Magical Little Unicorn Knits, how can you resist?

One of the things I have been busy working on has been my new online shop which launched today. In this everchanging digital landscape I think it is important to have as much control over your content as you possibly can.

You will still be able to purchase patterns from my Ravelry store and also a selection through Love Crafts and Deramores, I hope you enjoy the new shop experience, please let me know if you have any difficulties using it.

One of the gems in my shop is my Little Unicorn Sweater. Full of lovely contrasts and magical touches to entertain and amuse. The main pieces are mostly worked in stocking stitch, and are trimmed with neat garter stitch edging at the hem, neckline and cuffs. The bright colours of the rainbow stripes are beautifully contrasted with the background grey and really standout as a result. Then there is the gorgeous unicorn poking his head up above the hem – he’s a delight and kids will adore him.

Designed to fit ages birth to approx 3 years.

little unicorn sweater jane burns knitslittle unicorn sweater jane burns knits

Pattern Information
Needles:
Straight 3.25mm & 4mm
Circulars 3.25mm
DPN’s 3.25mm

Also Needed:
Tapestry needle
Stitch markers
6 (6: 6: 6: 6) clear glitter buttons (code 0848)
Oddment of Black DK yarn (used Scheepjes, Stone Washed, 803 Black Onyx
Small amount toy stuffing (optional)
White sewing thread and needle

Tension:
Yarn used knits as DK to this tension 22 sts and 30 rows to measure 10 x 10cm (4x4in) over st st using 4mm needles.

Pattern Notes:
There are a lot of applique pieces on this little jumper, be sure to sew them on securely. Use white sewing thread to attach small pieces.

0-6m 6-12m 12-18m 18-24m 2-3y
TO FIT CHEST cm 41 46 51 53 56
in 16 18 20 21 22
ACTUAL CHEST cm 47 51 58 61 63
in 18.5 20 22.75 24 24.75
LENGTH cm 27 29 32 35 37
in 10.75 11.5 12.5 13.75 14.5
SLEEVE LENGTH cm 14.5 18 25 30 32
in 5.75 7 9.75 11.75 12.5
Yarn Scheepjes, Stone Washed (78% Cotton, 22% Acrylic) 130m per 50g
Yarn A 802 Smokey Quartz 2 3 3 4 4
Yarn B 823 Carnelian 1 1 1 1 1
Yarn C 833 Beryl 1 1 1 1 1
Yarn D 824 Turquoise 1 1 1 1 1
Yarn E 811 Deep Amethyst 1 1 1 1 1
Yarn F 816 Coral 1 1 1 1 1
Yarn G 801 Moonstone 1 1 1 1 1
Yarn H 820 Rose Quartz 1 1 1 1 1

Festive Flower Pots

I am always looking for new things and new ways to yarn bomb the everyday objects around the house.  The silly season is the perfect opportunity to take things to a new level of daft, all in the name of Christmas!

Dressed up in their festive finery they’ll look just fabulous on a windowsill or table, planted with a small conifer or poinsettia (what a great gift!)

Knitted festive Santa snowman flower pot Jane burns

I designed these festively themed flower pot covers for Simply Knitting magazine and you can find the pattern inside issue 139.

For the Santa pot you will need:

  • James C Brett, Twinkle DK (97% acrylic, 3% polyester, 100g/300m) Red
  • Stylecraft , Special DK (100% acrylic, 100g/295m) Black
  • Oddment of Gold DK
For the Snowman pot you will need:
  • Patons, Merino extrafine DK (100% wool, 50g/120m) White and Black
  • Oddment of orange DK
  • Stuffing
  • Buttons
For both:
  • 3.25mm DPN’s
  • Black 13cm  flowerpots

Knitted festive Santa snowman flower pot Jane burns

As always I would love to see your finished projects,

Happy Knitting,

jane burns

Does Miffy Wear Pants?

I may have mentioned once or twice that I love my job.  I love the random nature of the projects I am asked to design.  Recently I was asked by
the lovely editor of Let’s Knit Magazine if I would like to design a licensed Miffy soft toy.  Well that was a silly question, the answer was always going to be yes!  I adore Miffy, my children were force-fed a diet of Miffy stories, but yet when it came down to getting every detail correct, there was one question I did not know the answer to…… Does Miffy wear pants?  As you can imagine this resulted in a few humorous emails between me and my editor, the answer was this….

Miffy toy knitted jane burns

You can find my Miffy pattern inside issue 99 of Let’s Knit magazine.

Miffy toy knitted jane burns

I would love to see your finished projects on my Facebook page.

Miffy toy knitted jane burns

Happy Knitting,  Jane x

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Living, Knit Style

Hello 🙂

As I sit to write this post, after a many days of sunshine and gentle breezes… it is pouring down with rain.  As we say in these parts, great weather for ducks!

Issue 93 of Lets Knit Magazine hits the shelves tomorrow and inside I have a few summery projects for you.

butterfly cushion jane burns knit

 

Inspired by the beautiful African Flower crochet animals that are all over my social media feeds, this butterfly cushion was born.  I thought to myself, ‘ why should the hookers have all the fun?’

butterfly cushion jane burns knit

Why not take the basic hexagon pattern and create your own African Flower creatures, I would love to see your pictures.

To compliment the cushion, I also went a little I-cord crazy and designed some bunting and a mobile.  Why not get the children making I-cords using a knitting dolly (French knitting), and use those?

icord butterfly mobile jane burns knit

icord butterfly bunting jane burns knit

For those of you not as enthused by butterflies as I am, I have something that is just perfect for Al Fresco dining………..

knitted strawberry bunting jane burns

 

I hope you have enjoyed this months projects as much as I did designing them.

Happy Knitting,  Jane x

 

Beaded knitting, it is fast becoming one of my favourite knitty tricks…

Meet Bellona, I designed these fingerless mittens for The Knitter magazine and they were featured in issue 77.  The beaded fleur de lis catch the light beautifully as the Debbie Abrahams beads nestle down in the scrumptious Sparkleduck Spirit yarn.

 

 

beaded fleur mittens jane burns tn

 

The mittens are worked in the round and the beads are added using the crochet hook method.  No having to thread hundreds of beads onto your yarn before you start!  These mittens would make a great addition to your wardrobe anytime of year.

It is never too early to start preparing for Christmas, is it?  I know I hear you screaming at me.  But I really wanted to share these with you.  These were also featured in The Knitter issue 77.  They are a great project to develop both your beading and your Fair Isle skills.

bead and fair isle baubles jane burns tn

I hope you can forgive my indulgence in sharing Christmas projects in February and that you will share your finished projects with me on my Facebook page.

Happy Knitting x

 

A Plethora of Purple Scarves…

Well it has been a busy start to 2015 for me and I realise that I am somewhat behind with updating my blog (naughty knitting blogger!).  But I wanted to bring the blog upto date and share some of the designs that have been released during the past couple of months.

The December Issue of Simply Knitting features a plethora of my creations, all designed to keep you cosy during the chilly months.  See if you can guess my favourite colour?

There were not one, not two, but four scarves featured in this issue….

buttonscarfcloseup

Luxurious, which is a chunky knit scarf worked in Stylecraft, Tibet yarn.  It is a quick knit and can be worn many ways as you simply use the lace eyelets as buttonholes.

 

cable scarf knit JANE BURNS

Preppy Chic, this is another chunky knit with cables that run along the outside edge, to give this scarf some interesting shaping.  Worked in Stylecraft, Life Super Chunky, this really is a quick knit.

pullthroughscarf

Rolling Waves, this little beauty is worked using Stylecraft, Senses Lace.  The yarn is so light and fluffy I can’t recommend trying this yarn out enough.  One ball of yarn is all that is needed for this cleverly crafted scarf, the yarn is available in some really pretty colours.  I am looking forward to seeing your finished versions of this project.

feathersmittenscloseu[

I am a big fan of self patterning yarn, it gives an instant look of complexity to your knitting with no extra effort.  I like to team the self patterning yarn with a solid coloured contrasting yarn for some extra wow.  So image my delight when West Yorkshire Spinners developed their Signature Birds range of sock yarn.  The self patterning yarn is available in Wood Pigeon, Blue Tit, Bull Finch, Owl, Pheasant and Mallard.  Each yarn has a coordinating solid coloured yarn.  These ‘Taking Wing’ mittens shown above are worked using Blue Tit and Cardamon.

 

knitted cowl JANE BURNS

Yes you spotted it, I said four scarves.  This linen stitch cowl was a free pattern for subscribers.  It only takes one ball of Stylecraft, Vision DK and is available to download from the Simply Knitting website here.

Happy Knitting everyone, as always I would love to see your finished projects on my Facebook page.

You can download a copy of issue 127 Simply Knitting here.

Stylish beaded napkin rings

Threading loads of beads onto yarn for a beaded project is not my idea of fun, so “Beading Beautiful” is another of my patterns that use the crochet hook technique.

With a lovely dark yarn and contrasting shiny beads make contemporary stylish looking napkin rings, perfect for your festive table.

If you are not familiar with this beading technique there are some fantastic resources out there to get you started.  Laura Nelkin has a fantastic Craftsy course that teaches many ways to add beads to your knitting, even some that use dental floss!  I warn you though, if you enrol in this Craftsy class you will spend so much time looking for more and more projects you can add beads to, totally addictive!

As always I would love to see your finished projects on my Facebook page

You can download Issue 87 of Let’s Knit Magazine here.

Festive Teddy Outfits

Bring your favourite Teddy into the seasonal festivities with either a Mr or Mrs Santa Claus outfit. Thinking of buy a Build a Bear toy this Christmas? These outfits are the perfect fit for their standard height characters.

They’re designed for an average sized teddy, but if your teddy is (ahem!) slightly larger tummy, some elastic webbing will accommodate the more, ahem, ‘rotund’ stuffed belly.

And if you dare treat a younger, less careful person with such a charming outfit, it’s also machine washable!

As always I would love to see your finished projects on my Facebook page

You can download Issue 87 of Let’s Knit Magazine here.

Christmas Glamour Knitting Patterns has a new sugar loaded colour palette

Everybody likes a sweetie or seven at Christmas, don’t they?

This year I decided that I would rework my Christmas Glamour patterns range in a sugar loaded colour palette.  I have chosen to use the gorgeous 4ply merino yarn from Wendy.

knitted christmas decorations jane burns candy

If you would like to make some of these cute Christmas treats, you will need a ball of each of the following yarns:

  • Wendy Merino 4ply Seapray shade 2380
  • Wendy Merino 4ply Birch shade 2365
  • Peter Pan 4ply Sugar Plum shade 909

The patterns are available via my shop or on Ravelry,

This is really a great stash busting project, each piece only uses approx. 10g of yarn.  I would love to see your finished projects.

 

Good Enough to Eat, please don't though

It’s normal for Jane’s projects to be somewhat in advance of the seasons, so creating Christmas and winter designs in spring is, well, normal. This was the case when creating her latest designs in Let’s Knit issue 86.

But there are only 7 weeks to Christmas, and still we don’t have our central heating on! So, with our warm clothes still in the dark depths of the wardrobe, may I present to you in my long lost brummy accent…

Iiiiit’s Chriiiiiiistmaaaaas!

 

“Home Sweet Home” Gingerbread house is ideal for your first winter project. A sweet and simple cable for the roof tops swiss-darned, stocking stitch walls. Fill with toy stuffing, and it’s a lovely decoration, but if you place some bagged rice inside it will make a stylish doorstop.

As always I would love to see your finished projects on my Facebook page

You can download Issue 86 of Let’s Knit Magazine here.