I’m not really the kind of person who suits a hat, much to my chagrin. It is the bane of my existence that pretty woollies are out of my reach. That said, when Bob & I went to Stockholm in January for our wedding anniversary I picked up a phenomenal ear infection which took nearly three months to heal and so this winter I’m simply not prepared to risk that again.

I’ve already half-heartedly started my craft neutral challenge and this yarn (Sirdar Denim Ultra) has been in my stash for about seven years. It met my criteria of being warm, fluffy and quick to knit up so I combined it with this pattern (Ravelry link) which is supposed to be a slouchy beret.

Note the ubiquitous hairbobbles around the wrist mark of the mother of daughters. The eagle eyed amongst you will note an error about three rows into the pattern caused by Erica leaping on me while I was having a knit break and thus losing my stitch marker but since my friend recently told me that Muslim prayer rugs always have an imperfection since only Allah makes things perfectly, I’ve relaxed my ridiculous perfectionist streak. It’s a really mind-altering way of looking at things. In any case, although (I think) the error is highlighted perfectly in the picture it’s really not obvious in reality.

As the title suggests there’s more to this post. Erica has decided that actually she rather likes my hat so I have now cast on Amy Swenson’s Cabled hat (pdf link) for her, but in the meantime I’m having to tolerate this nonsense. Two years old and she’s already raiding my wardrobe. Of course, as is the way of these things she suits the hat much better than I do. Ah well

Posted under for the kids, knitting

I know, I know – my idea of “tomorrow” is dreadful, but I think my loyal readerbase are already well aware of my terrible timekeeping

So onto my mistake. If you click on the photo it will take you to the flickr page where I have added notes to explain the mistake. Unfortunately these notes don’t carry over if the photo is being hosted elsewhere so I’ll do my best to explain.

The first place to spot the mistake is on the waistband on the right hand side. You’ll notice it is about an inch higher than the waistband on the left. The second place to spot it is by looking straight down the middle of the main section of the longies.

When you’re knitting longies, you want the back to be higher than the front for the simple reason that the longies have to accommodate a cloth-padded bottom. To do this, you add something called short rows which basically mean you work to 3/4 of the way through a row, turn and work back to 1/4 way through, then turn and finish your row. This adds two extra rows to the back but not the front. The side effect of short rows is that you’re left with a clear join (which can be seen down the middle of my longies). Of course, being that short rows should have been worked across the back and yet mine are shown across the middle means that…

… I split for the leg in the wrong place. If I’d kept going, the rise across the back wouldn’t have accommodated Greer’s big cloth bum and the right hand side would have been significantly bigger than the left.

So there we have it! Doh!

Posted under knitting

I did finish this before I had Greer but until this week I didn’t have a good photograph of it. Alas, Greer has grown so quickly that it looks like a tank top rather than a dress! Still – after all our worries with Erica, Greer’s growth is a very welcome surprise. She was weighed this week at 11lb 2oz so is absolutely thriving. It’s making me feel very proud of my boobies and EXTREMELY relieved!

So – this dress is knit using the Kaia babydoll pattern and I just squeezed it out of 100g Sirdar snuggly baby bamboo DK. Seriously – I had just enough left to do the drawstring and that was it! It’s a really lovely little pattern although I think if I were to make it again I’d pick up stitches around the armhole and knit little sleeves.

You even got a wee smile from my big girl!

Posted under for the kids, knitting

Just a wee quicky from me tonight to show off a pair of trousers I finished for Erica recently. The pattern is the Lil Devil pants from Stitch and Bitch Nation and the details as always are on my Ravelry project page for those who are interested.

They look pretty funky from the front…

…but the back really shows her true personality

She seems to like them anyway!

Posted under for the kids, knitting

I realised recently that I had very little by way of completed knitted things for this baby and spurred on by a request for a pair of bootees for a friend, I knocked these little sets out. First up we have this little set which is being sent to Sam.

Here’s a close-up of the elephant pattern

And then there are these sets that I made for my own little baby

The bootees are all knit from the Saartje’s bootees pattern (link to pdf file), Sam’s hat and the stripy hat are both knit from the Handle hat pattern (link to pdf file) and the red hat is the Vine lace baby hat. All of these patterns are available free – isn’t the internet a wonderful thing?!

Posted under for the kids, knitting

You know that old adage about time flying? Well, I don’t know how it happened but I’m 29 weeks pregnant and I’m very unprepared! Maybe it’s just because I know that we’re old hands at this managing a baby malarkey but until this last couple of weeks I haven’t bought or made anything in preparation for this little bundle. I disgraced myself yesterday by paying for a knitted cardigan (but it’s so cute!) and I’ve now completed a couple of things.

These are knitted to the Aubrey Doodlepants knitting pattern and for the non cloth nappy users amongst you, they’re longies which are designed to be worn over cloth nappies. I’ve made a few pairs of these before and I’ve always been impressed but this time I went down a needle size to ensure a thick fabric capable of holding moisture.

Of course, since they’re so small I had more than enough wool left to make a matching hat which I used the Fae Folk hat pattern to make. I do like this pattern but I wasn’t terribly happy at how my decreases came out so I’ll make a bigger version and see if that is any better.

I still haven’t caught up on any of your blogs this week and I can only apologise, I honestly don’t know where my time is going! I do plan to spend Monday (my birthday!) relaxing with some nice tea, a pack of Fox’s classics, some knitting & sewing and my laptop whilst I have the house to myself so hopefully I’ll be back in the swing of things at some point this year!

In the meantime, I’m interested. What is your go-to handmade gift for a new baby? Or if you’re a parent, what did you make for your baby that you absolutely loved? What do you wish you’d had time to make? Better yet, what did you make (or have made for you) that you never used?

Ooh! I forgot to mention – Annie blogged about our owl swap and another swap she was doing, she got much better photographs than I did if you’d like to nosy on over and see what we exchanged. She was a fantastic swap partner which is why I’m glad that we managed to get her into the Time for Tea swap as a last minute addition. Check out the updated participant list!

Hope you’re all well! Now, if you’ll excuse me I must go straighten my hair as I’m being taken out for a meal to celebrate my birthday

Posted under knitting

I’ve had the Oliver+S lazy days skirt pattern bookmarked for six months. Six months! I have no idea why I hadn’t tried it before now but there you go, as I’ve mentioned before I don’t have much (any!) faith in myself when it comes to creating things but I’m fairly happy with the way this has come out.

I made it to fit my little daughter but unfortunately the elastic I used for the waistband is a bit too stretchy so I’m waiting on some heavier-duty stuff coming so I can get this on her. With my new-found faith in my sewing machine I’m going to make her whole wardrobe! Or, maybe not The fabric has been in my stash for aeons, it’s a Robert Kaufman print and I really had to make something with it. I did this last night over a couple of hours watching Dancing on Ice, so it’s a very quick little project to finish. The ironing took longer than anything else!

I thought I’d blogged these items too, but apparently not! My lovely friend Eileen had a baby just after New Year and I made the Vine Lace baby hat (free pattern link) and a pair of Saartje’s bootees (free link – pdf pattern) for her new daughter. I finally finished sewing the buttons on the bootees last night so I’ve popped these into the post today. I just hope they still fit!

Did you all have a nice weekend? I hope you were suitably spoiled on Saturday! I shall return tomorrow with some newly dyed wool for your delectation and maybe some baking too.

Posted under for the kids, knitting, sewing, with the kids

Some of you will remember that I’ve blogged before about the work of Kerry Wilkinson from PennyDog. I’m a huge fan of Kerry’s work and her latest effort is making me antsy because she hasn’t listed them in her Folksy shop yet.

LOOK! Pink and sparkly, combined with knitting! Oh the glee, if you could only imagine how happy these knitting needles make me!

Kerry assures me that they’ll be available in her shop soon priced at £8 a pair.

Posted under recommendations

I can’t help it. Since my last post I’ve developed a minor obsession with owls leading me to cast on these fantastic mittens. Want to hear something shocking? In over 20 years of knitting this is the first item I’ve made for myself. Annoyingly, I thought I had more of the yarn I cast on with so I’ve completed the first mitten and have had to start the second with a ball that went through the washing machine and had a bit of a kool aid accident. I’m hoping that since it was a 30degree wash the transferred dye won’t have set but I suspect I’ll be out of luck and will have to overdye the mittens. Bear in mind it’s not blocked yet and doesn’t have the eyes sewn on – here’s a taster for you.

I’ve also been searching Etsy and adding a whole load of owl-themed items to my favourites. I’m determined I’m going to buy The Owl and The Pussycat artwork, I just loved it as a child and it reminds me so much of a beautifully illustrated book that I had.

I’m also still working on a Jean Greenhowe Rainbow Baby but I’ve got somewhat bored after making and stuffing the body. Doesn’t this look a little creepy?



Other than that, I’m kicking back and taking it easy this week. Both the hubby and I are back to work tomorrow and we’re both trying to mentally prepare for it so I’m still in bed with my knitting, a big glass of water and season 3 of The West Wing. It’s going to be interesting getting the five of us out the door by 7.30am tomorrow but luckily I get to crawl back into bed for a little while. It’s a hard life

Posted under knitting

Merry Christmas one and all! I hope Santa Claus was good to you and that you didn’t get a lump of coal I’ll start today’s entry by sending you all over to Span’s Stitchin blog for a look at the hand-dyed Fetchings I made for my Crafteroo secret santa recipient.

Boxing day was spent with my side of the family this year and I came prepared! My sister has been telling me that my niece doesn’t have a hat that fits her now her candy cane hat is too small, so it’s Auntie Vonnie’s job to make a new one. “No problem!” said I, and off I went to work.

I really like the kids’ hats that have a little elvin nubbin at the crown but haven’t found a (free) pattern yet that matched what I liked so I improvised this hat. I promise I’ll sit down and devise the pattern if anyone particularly wants it. I will also update with pictures of the hat being worn since neither of my babies will entertain being models today!

The astute amongst you may have recognised the yarn. It is, in fact, the remaining 50g or so hand-dyed yarn that I used to create Janice’s Fetching. Nothing wasted in this household! And indeed, there was just enough left over to make matching mittens with an i-cord attached. You never seem to see those anymore: kids’ mittens with a cord to go through the coat so you never lose a mitten again. Very cute, really.

I did write up the pattern for these and they’ll be published on the site at some point today. As a tip, you’ll want to go and learn the Magic Cast On showcased in Knitty.

And, a reminder! Today is the last day to enter the competition to win a Namaste needle shell. I’ll close the competition at 8pm GMT so get in there while you can!

Posted under dyeing wool, for the kids, knitting