02 Feb 2011
by Tamsinin Knitography, Knitting Mama Tags: Free, Geek Knit, Kindle, Knitting, South Africa
Like the lesser spotted Woolly Mammoth, the Woolly Kindle is a rare and beautiful beast. It lurks in dark places and lures you in with its siren call of, “Boooooks, boooooooooooks, read my boooooks.”
The Woolly Kindle is also free. Yes. All you need is 1x Kindle and some basic ingredients to create this majestic creature.
Ok, I’ll stop talking rubbish and explain.
My Kindle is an older version (it was a gift from My Person) so there are very few ready-made covers for it. I also bought myself an utterly divine skein of handspun and hand-dyed merino wool (made from a pet sheep called Barney, ohhh yes) that demands it is used for something I touch regularly.
The result? I discovered two awesome patterns for Kindle covers that are both free and quite easy to make.
For the Monster Kindle Cover you’ll have to work in the round but it is quite an easy feat on circular needles. You may also have to register/log-in to Ravelry in order to see it as this was very kindly created and donated by a Ravelry member.
The Baobab is gorgeous, very easy to make, and has sentimental value because of the fact that it grows in Souf Efrica. Yes, I am aware that it is a little bit sad, but hey.
Fabulous free patterns, awesome Kindle covers. Life is good.
29 Jan 2011
by Tamsinin Knitography, Knitting Mama Tags: Crafty, Free, Kindle
Hot on the heels of my Daily Mailesque reveal of my tawdry relationship with my Kindle, here comes an utterly delicious free pattern for those of you who’ve also succumbed to Kindle love.
While this particular pattern is Kindlelicious, it will work just as well for any other eReader, just fiddle the measurements a bit here and there. Simple and gorgeous, this is a great pattern from The Sometimes Crafter.
11 Aug 2010
by Tamsinin Knitography Tags: Geek Knit, Knitting, Pattern
This is SO exciting. The first entry into the Knitography section and it’s a corker!
What is it?
A crazy creative shawl that’s all about having fun with different colours, knitting techniques and fabrics
How do I make it?
This particular garmet is perfect for a beginner who doesn’t want to tackle anything too complicated but will kill themselves if they have to make another scarf. It’s simple enough to take on, is the perfect training ground for practising complex stitches like Moss Stitch and Lace, develops your increasing skills, and doesn’t show mistakes.
Increase by knitting the first stitch normally then, before pulling the stitch off the left hand needle, knit into the back of it again. Voila! You now have an extra stitch.
Cast on 3 stitches, knit a row. Then M1 (your increase) on the first and last stitches to make 5 stitches in total. Knit the row. Then get yourself either a stitch marker or two stitch pendant markers (like mine in the pic above) and mark the centre stitch. With this pattern you must always have an odd number of stitches in total.
Then knit 1, M1 (always increase on the second stitch from the beginning and the second stitch from the end for a neater edge), K1, M1. You now have 7 stitches. Knit the row.
Now the pattern for the rest of the garment appears. You do a total of four increases per row from now on. Knit the first and last stitches. Increase the second and second last stitches. Increase the stitch just before the centre stitch and the stitch just after the centre stitch. This is what makes that awesome optical illusion of a V in the middle of the shawl. Got it?
Then after doing a row with increases, knit a row to give it some love, then increase again on the following row. You should always have an odd number of stitches so you can increase on either side of the centre stitch.
Feel free to give me a shout if you get stuck.
Wool and gauge: Stick with double-ply but go mad with your wool. Any variety will do. I got fluffy ones, thick ones, alpaca ones, wool ones, the lot. As long as they demanded the same gauge I was happy. I also recommend going up about one or two needle sizes more than the recommended size. I am using 6mm circular needles (which are fab because the garment gets really weighty for standard needles). I bought about ten balls of wool in four different colourways.
Oh, and stop whenever you’re ready. Change colour whenever you’re ready. Have fat bits, thin bits, chunky bits – anything goes.
Photography settings: Nikon D40. 45.0mm focal length. ISO 200. 3.3f
08 Aug 2010
by Tamsinin Knitography Tags: Blog, Knitting, Zombie
The Stylist
Over the past six months I’ve rediscovered a love of knitting that has taken over a good part of the lounge and it has always been my plan to include some of this passion in my blog. And today I am launching Knitography!
I was going to call it Schnitting (shots of knitting) but that just kept making me giggle. In the shot to the left you can see my stylist getting to work on the first Knitograph.
In the Knitography pages I’ll be taking photos of my current knitting projects in weird and/or wonderful locations.
I’ll be including the pattern I’m using to make the project (where copyright allows) along with mini lessons on how to knit, how to get the most out of your stash, and much more. This is for me to keep track of my knitting history and get back on track with my photography.
The photos will be alright or hideous or awesome. Mostly they happened by chance because I still struggle with Fstops and apertures. The mini-lessons are there for anyone to enjoy and will hopefully inspire people to join in with this awesome craft. And soon, with luck, I’ll be featuring crochet too. I have an entire book of crochet zombies and vampires to make so I have hunted down some lessons.
Feel free to send in your own knitography, I’d love to feature it, and your own tips, tricks and fabulous patterns. All are welcome!
So, get started and visit the Knitography pages you can see to the top right. It’s still new so I only have one project running at the moment.
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