Beaker Button Blog

  Leafy cowl www.beakerbutton.co.uk   ©Jen Best 2022 The leaf stitch was inspired by a FaceBook video from Handmade Kat.Kat You will need: DK yarn in 2 colours. 100g in main colour (mc), 20g in contrast colour (cc). You could use small bits of yarn approximately 40cm each for the leaf stitches if you wanted a really multicoloured cowl. Yarn needle for sewing in ends. Tension before blocking: 18 sts x 27 rows in stocking stitch using 3.75mm circular needles. Please bear in mind my natural tension will probably be different from yours. To get a cowl that looks like mine you may need to alter the needles size to get the same size stitches, and therefore the same size garment.   Cast on 200 sts. [K1, P1] for round [P1, K1] for round Repeat last two rounds - this forms four rows of moss stitch. Knit 7 rounds [K9, leaf stitch] for round Knit 7 rounds K4, [leaf stitch, K9] for round, ending with k5 instead of K9 on the last repeat. Repeat pattern once m...

No Sew Mitred Square Blanket This was one of those projects that made me consider why I knit. I don't need a blanket. I spend most of my time overheating, especially at night so actually a blanket is probably the last thing I need. I did have a huge amount of fibre from my Mum's stash, which prompted the idea.  A small selection from mine and Mum's stash! I'm finding spinning very soothing at the moment, with all the crazy going on. But why a blanket? I love to knit mitred squares. They way they get smaller as you make them, the look of the stripes as they form that distinctive V. I made a jacket a couple of years ago, well more of a coat really, with the huge amount of 4ply yarns I have. That started life as a blanket, but morphed into a coat as I was working it.  Me in my Mitred Square Coat I wanted something simple to work, and no sewing, and mindless, hence the blanket. Who knows, maybe next year it will be cold enough to use it. This project did it's job though...

Every year I make myself a Christmas jumper. I don't mean it has reindeer or snowmen on the front, or a nice nativity scene with the baby Jesus lying in a manger plastered across my stomach. It's a jumper I begin on Christmas day. I rarely get to knit something for myself. Mostly I'm knitting samples, designing new things, or knitting socks for my sock hungry family ( we're funding research into where the second sock goes after you wash it). At Christmas I rebel. I take time to plan what I want, to research the yarn and pattern, to think about the style of garment I'd like and what I'm going to use it for (walking jumper, mooching about jumper, gardening jumper etc). I organise my stash in the hope that I can use the yarn from it (never happens of course, I'm saving my stash for the apocolypse. Not this one, the real one, where there are zombies and all the yarn shops have already been looted).  This year I decided to use the fibre I'd inhereted from my ...

These were great fun to knit. You can choose any of the charts for either side of the decoration. They are knitted in the round using stranded colourwork techniques. Skills involved are provisional cast on, working with 2 colours in the same line (stranded colourwork), magic loop or small circumference knitting in the round, three needle cast off.  It takes one  Beaker Button Christmas Baby skein set to make two ornaments. I worked one chart on each side. Tension: 13 sts x 18 rows over 5cm x 5cm  knitted in the round, 40m mini skein in green, red and white will make both ornaments, spare needle for 3 needle cast off, yarn needle for sewing in ends, 10g of stuffing, waste yarn. I used 3mm x 80cm circular needles for this project and the magic loop method of knitting small circumferences in the round. Yarn A was the colour red or green, yarn B was the white. Cast on 62 stitches using a provisional cast on. Join to knit in the round being careful not to twist. Work in stotc...

Wreath Tutorial I've been promising this wreath tutorial for a very long time. Hope you all like it. Finished Wreath You will need a piece of foam lagging about 1m long. I bought mine from Wicks for about £2.50. Duct tape, preferably in a colour similar to the knitted or crocheted cover you will make, 100g of DK or Aran weight yarn to make the cover, DK yarn for the flowers in different colours, buttons for the flower centres (I used Dorset buttons obviously. For a Dorset button tutorial have a look here ), 4mm knitting needles, 4mm crochet hook, scissors and a yarn needle for sewing up. You can of course make the whole wreath in knitting or crochet, depending on your skills. Knit or crochet a flat piece of work slightly thinner and about 3/4 of the length of your lagging. I knitted mine in stocking stitch. Leave very long tails for sewing your cover on later. Bend the lagging into a ring and tape the ends together with duct tape. Wrap the duct tape at an ...

This is a quick post to say that I'm putting the blog on hold for a couple of weeks while I work on the new website. It's going to be all singing and dancing, the new site, so it'll be worth the effort.  I've posted I below for those of you following the Alphabet blanket pattern and will continue with J very shortly.  Thanks for your patience. this weeks chart My unblocked I