Knitted Daffodils

I've been having fun.... playing.... designing a little pattern for daffodils. I started it over a week ago. Spring was, well, not exactly "in the air", but maybe round the corner, and so I felt in the mood to make these. Now we are back in the throws of winter and the real daffodils in my garden, which were just about to burst into bud are now buried beneath drifts of snow.

I have added these to the Etsy and Craftsy shops and hopefully I'll feel inspired to design some more flowers soon.

I've also been busy with my Stahbuster Challenge and have made a couple of hats.

 

 

 

I'm still on target with my 52 items in the 52 weeks of 2013 for Greenfields Africa . I'm sure I will get behind at some point, but I'm nearly a 1/4 of the way there now, so I'm pretty pleased with myself.

On Thursday I went to The Sewing For Pleasure show at the NEC Birmingham. I'm so pleased I chose Thursday - before all the snow came down! It was a lovely day out. So much colourful fabric and scrummy yarn, all under one roof!

I was fairly restrained in my purchases though.

 

 

I bought a dress pattern and some dotty fabric (I hope we get some warm enough weather for me to wear it!) I didn't intend to buy a dress pattern, but they were "Buy 2, Get 1 Free" and as I'd gone with my son's girlfriend, who wants me to teach her to dressmake, we split the pattern deal between us.

I bought both charm squares aand a jelly roll in Sweetwater's Noteworthy line. Although we had made a pact that we "just looked" first time round the hall, and did our buying on the second lap, I'm so glad I broke the rule and bought these first time round. A lot of stallholders were on their second show in two weeks and stock of the really popular pre-cuts was thin on the ground. These would almost certainly have been out of stock by the afternoon. I also bought some of the Clover Soft Touch crochet hooks. Again stock was low and I couldn't get all the sizes I wanted, but these will do me for now. They really are very gentle on your hands. I hat having to go back to a standard hook now.

Overall, it was a good show. I came back with my head spinning with ideas. I was tired, but happy, and now it can snow as much as it wants to. I'm more than happy staying cosy inside, having a battle with my conscience - do I finish the Bee in my Bonnet Row Along quilt that I started late last summer?

 

 Or maybe the charity quilt I've so nearly finished?

Or do I break open that jelly roll and do some more playing!! Decisions.... decision... life is hard!..

 

 

 

Free Knitting Pattern Baby Hat with Top Knot

Don't you just love free patterns!
Today I am giving you the link to my free baby top-knot knitting pattern.
Update: Pattern now has instructions for both knitting in the round and knitting flat.
It is knit in the round and is very, very simple! I wrote it as a starter pattern for people learning to knit in the round. It uses double knit or light worsted weight yarn and has instructions for 5 sizes ranging from preemie to 2 years.
I know many, many knitters in the UK hate knitting in the round (but they dislike sewing up seams too!!!) whereas my US friends are much more comfortable with it . I have a little theory about this!
If you learned to crochet first and then to knit, you are comfortable knitting in the round - if you didn't learn to crochet, or only learned much later, you are a two needles only sort of person - and as crochet is so much more popular in the US, and only just starting to gain in popularity here, there are more "in the rounders" in the States.
So there you have it - my theory - but let's get back to point of the post!!
The free pattern can be downloaded here. It is also in the Knitting Patterns tab at the top of the page, so you can get those knitting needles out and get knitting today!