Dizzy Lily
A Snood for a Hound

Download via PayPal
£1.50 GBP

Pezdiva with her snood for Maggie is the first pic I have seen of my pattern for rescue hounds. More pics of knitting on her flickr album here. I won't tell you where Maggie is, it could be anywhere in the world, as I don't want to advertise the whereabouts of dogs for security reasons.

If you would like a free pattern for your own rescue dog, then email me telling about your hound.

If you don't have a rescue hound, tha pattern is for sale at $3/£1.50.

Download via PayPal
£1.50 GBP

Even if you have a rescue dog, donations are most welcome as Julie from Essex greyhound rescue says she is going to make sure that all the dogs in the rescue kennels and the ones fostered at her home will get a special Christmas dinner made from some fresh meat. The remainder of donations is needed for food, collars and leads and the most biggest expense the vets bills as some dogs arrive with broken limbs and all sorts of conditions that need treatment before they can be put up for rehoming.

Doesn't she look cute and snuggly and warm? I will be keeping pics of all the rescue hounds who get one of these, that is if their owners send me a pic. Then I am going to stick up a gallery of them on Flickr.

Dizzy gets a snood too!

He doesn't have a bald neck, there is no excuse for wearing a snood, unless the weather gets very icy and stormy on our trip at Christmas. This is the large version of the snood and it fits very comfortably around the chest, but it still isn't the biggest size, I have now extended this to fit 4 sizes in case someone has a lurcher cross and a monster sized hound.

Look at Dizzy in this pic, this is his slightly manic face when he first goes into the garden, trying to sniff out the cat that attacked him 6 months ago. he is terrified of them now.

Dizzy Lily: A Snood for a Hound

I have designed this shaped snood for Lily who has a bald neck. To make it more interesting and to warrant writing it up formally as a knitting pattern I have shaped it with ribbeed sections decreasing to a central cable section and then increasing again to give gentle flares that fit over the chest at one end and the head and ears at the other.

As with most of my work, it is knitted in the round and to make it a quick knit that uses up odd balls of my stash, I have made it in a worsted/Aran yarn, shown her in Rooster Almerino Aran.

Now Dizzy is snoodless and jealous, so I am part of the way through knitting up a large verison in a warm orange shade of Jaeger Shetland Aran (which also contains a small amount of aplaca). The pattern is in 3 sizes ranging from a small female greyhound (or a large whippet) up to a large male greyhound.

I am giving the pattern free as a pdf to those who have rescued a greyhound (some sort of proof will be needed) or are using it for fundraising for greyhound charities. For those who wish to buy the pattern, I am charging $3 for each pdf, 100% of which I will donate to either The Essex Greyhound Rescue service or Lurcher Link. Email me if you would like to knit one of these for your own hound.

It's Cold outside

Poor Little Lily. She has got a bald neck and her hair is thinning.

Seasonal Hormonal Alopecia.
Why am I mentioning this on a knitting blog?

Because it is absolutely my duty to provide her with warm and soft knitwear, she needs a classic snood.

Hound Snood Knitting Pattern,

So, anyone interested in a pattern, just register your interest here or email me, leave a message on the Grey Knitters group on Ravelry and I will write up a pattern for a flared/shaped snood for your hound. Free to those who have rescued ex racers, but $3 to those who have not or who wish to donate to the Essex Greyhound Rescue charity.

The Red Poppy Appeal

Regarding charity, I have collected an odd amount for the Red Poppy appeal as I had an order from Japan that inolved postage, so I am covering that myself and donating the postal costs to The Red Poppy Appeal as well.

My Charity Knitting Work

I was a little disappointed I could not get more people interested, but I hope this will be different next year as I will start earlier. It is so difficult to do stuff for charity, and broadcast it without it appearing like self promoting Spam, and I apologise to anyone who feels offended by requests like these. If you see a notice of one of my charity things, and you have seen it before, I would be very grateful if you could just overlook it and leave it for other people to find. with so many specialist groups around, it is difficult to reach everyone.

Christmas Holidays

This year I will be selling the Santa Hat pattern, Christmas Pudding Hat pattern and Christmas mini-stocking, tinsel and baubles patterns to raise money for childrens charities. 100% of proceeds will go to charity from me.

Remembrance Day is Coming Soon

Red Poppy Crochet Pattern

So far I have collected £32.67, to go directly to The Red Poppy Appeal

Here is my design for a Crochet Poppy
This is no longer available as a single pattern
It is to be found in the book Hookorama by Rachael Matthews

Gorgeous Knitting!

I am inlcuding these pieces of work, just because they are so beautiful in every way. They are designed by Marnie Maclean who has a wonderful talent of making the yarn work for her in complete curvaceousness and drape, no lumps in sight.

How beautiful! that is all I need to say. I have chosen to post these two pics of Marnie enjoying the modelling, you can see more serious pics of these projects on her blog/website (where her patterns including this one are for sale)

Samhain Salutations!

I can't believe another year has gone so quickly, and that it has been a long time since I could put up some ghostly designs of my own. I hope by next year, I will have a little more to show publicly in the way of single patterns.

I wasn't well on actual Samhain eve, it was indeed 'some pig' (see scarf above and below) and it passed by with just a flicker of acknowledgement. I will have to make up for it next year by designing something specifically for it, last year I designed the Silvanus bag for the Anticraft. Talking of which, do take a trip over there to see their latest
Samhain issue; Sticky.

I am an arachnaphobe. so it truly gave me shudders. There are three lovely projects which are my favourite, a knitted cardigan Cocooned, and some crochet webby gauntlets To Weave a Tangled Web as well as a lace scarf Charlotte A. Cavatica

Here are some mini pics of those projects, but do go over to the magazine for the full set. The Anticraft book is out soon, how exciting, especially as it means I will be in current print again. They kindly chose three of my projects to be included, and can I just declare, they paid their designers before the book was even finished, that is how nice they have been. Unlike some other publishers and authors who still haven't paid me to date! (you know who you are, I send you threefold reflections)

Yuletide is just around the corner

Or as some of you prefer to call the holiday season; Christmas. I know some people have been downloading my Christmas patterns from here for charity and fundrasing use, that is all well and good. I had tried to make that easy for you charity knitters by allowing you to do that on one click. Sadly, some people have been using those patterns for personal projects, and not donating the honesty fee requested ($3 per hat and $5 per Christmas Tree decorations).

Now that I have listed these patterns officially on Ravelry, I have asked that anyone who wishes to use these for charity or fundraising to contact me, describe the use, and I will allow people who are knitting for a good cause to have the patterns for free. On the other hand, if you wish to buy these patterns, I will donote 100% of the proceeds to a children's charity, once a year (end of December or beginning of January)

So here are the patterns I am selling for charity:

Christmas Pudding Baby Hat $3

Christmas Santa Hat $3

Christmas Tree Decorations:
3 versions of Mini Stockings, Gold and Silver Baubles, Tinsel $5

Erssie's Easy Beanie (Fairisle beanies) $3

If you wish to buy any of these, email erssiemajor@yahoo.co.uk with the pattern title, the cost and your PayPal username/email address and I can invoice you straight away and forward the pdfs via email as soon as funds clear.