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Category: Knitting

Flashback to Toyland

We’ve knit Winter warmers and Christmas stockings, decorated our trees with hand embroidered felt baubles, now for my final “OMG it’s almost Christmas!” post, I thought I’d feature a few toys that you still have enough time to knit.

Sure you do. Sleep is for suckers. 🙂

Hand knit doll

Bliss’s dolly was the first pattern I ever put online, way back in 1996. I’d designed her to be knit with any yarn as my gift to the Knitlist email group in 1995. The pattern has stitch by stitch instructions to knit her with dk weight yarn, and a recipe for knitting her with any gauge yarn of your choice. The original pattern includes undies and a dress, and there’s a separate pattern for Bliss’s netball uniform for the sporty types. In fact, if you add a couple of pom poms, the netball uniform would make a cute cheerleader’s outfit too.

Knitted doll with lavender mohair shirt and pink variegated pants

If you’d like a doll that’s faster to knit but just as cuddly, my easy knit doll pattern is a quicker knit. Knit in dk weight yarn, she’ll measure 12 inches tall, but I’ve written the pattern out in rows rather than measurements so you can make her with any yarn that you have, at any gauge.

If you just want some little stocking stuffers, why not knit a Pebble Baby or twelve? They’re great stash busters, and if you add a bit of catnip to the stuffing, they make fabulous cat toys.

Soft toy monster in a pink flowery skirt

Florentine the monster is a quick sew pattern I designed when I found an unfinished pyjama top at a local re-use shop. She can be pink and frilly, furry and fabulous, or left plain and packaged with fabric pens for a DIY decorating project!

Felt Betsy dolls

Finally, check out the Betsy Dolls, available in three sizes. Full size (about a foot tall), can be made from any fabric, a slightly smaller size (shown) is designed to fit on commercially available sheets of felt, and a Betsy Doll Christmas tree decoration that can be made from scraps of felt and hung on your tree.

These are just a few of the toy patterns here on Knitting-and.com. If you’d like teddy bears, cats, clowns, bunnies and more, check out the knitting patterns for toys, and the sewing and embroidery projects pages. And remember, when it comes to Christmas crafting – sleep is optional!

Sarah

A Checked Knitting Pattern with a Difference

Knit and purl ridged check swatch

The end is here! Stitch No 33, Striped Check is the final stitch in my knitting stitchathon!

Another knit and purl stitch, I think this one would look particularly nice in a yarn that has a little texture to it like a fine bouclé. In a plain, smooth yarn, an nice project for this stitch would be to make squares in Striped Check and stitch 28b and join them together with bands of garter stitch to make a large afghan with a thick border of garter stitch all the way around. Very cosy 🙂

I hope you’ve enjoyed this series of 19th century and 1930’s knitting stitches. I have a lot of new additions planned for knitters, my fellow embroiderers and more, so if you’d like to keep notified whenever I post something new, subscribe over on the left (on desktop), or underneath this post of you’re using a tablet or on mobile.

Happy stitching!

Sarah

The Penultimate Stitch

Knitted swatch in lattice stitch

We’ve reached the penultimate stitch in our little series of knitting stitches! In my opinion, it’s also one of the most understated and beautiful.

Lattice stitch has been around for a very, very long time. In Victorian times it was used as the centre of baby shawls, and in strips that were sewn together to make afghans and knitted quilts. It enjoyed renewed popularity in the 1930’s as a stitch used to knit short sleeved tops, whether in an all-over stitch or worked in panels.

When worked in a smooth, fingering weight yarn, lattice stitch is particularly lovely. I’d also really like to see it worked in mohair with larger than normal needles for a super cosy stole.

Whatever you choose to use it for, I hope you enjoy knitted lattice stitch.

Sarah

Crossing Over

Knitted swatch in crossover stitch

Crossover stitch is the latest of my new stitch patterns. Another stitch from the 1930’s, Crossover stitch has lovely columns of faux twisted stitches between columns of eyelets. You can see my swatch biases a little to the left, but if you use needles a couple of sizes larger than you normally would for your chosen yarn, the stitches become stable and won’t lean.

With only two rows, this stitch is super easy to memorise for on-the-go knitting and would be beautiful worked in a panel up the centre front on a top, as an all-over pattern on a stole, or in an afghan square, surrounded by seed stitch.

Sarah