Wallace and Gromit Christmas jumper!

When do you start your Christmas knitting? Do you like to get things on the needles really early and knit something for everyone you know, or do you cast something on at the last minute and end up having to write an IOU? This year I started my Christmas knitting really early (think May!) by designing this Wallace and Gromit jumper for Knit Now magazine.

I've made no secret of the fact that I adore Wallace and Gromit, so I leapt at the chance to design this jumper, which features Wallace and Gromit getting ready to celebrate Christmas, with Wallace in his Santa hat, and Gromit wrapped up warm in a scarf (which he probably knitted for himself!).

The jumper is knitted in Stylecraft Special Aran* (and Stylecraft Special Baby Aran for the pink), which is a great hard-wearing yarn, so if you knit the jumper this year, you'll still be wearing it for many years to come. The yarn comes in lots of colours, so feel free to switch out the scarf colours (you could even make them match a favourite sporting team) if blue and white isn't for you.

The pattern is written in nine sizes, with finished chest sizes of 78 to 160 cm (XS to 5X). I designed the jumper to be worn with approximately 5 cm of positive ease. The Wallace and Gromit jumper is worked flat from the bottom up in pieces that are seamed before picking up stitches for the neckband in the round. The Wallace and Gromit motif is knitted using the intarsia method, and the facial features are added at the end using embroidery.

Want to get your hands on a copy of the pattern? It can be found in the Knitmas supplement of issue 106 of Knit Now magazine, which is available in all good newsagents and supermarkets in the UK. If you live overseas, or can't find a copy locally, you can order a copy from the MoreMags website. Print copies of the magazine also come with a gorgeous little notions tin featuring Gromit sitting in bed knitting. I've already put stitch markers in mine and put it into one of my knitting bags for use on the go!

If you'd like to add the Wallace and Gromit Christmas jumper to your Revelry queue or favourites, you can find the Ravelry pattern page here.

*Affiliate link.

All images copyright Practical Publishing.

Little sailor vest: available now in my Ravelry store!

Do you like vintage-inspired children's clothing? Well, I might have just the thing: the Little sailor vest. This pattern was originally published in I Like Knitting magazine (April 2018), in baby sizes; in my newly-published version, I've expanded the sizing up to age 8, so you can make the vest for your bigger kids too.

The Little sailor vest is a tank top featuring a traditional sailing boat. The vest is inspired by vintage clothing, and is the perfect traditional item for a child's wardrobe.

Image copyright I Like Knitting

The vest is knitted from the bottom up in pieces. The boat is knitted on a stocking stitch background using the intarsia technique - I've included the intarsia section as both a chart and as written instructions, so you can follow whichever you prefer. The hem, armholes and necklines are knitted using 2x2 rib and the armholes and necklines are picked up and knitted after the garment has been seamed. The shoulders are fastened using buttons to allow for easy dressing.

The vest is designed to fit ages 3 months to 8 years, with 5 cm (2 inches) of positive ease. Sizing details are given in full below. The sample is knitted in Bergere de France Ideal,* a hard-wearing sport-weight blend of acrylic, polyamide and wool, which is machine-washable, making it a perfect yarn for easy-care kids clothing.

If you want to favourite the pattern or add it to your Ravelry queue, you can find the pattern page here.

I'm offering an introductory discount of 25% with the code SAILING from now until 11.59pm BST, Thursday 5th September 2019. Just add the pattern to the shopping basket, type in the code and the discount will be taken off when you check out.

*Affiliate link.

********

Want to knit your own Little sailor vest? Here's everything you need to know!

Sizes - finished chest size; recommended ease, 5 cm (2 in)
3 months: 45.5 cm (18.25 in)
6 months: 47 cm (19 in)
12 months: 50.5 cm (20.25 in)
18 months: 52 cm (20.75 in)
2 years: 57 cm (22.75 in)
4 years: 63 cm (25.25 in)
6 years: 68 cm (27.25 in)
8 years: 71 cm (28.5 in)

Tension
25 sts and 32 rows = 10 cm (4 in) in stocking stitch worked flat on 4 mm (US 6) needles after wet blocking, or size needed to obtain correct tension.

Yarn
Sport/DK-weight yarn in the following colours and amounts:
MC: navy blue, 190 (220, 245, 270, 305, 375, 430, 520) m [205 (240, 270, 295, 330, 410, 470, 565) yds]
CC1: pale blue, 10 m [10 yds]
CC2: red, 10 m [10 yds]
CC3: white, 10 m [10 yds]

Needles
3.5 mm (US 4) straight needles
3.25 mm (US 3) straight needles

Notions
Bobbins for holding the different yarn colours during colourwork
Buttons x 4 (4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 6), 15 mm (0.5 in)
Chart row marker
Stitch markers x 2
Tapestry needle

Pattern notes
The sample is knitted in Bergere de France Idéal [DK, 125 m (136 yds) per 50 g ball, 40% wool, 30% acrylic, 30% polyamide] in 21821 Alpin (MC), 20933 Linaire (CC1), 24408 Pavot (CC2) and 51220 Everest (CC3).

The sailboat motif is incorporated using the intarsia technique, but you may wish to add the finer details using duplicate stitch. Intarsia section is included as both a chart and as written instructions.

Difficulty
Intermediate (knitting, purling, simple increases and decreases, intermediate intarsia)

Pattern style
Vest pattern is written using abbreviations (all abbreviations are given). Both charted and written instructions are provided for the intarsia section.

 Buy the pattern now!

WIP Wednesday: 28th August 2019: Bank holiday sock

Hello! Today is WIP (work in progress) Wednesday, my weekly look at what is currently on my needles. If you'd like to join in, let me know what you're working on in the comments section, or post a link to your own WIP Wednesday blog post.

I posted on Monday about my woeful holiday-knitting this year. Since then, my knitting has had rather an upturn, and I've knitted almost the entire second sock of the pair I didn't knit while I was away! My progress is, at least in part, due to Monday having been a Bank Holiday in the UK, so both my husband and I were at home, and the weather was too hot to do much, especially as we were all winding down after out holiday, so knitting a socks while waiting to switch over the laundry seemed like a good way to spend the day!

These socks aren't my usual colour-palette - they're much fresher and lighter - but I am really enjoying the short stripe-sequence, which makes it easy to see progress.

I’m knitting these socks for my Marathon Sock KAL, which is ongoing in my Ravelry group and on Ravelry. Full details can be found here. The yarn is from Paintbox Yarns,* and was donated for review purposes. Paintbox Yarns have donated several balls of sock yarn as prizes for the KAL, so to be in with a chance of winning a ball, get knitting some socks!

What are you working on this WIP Wednesday?

*Affiliate link.

Marathon Sock KAL 2019: Update: 27th August 2019

We are almost two months into the Marathon Sock KAL 2019, and, drumroll please, we have completed 21,757 m of the marathon! That's 51.6% of the target!

There's still plenty of time to join in, so keep knitting!

And I finally finished a pair. This is my first 254 m of knitting towards the KAL (and I have several more pairs that are almost there).

********

Want to know more about the Marathon Sock KAL? Keep reading...

Aim

Knit a Marathon's worth of socks: 26.219 miles of sock yarn converted into socks.

Rules

• Socks must be cast-on on or after July 1st 2019
• Socks can be knitted or crocheted in any yarn weight
• All socks must have a proper heel (no yoga or tube socks)
• The KAL will close once the full 26 miles of yarn have been knitted
• You must post a photo of your pair of socks to the KAL FO thread, including the exact number of metres of yarn you used (to the nearest metre)
• I'll keep a running total for the group
• To be eligible for a prize, you must be a member of the Ravelry group and/or following vikkibirddesigns on Instagram
• If you're on Instagram, use the hashtag #marathonsockkal2019
• Double-dipping is permitted
• Socks must be knitted as pairs (no single sock entries)
• If you are entering via Instagram and do not have a Ravelry account/do not use Ravelry, you can enter by posting a photo of your socks on Instagram (on your grid, not in your stories), and filling in this form (you can also use this form if, for whatever reason, you are struggling to create an FO thread entry); I will create an FO thread entry based on the information you provide

Prizes (kindly sponsored by LoveCrafts***)

• One prize drawn from #marathonsockkal2019 on Instagram
• One prize drawn from the chatter thread
• One prize drawn from the FO thread

********

*Ravelry link. This link will not work if you are not a member of Ravelry. If you have found out about this KAL via Instagram and do not have a Ravelry account, but still wish to enter, please post a photo of your finished socks to your Instagram grid (remember to use the hashtag #marathonsockkal2019 and tag me, @vikkibirddesigns), then fill in this form and I will create an entry in the FO thread for you

**26.219 miles = 42 195 m; each of my pairs of socks uses approximately 300 m of yarn (assuming sock weight yarn at 400 m per 100 g)

***Affiliate link

Four squirrels and a sock: over-ambitious holiday-knitting plans

Every time I go away on holiday, I put a huge amount of thought into the knitting that I pack. In my head, I'll have plenty of time to knit, but in reality, holidays always end up being busier or more tiring than I anticipate, and I end up doing almost no knitting.

When I pack, I look at all my works in progress (WIPs), and put them into the following categories:

• Vanilla socks (socks that require no pattern beyond their heels and toes)
• Work projects with deadlines that mean I have to take them on holiday (I try and avoid these!)
• Easy projects (projects that can be worked on easily while talking to people: bodies of jumpers, blanket squares, etc.)
• Complicated projects (lace, intarsia and cables, or things that have complex shaping; obviously not projects that are easy to work on while talking to people, or having had a glass or two of wine)

I lie them all out in front of me, then pack one from each category. I often assess the progress on the vanilla sock, then add an extra ball of sock yarn for when the socks are finished.

This summer, we've been away for two weeks, with a week at home between the two. For those holidays, I packed the following projects:

• The Zebra-striped sock snake
• A new, un-started pair of vanilla socks
• My Lush cardigan
• A blanket with intarsia squirrels on for my friend's baby, whose arrival is imminent

To my credit, I did work on all the projects, but the sock snake is still a snake (I probably didn't need to pack the contrast yarn - I did an inch or two of knitting on it at most); I have completed the first of the vanilla socks (hooray! They were the work project that needed working on most-urgently, so double-yay for that); I've made it to the waist-shaping on the Lush cardigan; and I am up to four squirrels on the blanket (of 16; the blanket also needs a border, so that's probably 20% of the blanket. I think each squirrel takes about 1 hour to knit, so I thought I would have completed at least eight squirrels by now...). Not a total failure!

Maybe it's time to rein in my holiday-knitting packing? Possibly just a pair of vanilla socks and another more complicated project for when the mood suits? I have tried packing less knitting before, but always seem to throw in a couple of extra projects at the last minute! How do you pack for holidays? Are you minimalist or optimistic?

********

Want to know more about the projects mentioned? You can find the Revelry project pages for each project here:

• The Zebra-striped sock snake
• A new, un-started pair of vanilla socks
• My Lush cardigan
• A blanket with intarsia squirrels on for my friend's baby

WIP Wednesday: 14th August 2019: Cracker joke

Hello! Today is WIP (work in progress) Wednesday, my weekly look at what is currently on my needles. If you'd like to join in, let me know what you're working on in the comments section, or post a link to your own WIP Wednesday blog post.

What goes black, white, black, white, black, white? It’s either a penguin rolling down a hill, or it’s all my current knitting projects!

First up for black and white projects is my sock snake, which is nearing completion. At first I had predicted that I would need the snake to be about 34 inches long, but that was way off, and, having done some maths, I’m now aiming for a much more reasonable 26 inches. The marker is at 20 inches, so there really isn’t much more to go. Once I have a tube of the correct length, I’ll add a pink toe, then go back and add in the other toe, two cuffs and two heels and will have a pair of socks. I’m not sure whether or not I’ve really enjoyed this project, but it has been great summer holiday knitting as it requires precisely no thought once you’ve done the maths to work out how long to make the tube. I’m knitting these socks for my Marathon Sock KAL, which is ongoing in my Ravelry group and on Ravelry. Full details can be found here. The zebra-striped yarn is from Paintbox Yarns,* and was donated for review purposes. Paintbox Yarns have donated several balls of sock yarn as prizes for the KAL, so to be in with a chance of winning a ball, get knitting some socks!

My second black and white project isn’t one I can share, beyond this little peep of some black and white striped stocking stitch. Keep your eyes peeled later in the year to see what these stripes become.

What are you working on this WIP Wednesday?

*Affiliate link.

Marathon Sock KAL 2019: Update: August 2nd 2019

We are one month into the Marathon Sock KAL 2019, and, drumroll please, we have completed 13,504 m of the marathon!

There's still plenty of time to join in. By the next update I might even have managed to finish a pair of socks!

********

Want to know more about the Marathon Sock KAL? Keep reading...

Aim

Knit a Marathon's worth of socks: 26.219 miles of sock yarn converted into socks.

Rules

• Socks must be cast-on on or after July 1st 2019
• Socks can be knitted or crocheted in any yarn weight
• All socks must have a proper heel (no yoga or tube socks)
• The KAL will close once the full 26 miles of yarn have been knitted
• You must post a photo of your pair of socks to the KAL FO thread, including the exact number of metres of yarn you used (to the nearest metre)
• I'll keep a running total for the group
• To be eligible for a prize, you must be a member of the Ravelry group and/or following vikkibirddesigns on Instagram
• If you're on Instagram, use the hashtag #marathonsockkal2019
• Double-dipping is permitted
• Socks must be knitted as pairs (no single sock entries)
• If you are entering via Instagram and do not have a Ravelry account/do not use Ravelry, you can enter by posting a photo of your socks on Instagram (on your grid, not in your stories), and filling in this form (you can also use this form if, for whatever reason, you are struggling to create an FO thread entry); I will create an FO thread entry based on the information you provide

Prizes (kindly sponsored by LoveCrafts***)

• One prize drawn from #marathonsockkal2019 on Instagram
• One prize drawn from the chatter thread
• One prize drawn from the FO thread

********

*Ravelry link. This link will not work if you are not a member of Ravelry. If you have found out about this KAL via Instagram and do not have a Ravelry account, but still wish to enter, please post a photo of your finished socks to your Instagram grid (remember to use the hashtag #marathonsockkal2019 and tag me, @vikkibirddesigns), then fill in this form and I will create an entry in the FO thread for you

**26.219 miles = 42 195 m; each of my pairs of socks uses approximately 300 m of yarn (assuming sock weight yarn at 400 m per 100 g)

***Affiliate link