Rowan Laze Knitting Pattern

Oh my god! The Rowan 'Laze' pattern is so long; even my mother groans and leaves the room when I ask her to look at it for me.

"It’s a 25 row pattern!" she cries. However, it is certainly worth persevering as I really love the dogtooth check pattern and contemporary shape of this two colour knitted cardigan. The Rowan Studio 20 booklet also contains a whole raft of other patterns for young fashionistas – the diamond patterned 'Sun' dress has a certain ikat look about it and is a firm favourite. There's also 'Shine', a chic summer shift dress with a twisted cut out back detail that is both elegant and understated. Pictured top to bottom: Laze, Sun and Shine Rowan knitting patterns.

Bouquet Tea Cosy

And here she is at last, my finished tea cosy. As you can see, I covered her in daffodils, a lily, roses, poppies and leaves. I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out and will definitely make another tea cosy from a different pattern in the future. Tea cosies rock!

To make it a bit more interesting I broke the rules by using different sized needles so all the flowers were different sizes, and I knitted the leaves in three shades of green.

When I get near the end of a project I always underestimate how long it will take to darn in the ends. This project was no exception, it actually took ages to sew all the foliage on and tidy up the inside but I am quite pleased with my handiwork. You just can't really buy these, only in the every-one-identical, mass produced sense anyway!

Thanks to everyone whose free patterns I used, now everything's neatly stitched down it's ready for a tea party...!

Knitting machines & vintage pattern books

Sadly I've been too busy to knit or blog this week. I'm dying to get going again at the weekend. So many projects, so little time! I've also been toying with the idea of buying a knitting machine as I spotted some fab vintage '60s and '70s Brother machine pattern books online. I suspect the only decent machines I could buy would be secondhand. If anyone has one they want to sell, please comment on the blog.