Idyllic Irish Knits - Sneak Peak

January has been a very busy month over here and with less than a week to go before the new etsy shop is up and running properly, I thought it was about time to give you guys a sneak peak into one of our Eventide accessories. I could draw this out....but I think a short and sweet post is what is needed.

*Drum roll ........please..........................*

Ladies and gentlefolk, let me introduce to you .......Storm  .....

Storm is a very adaptable cowl / wrap and I love the colour way and textures I finally ended up with. This can be worn so many ways to give a dramatic or eye catching cowl or a warm and snuggle friendly wrap. As this is one of the pieces for the etsy shop the pattern will  not be available until the end of season. Yes I am going to make you wait until next week for the full pictures but I might just add a few treats here on the blog a  little later on.

Cowl #2 - Noni

Well as I said January was going to be a busy month over here and without delay can I introduce you to Noni:

Noni was designed for my sister Fiona who happens to be called Noni in our house and I thought it fitting to name the cowl after her. One of the great things about this cowl is that it is just so versatile. I love garments that you put time in to making that you can wear just about anywhere. Throw them in your bag and they are ready to go. Noni can be worn as a cowl (long or short), a snood, a wrap to the side or front and with the beaded inserted ties can be pulled into a top like this:

In fact there are so many ways I will post a few photos at the end of this blog post. One of the other amazing things about this cowl is that it is incredibly soft. Yip this is no ordinary cowl, she is made from 1 skein of Malabrigo Rios and one skein of Debbie Bliss Party Angel so it really is like wrapping yourself in pure luxury. The other great thing is that both yarns have many colorways that you could make this unique to you.

One other point I would like to discuss in this post is shawl pins. Now I know that many of you will laugh at this but I have just found these magnetic nova steel pins that are in This is Knit (please don't laugh I really didn't realise they were magnetic) Just look how pretty this leaf design is:

and best of all no holes in your knitting, FANTASTIC! Ok now I am going to bombard you with pictures of my cowl. It is currently being uploaded to Ravelry as we speak.

Aint she a beaut!

New Year - New Pattern

First of all a very happy new year to you all, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. I have been very busy working away with my little elves so that 2012 could be a fresh start to all things related to T. Bunny Knits. There have been a few changes and some hard work going on, so I hope you all enjoy things to come

In December I decided that 2012 for me was going to be the year of the cowl. Yes that's right the cowl. Ladies and gentlemen, I do believe that the cowl has not gotten the recognition it deserves over the years, so every month here at T. Bunny Knits there will be at least one cowl pattern from myself. Now January being the bleak month it is, I have decided that  there will be 2 cowl pattern releases along with some other accessories over the month. So without further delay I give you the first cowl pattern of 2012:

Ruby 

Ruby is an emergency winter knit for those surprise post xmas birthdays or when the weather catches you off guard and your standing at train platforms and bus stops trying to keep warm. Knitted on 15mm needles and 3 skeins of Polaris, if you grab your yarn on the way home Ruby is ready for you to go to work with the next day. Constructed from garter stitch with seed stitch details its a fast knit but will keep you interested. You can find ruby to download here.

Now another change here at T. Bunny Knits, is that for some of my pattern releases I have allowed some fellow knitters to sell the finished garments from my patterns and these can be found over on the T. Bunny Knits etsy shop here.

And finally.....over on the T. Bunny etsy shop you will also find some of my stitch markers like the ones pictured below. If you keep an eye out over the coming months you may even see a few more surprises!.

Christmas Craft Bags

I realise it is the 24th of November but I needed to get a start on my Christmas crafts. I am knitting or crafting a lot of presents this year (as requested) so I need to get ahead on my wrapping too! This whole idea came to me while doing the mundane shopping trip to Tesco. Then I spied these plain red bags for 30 cent each  (also on a 3 for 2 offer!!) and my craft-sense started tingling.

Materials:

• Plain bags from Tesco or craft store
• Some xmas decorations (I got my snowflakes 8 for 2 euro in the euro shop)
• Some glue
• Xmas stamps (I got mine in the Art & Hobby shop for 2 euro)
• Ink pad
• Glitter

The first thing I did was to fix my snowflake on to the center of the bag using some glue like so.


Then I stamped on the  xmas stamps and decorated with some glitter. Its easy simple fast and I have lots of tissue paper to make the bags even prettier :)  I also think its a great idea to keep kids entertained for an afternoon. Here is my snowflake bag and I'm off to make some more.

It started with a bunny....

For my 28th birthday, my boyfriend asked me what I wanted. I thought about it and I said "A bunny". This, this I have come to realise was my first mistake. 

My second mistake was visiting a pet shop in town for fish food and I saw this little madam. The pet shop lady asked if I wanted to hold her, I almost gave in but didn't and I went home . A week later myself and himself where again in the pet shop. The little bunny was still there, all alone in her cage. The pet shop lady remembered me and again asked if I wanted to hold her, I again said no.......himself on the other hand said YES. This my friends was the the second mistake. The lady placed the little bunny into J's arms. She snuggled down and with big brown eyes looked up at him as if to say "Please don't leave me here". The little bun was named Berry and taken home that day. Our lives have never been the same since. This was the third and final mistake and that is all you get......3 strikes.......

The moment I described, that is the only time that Berry has EVER been cuddled, she is not a cuddle bunny. I am jealous of any bunny owners who get bunny snuggles. For me to have snuggles, I have to get down on the ground, to her level where she will flop out beside me and 'allow' me to pet her. 

Our houses have never been the same, cables are chewed like she has an addiction to electric shock treatment. Our books have been chewed as if she has a say in what we read, fantasy is ok but she is not a fan of cookbooks. Berry has tantrums like a 3 yr old, where she pulls DVD's out of the holder one by one,  LOTR has never been the same.This has occurred so much now that we have constructed our very own bunny warning, as seen below:

Berry is a sweet little bun when you do not get in her way or take away whatever she has decided is HER chew toy (it doesn't matter if its your favourite pair of shoes). She has bonded with our new second bun, Ninja ( thats a whole other bog post), so well that we are not allowed to pet him without her permission, lack of permission gets you bitten in the rear!

This all said, we spend so much time laughing at both of their antics and as angry as a bunny gets, its incredibly hard not to laugh in their face while their huge floppy ears are flailing about as they throw things. It is impossible to shout at them, when your knitting is 'fixed' as they now lie on your feet flopped out, back bunny paws facing upward. We love our buns both and with the last picture how could you not. 

Make and Do Saturday

I do realise that this is suppose to be a 'knit' blog but I had to share my crafty Saturday. Halloween is my favourite holiday, I love the spirit, the costumes, the crafts and well, best of all the treats! So for the month of October, I am going to be 'crafting' some items, doing some pumpkin carving and of course lots of knitting. All of which I will be sharing on my blog.

All of this started with some browsing on pinterest.com , while thinking of a theme and a colour scheme I liked. Then it all happened at once, I went into a Euro shop and found a child's witches broom for a euro, a bunch of black roses for a euro, some doilies for a euro and a black frame for guess what....a euro. I ran home with my purchases and started on my destruction with glee. I ripped the broom apart, I wrenched the roses into pieces and got out some overpriced spray paint from the Art & Hobby shop. Tearing through my hoards under the stairs I found some glass jars I saved too. Now I had all my ingredients, I started making and doing.

My two glass jars were covered in the lacy part of the doilies and spray painted black. While these were drying I made my flower arrangement and printed out some subway art. When the paint was dry I added all of this together on chest of drawers along with our friendly house Troll!

The next thing I am really proud of is our photo display, though I still havn't figured out how to hang these properly but I really do love them. Lets face it, who doesn't like some cereal box art????? I just cut some cereal boxes in half, covered them in fabric / paper. Then I added some mounts and pictures. The ribbon I got for about 3 euro from The Woolen Mills and the buttons I already had. I just played with the ribbon etc till I found a display I liked.  The photos were taken by my other half and I just picked ones that went with the autumn vibe I had going.


Well, I hope I inspired you to get crafting for the month of October. I am going to leave you with my favourite picture of this little project and that is the pattern my glass jar makes when lit. Have (an albeit early) Happy Halloween.

*runs off to think up some bunny costumes*

Baby Blanket Bunday

For those of you who have seen me knit this in public, you will know how much I hated making this blanket. I hated the yarn, how it was knitting up and I was just generally bored. Well what can I say, its amazing how blocking changes a project. This blanket went from a gift I was ashamed to give away, to something I am really proud of.

The blanket by itself I thought was a bit bland as you can see here so I decided to add a monogram to the bottom corner. I shaped after about an hour of working out a chart for the letter L, I got down to working on it and it turned out really well and I know a certain lady who is going to be over the moon with this for her new daughter. 


Today I also made myself a new menu board for my fridge. Its basically a frame with fancy wrapping paper inside it. Then using a dry wipe marker you can write whatever you like on the glass. I imagine it is going to end up as my craft to do list but I like it :)

Oh and because you asked yet another picture of my bun and yes she dissapproves.....Happy Bunday Everyone.

Stash Busting Saturday

 Today was a rainy, horrible Saturday and I decided today would be stash busting day. For a long time now I have wanted to frame the last knitted garment I made my mum but I was unsure how to go about it. I'm not sure where this whole idea came from but the three above pictures are my new addition to my craft area. 

This item is  the flower scarf by Robyn Dilberto, its a fantastic knit and I made mine from half a ball of drops alpaca in raspberry. The brioche stitch allows this to be warm while giving this alot more texture then you would expect from a 5-ply yarn. I really do love this and I knew I would never wear it so I am glad this has now found a home.

The knitted section of T.Bunny Knits came from a number of different ideas but I will try and explain how it is constructed. The knitting needles at the bottom are cocktail sticks with one point cut off. I then added a bead that I use for stitch markers, by placing a small amount of glue on the stick and holding the bead in place for a minute. The small balls of yarn are bits of leftovers with the purple ball a small section of the DKC's homespun yarn. The letters were made by printing out a the words in a large font, using this as a template I cut these out in cardboard from an old ceral box. I then covered them in glue and wrapped them in james c brett twinkle yarn.  The backing is knitted from some 80's stash yarn that I inherited from my friends mother. The photo does it no justice here but its cream with multi-coloured embroidery yarn spun into it.

The final drawing above is my bunny logo that a wonderful artist named Liz Seaver drew for me. If you guys have the time you should have a quick listen to her music, there are no words to describe her amazing voice, even if I am a teeny weeny bit biased.  I need to fix these in the frames properly and the letters need setting, but I thought you guys would like a quick view into my idea for stash busting. I now have to cast on for the Contemporary Irish Knits KAL that is happening over here. I am aiming for Straboy but lets see how it goes :/

And for no reason at all here is a gratuitous picture of my inspiration: