NEW! out-like-a-lamb pincushion

 

out-like-a-lamb pincushion

My newest pattern recently published, 'Out-Like-A-Lamb' Pincushion. Now available online!

As the old saying goes, "March comes in like a Lion and goes out like a Lamb" describes the transition between winter and spring. To help celebrate the anticipation of spring, knit and felt the March pincushion, a lamb, and transform it with a layer of loopy-locks -- a quick and easy embellishing technique. This little lamb makes a great gift for the quilting or sewing enthusiast in your life!

The felted lamb measures about 3-in / 7.6 cm tall from its base to the top of its back. The pattern begins at the base and works upwards to the top. The lamb is knit as one continuous piece, no sewing. The lamb's head stitches are then picked up and knit.

all-white lamb

Once felted, the lamb's body is embellished with loopy-locks: small loops created using a continuous strand of bulky weight yarn then needle felted to the body. The face is embellished using simple embroider and, if desired, decorative pins are the final accent to your finished lamb pincushion!

The little lamb is the seventh pattern in my pincushion-of-the-month collection. Be sure to check out my other designs, more to come! And let me know what you think!

Happy knitting!

woolly eggs egg-stravaganza!

woolly eggs

Let the Woolly Egg season begin in all its wonder!

In the next couple of weeks, I will share a few of my favorite woolly egg decorating tips and ideas, plus a few fun ideas for decorating the good ol' hard-boiled kind too. But let me start with the pattern in general.

The pattern consists of instructions to make both a Grade A Large-size egg using worsted weight yarns and a Grade A Medium-size egg, using sport or DK weight yarns. It is basically the same pattern with the differences coming from the yarn weights and needle sizes used. FYI, I still have a few Woolly Eggs Kits consisting of worsted weight yarns still available for sale in my Etsy shoppe.

The pattern instructions are quick and easy, only 30 rounds of knitting! You can knit an egg in 15 minutes plus or minus. Everyone knows though the real fun is in the embellishing: no two eggs EVER need be the same! But more on the embellishing later.

I have improvised my Woolly Eggs pattern slightly since it was printed. That is, I have cut out a few rounds to make the egg less long-looking. This is a recent change I have been playing with and I like the end results. I knit the egg according to the pattern, but when it comes to Rounds 9-23, I only knit 10 rounds instead of the called for 15. I really like the shape of this new size egg.

Remember to play with stripes and bigger blocks of color to create a variety of eggs. The key word here is PLAY. When doing stripes, remember to knit at least 2 rounds for a stripe, otherwise the stripe 'disappears' in the wash and melds too much into the other stripes. A two-round rule stripe is a good one to keep, unless the color yarn is dark and the overall desire is super thin. A one round dark stripe will show up but be fuzzy, if you know what I mean. When creating stripes I carry the yarns up rather than cut each one. Unless you choose to have several colors then cutting them is okay too, just a little more work in the end, but still well worth it.

FYI, Part 2: how to fill a carton of eggs.

Happy knitting!