat Girl, which is also available from Ravelry.  My apologies again for my poor photography, the light when I took all of these projects was dreadful and the flash from my camera over exposed them - I think could do with some lessons on how to use my new camera.

The dress pattern is called 'Sweet Shoppe Dress' by SuzyMarie.  If you look closely you will see that, whilst basically the same, each dress is slightly different - just my way of avoiding boredom.  I added a small red glass bead to the glace cherry.

As I made each cat I added them to a bag of finished projects and some of them got a bit squashed, I did try to revive them before photographing them but I can see now that I should have spent longer moving the filling around.

As with the mice I shared last week, I have tried to colour coordinate the tights and shoes with the dresses.

Each cat has a lovely swishy tail, which comes through a gap left in the back seam of the dress.  

You have probably gathered that the tights and shoes are part of the cat and cannot be removed.

I found the ears a little tricky to make but eventually got the hang of the design and I am still not sure whether I like their stuffed muzzles and knitted noses.

I gave some of them white tips to their tails, arms and ears so they would be confused with one another by their new owners when they are playing together (I should point out that I made the top half first and then realised that the colour of the tights and shoes would do that).

Their eyes are a series of French Knots and some are larger than others but I have done my best to make sure each pair of eyes match.

And here we are with what has come to be referred to as the n*ked photo.  However, I should point out that they are still wearing their tights and shoes.  Ohh la la!

I hope you enjoy the rest of the week.

Dionne

Tiny Rabbit

A few days ago I told you about my experiments with different yarns, if you missed that post you can catch-up by clicking here.

Today I thought I would give you a closer look at the smallest of that quartet.  This tiny rabbit is so sweet and she sits easily in the palm of your hand.

I had to scale down the dress pattern to get something which would fit her.  I think she looks very smart in this classic navy and white number.

This rabbit was made with Baby Soft 4 ply following Julie Williams 'Little Cotton Rabbit' pattern.  As you can see she comes up to the shoulder of the medium sized rabbit she is standing next to.  

I found it very hard to give her away.

Dionne

Mendel's Bunnies

Over the past few months I have been experimenting with my Little Cotton Rabbit pattern.  I was looking for a slightly larger rabbit which would be the correct size to fit the elf clothes I knitted for my niece last summer.  When I gave my niece her elf clothes she remarked that it would be a dreadful waste if the dresses and jumpers no longer had a use after her children had lost interest in their Christmas elves.

Those of you who regularly visit my blog will know that although I had used my 'Little Cotton Rabbit' patterns to make the elf clothes for my niece, her elves are larger than the Little Cotton Rabbits and their friends and I had made the clothes from double knit yarns instead of the recommended 4 ply.  Therefore I needed to come up with a toy which was larger than the Little Cotton Rabbit range.

My solution was to experiment with different yarn plies.  I used exactly the same pattern for each of these rabbits, the only difference was the type of yarn used.

The largest of these rabbits measures in at approximately 50 cm from ear tip to heal.  I made him from chunky knit using 5 mm needles.  I had never used this yarn before and was amazed at how large he was.  I actually ran out of yarn, which is why he is two toned.

Clearly this big rabbit was far too big to fit the elf clothes so I tried again.  This time I used the same chunky yarn but this time I knitted it on 3 mm needles.  I have already posted about this rabbit and you can read more about it here.

The next bunny was the normal sized 'Little Cotton Rabbit', made from double knit yarn and, finally,  I made a smaller bunny using 4 ply.  Clearly these two rabbits were not going to fit the elf clothes but I was curious to see how small I could go with the design.

None of these experiments were suitable for the elf clothes and I continued searching for a suitable yarn and eventually I tried Aran yarn, which was a much better fit for the clothes.  I made a fabulous teddy bear for my niece from the Aran yarn, which you can read about here.

I shall continue to give you a more detailed look at each rabbit but I wanted to take this opportunity to put their relative size into context for you.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Dionne

Four Little Mice

Instead of sharing each of these mice with you separately, I thought would spare you the torture and combine them in the same post.

I made these little mice for my nieces.  Th pattern is by Julie Williams and is available from Ravelry, it is called  'Mouse Girl in a Flowered Dress'.

As you can see, each mouse is a different colour - as are the little dresses.  Each dress has the cute lettuce hem and I added a button the centre of each flower.

I learnt a couple of  new knitting stitch making this pattern.  The first been in making the tails, it is a lot like French Knitting but done on double ended needles.

The other new thing I learnt is knitting on circular needles, this was to make the legs, which are single row stripes. 

 I tried to coordinate the tights and shoes with the dresses.

The ears were fascinating to make, they are nothing like anything else I have made.  This mouse really does have two ears, honest!

I think I may have made the tails a little too long, but who else can wrap their tails around their arms?

A small gap is left in the back seam of the dress for the tail to pull through and each dress is fastened with a small loop and button.

I took a picture of the mice without their dresses so you can see the tights.

I hope you have enjoyed meeting my four small mice.


Dionne

Lemon Jacket

Continuing with my catch-up of the little cardigans and jumpers I have made over the last couple of months.  This lovely Aran jacket jacket pattern is one of my favourites, it takes a lot more time to make than a straightforward cardigan, but the effort is so worthwhile.

A little while ago I made this jacket in white and I recently decided to have another go at it, this time in lemon.

I bought this DK pattern from ebay, it is only referred to at 'Knitting Pattern 398' - ie no publishers name.

I have tried to zoom in here to show you some of the detail.  As you can see, it is full of different stitches and patterns, making this jacket very chunky and warm.

Dionne 

Little Green Jumper

A very quick post today.

Yesterday I shared with you a small white cardigan I made for the grandson of my friend.  Today I am back with an aqua green jumper I made at the same time.

I wanted to jazz up this plain Double Knit jumper a little, so I added a few white stripes.
 

Dionne

New White Cardigan

I have not completely abandoned making cardigans and jumpers for knitted toys but I do only make them for New Born's now as I have found that older children do not like to stand out by wearing hand made jumpers.

One of my best friends recently became a grandmother for the fifth time and I made this white cardigan for the most recent addition to her family, a little boy.

Made in white baby Double Knit, this very old Robin pattern is one of my favourites.  (For anyone who is interested, the pattern number is 2496.)

I think you can just about make out the mock cable pattern in this close up.

Have  great weekend.


Dionne

Three Wise Men

This is the last of my very late posted 2017 Christmas cards.  Over the past few days I have shared the cards I made for my closest friends and family.  However, because I had left it so late to make my cards this year I needed a design which I could mass produce.

I went with a Stampin' Up stamp set called 'Wise Men from Afar'.  I kept the design pretty simple and a monochrome colour scheme.  I made 6 cards in 10 different colourways, each of the stamped images was mounted on either silver or gold card.  Usually I cut my images and mounts by eye but it has been a while since I have made any cards and when I cut these, I could not cut a decent right angle to save my life, so I had to re-cut all of them using a couple of square dies.  A much more pleasing result but so time consuming!

They are all Stampin' Up colours and I am afraid they were taken at a time when the lighting was appalling, so the colours my not be true, but lets see how many colours I can remember the name of.  The first is Basic Black, I used glittered washi tape behind the image and the Christmas sentiment came from ebay.

The next is Daper Denim and this time I used silver organza ribbon and the sentiment was from Craftwork cards.  I have used these sentiments before, they were pre-cut and I loved the quality but this year they were printed on a much thinner card and had to be cut by hand, I was not very happy when I saw this, as I do not cut very straight when I am using scissors.

This colour is called Perfect Plum and, once again, I used the silver organza ribbon the the ebay sentiment.  I should have liked to have added a clear flat backed gem to the centre of the stars but this would have increased the postage cost so I left it off.

The next is another of 2016-2018 colours, Emerald Envy.  I combined this with a strip of green glittered washi tape and the Craftwork Cards Christmas sentiments.

I think this is Pool Party, I could not find it in the current catalogue so it may have been discontinued.  I have again used the silver glittered washi tape and the Craftwork Christmas sentiment.

This is an old, colour but a favourite of mine, Cherry Cobbler.  As I had mounted this image on gold card I teamed it with gold glittered washie tape and the ebay sentiment.

In contrast, the next colour is from the 2016-2018 range, it is called Peekaboo Peach.  This one has a bronze coloured glitter washi tape and the Craftwork Cards Christmas sentiment.

I am afraid I am struggling to remember the name of this green, it may have been Old Olive but I am not sure, it came part of a card/ink combi pack.  Once again I have used the green glittered washi take and the Craftwork Cards Christmas sentiment.

I have no trouble remembering this colour, it is Real Red.  I used the gold glittered washi tape and the sentiment from ebay.

Finally, this is Wisteria Wonder, I have added the metallic silver organza ribbon and the ebay sentiment.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing all of my Christmas cards.


Dionne