FINISHED MITTENS !!!!!

nearly 18 months after i started my lilac mittens i have finally finished the cable mittens.

that have been very complicated having three cables and diamond cuff.
the pattern is from vogue knitting mittens and is described as a difficult pattern and it was but when i got going they were ok but every round had a cable on it making the knit quite tight on needles.
now all i have to do is finish my fair ilse cameo mittens which have been on the needles nearly as long as the lilac mittens.

Cushions

As i have been making a owl cushion i decided to finally finish three fair isle cushions that i knitted a few years ago.
The cushions were made from a traditional shetland pattern made of jamson and smith 4ply jumper weight shetland wool.
sewing a fabric back to the cushions was difficult and i did have to pin the knit to the fabric as it does stretch.
the cushions i am very happy with they have a robust feel and a nice bright fun pattern.

ralvery is finally online.

Its taken many months for me to figure out how to get my raverly account on-line enable the facility to be able to buy my patterns from my last years collections.
Slowly i am uploading all my patterns onto my ralvery shop and will hopefully eventually get all my designs up and going.

commission work.

For my magazine commissions i am currently making 6 different new patterns that are all based on the new trends and magazine themes for that month..
i am trying to make small and easy to knit stash-busters that only use one ball of nice yarns or a small number of reminisents that we all have in our stash baskets.
To go with these i am also designing my first men's ware piece and a reversible ladies wear piece for these commissions.
The wools that i am using are new for autumn winter from Rowan and Debbie bliss.

Also i am also trying out a new 100% alpaca sock wool that i got from the Devon county show.

owl knitting

For a commission i was asked to make a owl cushion ive have never been great at toy or replica of animal knits but i thought ive have a go.
I  started off on a bad note choosing the wrong wool a mohair bouclé that did not knit up especially well it had a lovely feel when knitted up but was very week and had a tendency to spilt and fall apart if you pulled to hard on the knitting.
The actual making of the owl shape was not in the end to hard it was only the ears that were difficult and needed a reknit but because of the wool re knitting and pulling back was very hard and in the end it was easier to fold down the piece that was too big and sew it up rather than pulling back and re knitting.
when the piece was finished the only thing i did have to do is make the cushion pad for the inside as it was of an odd shape.
over all i am very happy with the owl the shape is cute and what i wanted and the wool worked well with the concept.

machine knit lace.

Even though many knitters believe machine knitting is cheating i do kind of like machine knitting it is different to normal hand knitting and creates a different look and feel to a piece of knit as the tension is so much smaller.
why i am doing some machine knitting today is because i have been able to get hold of lace carriage which for my type of machine is quite rare and i was going to try to do some lace knitting on the machine.
much later 
I hate machine lace its evil and does not work 2 hours of my life has passed and what i was left with was not worth the battery life on my camera to take a picture of it.
i will try again later much later maybe in a year. im sticking to my spinning wheel.

squares for blanket

For my new blanket i have been sewing up squares from my uni samples and now i am making more to finish and develop the blanket.
I am very interested in Shetland lace and 4pyl jumper knitting and have been experimenting with Shetland patterns from all over the UK using different matertails and beads to add a modern touch.
The wool i have been using is the new rowan Sumerspun and and traditional Shetland 4ply wool from Jameson and smith wool.

beads have been a new experiment for me trying to do Shetland patterns using only beads , this has been going well and i do love the patterns that i have been able to make . 

Bobbin lace

Bobbin lace is something i have always wanted to investigate and try and when on holiday at the great dorset steam show i was able to see lace making from the lace guild.
as the guild was at the show i was able to buy the bobbins ,graph paper , thread and pins.
i already have a book on bobbin lace so starting was not to bad i did struggle with the awkwardness of all the bobbins but i have found that keeping the bobbins attached with a short string makes lace making much less awkward.