Knitting a name

The idea for knitted letters spelling my granddaughter's name came to me when I was shopping one weekend and saw these letters in Tiger

A little imagination was required, and a small fret saw, to remove the odd extra appendage and get the spelling right.  What I really love with projects like this is thinking about what I need to do to produce the right effect.  I chose lovely Wendy Supreme DK cotton, in pretty colours with a lovely sheen.

Originally I was going to knit tubes with a giant 'knitting dolly' but that was not going to work on anything other than the 'S' and 'I' (I know there isn't an 'I' here but that's coming).  In the end I decided to knit pieces in roughly the shape as the letters and wrap them round the wooden forms.  So I set off and cast on, knitting in roughly the right direction increasing and decreasing to get the slants right and making gussets and slits to fit round places like the bar of the A.  Where I needed to increase on the front of the letter I kept it neat in the 'fully fashioned' style.

Having the S in mirror image was not a deliberate mistake, it was a real mistake!  I looked and looked again, turning my head to one side, and still could not see what I had done wrong.  After DS1 had pointed out the error of my ways, I just had to undo (does anyone know why this is called frogging - is it a bloggy term?) and turn it around.  I padded the letters lightly with polyester wadding and fixed the knitted covers at the back just by overlapping and stitching.  The joy of something as flexible as knitted fabric is as long as it is roughly the right shape it can be made to fit by stretching gently and plumping it out with light padding. 

The little knitted flowers, heart, star and butterfly come from Knitted Edgings & Trims by Lesley Stanfield.  I have stitched little plastic rings on the back of each letter to hang them on the wall.

Enjoy your weekend everyone

xx

C