Howard the Giraffe

Hi Everyone!

I decided to knit a giraffe for my friend’s birthday on Monday. I remembered that I had a pattern in the Irresistible Gifts to Knit book by Alan Dart (published by Simply Knitting) and got to work straight away. The pattern is part of a Noah’s Ark collection of little animals and an Ark. I didn’t exactly have the right colours so Howard has turned out a little orange! I also didn’t have any straws for the legs (must learn to read pattern before starting it) so had to use remnants from previous projects. This meant that the legs were a little short. Also I only had the bits of straws with the bendy part so his legs are a little unstable. The giraffe was quite easy and quick to knit but the chain stitch embroidery took ages. It might have just been me, but I couldn’t get the pattern right to get the chain stitch lines crossing each other nicely and that’s why it seemed to take forever. I wouldn’t make this as a toy for a child to play with as it probably wouldn’t withstand much but it would probably look nice sitting on a shelf. A high shelf.

I had initially planned to make the entire Noah’s Ark but considering the amount of time that this giraffe took to make I am seriously reconsidering.

Howard the Giraffe (before he got his tail)

I am also knitting something for my aunt’s birthday but can’t post about it yet in case anyone spoils the surprise. It is slightly odd though. I have also started making a stripey elephant but have got bored midway. May pick it up again when I’ve finished watching my O.C. dvds!

Keep Knitting,

theknittedcupcake x

The Knitted Sackboy is Finished!

Hi Everyone,

Just thought I’d let you know that I’ve finally finished the knitted Sackboy. He was really good fun to knit, I particularly liked the arms. He’s a little smaller than the pattern intended (the link for the pattern is on the previous post and on the yummy recipes page), but just as cute. Hope you like him!

The Knitted Sackboy

Love from theknittedcupcake x

New Year, New Knitted Sackboy!

Hi Everyone and Happy New Year. We hope that 2009 brings lots of lovely knitted things. We got some good books/knitting notions for Christmas and are looking forward to putting them to good use! Hope you all had a fantastic Christmas also. This blog has been slacking in the last month or so – we’re putting it down to the rush of the festivities – but it is our New Year’s Resolution to try harder in 2009 (I give it a week!).

I’m currently knitting a lovely ski hat with a spiral pattern in a charcoal and pink wool. It’s not a pattern of my own, you can find it on Ravelry, but I had to adapt it as the sizing was a little odd. It’s knitting up pretty quickly on a lovely pair of bamboo circular needles, but I’m really desperate to get it finished as I’m off skiing a week on Sunday! It’s done in two colours, which makes it really thick and warm. I made it in colours to co-ordinate with my skiwear, so I’m hoping the final FO fits ok!

This is the spiral ski hat in its early stages!

It’s actually nearly done now, but I’ll add a photo when it’s completed.

Another thing I’m really excited about knitting is Sackboy from PS3’s LittleBigPlanet! I played the game recently at a friend’s house and fell in love! For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, I’ll explain. LittleBigPlanet is a 3d game on the Playstation 3, which I won’t claim to fully understand, and you run around in a little world trying to solve puzzles with logic to progress. “You” are a little knitted creature – Sackboy -(although I think you can be a Sackgirl too), and you can dress up in different clothes which you collect as you progress in the game. It’s really cute. Anyway, the day before yesterday I woke up with a sudden urge to knit this creature! I did the usual searches for the pattern, but they were pretty useless and due to copyright etc. I couldn’t find a free copy. I frankly couldn’t be bothered to sit around writing the pattern.  However, I did notice that Alan Dart had written an ‘unofficial’ pattern in Issue 49 (January 2009) of Simply Knitting. I was upset to find out that this is generally sold out and that many knitters have been unable to obtain it. However,  happened to be in WHSmith the day before in my local town and had briefly picked up a copy of Simply Knitting. The free gift had fallen down to obscure the advertisement for the Sackboy pattern, or else I would have bought it there and then! So I frantically went back to town, hoping that no-one had bought it! Thankfully, they hadn’t and I secured the last copy!

Sackboy - how cute is he?

So, I’ve bought the zip and little buttons for his eyes and as soon as I finish my ski hat (hopefully later today if I get my act together and stop writing rambling blogposts) I am going to start Sackboy. I can’t wait! Has anyone else knitted a Sackboy? Please share your photos! Hopefully I’ll make some clothes for him if I have time. I also want to modify the pattern to make a smaller one.

EDIT – Simply Knitting have just teamed up with The Sun newspaper and released the Alan Dart Sackboy pattern for FREE download. I have checked and it is all authorised so anyone who’s been struggling to get hold of the pattern can get it from there! Just wished it’d happened a few days before!

Anyway, hope everybody has a fantastic 2009!

Lots of Love,

theknittedcupcake x