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Mostly Knitting Blog

Want to find the new stuff on Knitting-and.com, or read about my latest projects and discoveries? This is the place.

The Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl Free Knitting Pattern

I’ve been doing a little tidying here and there on Knitting-and.com including adding charts to one of my most popular free knitting patterns, the Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl.

The Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl with free knitting pattern

I designed the Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl way back in 2004. It was only intended to be a swatch, but it was so much fun to knit I just kept adding colours until I ended up with a full size shawl.

The shawl can be knit with any yarn, at any gauge and in any size so it’s not only fun to knit but a great stash buster too! I hope you find the new charts useful, and if there are any other patterns you’d like to see charts added to, please let me know.

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How to Wind Yarn on a Turkish Spindle

I’ve never spun on a Turkish spindle but the pictures I’ve seen of them with such beautifully wound yarn have always fascinated me, especially when the wound yarn is long repeat variegated or self striping.

(Turkish spindle by fishandnoodle via Flickr)

Which prompted me to find out exactly how they are wound in order to look so tempting.

Simply Notable has this excellent photo tutorial

or, if you’re like me and you need a video to help you, here is one uploaded by devan marques on Youtube

I feel a sudden need to buy a Turkish spindle and spin pretty hand painted tops. I guess that’s one more thing to add to my wishlist!

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Tiny Flowers from a Tiny Bit of Treasure

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The tiny little bit of spinning I mentioned in my last post has become three tiny little flowers!

Crochet flowers made from a scrap of handspun wool/silk
Crochet flowers made from a scrap of handspun wool/silk

With only  a small amount of yarn, I decided to use it to crochet some simple flowers using a 2.5mm crochet hook and this pattern:

Mayra’s Creations: Flower & Leaf Appliques.

Now I just have to make a small piece of felt for a background, get out my embroidery threads and I’ll have a new flower brooch!

Proof that handspinners should always hoard their scrap fibre 🙂

Now if I just knew what to make with the bulky weight 2 ply that I spun with the rolags I made with the rest of the fibre…

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Coming Soon, Achoo Cough Cough Cough

The Summer flu (well, technically Spring flu but close enough) is currently attempting to kick my voluminous butt, but it hasn’t stopped me almost preparing a Christmas present for my fellow retro style fans.

The Perfection Cuddly Toymaking Kit, Book No. 1
The Perfection Cuddly Toymaking Kit, Book No. 1

The Perfection Cuddly Toymaking Kit was published in Australia in the early 1950’s as a home education course for women wanting to earn pin money by making toys and gifts and selling them in bulk to local shops.

There are ten booklets in the kit, covering a large range of toys, novelties and bags. If you love retro style toys then you’ll love making the toys straight from the full size patterns, or you can make changes and use them to design updated versions with a more modern look. With all sorts of toys from little felt rabbits to fur fabric penguins, leatherette (or felt) sausage dogs and the obligatory Scotty, to (my favourite) felt flowers and a great knitting/overnight bag to sew, I think you’ll have many of your Christmas presents covered!

Now I just have to stop coughing long enough and I’ll be uploading one booklet per day for ten days. Watch this space for booklet number 1 very soon!

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