Halloween knits

I know some of you will be thinking it is a bit early, but when you have as many on-going projects as I do it’s better to start early with these things, don’t be surprised if I post some Christmas stuff in October.

The thing most children love and most parents hate about Halloween is the sweets. Each year I try and knit a different gift for the children I know to give rather than sweets. This year I have compromised a bit and decided on a ghost lollypop cover as well as a pumpkin bag for holding a tangerine. If you wish you could cut a section of toilet roll holder and insert it to keep the shape of the bag and put a selection of small sweets or jewellery in the bag rather than fruit.

 

The pumpkin bag is made with oddments of orange and green wool, using 3.25 needles.

I have tried to make the pattern as simple as possible so that even beginners can make it – like those in my craft class.

If you have any problems of find any errors please comment on the post.

Abbreviations:

K- knit

P- purl

Inc- increase by knitting into the front and back of the stitch

2 tog – knit 2 stitches as one to decrease one stitch

 (    )– repeat the stitches within the brackets only, not those before or after.

Yrn – wrap the wool over the needle to create a stitch which will be knitted on the next row.

If you are unsure about yrn you can skip this and knit a normal row, this will mean you do not have any holes to thread the “vine” through to tie the pumpkin. You can still use a darning needle to thread the wool through to create the drawstring effect.

Cast on 9 stitches

K inc all stitches – 18 stitches

P inc all stitches – 36

P1 (K6, P2) to end

**P2 (K6,P2) to end

K2(P6 K2)**

Repeat the last two rows 8 more times which will be 16 rows

K2 tog (P6, K2 tog) to end

(K2 tog k5)to last 6 stitches K4 K2 tog – 30 stitches

(p2 tog, P4) to end – 25 stitches

(K2 tog, yrn) to last 2 stitches, K2 tog

Change to green wool

P 1 row          

Cast off loosely

Create a twisted cord

Measure a length of green wool 3 times the length you require

Secure one end (I tie it to a door handle) then simply twist the wool round for a few minutes. Some people find it easier to tie the wool to a pen and rotate it but I just roll it between my fingers. The wool will start to kink, the more it kinks the tighter your cord will look. Place your finger roughly in the centre of the wool then bring the two ends together, the wool will start to twist round itself, pull the centre even until any tangles have disappeared. Tie a knot at the end of the cord.

If you have trouble following my directions there are a number of videos on you tube showing how it is done.

Thread the cord through the holes at the top of the pumpkin.

When I first started to create a pattern for the ghost lollypop cover I had planned to make them all the same. However as I could not decide which looked best I have decided that I am just going to create loads of different ghosts. Every time I show them to my friends and ask which one they think is best the all pick a different one so I think I have made the right decision. I haven’t finished putting faces on them yet and knowing me I will be doing that the day I give them out

I say cast on you say ….

Being a bit of a cheapskate I often trawl the internet for free knitting patterns, this can mean that I often use patterns from different countries. This may not sound like much until you consider the fact that even a simple things like cast on and needle size are different from the UK. I was going to title this blog post “you say tomato, and I say tomato” but the song doesn’t work when you write the lyrics.

 One which caught me for a moment the first time I read it was BO, no it isn’t a comment about your hygiene habits it means Bind off. The UK equivalent is Cast off, but as American patterns use CO to mean cast on you can see why the difference is needed.

You may (or may not)  also be glad to hear that KFB isn’t a typo for KFC it means knit into the front and back of the stitch or Inc. for those who like to increase the stitches we are knitting.

Even the name or description of the wool requires a British/American dictionary. The most popular wool in the patterns I use is Double knit (DK for short) is referred to as Light Worsted or 8 ply. Many of the American patterns I use prefer Worsted which we would call Arran.

As if it wasn’t bad enough the UK patterns may use metric or number sizes for their needles, the US patterns have their own numbers which do differ from those of the UK. A US size 10 needle is 6mm, while the UK size 10 needle is 3.25mm, this could catch a few people out if they have downloaded a pattern without a picture or any tension guide. An easy (ish) way to convert the US/UK needle numbers is to remember that both have the same size for number 7 (4.5mm), where the UK numbers get smaller for larger needles (I never understood why) the US numbers get higher for wider needles. This is not a fool proof process as for some reason the UK needles don’t have a number for 3.5mm and the US sizes seem to skip both 7 and 7.5mm. Needle conversion charts are easy to find through Google search so I haven’t put one on the blog.

My Little Dragon

This project was going to be a Big Brother gift for my nephew, that was before I discovered he was more into Angry Birds (hat collection will be completed for a forthcoming blog post). So this means that my son gets to have yet another knitted toy.

The pattern came from Kate Kuckro .She has designed a very easy to follow pattern using Short rows to give extra shape. For those who are scratching their heads you will have seen short rows in knitted sock patterns to create the heel. They are achieved by not knitting all the way to the end of the row then turning the knitting to knit back over the stitches you have knitted. My friend likes to describe it as “pretending you have finished the row, but leaving some stitches behind.”

The Dragon is knitted in Stocking stitch, but the wrong side becomes the right side so it looks like scales (does that make sense?) I have found in the past that when I make toys for children in the past they always tend to use the narrowest part of the toy to drag it about, with this in mind I decided to strengthen the neck of the Dragon. Using 2 strands of wool and larger needles makes for a sturdier, chunky toy, and means that it is knitted quicker.

Before I fully sewed up the neck area I cut a piece of plastic drinks bottle (2l cola) trimmed and smoothed all the edges and inserted it between the knitting and the stuffing. The picture shows it on the outside of the dragon. I made the plastic wider than needed so that it would overlap inside the toy, and then when sewing up put some stitches through the centre of the neck and body to prevent the plastic falling out of place. As the plastic is very pliable it has not taken away from the cuddliness of the Dragon, I know as I have had a few cuddles from him myself when I told my son I wasn’t feeling well.