Shark Fin Mittens

When the winter time is here it is neccessary to have great mittens to warm your frozen hands during the chilly evening walk with the dog, or bear, or whatever... If you are going to have mittens, why don't you spice them up with some cool shark fins! :) Well, that was the question I asked myself and then I came up with these cuties!

The pattern for these mittens is actually a combination of two patterns which is a bit strange, well... that is the way I am really... mixing and matching freely between patterns to make my "own thing". I don't know why I can't just let it be, it happens only sometimes when I really like a full pattern and then I can use is like crazy haha! The patterns is from Drops Design Studio's website where you can find many many free patterns - a treasure of creativity!

The idea with the sharkfins is my own idea, I have not seen it anywere else. Since I think it it terribly hard to work intarsia knitting I decided to sew these shark fins with stitches after I finished the mittens so it will look like I have knitted them :) Why make things the hard way when you can make it the easy way, right?

Happy knitting everyone!

Blue/Green Baby Hat

Hello and welcome to a new year of creativity! I think the best way to start the new year of 2016 is a cool, colorful and fun baby hat for those chilly winterdays :)

This pattern is from Drops Design Studio's website and I can really recomend their patterns, they have a lot of baby patterns and they are all free. If you are lucky you can even find a video tutorial on their website for your garment, or at least get technique tips from their videos. The link I attached in this post for the pattern is in swedish but if you would like other laguages than swedish you can easily change the language in the bar to the left under the picture in the pattern. Isn't it neat?! ;)

For this hat I used a green/blue acrylic yarn from RedHeart. I really like the color and the thickness is great for me, I think the result is getting smooth and nice.

Happy knitting everyone!

Purple Knitted Mittens

In Sweden we are starting to get closer to winter time, and this morning we had -11 degrees Celsius. It is the perfect time to curl up in the armchair under a cozy warm blanket and knit mittens.
This model is borrowed from Drops Design Studio's homepage and you can choose your language in the menu at the right under the picture in the pattern.

If the thought of making your own mittens have crossed your mind once or twice my advise is "Go for it!", because it really is easy once you understand the pattern instructions and it really feels great to put the finished mittens on your hands and be able to say "I made these" to all of your friends and family :) Maybe you even surprise someone with a great homemade christmas gift <3

Since I always do "my own thing" with patterns I find, I just made stocking stitch for these mittens and used two purple colors to lighten things up a bit. I really like the type of ending in the top, it turned out very good. I hope my friend feels warm this winter when she gets this gift :)
Happy knitting everyone!

Knitted Orange and Brown Wrist Warmers

I am very into knitting right now, probably since I got large amounts of yarns for my birthday but also because it is getting colder and soon it will be winter here in Sweden. I found a very nice and simple pattern for these wrist warmers on Drops Design Studio homepage, and you can easily change the language right under the picture to the left in the pattern :)

I will definately save this pattern for the future because it is great for both wrist warmers and ordinary mittens. The thumb increase is easy to understand and the only thing you do differently to use it as a pattern for mittens you don't bind off the stitches for the thumb, just saving them on a piece of yarn for later to make the thumb.

Happy knitting! :)

 

Blue Knitted Mittens

I took a glance into my basket of yarns and found some unfinished business. A half-finished sad little mitten was hanging around with the yarn balls thinking about if it ever would be a real mitten someday. Actually that mitten has been laying around ever since last winter when I thought it would be nice to knit mittens for my husband for Chrismas. However, I had too little time back then and I decided to give him something else.
Well now the half-finished mitten is finished and so is his brother :)

I combined two patterns for these mittens and that is because I started making a model were every finger is individual but I found that it was too hard for me so I found a pattern with only the individual thumb. Here is the free pattern for mittens with individual fingers and here you find the free pattern for the mittens with only individual thumb.

The yarn I used is acrylic and it has its positive and negative features for sure. The positive features are the strong bright colors that is not very common in cotton yarns or wool, at least not where I live. The negative features are that the garment you make will almost always get uneven on the knitted surface unlike wool or cotton who will stay firm amd smooth.

Betsy the Rainbow Cow

This weekend this lady is getting the spotlight on the blog! Let me present to you Betsy - the rainbow cow!
Just like all her friends she was once white with only black colored spots, but she felt in her heart that she was not one color - she was ALL colors! Her greatest dream was to have multicolored spots just like the rainbow. One day she found the hidden secret of the rainbow and her dream came true! Now all her friends call her "Rainbow-Betsy" and she is living the dream every day among flowers and grass. Go Betsy!

The technique I use is basically increase, decrease and stocking stitch for all parts of this cow. I do the pattern myself and from my own imagination. I think this is the perfect way for me to be creative and I can assure you that it will be many more little soft animal friends on this blog in the future! :)

Betsy is a real flower junkie and loves to relax in the grass enjoying the sunshine.

Knitted Flying Kite Elephant

The circus goes on with my new hobby, the knitted soft animals! And not are they only cute animals - they are kind of loony too! Watch out for this guy, Kenny, the flying kite elephant, who got tired of being related to the world's heaviest animals and made his dream come true to fly! When I took the photos of him for this post he was just all over the place! I had a tough time making him be still for just a couple of seconds to get some nice shots of him in his new kite uniform.

Kenny is the soft animal proof of that you really can make your dreams come true even if your dreams are a bit "out of the box". He wanted to fly so very much, be free like a bird, but he didn't have any wings or feathers like the birds have. One day he saw a kite high up in the sky and he knew it was the answer to his problem. Now he flies all day long playing follow the leader with his new bird friends, and the bright colors of his kite uniform shines in the sun!

 Kenny is made of acrylic yarn and I have constructed the pattern myself. It took about two weeks to make him and now he and his moose buddy Sven with the red pants is having a blast together.

Knitted Soft Toy Moose

Knitted animals and soft toys - who doesn't love them!? I have thought of making soft animals many times before but I have never really giving it a fair try. This time I decided to really make an effort because these kind of handicrafts are very lovable and you can really use your imagination to create cute things. I love to create from scratch and build things with my own imagination and design and I think this could be a new fun hobby!

Today I will show you my first soft animal friend :) He is a Swedish moose and his name is Sven. Sven is one of a kind because he has red pants (and I can tell you it is not very likely to find a moose with pants in the Swedish woods these days). Ever since the day he got the pants he loved them and whatever others may say or think about it, he will never throw them away!
As you can see he is quite a lively moose making silly moves every time I tried to take a picture of him...!

I wrote the pattern myself as I went along and the total time from making the first calculations until he was finished was about 10 days.
It was Easter holiday this past weekend and I had a lot of time knitting while my husband played videogames and I watched sitting beside him. At the moment he is playing Bloodborne, which is a new game related to the Demon's Souls and Dark Souls games. I really like to follow the stories these games are hiding - it is almost like a movie sometimes. So there I sit in our sofa having one eye on my knitting project and one eye on the tv-screen :) 

The horns were apparently excellent support when standing on the head...

Perhaps standing a bit too close to the camera...

Knitted Pink And Purple Striped Cap

I hope you have had a lovely time during the Christmas and New Year holidays! I celebrated in my couch watching movies and video games while knitting :) My husband is currently playing a quite new game called "Lords of the Fallen" and that is, along with "Dark Souls" and "Demon's Souls" the type of games I really like watching because there is a story and it is a reason why you should go to certain places. Knitting is a very good occupation while watching TV and this cap I will show you today is a easy project even though you have to count sometimes. The original free pattern you can find here at Drops Design Studio and it is not striped but in the picture below you can find my homemade striped pattern. I really like to take a pattern and change it even if I do a very small change - I like to do it my way.
The reason why I decided to make a cap was because I got my hands on yarn in such beautiful colors some time ago and I just had to make something of it and I also really needed a new cap. I did these knitted slippers in a previous post and it is the same yarn I am using for this cap. I gave those slippers to my sister in law as a Christmas present so I hope her feet are getting warm this winter :)

I hope I get you inspired to try make your own cap, it may take a while to finish it but you will feel proud wearing it all winter :) Today I am taking mine out for a walk!

Happy Knitting!

I used needles no 5 and in 10 cm2 I knit 17 stitches and 36 rows.

Knitted Slippers with Roses

Now when the days are getting colder and we get closer to the winter it is nice to warm up cold feet in warm slippers. I found these cuties on DropsDesignStudio (click here to go to the free pattern) and now my feet can be warm all winter! These slippers are very easy to knit, basically you just need to know how to do garter stitch and decrease. I crocheted two flowers, same pattern as I used in this post, to make the slippers a bit more girly. I had both pink and purple yarn at home at the time and since I LOVE these colors it was a natural color choice :)

Happy knitting!

Dark Green Baby Socks

It was quite a long time ago I knitted something and last week I felt I really wanted to start a new project. Since my inspiration was low and I had not much time I thought I would try to knit baby socks because they are small and easy. Once again I fell in love with knitting as soon as I started and I could not stop until they were finished. It is a big mystery why I think it is so much fun but that is how it is.

This pattern is easy to understand and you don't have to know all kinds of techniques.  Here you can find the link to the free pattern at Drops Designstudio's homepage. If you would like to read the pattern in a different language you can choose your language in the flag menu at left side just below the picture.

The yarn I am using is Read Heart Soft Baby Steps 100% acrylic. I like acrylic yarn because the colors are so intensive and the yarn shines very pretty. 

Happy knitting everyone!

Brown/Off White Knitted Baby Cardigan

Last winter I started knitting on this baby cardigan but for some reason I don't remember I forgot about it and it was left unfinished in my sewing box in a mess of fabrics and yarns. But a couple of months ago I found it (when I finally organized my messy, messy sewing box) and I decided to finish it.
When I started this blog I had several unfinished projects at home just waiting for me to take care of them, and one by one I have managed to finish them :) Yay!

The pattern for this cardigan comes from Drops Designstudio where you can find free patterns for any occation and severity. Click on this link to get to the pattern I used! If you would like another language for the pattern, just click on the menu at left under the picture and you can choose your language!

I used 100% cotton yarn for this cardigan and therefore it is very soft and light in the texture. Personally I like it better when the yarn is a bit more hairy because it makes the loops in the knitting more tighter together - when a yarn is a bit more hairy it fills up the little holes that the knitting texture natuarally comprises.

Overall I am pleased with the result and maybe in the future this cardigan will come to good use for someone, but for now it gets its own place in the "Finished Project Box" :)

Happy Sunday everyone!