More knitting exploration!

Yes, it seems I have become somewhat obsessed with knitting and crochet at the moment, I have a couple of projects on the go which I will blog about eventually, but I wanted to tell you about this Etsy store I have discovered belonging to ButterflyLove - based in the UK, this shop sells really cute amigurumi plushes AND patterns, and yes I bought one (you get them via email in PDF format) and tried it out - and love it!

Amigurumi is the Japanese art of crochet or knitted plush toys and there are a lot of them around at the moment - knitting and crochet are both coming back as a trend right now, and as I have said in my previous post, there are many Etsy stores selling them AND the patterns.

Now, this one that I saw in ButterflyLove's shop was something I could not resist getting!  I bought the pattern for this:

It is a planet and moon!  You need a wool with a stripey kind of pattern, but I was really pleased with this!  So much so in fact, I will be making more for a couple of other people as gifts.  It's really quick and easy to make, and you don't need to know any complicated stitches.

The only thing you really need to know is how to knit 2 together - which is pretty self explanatory - and how to "increase" stitches.  You can easily find out several ways of increasing the number of stitches on your needles, either in books or even on Youtube - I have used Youtube for many knitting and crocheting problems and I find it very helpful, especially as you can watch someone doing it as it is explained.  Everyone will have their own preferred method of increasing, and mine is to knit (or purl, depending on your pattern) in the front and back of a stitch, which is one of the visible and decorative ways of increasing.  Here's a good Youtube clip of it being explained HERE.

Happy knitting!

Siobhan x