Hair bow - free pattern

I finished my hair bow pattern for kitty and realised it would make a lovely hair ornament for a very girly girl, so I thought I'd give you the pattern in case anybody wants to make it!

Now available as a free PDF: Download now

  

Here are me and kitty both wearing it. All I did was to exchange the hair bobble for velcro for kitty

Pattern:

Needles: 3mm
Yarn: DK (I used Paton's Fab DK)
Gauge: 26 stitches to 4inches/10cm

In the main colour, make 2 alike

CO 26

Gt-st 30

Cast off

Sew all edges together with mattress stitch. Then using a spare length of yarn, put a hair band on the back and wrap the yarn round both the hair band and the sewed together rectangles to make a bow shape. Pictures as this is hard to explain:

Click for larger image
 

The bow can be left like this, or a centre piece can be knitted in a contrasting colour:

CO 7

St-st 28

Cast off

Wrap around the centre of the bow and secure at the back

 

The flower is also optional – if adding, attach to the centre band before sewing the band onto the bow

CO 4

Knit though front and back of each stitch (8)

Knit though front and back of each stitch (16)

Cast off loosely

Sew edges together

Sew to centre band and sew a cross stitch in the middle

And there you have it, a pretty hair ornament for a pretty girl, or for a hello kitty build-a-bear if you're very cool like me!

Kitty dresses!

I think the most productive thing I've done today is finally finish the pinafore dress for my hello kitty build-a-bear which I have been adapting from this pattern: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/twin-dressing-up-dolls

It's not been easy to make, as although the hello kitty is the same height as these dolls, she's a lot wider, and I forgot about the stockinette stitch curl! So yesterday, I sewed it all together and found the skirt was curling horribly. So of course, clever me decided to try ironing it to get the curl out and in the process managed to kill the acrylic yarn...

Anyway, I finally decided to pick up and knit another 4 rows of garter stitch, and I think it's turned out pretty well. See what you think:

 

 

Anyway, the next thing I need to do is knit her a matching bow, which I've just started and a jacket to go with it from the same pattern book.

If you happen to be interested in making this, the pattern should fit any build a bear, and you can just ask me for my changes!

In other news, I had a trampolining competition at the weekend, so spent the day for 7:40 to 5:30 at the sports hall on campus. I did epically badly, coming 41st out of 44 in the lowest category (embarrassing since I help run the club!), but we had 4 people qualify for nationals and everyone enjoyed it so it was a success!

But since I did so badly, to cheer me up the boy took me to build-a-bear and I got a dressing gown and slippers for kitty, so she's been very spoiled this weekend, and  I feel a bit like a small child...

One of my housemates has decided to put up a bin rota, since she has (shock horror) taken the bin out twice, and so has marked herself as not having to do it again for a while. Perhaps I should note on the fact that up until this week either me or the boy have taken the bin out every other day this year?

Anyway, all these competitions and knitting are not good for my coursework, which I haven't even started yet. But it is the most ridiculous thing in the WORLD, since I have to write a "story of a consultation" in emotive language with no referencing. I'm a medical student and I feel like I'm writing the same sort of thing I was asked to do in year 6 (aged 10).

Sometimes I despair...

What to start with?

Well I guess the best way is to get straight into it! This is my lastest project, made for the boy for Valentine's (as is probably obvious!) The pattern  for the heart can be found here: http://www.joannesanderson.com/page13.htm

 

Of course, he took me out for a very lovely and expensive meal and bought me flowers to make up for it! But this thing took way longer than expected to make, so I couldn't let him in the bedroom for the best part of 2 days. And I had to buy my own champagne....


Then today I started my new big cross stitch WIP:

 

I'm sure you probably can't guess what it is yet, but I'll let you find out in time. All I can say is that is has to be done by May, and to give you an idea of the magnitude of it, it is 12x14" has 100 colours and is stitched over 28 count evenweave (meaning there are 28 stitches to the inch). Sometimes I think I'm insane...

And this is in addition to the scarf that I promised I would knit for the boy, but more on that at a later date when I will probably rant about how long it's taking.

In other news, I just bought the boy a warhammer predator (yes, he has a geeky hobby just like me) on ebay, since I promised him one for Christmas and I couldn't find one.

Oh, and I'm on a cleaning strike, so I'm now living in a mouldy house. I just want to know if my housemates will notice the squalour before I crack and clean. Somehow I doubt it....