Knitted Animal Hats Number 3!!

So while I was getting into the swing of Animal Hat knitting, I had to knit one for my lovely friend Zoe who gave the book to me for my birthday back in April. At the time she'd said 'I'd love it if you would knit me one for my birthday' which I'd remembered, but I wasn't sure if she'd remember....

(I had to knit new cheeks for the final hat as these were too small!)

I used a blend of 2 pinks as the grey wool I used for the rest of the hat were chunky, but I couldn't find a chunky pink that I liked. 

The ear front and backs are knitted separately and then stitched together.

I think she likes it!!

Knitted Animal Hats 2

So as well as knitting a hat for my niece, I also knitted one for my 2 year old nephew. Now as you can probably imagine of a boy that age, he is a little monkey. He climbs up things, throws things and breaks things so a monkey hat was the only thing appropriate.

I had to work on the sizing a little as he is so tiny, and the child size hats in the book went up to age 8, which would swamp him, but I used smaller sized needles and shortened the hat by a few rows and this seemed to work pretty well.

I love the mix of stocking and garter stitch top give the texture on the monkey's face, I knitted eyes for this one, rather than use buttons as I definitely don't trust my nephew not to try and eat buttons!

It was hard to get a good photo of him in it as he does not stay still for a moment, but I did manage to get a few...

Knitted Animal Hats

My friend Zoe gave me a lovely booked called Knitted Animal Hats for my birthday, which has some amazing patterns for very fun animal hats. As my niece was 5 last week, and my nephew was 2, I though that was a perfect opportunity to knit them some hats.

My niece loves the colour red, and is quite cunning so the fox suited her perfectly. I found a lovely soft red wool in John Lewis, which almost has a hint of black in it, and then a lovely cream marl wool for the face.

I used a thinner black wool which was a charity shop find, but also very soft, for the ears, and so just adapted the pattern slightly to make them bigger. I stitched on a knitted nose, and then used big black buttons for eyes, as I trust her not to eat them. I then lined the hat in a thick jersey cotton to make it lovely and soft against her head and also very warm. 

Here are some photos of her wearing it....I hope she likes it!

Knitted Toilet Roll Covers...

Knitted toilet roll covers are not something I'd ever really thought about. My Granny used to have those knitted dolls that covered your toilet roll, which I used to play with, as dolls, but I'd never really seen the need for them....

So when I was a bridesmaid recently for a friend, apparently you now have to buy your bridesmaids presents, and because this friend mocks what I do on a regular basis, she bought me the most ridiculous book she could think of: Knitted Toilet Roll Covers.

Luckily, I have a few friends who have just bought houses, so what could be more perfect as a housewarming present than a personalised knitted toilet roll cover (haha!).

1. Pete the Polar Bear

2. Welcome to Vespan Road

This one was a lot harder, to keep the yarns from getting tangled, and to keep the tension right. 

Double Sided Knitting

I'd seen a few items recently which seemed to be knitted but double sided....so I decided to investigate!

It turns out that this is a real thing, and fairly easy to do. I found some really easy to follow instructions (complete with pictures) here: http://knitting.about.com/od/colorknitting/ss/Double-Knitting.htm and so set about having a go.

As you can see, I used 2 very contrasting coloured wools to make it very clear which one I was supposed to be knitting, but once I got into it, it was very easy to keep alternating, and the knit one, purl one just seemed like I was knitting a rib. 

The reverse - see no pink at all (apart from at the edges). It's very neat, but fairly slow as each row takes double the amount of time to knit that it normally would. 

I'm still not 100% sure what I would actually use this for, but it was good fun having an experiment. 

Cam the Camel

It's been a while since I've knitted any zoo animals - not that I've been neglecting my knitting, I've just been a bit more occupied with knitting Christmas decorations. Very organised, I know!

But I was asked to knit something for a village people (think the nativity story not YMCA) knitted trail in Bristol, and apparently they already had a lot of people, but not enough animals, so I thought a camel might be a suitable addition.

I was also lucky to have a weeks holiday in Italy towards the end of September, and so sunshine and a sun lounger really are the perfect ingredients for successful knitting.