i love milo

Over on my Ravelry group I'm hosting a Knit-A-Long (KAL) for the Month of May, that we're calling Milo May. Sounds kind of catchy really!  We're having a crazy big knit-a-long in the lead up to the second anniversary of the release of the milo pattern. Hard to believe it's only been two years, but yep, the milo pattern was released June 6th 2009.

Milo is quite a special little pattern for me, as it's the first pattern I charged for.  It changed my whole approach to making, creating and designing knitting patterns. Before then there is no way I would have considered myself a knitwear designer. Truth be told, sometimes I still don't. But regardless, milo changed everything, mainly because it was a heck of a lot more popular than I could ever EVER have imagined in my wildest dreams. So there is a lot about milo that I have to be grateful for really.

So far on Ravelry there have been 105 milos knit up for the KAL! And over 2400 in total! WOW!!
And what I love most of all is the creativity that has gone into all these KAL milos; new cables have been designed and created, lots of colourwork has been happening with quite a few charting their own colourwork patterns, embellishments galore, substitution of stitch patterns, and of course, plenty of gorgeous knit-to-pattern milos too.

 If you're on Rav seriously have a look at them all .

I've knit two, but do have plans to squeeze a third one in before the 6th. Neither of the two I've knit are for the milo boy. oops.

The first one was for Lily.

This one is knit in Noro Silkgarden Lite. Yep, that Noro crack action is still happening.  For Lily I knit a 21 inch chest size (size 2) but knit it with extra length to a size 6 length. It used 2 and a half skeins of the Noro.

Through experience with Toby's Silkgarden Noro, I know that this yarn does tend to grow quite a bit with blocking and wear.  Lily is now a 22 inch chest, but I knit her the 21 inch chest.  I really could go down needle sizes but you know, I quite like the fabric of the Noro at this tension.

I played around with cable design for this one and did something that I'd been meaning to do for a very very long time! I designed a little heart cable that you can quite simply substitute into the milo pattern. It has the same stitch count as the cables on the milo so there's no maths figuring to get this to work.

The second one was for Toby's little baby doll; a wee little dolly size milo. Again, with the heart cable.
(excuse the unblocked garment)

If you like the look of this heart cable, you can add one to your milo (or anything else you think it might suit) by downloading it from Ravelry here.
Hopefully, I shall have time to update the milo pattern soon and add it properly.

Enjoy!

little butterflies

so, it's the year of the sweater/cardigan/jumper/jersey thing for me it seems.

I think I've knocked off 10 so far, with another five currently on the needles in various stages of hibernation and liveliness.

A little while ago you might remember me rabbiting on about two that I was going to share...mmm, perhaps I sort of forgot about that or got a wee bit distracted. I am a bit like that; easily distracted and forgetful..

So here are those other two sweaters, cardigans, actually.

This is from my new pattern Little Butterflies which was released, oh, nearly a month ago. I may have forgotten to mention that too. School holiday time and all that.

Little Butterflies is another seamless top-down pattern. If you look closely you can see little butterflies flitting around the yoke of the cardigan. It's a longer length cardie with pockets. Perfect for casual hanging around kind of days, or dressy too really.

I'm feeling a bit of love for short sleeved cardigans at the moment, probably because it's been Autumn so they're perfect for over long-sleeved t-shirts. But you really can knit the sleeves to any length you like. Suggested sleeve lengths are included for long sleeves too.

The pattern is written for dk weight yarn, because I really do think dk weight is the best weight for kids! Not too thick, doesn't take too long to whip up and still has a lovely drape, fabric and weight to it.

This particular green one is knit in Madelinetosh dk. A lovely superwash yarn that is hand-dyed in a brilliant array of colours. Aussie MCN knitters of old will find this a fairly similar yarn to Four Bags Full Merino.

However, the design and style of this little cardigan does lend itself to other yarn weights. It can work as a short sleeved jacket type cardigan in a heavier yarn like this one below.

This is knit in Yarnoodles Mountain Meadow yarn, colourway bloom. And I knit it at a tension of 17 stitches per 4 inches.  I wouldn't knit it any tighter, if anything perhaps a bit looser. So you can see it is quite a heavy worsted weight yarn.

The pattern gives a clear and detailed step-by-step tutorial complete with a subbing table and blank pattern to work this cardigan in a variety of yarn weights to suit your needs.

It also explains how you can work a contrasting trim like this one, which is knit on afterwards.

If you like it, you can purchase the pattern in my Rav store here for $6AUD.

You no longer have to be a Rav member to access designer stores.
How cool is that!

creative space: the noro love

Today I am feeling the noro love in my creative space.

Well, to be honest, I've been feeling it for a wee little while now.

It's all Elizabeth Zimmermann's fault; although I doubt she ever knit with Noro, the blame is definitely hers... well, sort of.

It began fairly innocently, as these things usually do. My LYS EZ KAL night; April's task was the Mystery Blanket. To me nothing says mitered squares like gradient yarn, and well my LYS stocks Noro. I decided to do a couple of squares in Noro Kureyon.., just enough for a wee little lap rug for Toby.








Innocent start really. Fast forward a couple of weeks, 6 balls and 15 squares later we have this rug awaiting its border.

Well, that was the plan, but......









When I looked at it, I sort of decided it needed another row of squares, rather than 5 x 3, it needed to be 5 x 4.











And so now, I've cracked a seventh ball, and have three squares to knit before I start on the border.

definitely.








In the mean time I've also cast on a milo for my rainbow girl... in noro silk garden lite.


more creative spaces over at kootoyoo's
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