Knitting in pink!

In october my Mum and I are planning on filling the shop with pink goodies, all in aid of Cancer Research. I got started a few days ago and I know my Mum will already have oodles of pink on the go as she is a much faster knitter than me. We've decided to do this in memory of my Mum's sister Eileen who died from breast cancer just over 8 years ago. There are so many other people out there fighting cancer and if we can make the smallest difference then it is all worth it.
So pop by the shop in october after Blythecon UK when we will have lots of pink for you.

Not all Double Knits are equal!

I have now been knitting for the princely sum of Two years! I can hardly believe it, I've knitted so few things for actual people :-P
I started off with a real thing for DK and to be honest I still can't resist it, but one thing I've noticed is that DK is all different sizes!!! And indeed I have some 4plys that are more like DK. This of course adds an extra bit of excitement when trying to see if a pattern will work and ensures that your knitted item will not turn out as planned. I've knit the lati dress in all different DK's and they have all turned out differently, not always in a good way.
Double Knit can sometimes be called 8ply (8 stitches per inch) and appears to be a UK term. I don't see why we can't have all the weights of yarns in the UK so we can do US patterns without getting confused (or is that just me?)  If anyone can give me a clear definition of DK I would be grateful!

Ravelry patterns - The Lati dress

The Lati Dress by Shelley Selwood is one of the first patterns I actually got to grips with and I learnt lots from it. I still have the occasional phase of knitting this pattern simply because it is easy & very familiar.
And yep, it's a lati top but this does fit Blythe and actually makes a really nice t-shirt or dress with minimal alteration.

Tools/Yarn needed: You are supposed to use 4ply and 2.25mm needles but I admit that I have used a variety of different wool/needle sizes as I don't have that many colours of 4ply yet. In normal double knit this pattern can turn out a little bit baggy but that's fine if you're after a baggy fit. I have knit this in King Cole Haze DK and it turned out beautifully, using size 11 needles (can't remember the metric size!)

Skills needed: Increasing and Seed stitch. I say seed stitch is a skill because I still forget how to do it midway through a row and end up with Rib. It drives me mad!

Other notes: I don't bother with markers as I don't see the point. I wrote this out without markers so if anyone would like me to write out what I do on here feel free to ask. To make a dress you can simply knit this longer and if you are feeling very adventurous you can do the skirt bit in a different stitch!

Knitting patterns on Ravelry!

I have returned from my holiday and suprisingly I did no knitting whatsoever. I didn't even venture into a yarn shop which is most unlike me.
Anyway, I am aiming to venture through some of the patterns available on ravelry for Blythe and give you a brief description of each project, such as how easy they are, if the pattern has any mistakes, how well they turn out, etc. I have so many patterns from ravelry, most of which I have yet to try. First up will be my very favourite pattern - the lati dress.