Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Knitted Gnome Family Pattern



I have been busy knitting toys in hopes of a good Holiday Season of sales here at Simply Playing.  Along with knitting toys I developed a pattern (last year actually, but finally written out) that I'm hoping to launch in the next month or two.  It's of a gnome mama with her baby and child.  Some will be in the store soon sold as mama with her baby in a sling and then the child will be sold separately.  Being new to pattern writing I am looking for a few test knitter's to test it out before it's made public.  If you are interested in being a test knitter please email me at ann"at" simplyplaying"dot"net.  

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On and Ginny for Yarn Along.

Friday, September 19, 2014

Fresh Off the Wheel - Speckled Chickens?




It's getting close to the Holiday Season of Craft Fairs for me and my knitted toy business Simply Playing so, personal knitting has slowed, if not stopped completely, while toy making goes into full swing.  Thus today's post on my latest "Fresh Off the Wheel" yarn is not intended for a hat or mittens as is my usual, but instead is for chickens - knitted toy chickens.  It is rather silly to spend all the time I do spinning yarn (I am a slow spinner) to knit a simple little toy, but I really love the results which oddly I came across by accident.  

You see I purchased this black lama roving from Friends in Fiber thinking I would ply it as a single strand to ply with a rainbow ply to sell in my shop.  Well, it kept breaking and getting away from me as I was trying to spin it being too slippery for my inexperienced hands I believe.  To solve this problem I thought I'd card it with another wool fiber to give it a bit more "grab" so the fiber would stick together and let me draft with better ease. White merino was what I had on hand and using it with the lama fiber did make drafting easier, but I had no idea what to make with the yarn it until it occurred to me that it kind of looked like a black and white speckled chicken.  

One of the venues in whose Holiday Fair I participate in is Dodge Nature Preschool.  They have an interesting feature to their classrooms - live chickens.  Yes, they have live chickens that the preschoolers get to help care for and play alongside with - it's a very wonderful school.  Needless to say I sold out of my chickens at last year's fair.  As I'm hoping to participate again this year I thought I'd make more varieties and quantities of knitted chickens.  And now I have a speckled black and white variety to add to the mix.  What colors do you associate with chickens?

Joining in with Linda for Creative Friday.