OneChurchillsGreen

Start crocheting now ready for the Autumn apple harvest!

It made me smile to see my apple cosies on German design blog designchen. My German is non-existent I'm afraid, so I'm not too sure what they were saying, but I think it was along the lines of 'the apple trees are in blossom, so get cracking on your cosies now in time for the fruit harvest later in the year'! (Any German speakers, feel free to correct me on that one!). And it set me thinking. Our crab apple tree is very much in blossom and quite beautiful. It took me a few months to master crochet, so why not - learn now and by Autumn you'll be making little apple cosies as gifts for children, their teachers, or friends. The pattern is such a simple one and is ideal for beginners - the first edition of Mollie Makes, featuring the pattern, is now available for free download (if you're an iPhone or iPad user - not me, ironically), alternatively you can get it online with The Guardian, or better still it is featured in my new book, together with a sweet little apple blossom pattern and so much more. Inspired by that very apple blossom, I picked up some green, white and pink Rowan 'cotton glace' and whipped up some lunchbox sized apple cosies for my Etsy/Folksy shop. The only problem being, the children are eating the apples as soon as I nestle them in a cosy - I'm afraid I don't even follow my own pattern, I just use an apple as my guide and off I go! xxx

A quick knit.....

The yarn I picked up in Canada is taking shape. With our spring weather here in Dorset being variable, but predominantly wet and windy, I thought Pipi could do with a pair of 'in-between-season' wristwarmers. I picked up the beautiful fine blue yarn from the Fibre Studio on Granville Island, a pair of 3.25mm needles and here we are - 45 stitches per row, 70 rows in stocking stitch, crocheted together with some pink cotton yarn and finished off with some buttons from my little jar. I simply double crocheted the two edges together, leaving a gap for the thumb and a 5mm edge at the top (to roll back - I hear rolled back knitting is on trend at the moment?!). Anyway, they look really cute and even better, they're perfect for early morning lamb feeding!

 
If you fancied knitting up a pair but haven't got any handspun yarn at your disposal, just use a lace weight yarn, it's ideal for spring time temperatures. I'm cracking on with my fine cotton stash project this weekend, hope you have a good one too xxx

And great big pom poms .....

Following on from my great balls of yarn post, I have been knitting away at my scarf and yesterday evening I indulged myself by making two huge pom poms to attach to it - each one weighing in at 68grams! And here is the finished scarf ....

Just in time for our sub zero temperatures too - it really is super warm. And if you're tempted, I used two 250g hanks of Magnum 'Cascade', 10mm needles, 15 stitches per row, 240 rows in garter stitch (knit every row). The remaining 136 grams of yarn I then divided into two equal balls for my pom poms, each one measuring 15cm in diameter.

With chunky done, I've got my sights set on trying something new - I was admiring Jill's beautiful scarf (one of the girls at our Wednesday 'Wool Group') and was completely smitten by the Habu copper yarn that she was using. The Sicilian and I hit the big smoke yesterday - he needed a new passport for our upcoming trip to Canada and I needed some more yarn!!! So two hours in the Italian Consulate (only the Italians can manage such extraordinary lengths of administrative mayhem!), followed by a trolly dash to 'I knit London', before catching the train back to Dorset. 'I knit London' is tucked away on Lower Marsh Street, just behind Waterloo station and it is packed to the rafters with the lushest of yarns. I kept my focus though, one eye on the clock, the other fixed firmly on the Habu yarn. And here's my newest, most treasured find, two cones of Habu 'wool stainless steel' ....

 

Violet, curious as ever, perched on the window sill to get in on the action and check out my new yarn! x

Little mitts for tiny hands ........

A simple project inspired by the beautiful pages of January's Martha Stewart 'Living' magazine, a pair of mittens for a little babe. My babes are too big to try these on, but I would estimate they would be ideal for newborn through to nine months(ish). If you want them bigger, just add two or three chains to your foundation chain and insert 2 rows for each additional cm of length required.

Baby Mittens

Materials: 23grams of left over yarn (I've used Rowan 'Handknit cotton' in 'ice water' 239, with a row of Debbie Bliss 'Fairtrade Eco' in 'gold' 32603;3.5mm crochet hook; 1.5m of 5mm ribbon; tapestry needle for threading ribbon and sewing in ends.

Tension: 22 stitches and 20 rows of dc over 10cm

Foundation chain: start with a slip knot and 10 ch.

Round 1: (work around the foundation chain, across the top and then back along the bottom, look at the image on the previous post to see how it should look) 1 dc into each st, working 3 dc into the end st of the foundation row before working back along the bottom and finishing with 3dc into the 1st ch.

Round 2: 1 dc into each st along top and bottom, 1 dc, 1 htr, 1 dc into end st at both ends.

Rounds 3 to 10: 1 dc into each st (including end stitches - not increasing at this point will give your mittens straight sides).

Round 11: cut yarn from round 10 and sew in. Using the contrast colour yarn, join to a st from the previous round and work 1 dc into each st finishing with a ss into 1 dc, cut yarn and sew in.

Round 12: re-attach the main colour and work 1 dc into each st.

Round 13: 1 dc into each stitch across the sides of the mitten, decrease at the end of both sides by working 2 dc together twice.

Round 14: to make the spaces to thread your ribbon, ch 2 (counts as 1 dc, 1 ch), *1 dc into next st, 1 ch*, continue round repeating *to*, finishing with a ss into original 1 ch. Cut yarn and sew in.

Thread the ribbon through the spaces created by the 1 chain, starting in the middle of one side of a mitten and finishing 1 stitch away from the start point (i.e. don't thread the ribbon through the last chain space, this will give enough room to tie the bow). With the long end of the ribbon, thread through the other mitten. You can either use the length of ribbon to keep the mittens attached and dangling out of the arms of your little coat, once you have established the right length, pull the ribbon through each mitten and trim accordingly before doing your bow. You can stitch the ribbon in the middle at the back of the coat if you don't need to move them from one coat to another. Similarly if you are concerned about the combination of a length of ribbon and a small baby, you can simply stitch a short length of the ribbon to each sleeve attaching the mittens.