Cold facts

The visiting snowmen face some cold facts...

"Where's the snow? Someone said there was snow in Georgia and we made this trip for nothing....."

Yes, sadly all the beautiful Christmas snow has melted!

(Snowmen & photo compliments of Amy & Joe Duffey;
pattern based on Althea Burger's Little Snowmen)

Snowflakes & peppermint

Merry Christmas from LoomLore! 

What a beautiful snowy Christmas Day, which gave me a chance to pop on my old Peppermint Twist hat and my new favorite Peppermint Candy Cane scarf for a little playtime in the snow. 

The scarf, completed two days ago, is made with one strand each of Lion Brand Jiffy True Red & Crisp White on a 15 peg one-half inch gauge round CindDWood loom. Since the stripes are two stitches wide and the loom has an odd number of pegs, the diagonal stripes are formed by continually flat knitting knitting two pegs with a red strand of yarn and knitting the next two pegs with a white strand of yarn.  Knitting two or more colors where the color changes occur within a few stitches of each other is referred to as color stranding and creates a double thick fabric. When using the color stranding method, it is imperative to keep the yarn from twisting, so as I knitted the two-stitch stripes, I kept the red strand on top and the white strand on bottom.

I couldn't decide if I wanted to add a tassel or pompom to each end of the scarf, so I never did either one. This was a fun project and I plan on making some more of these little color stranded tube scarves and perhaps explore new color patterns.

All my best to you during the Holiday Season!

It's still snowing!

Snowman TP Cozy

Christmas is my favorite time to create new little loomed lovelies for the holiday; however, I've been hard at work on pattern revisions for publication, so I've not had much time to blog. In the meantime, my good friend Althea Burger sent me her latest creation for the Knifty Knitter Looms, a cute little snowman toilet paper cozy. This little loom knitted cutie was inspired from the crocheted versions from Mary Maxim, but I really like Althea's knitted version much better. The Snowman TP Cozy pattern is listed below or it is available as a PDF file in the Pattern Box on the right. Be sure to post a "thank you" to Althea for sharing this pattern in time for the holiday season!

Althea's Snowman TP Cozy

Size: About 10 inches high
 
Materials

• Looms: 31 peg large gauge knitting loom for the snowman (red Knifty Knitter loom was used) and 8 peg spool loom for scarf
• Yarn: worsted weight in white, burgundy and orange
• Size E crochet hook
• White craft thread & needle
• 3 large buttons for body
• 2 small buttons for eyes
• Yarn needle
• Large white pom pom
• Fiberfill stuffing
• Roll of toilet paper

DIRECTIONS

Body & Head
"E wrap" on the 31 peg loom with white yarn for 38 rows. Pull up loomed edge to hook the loops onto pegs and make a very long "brim". Continue to "E wrap" for the head for 16 more rows. Slightly stuff the head part and tie it off.

Hat
With burgundy yarn,"E wrap" on the 31 peg loom 10 rows, make a brim, then continue to knit 12 more rows. Tie off. Add pom pom.

Scarf
With burgundy yarn, on spool loom, drawstring cast on flat knit for about 25 inches (closing the CO after knitting about six rows). Do a gathered BO. Cut, tie & secure the yarn tails. Stretch it out a little to set the knit stitches.

Nose
Row 1: Using orange yarn and E crochet hook chain 2, sc in second ch from hook. Chain 1, turn.
Row 2:  2 sc in st, ch 1, turn (2)
Row 3: 2 sc in each st, ch 1, turn.(4)
Row 4: 2 sc in first st, sc in next two sts, 2 sc in last st. (6)

Finishing
Cut yarn leaving a tail. Fold piece lengthwise and use yarn needle to sew up the sides to make pointed carrot-like nose. Sew to center of face. Using craft thread and small needle sew large buttons on front of body and small buttons on face for eyes. Tie scarf around neck area. Place hat on head, stretch it a little if necessary.