Pandas on knitwear

My love for Pandas inspired designs for knitwear.

A PDF knitting pattern is available from my Ravelry store for a pair of 4ply fingerless mitts with a panda holding a piece of bamboo across his tummy.  The gloves can be hand knitted in any 4ply weight yarn - wool, cotton or cashmere.  Knitting instructions include typed pages for the shaping and graph charts for both left and right mitt.

Panda fingerless mitts

The panda also features on a hand knitted cushion and it is surrounded by a circle of flowers similar to those shown in the graph below.  There are also flowers on the  back of the cushion, with a buttoned fastening in the centre.  A PDF knitting pattern for the cushion is also on Ravelry

The graph below shows a design which was used for the body of a child's cardigan/sweater.  A selection of different sizes were made for stores in the USA.

Graph showing pandas and flower design for child's sweater

Another panda glove pattern in my Ravelry store is for a pair of 4ply mitts with a panda's face on the front.  The palms of the mitts are plain.

Panda Face fingerless mitts

I don't have access to the real thing, so the photo below was taken from a non-copyright internet site. The panda looks quite content while chewing away on the bamboo pieces, or whatever it may be eating.

King Kong gloves and a shop window full of monkeys

I love monkeys, gorillas, apes and any sort of primate.  In fact, I have a large collection of them - soft toys, ceramics, such as monkey-shaped teapots, cups and plates decorated with monkeys and a plastic Kong Kong-shaped water-drinking bottle - but not the real thing!

My design of King Kong's face and part of the Empire State Building features on a pair of fingerless mitts and the PDF knitting pattern is available from my store on Ravelry

King Kong's face and the Empire State Building on a pair of hand knitted fingerless mitts

I have been to New York several times in the past and on one of my trips came across this shop window display.  Of course, I had to take a photograph of it!

New York shop window full of toy monkeys and bananas

http://www.ravelry.com/designers/twisted-classics

Owls and Barn Owl fingerless mitts - inspired by nature

Last year I was in staying in the Lake District and went to Haverthwaite station for a journey on a steam train.  I was surprised to find 3 owls on show there.

Scopes, Eagle and Barn Owl on show at the station

One was a beautiful Barn Owl.

Beautiful Barn Owl

The second was a Scopes Owl - a female who had been rescued from a lady who became allergic to the feathers and could no longer look after her.

Scopes Owl

The third owl was an Eagle Owl

Eagle Owl

Sad to see that they were chained up and not free to fly whenever they wanted - but at least they were being well looked after.

I love the Barn Owl's fluffy face feathers - and you can see I was there in the Spring from the daffodils in the window box.

Barn Owl on handler's wrist

And there were steam trains at the station too!

Steam locomotive at Haverthwaite station in the Lake District

I love owls and have designed some fingerless gloves with owls on the front.  They can be made in any 4ply wool, cotton or cashmere and the knitting pattern is available to buy from TwistedClassics site on Ravelry.com.

Barn Owl fingerless mitts

Barn Owl mitts - left glove

Barn Owl mitt - right glove

http://www.ravelry.com/designers/twisted-classics