The Spooky Gang

There has been a lot of talk on the Etsy forums about the best time to stock up for Halloween, with many stating now is the time. This holiday for many is a very lucrative time, with people boasting they couldn’t keep up with demand last year. None of the items I make really fit in with Halloween, I don’t really fancy making baby Halloween costumes, which I’m not really a great fan of!  but not to miss out on the action I felt I would like to make something just to test the waters.

So I came up with the idea of making some finger puppets, cute ones of course so they fit in with the nursery image.

This little Spooky Gang wouldn’t scare the ‘skin of a rice pudding’ as my mum used to say, but I’m sure they would bring hours of enjoyment to children and adults alike. They are an excellent tool to stimulate imaginative play with your children and introduce them to the world of puppet theatre.

The set is made up of five characters. Winnie the witch, Willie the wizard. Creeps the Cat. Gary the ghost and Percy the pumkin. All are made from DK and are basically the same pattern, adding colour and embellishments for each character and would be ideal for storytelling.

When I was a child growing up in the UK, Halloween was celebrated as ‘Duck Apple Night’ were we played games with apples, which were either bobbing in water or swinging from a line, which we had to retrieve with our mouths while hands were tied behind our backs. Over the years Halloween has become very ‘Americanised’ with parties and children dressing up as ghouls or monsters and visiting neighbours for ‘trick or treat’. It is now a multi-billion dollar industry.

Unless they sell quickly my little puppets will probably be the only Halloween items I have in my shop. If they don’t sell they will be offered to children who knock  on my door on Halloween expecting a treat!

Something for Autumn

I thought it was time I made something for a boy, so easy to get carried away with all the gorgeous patterns I have for girls. This week I completed a snug little duffle coat and wellington booties

It’s a simple garter stitch knit which is quick and easy, in fact easy enough for a beginner, and does look cute when finished.

The coat fits an 18″ chest so suitable for a baby up to 6 months and maybe beyond. It is knitted in DK and although the photos show a turquoise blue it is actually a jade green. It is so annoying that the colour hasn’t shown up properly as it is quite a striking shade.  I used a cream coloured yarn for the edgings and pockets, and used cream coloured toggles to provide contrast.

There is a generous hood to keep baby warm, which is knitted separatley and attached.

I knitted two squares in cream and stitched them in place for pockets, to give a neater look I then chain stitched around the outside edge.

I knitted a pair of wellington boots to complete the ensemble

Definately a warm little outfit for the cooler days of Autumn which will soon be upon us.

Lemon Drops

I’ve put the dolls away this week and finished off a vintage matinee coat which I’ve had on the needles for a couple of weeks.

I love this pattern I’ve knitted it many times over the years and when finished it never disappoints. It’s from an old Emu pattern which I have had in my collection for years. I love the  measurements in vintage patterns which are usually quite generous. I am quite a tight knitter and with modern patterns I often have to go up a needle size to achieve the correct gauge and  have to add a few extra lines for a decent length. Yet when knitting from vintage patterns I never have that problem. May have a lot to do with the fact that many years ago people would expect children to get their ‘wear’ out of a garment.

The coat and bonnet are knitted in 4ply on 5mm needles, this results in a lovely soft fabric.

The lacy structure of the pattern is quite dense but very pretty. It is basically achieved by K1 P1 K1 all into 1 stitch and then P3 tog.

The coat has a generous skirt with a roomy yoke which gives a nice swing to the coat and makes dressing babies that much easier. The pattern uses a ribbon fastening at the neck, which I thought could be a bit too much as the bonnet has a ribbon tie so I left the coat open and ebellished the edgings with yellow ribbon roses which are repeated on the sides of the bonnet.

I think this type of baby coat looks so beautiful over a frilly dress. Unfortunately I ran out of yarn so didn’t knit any shoes which I thought would have completed the outfit.