Free “A Little Knitted Heart Motif” Pattern

Recently, I wanted to send a friend a card for her wedding but couldn’t find anything I liked in the shops that didn’t cost the Earth. So, I thought I’d knit a little heart motif.

I searched for a pattern, but couldn’t really find what I was after so I thought I’d have a go at creating my own.

This is a pattern for a little heart motif, which measures approximately 4 x 4cm depending on your gauge. You can make it in all colours. The idea is that the motif is used to decorate a card but it probably can be used for whatever catches your imagination – decorated jeans, t-shirts, bags etc. The idea was originally for a wedding card, but can also be used for christenings, birthdays, anniversaries, births and anything else you can think of!

Have fun, and let me see your pictures! Feel free to knit this for personal use or for charity, but as with any of the patterns we’re posting on this site please don’t use the pattern for personal profit or reproduce without permission.

The Ravelry pattern link is here. You can see my one knitted up on Ravelry here.

A Little Knitted Heart Motif

A Little Knitted Heart Motif

Equipment:

Small amounts of DK wool in chosen colour

2.75mm knitting needles (UK12, US2)

Stitch holder

Needles

Cotton (in matching colour)

Beads or other decoration

Method

Cast on 1 stitch in chosen wool

Rows 1-19:

Row 1 and all odd-number rows: purl to end

Row 2: Make a stitch by knitting into the front and back of the stitch (kfb) (2 stitches)

Row 4: kfb, k1 (3 stitches)

Row 6: kfb, k1, kfb (5 stitches)

Row 8: kfb, k3, kfb (7 stitches)

Row 10: kfb, k5, kfb (9 stitches)

Row 12: kfb, k7, kfb (11 stitches)

Row 14: kfb, k9, kfb (13 stitches)

Row 16: knit

Row 18: knit

Rows 20-end:

Row 20: k1, k2tog, k2tog, k1 (4 stitches on the right needle. Put the remaining stitches on the stitch holder and continue knitting with the stitches on the right needle only)

Row 21: purl to end

Row 22: k1, k2tog, k1 (3 stitches)

Row 23: purl to end

Row 24: knit to end (3 stitches)

Thread yarn through remaining stitches and bind off, taking care not to distort the shape.

Take the remaining stiches off the stitch holder and put back onto the needle.

Row 25: cast off one stitch, k2tog, k2tog, k1 (4 stitches)

Repeat rows 21-25.

Tie in loose ends, taking care to keep the shape of the heart. Cover with a damp cloth and lightly press with a warm iron. Do not press too hard, or the stitch detail will be lost.

Using the cotton and a needle, decorate with beads.

Your heart is now ready for use. I use a few dabs of a strong glue to stick it to a card.

theknittedcupcake x

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

Free Pattern – Christmas Lights

Hello all!

My name is Claire and I’m the co-writer of this blog – although I think Abbie is posting more than me at the moment! I am on ravelry and my ravatar is claire-marie

I would like to start off with a free pattern – it is the first that I have designed myself – I was interested in knitting some Christmas Lights for my Christmas tree – however, I couldn’t find any suitable patterns so I made one up!

So, here goes:

Mini Christmas Lights

Use 3.5mm straight needles and DK yarn.

This pattern uses about 4yrds of the bulb colour, and about 2 yrds of the plug colour for each light.

Abbreviation: kfb = knit into the front and back of the stitch

Cast on 2sts in the bulb colour

Row 1: purl

Row 2: Kfb to end [4sts]

Row 3: purl

Row 4: (kfb, k1) rpt to end [6sts]

Row 5: purl

Row 6: (kfb, k2) rpt to end [8sts]

Row 7: purl

Row 8: (kfb, k3) rpt to end [10sts]

Row 9: purl

Row 10: (kfb, k4) rpt to end [12sts]

Row 11: purl

Row 12: (kfb, k5) rpt to end [14sts]

Row 13: purl

Row 14: (kfb, k6) rpt to end [16sts]

Row 15: purl

Row 16: knit

Row 17: purl

Row 18: k2tog to end [8sts]

Break off bulb colour and join in plug colour

Row 19: purl

Row 20: knit

Row 21: purl

Row 22: knit

Row 23: purl

Row 24: k2tog to end [4sts]

Break off yarn and thread thorugh stitches twice – pull up tight. With right sides together, oversew row ends of the plug. Strating from tip of bulb, oversew row ends to halfway up the length of the bulb. Turn out the right way and stuff, then sew up opening.

The mini christmas lights can be sewn along a length of ribbon or i-cord and draped around your Christmas tree!

Website of the Week: 2

My website of the week this week is The Little Knitting Company. It’s a great little site where you can buy great yarn, great bags, etc. It has some lovely ideas for Christmas. There’s a knitting club and workshops, based in Oxfordshire, UK. The site looks really good and is very easy to navigate.

The Little Knitting Company

It’s a Mystery!

I think I’ve probably mentioned this before, but Claire and I are knitting mystery projects at the moment. The rules are quite simple.

1. The pattern must be original and invented by us

2. The pattern must be issued in approx. 10 parts

3. The pattern must use materials that we are likely to already have

Every few days or so, we message each other part of the pattern to knit. It’s quite interesting as we have no idea what we’re knitting (and also seem to have no idea what pattern we’ve actually created for the other person!).

We started this project on around the 8th of November and are currently on the 4th part.  I was told I could use any colour for my project, and I chose pink. It started off with an i-cord and then I did some knitting in the round to make some sort of tubular structure. I have NO idea what it might be. It looks like it has some sort of tail or something!

The pattern I wrote for Claire is a little less adventurous but I think she’s getting on OK with it. She’s using a really nice multi-coloured cotton in pale pastels. Hopefully, when we’ve finished our projects we will post the pattern on this blog if they turn out OK. And then we’ll commence the next mystery project…

This is Claire's mystery project for me to knit

This is my mystery project that Claire's knitting

Is anyone else knitting mystery projects or has anyone ever participated in one before? If not, it’s a great idea for a group of you to do – it’s fantastic fun!

Anyway, better go!

the knitted cupcake x