Simple Knitted Arm Warmers

Ok so maybe knitting is the dark side but it does make yarn go further. 

This is just something that I've made up as I've gone along, hopefully it's not too confusing!

Cast on 31 on 8mm needles, join to make 30 stitches around.
Rows 1-5: k1p1 (30st)

Switch to 6mm needles 

Rows 6-10: k1p1 (30st)
Row 11: k30
Row 12: k14, k2tog, k14, k2tog (28st) 
Row 13-40: k28
Row 41: k1, m1, k26, m1, k1 (30st) 
Row 42-47: k30 
Row 48: k1, m1, k28, m1, k1 (32st) 
Row 49: k32 around 
Row 50: k32, turn

making the thumbhole, at the end of each row make sure you do not join each round
Row 51: p32 turn
Row 52: k32, turn
Row 53: p32 turn 
Row 54: k32, turn
Row 55: p32 turn
Row 56: k32, turn 
Row 57: p32 turn
Row 58: k2tog, k28, k2tog turn (30st)
Row 59: p30 turn

after the thumbhole, join the rounds:

Row 60: k30 and join
Row 60-65: k30 around

bind off

The finished measurements are:
Length: 37cm
width at base: 24cm (circumference)
width at hand: 20cm (circumference)

I used some cotton worsted yarn which isn't widely available.
The skein I used was approximately 173.0 meters (at 200g) and I used about 137g so 119 metres for two mitts, hopefully this is accurate but should I make this pattern in a standard yarn I will state those figures too.

Noah's Ark and hot air balloon scout

A friend of mine is having a baby and she loves handmade things (yay!!) means I can make another blanket, she’s shown me a couple of grobags she found on http://www.jojomamanbebe.co.uk that she couldn’t decide between, I said I’d incorporate both.

I don’t know if this is going to work but I’m thinking part appliqué with surface crochet to fix it to the blanket, I’m also thinking of being a bit more liberal with the colours (she has been known to like my other work and loves Lucy’s attic 24 and cath kidston )

Photos included of the inspirational grobags:

       

For the “water” I’m thinking blues with the neat ripple pattern by Lucy @ attic24

Colours used:

Teal

Petrol 

Denim 
Aster 
Turquoise 
Aspen 
Sherbet

Above the water I thought I could try to make some hills with a semi-circle of green, this would show off the ripples and give an interesting texture for baby.

After doing the ripples portion I decided to use the alternate bobble stitch for the hill and a shell stitch for the sky in Cloud Blue

At the same time I worked on the appliqué animals and ark

 

And then fixed these to the main blanket by sewing

I added some details using surface crochet:

Next I worked on making a hot air balloon basket using the basket stitch and Copper coloured yarn

The hot air balloon was next

And then the sun

And finally the rainbow and strings for the balloon were done in surface crochet

So the finished size was about 3ft in height and 5ft in width and took me about 18 days