Pattern: Priscilla’s Dream Socks by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts from Favorite Socks
Yarn: Waterloo Wools Niagara (80% Superwash Merino/20% Nylon), 1 x 100g skein in “Paris Nights”, exclusive Sock Club colourway for March 2010
Needles: 2.5mm circs for magically loopy knitting

This is now officially The Week of Finished Projects. Last night I grafted together the toe stitches of the second sock and this pair – which have been OTN since March – were finally finished!

I’m still not sure about the short-row heel. It’s great not having to count rows and they’re quicker to execute. And knitting huge, plain socks becomes an almost Zen-like experience as I just sit and mindlessly knit rounds and rounds of stocking stitch with only a brief interruption for the heel and toe. But despite all the fancy yarn-overing, there are still holes in the heel and it doesn’t look as neat as I would like. (I opted to use my favourite basic wide toe for the socks rather than knit a short-row toe as well.) That may be something I just need to practise.

But the yarn is a different matter! I adore it! Despite being a wool/nylon blend, it’s almost silky to the touch and slips along the needles very pleasingly. I do hope the yarn wears well. Poor Mr B has only this pair of knitted socks now that doesn’t have holes in/has felted. Given my current output rate, it could be a while before he has another pair, so it would be nice if these lasted..!

Pattern: My own
Yarn: Artist’s Palette Yarns Smoothie Sock, 1 x 100g skein in colour: Olive
Needles: 3mm Addi lace circs of pointyness

And now after the simple stuff, we’re back to the fiddly lace! I finally managed to work out what to do with the leafy lace that was bugging me a few months back. I wanted to try to design a shawl that had a few different patterns in it for interest and that was fully adjustable. So a person can knit 3 of one chart, 27 of another and 19 of a third if they so choose. It was great fun to knit even if I did have a few head-scratching moments and even threw the whole thing in the corner at one point because I couldn’t work out what I needed to do. That’s where a nice plain sock that has been on the needles for a while comes in handy.

The yarn is Artist’s Palette Yarns Smoothie Sock, which is a lovely, sproingy yarn that is a delight to knit with and has blocked beautifully. I wanted a green yarn but in a lighter weight because everyone many people have skeins and skeins of sock yarn in their stashes and this is perfect. I should whisper in case there’s a mad rush, but the base yarn feels the same as *cough*Wollmeise*cough*. Just saying…

The pattern is now in the testing phase and should be ready in a couple of weeks. And I’m off to the calm and uncomplicatedness of more plain sock knitting.

Pattern: Little Coffee Bean v.2.0 by Elizabeth Smith
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted, 1 skein in each of M-76 Misty Blue and M-51 Winter Blue
Needles: 4mm &4.5mm circs and dpns

Simplicity is often underrated. I love knitting something lacy and complex with lots of fiddly bits and having something wow at the end. But the beauty of a few stripes and some chunky buttons is also making me very happy.

This is just a really nice pattern to knit. There are a couple of versions of the pattern, and I chose the one with M1R and M1L for the raglan increases rather than eyelets and am so pleased with how they look. I’ll be stealing them for all raglans from now on as they’re practically invisible.

Lamb’s Pride Worsted is a dream to knit with. It is definitely on the hairy side because of the mohair content, but it washes up well and is deliciously soft. I had a bit of a panic near the end because I thought I might run out of the main colour. As it was, I had the tiniest amount left over, but it was a close thing. If you’re of a nervous disposition, I think using a yarn with a better yardage might be an option.

I knitted the largest – 12 month – size, and it’s on the large side at the moment. But making a head start on the winter knits is no bad thing. The buttons are the second lot I bought. They’re still on the large side and need squeezing through the holes, but aren’t quite so flashy. And I like the cup-shapedness of them; harder for the cardigan to wriggle undone than with flat buttons.

I’d really recommend this pattern for anyone looking for a cute baby knit. I like the pattern so much, I want to cast on for another one straight away!

Pattern: Prairie Rose Lace Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark, available in The Knitter’s Book of Wool or The Knitter, Issue 16
Yarn: JaggerSpun Zephyr Wool-Silk 2/18, approximately 35 to 40g in colour: Aegean Blue
Needles: 2.5mm KnitPicks circs

It took me a long time to choose a pattern to knit for the Ravelry International Shawl Exchange. Having so many books of shawl patterns didn’t exactly help me narrow down my options and I did start and stop a couple of times with different designs that I couldn’t get into.

I did wonder at one point whether I’d ever find a pattern to knit and had visions of me knitting at midnight in an attempt to finish before the deadline Fortunately the wonderful Evelyn Clark came to my rescue again with another of her addictive patterns.

The first shawl I ever knitted (of which I don’t think there are any photos – will have to check) was her Flower Basket Shawl. That got me addicted to interested in top-down triangular shawls and they’re pretty much my go-to shawl style now whenever there is lace needed to be knit.

The Prairie Rose Lace Shawl has a slightly more involved pattern repeat which was just what I needed. Nothing complicated happening, but each row was a bit different and I never really memorised the pattern so it kept my interest.

I ended up knitting six pattern repeats. The pattern itself says four, but this makes for a much smaller shawl and I wanted to make something a bit bigger than a scarf. Because my shawl now has to travel to Australia, I decided not to carry on and knit more repeats and delay its arrival even more.

The only modification I did other than the extra repeats was to adjust the edging. The original pattern has a row of the leaves before the edging. I omitted this so that the edging is directly after a row of flowers. I personally prefer this as I think it matches the rest of the shawl’s pattern of leaves – flowers – leaves – flowers.

The yarn was delicious to knit with and blocks beautifully. It’s been in my stash for a long time waiting to be used and I think this pattern does it justice. I hope my swap partner agrees.

Pattern: My own
Yarn: Dream in Color Baby, just under half of 1 x 113g skein or approx. 300m in colour: Pansy Golightly
Needles: 2.5mm circs

I managed to resist the poking urge and left the shawl overnight to dry thoroughly and then unpinned it with a flourish this morning.

I’m incredibly chuffed with how it turned out. I haven’t used such small needles for a shawl before and was excited to find out what would happen. The short answer being nothing much. It has blocked beautifully, is floaty and soft and I think the large areas of sticking stitch work well being knitted at a tighter tension without too many holes. The variegation of the yarn helps keep it interesting; something I think that Matilda could’ve done with, possibly…

Size-wise, it’s very much a shawlette, measuring just over 100cm by 55cm. Once I have helpers here I can take photos of it being worn rather than draped over the hedge! The pattern needs writing up now and charting so that will keep me busy for a while, and I still have some manly socks to finish!

Pattern: My own
Yarn: Garnstudio DROPS Paris, ¼ x 50g in colour: #20
Needles: 4mm circs (used flat) and dpns (for i-cord)

Rose is a champion dribbler. The boys were dribbly in their own way, but she really takes drool to a whole new level. I wanted a more elegant solution than tying a muslin around her neck, but after a brief search on Ravelry, all the bibs tended to be huge squares of knitting, which I didn’t really want. Much like the fabric bibs available in the shops, when even the smallest, plainest ones look like she’s preparing for a three course dinner. So necessity being the mother of invention, I designed my own.

It’s just a simple triangle worked from the bottom up until it was wide enough, and an i-cord fastening. It’s the perfect size to mop up dribbles and being cotton should be splendidly absorbent. Ideally, I would have used dishcloth cotton if I’d had any to hand.

It was a majorly quick knit, so I plan to churn out a couple more with other cotton oddments I have, so that she’s a stylish baby without a wet patch around her neck.

Pattern: On The Sunny Side by Melanie Hoffman
Yarn:Garnstudio DROPS Paris, 2 x 50g skein in colour: Pistachio
Needles: 5.5mm dpns and 6mm circ

This was a quick-ish project finished just before we went away and modelled “in action”. I wanted another sun hat for Rose alongside the Miss Dashwood I made last year, because one hat is obviously never enough!

The style is similar to Miss D, but with a lacy brim. It was a really nice pattern to knit. I followed it as written, but decreased down to three stitches at the top of the crown and then worked i-cord for a couple of inches to make a wee stem so that it looks a bit like the hat that Victoria Plum wore (showing my age with an obscure 1980s reference!).

The yarn has been in my stash for yonks. I bought twelve balls of it for a cotton cardigan that never materialised. It’s nice to knit with: pretty soft and a cost-effective sub for pricier worsted-weight cottons. Not sure why I thought I would ever wear an entire garment in such a cheery green, though, but it might do for something for Rose instead. Although she is already beginning to express a preference for red. The purple brainwashing clearly needs to be stepped up a notch.

Pattern: Wasabi The Gregarious Pug by Rebecca Danger
Yarn: 2 x 50g Rowan Classic Extra Fine Merino DK in colour: 880 Camel from Lana Pura, 1 x 50g Tess Dawson DK in colour: Brown from stash
Needles: 4.5mm circs and dpns

My sister loves pugs, the real live, barking, squishy-faced sort. As she doesn’t have the room for a real one, I thought I’d make one for her instead. And this one has the advantage of needing no food and being fully housetrained to boot.

I confess don’t like knitting toys particularly. I like the idea of them more than the actual knitting of tiny pieces and stuffing and trying to get the face right, so the fact I finished this and enjoyed it is down to the brilliant pattern. It’s written in a very simple way with lots of photographs to show the placement of all appendages and I actually really enjoyed making him. Which is a good thing as I have two or three more of Rebecca’s patterns now as well. I think Rose needs a mum and baby monster duo, no?

Wasabi has pipe cleaners in his tail and ears so that he as a tiny curled pug tail like so:

and ears that can baroo? like a real dog’s, if he’s so inclined:

The pipecleaners, nose and eyes all came from Craftbits who have great service and I recommend them for all your pug-making requirements.

Both yarns were held double throughout to make a large-ish pug on biggish needles. I had the brown yarn in my stash, and splashed out on the extra fine merino because it was the perfect colour to match and has a nice sheen to it, a bit like a short and silky dog coat. If it was a baby toy, then I’d have just bought acrylic which can cope with drool. Though my sister may drool on Wasabi, I guess, if teh cuteness overtakes her.

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.