Saint Valentine leg warmers for Blythe

My leg warmers patterns for Saint Valentine.

I was going to post another ILI cowl that I knitted last week but I changed my mind and decided to make a couple of leg warmers designs for my Blythe ( it must be that, in the end, I like to work under pressure). I didn't have much time so they're quite simple.

Firstly I made a few measurements of Berta's calf so that I could use any stitch, and these are the results:

• Wider part of the calf: 14 mm diameter ~ 45 cm circumference.
• Ankle: 7 mm diameter ~ 22 mm circumference. I will round it to 25 mm for an easier fit.
• Length from ankle to just above the "calf muscle": 40 mm.

Now we need to choose between a cylinder and a truncated cone. That is, we can either crochet a rectangle- which would be the easiest option- and sew it or a trapezium for a more anatomical shape.

Basic shapes for the leg warmers.

Let's see the rectangle option: once we choose the type of stitch, we need to crochet a gauge to calculate the number of stitches and rows required.

I crocheted two patterns, one in sc ribbing and the other one in hdc ribbing stitch.

For the sc ribbing rectangle I made a gauge of 5 cm X 2.5 cm with 0 or lace yarn and a 1.5 mm hook ( yes, I know I should have made a 10X10 gauge but it was going to take me ages, too lazy). It gave me 5 sts/cm and 25 rows for 4.5 cm, thus I had to crochet 21 chs for 20 sc and 25 rows.

How beautiful are the mini-hearts!

As for the wider ribbing rectangle, I needed 22 chs for 20 hdc and 14 rows ( if I use a higher stitch I will need less rows to reach the 4.5 cm target).

Mini-hearts in different sizes.

For another type of stitch I would have to make a gauge and calculate the number of stitches and rows required to crochet a rectangle with these specific measurements.

Should I like my leg warmers to be longer, I would add more stitches to my foundation chain accordingly to the desired length.

Oh! I have crocheted tiny hearts to celebrate Saint Valentine but they can also be flowers, bows,  pom-poms, letters, equations...

I haven't had time to write down understandable patterns. When I write them for myself they have tons of my own abbreviations and they are a bit messy.

So would you do me a favour and tell me which one you like the most? I will post the most liked pattern next week, promiss.

Note: the trapezium pattern will have to wait because I have too many WIPs.

Happy Valentines!

That's all for today which is no small thing.

Catch you next weekend!

Put a "maño" in your life

My brother-in-law modelling for MQP.

This is going to cost me (as we say here in Spain) blood, sweat and tears as the translation of this post is extremely difficult for me and it could happen:

a) That you find it as amusing as I do because you understand Spanish humour or you can make any sense of it.

b) That after reading a few lines you ask yourself: what the hell is she talking about, for Clone’s sake?

Anyway, here we go!

Blythe "Any yarn, any hook" beanie pattern

This pattern is for making a simple beanie for Blythe using any yarn or hook.

Superwoman does not exist, does she?

Have a look at the scarf pattern below.

Not so long ago: mother of 4 girls, self-employed, late-night student.

Present day: mother of 4 “girls”, grandmother of 6, self-employed, keeps studying (obviously different subjects than in the past).

In addition she’s very fond of her chicks and grandchicks, caring and loving, supportive, strong, determined and an extremely modest person. She’s the life of the party, the first one to arrive and the last one to leave, the family psychologist and an unconditional shoulder to cry on.

Years ago I was having a conversation about the difficulties of being a working mother with someone that told me that Superwoman does not exist but my reply was:

- “Of course she exists and I know her!”.

Baby Hat & Sleeping sack pattern

This pattern was love at first sight and as we have expanded our already huge family (not my fault, a new nephew) I decided that it would make the perfect present to welcome Mateo.

I found a beautiful self striping antibacterial and blahblahblah yarn in neutral tones -you know, they tell you that it’s a boy and you end up with a tiny creature with ponytails- and began to work on it.

The pattern has been designed by Comfort Wool: sleeping sack pattern, here and hat, here.

They are simple and cute patterns and it’s been a pleasure knitting them.

What do you think?

Aubergine Beret Pattern

The original pattern has been designed by Teresa Richardson from Crochet Geek. Thank you very much Teresa for letting me modify and shrink your pattern for Blythe.

Skill level: intermediate.

Materials:

• 3 Ply light yarn or any yarn for 3-3.5 mm hook (I’ve used Katia Promo Fin acrylic yarn purple and lilac and Katia Carnaval eyelash yarn, same tones).
• 3 mm hook.
• Tapestry needle.
• Stitch marker (optional).
• Scissors.