lys – Confessions of a Fibre Strumpet

As you’ve probably come to expect from us now, Dina and I have named this little fellow Red.

He’s joined the ranks of sparkly hedgehogs that seem to be taking over the world of knitting due to the popularity of Tinsel Chunky from King Cole.

Tinsel Chunky is 100% novelty and as the name suggests it’s been developed with Christmas in mind, think Christmas decorations, hats, boot toppers and of course hedgehogs.

This little guy took a very small amount of the ball and I used white double knit yarn from my stash, with a touch of grey for his eyes and nose.

At the moment we’ve only had 5 of the shades available arrive in because it’s completely sold out at the mill as hedgehog mania takes hold. Each 50g ball contains 70 metres of yarn and the recommended needle size is a 6mm, however, the hedgehogs body is knit on 5mm’s to make it more dense to keep the toy stuffing securely within.

Cute and fun, what’s not to like and in case you’re wondering Red is the smallest hedgehog. Hand on heart he took around 3 hours in total (if not less) to knit, stuff and sew making him great for a last minute gift.

Happy Knitting!

Yes it is as lovely as it looks.

Ramsdale is one of the new yarns released by Wendy for Autumn/Winter 2014. It’s a pure wool, double knit yarn so as you would expect the recommended needle size is 4mm with a knitted tension of 22 stitches to 28 rows.

Each 50g ball costs €4.99 and contains 112 metres of woolly goodness, which should of course be hand washed.

There are 10 Autumnal shades in the range, sadly the first hasn’t arrived in after stock issues with the manufacturer. This little glitch is made even more annoying as it’s the shade I’ve knitted up as a sample garment (Grrr).

However, the garment is lovely. Some of you might have caught my sneaky photos on Instagram of it being knitted and then blocking in the sun?

The pattern is called Poolside by Isabell Kraemer and costs €4.90 on Ravelry. Knitted top down the design is detailed and easy to follow and contains instructions for seven sizes from XS to XXL, I’ve made the small (35″ chest) as the top part of the jumper is meant to be fitted. In total I used 9 balls of Ramsdale having knitted it slightly shorter, to fit my 5ft 3″ frame and I blocked it quite vigorously to open out the lace.

I loved the look of the lace pattern before blocking, but wanted the garment to have a more A-line shape to it, which I achieved by stretching and pinning it out whilst damp.

The good news is it’s on display in the shop for all to see, which is bad news for me, because I won’t get to wear it for a good while yet.