Claire Garland's Blog, page 2

A short movie about my book Magical Woodland Knits and wh...

A short movie about my book Magical Woodland Knits and what inspired it

Toadstool Bookmark

Toadstool Bookmark Pattern - it's fun (gi!)

And here's the link to the pattern for my stash-busting Toadstool Bookmark - LINK

Pick up a FREE PENGUIN

For the direct link to my Free Penguin - click here.

There's also a how-to-make-up tutorial - see post below

And yes, penguins can fly!

PENGUIN - How to pick up and knit and join together

Beginner's Bunny - Stage three. The last bit!

Ok - so this is the last part - Beginner's Bunny part three.

In this 15 minute knit-along I'll show you how to knit the body onto the head and finish the body and legs.

I'll teach you the easiest pick up and knit technique and re-visit wrap and turn, increase and decrease stitches and touch upon my finishing methods and how to get the best bunny shape that you'll be happy with.

If you want the free pattern - it's here for the full colour version and here for the text only/ ink saving version

Beginner's Bunny - Stage 2

In this next step of the Beginner's Bunny Knit-along I show you how to sew up the head seams touching upon the importance of shaping.

How to add eyes and which eyes to use. Joining the ears and complete the head.

I also show you how to work 'wrap and turn' short rows.

All this whilst following the Beginner's Bunny pattern - which is here (as full colour) and here (as text only)

Beginner's Bunny - Stage One

This is the first stage of my Beginner's Bunny pattern  (click here for text only version) and it's Stage 1 - How-to-Knit.

In this 11 minute film I teach you how to cast on, to knit a row, to purl a row, to increase (KFB), to decrease (K2tog and Skpo) and to how to cast off - all reading to the Beginner's Bunny pattern - what you will end up with is the knitted head before joining together - that part is in Stage 2

Here's Hamster

This is the hamster's head pattern head as I promised - use it with the Beginner's Bunny pattern simply swapping bunny head with hamster head… and a few little changes:

The head and ears have changed - see pattern below.

If you work 4 x forelegs and use two as hind legs instead of the bunny hind legs.

And when you get to the last row of the body - work this instead for hamster's tail:





Row 36 dec) Cast off 11 sts for Bottom Seam, knit next 5 sts, cast off last 11 sts for Bottom Seam - 6sts




TAIL

Rejoin yarn to the six remaining stitches, these are your tail stitches, continue as follows:

Row 1 Purl

Row 2 dec) K2tog, k to last 2 sts, k2tog - 4sts

Row 3 Purl

Row 4 dec) K2tog twice- 2sts

Cut yarn and thread end through all 2 sts, pull up to close up the stitches to a point.



Sew the tail seam with whipstitch.




HEAD PATTERN




Beginning at the Nose (with white yarn) cast on 3 sts 

Row 1 inc) Kfb three times - 6sts

Rows 2 & 4 Purl

Row 3 inc) Kfb six times - 12sts

Row 5 inc) Kfb 12 times - 24sts

Change to head colour

Row 6-8 Work three rows stocking stitch

Row 9 inc) [K7, kfb] three times - 27sts

Row 10 Purl

Row 11 inc) K13, kfb, k13 - 28sts

PM (place marker) at each end of last row for left and right Chin Markers 

Rows 12, 14 & 16 Purl

Row 13 inc) [K3, kfb] seven times - 35sts

Row 15 inc) [K4, kfb] seven times - 42sts

Row 17 inc) K18, kfb six times, k18 - 48sts

Row 18-20 Work three rows stocking stitch

Row 21 dec) K20, skpo, k4, k2tog, k to end - 46sts

Row 22 dec) P2tog, p to last 2 sts, p2tog - 44sts

Row 23 dec) K18, skpo, k4, k2tog, k to end - 42sts

Row 24 dec) P2tog, p to last 2 sts, p2tog - 40sts 

Row 25 dec) K16, skpo, k4, k2tog, k to end - 38sts



PM at each end of last row for left and right Neck Markers

Row 26 dec) P2tog, p to last 2 sts, p2tog - 36sts 

Row 27 dec) K14, skpo, k4, k2tog, k to end - 34sts 

Row 28 dec) P2tog, p to last 2 sts, p2tog - 32sts 

Row 29 dec) K2tog all across - 16sts



Cast off all 16 Head Back sts purlwise




EARS make 2 alike

Cast on 8 sts

Row 1 Purl




Work short rows to shape hamster’s ear

Short row 1 K7, W+Tk

Short row 2 P6, W+Tp

Short row 3 K5, W+Tk

Short row 4 P4, W+Tp

Short row 5 K3, W+Tk 

Short row 6 P2, W+Tp

Short row 7 Knit to the end of the row




Row 2 dec) P2tog, p to last 2 sts, p2tog - 6sts

Row 3  dec) K2tog, k to last 2 sts, k2tog - 4sts 

Row 2 dec) P2tog twice - 2sts

Cut yarn, thread end through 2 sts, pull up to close up sts. for ear fastened-off point.




Join Ear to Head

WS facing, bring fastened-off point ‘A’ down to centre of cast on edge ‘B’

make a stitch to secure.



Place the ear to the head and carefully join the row ends either side of the centre point stitch onto the head in a slight curve.














I also worked a few white duplicate stitches to add detail to the forehead.

Just thread up a yarn needle with white yarn and work  'v' shaped stitches over the ready knitted stitches - this is called 'Swiss Darning'.

It's a year since I've visited my blog - I don't know why because it's such a great platform to share content and images and links to free patterns - etc. etc.

It's also a lovely place for a chat and it's not as instant - here today, gone tomorrow - as Instagram.

So I'll be here too if you need a bit more convo than the daily murmurings on IG.