Cross Stitch Book covers

February 11, 2022Metro Artistcross stitch, Metro Artistadmin

I recently discovered cross stitching, introduced to me by a friend.

At first I did the cross stitch, than made the cloth book cover and cut and glued the cross stitch on. I made the first one for my granddaughter.

I decided there was no need to cut out the cross stitch, I made sure the cross stitch fabric was big enough to make the actual book cover. I used some thread to make the outline where the front and the back would sit.

Here’s what I created so far, I decided what to cross stitch based on each individuals interests.

Hand Knit Shawl

March 15, 2021Metro Artistadmin

I love this pattern by Drops Design. I have made three of these.

Knitted Shawl close up — closer look at pattern

Hand Knit Buff

February 14, 2019Metro Artistbuff, hand knit, hand knit buffadmin

Hand knit 100% acrylic buff lined with t-shirt material

I used Patons Canadiana ( two 100 g balls), measures 17.5 inches long and 21 inches around.

I used 4.5mm circular needle, cast on 90 stitches, join

knit unit the buff measures about 18 inches, or desired length

loosely cast off

cut t-shirt fabric 2 to 4 inches longer than knitted buff

make sure the stretch of the fabric is 21 1/2 inches wide and fits nicely into the knitted buff

serge the t-shirt material making it 21 inches around

also serge the ends – to finish

insert the t-shirt buff into the knitted buff with the seam facing the knitted buff

make sure it fits nicely and lies flat

bring the end of the t-shirt fabric over the knitted buff and sew (z-zag) it onto the knitted buff making sure the knitted buff remains flat

do the remaining end making sure that the t-shirt material fits nicely onto the knitted buff

Study Buddies

February 11, 2019Metro Artistknitted socks, Knitting, socks, study buddiesadmin

I am calling these toasty extra large socks / slippers “Study Buddies” They are made from 100% Canadian wool from New Brunswick.
You will need about 300 grams of 5 strands pure wool Country Roving from Briggs Little (my personal choice).

I used 10mm circular needles:

cast on 28 stitches (the blue in the above picture) knit in garter stitch for 40 rows
loosely cast off

the piece measures about 14 inches (35.6 cm) long by 10 1/2 or 11 inches (27 0r 28 cm) wide.
If you like you could change colours (in above picture -the grey)

pick up 8 stitches at the end of the 14 inch length
you want the 8 stitches to be in the middle, so you should have 7 stitches on each side of the 8 stitches.

inside view of the Study Buddy!

with the right side facing you knit 21 rows (of the 8 middle stitches just picked up) ending on the inside (leave on needle).

with the inside facing you pick up the 7 stitches on the right (from the blue end) and 10 stitches along the right of the 21 rows of 8 stitches you just knit (the grey).

knit across the 17 stitches (just picked up) plus knit across the 8 stitches remaining on the needle.

pick up 10 stitches along the left side of the 21 rows of the centre piece (grey) and pick up the remaining 7 stitches on the left (blue). knit across these 17 stitches

you should now have 42 stitches in all.

continue in garter stitch until the sides measures 1.6 inches (4 cm).

next rows:

knit 2, knit 2 together, *knit 4, knit 2 together* -** 6 times
knit two – you now have 35 stitches.

knit 2, knit 2 together, *knit 3, knit 2 together* -** 6 times
knit 1 – you now have 28 stitches.

knit 1, knit 2 together, *knit 2, knit 2 together* – 6 times
knit 1 – you now have 21 stitches.

loosely cast off.

using the corresponding colour of wool, sew up the bottom of the foot and the back of the leg (within 2 inches of top).
fold down the two inches at the top of each sock and tack in place.