Mock Cable Pattern

I wanted to add a bit of knitting to a frou frou peach colored scarflette I'm making. So I found a mock cable pattern to try and made a swatch of it in bright white. But although the piece will fit in the space I have for it, the bright white is just too jarring next to the peach  and ivory tones. So I will save that piece for another project and make another one in ivory when I have time again.

Ravelry

I just joined Ravelry http://www.ravelry.com/people/knitabitofmagic and I really like it so far. They kept mentioning it on the Knit and Crochet TV series and I finally remembered to go look for it.

Bunny or Bear?

I actually found some nice Caron yarn at the dollar store. So I took the color Mulberry Mist and started knitting a teddy bear. Then I thought that since it's almost Easter I might knit a bunny. I'm starting with the feet and the ears come last so I still have time to mull it over. I'm using a technique with straight needles where you cast on 8 stitches, pull out some yarn from the skein for a butterfly bobbin, and cut the yarn.

Then using the main skein, cast on another 8 stitches. That way you knit both feet at once and they come out even without any guesswork. This technique can be used to make dolls or humanoid forms of teddy bears, bunnies, and so forth. Eventually you join the feet together and knit the torso. Then cast on enough yarn before and after the torso for the arms. Maybe this is hard to visualize but I'll take photos as I go along.

Last year I knitted my grandson a bunny rabbit for Easter. I'm thinking of giving him another one this year and starting a tradition of a new bunny each year.

Update:
I've decided to explore the bunny idea. I'm calling this the All-in-One-Bunny because it's made all in one piece. I didn't invent this techinique. I learned it about 30 years ago. And it was a doll, not a bunny.

Here you see the two feet knitted side by side in garter stitch. (Knit every row).

Keep going with the legs until they are the length you want.

When the legs are long enough, working from the right side, knit straight across to join.

Switch to stockinette stitch and continue with torso.

Here I've worked on the torso and added a few purl stitches to make a belly button. It's almost long enough to add the arms.

'to be continued'

Knitting a Goblin Hat

My hands have been in pain so it's put a serious damper on my knitting. So I've decided to spend some time mentoring new knitters instead of knitting myself. I did do just a bit of knitting on a hat band this morning for a knitted cap I've come to call the Maize Hat. The band is the easy part, so if I can just get through that I'll have a new goblin hat. Yay! It's raining today so it's a good day for knitting.