Baby Baby Baby

We seem to know lots of people who are pregnant at the moment.  Being ever so slightly keen on knitting baby clothes I have to admit that my first thought when someone announces they are having a baby isn't always what a joy it is that another living person is soon to join the world, it's that I can cast on another of my favourite baby cardigans http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer03/PATTdaisy.html.  It's a pattern that I first made for a friend over 8 years ago and it hasn't failed me (or the small people who have been made one) since.   Sometimes I include the hood, sometimes I don't bother (I'd like to pretend it's dependent on the weather when the child will be sporting their jacket but it's more influenced by my supply of wool at the time). 

The picture at the top shows the two I have waiting to be delivered (just as soon as the mother to be delivers).  The brown one is for the nursery lady who will cease to be the nursery lady.  I did worry that it was a bit keen to knit her a cardi but it is quite a big deal leaving your little lad with a stranger (all be her a professional) and this lady made it all a bit easier for me.  

The stripey cardi is for a friend of the admirals (and his lady who is obv the one bearing the bump).  He once told me (I was probably knitting while he sat drinking with the admiral) that his mum used to knit for him and in particular he remembered a jumper that was stripey like dennis the mennace.  Since then I've never been able to see this chap as anyone other than Dennis.  He is a troublesom chap who has a strange ability to fill my menfolks with more booze than they can handle (the admiral on a regular basis, my Dad at our wedding - mine and the admirals, I haven't married my Dad!).  We don't yet know if the baby will be a Dennis or a minnie but either way I'm sure it will cause some mischeif as it grows up.

 

I have made a couple of changes to the pattern, firstly the raglan shaping for the armholes, I always move in a couple of stitches so you get that fancy seam with the parallel lines of stitches along the seam.  It also means that when you are joining the sleeves together (with a nice bit of matress stitch) you aren't having to hunt through the cast off edge to find the next stitch.  The second little change I do is rather than cast off the stitches for the neck, I pop them on a holder. This means I don't have to pick up stitches when I come to knit the neckline (or hood) which has to be a blessing.

 

I also wanted to show you this example of the same pattern that I made for my little pirate.  It was one of the few things I knitted for him and I remember casting on whilst on holiday with my sister and my husb.  We went to stay on Lundy which was amazing and relaxing, but not ideal when I had morning sickenss in pitch black as they turn the electricity off overnight.  I put a zip on this instead of using buttons but as you might guess from the photo of the back it wasn't too successful and I'll stick to buttons now.
 

Anyways.. I hope the two new recipients of these cardis enjoy wearing them, or if they are too little to enjoy them, their parents do.  And I can confirm there is another cardi on my needles at the moment which hopefully will have an unusual fastening!! (watch this space).

Bear with.

Hmmmm it may take a while to learn pictures on the iPad... Bear with....

Three years?? Three years. Well that is just shoddy.Suffice to say I have been a touch busy.. I got married with a few crafty creations and then I spent quite some time creating a baby which took every ounce of craft out of me, but I'm starting to craft again and wanted to share.My most recent accomplishment is a pair of trousers for the little pirate.. I bought the fabric from the sewing class i'vejoined so i've no idea who's it is.. And then I decided to accent it with red gingham-there's a little red patch pocket on the back although the little man desn't have much to store in it yet.The pattern was amazingly easy and the French seam for the crotch are just toooooooo cute.. I suspect he might be getting a few more pairs like this.Right time for another feed so I'dbetter get on withmy main job.. See you next nap time kxx

I love Amy Butler

I've noticed that not that many places sell nice knitting wool, until a few years ago this mecca opened just across town from me. Fortunately it's far enough away and in a random enough part of town that I rarely just pass and every couple of months I make a special trip.
Whilst I've been perusing the wool, needles, buttons and other such fancery I saw they had started stocking Amy Butler fabrics. I'd seen the designs on the internet but I think it was when I actually TOUCHED them that the love affair started. So when mothers day came round, I thought 'that mother of mine always has bags with her of stuff and what she really needs is a lovely fabric carry all'. and from that thought it wasnt' difficult to decide that what she really needed was an Amy butler swing bag.

Once I'd bought the stuff, I sat down to my sewing machine and followed the instructions letter for letter (I'm normally not that strict on pressing seams open etc). Three hours later I realised I'd missed dinner but as the Admiral had just bought a new computer game he wasn't TOO grumpy. Dinner eaten, I did the finaly bit of hand sewing and then worried that I loved the bag so much I couldn't give it to mum. fortunately I quite like her too and the bag did go to it's rightful owner (without me having to wear it for a few days first, which normally happens with any jewels I make). As I was so distracted by the beauty, I totally forgot to take any piccies of it.. but

I was then inspired and decided to make Becksenior one for Easter.. not strictly related to the story of Easter: Eggs, Bunnies and handbags?? but this time I did remember to photograph and I can therefore present my second ever Amy Butler swing bag in rather lovely Dasiy Chain prints... hmmm lovely lovely lovely

Smitten

[Sorry for the huge delay in posting.. no excuse.. no extra busy crafting time.. just slack]





imagine the scene.. it's valentine's day, you're off for the weekend with your boy, you've got visions of the two of you strolling hand in hand over the Charles bridge (you're in Prague obviously) and then the weather says it's going to be freaking cold. Suddenly holding hands in gloves is a bit more tricky.





Enter the SMITTEN.. ( some websites refer to it as a love glove but that feels wrong to me). It's a glove with two hand openings so that you (and your loved one) can both pop your hands in and hold hands inside the glove.





I found a lovely pattern http://cocoknits.com/knit/garments/accessories/smitten.html which called for enourmous double pointed needles so I had to work out how to knit it on straight needles instead. it meant the smitten had a seam inside, but as you were meant to be holding hands there would have been trouble for anyone noticing the seam when they could have been stroking my fingers!!!





I also made two mittens for the other hand of each of us, and hey presto.





I did feel a touch spoilt because whilst I'd taken other (sensible) gloves with me as well, but the Admiral thought he'd better rely on his new gift of the smitten and didn't take any other gloves.. We were smittened all weekend!

Teddy has arrived

My first post was about a blanket I was knitting for a university chum.. well yesterday her little one arrived and for once I'd finished the present in time!


I had carried on knitting round and round the blanket all over christmas and everyone who saw it couldn't understand how it was going to end up square (I started to have a few doubts myself). I finished the edges with 4 rounds of seed stitch which is the same as the top of the teddy's pocket and once I'd washed it I was AMAZED how square it came out. I've used my teddy, Teddy to show how I'm envisaging new teddy sleeping under the blanket. [My Teddy.. been with me since I was 4.. looking a bit tired now but still in one piece although his head it very wobbly]

Then I set to knitting the teddy...













So all that there is for me to do now, is send it off to the new family.. but while I'm here I'll also show you the card that I made for them.. i'm rather proud. (yes there are 5 of them.. mum dad, big bro, sis and little bro!!)


kxx

Knitting drives me loopy

A slightly late christmas present is currently on my needles.. and I don't mean my little sticks I mean my MACHINE NEEDLES.. I love my knitting machine.

I bought it off ebay late 2007 and then enrolled at a evening class to learn to use it. I've made a few things on it, a wedding blanket for some friends this summer but mainly it's been used for socks. (I love socks almost as much as I love my knitting machine).

One of the weird things about machine knitting is how much the edges curl in when they are being knitted.. It takes a LOT of steaming to uncurl them afterwards and a dear chum commented that this curling back under made them perfect to copy a scarf she once saw.

This christmas I aimed to make her one of these beloved scarfs. I decided on 20 needles wide.. the scarf is only about an inch wide when it curls in but I think it's mainly for beauty rather than warmth and each loop is 100 rows long. I wanted the seams of the links to be as seamless as possible, so rather than cast off each time I transferred the stitched on to real needles (oh dearie me) and hand grafted them with kitchener stitch

So here it is on the machine.. The little green section is a block of waste yarn so that I didn't have to cast off and on again for each loop. It was these green stitches that I transferred onto real needles to graft off. i'm also not knitting on the middle of the machine.. this might be bad practice by it was mainly because my table is a bit weeny and to knit in the middle I'd keep banging into the wall.

I'd really like inspirational pictures of loveliness over my desk but I currently have a star.. it's nice and all but it's just not made of wool is it?? one of my new year resolutions is to sort out this room so that there is enough space for all things science and boyey and my shit (I mean creative masterwork)

so finally this is what the scarf looks like now.. Obviously it's going to get a bit longer.. I don't think it will provide much warmth but at least it can wrap around her neck.

kxx

Oh and pleased as I am with this scarf present idea, I was TOTALLY blown away by my pressie from Lady Kitsch