knitting pattern

You can now knit some of my original designs!!

Posted on May 29, 2015May 29, 2015 by bekswhoknits

I have now got a pattern shop!

I designed some patterns for my week as the Cut Out and Keep Superstar and yesterday I loaded them into ravelry on a bit of a whim really.

Well I published them and already this morning I have 5 comments (yes 5 individual people who are not members of my family or my twitter friends*) from people liking my shawl pattern!!!! I’m just a little gobsmacked

Please let me officially present the first (hopefully of many) Rebekah Liddicoat Designs**
Lovely Ruffly Shawl

download now

My Summer Sky Slouch

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A Chevron PomPom Bookmark

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A cabled tea cozy (with cable tutorial)

download now

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*A special shoutout to Shay who is not a knitter, but still retweets and comments on all of my knitting posts. I appreciate the support mate 🙂

**Just a note for those curious about my Designer Name. That is not my real name, however Ravelry requires me to have a credible sounding First & Last name so I chose one that I know is unique and does’t appear anywhere else on the internet (except for birth records from the 1800s).

FO#6 leftover wurm cowl

Posted on March 15, 2013March 15, 2013 by bekswhoknits

This was a stash buster. I had some terrible acrylic which I made socks out of but still had stacks left. All acrylics aren’t made equal. This one was squeaky and my skin crawl.

So you may be wondering why I wanted to make a cowl rather than burn it in effigy. Well I don’t know, but I wanted to try and use up some mohair at the same time.

So I cast on I don’t know how many stitches on a 80cm needle and started knitting.
Every few rounds I’d purl.
And then knit again. Kind of replicating the oh-so-popular wurm hat but with reckless abandon.

When I ran out of pink, I changed to grey using up all of this particular yarn so I never have to buy it again. The mohair was gifted and I don’t know what else to do with it, but it combines with other yarns quite nicely.
It softens the acrylic and makes it bearable.

Now I need to decide whether or not I want to block it.

Tea cozy

Posted on June 8, 2012June 8, 2012 by bekswhoknits

I was struck the other day when I was at the post office.
They always get you when you’re waiting in line to pick up a parcel, and all you can do is look at the books, DVDs, nick-nacks that are on the shelves.

I spotted these two books and after reading a bit of them in line I had to have them.

I started reading the knitting section, realised that the author really knew what she was talking about, and that there were sections on things I didnt even know about.
Then I saw the sewing one and thought if its the same quality as the knitting section this will be a great investment.
And I have learnt so much.

They were both $25 each, from Australia Post but I’ve liked them both so far.

And my first creation inspired by one of these books is my tea cup cozy.

The reason I was at the post office was that my new favourite jeans had a hole in them, and so I’d ordered another pair. But they were $40 and if you spent $50 you got free postage. So I spent just a little bit more than that. But one of the things I bought was this mix it cup with a pink mix it lid .
For $4 I now have a new tea cup which I can take on the train in the mornings.

But it gets a bit hot, so using on of the basic cables in the book I made a cozy for it.

I have to say I’m not all that happy with it.
I forgot how much Moda Vera Ella stretches. And so most of the time it ends up falling off the cup.

But it was so quick to make i’ll probably make another one really soon.
I’m thinking maybe a bow – that would be really cute.

Has anyone ever made a tea cozy?? Any tips I should know about??

Lesson learnt.

Posted on June 4, 2012June 4, 2012 by bekswhoknits

Always, always write down why projects you’re working on.

Particularly when you run out of yarn and don’t know when you’ll buy more.
Particularly when it ends up being about 6 months between shopping trips.

Because you’ll probably forget what pattern you were working too. There’s a lot of lacy baktus scarf patterns around.

Lesson number 2? When you don’t know what pattern you’re using, put a lifeline in place so when you have to frog back it’s a bit easier.

And frog back I did. 4 times.

I really was ready to thrown the damn thing out the window. Perhaps use it as a mop, or leave it in a draw with velcro.
But I persevered and ended up finding this photo still on my phone.

So apologies to whoever created the pattern because I’ve lost all other evidence.

But I’ve finished the damn thing and now I don’t know what to do with it.
I really don’t like it.
It’s not something I would ever wear, and dear ol Mumsi took one look at it and declared it not to be her either.

So it will sit in the gift bin until someone deserving comes along.

It’s such a pretty yarn too (Moda Vera Beauvardia) and fortunately I have a lot left to make something that’s actually pretty.

A knitted bag bag

Posted on April 13, 2012April 7, 2012 by bekswhoknits

One of the downsides about online shopping is that you can’t take your own bags. Everything comes in plastic bags. You can give them back to the driver (when you remember), but there’s already an abundance clogging up my already clogged cupboards.

So I surfed Ravelry, took a couple of ideas and made a bag bag.
It took me about 3 tries to get the increases right but I got there.
The yarn is Moda Vera Cardellino in burnt orange. It’s been in my stash for a while. I bought it because the colour is so rich, but it’s not a colour I usually wear. Then I looked around and realised it was surrounding me in the apartment. So it’s going towards house projects.

So the bag bag.

It’s knitted in the round, with an I-cord hanging hook.

I used 7mm circular needles (because I like magic loop – but it could be adapted to any yarn, any size)

the pattern
Cast on 20 stitches.
Knit in 1×1 rib for ~10cms
Knit front and back (kfb) so you have 40 stitches
Knit in 2×2 rib for 5cms
Knit in basket stitch* until desired length.
Bind off leaving 3 stitches remaining.
Use those three stitches to make an i-cord.
Bind off i-cord and sew into bag.

Done!!

*rows 1-4 [k4 p4] repeat to end of round
rows 5-8 [p4 k4] repeat to end

Is there enough interest for me to post this pattern on Ravelry??
Or would anyone buy one on etsy??
Any thoughts??

It’s a cowl – kind of. (FO)

Posted on March 9, 2012March 1, 2012 by bekswhoknits

What defines a cowl?

This gorgeous darling is knitted in the round, around and around, and then sewn up to make a tube.

It’s almost a cross between a collar and a cowl.

It was knitted on a 7mm 80cm round loop, which is kinda small. It’s only long enough to loop it around once. I cast on as many stitches as would fit on the loop, and then continued in stockinette until I was almost out of yarn. Then I sewed the cast on edge to bind off edge.
So when I sewed it up I gathered it a little. And now it’s a little tight to get around the head. But it looks a little like a collar. A cozy knitted collar.

It’s the Moda Vera Harmony which I used on my mittens. It’s like knitting with fairy floss. It looks sweet but can be a pain as it separates all the time.

It is a sweet colour though.
And will be really cozy come winter.

See that and my curly hair! I had a hair cut (which was actually really enjoyable. Massage chairs plus a scalp and neck massage = win!) and she styles it in curls. I can never curl my own hair well.
I love it.

Guest Post – Her Name Was Greta

Posted on January 27, 2012January 27, 2012 by bekswhoknits

I am so happy today, to bring you a guest post by the lovely Miss Stina.

It’s inspired me to get out my crochet hooks and learn a new skill. Thanks so much!

~~~~~
Hi!
My name is Stina and I have a blog called Her Name Was Greta. Beks made a great guest post at my blog during the xmas craze, which was a total blessing, and now I got the chance to give back a little. I’m very excited to be sharing my wrist warmer pattern with you, the readers of Polka-dots & Sparkles. The pattern is pretty basic and can easily be adapted to your personal taste. It’s not too hard to figure out if you’re a beginner and only uses two different stitches. I hope you’ll like the pattern and if you make a pair, or 20, please share links or photos! I’d love to see your take on it!

Materials needed:
1-2 skeins of DK yarn
a thin yarn in your colour of choice
4 mm hook
needle

If you are new to crochet, here are some videos to get you started:
how to start
how to chain
how to single crochet

Wrist Warmers Pattern

Chain 35

Join to a ring, be careful not to twist!

Single crochet around and around and around, until the tube is long enough to reach to your thumb.

To make sure your tube is wide enough to fit your wrist comfortably, test is after a few rows. If it’s too tight, start over and chain a few more stitches, if it’s too loose, chain a few less.

Chain 7, skip 7 stitches and continue single crochet for 6 rows.

Cut the yarn and fasten.
Single crochet 1 row with the scrap yarn.
Chain 3, skip 1 stitch, sc 1. repeat all the way around.
Cut the yarn and fasten.

Crochet another one!

This is what mine look like in this fake action shot. Yes, that is water in my teacup.

Guest Post – Her Name Was Greta

Posted on December 16, 2011December 16, 2011 by bekswhoknits

Everyone head on over to her name was greta.

The lovely Stina let me guest post for her.

And while you’re over there spend some time looking at all the beautiful things Stina does.

She crochets, and bakes and has gorgeous cats to drool over.

Go on.
I’ll still be here when you get back.

Christmas knits – FO scarf

Posted on December 13, 2011 by bekswhoknits

Oh dear lord this took a long time to knit.
And photos are not going to do it justice.

3 months ago I cast on a scarf for my mum for Christmas.

However I made (what I think would be a pretty common mistake) a choice based on colour and not on fibre.
It looked so pretty in the shop, but working with it was a NIGHTMARE!

Moda Vera Noemi is designed for people with more patience and experience than I have.
It’s so finicky and furry.

It took me three attempts to find a pattern to accommodate the yarn. I ended up with the one row lace pattern (yo k2tog k1 k1tb )
K1tb is my abbreviation for knit through the back loop. I found this worked the best to create a nice gap in the pattern.

My mum is going to love it.
But I will be happy if I never work with fuzzy yarn ever again.

a bow headband

Posted on November 16, 2011November 16, 2011 by bekswhoknits

There are so many cute headbands around at the moment.

inspired by a bow headband that I found in one of those ‘oh so trendy’ shops which keep popping up around where I live, I took the design and went “I can totally recreate that!”

The original design looked something like bow headband