Spring Flowers - Daisy Baby Shoes

I love daisies - such an unassuming little flower but so pretty. I have made daisy shoes before, but looking at the flower really carefully, I realized that by using daisy stitch I was not really reproducing how the flower actually looks. 

So with the shoes above I have used a simple circle of stitches, which I think is closer to the real flower. I love the greyish wool, which I think looks like a stone wall. I was going to knit another pair from it, but don't have quite enough. Annoying!

The pattern is my Baby Bee Shoe pattern, and these shoes are also heading for my Etsy Shop. I still have to make some little drawstring bag for them, and am definitely GOING TO DO IT TODAY. (I am shouting at myself.)

Just a reminder that my Ginx Woolly Linx party for May is now running. Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I would love to see what you have been working on this month.

Baby Daisy Dress

My new pattern has taken quite a bit of thought. I love dresses with a yoke, and I also love moss stitch. So to combine the two took a bit of working out. I also love fair isle, but not the really tricky kind. So the fair isle daisies are pretty, but quite easy to follow.

So my Baby Daisy Dress incorporates all of these, but is still a fairly easy knit. The pattern comes in two sizes (0-3 months and 3-6 months) which is why it has taken me so long to produce. It even has a proper tension square.

I like baby clothes not in the traditional blue/pink, which is why I went for this gentle green. (This may be a bit radical, but I also think baby girls can look pretty in blue, and I like babies in dark colours.)

I have photographed it hung on my new willow screen, which hubby put up to hide a rather the neighbour's ugly fence. I thought it made a rather cool backdrop. 

It is knitted in Aran wool, which makes it a fairly quick knit. The front and back are the same. If you don't like the daisy pattern it would be quite easy to knit it plain, or come up with your own pattern. I will be posting about another version of this dress with an interesting intarsia design in a few days.

This dress has gone to its new owner, whose Mum's favourite colour is green!

And here it is knitted in the smaller size, using Rowan Felted Tweed Aran wool.

The pattern for Baby Daisy Dress is available on ravelry, Etsy and LoveKnitting.

My Crochet Diary - Country Flowers

In my first crochet diary I thought I had shown you all the crochet books that I own. But then I remembered that I have two other books, which I think of as knitting books, as I had only used the knitting halves of them.  The 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet by Lesley Stanfield, is the book that enthused me into resuming knitting, after not doing it for a few years. And the 75 Birds, Butterflies and Beautiful Beasties was one of my leaving gifts when I moved jobs. Although I have knitted quite a lot of the projects, the crochet sections of both books had been completely ignored.
 

These Hellebores took several attempts

The 100 Flowers book divides the patterns in Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. So far I have manly stuck to basic, and still have to sit with my other book open to remind myself on how to do some of the stitches. Annoyingly most of my favourites are in the intermediate and advanced sections of the book, but hopefully I will get to some of them in time.
 

Lazy Daisy and Flared Rose

These two both have errors if you looks closely. I spiralled the rose the wrong way, and the daisy is one petal short.

Forget-me-notes and Primrose

I really like these ones, perhaps because they are some of my favourite flowers in nature, and the primrose has a 3-D quality.

 

Mistletoe

I thought it would be really fun to make a bunch of these to hang up at Christmas.

 

Cloverleaf

This cloverleaf was made in a hotel room in Bruges. I thought maybe I could crochet on the train, but this was just too hard.

 

Narcissus is the only one I have managed to make from intermediates.

I love these projects - partly because they are small, so not too daunting. I'm not quite sure what I will do with all these little flowers and leaves. I definitely think I am getting past the fear stage of learning - particularly of the diagrams. So I may be working myself up towards a granny square.

Baby Shoes

Between other knits I seem to always fit in a few pairs of booties. I haven't tired of knitting these yet, and they do seem to be the most consistent seller from my Etsy shop. I guess no one minds treating a new baby.

I wasn't sure about the yellow ones to start with, but once now I have embroidered on the daisy flowers I find they are my favourite. The wool is a really nice cotton, and and unusual mix of yellow and white. I'm not sure of the brand, but wonder if it comes in other colours as it was so nice to work with. I wonder if anyone will recognize it.

And these green ones (Is this green? It is a bit hard to put your finger on this colour) are knitted in Rowan Calmer, which came from my sister. I decided to return to my little embroidered bumble bee. As usual they come in a cream dupion silk shoebag.

A Flutter of Fairy Folk

Forget-me-not

Spring is in the air here in England, and with flowers appearing I just thought I would put all my fairy folk together, for a bit of a fairy gathering. What to call a party of fairies? After a bit of research I decided a flutter sounds nice. These are all knitted and adapted from my Mermaid and Flower Fairy pattern.

I do like it best where I have managed to photograph them in a natural setting. Most of these fairies have already found new homes, although one or two are still in my shop. There is such variety in nature that I have only once or twice repeated a design. I am already thinking of a few new ones: primrose, blackthorn, or honeysuckle.

So if you have a flower or tree that means a lot to you, please get in touch and I will have a go at making it.

Holly

Dandelion

Oak Tree

Lily

Apple Blossom

Stitchwort

Bluebell

Lavender

Cherry Tree

Snowflake

Mermaids

Christmas Fairies

Pohutukawa (New Zealand Christmas Tree Fairy)

Echinacea (but photographed on a sunflower)

Daisies

Daisy Daisy

Once again I have got slightly sidetracked. I have a plan for a slightly bigger knitted toy, but other things keep getting in the way. My best sellers at the craft fair were my baby shoes. I added a cream dupion silk shoebag to keep them in, which I have also added to the shoes for sale on Etsy. But noticing that I only sold the decorated shoes, I decided to jazz up the few plain ones I have left with some handknit daisies. I love daisies: such a simple but pretty flower. 

So I set about designing some daisies. I have knitted fairly large ox-eye daisies for the shoes, but then thought I would also have a go at some tiny daisies, like the ones on my lawn. So this pattern shows you how to make flat daisies for decoration in both sizes, and how to knit a stem and sepal back if you want a really realistic flower. The pattern for these daisies is available on Ravelry.

Just to show you what you could use your daisies for I knitted a hairband, which is probably heading to my Etsy shop.  I just love these little daisies, and think they could look lovely on all sorts of things.

Little One was not really in the mood to have her photo taken in the garden, and she was suffering from hayfever. A bit ironic really, though I guess knitted flowers is one solution.

Baby Daisy Shoes

Here is my second version of the baby shoe. I've called it the Baby Daisy Shoe, and although I started off intending to just embroidery daisies, you can see I got a bit carried away. It is very simple to just add a little bumble bee.

White daisies are my favourite, but on these deep red shoes, I thought a pink gerbera would look better. The centre of the flowers is made with a collection of french knots.

And here are some more flowers that I really love: bluebells.

The knitting pattern is available on ravelry. You can use any doubleknit wool, and the embroidery is there to inspire the imagination. The shoes are knitted on two needles, and in one piece, and is sized for 0-3 months, or 3-6 months. It is a very easy knit. You can knit them in two shades, although I also like the look of the ones at the top of the page where I have just used one colour. I love this wool with all its little random flecks.

I am going to put these samples, and some of my Baby Bee Shoes, into my Etsy Shop. So if you aren't into knitting, but would like a pair of baby daisy shoes, some of these will appear there soon.  I think they would make a great gift for a new born. 

I have decided to put a bit of effort into the finished objects section of my shop over the next month. At present it doesn't look very appealing, with it's one phone cosy. 

I have an idea for a cute, but educational toy ...