Yule, Birthday and Other Projects 2016/2017 Part 1

Yule, Birthday and Other Projects 2016/2017 Part 1

Along side my long term project I have been working on other things. I always try to put some thought into any presents I give and often these may be handmade.

Due to the fact that these projects are gifts I usually cannot put up photographs or blogs at the time of completion because that would spoil the surprise. Therefore I am amalgamating a few finished projects to make this blog.

Christmas Project
I have some very good friends who like Owls and Dragons. This is the couple for whom I designed and knitted some egg cups. I also designed and made a sewn multifunctional owl. See blogs at bottom of the page. 

This time I decided to make some dragons for Christmas for them. After popping along to my favourite shop Knit Nottingham I bought a Dragon Pattern.

http://knitnottingham.co.uk/shop/product_info.php/products_id/1254

Dragon Pattern

Photo from Knit Nottingham Website

This was going to be a challenge for me as it was the first time I had ever tried to knit a three dimensional item. Needless to say mistakes were made. First of all contrary to common sense although I bought the tinsel yarn I didn't use the other yarn this pattern stated.

My friends favourite colours are purple and green. So I decided to make the Mother Dragon in purple and the Baby in green. I had a supply of Bamboo Cotton in these colours so I decided to use them instead of wool. The tinsel colour I bought was gold and I used this for both dragons.

I started the Mother Dragon first. The legs and gusset were quite simple.

Purple Dragon Legs

Purple Dragon Gusset




The head was slightly more complicated as I had to knit with the tinsel yarn. This was a new experience as I have never used tinsel yarn prior to this project.

Purple Dragon Body








Purple Dragon Head

Purple Dragon Head & Body Attached

It was when was when I was knitting the wings I had a problem. 

Purple Wing Right Start

Purple Wing Left Start

The Right Wing turned out correctly as shown below.

Purple Wing Right















Unfortunately the Left Wing did not go as planned. Somehow I miscounted a row and either had one row short or one row extra. This meant that one section of the wing was pointing the wrong way.

Purple Wing Left

Due to the fact I was unfamiliar with using tinsel yarn it was far too difficult for me to try and undo and correct. This meant that left me with two options. Either I had to completely undo that whole section and re-knit or I could try and disguise the fault. 

Now as it was present for Yule the project was time sensitive. I did not think that if I restarted that section I would be finished in time. Therefore I needed to try and hide the fault. That would take a bit of thinking so in the meantime I started on the Baby Dragon.

Baby Dragon Body

Baby Dragon Leg

Baby Dragon Wing

When I had got all of the Baby Dragon Knitted I added the eyes. I then switched back to the Mother Dragon

The pattern is designed so the wings are spread by feeding wires through sewn sections.Therefore I sewed one section of the wing in opposite direction 

Mother Dragon Underneath











Mother Dragon Above












I then embroidered on top of the wing to mimic the Right Wing.

Left Wing Embroidered 


After correcting my mistake I then sewed together added the eyes then stuffed the Mother and Baby Dragon

Finished Dragons

Previous Blogs
http://lady-jane-quirky.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/project-egg-cosy-part-1.html

http://lady-jane-quirky.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/egg-cosy-part-2-extras-birdowl-pattern.html

http://lady-jane-quirky.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/egg-cosy-part-3-extras-dragon-pattern.html

http://lady-jane-quirky.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/a-hoot-of-project.html

Autumn Cape 2017 A Long Term Project Night time Part 1

Autumn Cape 2017 A Long Term Project Night time Part 1

Today's Blog is being posted exactly a year since my first one on this project. - I said it was a Long Term Project didn't I?

First of all I must apologise for some reason the placement of photographs and text is playing up and I have been unable to correct it.

Additional Night time Wool

Apart from the yarn I have been using I will be using additional wool for the Night time Front Piece. These will be a predominately darker colours for the foliage plus the colours for the animal design.

Additional Foliage Yarn Colours

King Cole Merino Blend DK

Shade Mustard 855 

Dye 52586

King Cole Merino Blend Aran

Shade 777 

Dye 50431

Additional Animal Yarn Colours

King Cole Merino Blend DK

Shade Silver 36

Dye 52954

King Cole Merino Blend DK

Shade 702

Dye 50960

King Cole Merino Blend DK

Shade Black 48

Dye 56225

Rough Badger Design

This is my first rough attempt at drawing a Badger. As before it needs to be transferred on to chart paper.

Rough Un-Squared Badger Design 

This is the Badger transferred on to the paper. I have tried to position it so that it is in the middle of the page. This will allow for changing the Design as the Pattern progresses.

Rough Badger Pictorial Chart Design

I have squared off the Badger Design so I can now think about casting on.

Cast On Test

After doing a test piece I then proceeded to cast on 120 stitches on 5 mm needles as before. This time I am including a skyline in the background complete with a crescent moon. 

Night-time Front Piece 20 Rows Stocking Stitch

After knitting 20 rows of the Pictorial Chart I have stopped at this point as I need to concentrate on clarifying the Design.

Night-time Pictorial Chart 20 Rows

I have already altered the Design several times from the initial in-putted Design. I needed to move the Badger down so the Moon had more sky underneath it prior to adding the horizon. The progress will be far slower from now on as I need to texture the Badger's coat.

Autumn Cape 2017 A Long Term Project Daytime Side Panel Embellishments

Autumn Cape 2017 A Long Term Project Daytime Side Panel Embellishments

Since we are two thirds through February I thought I better change 2016 to 2017. I am currently in the process of designing the next Front Piece - the night time scene. However in the meantime I thought I would do a quick blog on embellishments. I know I have mentioned this previously so won't go into lots of details.

It is quite a while since I posted about the sides but I am going to hark back to that part of the project.

Daytime Side Panel Minor Embellishments

For some reason I have been unable to find a photograph of the entire side panel. Therefore I have had to take a picture after I had done some minor embellishments. The lower side panel had been more or less a rectangular block of light green. If you look at the left edge of the right hand picture you can just see a straight line where the two pieces have been sewn together.

As you can see on the left hand picture I had started to soften the rectangular outline with foliage on the Side Panel and on to the Front. 

Top of Side Panel Elongated Branches

The above photograph shows elongate the 

branches across the Side Panel and on to the Front. 

Pinning Position

I put a few pins in to mark roughly where I wanted to add the next part of the sewn embellishments. Due to the fact that I have been having to estimate areas of the design occasionally I do make quite large mistakes. I could have claimed to have done it on deliberately but I feel that would be defeating the purpose of my blog. Therefore I have to hold my hand up to this one and say I definitely dropped a clanger.

Side Panel Post Embellishment

With such a large area to cover up I decided I needed a bit of magical help so as well as a hanging leaf I have added a Fairy Ring. More embellishments will be added as and when I have a moment.

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project - Front Daytime Pocket –Part 2

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project - Front Daytime

Pocket –Part 2

This blog is going to be somewhat lengthy so I suggest you make a cuppa first. I left the last blog at the point where it required sewing. Before I begin to sew I want to make an Inner Pocket to protect the wool.

Inner Pocket Cut and Hemmed

I measured out a piece of calico material and laid it against the unsewn pocket. Once happy with the draft size I then proceeded to hem it.

Inner Pocket Sewn

I then sewed material together to create the Inner Pocket.

Next was to sew the Pocket itself.

Hedgehog Pocket Bottom Fold

Prior to sewing the pocket I folded the bottom so to create some width. I wanted to make sure that I didn’t sew the pocket too flat or tight. If I did this would mean I would not be able to get my mobile phone inside it. I then proceeded to sew the pocket up both sides.

Hedgehog Pocket Flap Start

If you can remember as far back as the ‘Oakey-Dokey’ blog you will recall that I had made some large Oak leaves. These are finally coming into play.

I am going to lay the Oak Leaves over one another in a slightly spaced pattern. The above picture shows the first two leaves part sewn.

Two Leaves Sewn

These two leaves are now fully sew together and will form the basis for the Pocket Flap.

Three Leaves Sewn

There are now three leaves sewn together. If you notice they are all different colours and the smaller leaf is on the outer edge.

Four Leaves Sewn

Now all four leaves are sewn together to make the flap. When I knitted the leaves I made sure that the last leaf was a small one and the brighter red. This meant that the two reds would not be next to one another when sewn.

Four Leaves Sewn – Against Background

The above picture shows better how the flap will look against the Front Piece.

Hedgehog Pocket First Press Stud

One of the reasons for why this blog has been delayed is that I was waiting for the press studs. I didn’t want to use silver or black press studs as I thought they would stand out too much against the background.

However I couldn’t find any bronze coloured press studs locally so I had to buy some off the internet and obviously had to wait for them to arrive.

I have inverted the press stud so the heavier one goes onto the pocket.

First Press Stud On Flap

So as you can see in the photograph above the other half of the press stud which is lighter is sewn onto the Flap. I have used a brownish thread to sew these on so as to blend in with the stud.

On the flap itself rather than sew directly through the leaf I have endeavoured to sew along the leaf to fasten the stud. Otherwise the cotton thread would spoil the look on the leaf on its proper sided. Once I had done this I did the same with the second stud.

Once both studs were sewn in place I pressed them together so I could tell where to sew the Flap on to the background.

Hedgehog Flap Underneath Finished 

This is what the Pocket looks like once I sewed the Flap on to the Front Piece from underneath.

Hedgehog Flap Finished

This is how the finished Flap and Pocket look when closed. As you can see I have sewn the Flap on to the background using the same wool as each individual leaf.

There may be some tweaking needed doing to strengthen it but that is all for now until next time.