More about the globe-trotting sheep (blog 2)

It seems the woolly threesome are having a great time globe-trotting from blog to blog.

Yesterday they visited America and have now headed off to another destination.

This morning's post brought a postcard from New Zealand and I guessed this was to be their next stop. But I was wrong! The sheep were heading for Little Jenny Wren in Tasmania which is a beautifully picturesque island south east of the Australian mainland. Visitors to this blog will find the sweetest dolls, all lovingly made by Jenny. The woolly sheep who lives with Jenny has made special friends with a little dolly named Beth who is soon to be travelling to her new home in Canada. How exciting!

Meanwhile, back home in England, Lilac the lamb found Tasmania on her map and immediately wondered how her friends were going to travel there from New Zealand as there was such a lot of water to cross. If only she'd known!

Foolishly the woolly threesome had rented a raft and headed off (at night) across the wide ocean. By the look of it the voyage was a rough one.
Thankfully I can tell you that they have all arrived safely at Little Jenny Wren's blog and wasted no time in meeting their new Tasmanian cousin and his pretty dolly friend Beth who gave each little sheep a big cuddle.
Where will they travel to next?

The woolly blog-trotting begins (blog 1)

Great excitement here in woolly land. Three of the Flutterby flock are packing their bags and preparing to go blog-trotting.

Chalky is using a little woolly hat to carry his travelling essentials.

Charcoal has his things in a red and white knitted hankie tied to a stick, 

and Lilac is kindly lending Rose her lurex bag. Lilac isn't travelling with the others, she prefers to remain at home and guard the flowers (especially the yellow ones).

Blogland is a huge place, but the woolly threesome seem undaunted by the trip. Looking at the map most places seem to be just a hop, skip and jump away.

Their first visit will be to America where fabulous Fred with his beautiful curly coat is waiting to greet them at
Ivory Blush Roses

Rose the sheep is looking forward to seeing the lovely crazy quilting done by Fred's creator Lisa. Do take a look at these little works of art whilst you are visiting.
What fun! Where will be next?

Knitted sheep in woolly land

Far away in woolly land live two little knitted sheep.

Chalky is white with a curly coat and Charcoal is black with a grey coat.

One day a fashionable little girl sheep named Rose came to live with them. She wore a beautiful fluffy pink coat and the boys were immediately smitten.

Chalky changed his curly coat for a smart tweedy one and Charcoal sported his glitzy grey number but Rose, in her new rainbow striped poncho, was not impressed.

Charcoal changed his name to 'Bumble-baa' and Chalky changed his to 'Baa-code' but Rose in her flowery coat was not amused. Poor Chalky and Charcoal, will they ever impress the gorgeous Rose?

A bright idea

These little characters are very easy to knit and great fun to dress. Let me know if you post a picture of your sheep as Chalky and Charcoal would love to call in during their blog-trotting tour and link to your blog on one of their forthcoming posts. (They will visit just 10 blogs so please let me know ASAP if you'd like a visit)

AROUND THE WORLD IN 10 BLOGS



The friends are hoping to find 10 blogs to visit

Pattern for the sheep

I used DK yarn for the head, body, legs and ears and size 2.75 mm needles (US size 2). This finer needle gives the required tighter fabric.

Different yarns vary in the way they knit up but here is the pattern I used. Please adjust if necessary to suit your own requirements. I experimented with stocking stitch and reverse stocking stitch, both are suitable, its a matter of personal choice.

Body - Cast on 14 stitches, knit 16 rows. With a large sewing needle take the stitches off onto a length of yarn and draw up. With wrong sides facing stitch the long edges together. You should now have a tube. Turn to the right side, stuff and draw up the open end to make a fat sausage shape.

Legs (knit 4) - Cast on 6 stitches and knit 8 rows. Cast off. Roll up the knitted piece as tightly as you can to form a tiny sausage shape and stitch down the open edge (no stuffing required). Stitch the tops of the legs to the body as shown above.

Head- Cast on 9 stitches and knit 10 rows. Take stitches off onto a sewing needle and draw up. With right side facing (because head is too small to turn inside-out) neatly oversew the long edges together. Lightly stuff the head and gather the open end. To give the head a realistic curved shape push the threaded needle from the nose end through the head and out of the top. Pull until you have the required curved shape then fasten off. Decide which end is better for the nose and stitch the head to the body (see picture above).

Ears (knit 2) - Cast on 3 stitches and knit 2 or 3 rows. Remove stitches onto sewing needle and draw up, this makes the pointed end of the ear. Oversew down the ear to the base and stitch it to the top of the head (see picture above).

Now you can give the sheep a face. I used embroidery floss.

Now comes the fun part...dressing the sheep. You can create different coats from different yarns, in other words anything goes!

I used 3.75 mm (US size 5) to make a soft fabric.

Basic coat- Cast on 10 stitches and knit the required number of rows to wrap over the sheep's back from one side to the other. Cast off. Fold in half and with wrong sides facing. Stitch together the edges at one end to form the back end and a very short seam (about 1cm) at the front. This will fit under the sheep's head. You must leave an opening large enough at this end for the sheep's head to pass through. Turn right side out.

I used a curly boucle yarn for the white coat (garter stitch) and a grey DK for the other coat (moss stitch).

Needless to say there is now friendly rivalry between the boys.
Will they ever win the heart of the lovely Rose?

Have fun knitting your sheep and don't forget to let me know if you feature it on your blog then I can link to it next time I post.

Dolly days

Meet Louisa. Isn't she a sweetie? She's the oldest member of my little doll family and dates from the 1860s. I found her on Ebay a few years ago. She was seeking a good home and my heart was lost as soon as I saw her.

Her head is wax over composition (hence the hairline cracks) and her eyes are glass. I adore old dolls but perfect condition is never important to me. I prefer the loved and played-with look and Louisa would surely have lots of secrets to share if only she could talk.

She has a cloth body stuffed with straw and carved wooden hands and forearms that adjoin cloth upper arms attached to her body at the shoulders.

Her boots and lower legs are also made of wood and are attached to upper legs made of cloth. Her pretty muslin dress and underwear are in excellent condition.

Over the years I've spend many happy hours reading about old dolls and have a varied collection of books about them.

Vintage prints of little girls and their dollies appeal to me greatly. This gorgeous woodcut dates from the 16th century. I often dream of owning a REALLY old doll but they are exceedingly rare and if by chance I ever found one I know I wouldn't have sufficient funds to acquire it, so I dream on.

By complete contrast let me show you a doll I made at school when I was eight years old. Funny little thing isn't she! All the children in my class were asked to bring 'scraps' from home to create a dolly from a wooden peg (clothespin). Just look at her funny little blue arms! They are wire from a vintage TV my dad was repairing at the time. And guess what! My little peg doll won 'first prize'. The teacher gave me a silver sixpence which she said was 'for luck'. In England sixpences have been given as tokens of good luck for over 400 years.

Being given a silver sixpence must have ignited my love of doll making because I've been making them (large and small) ever since .

I like making small things best so peg dolls have always been a favourite.

Recently I experimented with polymer and paper clays as I wanted to try putting larger heads onto the pegs and give each face a tiny nose. I wanted to try making tiny arms as well.

And here is the new head viewed from the back. You can see it is quite a bit larger than the original peg head. After several coats of paint and varnish I added...

.... the eyes and mouth.Then came the hair and the tiny clothes.

And here is the finished dolly enjoying a cup of tea in the dolls house. I'm very pleased with the way she turned out. She has a pert little nose and her little (sculpted) arms are attached to thin wire so they will bend. Her legs remain 'peg-shaped'. I made her a Kate Greenaway style dress, petticoat, pantaloons and apron plus a mop cap to protect her curls.

Here she is again with a tiny lace bag in which she keeps.....

 .....a shiny sixpence 'for luck'.

Knitted daffodil

It's a little bit early to be doing a post for Easter but not too early to be thinking about knitting a little something for the Easter table. So how about a bright yellow daffodil to decorate an egg cosy? I created this pattern several years ago and have used it endlessly ever since (with a few variations along the way).

The pattern is very easy to follow (I don't do difficult). Please note I have written the instructions in a way that 'beginners' should be able to follow. If you are an experienced knitter please don't be put off by the rather lengthy instructions.

You will need a small amount of yellow DK yarn, pairs of 3.25 mm and 4 mm needles (US 3 and 6) and a couple of hours to spare.
Start with the centre trumpet. Using 3.25 mm needles (US size 3) cast on 14 stitches.
Row 1: purl
Row 2: knit
Row 3: purl
Row 4: knit
Change to 4 mm needles (US size 6). Changing to larger needles gives the trumpet a better shape.
Row 5: purl.

To create a little wavy edge to the trumpet you now need to do a picot edge as follows.
Row 6: Knit 1, (slip 1, knit 1, pass slip stitch over the stitch just knitted). Repeat the instructions in the brackets to the last remaining stitch. Knit 1.
Row 7: Purl 2 stitches then pick up the yarn between stitch 2 and 3, put it on the left hand needle and purl it as a stitch. Purl the next stitch then pick up the yarn before the next sitch and purl. Continue doing this to the end of the row (by picking up these short lengths of yarn between stitches you are replacing the stiches that were lost on the row before). You should now have 14 stitches on your needle.
Row 8: knit
Change to 3.25 mm needles
Row 9: purl
Row 10 knit
Row 11 purl. Break off the yarn leaving a length of about 20 cm (8 in). Remove all the stitches onto this length of yarn ready for drawing up later.

Using a separate length of yarn (not the one threaded through the stitches) stitch together the two short edges of the daffodil trumpet and secure. Now pull the thread that passes through the stitches, draw up and secure tightly. This will form the inside of the trumpet. Fold the trumpet along the picot edge and secure the cast on edge to the back of the daffodil. Don't draw up this edge. (shown above). The trumpet is complete.

You will need 6 petals. I have used a paler yellow for these. They are knitted in garter stitch which will ensure they don't curl.
Using 3.25 mm needles cast on 7 stitches. Work 5 rows. Knit 2 stitches together at the start of the next and every following row until you have 3 stitches remaining. Break yarn 20 cm (8 in) from the work and remove stitches onto a sewing needle. Draw up and fasten off (petal above left). Now draw up the cast on edge and secure to give the petal a nice curled shape (petal above right).

Stitch 3 petals to the back of the trumpet as shown above.

Stitch the remaining 3 petals behind the first 3 petals as shown above.

To make the stamens/stigma for the centre of the flower. Cut a piece of yarn (orange or yellow) 20 cm (8 in) long and wrap round a needle as shown.

Tie 6 knots as shown above.

Thread each tail of yarn through to the back of the daffodil and secure tightly. The bloom is now complete and ready to add to your egg cosy.

As you'll see I've made the trumpet in the centre quite short as I didn't want the

 bloom to flop forward. A couple of extra rows before and after the picot row will give you a longer trumpet. For the stem I used a green plastic knitting needle which I simply pushed into the back of the flower.

The daffodil together and a white narcissus with an orange centre (knitted same as above) make a pretty corsage. The stems are easily done with green yarn. Cast on 14 stitches. Work in stocking stitch for 2 rows and cast off. The stem will automatically curl showing the back of the stocking stitch. Use this as the right side and stitch together the two long edges to form a stem.
To make a very simple knitted egg cosy use 3.25 mm needles. Cast on 32 stitches. Work 4 rows in garter stitch and 15 rows in stocking stitch. Break yarn and thread stitches onto it. Draw up and secure. Stitch the two short edges together and you have a simple egg cosy.

I found a bulb catalogue a very useful source of daffodil pictures as there are dozens of different shapes and shades to choose from.

Happy daffodil knitting