Knitting – Page 2 – Max's World

Posted on May 22, 2013May 22, 2013 by Max

Designers/Makers Market

I’m taking part in the Designers / Makers Market on this coming Bank Holiday Monday, 27th May, 11am – 5pm. It takes place in Old Spitalfields Market once a month and I’m really excited to have a stall. There’s always a great variety of makers with all sorts of exciting handmade goodies. This month is a Craft Bonanza with 3 crafty market areas – more details here: http://www.oldspitalfieldsmarket.com/events/may-bank-holiday-craft-bonanza-2013

If you’re in London pop by and say hi! You can even meet Benoît the Bee…

Posted on May 8, 2013May 8, 2013 by Max

Yarnwise Interview

I had the great pleasure of being interviewed for Yarnwise magazine (issue 59) last month. We chatted about all things weird and wooly. They’ve kindly given me the article to share if you didn’t get a copy. You can read the full 5 page article here:

Yarnwise Interview – PDF Download

It was really interesting to talk about my various projects but I haven’t been able to read it back yet in case I said something ludicrous…!

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Max

Knitted Axolotl Pattern

I’ve recently become quite obsessed by axolotls. I find there cute faces and human like limbs totally enchanting! I found myself returning to the Google Image search for Axolotl’s over and over and as with most of my obsessions I had to make a knitted version.

If you’d like to knit one too the pattern is available to download from ravelry now for £3.50

Pattern details:

Yarn
MC Hayfield Baby Bonus 4ply, Cream 100% acrylic, 466m (115yards), 100g
CC1 Bergere de France Lurex, Libellule, 650m, 25g. Iridescent thread.
CC2 Texere Yarns Spring Mohair, Blossom 220m, 50g
Small amount of black embroidery thread.

The body of the axolotl is knitted holding the lurex thread and 4ply acrylic yarn together throughout to give it an underwater sheen.

Other Materials
2.25mm/US 1 Double Pointed Needles (DPNs)
2.75mm/US 2 Straight needles
1.75 mm/US 00 crochet hook for hooking threads through for gills (optional) Stuffing / Fibre Fill

Gauge: 15sts and 24rows per 5cm/2” square

Posted on March 19, 2013March 19, 2013 by Max

Wool House

The Entrance Room Today I went to see the Wool House exhibition at Somerset House. First I have to say that it’s a-mazing and if you can get to see it, do! It’s only on until next Sunday 24th March. Also, you can sit in that chair, it is the cosiest thing ever.

The main exhibition is 7 rooms furnished in wool by 7 different designers and then there are more rooms showcasing wool in fashion and a bit of art. There were also spinning and weaving demonstrations today which I got a bit hypnotised by.

The first thing I came across were these sheep hats. They reminded me of the character of the Sheep Man in Haruki Murakami’s novel A Wild Sheep Chase who I was coincidentally thinking about yesterday even though I read the book a year or so ago.

Sheep Hats at Wool House

See more photos from my visit: Continue reading Wool House

Posted on March 12, 2013March 18, 2013 by Max

Pig on the Telly

Last year I worked on a little knitted pig destined for fame! And now he’s been on TV being knitted by a nun. He appeared in a couple of episodes of ‘Call the Midwife’ the BBC One drama that’s been on at 8pm on Sundays for the last 8 weeks. The last episode was yesterday night but you can still see it on the BBC iPlayer for another week.

The pig was meant to be Pinky or Perky from the 50’s TV show so I made up the pattern based on some pictures of them. Here are some screenshots from episodes 3 and 5 of my little piggy in action!

Posted on February 1, 2013March 18, 2013 by Max

Hexaflexagons

I have recently become obsessed with the magical objects that are hexaflexagons. In fact they have been my main topic of conversation for the last month as anyone who’s seen me recently will have noticed… (sorry about that!). Hexaflexagons are traditionally made from strips of paper. They are flat hexagons folded in such a way that they have more faces than you would expect. If you haven’t seen one before then I recommend watching these videos, they’ll blow your mind!

One of my goals for 2013 is to write at least one knitting pattern a month, although I had thought they’d all be animals in the vein of my knitting octopus, I couldn’t resist kicking off with one for a hexaflexagon. As I was designing and making a small one to play with I came up with the idea for a cowl version. It seemed appropriate to have one to wear as they’re on my mind so much!

The pattern contains instructions for the mini hexaflexagon and the hexaflexacowl, you can see details over on ravelry or jump right in and buy it now for £3.50.

Here’s a video of the mini hexaflexagon in action. I keep mine on my desk and flex it while I’m thinking/daydreaming!

Knitted Hexaflexagon from Max Alexander on Vimeo.

I hope you enjoy experimenting with hexaflexagons as much as I have! I’m excited to see what you will come up with. For now I’ll be leaving them alone and working on new patterns for crazy creatures.

One last thing… HEXA FLEXA GIF!!!

Knitted hexaflexagon gif

Posted on January 9, 2013March 18, 2013 by Max — 1 Comment

A year long scarf

I was browsing ravelry last week and came across the My Year in Temperatures Scarf. It’s a pattern for a striped scarf, you knit one row every day in a colour related to the temperature. I really like the idea and have started mine already! I’ve contemplated doing the year long Sky Scarf before but for whatever reason never got round to it. I was worried it would just be grey I think…!

I’ve made a couple of modifications to this pattern, I’m knitting it in 1×1 rib as I prefer the look of it to garter stitch and will also add a thin sparkly blue thread for the days when it rains, hopefully getting the glitter out will cheer me up when it pours for a week! I suspect the mild climate in London will mean I don’t get to use the more extreme colours very often but it will be interesting to see what really happens.

Here’s my colour chart (I haven’t got the high or low temp colours yet) and the first week of knitting. I’ll be updating my ravelry project page throughout the year and will post pics here too.

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Max

Octo-Tatt

I received a very exciting e-mail at the end of last year from Becca of the Stitchy Wicket. She wanted to let me know that my little Knitting Octopus had been the inspiration for her new tattoo! I’m really impressed by how my bit of knitting was translated into ink and as Becca says it makes a change from the usual wool and needles knitting tattoos. The artist was Loki at Sacred Heart Tattoo in Atlanta, GA (USA).

If my knitted creatures have inspired anyone else’s artworks I’d love to see them! Happy new year folks!

Knitting octopus tattoo

Posted on November 11, 2011March 18, 2013 by Max — 2 Comments

An Octopus with a Laptop!

Octopus on a Laptop by burymewithmyneedles The first completed version of my knitting octopus appeared on ravelry recently. It’s so exciting to see someone else make one and put their own spin on it. This ‘knitting’ octopus is much more technically advanced than my original and is using his many tentacles to be a computer whizz on a laptop! It was made by Sarah of Bury me with my needles. Have a look at her website, she knits some amazing work. She’s also made a pattern for the tiny laptop so you too can have a typing octopus.

Posted on August 22, 2011March 18, 2013 by Max

The Knitting Octopus Pattern is here!

The Knitting Octopus Pattern After posting a picture of my knitted knitting octopus a few weeks ago I got a huge amount of requests for a pattern. It seems that lots of people want an octopus to get on and do their knitting for them! So I’m pleased to say that I’ve written up the pattern and it’s now available to download as a PDF. You can get it via Ravelry or right here. You can see all the materials and tools needed to make it below.

Knitting Octopus Pattern PDF – £3

This pattern contains all the instructions you will need to make your own knitting octopus. It has a lot of parts and I don’t recommend it for complete beginners. It uses knitting and crochet techniques.

Yarn
Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift, 2-ply 100% wool, 105m (115yards), 25g (0.88 oz) fingering weight.

These are the colours I used, you will only need a very small amount of each CC so
consider using a similar weight yarn if you don’t want to buy full balls of each colour.
Octopus: MC: Sand (1 ball),
Scarf: CC1: Aubretia, CC2: Nutmeg, CC3: Buttermilk
Hat: CC4: Black laceweight (any brand)
Eyes: CC6: Blue laceweight (any brand) CC7: White laceweight (any brand)

Other Materials
2.5mm/US 1.5 Double Pointed Needles (DPNs)
1.75 mm crochet hook for eyeballs
2 Cocktail Sticks
2 x 6mm Wooden beads with 2mm hole (or any beads that fit onto a cocktail stick)
PVA glue / Wood glue
Garden wire
Stuffing / Fibre Fill

Please note: This is the first pattern that I’ve published so please contact me if there’s anything that doesn’t make sense or if you spot any errors.