Pansies

 Pansies

~ Sarah Doudney (1843-1926), English Novelist ~

I send thee pansies while the year is young,
Yellow as sunshine, purple as the night;
Flowers of remembrance, ever fondly sung
By all the chiefest of the Sons of Light;
And if in recollection lives regret
For wasted days and dreams that were not true,
I tell thee that the "pansy freak'd with jet"
Is still the heart's ease that the poets knew
Take all the sweetness of a gift unsought,
And for the pansies send me back a thought.

I had intended on posting this pattern almost a year ago. However, I wrote the pattern for the pansies about the time I lost Shandy, my Maltese, and little did I know that would be one of several other personal loses during the year. I was so grieve-stricken that I didn't blog much until fall and that didn't seem like a good time to blog about pansies. So now, with spring just around the corner, I decided to do the "pansy" post. 

These bright little flowers are made of five individual petals, two large and three small, all knitted as flat panels on the Knifty Knitter Spool Loom. They are a little fiddly to make, but the biggest obstacle to overcome is mastering the color changes which is explained in the Pansies pattern. Designing these colorful little flowers, also called Heartsease, has brought me much happiness through those who have enjoyed making them.

If you have an inquiring mind, you can learn a little pansy history from these sites:

•  Pansy Flower Photos
• The bloom of the Pansies: curiosities, insights and photos
• Viola Music: Pansies and Violets 
• Pansy

I hope you enjoy making these as much as I have. Remember, comments are always welcome!

Indian Corn

Someone on Yahoo's Knifty Knitter Group recently asked if you could make Indian corn on the knitting looms similar to Alicia Kachmar's crocheted design that she describes in her blog post, "It's never too late for Indian corn."  I had actually saved the link to Kachmar's Indian corn post over a year ago and had tried to work out a stitch pattern that would look acceptable on the knitting loom. At that time, things just didn't click and I moved on to the next project at hand. When the subject came up again, I decided to give this project another shot.  

First, deciding on the stitch pattern was the key to making the corn look like corn. After searching several needle knitting sites, I settled on the wrong side of what's known as the "linen stitch." The next thing was to translate the stitch pattern to the looms and decide on which loom to use. Since this stitch required an odd number of pegs and I planned on working it in the round, the five-peg end of the Knifty Knitter Spool Loom became the loom of choice. After working out the translation, everything sort of fell into place. Here is an expanded explanation of the linen stitch for the 5-peg loom:

Linen Stitch

Rnd 1: Flat Knit peg-1, pass the yarn in front of peg-2 without knitting; flat knit peg-3, pass the yarn in front of peg-4 without knitting; flat knit peg-5.

Rnd 2: Pass the yarn in front of peg-1 without knitting which will leave two sets of yarn strands on this peg, flat knit peg-2; pass the yarn in front of peg-3, flat knit peg-4; end row by passing the yarn in front of the peg-5.

Repeat rounds 1 & 2 until you reach the desired length.

**Note: On pegs with 3 loops, knit 2 bottom loops over top loop.

Kachmar recommended using Lion Brand Homespun yarn for her crocheted corn. I tried the Homespun on several ears of knitted corn, but quickly discovered that I preferred Red Heart Classic or Red Heart Super Saver using one strand of solid with one strand of variegated yarn in autumn colors. Also, don't be tempted by the self-striping yarn, because it doesn't change colors quick enough to work properly with the little three to four inch ears of corn. You'll soon discover that trying different yarn color combinations is fun and addictive with this project. You really can't tell how the colors are going to work until the corn ear has been knitted and turned so the wrong side becomes the right side.

The Indian Corn pattern is available as a PDF file here, or in the Pattern Box on the right. It will also be offered as a class project on Yahoo's Loom Class during this upcoming week (November 7-13, 2010). Kudos to Alicia Kachmar for the inspiration for this project!

Itsy eggs & bitsy bunnies

As promised in the previous post, I now present the Itsy Eggs & Bitsy Bunnies. If you made a Jellybean Basket, you might be interested in a few of these tiny little no-calorie knit treats to go into your little basket. These were designed just for the small basket, because I didn't have the usual candy decorations on hand when I made pictures of the revised Jellybean Basket. The little eggs are one inch tall and the bunnies are three inches tall. Both are quick & easy to make on the five peg end of the Knifty Knitter Spool Loom.

Contrary to what you might think, the little eggs required more trial & error knitting than many of the projects I've done. I had to crack quite a few eggs before I got it right. It is important that you knit one peg at a time to keep an even tension when knitting both projects, but especially the little eggs. Just so you know things don't always come out right the first time, here's a picture of "the good, the bad & the ugly" little eggs.

Trial & Error Egg Knitting: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

The patterns have been test knitted and added to the Pattern Box on the right, or they can be accessed by clicking on Itsy Easter Eggs or Bitsy Bunnies.

Knifty Leprechaun

After sharing a picture of my little "loomy amigurumi leprechaun" made on the DA small gauge Mini-WonderLoom, several folks on one of the Yahoo loom knitting lists wanted to know if he could be made on the Knifty Knitter Looms. The answer is: "Yes, Virginia, there can be a Knifty Knitted leprechaun!" Since the Knifty Knitters are large gauge looms, I thought they might not be the best choice for knitting amigurumi. However, I'm very pleased with how well the KK leprechaun turned out. Of course, the KK version is about six inches tall - an inch or an inch & one-half taller that his four & one-half inch small gauge cousin, but much of that is due to the oversized top hat.

Modifications had to be made to the original pattern. The first thing was to use two strands of yarn held as one instead of the single strand that was used on the small gauge loom. Two different Knifty Knitter looms were incorporated for the KK leprechaun above. The 8-peg end of the spool loom was used for the body and the I-cord hat brim. The 12-peg flower loom was used to make the head and the main part of the hat. Also, I used some different stitch techniques to shape the bottom of the body and the top of the hat. This time around I remembered to use black when knitting the hat brim and added a yellow chain stitched buckle. As for the beard and hair, I used two strands of carrot colored Red Heart yarn instead of the copper colored fun fur and loosely crocheted an eight inch chain, which was whip stitched in place. I decided "fun fur" is an oxymoron, because it really isn't much fun to work with. To me, the fun fur is a bit too fussy for the amigurumi style. Another change was the use of buttons for the eyes. Of course, this would not be recommended for use with small children, but I just wanted to see what they would look like on this one.

At the rate I get things done these days, the pattern might be available in time for next St. Patrick's Day. In the meantime, I plan on making other amigurumi characters on the Knifty Knitter Looms since they are quick knits and such a hit with the kiddos.