Finally! My Cowboy is ready to roam the Wild Wild West!

Well it took a lot longer than I expected due to life's little interuptions but here he is :-) My KAL project is complete! This little cowboy was an absolute joy to knit, and lots of fun to put together. I love his gun, how cute is it!  

Let The KAL Begin!

I am SO excited to have started a KAL with some of the ladies in the Alan Dart Ravelry group. Quite a few people wanted to do Pearl the knitter and already had the pattern for her, and the Cowboy was the one I picked out of a hat from the suggestions on the forum! So it became a double KAL!

I am doing the Cowboy as I already had all of the yarn for him. Can't wait to see everyone's work! :D

Casting on - Cable Method

Some of Alan Dart's Patterns require you to cast on "Cable Method". This is something that I didn't know how to do myself, until I just found the video to share with you guys! So check out the video, it's pretty simple and makes for neater edging on your toys!



Happy Knitting! xxx

Increasing Alan Dart Style! (KFB)

I've noticed that quite a few people have had difficulty when starting out with Alan Dart patterns, as they are getting confused with the increasing. Many American patterns mean "Inc" to mean the same thing as "M1" (make one) but that is not the case. If you M1 in Alan's patterns, instead of increasing by KFB (Knitting the front and back of the stitch) you will end up with too many stitches.

Here is a video on how to KFB!



Happy Knitting! xxx

Free Pattern! Alan Dart's Haitian Ada

Designed to raise funds to aid the victims of the Haitian earthquake 2010. Be an aider like Ada.

A PDF file of this pattern is available here: Haitian Ada (Taken from Alan Dart's Website)

MEASUREMENTS

7in/18cm tall.

MATERIALS

Of Sirdar Click DK, 50g balls: 18g in Cobble 129; of Sirdar Snuggly DK, 50g balls: 8g in Engine Red and 2g in Soldier Blue; of Hayfield Bonus DK, 100g balls: 6g in Stone 889; oddments of black and white DK yarns; 20g of washable toy stuffing; long tweezers; thin white card and white twine for label.

Free Pattern! Alan Dart's Chick & Egg

A PDF file of this pattern is available here: Chick and Egg Pattern (Taken from Alan Dart's Website)

MEASUREMENTS

Chick: 7.5cm/3in tall.
Egg: 12.5cm/5in tall, 7.5cm/3in wide.

MATERIALS

For each chick you will need:
Of Hayfield Bonus DK 100g balls: 5g in Primrose 957, and oddments in Bright Orange 981 and Black 965; 5g of washable toy stuffing.

For each egg you will need:
Of Hayfield Bonus DK 100g balls: 15g each in White 961 and Oatmeal 964.

You will also need:
Pair of 3mm (no.11) knitting needles; hair spray (optional.)

ALAN DART hereby asserts and gives notice of his right under section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 to be identified as the author of this pattern.

Bella Bear

Project number four! Bella Bear is from Alan Dart's Heritage Bear Collection. I decided to make Bella’s dress part knitted part sewn. I am new to sewing so just wanted to take the opportunity to get a bit more practice! (Plus I was starting to get RSI from knitting so much!)

I am very happy with how Bella turned out - apart from her crooked muzzle! Whoops! I love knitting in snowflake yarn too - sewing up is a breeze, the texture of the yarn hides any imperfections!

Great pattern, as always.

This pattern is available for purchase from Alan Dart's website for £2.50 - http://alandart.co.uk/products/product/32

Flower Fairy

My third Alan Dart project, knitted from the pattern "Tooth Fairy". I made this fairy while on holiday in Sydney. I wanted her hair to have a bit more body than in the pattern so I decided to use dolls hair from a craft shop instead of yarn. I also wanted to decorate her with flowers so I guess she’s more of a garden fairy than a tooth fairy (although she still has her little pouch for all her fairy dust!)

This pattern is available for purchase from Alan Dart's website for £2.50 - http://alandart.co.uk/products/product/46

What to make next??…. :-)

Happy Knitting! xxx

Hibernating Harriet

Hi Everyone! As I forgot to take a photo of my first knitted toy, here is my second toy, Hibernating Harriet! Being the end of winter my local craft store had a limited variety of yarn so the only yarn I could find suitable for “Harry’s” spines was pink! So Harry became a girl. For neater stitching up I use DMC stranded cottons in matching colours. Happy Knitting! xxx

At this time, Hibernating Harry is not available for download off Alan Dart's website, but as the other patterns from Irresistable Gifts to Knit are becoming available month by month, I am sure this one will be available soon too, and I will keep you posted. For those who can't wait and would like to find a back issue of Simply Knitting, in which it was published, the issue you are looking for is November 2006.