Kelly Connor Designs Knitting Bag

When I opened my presents on Christmas morning I discovered that my friend had sent me a Kelly Connor knitting bag.

 

You can tell that she knows me well!  I had already opened another present which consisted of something to put in it.

 

I plan to use this new yarn to knit another version of my striped scarf pattern.  I may get on to that in January.

Mauve Knitted Baby’s Coat

I have just sewn the buttons on the coat that I have been making for about 3 weeks.  It is a Stella Smith design that I cut out of Simply Knitting magazine a few years ago.  I have just looked more closely at the pattern and have noticed the date of July 2006!

The original design is knitted in pink with light coloured buttons.  I was asked to knit something in mauve and I tried light buttons but decided that the darker buttons looked better.  They are mauve too, but look black from a distance.  I am crossing my fingers that the coat fits the baby.  I have never seen her in the flesh, but hope I will soon be seeing a photo of her wearing a little mauve coat!

Just a few more days of Christmas preparations and overwork, and then I can get back to serious knitting.

No Time for Knitting

This is not quite true – I have knitted the back of the baby’s coat and I have thought about knitting a lot of other things!

 

This is a photo of a tea cosy that I knitted last year.  If you would like to make one the pattern is available from All the Fun of the Fair’s web-site.  

On Saturday I went to London and visited John Lewis’s haberdashery department on the 4^th Floor.  It used to be better in the past - but I rarely leave without buying anything.  I had been given some money to buy myself a Christmas present so I bought some expensive yarn to make another version of my striped scarf and a couple of balls of red aran to add to a pile of yarn that I am collecting to make a cardigan.  Whilst in London, I did also buy some Christmas presents for friends and family!

Postage Stamp Inspired Bag

As it is winter now I decided that the summery bag I knitted earlier in the year was not appropriate and so I have found another one to use which I knitted a few years ago.

 

It is very bright and cheerful looking.  Both sides are made up from small mitred squares.  I got the idea from Kaffe Fassett’s various postage stamp inspired designs.  I have just counted the squares and there are 7 rows of 10 – so 70 on each side.  It sounds a lot but I don’t think it took very long to knit.  I was just using up odd bits of Colinette Fandango which has a very short colour change – so every small square is quite interesting.

I have done very little knitting this week – I have been too busy – I have knitted half a sleeve!  I have a few things I want to get done before Christmas, but at the moment preparations for Christmas are taking precedence.

I often knit Christmas presents, but this year I am only knitting one – a small baby’s coat which I intend to start soon.  I wanted to leave it until the last minute so that the baby would not have grown out of it before she gets it and it might actually fit her!