Cutie Manatee
As part of my Kingfisher purchase, I also got a free manatee embroidery pattern that used colours that were also used in the Kingfisher. There were very few stitches so who was I to ignore this cute face. He’s tiny and quick and it was lovely to just sit down and sew some brown.
| Project | Manatee |
| Author | LaSelvaDesign |
| Type | Pattern only |
| Search words | manatee |
| Location | Drive |
| #stitches | 534 |
| Purchased | 09-01-2026 |
| Date started | 14-06-2026 |
| Date finished | 14-06-2026 |
Cat printed dungarees for the summer.
I made another iteration of the Ophelia Overalls from Decades of Style (previous versions here and here). This time, I used a ‘fine rib cord with cat print’ from a shop called babystofjes.nl (baby fabrics). I am not a baby, but I thought it was cute so I decided to go for it.
I made some changes to the pattern; I eliminated the buttons and flaps along the side, added an extra d-ring to the front pocket and the side, fully lined the front bib and made some adjustments to the facings of the back, and I cut it a little longer. Then I started thinking about wearing it with the straps down and what to do with them. The ochre version has shown me that it’s a little tight if I keep them attached to the bib. So, I improvised some ‘stap holders’ that attach with snaps at the pockets. This seems to work quite well.
The one down side I’ve experienced so far is that the side straps are a bit slippy, so I tends to loosen a bit over time. If it turns out to be a massive problem, I’ll figure out a solution in due course. Probably more snaps..
I do think these are adorable though. The fabric is quite soft, doesn’t fray and is very light weight. Other people also seem to like them, so that’s fun. They are mostly for the hotter months though, I think a breeze would blow straight through.
Oh no! This is a circus and those are monkeys!
A colleague of mine is leaving to pursue another job and I wanted to make her a little gift. So I figured that I would embroider the saying that we use in the office a lot: ‘Not my circus, not my monkeys’, which in essence means ‘not my problem’. However, it needed some adaptation since it will be her circus. So I found a pattern of a set of monkeys with tails in a heart shape, and found a 5-stitch high font here that I adapted a little. The final result is a ‘This is my circus and these are my monkeys’ embroidery with the name of her new company in the middle.
I personally think this is hilarious. I hope she likes it.
| Project | Monkey Love – adapted |
| Author | PixAndPrintCo |
| Type | Pattern only |
| Search words | monkeys; heart |
| Location | Drive |
| #stitches | 1751 |
| Purchased | 01-05-2026 |
| Date started | 25-05-2026 |
| Date finished | 27-05-2026 |
Learning the ancient craft of spinning.
A couple of months ago, I was walking one of the ‘Kunstroutes’ or Art routes organized near me. Throughout the town, there were expositions of people displaying their art. From paintings and sculpture to clothing and quilts, so many interesting things to see. It was great! One of the things I went to were two people displaying their knitted items and there was a lady spinning yarn. We had a chat and she told me that there was a spinning group nearby. So I got added to the mailinglist.
It took a couple of months for me to find the courage to join, but I’ve been a few times now and it’s great. I’m learning to spin yarn! I started with some white stuff that I’ve made into very lumpy thread. After that I went on to spin some of the fleece I have from 2010. I had washed a portion of it at that time and attempted to card it. Then met with a colleague recently to use her carding machine to card all of the washed stuff. I seem to be unable to do it with the hand carders that I have, so this saved a lot of frustration.
I’ve now produced about 100 grams of brown yarn. I’m so proud! Next step: knitting it into something…
Joining a mystery knit along to make an octopus inspired “cowl”.
For the first time ever, I participated in a Mystery Knit-a-long (MKAL) last month. A KAL is a project where you get some part of the instructions and should complete those in a set time period. Mystery just means that you haven’t got a clue what the end result is going to be.
Sometime in September, I saw the announcement for the Cowltopus MKAL by Laura Nelkin, an MKAL that was to take place in October. It was on sale and it seemed like a fun idea, and I really like octopuses, so what could go wrong? Well, I forgot about it until about two days after the first clue came out and I hadn’t done any of the prep work. The prep included finding the right yarn and swatching it. I found the yarn I wanted to use, but it still needed to be dyed.
The pattern calls for DK weight yarn around 225 m/100 grams. There should be a main colour and a contrast colour, and both can be composed of mini skeins or just a single colour skein. There should be contrast between the MC and CC and gradients are encouraged. So I looked on the internet for different kinds of octopuses and settled on the quite elusive Glass Octopus Vitreledonella richardi. To match the inspiration, my MC was one full skein of Ultra DK in light blue. For the contrast, I chose to split a skein of Ultra DK into four section and dye them in a gradient from yellow to chestnut/brown.
Once the yarn had dried, the gauge swatch got going. The swatch indicated that I had to size up my needles a little because I couldn’t get gauge otherwise. The first clue had come out on October 3rd, and was supposed to be done by the time clue 2 would be released a week later. I managed to get my yarn dyed and swatch ready by the 7th. On the 13th, I finished clue 1, to get right back on with clue 2.
Clue 2 went really smoothly and was actually finished on time, done by the 14th. This wasn’t super challenging yet, so I sailed right through it. The only new things were magic knots and needing to pay attention to the stitches. The third clue was where it got interesting. There were two options, brioche knit or ribbing. So I decided to learn something new and got going on the brioche. It wasn’t as scary as I was worried about. The instructions and video companion were very helpful and it all went according to plan.
Clue 4 was the last clue and where we were finishing the cowl – that turned out to be a hood. It was more brioche but now with waves in it. Actually quite fun to knit! The pattern is designed in a way that you shouldn’t run out of yarn unless you choose to ignore the instructions – my bad. I was supposed to start the end with 4 grams remaining, but I had 3.6 grams of yarn left. In the end, I had to tie in 15 cm of leftover yarn from the dying process to get the last few stitches finished.
I enjoyed learning new things and not knowing exactly what was going to happen throughout the KAL. I’m not discounting doing one again even though the resulting hood isn’t totally my style. I’m very happy that one of my colours was solid, because the finished hoods from other knitters are overwhelmingly busy. I’ve not found much reason to wear it yet, so I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it. Sometimes having a fun process is more important than having a good result.
A vintage knitting machine pattern in some muted fall colours.
The booklet that came with my knitting machine also had a pattern for a striped ladies pullover with V-neck, DP 2219. This seemed like a fun thing to do with the knitting machine that wasn’t a rectangle of some sort, so I set out on a quest to complete the pullover. This started with dyeing yarn. I chose upcycled quarter round yarn, a sock weight with 425 m/100 g and tried to dye it in the colour scheme of a picture I found on the internet.
It didn’t turn out the way I hoped, although I’m not sure exactly what I was hoping for. However, once I started knitting it up, I knew it didn’t really fall within the colours I would love to wear. Still determined to see if the pattern would work, I continued. I made one major change, by decreasing the depth of the v-neck, but apart from that followed the instructions. I finished knitting the front and back, and blocked them. Then I lost motivation and it sat in a bag for a while until I met up with a friend. These colours suit her much better, and I knew I needed some sort of external motivation if I were to ever finish it, so I asked if she might be interested. She was.
So I knit the neckband and after some cursing and annoyance managed to get that installed in a way I liked. It’s probably not the way the pattern intended, but it’s on there now, so it’ll do! The sleeves and bottom still rolled quite badly, so I decided that it needed cuffs. I first knit some in a mock rib on the knitting machine and had them attached before deciding that the join was too awful. So I ripped it all back, cast on ribbing and knit it by hand, both around the cuffs and the bottom.
I think I probably asked before summer whether my friend was interested (providing no guarantees on when it would be completed) and it still took me until September to get it finished, but it is done! She enjoys it, I’m happy to have made something out of the yarn that I wouldn’t use for myself, I liked testing the pattern and doing something different on the machine. A bit delayed, but still a win in the end!
Loopy scarf that pretends to be a teacup.
One of my friends had a birthday in August and I decided to use this as an opportunity for gift giving and reducing my yarn stash. I still had more of that pink stuff laying around that would suit someone who likes pink a lot better. Inspiration was easily found since Pinterest had thrown up a ‘tea cup scarf‘ at some point, and I knew she liked tea.
So I set out to dye some Arequipa singles yarn in ‘tea brown’ (some combination of ‘brown’ and ‘chestnut’), and after it dried, just started knitting on the knitting machine. I cast on 60 stitches on gauge 5 and just zoomed my way through almost the entire ball. I held back a few meters of brown for finishing, then attached the pink yarn and knit until that also ran out. With the last sections, I knit a ‘handle’ for the cup. Then everything got blocked on the hoard room floor, taking up the entire length. This seemed a little.. much.
To remedy that problem, I made the scarf double layered by bringing the brown end up to the start of the brown and knitting down the sides and doing the same thing with the pink. I also added the handle when I was sewing down the pink sides. To complete the teacup look, I knit a small pouch (to hold some stitch markers) and attached a little tea-bag-label with an embroidered cup. I think it turned out pretty cool and it was a fun way to deal with some more of the pink, while making sure it went to a better home than mine!
Making a Pirate Scarf for a Kayaking Friend
Last year, when Karen and I dyed different kinds of yarn, one of them was colour-mix that has sat in my stash since. I do find that yarn very interesting and I thought it would look good with browns, so when I had some red-brown yarn leftover from the Fringe! scarf, that set my brain in motion. I put them next to each other and I thought they looked good together. I wasn’t sure I would have enough for something wearable, so I dyed another skein some lighter brown (and later overdyed it with even more brown) and started planning.
I found the Pirate’s Cove for LK150 by Christine Welsh on Ravelry when looking for machine knit patterns. It also had a video tutorial attached with it, which was really nice. The main idea for the original Pirate’s Cove was to use a thicker yarn and increase one stitch every second row on one side to create an asymmetrical triangle scarf. Because I used thinner yarn and my bed wasn’t too wide, I opted to increase one stitch every four rows to create a longer triangle. Different stitch or colour patterns were suggested at intervals, but the knitter can make their own choices of course. I chose to do the first section in the red-browns, then some striped red-browns & colour-mix. Next came some thin red-brown, brown and colour-mix stripes with eyelets and without eyelets. Some flat brown after and then increasing width stripes of colour-mix and red-brown. In the last section of colour-mix, I knit some triangles with eyelets. The final section was some straight brown.
Since the straight edges started curling, I followed the directions for a decorative edge in the pattern. I chose to do the edge in the brown. I was very worried that I did not have enough yarn, but I tried to do one side in a different colour and it was awful. So I pulled it out and just .. kept my fingers crossed. I did lose yarn chicken by about 10-20 stitches on the bottom corner, so I used some leftover red-brown to finish those last few stitches. You’ll only notice if you know, so ssshhh. This shawl has now made its way to Karen, as it should suit her Fall colours.
Giraffes are for babies.
Months ago, I had a chat with the colleague who made the Safari Mobile about what she wanted to get for a gift. I showed her some of the stuffed animals from the past and she immediately fell in love with the giraffe (and who wouldn’t!). So I set out to make the giraffe during my holiday in June. She asked for realistic colours so I googled giraffe and set out to find some brown felt. I chose to do his body in the off-white that I had, because none of the other colours would really work. The horns, legs and tail would be brown, with his snout and inner ears white.
As usual, a Choly Knight/Sew Desu Ne pattern comes together really easily. It starts with meditative stitching of the spots and other details. Then sewing the pieces together where all the notches actually line up and then stuffing it to within an inch of its life. Once I had the head and the body both finished, I tried to pin the head on to see where it should go. It was a little lopsided and it looked so cute that I left it that way and sewed it on crooked. Look at his little face! I love him so much and I hope his new family will too.
Things I’ve learnt in this project: fringe knotting is not my thing.
According to Ravelry, I started this scarf on February 25 and finished blocking it on February 28. I may have been slightly neglecting writing about it for no good reason. This was a knitting machine project, hence the quick turnaround. I’d dyed two skeins of quarter round fingering weight yarn with browns, reds and oranges on February 9. Then followed the instructions in the Shawl for all reasons by Carole Thimidis pattern. I decided to do the fringe because I wanted to see how something like that would work.
Well, the knitting of this thing took a few hours. Unraveling and then knotting all the fringe took longer than actually knitting it. You basically knit three stitches, then skip a bunch of needles and then increase stitches to make a a quarter of the body of the scarf. Then those stitches are decreased again (while continuing with the fringe stitches). Half of the scarf is now done, so the stitches are increased again, which leaves little holes along the spine. Those stitches are decreased to finish the scarf. Wrapping my head around how this worked took longer than actually making the scarf. I’ve now figured out the logic but it took me so long. When the scarf is done, you start unraveling those fringe stitches row by row. Once you have one loop loose, you make a knot near the scarf body to prevent further raveling.
Once I had all the fringe knotted, the scarf was wetted and blocked to a nice right sided triangle. It came of the machine in a very different shape. It always amazes me how well blocking works, now that I’ve figured out that’s a thing. The most interesting thing about this scarf is that the colours look very different from different sides. You’ll see that in the blocking image too. While there is about 1.5 skein of yarn in there, and there are some minor colour differences between those yarns, it’s not like one is significantly lighter. It’s just the angle that changes the way it looks. Since it’s been finished, I have worn this thing a fair amount. It’s pretty big even if it’s not very warm but still cosy!
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