Stuff I Want to Knit

I'm attempting to do some decluttering in my office/craft room and I came across some Icelandic yarn - Icelandic Lopi by David Grains. There are 2 balls of each colour plus a few grams of natural white. I'm pretty sure it was from my sister's stash.

The yarn is a Bulky weight and only slightly spun - perfect for felting in the washer. 

This is the pattern I'm knitting, Fibre Trends' Felted Clogs AC33e by Bev Galeskas. I'm doing the bottom version. I might even do some needle felting on them after they've been felted in the machine.

I've knit it at least twice before and now know to line the bottom of the heel with leather to avoid wearing holes through the sole.

The directions are pretty clear to interpret. The result makes for a hilariously large piece of knitting which felts down nicely after a couple of washings in hot water. Ideally the felting should eliminate most of the stitch definition so the grey ones didn't quite get small enough for me. They're even a bit big on Skip but he likes how warm they are.

I started the first green clog last night and finished it today. Bulky knitting goes quickly. I am really looking forward to the felting process.

Thursday night I had the urge to knit another Bunty Bunny. 

Reading my Ravelry notes on the previous one I knit, I knit all of her in one colour using sport weight yarn and 3mm needles. I didn't like the little pink dress from the same pattern and chose instead to use patterns from Little Cotton Rabbits.

I found some sport weight yarn (not a large quantity) in my stash and started in. The pattern calls for the legs to be knit flat then joined to the body which is also knit flat then all pieces seamed.  

What the heck! The body yarn was different - a plain version of the flecked yarn I used for the legs. I didn't even notice it until I'd finished it. I must have spliced the yarn in a previous iteration. 

I then thought, "OK, I'll re-knit the legs plain while unravelling the body then if there isn't enough plain yarn to do all the body parts, I'll use the flecked yarn for the torso which will always be under clothing." The flecks (which I didn't really care fore) won't be visible that way.

So I started the legs in the plain yarn from the diminishing ball. Then stopped. Looking at the bunny I have already knit, who I call 'Daisy', I noted I had knit all those pieces in the round, thus avoiding seaming. I knit the head as indicated (flat) as the seam is up the back of the head and not really noticeable. Generally I don't mind seaming knitting items but seaming pieces this small is very tedious and I much prefer the look of the unseamed 'tubes' for the arms and legs.  I still haven't decided if I'll knit the body flat and seam it or just do it in the round after all.

I wanted to make sure I had enough of the plain yarn to knit the arms and legs so completed one arm in the round (except for the stuffing). There is enough to do the second arm. Then I did one plain leg in the round - much better.

I'm going to knit the second leg and arm using the rest of the plain yarn, then graft them to the plain body that I've already knit. If I run out of plain yarn, I'll just do the body with the flecked yarn.

I also have a real hankering to do another linen stitch scarf using either my handspun or some of my stashed sock yarn. This is another pattern I've knit before at least 3 times. Using three colourways of Koigu yarn with the common colour of green:

and again with blue as the common colour.

The handspun one was somewhat random. 

I have the urge to knit another one so will dive into my handspun stash and see what I come up with. The pattern is very repetitive and takes forever as it's knit longways but it makes for a really lovely fabric - perfect for scarves.

I have a couple of social stitching days next week which should be fun. I'll get more stitching done on the Winter Rose Manor which I don't think I've touched for a couple of days.

I've just scratched the surface of my decluttering task but it's a good start.