For my birthday I got the amazing gift of last years Stylecraft crochet along project- Lily Pond 😊
I’ve recieved all the wool and patterns to make this beautiful lily pond blanket:
I would highly recommend taking part in one of these projects as each month they will send you new patterns and wool ( much like my other knitting project with the blanket). I also find the stylecraft wool very soft and easy to work with- plus its cheap!!!! 😵💸
So, for a student like me with a budget who likes viberant colours and patterns, stylecraft is a godsend!
I’ve just started working on my first panel and am looking forward to learning new techniques 💘
Can’t think of a better way to spend my summer now that I’m addicted to intarsia knitting!!
Continuing on with the Mario theme I made this 1up in intarsia knitting! Here’s the pattern I made below! I’ve noticed the trick to knitting any pattern is to remember that they get a bit squashed in the horizontal direction. So I have tried to deliberately make my patterns longer vertically to counteract this so that the finished product looks as close to the original 8bit characters as possible.
Soon I may try and knit these motifs into some socks or even a scarf! But for now I’m just going to practise so I can get better and neater at it! 🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄
So I am now hooked on creating intarsia motifs and am trying to master this skill! In my second attempt I have tried to knit a Mario star (as in from the games). I’m a huge fan of Mario/ Nintendo games so I’m sure I’ll probably knit more along the lines of this theme soon. The outcome has made me feel very proud! 🌟🍄🎮🏁👸
I am now also trying to mix the techniques of intarsia with fair isle knitting to create more complex motifs and cut back on the amount of different stands of yarn you have to use! I have already used this technique around the eyes of the star using fair isle style knitting to continue on with the same yellow across the eyes instead of having to get another ball of wool.
Below is my pattern I made for this star, feel free to use it as well! It’s basically a replica of the 8 bit star form the original Mario games with some tweaks.
Yet again I have used a website called stitch fiddle for this which I would recommend if u want to experiment with making ur own patterns as it is extremely easy to use!
So I found out that a good way to knit a pattern without having lots of hanging strings (as with fair isle knitting) is to use a technique called Intarsia. For this I just looked it up on YouTube and used the first two videos to help me get started. And they actually turned out to be super helpful!!! This method is a neat way to knit complex motifs that have frequent colour changes, unlike with fair isle where you normally just alternate 2 colours.
My first attempt (front)
(back)
The pattern here was supposed to be a heart of my own design but as it was my first go it didn’t quite take the form I had hoped for! As you can see the back is almost as neat as the front.
My second attempt with 3 colours. (Front)(back)
The back on this one was a lot messier due to having so many loose ends to sew in at the end! However this one is a lot cuter and looks more like a heart. So overall, I recon I’ve made good progress 🙌😁. Just got to watch out for my tension in places as at the moment it is looking a bit uneven. Although I think this might be due to me pulling on the loose ends a bit too much ❣
So last Christmas my mum signed me up to ‘The Project of the Year’ as a gift. This project is run by the very friendly lady who owns the knitting and wool shop in my town. The project for this year was to make a big knitted blanket out of knitted squares. These squares are to be made in a variety of different sizes, patterns and colours. Once every month I go and pick up my package from the shop which contains all of the wool I will need for that month and instructions on the pattern. This is such a great scheme and since starting it I have learnt so many different techniques! Here are some of the squares I have completed so far…
This was the first months knitting and both of these are stocking stitch ( 1st row knit, 2nd row purl)This was the second months and yet again this is stocking stitch. But this time with changing of the wool to incorporate a new colour into the patternThe third month taught me how to knit in blackberry stitch. This ended up taking a lot longer then the first 2 months combined!
To knit in Blackberry Stitch:
1st row: P
2nd row: K1, *(K1, P1, K1) into the next st, P3tog, rep from * to last st, K1
3rd row: P
4th row: K1, * P3tog, (K1, P1, K1) into the next st, rep from * to last st, K1
Rep rows 1-4 to form pattern.
Since Christmas I haven’t been able to do as much knitting as I would of liked as I have been doing my A-levels and got side-tracked by knitting lots of mittens! But I now back into it and making great progress! More to come soon 🙌💪🔥
The idea was to hand it up on the wall so I could put my phone, keys, etc in it to help keep me organised. Unfortunately the only wall it has seen is the back of my wardrobe! I unearthed it today and am looking forward to finally hanging it up on the wall when I move house 🏠🚚 📦📦📦📦📦
So I just went for it and decided to knit up a pattern I had created on a website called stitch fiddle* :
I noticed that it came out a bit patchy and the sides curled in. I have decided this is because the white yarn I used was a slightly heavier weight than the black yarn (despite assuming at first they were both double knit). This made the cat have more tension and it pulled the sides in. If there’s a different reason behind this feel free to comment!!!
I would also appreciate some help with what I do with the yarns at the back as they ended up looking like this:
I just know there has to be a more aesthetically pleasing way of doing this 😱 ✌
* I would recommend stitch fiddle as a good website where you can design your own knitted patterns plus embroidery and others. However, it only lets you save 15 patterns for free…
Knit You Knot 