Granny Ann Pattern

Well, here it is. My very first designed pattern! I've read it through a zillion times but if you spot an error, PLEASE email me and I'll rectify it! I really hope you make this up as it's a lovely long cardigan and although it doesn't look like much in the pics, it's really warm and cosy - nice and long to keep your rear end warm and a high collar to keep out those winter winds!!! If you do make it, please let me know as I'd love to see it!

Here's the pattern.
xxx

Granny Ann Cardigan

Size:

To fit chest 36” (91cm) (Sorry it's only one size!)

Materials:
approx 500g DK yarn
one pair 3.25mm and one pair 4mm needles
stitch holder
7 buttons

Gauge:
22sts and 44 rows to 10cm in stocking stitch on 4mm needles

Back

Using 3.25mm needles, cast on 105 sts and work K2, P2 rib for 6.5cm (or the required rib depth). Inc 1^st at each end of last WS row. (107sts).

Change to 4mm needles and work in stocking stitch until work measures 39cm (or length required to armhole), ending with the RS facing for next row.

Shape armhole:

Working in stocking stitch throughout, cast off 2sts at the beginning of the next 2 rows.

Work 6 rows in pattern.

*Next row:            k2, sl1, K2tog, psso, knit to last 5 sts, k3tog, k2.

Work 3 rows in pattern.*

Repeat from * to * until 39sts remain.

Slip remaining 39sts onto a stitch holder.

Break yarn.

Left Front

Using 3.25mm needles, cast on 58 sts and work K2, P2 rib for 6.5cm (or the required rib depth). Inc 1^st at end of last WS row. (59sts).

Change to 4mm needles and work as follows:

Row 1: (RS)            k35, p2, k10, p2, k10

Row 2:            p10, k2, p10, k2, p35

Repeat these 2 rows 5 times more (12 rows in total).

Row 13:            k35, p2, C5B, p2, k10

Row 14:            p10, k2, p10, k2, p35

Row 15:            k35, p2, k10, p2, k10

Row 16:            As row 14

Row 17:            As row 13

Row 18:            As row 14

These 18 rows form the pattern. Continue in pattern until work measures 39cm (or length required to armhole), ending with a RS facing for the next row.

Shape armhole:

Keeping pattern correct, cast off 2sts at the beginning of the next row.

Work 7 rows in pattern.

*Next row:            k2, sl1, K2tog, psso, knit to end.

Work 3 rows in pattern.*

Repeat from * to * until 41sts remain with the WS facing for the next row.

Shape neck:

Next row:            cast off 8sts, pattern to end (33sts).

Continue decreasing 2sts at armhole edge on every 4^th row as before and at the same time dec 1^st at neck edge on every following alternate row until 4sts remain.

Next row:            k2tog twice (2sts).

Next row:            k2tog. Break yarn.

Right Front

Work as for the Left Front reversing the shapings.

Sleeves

Using 3.25mm needles, cast on 57 sts and work K2, P2 rib for 6.5cm (or the required rib depth). Inc 1^st at each end of last WS row. (59sts).

Work 10 rows in stocking stitch, increasing 1^st at each end of Row 10.

Continue increasing 1^st at each end of every 10^th row until 83sts.

Continue in stocking stitch until work measures 45.5cm from beginning of rib (or length required to armhole), ending with the RS facing for the next row.

Shape armhole:

Cast off 2sts at the beginning of the next 2 rows.

Work 6 rows in stocking stitch.

*Next row:  k2, sl1, K2tog, psso, knit to last 5 sts, k3tog, k2.

Work 3 rows straight.*

Repeat from * to * until 19sts remain.

Then work the decrease row on every alternate row until 7sts remain.

Work 3 rows.

Slip remaining 7sts onto a stitch holder.

Break yarn.

Buttonband & Collar

Left Front Band

Using 3.25mm needles cast on 11sts.

Work in rib as for Back until band is long enough (when slightly stretched) to fit up the Left Front. Slip the sts onto a safety pin. Break yarn.

Pin placements for 6 buttons.

Right Front Band

Work as for Left Front Band but work 6 buttonholes to correspond with pin placements on Left Front Band as follows:

Buttonhole row (RS): Rib 5, cast off 2, rib 4.

Next row: Rib 4, yrn twice, rib 5.

Next row: Rib across all 11sts.

Sew both bands in place down left and right fronts.

Pin sleeves into position and sew in place.

Collar

With RS facing and using 3.25mm needles, rib:

11sts from right front band

26sts up right side neck

(K5, K2tog) across sts for right sleeve top

39sts from back on stitch holder

(K2tog, k5) across sts for left sleeve top

26sts from left side neck

11sts from left front band.

= 125 sts

Work 9 rows in rib as for Back, working a final buttonhole on 4^th row.

Cast off.

To Make Up

Sew remaining seams and press.

Sew on buttons.

Finger Biscuit Cars!!!

This week at preschool our theme was Things That Go. We did all the necessary colouring in and sticking but then us teachers decided it was time to be really creative with food!!!! So, on Thursday all the children made one of these -

Finger Biscuit Cars! 

Aren't they cute? Easy too. Here's how:

Mix up a little icing sugar with some water and a couple of drops of food colouring.

Sandwich two finger biscuits together with the 'green glue'.

Spread green glue on the backs of four mini biscuits and stick on the sides for wheels.

Spread a little green glue on the top biscuit and decorate with sweets - we used jelly babies for the drivers but we had to cut them in half to make them stay on.....of course eating the other half was great fun!

So, if you're looking a rainy day project look no further! You could make a veritable garage showroom of these lovelies. Here are some of mine waiting to dry.....

Needless to say, the kids had great fun making them and eating them so it's a definite fixture now on our Things That Go syllabus!

Hope you make some too!

Til soon.

xxx

Granny Ann Cardigan - Ta Dah!!!!

Well, here she is in all her glory! My first design (with a little help from various books and the internet of course) .... THE GRANNY ANN CARDIGAN!!!

Please excuse the quality of the pics but I was rushing around this morning trying to take them before coming to work. My mom was visiting and was taking the cardigan back with her so I had to get the pics this morning. I only finished it late last night and the ambient lighting in our house is not conducive to taking pics after dark!!!! Anyway, enough excuse making - here's another pic .....

As you can see, it's a very basic stocking stitch pattern with two identical rib columns up each front (I call them barley sugar twists!!! Does anyone else remember barley sugar twists???)

I must say, I'm pretty pleased with how it came out and although it looks a little ropey cos I haven't washed or blocked it yet, it is very soft, very drapey and screaming to be worn!!! I know Granny Ann is going to love it and we're just going into Winter here so it's timely too!

I'll be posting the pattern on a separate post so pop over and check it out if you fancy making one. I'm goiing to make one for me but in a very soft grey ....

Til soon.

xxx

New WIP - Circus Hexagon Blanket

I've recently become very fond of crochet hexagons. Not the solid ones but rather the good ole granny kind! These beauties have been bumbling around in my head for the past couple of weeks and yesterday I decided to make a hexagon blanket.

I really liked the look of Lucy's hexagons here but I don't have alot of time for colour changing and fiddling around - Lucy herself describes them as taking concentration which I'm very short of at the moment!

So I decided on single colour granny style hexagons and I got out my coloured pencils and began to mess about. I'm not going to post pics of my doodles but suffice to say that when I'd finished the word 'circus' leapt into my head! Don't ask me why cos I've never seen coloured hexagons at a circus but there you are. Anyway, the Circus Hexagon Blanket was born and I began this morning.

I made up the pattern as I went along (although there are a zillion patterns on the internet). If you'd like to join me in making a Circus Hexagon Blanket, see below for the tutorial for the hexagon. It's really easy and I think it'll be a great project for all those bit and pieces of yarn that we all end up with!

I wanted to keep the project fairly fast growing so I've kept the hexagons pretty large. They measure approximately 14cm across and consist of 5 rounds each. I'm using an acrylic double knit but I think it would look fab in a cotton yarn too. Here goes with the tutorial....

Round 1

Make 6 chain and work into a circle with a slip st.

Work 2tr, 2ch into the ring 6 times. You should have six 2tr clusters ending with 2ch. Join to top of first 2tr with a sl st.

(I use a magic circle technique for starting my hexagons and it gives a really next centre circle.)

Round 2

Sl st into the first space between two clusters. Ch3 - this counts as your first tr.

1tr, 2ch, 2tr all into the same space - this is your first corner. Ch1.

* (2tr, 2ch, 2tr) into next space, ch1

Repeat from * until the round is complete ending with ch1.

Join to top of first ch3 with a sl st.

Round 3

Sl st into the first space between two clusters. Ch3 - this counts as your first tr.

1tr, 2ch, 2tr all into the same space - this is your first corner. Ch1.

*2tr into next space, ch1.

2tr, 2ch, 2tr into next space (corner), ch1*

Repeat from * - * until round is complete. Join with a sl st into first ch3.

Round 4

Sl st into the first space between two clusters. Ch3 - this counts as your first tr.

1tr, 2ch, 2tr all into the same space - this is your first corner. Ch1.

*2tr into next space, ch1 - repeat this twice.

2tr, 2ch, 2tr into next space (corner), ch1*

Repeat from * - * until round is complete. Join with a sl st into first ch3.

Round 5

Sl st into the first space between two clusters. Ch3 - this counts as your first tr.

1tr, 2ch, 2tr all into the same space - this is your first corner. Ch1.

*2tr into next space, ch1 - repeat this three times.

2tr, 2ch, 2tr into next space (corner), ch1*

Repeat from * - * until round is complete. Join with a sl st into first ch3.

Bind off.

So, there you have it. A glorious granny hexagon!!! I hope you'll join me in making a blanket. Please comment if you do and email me your hexagon pics and I'll post them with links to your blog!

Here are the instructions without pics:

Round 1

Make 6 chain and work into a circle with a slip st.

Work 2tr, 2ch into the ring 6 times. You should have six 2tr clusters ending with 2ch. Join to top of first 2tr with a sl st.

(I use a magic circle technique for starting my hexagons and it gives a really next centre circle.)

Round 2

Sl st into the first space between two clusters. Ch3 - this counts as your first tr.

1tr, 2ch, 2tr all into the same space - this is your first corner. Ch1.

*(2tr, 2ch, 2tr) into next space, ch1

Repeat from * until the round is complete ending with ch1.

Join to top of first ch3 with a sl st.

Round 3

Sl st into the first space between two clusters. Ch3 - this counts as your first tr.

1tr, 2ch, 2tr all into the same space - this is your first corner. Ch1.

*2tr into next space, ch1.

2tr, 2ch, 2tr into next space (corner), ch1*

Repeat from * - * until round is complete. Join with a sl st into first ch3.

Round 4

Sl st into the first space between two clusters. Ch3 - this counts as your first tr.

1tr, 2ch, 2tr all into the same space - this is your first corner. Ch1.

*2tr into next space, ch1 - repeat this twice.

2tr, 2ch, 2tr into next space (corner), ch1*

Repeat from * - * until round is complete. Join with a sl st into first ch3.

Round 5

Sl st into the first space between two clusters. Ch3 - this counts as your first tr.

1tr, 2ch, 2tr all into the same space - this is your first corner. Ch1.

*2tr into next space, ch1 - repeat this three times.

2tr, 2ch, 2tr into next space (corner), ch1*

Repeat from * - * until round is complete. Join with a sl st into first ch3.

Bind off.

My Kind of Friday...

Hello!!!

I just need to say this, it's official,  I LOVE FRIDAYS!!! I never used to get excited about Fridays when I was younger but now I can't wait for them to come around. All that lovely weekend time, that 'what shall I do now?' time, family time, quiet time, shopping time ... basically just TIME for me and the people that I love.

This Friday especially is particularly good. Firstly cos Autumn is here and that's my favourite season (closely followed by Spring). The crisp mornings, the colours of the changing leaves, the misty hills and dales.....Miss Autumn is extremely welcome after a very long hot summer. There's quite alot of this going on with the trees -

The leaves are falling by the hundred and my garden is turning into one huge glorious leaf pile - particularly good for jumping in!!!!

The second reason for this Friday being fantastically fab is that the sky in my neck of the woods is just awesome in the Autumn, very blue and very clear. The light is glorious. I just had to snap a pic of the chimney at the school where I work to show you exactly what I mean.

Is that a blue sky or what? (Note: this pic is just as I took it. I've not messed around with it on Photoshop - it's straight from my camera!)

My third reason for being super excited this Friday is cos I got a little parcel in the post this morning. Now some women get their kicks from shopping for clothes, or jewellery or stuff for their home. Not me. I get my kicks from buying these.....

Yes, that's right. Knitting needles are the thing that float my boat! Not just any old knitting needles though. No indeed. These are Signature Needles and if you don't know what I'm talking about (and if you're interested) go here and you can find out all about them. They are the Rolls Royce of knitting needles, the Manchester United of the Premier Knitting League.
'But they're just knitting needles!!!' I hear you say. But you're wrong. They are sooooooo much more.

Let me explain. If you're a knitter, you'll know what I mean when I talk about the needle splitting the wool occasionally. It's very annoying. I don't look at my needles when I'm knitting and it's very frustrating to at last look down at my work and see that five rows ago the wool got split on a single stitch, and I have to rip it back (knitting terminology for unpicking) and do it again. That doesn't happen with Signature Needles because of the very fine tip. Have a look -

Are they not exquisite??? They are called Stilletto points and with good reason. You could seriously damage someone's eye with these beauties!!! I got these needles this morning and did quite a bit of knitting today at school in the playground and not once did the wool split!!! YAY!!!

Another fab thing about these needles is that they're extremely light. This probably doesn't matter to a whole lot of people but it does to me. I never realised how heavy my old needles were until I tried a pair of Signatures. The difference is amazing.

My final reason for loving these lovelies so much is that they are just so well made. I often find tiny bits of metal sticking out of needles where they haven't been finished properly in the factory but not these darlings. They're as smooth as silk and the yarn just glides across them.....sigh.....

They are, however, not cheap but they will last you a lifetime so worth every penny. I knit ALOT and for me there is nothing better than having the best tools for the job. We knitters spend so much money on good yarns so why not good needles?

I'm off now to do a few more rows but pop across to the Signature website and have a look for yourself. They do normal needles, circulars (which apparently don't twist like other circulars do) and double pointed needles. You can specify both the points and the ends that you want when you order so they're completely to your taste and style of working. I chose these twisty ends. Aren't they wonderful?

So go on, get over there and treat yourself. You know you want to....

Hope your Friday was as fab as mine!! ♥

Til soon.

xxx

Mother's Day....

To all you wonderful Moms.....

Have a magical day......♥

xxx

My Love and I ......

Hello friends! I just wanted to pop in quickly to show you this .....

Is she not gorgeous?   I am indeed the luckiest chestnut on the planet as this week marked the 20th anniversary of my first date with DH!!! And he remembered with this beautiful orchid! Do you want to see more? No problem......

It really is so delicate. I even fell in love with the pot it came in. I know it says 'herbs' on the front, but I'm not complaining .....

DH also gave me a voucher for a local health spa so I sense a massage and a facial in the not too distant future....YAY!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend....thanks for sharing this with me.

Here's one last look....

Til soon.

xxx

p.s. Sorry for the quality of the pics - my camera isn't great but I really wanted to show you. xxx

On my needles...

A while ago I bought 1500g (yes, you read it correctly, 1500g!!!) of this

It's a very nice yarn being 20% wool and 80% acrylic so it's soft, warm, easy to work with and has a fabulous drape. I had intended to make this

but for one reason or another I subsequently decided against it so was left with a HUGE amount of the yarn. It's a gorgeous cappuccino colour but I stashed it away, not really knowing what to do with it. Then, a few weeks ago my gran (actually she's my step-gran but who's asking?) said she needed a new cardigan for the winter. Sadly she suffers from chronic arthiritis in her hands so cannot knit or sew any more. As soon as she said it I thought of this yarn as it's definitely one of her colours. She suits all ranges of browns so I knew she'd like it and when I showed it to her she thought it was fab.

We discussed exactly what she wanted (a small amount of cable, a button up with a round neck, no collar etc., etc) and I jumped on the internet to find a pattern. Ravelry (of course) is always my first stop for all things knitting but although I searched for nearly an hour, I just couldn't find the right pattern. There were many 'it'll do' types but nothing that really made my heart leap. Do you know what I mean?

To say the least I was a little despondent. Ravelry had NEVER let me down but now it seemed I was asking too much...... I wandered around for days not knowing what to do and then it hit me - DESIGN YOUR OWN PATTERN!!!! That made my heart leap, I can tell you. I was a little daunted at first but I've been knitting all my life and have made all kinds of sweaters so I took a deep breath and began......

So far I've done this

What do you think? This is the right front so the arrow is where the button band will be joined on. Obviously the left front also has an identical cable. Do you like the double cable or do you think it should have been a single? I'm still in two minds about the double but I've done the left front and am almost finished this side so I'm not ripping back now. There is also space to the left of the cable to put on a patch pocket if she decides she wants one but I think it will look just as good without pockets. The back is plain stocking stitch.

So, that's what I've been up to over the past week or so. I really like how it's coming together and I'm very excited that it's my first very own made up pattern!!!! You see, you're never too old (or too young) to start designing!!!

I've called it Granny Anne and will blog the pattern when it's a FO rather than a WIP. Please let me know what you think.

Til soon.

xxx

From my two sticks...!

I've been working today in our bookshop so between serving customers I've also been dashing about on the internet. I've recently put down my crochet hook for a while and taken up my 'two sticks' again - this is D's description of my knitting needles!

First I discovered this wonderful lady Kate Davies.

She's a knitwear designer and her work is fabulicious!!! If you enjoy knitting or simply enjoy good design, please do yourself a favour and pop over to her site and see the rest of her beautiful work. I've already earmarked this pattern to buy -

 That's a cowl I would definitely wear and in a similar colourway it would go with everything! How about this? She has made it as a cowl but I would probably do it as a scarf .... don't you love her coat???

Then I scurried over to http://www.ravelry.com (where else would a girl go on a Sunday afternoon?) and discovered Boo Knits. If, like me, you gaze in awe at some of the shawls that people make, check these out....

Are they not exquisite? Shawls really suit the South African climate particularly in the Spring and Autumn when the evenings are cool. Ho hum. I can see quite a few new projects on the horizon.....

Til soon.
x

Let the children play ......

٠ let the children play ٠ stamp in puddles ٠ climb trees ٠ dig in the dirt ٠ go on a bug hunt ٠ make mud pies ٠ roll down a hill ٠ build a camp ٠ make a daisy chain ٠ look for fairies ٠

Playing outside makes kids –

٠ smarter

٠ healthier

٠ happier

Recently I was chatting to a  friend of mine who is also a teacher and we remarked on how little children seem to play outside these days. In our youth (we were both born in the 1960s) there was no television, no computer games, no playstations, no fear of 'bad people' and life was pretty carefree. We played indoors on wet days but if the sun shone we played outside, ALWAYS.

We played in our sandpit .....

We sat on benches in the sun.........

We made camps in leafy glades......

We trained for the circus.......

Outside play is so important. For strengthening little arms and legs, for making young imaginations soar, but most importantly for the feeling of the sun on their skin and the wind in their hair. It's all around them and it's free.
Til soon.
x