Pattern: Whirligig Shrug by Stefanie Japel
Yarn: Rowan Pure Wool DK, 1½ x 50g in colour: #028 Raspberry
Needles: 3.75mm circs and dpns

After the high concentration needed for my last project, I felt like knitting something quick that didn’t involve anything too complicated.:-) I’ve been planning to knit this shrug for a while. I saw the previews for the Interweave Weekend magazine and just fell in love with it. It’s possibly one of the girliest things I’ve knitted for Rose so far!

The pattern is very simple, just a top-down raglan with no front, just the back and sleeves. The little cable detail is cute and very easy to do without a cable needle and I actually managed to get the whole back done in one evening and then spent days finishing the sleeves and edging.

If I’d bothered to read other people’s notes on Ravelry, I’d have seen that the yarn quantities for the pattern are highly over-estimated. I bought three balls of Rowan Pure Wool DK (from Lana Pura, who always give great service and free delivery which isn’t to be sniffed at) and used barely half of the second. I wonder if this is a cunning ploy to get me to increase my stash. But the leftovers will make a lovely hat next winter, so I’m not too grumpy.

Now this is done, the world is my oyster again and I just need to decide what on earth to knit first!

Pattern: Baby’s First Fair Isle Sweater by Susan Gutpearl
Yarn: Opal Uni 4ply, two-thirds of 100g in colour: #1999 Magenta and Zitron Trekking XXL, two-thirds of 100g in colour: #76 maroon-mauve
Needles: 2.5mm circs and dpns

Hand me that gold medal right now – I am a winner. Finished neatening the steeks on Saturday evening and then left it to block on Sunday. The photos had to wait til this morning due to the model needing her beauty sleep.

I am really thrilled with the end result. It has been a bit of a slog. Pre-baby I could have finished this in a week, easily, but having a small person interrupting at random times makes everything so much harder and at the beginning I honestly did think that I’d be posting today with half a sleeve done and a vague promise to finish it off before stuffing the whole sweater into a Tesco bag and hiding it at the back of my wardrobe.

This is the first fair isle sweater I have ever knitted. To date, the biggest project has been the Deep V Argyle Vest, but that at least didn’t have sleeves to bother me. All the other stranded projects I’ve done were mitts or hats, so it was even more of a challenge.

I like the pattern and I’ve said before that there were a couple of problems which I queried and worked out. I didn’t swatch because of time constraints. I wanted a slightly bigger sweater than the small, so I just used the stated needle size and ended up with a chest width of 25cm which gives lots of wriggle room.

The sock yarns aren’t great for steeking as they don’t stick together, but they make for a lovely soft sweater. The colours of the Trekking change ever so subtly throughout so it looks as if I’ve done clever shading with a million different colours, a la Kaffe Fassett. It also means I can put the sweater in the washing machine without fear of it shrinking as they’re my two favourite workhorse sock yarns.

All in all, I am a very happy knitter today.

Pattern: Waltzer from Wee Woolly Toppers by Woolly Wormhead
Yarn: Jaeger Matchmaker Merino DK, less than 1 x 50g in color: Navy (discontinued! )
Needles: 3.5mm Addi Bamboo dpns

First FO of 2010! It took almost a week to knit this tiny hat, but I can now say I’ve started this year’s knitting.

Not much to say about this project, except it was a fun knit, despite being all moss stitch (!) and it makes for a very cute noggin warmer.

Very hard to take a photo of an excitable baby, though!

Pattern: Evangeline by Michelle Szeghalmi-Shirley
Yarn: Cascade Yarns 220 Wool, ½ x 100g skein in colour: #9404 Ruby
Needles: 4mm Brittany Birch dpns of loveliness

Nothing like a bit of bright red to cheer a person up on a grotty December morning! I “promised” myself these armwarmers if I managed to get the Christmas socks finished. I’d been finding wearing my mittens and gloves awkward when I had to keep taking them off every five seconds to adjust baby hats or wipe baby drool and so on, and I was getting cold hands each the time. So armwarmers were the perfect solution.

The pattern was nicely simple and it was easy to fit in a pattern repeat or two during baby naps. I made mine shorter than the elbow length given in the pattern, but there were no other modifications. There seem to be zillions of cabled wristwarmer patterns out there, but I chose these just because I liked the cable and it wasn’t too complicated (but not boring, either!).

The yarn I bought back in the summer for another baby project that never materialised, and it’s perfect; very snug but not overly soft so it should wear well. The colour is a complete change for me with my purple obsession, but I rather like it.

Pattern: Basic sock pattern, used millions of times
Yarn: Crystal Palace Yarns Mini Mochi, 2 x 50g in colour: Neptune Rainbow
Needles: 2.25mm dpns

Christmas knitting all done. I can’t really feel smug when there wasn’t actually that much to do compared to previous years, but during the times when I’d pick up the sock to only have to put in down a few stitches later I did wonder if I’d ever get them done.

There’s nothing to say about the “pattern”, so I’ll just mention the yarn. As I said previously, it’s slightly splitty and a bit hairy, but the colours are gorgeous. It washes nicely with no colour run and they’ve blocked really well.

The colour sequence on the foot of the sock at the top of the photo went completely loopy, though. There’s a huge wodge of turquoise for half of the foot, then it settles down and then a chunk of dark blue to the toe. And this was without there being knots in the yarn, which of course can make colour runs go screwy. If it wasn’t for the fact that I don’t have the time to fiddle, I’d have frogged the foot, cut and rejoined the yarn. But on the positive side, it’ll be hidden by shoes for much of the time.

I’ve never had that happen with any commercial sock yarn before and it’s pretty disappointing, but perhaps it was bound to happen just because I *had* always had such good experiences. Will be sticking to Trekking and Opal from now on, though, for my manly sock requirements. If Opal would make another thickly striped yarn like the “Feelings” range a couple of years ago, that would be just perfect, thankyouverymuch.

Pattern: Helena by Alison Green Will
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK, 2½ x 50g balls in colour: #18006
Needles: 3.75mm and 2.75mm circs and dpns

I actually finished this over a week ago, but it’s been in the pile waiting for blocking and buttons.

I wasn’t intending to knit another cardigan; not when there’s my own one to finish and still the poor baby has a lack of feet warmers. But I saw this pattern on Ravelry and remembered the chunk of leftovers I had from the Peapod Cardigan and figured that anything I use doesn’t have to be found storage space in my stash! As it was, I had literally two metres of yarn left over, so I really got as much out of the yarn as possible, though I admit I was sweating over whether I’d have enough when it came to the border!

The pattern was really simple to follow and I didn’t do anything to change it. Though I chose to make buttonholes instead of the ties that the original pattern uses. They’ll either get knotted or come undone and bug me and quite honestly, I think buttons look nicer. I had to re-do the buttonhole border a couple of times because it kept pulling in and looking crap and I’m still not totally happy with it, but after fiddling around with a sewn cast off from Montse Stanley’s Knitter’s Handbook, it looks passable. If it was a gift, though, I’d probably redo it for the third time.

Now I must concentrate on warming her legs and feet and finishing off that pesky giant lap blanket cardigan for me…

Pattern: Baby Galway Mitts by Jennifer Hoel
Yarn: Rowan 4ply Soft (discontinued) approx 12g in colour: Fairy
Needles: 2mm circs for Magic Looping

It’s been a busy few days here. I’ve had more midwife appointments and “lovely” routine blood tests to prove that my blood is red and runny or whatever the reason is and we’re slowly (in my case, at least, because I don’t do moving fast any more!) starting a massive clear out of our bedroom so we can fit in a chest of drawers for all the knitted baby clothes and a changing table.

So I didn’t feel much like heaving about the February Lady Sweater at the weekend, unsurprisingly. It’s heavy, even though it’s on a circular needle, so I decided something tiny that wasn’t a hat would be a better option!

The pattern is based on the Galway Hat in Alice Starmore’s Aran Knitting. I loved knitting something so intricate on such a small scale, and I suspect it’ll be the only chance I get to knit something remotely related to that book unless a) I win the lottery or b) it’s republished at a non-scary price. The bobbles were worked using my new-found favourite method, naturally, and each mitten probably only took an hour or so to make.

The yarn is leftovers from the Endpaper Mitts I knitted ages ago. Now I know just how much yarn they take to knit, I may be tempted to knit more (though perhaps plain ones which will be even quicker) until I have a mitten stash to rival the hat one!

Pattern: Daisy by Stephanie Pearl McPhee
Yarn: Twilley’s Freedom Spirit, 2½ x 50g in colour: #509
Needles: 4mm circs

The stripes just keep on coming. I had the urge to make another little hooded jacket like the Tomten, and this pattern caught my eye. It’s incredibly simple to knit and suits a self-striping yarn, I think, if you don’t want to fuss about with the embellishments (which I don’t).

The yarn striped beautifully on the sleeves and body of the cardigan, but the hood pooled a bit, sadly. I think it must be the stitch count which disagreed with it, which is a shame. It’s a very fluffy yarn, slightly slubby and splices nicely which meant minimal ends to weave in afterwards. I have enough left over for a matching you-know-what if I’m so inclined, but I think that might be going a bit too far.

Pattern: Basic Hat Pattern from The Knitters’s Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd
Yarn: Dalegarn Falk in Black and Yellow, as detailed here
Needles: 3mm circs and dpns

Yes, another hat..! Having the oddments of yarn from the ManU Hat lying around was just too irresistible. It only took an afternoon to whip up as well.

The pattern is the same one I usually make for the small people’s winter hats. I decided to knit the Preemie size as, based on the Yarn Standards head circumference chart, the average newborn baby has a 14″ (35.5cm) head circumference and the Preemie size measures 15″. It should also have a bit of stretch in it in case of giant headedness. Not sure where that leaves using the book to make hats for actual tiny babies, though, as they’d surely swim on them. *ponders*

Now it’s back to endless rows of Gull Stitch for the February Lady Sweater. I reckon I’m about two thirds of the way done with the lace now, so it’s just a case of sitting down with a good film and chocolate and a drink to hand and just knitting away for a couple of hours.

Pattern: ManU Hat by torirot design
Yarn: Dalegarn Falk, 1 x 50g in each of Black (#0090), Yellow (#2417) and Red (#4018)
Needles: 2.5mm and 3mm circs, and 3mm dpns

I didn’t get as much knitting done over the weekend as I’d hoped, but thanks to a good session yesterday afternoon, the hat was done and, after encouraging speedy drying with the electric fan, all ready to be worn.

It’s a lovely pattern. I can’t praise it enough. The charts are easy to follow and the directions are really clear. It’s not a symmetrical pattern so it’s a case of having to watch every line, but it’s still more instinctive than the Cow Print Hat was – there are only so many ways to knit a letter T or E, for example.

The yarn is fantastic. It knits up really evenly and there was no colour run: and as I was using red and black, two of the biggest culprits for bleeding everywhere, that was a huge relief! It’s hard to find sport weight yarn easily in the UK. There’s really only Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, which I’ve used a couple of times when needing sport weight yarn for hats, but it’s definitely more of a luxury option. Falk isn’t as soft, obviously, but it feels really nice, much the same as any superwash pure wool yarn after it’s been washed, and is definitely going to be my go-to yarn when I need a sport weight from now on. There’s A Cardigan for Merry for a start, once I can decide on a colour..!

I have enough of the yellow and black left over (would need to buy more red) for another hat, if I knew another small Man U fan (DS2 doesn’t like football and has already requested a camouflage coloured hat for the winter). So I think I’ll use it to make a wee bumblebee hat for the baby instead.

Most importantly, the hat meets the stringent standards of an 11 year old and it’s not often that happens.

Pattern: Miss Dashwood by Heather Ramsay
Yarn: Rowan Handknit Cotton, 1¼ x 50g in colour: 305 Lupin
Needles: 4mm circs and dpns

I’ve been starting to have a sort out of all my knitting paraphernalia in an attempt to clear some space for the small person’s arrival. My wardrobe is still a dumping ground for odd bags of yarn and a stash of old copies of Simply Knitting and Knitting which I’ve attempted to sell but there are too many and the recyling bin is a far easier option. But while rooting through one of the odd bags, I came across the oddments of Rowan Cotton I’d been saving up for a failed crochet project and realised I had just enough of one colour to make a hat for next summer.

I loved knitting this pattern a couple of years ago, and I’d always planned to make the bump one if she was a she . So finding the yarn and giving in to my hat obsession (which is apparently worrying my little sister since I knitted the cow hat – so I’m now very tempted to knit a Chicken Viking hat for the bump to see if she explodes. *evil grin*) means that I’m jut a bit more organised for next year. It always seems like a sunhat to me, though the original is designed to be worn with earflaps for warmth.

Even the pesky picot cast on which takes a million years to do is worth it. Though I do wish I’d discovered my new bobble method before I’d knitted it.

Tomorrow we’re away to the Cotswolds for the non-walking, sitting-on-my-bum-and-knitting weekend (on my part, at least). I’ve made a start on the Manchester United hat to get the hang of the pattern and hopefully will get it done before the weekend is out.

Pattern: Trellis by Britta Stolfus Rueschhoff
Yarn: Rowan All Seasons Cotton, 4 x 50g in colour: Pansy #218
Needles: 3.5mm circs

Another cardigan for the pile.

I love this pattern. I’ve knitted it before, and it’s great for a quick cable fix and doesn’t drag on forever. I followed it as written, except for the moss stitch on the sleeves, which I worked as p1, k1 so that it aligned with the moss stitch in the cables.

It’s possibly slightly anal to do that, but it bothered me that the pattern was out of alignment after it matched up so nicely on the back and fronts.

The buttons are ones I bought for the first Trellis I knitted but didn’t use, so it was nice not having to wait for buttons to arrive before I could finish the cardigan. Although I do wonder if something pearly would be more suitable. I may come back to it if I spy something else on my travels.

Not so happy with the yarn, unfortunately. I knitted my first Trellis in the much-lamented Jaeger Matchmaker Merino Aran, which was lovely. For this one, I used All Seasons Cotton as specified in the pattern and which I had just the right amount of in my stash. But it’s not nice to sew up with. It untwists very easily and I think the cables look a bit flat as well now it has been washed, though the colour is gorgeous.

I think like all the baby things I’ve knitted, that it needs a small person wearing it to bring out the best in it.

Pattern: Blue Rabbit Hat by Mel Clark
Yarn: New Lanark DK Yarn, ½ x 50g of Ecru and about ¼ x 50g of Blossom
Needles: 3.25mm circs and dpns

Blame the weather for this post. Sort of. I’ve got three FOs drying at the moment, but the miserable weather means that I’ve had to resort to using my electric fan to encourage them to dry and apparently it dries wool faster than cotton. So the hat is revealed first.

It stands to reason that I’d knit this pattern, and really I don’t mind being doomed. But I had intended to wait until I bought some DK yarn til I looked through my stash on Ravelry and realised that I had some leftovers from the Deep V Argyle Vest. I’d hardly used the pink, because I just bought it as a good contrast for the crocheted steeks. So I had yarn all ready and was fed up with sewing up a baby cardigan with a yarn that untwisted itself and made the sewing even more of a pain, and casting on a hat was a much more appealing option!

The pattern is lovely. Really simple to follow and I love the end result. I did amend the bunnies slightly buy moving the tail up one row on the chart as it was distorting the base of the bunnies, and also made their ears shorter as they were looking like hares. Speaking of the bobbles, even if you never knit the hat, the pattern is worth keeping just for the bobble recipe. I’ve tried various methods over the years and they all without exception look more or less like skin tags rather than juicy round bobbles. But these sit flat against the knitting and are nicely rounded. I’ll be doing all bobbles like this from now on.

The yarn is great, of course, and softens up nicely after washing, so I’ve no qualms about it being too itchy for a baby’s little head. It does make hat number eight for this baby, but who’s counting…

Pattern: Captain Underpants by Shelly Hattan
Yarn: Oddments of DK from stash
Needles: 2.5mm dpns

I’m not a big toy knitter. I like the idea of knitted toys and have a lot of patterns for them, but when it comes down to it, the idea of having lots of tiny bits of knitting to seam and stuff and sew together puts me off.

But I had to knit one of these for DS2. He’s a huge fan of the Captain Underpants books and has read them all several times. Plus the pattern was really simple and all knitted in the round (except for the cape), so there was no seaming and just a bit of sewing, which suits me fine. The yarn is just oddments from my stash of various acrylic yarns and nothing very exciting.

I’ve been secretly knitting him over the past couple of days while the small people have been at school, which meant getting in as much knitting during the day as I could, then having to hide everything at 3.00pm before they finished for the day. Now I just have to figure out the best place to put him for DS2 to discover when he gets home today!

Pattern: 13504 Cap by Cloud Nine from Dalegarn #135
Yarn: Rowan Classic Cashsoft 4ply, in colours #422 and #433, approx. ¼ x 50g of each
Needles: 1.5mm (eek!) and 2mm dpns

One more quirky hat for the pile. When the bump is 11 years old and refusing to wear anything remotely interesting, I will make sure I have plenty of photos of her wearing her weird and wonderful knits to taunt her with.

I said in my previous post about this pattern that it isn’t the simplest pattern to follow and that carried on with the decreasing for the crown of the hat. After the first round of decreases, I was completely lost as to where I needed to go in the pattern so I just carried on with winging it and made up my own random cow print. It worked just fine and I hope doesn’t look too different from the main pattern.

The Cashsoft 4ply is from my stash so I feel virtuous. I really like using it for stranded knitting because it gives such a neat result and is really soft. I doubt it would steek well, sadly. *pictures piles of slippery unravelled knitting and a useless crocheted steek*

This will definitely be the last baby hat I make for a while. If you see me queueing anything hat-shaped on Ravelry, feel free to poke me with a pointy stick!

Pattern: Pea Pod Baby Set by Kate Gilbert (currently unavailable )
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK, 2½ x 50g balls in colour: #18006
Needles: 3.5mm circs

There’s a lot to be said for knitting with yarn thicker than sewing thread. This cardigan took just three days to complete and I made sure it wasn’t waiting around for buttons this time.

The pattern is very simple and quick because of all the stocking stitch, but interesting because of the lace panel. I followed it as it was, except for the sleeves, which as written are knitted flat, seamed and then sewn into the armholes. Instead of that, I picked up the sleeve stitches around the armhole opening after seaming the shoulders (and actually, I did this with a three-needle cast off instead of casting off and then sewing them together, so that’s another modification) and then knitted the sleeve downwards. This was really simple, especially as the row count is given for the sleeves, rather than “knit to x inches long”, so it was just a case of following the directions in reverse and not minding that the ribbing pattern is the other way around.

The yarn is a lot fluffier than Baby Cashmerino, which is a shame; there isn’t the same stitch definition and it picks up random bits of fluff very easily. But I love the colour – definitely not pink and a bit of a change from purple – though the dye ran something chronic while it was soaking which I think is pretty usual with reds from experience, but still disconcerting! I didn’t find any knots in the yarn, though so yay for that. Somewhat surprised that I used so little yarn. I knitted the 6 month size which takes 5 balls of DB Cotton Cashmere (94m per ball = 470m). I used less than 330m of yarn. I bought 5 balls “just in case” and didn’t even break into the fourth, which is slightly annoying as that’s close to £10 worth of yarn not used, and it’s not enough leftover to knit much else other than accessories. Maybe I’ll make a scarf with it.

Pattern: Baby Sweater on Two Needles (February) by Elizabeth Zimmermann from Knitter’s Almanac
Yarn: Artesano Ltd Opulencia (discontinued, I think), 2 x 50g skeins in colour: Amethyst
Needles: 3.75mm Addi circs

When I discovered that the bump was definitely a girl, I knew I had to knit one of these. And thanks to either the wonders of the postal system, the varying efficiency of eBay sellers or simply me being disorganised and not getting a zip, it ended up being my first finished non-hat-or-sock baby garment, despite the Tomten clearly having the moral right to be called so.

I do wonder if there’s much I can say about this pattern that hasn’t been said before, though. It’s such a quick and simple pattern, but the end result is so cute.

The pattern is written in EZ’s usual style, which I think you either love and go with the flow, or curse her name under your breath. It’s not hard to follow, but do remember to start making buttonholes at the neckline downwards. She fails to mention them at all ’til you’re on the lace pattern, by which time the yoke is done and buttonhole-free. Like a lot of people, I also adjusted the sleeve directions so that they were knitted in the round, instead of casting on the extra stitches on the sleeves and knitting them flat. Other than that, I just followed the pattern as written.

The yarn was lovely to knit with – I believe the base yarn is Inca Cloud, which is my favourite alpaca yarn – but the dye rubbed off onto my hands and needles something terrible: I had a nice purple stripe on my right index finger where I tension the yarn as well as blotches on the palms of my hands. I’m hoping that now it’s been blocked (when more colour leaked out) that it’s got over the urge to bleed everywhere and won’t turn the baby into Violet Beauregarde when she wears it. As far as I can tell,the yarn is no longer being made by Artesano, anyway, so I guess it’s a moot point, but I wouldn’t use it again.

I’m delighted/relieved the buttons match as well as they do. It’s hard when there’s nowhere close to me that sells buttons and I’m forced to rely on a photo on a website and just hope for the best, while being fully prepared to buy several different types until I find the right ones, but the little lilac hearts I bought from this eBay shop were the first I bought. They really go well with the yarn and are even the perfect size (it was a lot of fun debating whether to get 12mm or 15mm buttons… who’d have though that 3mm could make such a difference?).

Almost up to date with the FOs now! I shall never look this productive again.

Pattern: Modular Tomten Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann from Knitting without Tears (with mods from The Opinionated Knitter)
Yarn: Kauni Effektgarn, 185g in colour: EQ, applied i-cord edging knitted with Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift, approx 10g in colour: Foxglove
Needles: 3mm Prym circs

It’s done! *does happy dance* The zip arrived in Tuesday’s post, so I literally ripped open the envelope, grabbed my pincushion and started attaching zip to jacket. I only wish I were small enough to fit into it, because it kind of needed a finishing flourish of actually being worn.

I really loved knitting this pattern. It’s changed my view of knitting endless rows of garter stitch, because beforehand I thought I’d never manage it without the urge to do myself in through sheer boredom. But combined with the variegated yarn, it looks really rather lovely.

The yarn choice was obviously an inspired moment of genius. I’d been musing about knitting a Tomten and had looked at the many finished ones on Ravelry and decided that the ones I liked best were knitted with handspun or subtly variegated yarns. I realised I wanted something like Noro Kureyon Sock but without the itch, which lead me to the Kauni. It’s very similar to a Shetland yarn in texture (which I guess is why the Spindrift works so well for the edging) and it softens up beautifully after washing. It doesn’t feel like it will be too harsh on a baby’s skin at all.

I followed the pattern directions as written in Knitting Without Tears, except for the sleeves. In The Opinionated Knitter, Meg Swansen adds a note about not casting off the armhole stitches, but knitting them together with the sleeve stitches, which saves sewing up a couple of seams. The only seaming was the rest of the sleeves: the hood is joined by grafting. The applied i-cord edging came from one of the two books; I don’t remember which one, but I suspect it’s in both of them anyway. I love how this finishes off the edges of the jacket and want to use it as much as possible now on everything!

* * * * *

Just for anyone keeping score, I’ve now completed:

2 cardigans
1 pair of socks
5 hats

for the small person. More feet and leg stuff is needed!

Pattern: Cisco by Berroco Design Team
Yarn: All Spun Up Superwash Merino/Alpaca DK, approx ½ a skein in colour: Blackberries, handspun by Kai
Needles: 3.25mm Addi circs

Another noggin warmer! Definitely the last one for a while, else the poor bump will have a warm head and be freezing elsewhere!

The pattern only came in one size and didn’t state what age baby it would fit, but compared to others I’ve made, I think it will probably be for *next* winter, which is a shame, but it is pretty big. Unless I have a giant-headed baby…

It was an interesting knit. The back panel is knitted first, then the ears picked up along the top before the front is picked up along the sides and top of the back, across the ears, so there’s no seaming to do.

Other than the obvious change to knitting it all in one colour, I also changed the garter stitch edging and ties to my beloved i-cord; now that I’ve worked out how to do an applied i-cord edging, I want to use it as much as possible.

The yarn was a birthday gift from Kai – ready spun, of course. It’s the first handspun I’ve ever knitted with, though I have a few skeins in my stash because of having very clever spinning friends. It was lovely to knit with. The slight slubbyness of the yarn actually evened out after washing, and the colours are my favourites, naturally, and I love the subtle variegation. I hope that with enough purple clothing, the bump will choose it as her favourite colour as well. Plus the hat is incredibly soft after blocking.

Again, it only took a couple of evenings to knit and was actually finished over a week ago. Good thing it wasn’t needed urgently, really.

Pattern: Cotton Bam Boo Baby Cable Hat by Andi Clark
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, 1 x 50g in colour: #010
Needles: 3mm Addi circs

Definitely the girliest baby knit so far! After seeing this pattern in the Classic Elite Yarns weekly newsletter, I thought it was adorable, but not one for a baby boy. So I queued it until I knew for certain one way or the other. And then when I did..!

The pattern is very simple and the hat only took a couple of evenings to knit, but I was held up by blocking and then needing to find matching ribbon. I think I could have just worked an i-cord instead, but then I think a girly hat needs a girly ribbon, doesn’t it?

Obviously Classic Elite Cotton Bam Boo is pretty impossible to find round these parts, but Baby Cashmerino is the same weight and it will make a nice snug autumn hat. It’s getting to be a favourite yarn of mine, though I’ve only used it three times, all for hats. I think I really need to buy a baby cardigan’s-worth, just to see if I still like it…

The other knits are all dry now, so once I have buttons and zips, more FO posts will follow and I will look ultra-productive!

I’d say it was good to be back, but I was very unwilling to come away from the tiny cottage in Devon we’ve been hiding in for the past week. This coming week is far too busy, with hospital and midwife appointments and me being prodded and poked and generally not having much fun. I’d rather be having another cream tea (not a photo of the one I had while away, but you get the idea of the gluttony that’s been going on!) or go up on Dartmoor and look at the views and enjoy the peace and quiet.

Anyway, as there’s little I can do about being a medical specimen rather than eating clotted cream, I may as well get back to my knitting. I didn’t get much done while I was away. I have started a couple of new projects which I will share later, but the Tomten Jacket is still without a second sleeve, which I feel bad about because I deliberately ordered the yarn before I went away so that I could finish it on holiday and then just find a zip. Oh well, I shall distract you all with a photo of some manly feet instead.

Pattern: Sock-shaped
Yarn: Zitron Trekking XXL, 1 x 100g ball in shade: #147
Needles: 2.25mm Susan Bates Silvalume

I finished MrB’s manly socks just before we went away, and the first chance for a photo opportunity was when he wore them for the first time on holiday. They’re just the basic plain sock recipe from the free Regia booklet that I don’t even look at now: as long as I note down how many rows I knit for the heel flap and the stitches worked for the heel turn, the numbers are stuck in my head. At least I though they were…

I found the booklet at the weekend because I have had a sock request from my sister to knit a pair for my new brother-in-law and as he has smaller feet than MrB (which makes me happy in a not-having-to-knit-ultra-long-feet sort of way) I needed to check what length they needed to be. Turns out I had mis-remembered the length before the the toe for the largest size and had been short-changing MrB a whole half centimetre (about 0.2 inches) for years. Seeing as it doesn’t seem to have affected him in any way, I’m just going to carry on. Just don’t tell him.

Also, since the last time I used them (which according to my finished project page, could be as long ago as May 2008!), I have lost one of the 2.25mm Silvalume needles somewhere. I can knit small socks on 4 dpns, but it was tough going with large numbers of stitches. I used a 2.5mm bamboo needle as a stop-gap, but I hate the awkwardness of having a different texture interrupting the flow. So I’ve ordered a set of KnitPicks (or KnitPro or whatever they are currently called over here) metal needles from eBay to see if they’ll do as a substitute, or else it means expensive postage costs to get another set of needles. And I’d probably pay them, too. I’d do much stranger things just to get needles that I love to use.

Pattern: Cupcake from Wee Woolly Toppers by Woolly Wormhead
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Pure Silk DK, 1 x 50g skein in colour: 27006
Needles: 4mm circs and dpns

For me, this is the epitome of a spoilt baby hat. The other small people were lucky to get a couple of acrylic baby knits each (sorry boys; but I’m making it up to you now, aren’t I?!) and already this wee one has Wollmeise, cashmere and now silk for their noggin warmers. I’ve had this one lone skein of DB Pure Silk in my stash since 2006 when I bought it on a whim because it was new and lovely and expensive (hence one skein). Ever since I’ve been trying to find a suitable project for it and then last week I realised that all these baby hats I was knitting used small amounts of yarn and wouldn’t it be nice to use it for something that is very unlikely to get drool (or worse) on it…

Cupcake is the first design from the book that I’ve knit, but I think I’ll probably knit most of them. They’re perfect for using up small amounts of stash yarn and the patterns are just right for my urge to knit “funny” hats. I love the bobble on top, which is knitted and then stuffed before sewing shut, as it really does make the hat look like a cupcake!

The pattern warns that the hat will need severe blocking because of the cables pulling inwards, but the silk helps the cables to stay floppy, and the hat ended up a little bigger than I expected, but as I said before, who knows what size head this little one will have?!

* * * * *

Thank you all for the suggestions and advice (and lack of name calling!) about the Cabled Raglan Baby Sweater. I think you pretty much confirmed what I’d suspected: it will look fine for either a boy or a girl, but will need tweaking to make it more “boyish”. I think this one will have to wait until I know for definite one way or another how many buttons I need to sew on.

Pattern: Hugs and Kisses Socks from the Better-Than-Booties Baby Socks collection by Ann Budd from Interweave Knits, Summer 2005, some designs also available free from Knitting Daily
Yarn: Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in “Pacific”, approx. 25g
Needles: 2mm Susan Bates Silvalume dpns

I think it’s a very good idea to start this little one off on the right foot (ha ha ha) with some handknitted socks. I’d liked this pattern ever since the magazine came out, but it was back when my sock knitting skills were fairly new, and the idea of a short row heel and toe made me wibble a bit. But now I am a confident sock knitter and can just whip up any old sock I fancy.

And I really like the short row toe. It avoids the fiddle of grafting if you hate that sort of thing, and the stitches are just bound off using a modified 3 needle cast off which makes a pretty ridge at the end of the foot.

The yarn is the last few grammes of the squishy Hazel Knits yarn I used for Birch Leaf socks, though I have a very tiny amount still left. I do love this yarn, though it’s pricey for everyday socks, it makes nice gift knitting!

My knitting mojo has returned!

It pretty much coincided with the nausea vanishing and starting to feel less tired (though I can still fall asleep at 9.30pm without any problems!) Progress was slow at first, but when I managed to finish a whole hat over the past couple of days I knew I was feeling more like the knitting fiend I used to be.

Firstly I have finished a couple of baby hats. I love funny hats. And it’s best to get the funny hat knitting done when the small people are too small to protest or even care what’s on their head. I don’t knit for the bigger small people without having a list of strict demands requests for the design and colour of said knitwear. But babies just want to be warm and actually I think I’ve started off fairly conservatively..!

Pattern: Top Down Bonnet With Anime Character by Adrian Bizilia
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, ½ x 50g ball in shade: 203
Needles: 3mm 80cm long Prym circs for magic looping (not my favourites, but bearable for a small project)

I loved knitting this hat. It was the first time I’d used the figure of eight cast on since I knitted Mr B’s Having Hope socks and it just goes to show that Learning New Stuff is Useful. The hat is really just a very big toe-up sock toe with a bit of shaping, anyway. It was a straightforward knit and I didn’t change a thing other than the eyes. The pattern suggests crocheting onto the knitting, but I tried this and it looked terrible so I gave up and went with a simpler option. I think my bunny looks sleepy and this will encourage the wearer to behave in a similar fashion (well, I can dream!).

The yarn was squidgy and lovely to knit with. Pleased that I managed to find a use for the odd ball of Baby Cashmerino I’d had floating about for a couple of years in my stash.

I didn’t like the needles, but for a small project, I could bear them rather than resorting to buying more KnitPicks circs for the kink-free tips.

Pattern: Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap/Djevellue by Gro
Yarn: Wollmeise Sockenwolle 100% superwash, about 10g in shade: Vergißmeinnicht
Needles: 2.5mm and 3mm circs, plus 3mm dpns

This hat I actually finished first and I won’t say how long it took me, but it’s quite embarrassing for a tiny baby hat. *blushes* I had a good chunk of Wollmeise left over from the Swallowtail Shawl I knitted for my MIL, but not enough to make anything adult-sized, so this pattern was perfect. This probably makes this a very exclusive baby hat and I’m just asking for trouble with a fussy baby who will want cashmere for their first cardigan, but it’s too nice a yarn not to use!

The pattern was again very simple, which is what I needed to ease me back in to knitting. It’s bigger than the bunny hat, but as I’ve no idea how big the baby will actually be, I figured that knitting hats in various sizes was a good idea. Though obviously I’m hoping that he/she has a small head when it comes to the actual birth. They can grow all they want afterwards!

Pattern: Brigit, my own pattern available here
Yarn:The Knitting Goddess 4ply superwash wool yarn (100% merino wool, 360m/100g) 1 x 100g in “Chilli Pepper”
Needles: 2.5mm Knitpicks metal circs

Designing socks gives me the chance to try out so many different yarns, and it’s such a hardship.

The mixture of hot pinks, red and oranges in this colourway made me think of fire and heat (and the name is a bit of a giveaway…) and from that I created socks for Brigit, the Celtic goddess of fire.

Designed to be knit using the Magic Loop method, these socks are definitely good for lace addicts. The flickering lace pattern extends down to the heel flap of the socks and there are bobbles to add texture.

The pattern is available exclusively from The Knitting Goddess.