Knitted flower

Here I present my version of quite a popular instruction on how to knit a flower.

It's very simple and quick. I think it would be very cool to make it together with children.

So for that you'd need 2 needles (30-35 cm long) and a thread. You won't need a long thread, so if you have some leftovers you can successfully use them here.

To start with, you cast on 56 st, and knit 9-11 rows in st st. An you get smth like this:

In the next row (which should be on the back side) we start manipulations: edge st, 4 p, drop 1 st, 8 p, drop 1 st, 8 p, drop 1 st, 8 p, drop 1 st, 8 p, drop 1 st, 8 p, drop 1 st, 4 p, edge st.

As for the dropped stitches, you need to unweave them down to the 2nd row. When you turn the piece it looks approximately like this:

So in the next row (right side) you do like this: edge st, 4 k, *put the right needle through the dropped stitch and under the loose yarn and knit it, k8*, repeat 4 times, k the dropped st, 4 k, edge st.

In the next row purl 3 st together at a time, so when you turn the piece it should hopefully look better than this:

You can notice that i didn't put the needle under the loose yarn. But anyways, the only thing left to do is to gather all the stitches onto the thread forming a flower and graft the ends of the piece forming a petal:

With this piece i made a pin.

I'd be really happy to read your comments and see your flowers! :)

Now on Myspace!

Great news! Now you can find my works on Myspace.
There i'm planning to post photos of my works, which haven't been published here ('cause i'm too lazy to write about each and every piece). Hurray!

Colour issues again

Last time I wrote about "taking advice" from nature when it comes up to combining colours. However there are methods which correspond to current technical progress :)
On internet you can already find interesting colour palettes and even whole web-sites of such palettes. And here i present you a project www.design-seeds.com. The project has been created by Jessica, who besides being passionate about colour, also has degree in industrial design and worked for Ford, Timberland and Reebok, so there can't be any questions about professionalism and experience of the project's founder. On the website you can search palettes by theme and colour value. It's also possible to purchase palette books and some other products.
Another and very, i'd say, serious approach to colour matching is Pantone Matching System: pantone.com. Well, you can browse their page by yourself, so there is no need to tell in details about their products. The most important is that they make trend forecasts and that's how we can find out what are the most fashionable colours of coming seasons. And so the colour of the year 2014 is Radiant Orchid.
Do you use any services in matters related to colour?

New Year pullover

Yep, I must say I'm not very successful with knitting something for myself. But last year before Christmas and New Year celebrations I finally finished a white pullover. I've been knitting it for more than a year. In Autumn 2012 I made a white pullover, wore it couple times, but then understood I didn't like it, so i destroyed it. Then I started a new one, made it slowly for couple months, but then again stopped liking it, so destroyed it again. And finally I understood what I really wanted. I wanted a simple piece of clothes which would look humble and warm me in cold days, but at the same time it should also have something interesting, so I found a pattern, which in its turn was also simple. (Yep, simplicity is my disease, if I can say so).

So here it is:

For this pullover I used needles #5. (And it's all for XS size.)
I'm, frankly, too lazy to tell about the whole process, but can tell generally.

For the back and the front piece I cast on 72 st. The rib's height is 5 cm.

The back piece and the sleeves are entirely in st st after the rib. For the back piece: in the next row after the rib I add evenly 4 st and continue in st st until I come up to armholes, where I cast off 9 st from both sides of the piece. Then I continue in st st for 19 cm, after what cast off all the st.

The front piece goes the same way as the back one, but there is a pattern in the middle, so it goes like that:

5 cm in rib, next 2 rows - in st st, while in the first of them I evenly add 4 st. Then we start the pattern: edge st, k12, p1, cable (on 3 st), p1, pattern (36 st), p1, cable (on 3 st), p1, k12, edge st.

And it goes like that until armholes, where I cast off 9 st on both sides. So now instead of 12 k, we make 3 k. And then 19 cm more and cast off all the stitches.

For sleeves I cast on 38 st, knit 5 cm in rib, the next row I add 2 st on both sides, and then stitch adding goes like that: add 2 st in every 8th row 9 times, and after that add 2 st in every 6th row 4 times. Then continue until needed length and cast off all the stitches.

Sew all the parts together.

As for the cable and pattern. We make cable on 3 st: 2 rows in st st, for the next row slip 2 st on cable needle behind the piece, k1, k st from the cable needle. And repeate like that.

And pattern is here:

This pattern shows how it looks from the right side.


Signs:
k
slip as to k, k, po
tk
k2tog
yo
p 



Yep, too much to read, but I hope you manage it :)

Christmas feeling

It's Christmas and New Year celebration soon. The weather this year doesn't please, so I tried to create Christmassy atmosphere by myself.

This time it's not about knitting, but about something that is hand-made.
This year such Christmas trees are especially in fashion and are very easy to make. You need only to make a paper cone and cover it with tape or film. Then take a thread to your taste and reel it over the cone covering it with a good layer of decoupage glue. Leave your future tree to dry (i left it for two days) and then carefully take it of the paper cone. And that's it, the tree is ready, you only need to decorate it (if you want).
Hope this year we see snow...

Socks

It's snowing today and the ground is finally white, so i thought it's time to tell about another "work" of mine. Made it several months ago (as a birthday present), so it'll be quite difficult to remember details.

For these socks i used a thread which, as producer says, was specially for knitting socks (40% wool, 35% acrylic, 25% polyamide) and needles #4 (4 mm).
The size was supposed to be 37-38.
So at first you need to cast on stitches to four needles (not sure already but in my case it should have been smth like 51 st). And the first row you just knit on 1st and 4th needle but on 2nd and 3rd you make 2x2 rib starting and finishing with 2 k.
Next row you start pattern on 2nd and 3rd needles. I found my pattern on internet on some website and it was probably taken from some magazine. I changed it a little and finally got pattern which took 22 stitches in width and 16 rows in height. And you knit the pattern until the piece comes to the toe.
On the 1st and 4th needles you continue in rib until it comes to the heel. You knit the heel on two needles (1st and 4th) in traditional way in stockinette stitches.
After the heel you continue the piece again on four needles and again continue making the pattern on the 2nd and the 3rd needles, while stockinette stitch on the 1st and the 4th.
When it comes to the toe you start knitting in st st on all the four needles.
So when your sock is ready you can see that its top has quite interesting pattern: it has pattern in front, 4 k st on each side and a rib on the back.
Through the length of the sock the pattern (in my case) was repeated four times (as you can see from the photo).
It's Christmas and the New Year celebration soon. So if you can't decide what presents you wanna give to your family and friends and definitely wanna do presents by your own hands socks could be a good idea. One can always find a way to use them :)

Tubular scarf aka "snood" (crochet)

I personally find knitting more interesting (for me) than crocheting, but nevertheless I do crochet sometimes. And here is one of the examples - extremely easy scarf.

It was crocheted with a 3,5 mm hook in circular rows. The first and the last rows were made in double crochet, and the rows in between them - in treble crochet. *
Simple crochet patterns have beautiful texture, so the only thing to do is to choose a colour.

Yep, I really believe - the simplier the better.

* For American English - single crochet/double crochet accordingly.