Vintage Christmas Knits can now be pre-ordered!

I am so excited about the launch of this mini collection. The booklet contains 16 glamorous yet practical knits for the christmas season and those chilly months beyond. Inspired and adapted from patterns of the 1900s to the 1950s. All the projects can be knitted as gifts or for yourself. Would you like a look at the cover? I haven't stopped looking at it since last night and even dreamt about it when I did fall asleep!



It is very much inspired by and evokes the styling of Stitchcraft and my other favourite, Needlework illustrated. The cover features our mystery knitting project with its companions. The design knitted in 4 ply alpaca is called Hugs and Kisses and includes the Dutch Bonnet already featured, a luxuriously soft and squidgy scarf and snug little mittens. The mittens and bonnet are both multi sized and include a child's fit.




Other projects include: The Perfect Christmas Jumper, Child's dressing gown, hot water bottle cover! tea cosy, motoring hood, fair isle gloves, victorian stockings, simple corsage, bed socks, the most beautiful bed jacket, slippers, cape and a cuddly toy!


It can now be pre-ordered by following the links on the blog or via ravelry (ravelry links will be added to the post and the blog as they become live). Each pattern can be purchased individually as a PDF download for £3.00 as they become available or the book can be pre-ordered as either a print or a PDF version. The printed booklet costs £14 (+ shipping) and the e-book version £10. PLEASE NOTE PURCHASERS OF THE PRINTED OR E-BOOK VERSIONS OF THE BOOKLET WILL RECEIVE PDF PATTERNS AS THEY BECOME AVAILABLE SO THAT THEY CAN GET STARTED ON THEIR CHRISTMAS KNITTING! The booklet should be despatched around the 14th of December.

All pre-orders of the print version will receive a signed copy.

Here is a glimpse of the lovely Charlie wearing her own Perfect Christmas Jumper.



Very obviously influenced by the 40s, this festive sweater has T shaped sleeve heads to create that fabulously boxy line. Body length is short and fitted but the pattern includes advice to get the right length. The christmas trees are knitted using fair isle technique and the reindeer a mix of fair isle and intarsia. The pattern uses 4 ply yarn.





The back features a neat little button band with pretty, decorative vintage buttons. Charlie is off to feed the chickens in her land girl dungarees. The pattern is available for a young teen upwards.

Hugs and Kisses and The Perfect Christmas Jumper will both be available for purchase as downloads over the next 48 hours.

I do hope you enjoy the collection. I think it has projects you can knit as gifts all year round and I hope you think so too.

You can pre-order your signed copy of Vintage Christmas Knits here.

And the winners are...

Picked by Charlie's own fair hands the winners of the mystery knitting competition are



Ms Lestat
Isis
and
Alabama Whirly

Ms Lestat actually had the closest guess of anyone so I am particularly pleased that her name was picked out of the hat. If you could all email me at ruby[at]dentrassis[dot]com with your addresses and I will get your vintage prize sent out to you as soon as possible.

Congratulations! I do hope you like the goodies I have picked out for you.

So what was I knitting? It was actually part of a three part set which I have called Hugs and Kisses because of the resemblance of the stitch pattern to kisses. The proper photographs are not yet available but Charlie made herself available once again and here she is, in her Dutch Bonnet




A real favourite of the late 40s and 50s this pretty little hat comes with a separate enveloping scarf - see how close you were Ms Lestat?




and snug mittens - not yet photographed. The bonnet is knitted in one piece using different yarn combinations and needle sizes, plus it will have an applied I cord around the lower edge to match the mittens which have an applied I cord right around them. At the front edge a contrast turning row is worked and the under layer of the hat is worked and then sewn in place on the inside of the hat. If knitting the hat for a child the I cord can be extended and used to tie in a bow under the chin.




You can see on this photo that the I cord hasn't been knitted yet and how the hat grows from the centre back panel.

All three pieces come in the one pattern so you can pick and choose which you knit and all three use this lovely textured stitch which is a really pleasurable knit.




The stitch does feature again in one other item in the pattern booklet but I'll keep that a secret for now. Interestingly some of the items that have been mentioned do appear in the booklet but I will tell you more about those at the end of the week.

On Saturday night Charlie went to a fancy dress party where the theme was the circus and clowns and she went as Pierrot. We had a lovely afternoon customising her outfit and then doing her make up. She looks quite different to the sweet little thing in the photos above.





I have to say, I just love doing fancy dress on other people. So if anybody needs me you know where to find me!

On that note, congratulations once again to the three winners but

for now,
Ruby xxx

Competition Winner(s)!

Thank you everyone who entered the competition to guess the mystery knitting. Unfortunately, nobody actually got it right. However, what I am going to do is draw out three names later today and send a little goodie bag to each of those names, so good luck!

I will reveal what the knitting is when I give out the names later. Photographs for this project and the reindeer jumper are being done on Wednesday (weather permitting!) and the patterns should be online by the end of the week. It will then also be possible to pre-order the complete booklet.

I will be back with the results later today.

for now
Ruby xxx

A Vintage Christmas Competition

Over the last few weeks I have been working on a very special project. A little knitting pattern booklet called "Vintage Christmas Knits". It features between 12 to 15 vintage inspired and adapted patterns from Victorian time to the 1950s, focusing mainly on the 40s and 50s. It will be available to pre-order in the next week or so in both print and digital versions. The 'proper' photos aren't done yet but here is a sneak preview of a couple of the designs featured.



This is the perfect 1940s christmas sweater in classic red and white, to fit a wide range of sizes. Just enough kitsch but not too much with that quintessential sweater girl shaping and christmas motif. It is knitted in Jamieson & Smith 2 ply Jumper Yarn.



The repeat pattern almost looks like snowy peaks!

The next design is still a bit of a secret, but will give you something to think about.
This is inspired by a late 40s, early 50s design but I have reconstructed it completely to make it an easier knit.



It is knitted in 4 ply alpaca yarns and is dreamily soft. The main part of the design which is on the photo is worked in a simple slip stitch.

Sometimes your favourite part of a design is a detail, something that not everyone will even see. Its the case with this design. I really, really love how this section looks



Nothing complicated but completely different from the original design which had the piece you can see sewn in place rather than joined as you can see here. This just works so nicely I think.




I'll reveal more next week but I would love to see in the meantime if someone can identify exactly what it is that I'm knitting. And as an early christmas treat I have a little goodie bag of vintage patterns, buttons and yarn to give away to the winner who I will draw at the end of next week. Just leave a comment on this post saying exactly what you think it might be.


Good luck!


I am also hard at work at some other secret knitting for The Knitter. I am very excited to have a number of patterns coming out in their magazine from about March/April of next year. For now however this is all I can reveal.



And finally, the Knit a Poppy Appeal draws to a close at midnight tonight. Donations have surpassed our wildest dreams standing at present at £2632.00. Its quite astonishing, thank you all so much. There is still time however if you would still like to get your poppy pattern by making your £2 donation here.

I have been asking for images of the poppies to put on the knitonthenet blog and here is a very special one from my lovely husband, Gavin, who daringly decided to knit his poppy this year from embroidery thread and 2mm needles. I think its come out fantastic. The centre is a vintage button.



This tiny little poppy is about the third of the size of the original but is knitted to exactly the same pattern on 2mm needles. Particularly great for men who might want a more discreet poppy to wear.

Hope to hear from you all soon,

for now
Ruby

knit a poppy on BBC Radio 2

This morning I had my 5 minutes - or should I say 20 seconds - of fame. Sarah Kennedy of Radio Two told her listeners all about the Knit a Poppy campaign. You can here a little clip from it below.



The response was fantastic and the appeal has now received over £1000 in donations which is unbelievable. So a big thank you to everyone who has donated and again I would love to see photos of your completed poppies, so please send these to ingrid[at]knitonthenet[dot]com.

for now
a big big thank you
Ruby xxxx