Mini Me

One of the best things about living in Hawkes Bay is that unlike every other region in the country who has their anniversary day holiday randomly tacked onto a weekend with no special significance, here in Hawkes Bay, we have ours added to the national Labour Day weekend, so 4 glorious days to kick start Spring & soak up some sunshine.

We escaped to my family home in Gisborne (more about that in a later blog), and one of things I did do whilst I was away was to play around with my Midori pattern even more.

Drum roll please... have added a 'Mini Me' to the Midori collection, called Mini Midori.

Honestly it took me 3 hours to knit & I can see me getting oodles of wear out of it. The colour I've chosen is called Death in a Chocolate Box, available from Skeinz, I am also going to knit another one using Peacock in the Paint box. It is light & easy to wear, perfect for Spring & Autumn. Enjoy!

PS If you are wondering about bust measurements etc, I have worked off the principle of how many stitches I would need using 10mm needles to fit over my substantial arse & the rest happened organically from there!

Mini Midori Tunic
Skeinz Super Chunky 500gm apx (largest Size)
Sizes: Sm, Med, Lg, XXL
Notions: 10mm & 15mm Needles
Fronts & back both alike.

On 10mm needles
Cast on 46 (48, 50,52) sts
Knit 6 rows

Change to 15mm Needles
Work 16 rows stocking stitch.
NR: K10 k2tog tbl, knit to last 12 sts k2tog, knit to end
Purl
Repeat last two rows16 (16, 20, 24) times

Neckband
Change to 10mm needles – cast on with backwards loop 7 (8,9,10) sts, knit across these sts & Knit to end then cast on 7 (8,9,10) sts (turn work, cast on sts using backwards loop)

Knit 7 rows
(RS) k2 k2tog (k4 k2tog) repeat sequence to last few sts, k to end
Knit 3 rows
Cast off

Make Up
Join two neckbands to form shoulder. Sew side seams until to have reach length desired for underarm.

Peacock in the Paintbox from Skeinz

Midori Anyone?

Hugo helps me out, as you can see, supermodel I am NOT!

For those who know me well, once I start down a path, I tend to keep going back until I have done that path to death. This months 'path' has been super chunky yarns. We have a stunning collection of these yarns in at skeinz.com, but customers have been a little daunted at what to do with them. So a couple of weeks ago I drafted the Raukumara Scarf & this week I whipped this tunic up, just to see how long it would actually take to knit an adult (and a large adult at that) project in this super chunky loveliness. I can report that the tunic took just two nights, one of those sitting at the dinner table blathering with friends & consuming a good amount of Hawkes Bay Syrah!

It really is a doddle - please forgive my shabby pattern writing, as I have warned you before, I'm not a pattern writers asshole, so if you get stuck email me

Midori Tunic
Sizes: Sm, Med, Lg, XXL
Notions: 10mm & 20mm Needles
Fronts & back both alike.

On 10mm needles
Cast on 46 (48, 50,52) sts
Knit 6 rows
Change to 20mm Needles
Work 12 rows stocking stitch.
NR: K10 k2tog tbl, knit to last 12 sts k2tog, knit to end
Purl
Repeat last two rows16 (18, 20, 22) times

Neckband
Change to 10mm needles – cast on with backwards loop 7 (8,9,10) sts, knit across these sts & Knit to end then cast on 7 (8,9,10) sts (turn work, cast on sts using backwards loop)
Knit 6 rows
(RS) k2 k2tog (k4 k2tog) repeat sequence to last few sts, k to end
Knit 3 rows
Cast off

Make Up
Join two neckbands to form shoulder. Sew side seams until to have reach length desired for underarm. If you find the tunic too ‘heavy’ & pulling at neck, sew a run of yarn along the middle ridge of the wrong side of the neck band, this will help hold it in place.

Quick Fix

Raukumara Scarf

In the thread waste bin at work 150gms of this really random yarn turned up. It was a Super Chunky yarn that just 'spoke' to me. As soon as I saw it, this scarf pattern just sort of organically happened. Named after the high country mountain range which is where I lived as a child. Now if some other cleaver clogs has thought of this first (& I am sure someone has) great minds...

With 10mm Needles Cast on 12 sts

*Knit 5 rows

**Kfb of all 12 sts (24sts)

Purl

Knit

Repeat previous two rows

Purl

K2tog until end (12sts) ***

Repeat from * to *** 7 more times

K3 Cast off 6 sts K3

K3 cast on 6 sts K3 (backwards loop or Cable CO works well here)

Knit three rows

Repeat ** to *** twice

Cast off.

This yarn isn't commercially available, but using two stands of DK together or better yet some of the funky super chunky's available from Skeinz, Have a look at the new range of Texas super chunky - two balls will complete the scarf. This would make a great Christmas gift.. - Enjoy!

Texas by Skeinz