Knitting Pretty

Along with my regular posts, I am going to be including a set of themed entries, which include a heap of knitting patterns on that theme. I may even include links to other items that fit with the theme. I was inspired to do this after the fun I had writing about Harry Potter inspired knitting patterns. So here goes! Today's theme is 'Leaves' because I love leaves, and think they are a great motif to see in pretty much anything.

First off, lets start with scarves and shawls. I have this love of oak trees – and acorns! – so I have to start off with a shawl from Elann.com that has an oak leaf motif. It is very pretty, and I think I would like to have a go at this someday, though I would like to make it wider than the pattern currently is. Another absolutely gorgeous shawl with a leaf pattern is called Diana, and is just such a marvellous creation, I can’t wait to try my hand at it!

Now I am going to move onto hats. These two are both for babies, but the fun thing with knitting patterns is it isn’t too difficult to up-scale the pattern so you have the right size for your very own bonce! Here is a particularly cute hat with leaf crown motif, it is just so pretty, and this is one of those that I have to make larger for myself. Next is a berry hat, again for a baby, that just has such a good quality look to it. One of those patterns that has just worked really, really well.

Next up, cardigans! I am not entirely sure if this is a leaf motif, but it came up when I was searching and has the right ‘feel’ to it. I think this is a very pretty cardigan, that I am considering making. This cardigan is also quite pretty, and I just adore the little leaf ends on the ties. So cute!

Lastly some odds and ends. This is a pattern for a pretty leaf, you can do 101 things with it, I’m sure, so its a good pattern to have on hand. Next up is a cute toy that has a leaf attached, a pretty peach. Lastly, here is a really groovy handbag – or laptop case, etc – with a lovely leafy vine feel to it. Seriously love this thing!

I hope some of these patterns inspire the knitter or handcrafter within you, and you get cracking on something special! I know I will!

So on the 20th of June, which was a Saturday, I was all excited. I was all excited because I was getting ready to go out to the cinema and watch the new Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Now, anyone who's in the know about this film will have realised that I was off on the release date by an entire month. That's right, until I was looking up movie session times on the website for my local cinema, I thought that the release date was 15th June, not 15th July... I felt like such a mushroom bonce.

So, now we are only eleven days away from the release, and I am really excited. I love the books, I think they are very well written and heaps and heaps of fun! In anticipation of the film, I thought it would be only be right to do a post here with a bunch of free HP knitting projects!

Okay so first off, one of the best free patterns for anything Hogwarts related is this wonderful set of fair isle purses which depict the mascots of the four Houses. The Gryffindor purse looks especially good, if you ask me. Next we have a group of book marks, or book scarves, actually, which also show the four house mascots... well sort off, for some reason Hufflepuff's book scarf has badger tracks, rather than a badger. Then there are four sock patterns - I personally don't knit socks, but I know a heck of a lot of knitters do - one for each of the houses. The Gryffindor pattern looks good, the Hufflepuff pattern looks great, Ravenclaw's is actually in the correct colours for the book rather than film, and Slytherin's works well too.

Now here are some items that aren't house specific, but rather are more tie-ins to the HP world. This is a fabulous felted bag, which happens to have some groovy quazi-latin saying on one side, and embroidery on the other. The embroidery is supposed to be personalised, so don't worry about the lettering on the front. Next is an illusion dishcloth. I have been meaning to do up a few illusion pieces to do an entry about them, but yeah, still working on those acorns. This particular piece is showing Hedwig, and as she is such a pretty bird, I thought I would include it here. Plus, out of all the projects I have listed, this would be one of the easiest and quickest, and those sorts of projects are always appealing to this lazy knitter. On the other end of the lazy spectrum, we now move onto a wonderful felting project - for those who haven't tried their hand at felting before, you have to knit your item a heck of a lot bigger, no really,  huge in comparison to the size you want it in the end - of a beautiful witches hat. I have to say, the original is so inspiring, I love the vine motif on the hat. This is one of those projects I will someday put a lot of heart and soul into making, because I have always loved this pattern. The last little dainty for today has to be one of the most iconic images from the series, a Golden Snitch.

Well I hope that some of you are inspired to go and knit some of those awesome patterns up, because they are really all quite fun. Except the socks, but that's just my personal preference. Until next time, keep the magic flowing!

I have been knitting for a few years now, I would say four or five, and I think I will always knit. During this time, though, I haven't really bought all that much yarn, especially not yarn to just put away, or really high quality yarns. My current stash - a knitting term used in reference to the yarn we have, that isn't for a particular project - is largely thanks to a kind woman I used to work with, who donated parts of her stash she no longer wanted. I like to buy natural fibres, so I mostly find cheap yarns that are pretty and made largely of wool. This has been working pretty well, though I do buy some acrylic as well, here or there, but I personally much prefer wool. Today I thought I would talk about those lovely yarns that are so pretty, and expensive, that they inspire a certain amount of drool.

Now, I am going to start off with yarn that I have always wanted, yarn that as soon as I saw, I knew someday I had to knit something with it! Karabella Fur,  which is made from rabbit hair, and looks superbly fluffy and soft. Unfortunately, this yarn retails for about £52 for about 9 meters. I am not kidding, it really is that expensive.

Okay so another yarn type I have always wanted to knit with, is a really lovely, bulky, almost roving like 1ply wool. Roving is when a fibre has been prepared to be spun, so combed, maybe dyed, and in a long and narrow bundle. Like this! I love yarns that have that soft, fibrous look of roving. This is the sort of yarn I am referring to, and you can do some really great work with it. I would love a heap of really soft, super bulky, 1ply, wool yarn to make this vest with on my speed sticks.

Then there is the other side to that equation, I would love to work with amazingly beautiful silk yarn, and with that amazingly beautiful silk, I would have to knit a fabulous shawl. Something so very pretty, that I would love forever. So of course that shawl would have to have a leaf or vine motif, so here is the shawl I will someday knit up with that wonderful silk yarn. The Woodland Shawl by The Thrifty Knitter.

On and off for the past couple of days I have been knitting little acorns. I think they are adorable, and I am still playing with the pattern to find the exact right way for me. The original acorn on Pea Soup's blog  looked fantastic, but my yarn stash is a little limited so I have to alter the pattern just a little bit here and there to get the right effect.

I have also really been wanting to try out the Bunny Nuggets that can be found over on Mochimochi Blog, but I have been telling myself I have to get more of the acorns done before I can move onto something else. Plus I am still a little confused about the magic cast on, and I know Knitting Help can help me... because it says it in their title! But seriously, there is a video on there about it, but for some reason the other day when I went to play it there was no sound, so I have just been too lazy to go back since. I will get to it, though, right after my next few acorns...

Anyway, this has gotten me rather excited to try my hand at knitted toys. But what to knit? I mean, I don't want some honking toy hanging about, because I won't actually play with it, so it has to be small and unobtrusive so it can sit on my desk somewhere. Or I can place it in funny locales around the house... Last Easter my fiance and I got little egg baskets from his mother, she had gone to the trouble to put cute little yellow fuzzy chicks on them, so I got into the habit of putting them in different places in the house, and seeing when my fiance noticed them. I used Blu-tack to stick them on the walls, under arch-ways, on top of the television, pretty much anywhere I thought they would eventually be noticed and laughed at.

I am going to link to a few cute toy patterns, ones that I can either see myself making, or think are odd and cool enough to be here. First off, back to Mochimochi's blog for some Grass, because it is just so cute. I want to knit a few of these up and just place them around the edges of my desk. I have always thought this little storm cloud is cute, and think he could be part of a great mobile for a baby's room. A white version without the lightning, and then this one, and two other variants, like a grey one, and a white one with snowflakes. This little milk and cookie pattern is cute, if completely useless. I don't know, I think it would just be nice to have on one's desk. Continuing with food, I think knitted onigiri (Japanese rice-ball) would be nice to have around. You could even put a rock in it and use it as a paper weight. Lastly, I want to link to this pattern just because I have mentioned the book that inspired it here before, The Stinky Cheese Man.

So those are the toy patterns that appeal to me today. But as I said, many more acorns to go, and a horde of Bunny Nuggets too!

I will preface this post by saying that that asthma attack was brought on by a cold, so if anything I write seems a little fever induced, it may well be.  So today I wanted to write about Cute. Cute is very important, today, because it has become more than just a favourable adjective to a full on worldwide movement. The movement of Cute. It has become a powerful tool for promoting good causes, advertising, self-expression, and many other good things that my flu-befuddled brain can't think of right now. I am a lover of Cute, I think it's good. I think if we are going to be bombarded to over-saturation point with anything, Cute isn't too bad a thing compared to a lot of other things. Seeing as I am all talking of Cute and whatnot, I thought I would post links to an abundance of Cute on the internet that I frequent regularly.

First off, Cute blogs! I visit I Can Has Cheezburger everyday, because there is always a lot of cute on there. I love cats, because they are warm, fuzzy, good to cuddle, and are very cute. My cats often smell of strange things, like sugar, or millipedes.  Okay sorry, that was me being ill. Back on track now.  I also visit Cute Overload on a daily basis. They have lots of Cute, that isn't just in kitty form. They also have Disaproving Rabbits, puppies, birds, and many other Cute creatures. Another place to drop by, more on a weekly basis, is ZooBorns, because, well, babies are cute, animals are cute, so baby animals must be very cute! The cuteness here can occasionally be almost painful, those little babies just trigger my cute nerves and my nurturing nerves so I just want to sit and hold them all and sing lullabies to them.

YouTube has a lot of Cute there too, so I will link some of my favourite Cute clips there. Maru is a fat cat from Japan, who is adorable, loves to belly-slide into boxes, and has a wonderfully round shaped head, you need to check this fatty out, he's adorable. By the way, Maru is the word for 'circle' or 'round' in Japanese, so he is an aptly named boy. Here you can find a rediculously cute kindle of kittens - yes, that is the actual collective noun for kittens - being cute. Watch those little bonces closely, because they are going to be adorable! My fiance especially likes the grey one, second from the right.  If you're in the mood for a little bit of odd Cute, try this video, which is the intro to a Korean cartoon called I Love Egg. Oh and here is the link to the Powerpuff Girls playing their song, Love Makes The World Go Round.

Now today's knitting pattern must absolutely be Cute, so I went off to look on Ravelry for Cute patterns. I found Bunny Nuggets. I have to knit these, I have to knit many of these.

In my first blog, just last week, I mentioned that I like food... I like foods that I shouldn't really eat that much of, but still do anyway.  I currently have four candy obsessions... funnily enough, they are all from the same company.  I am going to go through why I like those particular ones right now, because what's the next best thing to eating candy? Talking about candy! Okay so I will outline my four current favorite candies, and then link to today's pattern! 

Blackcurrant Pastilles: These are lovely little soft - but still kind of hard - lollies with grains of sugar on the outside. I have always loved purple lollies, they have a great flavor, be it grape, blackcurrent, or blackberry.

Fabulicious Raspberry Twister: This is a fairly new one, for my candy repertoire, but I really like raspberry flavor, and I really like the squishy but tough thing going for these twists. Sort of like raspberry licorice, but a little chewier, I think.

Berry Tingles: These are quite difficult to find, and quite new out too. They are like your regular Fruit Tingles, but they are all berry flavored! I love berry flavors, and grape flavor too.

Longlasting Gobstopper: This is my absolute favorite candy currently. I love these things, they take you ages to eat, which is fun, and even the ones that I wouldn't normally like - the lemon flavored ones - are still nice! I love sitting there cracking away at a box of these, so tasty! I most like the green and purple ones, apple and grape flavored respectively, I think.

Today's pattern must absolutely reflect today's post! This is a free one, though you will need an account with Ravelry. Frankly, if you are a knitter, and you don't have a Ravelry log in... GET ONE!!!  It is a fabulous site, totally addictive, that allows you to browse through many, many, knitting patterns from all over the web, and all over the world. So here is a link to a cute little candy corsage. I haven't actually made this one myself, yet, but I am excited to give these a try.

Good evening! This is my brand new blog. This is a new place for me to potter around (I am actually a Harry Potter fan, so that particular turn of phrase always makes me want to gigglesnort at myself... hehehehe) and share my creative outbursts. I have to, you see, I find that I just natter on at my fiance about all things craft related for much longer than is seemly. :)

I suppose I should introduce myself, shouldn't I? I'm Elle, the author of Knitting Pretty. Now I'll tell you a little about myself. I am engaged to the man of my dreams, who I live with in a snug little house with our two little cats. Along with reading, I love to knit, sew, and generally try my hand at any handcraft I come across. I'm a terrible mess when it comes to my craft areas though, so don't be overly bothered if some of my posts are craft related and others are entirely unrelated. I am also an avid lover of cartoons and anime. Good cartoons and anime, mind you, not those terrible CGI ones children have to deal with these days, no, I am talking of Powerpuff Girls, Ah My Goddess, Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo.

With me being so crafty, it may come as no small surprise that I am currently at University studying to become a Web Designer. I adore building a website from the ground, well code actually, up. Seeing it take form, and become a live, useful medium.

Ah, and yet another defining characteristic about me... I love food! Occasionally I will post recipes, because let's face it, when can't you use another recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies? Never, that's when!

I will also be including a link to a knitting pattern with each of my posts, only free ones, though, so anyone can print them out and have a go. Today's pattern is actually meant to be knit now, and worn later. Pretty little gloves called Kingdom from over on Knitty.com I can't wait to give these a go myself, though I am an extraordinary procrastinator, so we will see.

So, as I said, a bit of a mess, really... I mean look at my first post there... I don't even stay on track for that! What hope have I for an entire blog of cohesive posts!? I have no hope, I give up now, prepare for me to ramble whenever I like. Much like a pet rabbit, you are never quite sure which way it is going to go, it can be still for a while, seemingly about to nap, but out of no where it is across the room and chomping on your wellies! Bye for now!