Orange, Lemon and Lime Slices
Knitted in the round and then felted, these slices of citrus fruits are a cheery dressing to the table and are safe to put hot pots and pans on since they are thick, felted wool. Man-made fibers like acrylics would melt and burn under the heat.
The pattern, called “Felted Citrus Mug and Pot Mats”, is from Dawn Brocco Knitwear Designs at www.dawnbrocco.com and costs $6 as a pdf download. I used two strands of worsted yarn held together because I have lots of it, (I refer you to Exhibit B in the column to the right,) and was too impatient to get bulky yarn as is recommended. You need big needles, US 10’s in this case, in both double pointed and 16” circular, but how big is up to you. Gauge doesn’t matter! Woo-hoo!
My citrus slices ended up about 10” in diameter. I found that the finished pieces needed a lot of tugging into shape while wet to get a nice flat circle. I even weighted them down for a while as they dried.
I added little orange, lemon and lime seeds near the centers with a few white stitches for each before felting. Don’t you love the way the seed stitches on the rind add peel-like texture?
With a little red wine, we could make sangria. But always use a designated knitter when drinking.
Extreme Knits
This section of my blog is dedicated to sharing examples of extreme knitting that make me wonder about the designer's sanity. I know, I know, for the sake of art and all. But still.
May will be over before we know it. As June is the traditional month for weddings, let us look at extreme bridal knits. Never mind that I was married in December.
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| Julia Ramsey Knitwear |
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| Loopknits |
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| Makepiece |
The average cost of a wedding dress in the U.S. is $1,124 (according to unsubstantiated internet sources.) These unusual wedding dresses were hand-knitted by someone who was definitely not paid enough. Maybe they were labors of love, but that's a heck of a lot of love. I'm thinking there's an outstanding balance on the books.
First you knit the 5 arms, each in the main color and the contrast color for the underside. Then the arms are knit together and the top of the body finished in the main color. Finally the bottom of the starfish is knit together. There is an error in the directions on row 5 of the underside of the starfish arm. Instead of K10 it should say K9 in both places for a total of 20 stitches, not 22. At least that's how I fixed it so the number of stitches matched. Also, when finishing the underside of the body, it seems to me that the decreases are too drastic and I would add rows of knitting around in between the decrease rows. 
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