browneyedbabs knitting patterns

Bye Bye blogger!

2013-04-21T16:54:00.004+01:00

I have decided to bail out of blogging (I really don't enjoy it!) and I've set up a much nicer website for you to visit, please come and see me in my shiny new home at:

www.browneyedbabsknits.com

It's going to be in development for ever as I tweak and tinker with it so please get in touch with me through the new page to let me know what you think.

Pre-Christmas sale

2012-12-06T21:20:00.002Z

I'm doing a little December treat for you, if you buy any two patterns in my Ravelry store I'm giving you 50% off if you use coupon code XMAS12 (the tutorial and ebook are excluded from the offer).

Happy knitting!

My design process

2012-11-26T21:18:00.001Z

I thought it might be interesting to blog about how I go about turning an idea into a finished pattern, I'll add more posts over the next few weeks to explain it from start to finish. Today I'll cover ideas and research.

I get ideas from all over the place, sometimes my test knitters suggest things, sometimes I see yarn colour that inspires me and sometimes I have an idea for how I will knit an unusual shape and just have to figure out how to make that into a pattern. I much prefer to knit toys because I don't have to worry about gauge or whether it will fit me, I can just let my imagination run wild.

Once I have an idea I do some basic research by checking Ravelry to make sure my idea doesn't already exist, for example: tiger toy search. There's nothing worse than working on an idea only to discover someone else has already done it!
When I'm confident that my idea is unique I sketch out the main shapes that will make up my animal and think a little about how I will make them. I normally hit Pinterest about now too and create a new board of images relevant to my idea.

Once I have a decent idea of what the finished toy is going to look like and if I think I can get yarn support I will normally make up a pattern proposal. To do this I produce a sketch with some construction details and estimated yarn quantities. It's really important to include contact details and I like to make the layout consistent with my finished pattern style. Here is a little image of my Tabby cat proposal for Knitpicks (this turned into the Tubby Tabby pattern eventually).

And then the real knitting begins!

Short rows

2012-11-03T19:32:00.000Z

While I'm in the blogging mood I thought I'd share a useful link with you.
Most of my patterns use short rows (wrap & turn) to achieve seamless shaping, I learned how to do this from books and trial and (lots of) error until I found a method that worked well for me. Recently I took a free class on Craftsy which covered short rows in far more detail than I imagined possible and I really recommend it, particularly if you've just picked up one of my patterns and are finding the short rows a challenge.
I'm taking a couple of paid classes now because I enjoyed this one so much - I'll let you know what I think of them when I 'graduate'!

Tubby Tiger pattern now available

2012-11-03T19:21:00.000Z

My latest pattern is now available for sale on Ravelry and patternfish. Check out the projects on Ravelry to see what a great job my wonderful testknitters made of it.

I'm looking for test knitters for my newest pattern at the minute so pop over to my Ravelry group to volunteer if you'd like to take part.

Knitting basic shapes - Sphere / Ball

2012-08-25T09:04:00.000+01:00

I use spheres as a basis for many components of my knitting patterns. They are very easy if you can knit in the round. I'm going to show you two methods I like for knitting spheres.

Remember to stuff the shape as you knit.

The Easy Way:
Abbreviations

Kfb	Increase by knitting into the front and back of the stitch
*	Repeat the instruction in brackets the number of times shown
K	Knit
K2Tog	Knit two together

To begin, turkish cast on six stitches (three on each needle)

Round 1)	K6	(6 sts)
Round 2)	Kfb*6	(12 sts)
Round 3)	K12
Round 4)	(K1, Kfb)*6	(18 sts)
Round 5)	K18
Round 6)	(K2, Kfb)*6	(24 sts)
Round 7)	K24
Round 8)	(K3, Kfb)*6	(30 sts)

Continue in this manner with a plain knit round followed by an increase round (each time increasing the number of stitches between 'Kfb's) until you have a hemisphere of the size you desire, I like to knit three plain rounds between the last increase and the first decrease round.


Round 10)	(K3, K2Tog)*6	(24 sts)
Round 11)	K24
Round 12)	(K2, K2Tog)*6	(18 sts)
Round 13)	K18
Round 14)	(K1, K2Tog)*6	(12 sts)
Round 15)	K12
Round 16)	K2Tog*6	(6 sts)

Cut yarn and draw through the stitches.

I really dislike the shaping lines in this method; you can see them spiral out from the cast on point.

The Nicer Way:
Abbreviations

LLI	Left lifted increase
RLI	Right lifted increase
*	Repeat the instruction in brackets the number of times shown
K	Knit
K2Tog	Knit two together
SSK	Slip Slip Knit

(A tutorial for the increases is available here: http://www.twistcollective.com/collection/component/content/article/92-how-to/1047-lifted-increase-lli-rli)

To begin, turkish cast on six stitches (three on each needle)

Round 1)	K6	(6 sts)
Round 2)	RLI*6	(12 sts)
Round 3)	K12
Round 4)	(K1, LLI)*6	(18 sts)
Round 5)	Knit all
Round 6)	(RLI, K2)*6	(24 sts)
Round 7)	Knit all
Round 8)	(K3, LLI)*6	(30 sts)

Continue in this manner with a plain knit round followed by an increase round, you need to alternate between LLI and RLI each increase round, until you have a hemisphere of the size you desire.


Round 10)	(K3, SSK)*6	(24 sts)
Round 11)	Knit all
Round 12)	(K2Tog, K2)*6	(18 sts)
Round 13)	Knit all
Round 14)	(K1, SSK)*6	(12 sts)
Round 15)	Knit all
Round 16)	K2Tog*6	(6 sts)

Cut yarn and draw through the stitches.

In my opinion this is much better, the shaping lines are more like those seen on a beachball and are symmetrical in each segment.

the naughty tiger

2012-08-01T19:58:00.000+01:00

I've been working on my tiger pattern for ages now while my cat pattern is with the test knitters. Some designs seem to develop easily while others need concentration and hard work, the tiger has been the latter kind of pattern and has spent many evenings behind the sofa in disgrace.

The naughty tiger's first misdemeanor was when he grew an extra toe.

Exhibit A

Unfortunately, I didn't notice till I had made two feet. That earned him a time out for the afternoon and I had to have some cake to recover my mojo.

After the paw debacle we had a terrible struggle getting the head just right.

but no problem at all getting it wrong!

Thankfully I was able to study more tiger pictures on my pinterest board and eventually we found his face:

Isn't he sweet!

I'll give him his front paws and a tail in the next couple of days, hopefully he'll be ready for test knitting in mid August. Send me a note on Ravelry if you would like to help test knit (fair warning though, my last test knit filled up in about 20 minutes!)

Knitting two items together

2012-06-24T15:48:00.000+01:00

In most of my patterns I recommend joining parts together by knitting. This tutorial shows how I join the tubby tabby's legs to it's body.

Step 1) Gather the parts. Make sure that the leg is fully stuffed as this process will close the top of the leg.

Step 2) Make sure that the stitches for the leg are arranged correctly. In the case of the tubby tabby the cut yarn (end of the round) should have four stitches on the left and six on the right (11 in total) there will be 13 on the front needle.

Step 3) Hold the leg in front of the body making sure that it is going to be in the right place.

Step 4) Insert the working needle into the first stitch on the front needle only (because there are 13 stitches on the front needle and 11 on the back the first and last joining stitches will be knit only with the front of the leg and the body stitches). Do not knit it yet.

Step 5) Insert the working needle through the first body stitch as shown and wrap the working yarn for a knit stitch.

Step 6) Gently work each stitch on the working needle, one at a time.

Step 7) Insert the working needle through the next stitch on the front of leg, back of leg and body needles as shown.

Step 8) Wrap yarn for knitting a stitch. Carefully work the body stitch first.

Step 9) Then work the back of leg stitch.

Step 10) Finally, work the front of leg stitch.

Repeat for all leg stitches.

I have had an attempt at making a youtube video for this technique. There is no sound (other than a horrendous crackling) but it may be more useful than the photos.

Grafting part two

2012-06-20T14:59:00.000+01:00

Following on from yesterday's post I'm going to show you how to tidy up the underside of the join. Before you start it will look like the picture below.

Step 1) Turn the work around. The working yarn will be on the right hand side and will come out of the rightmost stitch. Pick up the appropriate body stitch from right to left.

Step 2) Pass the yarn from left to right through the next tail stitch.

Step 3) Pass the yarn again from left to right through the next body stitch.

Continue to repeat steps 2 and 3 till all of the tail stitches have been picked up. It will look like the picture below when you are finished.

As you can see, it's not as perfect as the top side of the tail but it is a very neat, strong join.

Grafting live stitches to a finished piece

2012-06-19T11:18:00.000+01:00

I give instructions in most of my toy patterns for knitting the limbs onto the body. This has the advantage of achieving a seamless finish without sewing, unfortunately it can sometimes be awkward. This is my method of attaching limbs by sewing them on, it is based on grafting which typically joins two sets of live stitches without making a seam.

In the pictures below I am joining the tail of my Tubby Tabby to the body. The tail has 18 stitches all round, 9 on the top and 9 on the bottom. I am working both the top and bottom together for speed but you could work only the top then turn the work over and work only the bottom for an truly seamless finish. The stitches will look like a row of knitting when they are completed, since I want my stripes to always be two rows high I have unpicked the last row of yellow knitting in the tail so that there is only one row of yellow stitches on my needles. I will complete the sewing in yellow and will be picking up orange stitches from the body.

Step 1) Mark the stitches you want to join the tail to. I like to use a thin dpn to do this but you could use waste yarn or a safety pin.

Step 2) Set up the stitches you wish to join. Hold the piece with the last worked stitch furthest away from you and using a needle bring the cut working yarn through the first stitch on the closest needle purlwise (i.e. from the back of the work to the front.)

Step 3) Draw the yarn through the rightmost of the body stitches from right to left as shown.

Step 4) Bring the working yarn through the tail stitches knitwise (i.e. from the front of the work to the back) and drop these stitches from the knitting needles.

Step 5) Bring the working yarn through the next two stitches in the tail purlwise. (My apologies, this picture shows two completed stitches, you will only have one completed stitch at this time).

From now on you will repeat steps 3 - 5.

Here is a handy cheat sheet you can pin or print.

Continue till all of the stitches are worked.

Tomorrow I'll show you how to tidy up the underside.

A face at last!

2012-06-17T22:53:00.000+01:00

After at least eight failed attempts I finally have a head for my tabby cat knitting pattern. At one point I had three heads in my knitting bag and I was thoroughly creeping my husband out.

I am absurdly pleased with it so I have taken lots of photos to show off.

Now I just need to write it up, send it for test knitting, pay for tech editing and publish it....phew.

(Update: now available for sale on Ravelry and knitpicks)

Getting organised

2012-06-06T21:27:00.001+01:00

I was planning to blog about my knitpicks delivery today but I have been distracted.
My current project bag has been a plastic carrier bag containing two projects, lots of oddments of yarn, notions, paper, pens, SEVENTEEN doublepoint needles of various sizes, my interchangeable needle kit and random other things. Of course, every time I moved the bag needles were poking out through the thin plastic and getting lost or spiking me. So, I sorted it out. Now I have each of my current knitpicks submissions in a proper knitting bag of its own with some stitch markers, a tape measure, a row counter, darning needles, a few crochet hooks, a notepad, a pencil and nothing else.

Motivated by my lovely new organised project bags I kept going and sorted out my sewing box, knitting box and the WIP box of horrors.

WIP box - Yikes!

In my WIP box I had six different projects, all tied to each other in a mess of yarn. I've pulled out the projects that really are long term hibernating and put them away more carefully. Things I might actually finish are in one project bag with the correct needles so that I can just pick them up. After I finish my knitpicks submissions I'm going to have a big push to finish my WIPs and then start to get rid of some of my stash.

I found some treasure when I was sorting out my sewing box. I wish craft supplies still came in such delicate packaging.

Old sewing needles

Inside of needle package

Stocking darning kit

A variety of thimbles

Now, I'm going to knit at last!

2012-06-05T18:22:00.000+01:00

I am totally hooked on pinterest, I love seeing what other people are pinning and I have a good range of designers and interesting people to follow. I have been using it a lot to develop my latest toy pattern (Cat pinterest board) and it is so useful to have all my reference images in the same place.

This afternoon I realised I'm getting a lot of hits here from pinterest so I followed the link back and look! People are pinning me! :)

http://pinterest.com/source/browneyedbabs.blogspot.com/

If you are interested in what I am pinning please feel free to

Can you tell what it is yet?

2012-06-02T19:21:00.001+01:00

The body is being knit using intarsia in the round as described in my tutorial. I'm not 100% happy with the decreases but I'm going to finish it off and change them slightly on the next version.

Work in progress

2012-05-26T09:35:00.000+01:00

Knitpicks have accepted three new pattern submissions so I am hard at work on the first of them. It will be a tabby cat, hopefully minimal sewing using intarsia in the round and stripes (for the adventurous) or knit flat for beginners.

I'm doing the intarsia version first and then I'll rework it flat when the yarn support arrives.

Here are some preview photos, I love the paws!

46,000 views!

2012-05-19T20:38:00.001+01:00

I just reached 46,000 views of my blog :) Thank you for visiting! x

New pattern for sale

2012-02-25T13:53:00.000Z

I have a new pattern available for sale: the Honeycomb Brioche Cowl at $2.99.

This is a cosy cowl which can be worn as a shrug, wrap or scarf. Just the thing to keep you warm on cool spring afternoons or to wear with a coat during the winter.

The brioche stitch is well explained and makes a thick, warm fabric which showcases variegated yarns beautifully. The sample is knit in Knitpicks worsted weight Chroma (the colour is Galapagos).

There are lots of photos available on Ravelry here.

Free Knitting Pattern - Toy hammock

2012-02-17T12:59:00.006Z

A quick, easy and very useful hammock for storing toys.

Please, if you have trouble or spot a mistake leave a comment here so that I can fix it and prevent other people struggling too. I don't pay for my free patterns to be tech edited and mistakes do happen. (All of my for sale patterns are fully tested and tech edited.)

Requirements
15mm (US 19) needles
DK yarn held doubled (you can use any weight yarn you like as long as you use large needles)

Abbreviations

( )*	rep instructions between ( )’s as many times as directed by the *
K, k	Knit
K2Tog	Knit two together
K4Tog	Knit four together
YO	Yarn over

Pattern
Increase section:
Cast on two stitches

Row 1)	K1, yo, K1	(3 sts)
Row 2)	K all sts
Row 3)	(K1, yo) * 2, K1	(5 sts)
Row 4)	K all sts
Row 5)	(K1, yo) * 4, K1	(9 sts)
Row 6)	K all sts
Row 7)	(K1, yo) * 8, K1	(17 sts)
Row 8)	K all sts
Row 9)	(K1, yo) * 16, K1	(33 sts)
Row 10)	K all sts
Row 11)	yo, K3tog, (yo, K2tog) * 15	(32 sts)

Row 12)	(yo, K2tog) * 16

Repeat row 12 till you get the desired length

Decrease section:

Row 1)	K all sts
Row 2)	(yo, K4tog) * 8	(16 sts)
Row 3)	K all sts
Row 4)	(yo, K4tog) * 4	(8 sts)
Row 5)	K all sts
Row 6)	(yo, K4tog) * 2	(4 sts)
Row 7)	K all sts
Row 8)	K4tog	(1 st)

Bind off

Please note - since this is a free pattern I have not had it tech edited or tested. Please let me know if you find any errors.

If you like the pattern and would like to support me in producing free patterns please consider sending me a donation via paypal by clicking here or visit my shop on Ravelry.

Cable cast on tutorial

2011-11-30T16:28:00.001Z

I love the cable cast on, it's stretchy, tidy and fast.

Step 1) Make a slip knot

Step 2) Knit into slip knot without taking the knot off the left needle

Step 3) Put the worked stitch back on the left needle

Step 4) Inset needle into space between the previous two stitches

Step 5) Wrap working yarn anti-clockwise over RH needle

Step 6) Draw loop back through (as though knitting a stitch)

Step 7) Transfer loop from RH needle onto LH needle

Repeat step 4 to 7 until the required number of stitches are cast on

If you found this tutorial useful and would like to support me in producing free patterns & tutorials please consider sending me a donation via paypal by clicking here or visit my shop on Ravelry.

Penguin Pattern up for sale

2011-11-20T21:13:00.000Z

The fat bottomed penguin pattern is up for sale on knitpicks and ravelry. This pattern includes two sets of instructions, a simpler version which requires some sewing and a more challenging version which uses intarsia in the round and no sewing up. The techniques are all well explained and this is a quick, interesting knit for an adorable little toy.

Enjoy!

The most expensive acrylic ever....

2011-10-01T13:41:00.000+01:00

Yup, it's about 30g of 100% acrylic. The reason it should be so expensive? It took 3 hours to untangle the knots. I should have just thrown it away and spent £1 on a new ball.

Lion pattern for sale on Knitpicks!

2011-09-15T19:38:00.002+01:00

I'm very excited today because my loopy lion pattern is now up for sale on Knitpicks:

I hope you like it!

Yummy yummy Chroma

2011-09-09T17:42:00.000+01:00

I'm making a shrug / cowl in honeycomb brioche from my Knitpicks Chroma. I'm about to frog this because it's too narrow but couldn't resist sharing a photo of the gorgeousness.

lots of little penguins

2011-08-23T20:43:00.002+01:00

I've been taking photographs of my pair of penguins to finish off my updated pattern. Aren't they cute! The one in front is done in intarsia in the round (my new favourite technique) and the one behind is knit in the round with the white patch sewn on at the end. It took me four attempts to sew it on evenly and I'm still not completely happy, my sewing is really terrible....

I think I'm going to make a few more and accessorize them to look like the penguins the book 10 Little Penguins.

Edit - Now up for sale here!

Re-vamped Lion pattern now for sale

2011-08-14T20:53:00.001+01:00

My loopy lion pattern version 2 is now up for sale. I've totally reworked the face to make him much more friendly and added new instructions for those who don't like intarsia.

I hope you all like him!

Have a look on Ravelry here to see more photos.