Knitting time again

Well, wool week has been and gone (don't tell me you missed it?!) but the clocks go back this weekend here in the UK and the mornings & nights will be getting darker. So I've turned back to my knitting needles; it's an activity where I don't need a lot of light. My other hobby, photography, is very dependent upon light so it's this time of year that I pick up my needles and start creating.








Currently I am working on another Bunny... a small challenge as the stitches are very small and I need to concentrate with each clickedy clack of the needle.
After I've finished the bunny, I'll work on a few mice.


I'm retiring the Squishies... Lazy Susan & Big Boss Panda. They've had a good run but it's time they went off into retirement. I think Lazy Susan has bought an apple orchard somewhere and I'm too scared to ask Big Boss Panda what his retirement plans are!

So what to replace the Squishies with?? Well I'll keep my eyes open for something... I've found a hedgehog but I need to know how to crochet for that. Perhaps I'll put some of my knitting knowledge to good use and make something a little more special... I feel a very dinosaur feeling coming on!

Don't forget to keep checking our website, it's updated regularly! So head over to www.unikgifts.co.uk for a browse

Bamboo, the new wonder plant?

I remember in the 90s and 00s it was aloe vera... everything had aloe vera in it... it was the new wonder plant. For me now that we're in the 10s it's bamboo, bamboo is in everything!

People eat it (so do animals), we build with it, we use it for paper, bamboo extracts are used in medicine and now we knit with it!

The sleeve on my yarn tells me that it's a bamboo and cotton mix (all I know is that its super soft!). I've seen bamboo socks for sale, and have even found a retailer that sells nothing but bamboo apparel.

So I've decided to find out a little bit more about this new wonder material.

SOFT
People are surprised by the feel of bamboo, all my softies are silky soft (makes it hard to knit with but worth it in the end). Imagine a strong silk... they feel like that! But Bamboo's soft silky feel comes with other benefits...

CLEAN
It's naturally anti-bacterial (well antimicrobial), preventing skin irritation or allergic reactions naturally.

COOL
Bamboo is cool, no really t's usually 3 degrees cooler than cotton, and removes moisture away from the body quicker than other fibres - leaving you feel cool and refreshed!

PLANET FRIENDLY
Bamboo is a grass, and some species can grow up to 4ft a day when mature! So it's easy to regenerate once it's been cut down for use, a bit like mowing a lawn rather than deforesting a large area!

So bamboo, the new wonder plant and the new yarn of choice for my knitted softies, squishies and mice!

Monday maker... the pieces

Here's Sarah making some of her pieces

And here's some of the finished articles!

 

 

Monday Maker... with Sarah Davies!

Sarah – The Person

Name: Sarah Davies

Year of Birth: 1976

Current City: Guildford is my closest city!

Company name: u-ni-k gifts llp

How would you describe a typical Sunday?

Kathryn will wake us all up, usually by running in shouting “Morning Time!”. Daddy makes breakfast & the grown ups have a few cups of coffee. If the weather is nice, Kathryn & I will go out on an adventure while Daddy does his thing. If it's raining then we'll play painting or play doh. Sunday curry followed by watching TV in front of the fire is our family time before Kathryn's bath, book and bedtime routine.

And here a quite obvious question: How did you become a talented crafts person / designer? What inspired you to do this?

My Mum taught me how to knit when I was young but by the time I was a teenager I had cast aside my knitting needles for paint brushes and school books.

When I became pregnant with Kathryn I was keen to make her something traditional. So I picked up knitting needles again and started knitting squares. Once I'd completed the blanket, I looked for more challenging things to knit. A brief look around Ravellry brought me to the knitted softies. Not fond of knitting in wool or synthetic materials I started to deviate from the patterns I had to create my own little creatures. Now each one of them is lovingly made by me and has their own story to tell.

Not being the best seamstress in town, their embroidered faces usually gives me the character of the animal and from that their name. Dirty Dorris was so very cheery that she looked made for splashing about making mud pies and generally becoming covered in dirt. So the dream to become an archaeologist was an obvious choice for her story.

Its Fill-in-the-blanks time. So, please fill in the blanks:

I love photography because it allows me to capture moments to cherish forever. 

If I could live anywhere I'd live in New Zealand by the sea. 

If I weren’t a designer / maker , I would be a photographer. 

People who like natural things will like my creations.

Knit to order...?!

While in Germany I received a message from Anna. "Get your knitting needles out we've had an order for a Lazy Susan" or something along those lines...

So on my return home I tried to contact my supplier of bamboo/cotton mix yarn... To no avail. As far as I can tell they seem to have gone out of business! Eeek!

A quick pop to my local small yarn shop and I have an equivalent yarn, which while not as pink it is softer than before. I pick up my needles and start to cast on...

Just as I'm finishing off the body I pop a quick email to our lovely customer to let her know how things are coming along... which is when I learn that the piggy is a birthday present for a young man on Tuesday!

This means that I have 4 days less than I thought to knit the piggy and pop in the post to make sure the  young man has his piggy on his birthday! YIKES!

Having already moved a bunny from the needles, I stayed up late on Friday night and late on Saturday night to finish off the Piggy. On Sunday I finally put down the knitting needles and picked up my embroidery needle. By Sunday afternoon I was done.

5 days of hard work later...

 

Now I have some of this pink yarn left... perhaps a new dress for the bunny I'm knitting?

#yarnbombing

For those of you who didn’t watch the One show last night or read Surrey Life a few weeks ago, beware you could be yarn bombed!

What is it?

Well put it simply- THIS

Tree in Od, Sweden

Farnham Maltings

Knit Knot tree by the Jafagirls

Surrey Life spotting

Decorating and bombarding local amenities with,….
well knitting. 

Lampposts, Street names, band stands and telephone boxes. You name it…nowhere is safe from this gorgeous infestation of knitting and purling.

Little did I know that it happens here, in Farnham, where I live!

After a trip to UNRAVEL last month, I was in awe of the gorgeous entrance to The Farnham Malting’s. The bridge was decorated with knitted Chinese Lanterns and lampposts were kept warm with little sleeves of knitted warmers. Gorgeous. I was in heaven.

As a non-knitter myself (Sarah is the knitter in this partnership) I am in awe of knitters and knitted products. Especially unexpected knitted things.

I am thrilled to learn that a literal neighbour of mine has started a gathering of knitters called Knitting Ne’er Do Wells in a gathering place right behind my house! And to promote the Farnham Maltings knitting show last month they were asked to decorate the town in an appropriate way….by knit bombing it!

As I tweeted last night to @SurreyLife  Matthew Williams, who seamed to be as excited as I was that the Farnham knitters were on tele…."I want to be  #yarnbombed!". I wondered if i would be safe in my bed at night, or if i should be worried that i may be knitted into my house tonight by those naughty knitters.

I may even try again and persist with my knitting antics so I can start yarnbombing too!

Matthew is asking anyone who has been yarn-bombed locally to add your images to the Surrey Life website. 


Farnham Maltings
Knitting Ne'er Do Wells

Are you my Grandmother?!

Yesterday a friend of mine left what he thought was a cheeky comment on my facebook status. Not a lot of my friends know that I started to knit when I was pregnant, in fact many of them would fall over with the thought of me sitting comfortably by a fire with a ball of wall, two needles and a knitted creation.  I'm not exactly 'grandmother material'.

Which makes you think, what is 'grandmother' material? I know some fabulous Grandmothers or Nonnas or Nana's or Nanny's, and they all have one thing in common: an abundance of enthusiasm for children. Fantastic grandmothers want to improve the life of a child in any way they can.

Granny Annie & her two grandchildren

Fantastic grandmothers can play children's games all day. It doesn't matter if the child is a baby and only wants to watch a friendly face move and make soft noises at them - a grandmother will do this all day! Or if the child wants to 'help' fold the washing, a grandmother will willingly play tents, flags, kites... with the sat up baby until it falls over with giggles. Grandmothers can be found in play parks pushing little ones on swings, running behind trees for peek-a-boo games, or sitting little ones on their knees making the booboo go away, wiping the tears and placing them back on their feet.

Look my Granny showed me
how to do this...

Fantastic grandmothers let children do things their mother would not. Shhhhh don't tell Mummy, I hear. Hmmm oh dear, what are they doing now.... Ho hum. Granny is teaching baby how to turn on the water tap of the water butt. Gee thanks Granny. Granny and baby are pressing all the buttons on the CD player... d'oh! Thanks Granny. Eeek Granny is letting baby eat that juicy peach in her Sunday clothes...Oh too late. Thanks Granny. Baby is happy to toddle to granny rather than Mummy and ask for 'up' so that they can go on new adventures!

Fantastic grandmothers listen to children. It doesn't matter if the conversation is over the magical Skype or on the phone or in person. A grandmother will listen to what the child is trying to say and will wait for the appropriate time to provide a response. It's a special conversation between child and grandmother - they have their own language. I often here 'oooh really we had one of them but the wheels fell off' as a response to a particular ramble, DangerBaby thinks this is really funny and will do her 'granny laugh', which makes Granny laugh... and they both laugh together in their own joke!

Fantastic grandmothers overreact. I don't mean an overreaction to parenting techniques or situations, nope fantastic grandmothers overreact to the slightest incentive from the child. EVERY loved child I know has a 'granny cough', a pathetic noise that makes their grandmother throw her hands to her face and say something like 'Oh dear, that is a bad cough! Quick Granny cuddle it better'. Or a Granny laugh where the little one mimics the laugh of the elder, hoping that the laugh will be shared.

I could go on, there's lots of things fantastic grandmother's do. I know, I'm lucky enough to know lots of awesome grandmothers.

I recently read 'Great Mothers get promoted to Grandmother'. Well I hope to become grandmother material, with or without the knitting needles!

Dirty Dorris, our tom-bunny!

I'd like to introduce you to Dorris, she's the little sister of Bella Bunny and is part of the u-ni-k gifts knitted family.

Our youngest family member!

Dorris is not like her big sister, Bella, she's still growing into her ears and most of her clothes. As the youngest member of the Bunny family, Dorris has a lot of preloved clothes. Not that this bothers Dorris, she's not a bunny that cares too much about her appearance. To Dorris one dress is pretty much the same as another. So she can usually be found in an old hooded jumper doing what she likes best. Digging!

Not your average hooded youngster

Yes, our Dorris is an explorer or adventurer – she's always off somewhere digging up ancient artefacts or looking for dinosaur bones. She's happiest outside getting her paws muddy while discovering the next big palaeontological breakthrough. This is how she earned her nickname – 'Dirty Dorris'.

Unlike her sister, Dorris is knitted in cotton. This makes Dorris more hard wearing for the rough and tumble life of an adventurer bunny. Also she can be put through a washing machine cycle for when she really is very dirty.

Both Bella Bunny and Dirty Dorris are knitted from the excellent Babara Prime's Fuzzy Mitten pattern for rabbits. As always, I've adjusted the patterns to the yarns I use but I try to keep as close as possible to the pattern.

Dorris and Bella both take me about a week to knit and their clothes take a couple of days. So if you'd like a Dorris or a Bella, please allow for about 10 days for making & posting.

Dorris and Bella are available to purchase on www.unikgifts.co.uk

My name's Sarah & I'm a knit-a-holic

So the secret is out, I'm a knitter. It goes further than that, I'm addicted to knitting and I usually have at least two projects on the go at anyone time, a bag of wool/cotton/bamboo for the next set of projects and an array of knitted pieces lying around waiting to be stitched together. I'm not so keen on the sewing bit as my sewing skills usually let down the beautiful knitted piece. But with the help of the mighty YouTube I think I've cracked that one.

It all started when I was pregnant, my Mum had a hip op and needed some TLC, so I went and stayed with her for a while to help out (ROFL, I had a huge bump and wasn't much help she couldn't bend to pick things up and neither could I... we made a right pair!). Since there's not much an invalid and heavily pregnant person can do of an evening we started knitting squares.

I hadn't knitted in YEARS, in fact my Mum taught me how to knit about 20 years prior and I don't think I'd picked up a pair of needles since. However, we knitted and purled stocking stitch squares in white, pink and green. I'd mastered it, and the squares were piling up next to me, I needed a challenge. So I started to mess about with purling when I should have been knitting to make up letters in the stocking stitch – low and behold I had a K, then a T, then a Y... soon I had squares that spelt KATHRYN. Yay! Now all I had to do was make sure I had enough squares to fill the blanket. Needless to say, I was hooked.

I've now had a few more years to perfect some of my 'make it up along the way' patterns, mainly of small animals:

The Sugar Mice

Loopy Larry the lamb (he's a lovie darling!)

Big Boss Panda:

And more to follow once our chief soft toy tester has finished putting them through their paces:

[My Mummy knits!]

So I'm planning to certify my creations as toys and launch the whole range with the new website in time for Christmas.

I will of course knit to order as well!