Theft of Intellectual Property

Update: I contacted the UK admin for DaWanda and they agreed with me that it was a copyright violation.  They have since deleted the listing and sent the seller and message reminding them of the T&C's for selling.  So pleased :D


Sorry to have to write a serious post, but I've discovered that someone has been selling my free Giraffe pattern on a German based website Dawanda.com.  http://de.dawanda.com/product/37617009-Amigurumi-Giraffe-Haekelanleitung

This person has never contacted me regarding selling my pattern for their own personal profit and has tried to apply a copyright to the picture they've even stolen from my blog.

Due to this, I've had to put a stern message on my pattern :(

I'd be so grateful if you could let me know if you discover this pattern anywhere else, and if you could ask the seller to delete the pattern immediately.

Thank you.

Tea Cosy

Hey guys! I know it's been a while - I've been busy like a little bee knitting away in all of my free time making various gifts for people.  I did, however, make one gift that wasn't a Christmas one and so I can blog about it!

When I first started knitting, my twin (in the ironic sense, she's tall, white and blonde; I'm short, brown and have curly hair), asked me to make her a tea cosy as her teapot was feeling cold and was feeling a bit sad about it.  I promised her I would once my knitting skills were up to scratch. About a month ago I decided now was the time to try.

I found a pattern on Ravelry by Patons for a classic pleated tea cosy with a pom pom on top which looked cute.  My friend's favourite colours were turquoise and cherry red.  I held the colours together and didn't think they quite matched so I went for a deep turquoise and mint green.  I'm pretty pleased with the result, especially as it's my first one using more than one colour :)

Well, that's about it for now!

UPDATE: My twin received the cosy and now her teapot is all warm and snug, yay!

Quick Update

:O I've just realised it's be a whole month since my last post!

Anyways, I've been beavering away on a project...a knitted Christmas gift...yep, I'm being super organised this year!  Sorry I can't put a full picture up of my WIP, it has to be a surprise, but here's a sneak peak ;)

My next few projects will also be gifts so my blog will be devoid of pictures for a while, but expect an inundation of posts from me come Christmas Day!

Take care everyone :)

Another Baby Cardigan!

Guess I'm at that age where mostly everyone I know is either getting married or having babies. Some friends of mine are expecting a little bundle of joy in October and had a baby shower last weekend - so I did what I do best and made the little bubba something from yarn!

I was talking to another friend (the mum of the little girl I made the last cardigan for) and she said a baby cardigan for them would be perfect especially as it'll be a winter baby.

I decided that I wanted to knit a seed (moss) stitch cardigan with ribbed edges and a hood.  So, you know, not really that specific at all.  I spent quite a few hours looking for patterns all over the place but to no avail.  But alas, whilst browsing Ravelry I came across a raglan baby cardigan in seed stitch, ribbed edges and a hood.  I couldn't believe my luck! I purchased that pattern in a heartbeat!  

There I was, all excited that I was going to make this amazing cardigan and started reading through the pattern and saw...Circular needles...what?!...knitting in the round with double pointed needles (DPN's)...whaaatttt?!  I've only ever knitted on single points :/

I saw this as a challenge and I couldn't avoid these things forever, especially if I am to become the knitting extraordinaire that I want to be.  I went out a bought me some bamboo circulars and DPN's and got to work. Again, I used Rowan All-Seasons Cotton as it's easier to take care of especially where babies are concerned.  I cast on, then got into my head that I was knitting the body in the round with the circulars and got into a major panic.  How could I join 30 stitches across a 80cm circular?!  I decided to email the lovely lady who designed the pattern and she cleared things up for me instantly.  Eventually it would be 108 stitches long; the circular is used just to hold all the stitches and not to knit in the round.  Phew!

Then came the sleeves, DPN's and knitting in the round.  Whenever I've seen pictures of socks being knitted and seen all those DPN's, I'd get scared.  Plain scared.  It looked so complicated! Thank goodness for YouTube.  Is it bad that that it taught me how to knit in the round?!  Well, I am glad to say it was no where nearly as scary as it looks, and actually pretty enjoyed it!

Anyways, two weeks later, ta da! I finished the cardigan on the morning of the baby shower so I cut that one really fine!  The parents-to-be loved it.  I can't wait to see the little one wearing it when he/she is born :)

"This is for everyone"

©The Yarning Darling 2012

Hey everyone...first of all I'm so so sorry for going AWOL for a while, ended up being super busy this summer!  I have been crocheting and knitting but just didn't have the time to update the blog, and so I shall fill you in on why I've been so busy!

So, guess what, I performed in the Olympic Opening Ceremony in July!  I auditioned back in November last year after applying on a whim then got through to the second round.  Unfortunately I wasn't successful and got put on the reserve list.  I honestly thought that was a nice way of saying "no thanks"!  But in May, I got a phonecall from one of the Cast Co-ordinators for my section asking if I wanted to be an understudy for a role.  I took a look at the schedule and decided to go for it, then when I turned up for my first rehearsal I was told I had a permanent role!  I was soooooo excited :D

For those of you who saw it, I was in the 'Thanks, Tim' section, the part that represented the Digital Revolution thanks to Sir Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the World Wide Web).  The segment consisted of a boy and girl who meet and try and find each other through different clubs, each with a different music era.  I was in the 1960's section and had the most amazing costume.  EVER.

Outside the stadium!
©The Yarning Darling 2012

Me in the Peace Sign!

In action - I'm the one shaking my head in the blue wig :)

Me with some hunky military guys outside the stadium!
©The Yarning Darling 2012

With Kenrick Sandy of Boy Blue Entertainment, choreographer for 'Thanks, Tim'.
©The Yarning Darling 2012

Rehearsals were pretty long, especially coming up to the big day with dress rehearsals having a call time of 2pm and not being on stage until 9.57pm! But it was the most incredible moment of my life, me, being a dentist and occassional knitter/crocheter, getting to perform in front of 80,000 people in the stadium and the whole world!

I also managed to get my 15 minutes of fame too!
CBS News Photoblog
ITV News
ABS-CBN News (video) (A Filipino news network, as I'm half Filipino)
ABS-CBN News (written)

Through the Olympic Opening, I managed to get the role of 'Audience Leader' for the Paralympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies.  I'm not performing but I'm up in the stands with the audience, but I still get to feel the energy and atmosphere.  However, the costumes are nowhere near as gorgeous as my mirror dress!

©The Yarning Darling 2012

Taking part in these is honestly a once in a lifetime thing and I'm so honoured to have been able to take part in them!

Baby Cardigan

So a while ago, my friend had asked me to make her gorgeous little daughter a little cardigan.  Other than a scarf and a snood, I'd never made a real item of clothing.  But seeing as my eventual aim is to make a penguin jumper, I accepted this new challenege!

One afternoon, me and my friend searched Ravelry for knitted baby cardigans.  Her only requirements were:
1. A very simple design (i.e. no fancy cable work or moss/seed stitch patterns)
2. Buttons that do up all the way down the front, not just at the top.
3. Greyish/Lilac colour.

I set to work on finding a pattern first as thought there was no point in finding the perfect yarn until I knew what yarn weight I needed!  Eventually I found a pattern through Ravelry on the Lion Brand Yarn site.   Now, their pattern requires their 'Pound of Yarn'.  It was a bit of a problem as a) LBY has no distribution in the UK and b) it's crazy expensive to get it shipped over.  Good thing is after some investigation I discovered it was of worsted/aran weight!

I wanted the yarn to be supersoft, but also breathable and hard-wearing, so ideally a cotton/acrylic mix.  I went to the first place I thought...John Lewis!  After a bit of a faff - I found my perfect yarn! It was the All Seasons Cotton by Rowan in Shade 253 (Fez).  Unsure of how many balls I'd need, I bought 8, just in case so they'd all be in the same dye lot too.  Now I say faff as the label on the yarn doesn't overtly say what weight it is and one lady in JL was convinced it wasn't as the needle requirements were 4.5-5.5mm which was what I needed anyway.  To be on the safe side, I came home to investigate and if you search yarns by weight on the Rowan site, All Seasons Cotton appears on the Aran weight.  In case anyone wants to know, I only needed 4 of the 50g balls for the 12 month pattern, which included the tails for the start/ends of a piece and sewing the seams.

I had so much fun making this, especially the pockets (cos I'm totally sad).  I need to get started on more baby clothes now...this has given me a bug for it!

Can't wait to see little J in this cardigan, she's going to look totally adorable :)

Update...

Sorry for not having posted anything in a while...I've been super busies the last few weeks as I'm going to be in the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony!

©The Yarning Darling 2012

I have been beavering away with some yarn in this time though.  Literally just finished knitting a cardigan for my friend's gorgeous little girl tonight.  Going to wait until the morning though to take some pics, will look much better under natural daylight, especially as we're having such glorious sunshine in London at the moment.

I've also been making yet ANOTHER Domo.  This time it's for my boy's work colleague's daughter.  I've been taking my Domo WIP to the Olympic Park with me as they give us like 5 hours to get ready :/  Randomly, I was sitting outside our holding area with yarn and hook in hand and a guy comes up to me...

Man: "Wow, you're crocheting!"
Me: "You know what crocheting is?! People always think I'm knitting."
Man: "My sister and ex used to crochet.  So what are you making?  Looks like Domokun."
Me: *mouth drops* (especially as I'm only half way through Domo's head and body)  "I AM making a Domo!! How do you know who Domo is?! Whenever I tell people they have no idea what I'm talking about!"

So basically after me being shocked that he knew what crocheting and Domo were, he said he'd love a Domo!  So we swapped email addys, guess that's another project on the list!

Anyways, I'll be posting all about the cardigan this week if I can...I've got my final dress rehearsal tomorrow and then the actual Opening Ceremony on Friday! I know it's not yarn stuff but I feel like I should post about that too :)  I'd love to say that it's back to normal after that, but alas, I go to see my boy in LA next week, and on my return I begin rehearsals for the Paralympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies!

Mr Giraffe & Mr Lion!

©The Yarning Darling 2012

Some weeks ago, a good friend of mine commissioned me to make a giraffe and a lion for her friend who was expecting a baby.  Last year, I had made her the same things for her gorgeous little girl and so she thought it would be a nice gift for another yummy mummy.

Mr Lion was created from a pattern bought from Etsy, and so I can't display the pattern.  But, Mr Giraffe was entirely my creation, so his crocheting DNA I can post! You'll find the pattern for him under my 'Pages' section or you can just click here for the pattern!

So, I present to you Lion and Giraffe, who are of course (after a bit of an altercation), the best of friends.

Mr Lion getting ready to pounce on the unsuspecting Mr Giraffe.
©The Yarning Darling 2012

Mr Giraffe is having none of it.
©The Yarning Darling 2012

Yay! Now they're bestest buddies :)
©The Yarning Darling 2012

The Baking Darling

I hear you all cry "these cupcakes have nothing to do with yarn!".  And yes, you will all be correct in your reasoning.

Well, I know these have nothing to do with yarn!  I just thought they looked pretty and wanted to share them with the world!  Besides knitting and crocheting, I do love to do a bit of baking.  My friend was having a birthday party for her 4 year old daughter and it was Hello Kitty themed, hence the kitty cupcake cases!

Anyway, that's kind of about it.  In case you wanted to know what flavour they are - just good old vanilla with a buttercream frosting and shimmery pink sugar sprinkle thingys.  I can't even tell how they tasted as I used milk in the cake mixture and frosting and I'm lactose intolerant :/  I have good word from my mum that they were good though!

Crocheted card for the boy!

©The Yarning Darling 2012

I know this looks extremely random...but as always, there's a background story!

Jim and I have become a little obsessed with these Japanese characters created for commercials for a company called 'Mameshiba'.  Apparently mameshiba literally means 'bean dog'.  These little beans give little pieces of nonsense trivia to an unsuspecting and hungry members of the public. Some lovely person compiled all the commercials and you can watch them here!

Anyway, I became so obsessed, that I created a mameshiba character especially for Jim, he loved it so much that he made it his Twitter picture!

©The Yarning Darling 2012

For his birthday (which was yesterday) I decided to make a little Jimshiba applique for his birthday card - and of course, he LOVED it!

It's all made from a single crochet stitch. For the body bean shape, I started off making a circle then extended one side using rows.  The black outline was also crocheted, but actually using embroidery thread and a tiny hook.  It's not perfect - the tie is a little skewed and the outlining bit on the right went a bit weird, but I guess it all adds character :/

Anyway, that's it for now. Got a couple of WIP's on the go so will update when I've finished with them!

People actually like my things!

Having just crocheted and knitted for my personal fun, I've been formally asked to make something by someone to give as a gift!  As this person is a very close friend, I offered to make it for free.  They weren't having any of it, and so we agreed on cost price.  It's a pretty weird feeling, I only ever set out to learn how to knit and crochet so I could annoy people with handmade gifts!

Ages ago, I had made my friend's daughter a lion (from a pattern) and a giraffe (completely made up as I went along). She's asked me to make the same for her friend who is due to have a baby in the next few weeks and a little cardigan for her own daughter.  The animals will be fine, the cardigan will be a bit more difficult as I can't knit on circular needles yet!  More learning for me :)

I'll keep you all updated on my progress and put up the refined pattern for the giraffe once he's done :)

Ukulele Strap

©The Yarning Darling 2012

I finally finished the ukulele strap for the boy!! It did take a few months, but only because I wanted to do the finishing touches to it whilst I was visiting him.

In terms of the design, it's a moss/seed stitch with a cable knit running down the middle. Since learning the cable knit I really wanted to include it in a project, so when Jim asked me to make him a strap for his ukulele it seemed like a match made in heaven!

I did make it a little too long as I completely underestimated how stretchy it would be! After a bit of improvisation, we managed to find a way of using the ribbon and two buttons I had bought as a means of attaching the strap to the ukulele. 

 We chose a ribbon to pass under the strings around the waist as its thin enough not to disturb the strings and distort the vibrations. The buttons were used to wind the ribbon around to secure it in place.

©The Yarning Darling 2012

The pattern I used for the decorative part of the strap was: (18 stitches in total)
1. KPKP KP K6 PK PKPK (the 'KP' and 'PK' either side add a sort of margin around the cable area)
2. KPKP PK P6 KP PKPK
3. KPKP KP CABLE PK PKPK (cable = slip 3st purl wise onto cable needle, knit next 3st, knit first 3st)
4. KPKP PK P6 KP PKPK
5. KPKP KP K6 PK PKPK
6. KPKP PK P6 KP PKPK

©The Yarning Darling 2012

What you could do is do the cable stitch every other block so it doesn't look so twisty. I just put that pattern up as a bit of a guide.

Anyway, my boy is pretty happy with his ukulele strap, so I'm happy :D

©The Yarning Darling 2012

Musée Mechanique

What does a little museum full of old arcade games have to do with yarn? Well, I'll tell you what - a really old fusball table with players wearing little crocheted jumpers!! Not much else to say on this, I just found it quite funny :)

Crocheting in Alcatraz

I couldn't think of a witty title for the post mainly because I'm still pretty surprised to find out that inmates in Alcatraz used the crochet!

Me and the boy are currently in San Francisco and went on the Alcatraz tour last night. Part of the audio tour described what inmates used to do to pass time and low and behold there was half made blanket, yarn, and a hook in one of the cells! I got pretty excited and had to take a picture or two.

I do think they could have chosen a more manly and scary colour than pink - these men were the worst prisoners in the US prison system, and they chose baby pink as an example?! Oh well!

Domo-nation!

After I made a Domo for my brother, I received a few requests from friends and the boy!  My boy specifically asked for the mouth to be inset and so the challenge began.

I made one of the Domo's normally as according to Nerdigurumi's pattern (Domo on the left). For the second one (right) I sat and thought very hard about how I'd go about making the mouth inset. A little hard to explain, so I'll let the pattern do the explaining.  Seeing as my pattern is just a mangled version of Nerdigurumi's, I'm going to ask her permission first before publishing it on here.

Needless to say, I was pretty pleased with myself when I managed to get a mouth that looked inset! I made a third one and now they're all one happy family! (Well, only for another 30 minutes when I leave for the airport and take one with me to give to Jim).

Signing out for now, it's the Travelling Yarning Darling once again.

PS When I named this post, I started singing "we're all part of a domo-nation" on the style of Janet Jackson's 'Rhythm Nation'.  And it's now stuck in my head as I'm typing this.

The World Famous Crochet Museum

I'm not lying, there's a museum dedicated to the world of crocheting, and it is really called  The World Famous Crochet Museum!!  It looks tiny, but pretty cool :)

I came across this whilst catching up on my twitter feed.  It's in a little place just outside of Joshua Tree National Park, California - around 130 miles west of Los Angeles.  So even when I do go and see the boy, I think a trip here would be pretty unlikely :(

If anyone does go and check it out, let me know!

Hey Girl, it's me, Ryan Gosling

http://handmaderyangosling.tumblr.com/post/19342287710/submitted-by-maryvl

A few months ago, I never understood the whole swooning over Ryan Gosling.  I was also pretty content living in this uninformed world of mine.

On my most recent trip to see my boyfriend, there were a few movies showing starring Mr Gosling and so I thought I'd watch them to see what all the hype was about.

OMG.  Like, seriously.  After watching "Crazy Stupid Love" and "Drive", I was swooning 30,000 feet in the air.  Literally.  (sorry Jim, you'll always my number one guy to make me swoon!)

Anyway, background done, there's an awesome tumblr site called  Handmade Ryan Gosling. It's made just for people who love crafting and who adore Ryan Gosling!  The picture above is pretty much what the site is all about and is one of my favourites.  Go visit it....now!!

NB If you didn't notice, this was just a poor excuse to mention Ryan Gosling somewhere on my blog :)

Knitted Card (yes, really)

So, it was my BFF's birthday this week and in true yarn-addict style I decided to knit her a card.

In my head the card looked a lot different...it was going to be all fancy and amazing and fabulous. But in the end it kind of looks like a primary school kid made it. That's not to say I still don't love it, and I'm sure she will too!

I encountered a few logistical problems after making the huge stockinette swatch to cover the actual bit of card. I thought I'd make it like a book cover. However, I failed to think about the extra thickness the overlap of an inch would make and I forgot the rolling that happens with a stockinette!

I ended up having to sew the swatch to the card, then gluing another bit of card to hide all of that! The sewing of her name turned out a bit childish, oh well, I guess it adds character!

I'm pretty happy with it, although I will make a few alterations to my next one! (oh, and the cupcake frosting and candle are crocheted before anyone points that out!)

NB Stockinette swatch was made with double knit (DK) acrylic yarn and 4.5mm needles

DOMO

Having fun in the garden

Who is Domo? He is a little creature that hatched from an egg. He adores meat and potato stew but hates apples ( Source: Wikipedia ). The only word he can say is his own name. "DOMO!"

I made this for my awesome brother who has recently become slightly obsessed with Domo!

I got the pattern from Nerdigurumi, and lovely crocheting lady who lists her amigurumi patterns of geek paraphernalia for free.

Domo scaring Percival the Penguin.

The body was so easy to make, as were the arms and legs. But putting him together was a different story! His legs are weighted so he can stand and the arms poseable so Domo can scare things in pictures! Nerdigurumi has a tutorial on how to wire the arms so it wasn't all bad!  I had to improvise the weighted feet.  I cut out a piece of cardboard so he could stand.  The only flat metal things I could find in the house were washers.  I glued two of these onto each piece of cardboard and et voila, weighted feet!

Anyway, my brother LOVES his Domo. And so does their little kitty apparently! Definitely one of the most fun projects I've done so far!

Hero sniffing out Domo.  

New books!

Woohoo...just received 4 new books to add to my library of knitting and crocheting! All pretty good but I especially LOVE the Stitch Library one, I had no idea there were so many different knitting stitches!

Knitting with jetlag :/

So I'm back from my travels to see my lovely boy!! Had an awesome trip, but as always I'm jetlagged and missing my boy loads :(

Well, further to my last post, I took my knitting project on the flight (NB saves lots of time to tell security about knitting needles and scissors before they go through the X-ray!). Managed to do quite a lot and thought I was almost done.  But after measuring him up with the ukulele in place, I wasn't even halfway *shakes angry fist* at tall people. I managed to do a bit on the way back, so I'll get there slowly but surely.

I only got back earlier today and so my jetlag is horrendous. After unpacking and settling back in, I'm knitting to keep myself awake to get me back onto Greenwich Meantime.  I just hope I don't make a mistake in my jetlagged state.  Will keep you updated when I've finished the ukulele strap!

The Travelling Yarning Darling

Since my boy moved to the City of Angels, I've been back and forth visiting him every few months, and I'm off again at the end of this week :)

The novelty of a long-haul 11 hour flight with unlimited movies wore off extremely quickly, pretty much after my first visit, so on the next visit I decided to take my current crochet project with me. Each time I've always got funny looks and even got known as the 'knitting lady' on one flight (even though I was crocheting!).

Now just like a girl must limit the number of shoes she packs, I also had to do this with my yarning stuff.  With all the regulation of banned items, it took some investigating to find out about crochet hooks. The Heathrow Airport website says knitting needles are fine so I assumed a crochet hook would be okay too. The check in desk had no idea but when I got through security they didn't have a problem so I was good to go.

Anyway, I thought I'd jot down a list of items that I usually take, varying depending on the project (so if it was only crocheting there would be no need to take knitting needles or a DPN). These all also adhere to the hand baggage regulations, including the TSA rules, so you shouldn't have any problems.

• Yarn
• Pattern
• Round-ended scissors (with blades 6" or shorter from the fulcrum)
• Any length/size knitting needles or crochet hooks
• Split stitch markers
• Tape measure
• Pen
• Pencil
• Notepaper
• Handcream 100ml or less (the cabin pressure and onboard soap can wreak havoc on hands)
• For knitting, double-pointed needle (if required) and point protectors.

From the picture you can see that I've packed aluminium needles.  I'm usually one for bamboo, but after accidentally stepping on one I found out the hard way how fragile they are.  For travelling, aluminium is best as they can take a little beating and be fine.

If you've never thought of taking your project with you, do it...you can get so much done on a long haul flight and the time passes by so quickly!

I like my Hello Kitty with a cherry on top.

Yay, kitty! If there's anything I love apart from yarn and cat videos it's Hello Kitty! I adopted this little obsession from my sister-in-law, but everyone who knows her seems to as Hello Kitty is so cute! My first crochet kitty was for her and was strawberry themed.

One day, casually talking to one of the receptionists at work, I discovered she adores kitty too and asked if I could make her one. Tomorrow is her 21st birthday so I thought it appropriate to fulfil her wish. It didn't take that long as I followed a pattern but I still think she looks kawaii!

Deconstructed kitty.

Snuggly Snood

Project complete! Remember that post last week with the giant crochet hook and gorgeous yarn? Well I finally did something with it. And when I said it was gonna be simple, I really wasn't joking. This was for two reasons:
1. I needed a quick project.
2. I wanted the chunkiness of the project to stand out.

I started it at about 6pm today and with eating and a bit of faffing I had it done by 10pm so extremely easy and quick!

Me and my boy have a skiing trip planned next week so I made this snood for that. Gotta look good in those minus temperatures (shame I didn't have it for the big freeze in the UK last week!)

Pattern
Materials
20mm crochet hook
2xSMC Select Highland Alpaca Yarn (or any other chunky 100g balls)
Split stitch marker (a larger one will be more handy)

Method (work in a continuous spiral)
Base: ch35
Join last stitch to first with sl st, take care not to twist the chain.
Round 1: SC each stitch (35), mark last stitch.
Round 2-15: SC (35).
Cast off.

I was annoyingly 4 stitches short of the 15th round when the yarn got too short. So, as I was working in a spiral, I cheekily cast off a bit early :/ Hey, you can't tell so it's fine (just keep it our little secret!)

Kitty's Christmas Mouse

My brother and his wife have a gorgeous (but slightly bitey) Siamese kitty called Hero.  She likes little mouse toys. So, I had to do the obvious and make her one!

I browsed Crochet Pattern Central for a quick and easy pattern and found one here by KristieMN.  I managed to make it in about an hour and half so it was pretty easy. I had to make a few amendments, like I sewed the eyes on instead of using toy eyes.  I also decided to stuff the mouse with strips of felt rather than the usual poly-fill because she has a tendency to completely destroy a soft toy so didn't want her eating any of the thin fibres.

Needless to say, she enjoyed the little mouse. But poor mousey (rest in peace) succumbed to its injuries 3.5 days later.  Oh well, kitty enjoyed it!

New project alert!

Bought these super chunky and super soft balls of yarn today (new wool/alpaca mix) from John Lewis to use with my gigantic crochet hook that my brother got me for Christmas...I seriously cannot wait to use these! I'll hopefully be making a snood type thing, pretty simple as I need it in a few weeks time. Watch this space for the finished product :)

Sock Monkey

The sock monkey was my first ever crochet project, and must have made him 2-3 weeks after first picking up a hook. I made it for friend's little boy, Ethan.

I got the pattern from Red Heart and it was pretty easy to follow and very beginner friendly! I did omit the hat, only because Ethan was at that point of shoving everything into his mouth and the hat had a little Pom Pom bit on it and I didn't want him accidentally swallowing tiny bits of yarn. Still looked cute though! I made my boyfriend one too, complete with hat which made up for it!

My knitting so far...

So, I officially started knitting properly 2 weeks ago.  All I've done is practice swatch after swatch of different stitches.

Knowing how to already knit, purl, cast on and cast off helped quite a lot as this meant I could delve straight into the stitches.  First up was the 'rib stitch'.  Pretty easy and fun to do and looked quite nice.  I was actually pretty pleased as it was this first thing I'd managed to do that wasn't straight knits or a stockinette.

Amongst the moss stitch section in the book, there was a pattern for a little heart.  This combined the stockinette and moss stitch to give the appearance of a heart.

Next was the cable stitch.  I've always admired this stitch.  Yeah, looks a bit old fashioned, but I love how it looks on jumpers and scarves, so I was uber excited to try this one out (I'm so sad!).  I have to say I absolutely LOVED doing this and could do it all day long...I can't wait to do a project with cables :)

The most recent one I've done was actually the plain, ordinary stockinette stitch (the one you mostly see in shops where the item is flat and looks like lots of little V's).  But, seeing as my main aim is to knit a penguin jumper, including more than one colour was pretty vital to my learning.  I decided to start with the intarsia method which is the best to use for large areas of colour.  It was pretty confusing at first and my swatch wasn't amazing but seeing as it was my first go I couldn't complain.  Definitely lots more practicing before I get this one right!

I've also dabbled a bit in increasing and decreasing stitches.  I'm not going to post any pics of these for your own sanity as they are not interesting in any way.