Considering the volume of uni work I have to complete at the moment, I’ve been doing rather a lot of knitting.
I mentioned in a previous post about a lovely Raveller who had asked whether she could buy some of my leftover stash yarn! Well a couple of days after I posted it off, I got the wonderful surprise of a gifted pattern (I made sure to tell the Raveller off as there was no expectation of something in return for the yarn).
The pattern was Sheep Carousel by Kate Davies. It’s a gorgeous sheep tea cosy that I have had my eye on since it came out. What i love most about the pattern though is the number of techniques you can learn and practice in just one pattern including:
- provisional cast on
- cable cast on
- i-cord
- i-cord bind off
- vikkel braid
- steeking,
- and obviously colourwork.
Whilst I have done the odd provisional cast on and a few colourwork projects – the others were all new!
Vikkel Braid rows 2 and 3
The Vikkel Braid had me stumped and I needed a couple of attempts. I struggled to find a good You-Tube video but I found this blog post about Vikkel Braids which in the comments section below had a little helpful ‘this is where you put the yarn’ snippet which made it all make sense!
Reinforcement stitches in
Having finished the main body it was time to steek! Scared! The instructions on the Kate Davies website are amazing and as they were only small sections I quickly had the reinforcement stitches in place and tried not to think about it too much before cutting through the stitches. I kept looking at it expecting the whole thing to unravel! It didn’t!
I’m really pleased with the finished object, it doesn’t quite fit on the teapot straight and it’s a bit snug but I think that is the yarn I’m using (it’s not my favorite at the moment – pulling out my provisional cast on caused a snap in the stitches under it which I had to fix and i find it quite splitty but the colours are amazing) and I hope with a good block it will be fine. Actually it might be the teapot!!
The pattern has used less than 25g of each colour making it a great stash buster for those odds and ends of 4ply you have kicking about. Literally can not recommend highly enough!! #enabled!
lots of love
Shoe
PS: sorry about the quality of the photos – I need to get better at actually taking photos again rather than just iphone snapshots!!
Really cute pattern! I’m going to have to look into this one.
Its great fun! Definitely look into it xx
Oh Chloe it’s amazing. You steeked!! I cannot believe it. I am SOOOOO close to purchasing the Rams and Yowes kit (which includes the yarn and pattern for Sheep Heid too). If I do – you are my enabler. I am going to link to this post in tomorrow’s Things I Like Thursday xx
Thank you! Im loving Rams & Yowes too i know im going to be totally chuffed with the finished project! The tea cosy is a fab practice project though! Xx
Pingback: Things I Like Thursday: More Fair Isle | iMake
Pingback: In Love | iMake
What a fantastic pattern! I like the idea of trying out new techniques on something small – that way you can try them out without getting too upset and if it all goes wrong there is less to unravel….. And of course if it all goes well (which of course it will – eventually) then it is just as wonderful as finishing something large. Well done on the steeking!
I couldn’t agree more! Plus it makes a gorgeous present and knits up super quick! Xx