milliemanu – Anna Testadoro

Posted on 15 January 2015 by Anna — 2 Comments

FO: Another Bolero

I knitted one final bolero for milliemanu last year. I posted about the other nine here.

I know I wrote about my dislike for the pattern in my previous post, but I’ve actually gotten used to the pattern. This is probably because I have now knitted it 10 times and because I have amended it to make it flow better.

In the original pattern for example the ribbing for the back and two front pieces is done individually on each of the pieces. Instead I sew it up and then do the ribbing. In my opinion it actually makes it look much better.

Not sure what happened to the colour on this picture, but the blue is more like the two above.

And I still do love the yarn that I use, the DROPS BabyAlpacaSilk. It’s a joy to knit with. I use double strands, so I have to pay attention to picking up both whilst knitting, but it just ends up being an amazingly soft and luxurious finished object.

The ribbing on the sleeves and the bottom has the added picot-esque edging, which took me a while to figure out initially, but now I love it!

Posted on 13 January 2015 by Anna — 1 Comment

FO’s: Another 17 Vests

Back in July I posted about the 19 vests I knitted for milliemanu last year. Well this year I knitted another 17 vests for her, it’s the same pattern as last year, but she picked some other colour combinations, as you will see now.

Vest One

Vest Two

Vest Three

Vest Four

Vest Five

Vest Six

Vest Seven

Vest Eight

Vest Nine

Vest Ten

Vest Eleven

Vest Twelve

Vest Thirteen

Vest Fourteen

Vest Fifteen

Vest Sixteen

Vest Seventeen

And here are some shots of some of them together.

Posted on 4 November 2014 by Anna — 3 Comments

FO’s: 9 Boleros

Earlier this year, in June, Milliemanu ordered some boleros from me.

I used this Sirdar pattern as a basis, but then made some pretty major amends to it. I have to say, I know why I like the DROPS patterns, they are just so well written, this one wasn’t at all.

DROPS like to make their patterns easy and without too much seaming, but this was the opposite. However, changing it to how I liked it, made it much more enjoyable.

I used double strands of DROPS BabyAlpacaSilk,. which made it a gorgeously soft and scrumptious finished object. So, here are pictures of the nine boleros.

Bolero One

Bolero Two

Bolero Three

Bolero Four

Bolero Five

Bolero Six

Bolero Seven

Bolero Eight

Bolero Nine

Posted on 3 November 2014 by Anna — 1 Comment

FO: Kid Gloves

Milliemanu ordered some kid gloves in pink last year, which I managed to knit in November in a couple of days.

They’re a nice and easy glove pattern, I had only knit adult gloves before, and mainly mittens for kids. This meant that each of the fingers were a bit of a challenge, but in the end they worked out well.

There’s not really that much more to say about them.

They were made to match one of the hats I posted about last week.

Posted on 29 October 2014 by Anna — 1 Comment

FO: Beanies Galore

Last years orders from milliemanu also included some beanies. I knitted 12 of them, 7 pink ones and 5 blue ones. This was a nice and quick knit with DROPS Karisma, and without further ado I’m just going to post the pictures.

Hat One

Hat Two

Hat Three

Hat Four

Hat Five

Hat Six

Hat Seven

Hat Eight

Hat Nine

Hat Ten

Hat Eleven

Hat Twelve

And here’s a few pictures of the pile of beanies.

Posted on 23 October 2014 by Anna — 1 Comment

FO: Bunnies

You’ll be seeing a lot of items I’ve made for milliemanu over the next few days. And I even did some sewing for her last year. She sent me a sample and I made two bunnies for her. I won’t talk about these much, but will just let the pictures do the talking.

Posted on 21 October 2014 by Anna — 1 Comment

FO: Toddler Cardigan

Here’s cardigan I knitted back in June last year as a sample for the owner and founder of milliemanu. She’s the one I’ve been knitting all the vests (and more) and lots of boleros for, I’ll be posting about them all in the next few days.

It’s this DROPS pattern, which I have knitted before a few times. Although this is the first time I added the little velvet trim. It’s just a plain garter stitch, but the little details like the crochet border and some nice buttons do add a little nice touch.

I do love the colour, and I am amazed that almost every time I’ve knitted this cardigan the request has been for this colour.

And this cardigan was for milliemanu’s daughter, which I am sure she was pleased with.

Posted on 21 July 201422 July 2014 by Anna — 2 Comments

FO’s: 19 Vests

Yes, you read that right. Since last September I’ve knitted 19 vests in various colours and sizes for the lady from milliemanu. I wrote about two boleros a few days ago.

I used this great DROPS pattern, but instead of adding the texture the pattern calls for I just knitted stockinette stitch all the way, making them actually quite a fast and easy knit. Of course because it was a DROPS pattern I also used DROPS yarn, DROPS Merino Extra Fine to be exact. It’s a lovely soft yarn that calls for 3,5-4mm needles, yet another reason that it knit up quickly. So without further ado, here are the 19 vests.

Vest One

Vest Two

Vest Three

Vest Four

Vest Five

Vest Six

Vest Seven

Vest Eight

Vest Nine

Vest Ten

Vest Eleven

Vest Twelve

Vest Thirteen

Vest Fourteen

Vest Fifteen

Vest Sixteen

Vest Seventeen

Vest Eighteen

Vest Nineteen

And here’s a collection of a bunch of them together.

Posted on 14 July 2014 by Anna — 1 Comment

FO: Two Girl Bolero’s

I met a lady last year in the Summer at a kids festival/fair, she’s a designer and sells the most amazing girls dresses and some shirts for boys too. Check her out at milliemanu.

When she found out that I was a knitter we started a business relationship and so during the last year I knitted a whole load of things. First, I’m going to show you a couple of bolero’s I test-knitted for her last Summer.

I used this DROPS pattern, but amended it slightly and left the buttons off. I used DROPS BabyAlpacaSilk and Camilla from milliemanu asked me to add the velvet border. I knitted two versions, one in this gorgeous lilac and another in a light, pale green, see below:

And she loved them, but thought they were a little too warm for the Summer, which I kind of agree with. This meant that I didn’t have to knit any further ones of this kind. But this year I am making another lot, but a different version. Stay tuned in the next few days to see these.