Piggy Pret a Porter

English below

Tijdens het Rotterdamse Oogst Festival was SAS Knits It Again aanwezig met een kinder workshop: Piggy Pret a Porter.
We maakten touw met zogenaamde breivorken en dat touw veranderde in varkensoortjes en varkensstaartjes.
Vorig jaar bedacht ik een workshop voor volwassenen die eigenlijk vooral door kinderen werd bezocht. Dit jaar bedacht ik deze workshop met koters in mijn achterhoofd. Omdat ik zelf met mijn eigen kinderen de workshops bij Rotterdam Zaait Festival (van dezelfde organisatie) bijwoonde leerde ik dat je het lekker overzichtelijk moet houden. Het werkte. Het was een super dag. Iedereen vond het heel leuk om met de breivork te werken, simpel, snel en leuk.
Hier zie je een aantal varkentjes. In totaal moeten het er ongeveer 60 zijn geweest. Dit kleine varkentje ging naar een festival, en daarna moe en tevreden naar haar bed...

At the Rottterdamse Oogst Festival, a celebration of the farmers in and around our city, SAS Knits It Again hosted a children's workshop: Piggy Pret a Porter. We worked with knitting forks and made pink ropes that we transformed to Piggy ears and Pig tails.
Last year I hosted a workshop at the same festival, meant for adults but visited by mostly kids. This time I worked out a workshop with kids in mind.
It was a fantastic day and the kids loved working with the 'knitting fork' most of them (and their parents) had never seen the small wooden device and were amazed by the simplicity and fun.
Here's a look at some of the little Piggies. In total I think there must have been about 60. This piggy went to the Festival and then straight to bed...

French Creepy Crawlies

CATERPILLAR (winter-play-sweater for wee ones)


and
JEANNE D'ARC (hood/wrap/ shawl)

I've been working on two designs. I'm working to get the patterns downloadable soon. I'm aiming to get 6 sets of patterns on Ravelry, hopefully by next month. But my aim might be a little off. Can't promis anything, it beeing december and the fact that two little ones have dibs on my attention. I have a lot of plans for the coming year. like finally starting an Etsy shop and incorporate the patterns on Ravelry ánd the Etsy shop into this site.
In short the year 2009 is for professionalising. Writing it down makes it a promise. So there you are.

Stars 'n Flowers

My homegirl Sterre, daughter of my homegirl Roos celebrated her second birthday not too long ago. I asked Roos if she'd like me to knit her wee girl something. And she did. She'd like a black hat and scarf.

And so it was done. From this book I took a pretty 'hat with flower on top' pattern and designed a scarf to go with it myself. It took me a bit longer then expected, because of the small needles, but it was really fun to knit, especially the flowers; quick and cute! The whole project took me about a week and a half or maybe two weeks... can't remember exactly.

At first I was worried whether the hat would be to big for her, but it fitted her perfectly and because I decided to knit a size in between the sizes in the book, she'll be able to wear it again next year.

Oh m'gosh, how cute is this girl?! Two years old and smiling like a professional model!

Together with her gorgeous mommy showing her new winter outfit.

You'd think; 'what an adorable picture.' But what you don't know is that this little star just got out of bed and smelled like poo mixed with toothpaste. (lucky you!, poor me.... it does explains my weird facial expression!)

Pattern: Flower Toggle Hat from Designs For Kids By Lucinda Guy + self desingned scarf which is basically using the same stitch knitting an 8" wide scarf, starting with a border in one color, (the same length as the one in the hat) and ending with the second color. Graft it together and make more flowers from the book to pimp it up. The length of the scarf is about 1.15 m (45")

Materials: Lana Grossa, Merino 2000, superfein, 100% virgin merino wool. needle size 3-3,5 (mm) but I used 4,5 mm. 1 skein of 437 (hot pink), 1 skein of 433 (red) and 3 skeins of black (lost the number...)

Alterations to the pattern: Sizes in de book are for 2-3 yrs old / 3-4 yrs old and 4-5 yrs old. The hat is knitted in two pieces, I took made one piece in the smallest size and one in the medium size to come up with a size that's somewhere in the middle. The girl is two but fits it perfectly. (she doesn't have an unnatural big head by the way...)

Time 2 knit: About two weeks, knitting an hour or two a day, for the whole set.

End result: Both loved by myself, the recipient (she'd actually wear it indoors while squeaking and smiling) and the recipients parents. (the kind loving it a knitter loves, repeatedly crying out how cool it is and how lovely it looks and how fantastic you are for making it) Should I just come clean? ... This is why I knit, it's just a self esteem booster... hehehehe