Looking forward to tomorrow!

December tomorrow!!

I'm so excited for Christmas this year. It is Shoshone's second Christmas, but her first where she will have any kind of interest, and Wiyot is at now at the age where he really know's what's going on. He's currently working on his handwriting so that he can do his letter to Santa :D

I can't wait to watch Christmas movies with them this year, decorate the house, play in the snow, go Christmas shopping, see family and friends... And I really can't wait to start logging it all in my December Daily! I'm actually contemplating extending it on to 1st January as my family usually come over for New Years Eve. The following day is the end of the Christmas period for us, so seems appropriate to end the book then... I'll have to see how I get on with the other days first though! 

On the same subject, I still haven't got the printer problem sorted out, so will be a work in progress thing! I got a few ideas of how to get round it though... As for the bindings, I'm just going to leave it till its finished and can see how big it is! The same goes for the cover.

I started knitting a little cardigan for Shoshone on Sunday. I bought the yarn after finishing the red hooded jacket the other week, but have only just started knitting with it :/

It's a pattern from the same book and is like a little bolero style cardigan. For the first time I bought the Debbie Bliss yarn as specified in the pattern, but in a different shade. I usually buy something cheeper as the Debbie Bliss ones are so expensive. For this pattern I needed 4 balls of yarn, costing just under £20...

I could buy I cardigan for that much!!! (I'm a cheep skate I know!) 

But I figured I could do it as a kind of Christmas gift for her and I really wanted to try using the DB yarn as it is so beautifully soft! 

Being rather pricey, thought I'd make the most of the experience :D

Well best go get knitting... especially if I'm going to finish it in time :/

Sending DH into the loft in later to retrieve the advent calendars :D

Roll on December!!!

Little Red Riding Hood

I have been working on this knitted hooded jacket for some time now and have been planning it since before Shoshone was born. Well, last night I finally got it finished... although I should probably say "this morning," as it was 4am!

Finished cardigan, with a button from my nan's button stash :)

As soon as I saw this pattern in Simply Baby by Debbie Bliss, I knew I wanted to make it for any potential future daughter... At the time Wiyot was a baby and there were no immediate plans for baby number 2!

Fast forward a year or two... or three? and I began looking for the yarn to make this jacket. Although the picture in the book was really nice, for me this pattern was screaming to be made in RED! After a bit of a hunt I found a suitable aran weight yarn in my local craft store. They had just 3 balls left, lucky for me that was just the amount I needed :D

I quite enjoyed knitting this project, as it was made slightly different to cardigans that I've made previous. In my past knits the two front pieces, the back and the sleeves are all worked separately and then seamed together at the end. However, for this one you start by doing the bits individually and then join them together when you get the the under arms and work the yoke all in one piece. It doesn't seem that weird now, but when I first read the pattern I was quite surprised.

The biggest challenge the pattern posed was the seam joining the hood to the neck. Luckily I had my new found sewing skills to call on, else I think I would have really struggled easing in all the fullness of the hood... especially since there were no instructions as to how to do this in the book :/ Not sure what the usual method of doing this would be in knitting, but I basically ran a line of stitches through the hood, gathered it, matched up the centre hood to the centre back and then did my best at joining the two together... Seams to have worked ok (pun intended!)

The seam where the hood joins the back of the jacket

When I first began knitting I hated it when all the knitting was done and I had to start joining all the pieces together, I found it a real chore and frequently abandoned the project at this point to begin knitting something else... very sad I know! Now I actually enjoy doing the seams and am getting much better at them... and quicker! Think they turned out pretty well on this one, fairly invisible in most places. Still not quite happy with the one along the top of the hood though. It turned out better than the one on the poncho, but still not as invisible as I would like... Any tips would be gratefully received!

The seam along the left side of the jacket, along the arm and in the underarm area

The hood seam, can see the depression when the two sides are joined and there is a bit of bulkiness on the inside

Well now the little red hooded jacket is done, so I guess it's time for my mom to start looking out for the wolves... and not the Wolverhampton Wanderer kind she usually watches!

Shoshone with her favourite book

Mary Janes

So as I said before, when I found out I was pregnant with a girl I couldn't wait to get knitting cute girly projects. I love my son to bits, but you have to admit, girls are so much more fun fashionwise. You go into the clothes stores and like three quarters of the stock is for girls. To add insult to injury, the girls can even choose stuff from the boy's section... I guess truly liberal parents would let their son shop in the girls section, but it rarely happens.

Apart from the poncho in my previous post, I came across this pattern for a pair of Mary Jane Booties. Soooo cute!!!

With quite a bit of yarn still left over from the blanket I'd made/was making :-S I decided to put some to good use and have a go at knitting a pair.

I had to learn how to do the cable cast on method, as I'd never done that before, it came out a bit loose so I'll probably do it on smaller needles next time. Plus I found that the button hole was a bit too close to the end of the strap. If I ever make any more I think I'll try moving it in a stitch or two...

Other than that they turned out pretty well and took hardly any time to make :-)

Of course one lurked at the bottom of my knitting collection for quite some time waiting to be sewn up... Finally finished it in the car on the way to a local shopping centre after deciding she could wear them that day. Think I took the picture when we got home. Sorry about the poor photo quality... Artifical light, a wriggling new born and being too close to attempt the use of a flash, does not a good picture make :-S

Hmmmm, is it just me or has the spell check disappeared? Forgive any spelling mistakes until I find it :_(

So cute :-)

When I found out our second child was going to be a little girl I couldn't wait to get knitting. I hit the net in search of free patterns and came across this one.

I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it and knew that I would really regret it if I didn't make it!It took awhile to get round to, but I finally took the plunge and ordered the yarn and needles.

The package arrived very quick and I was so excited, couldn't wait to get going on it. It is the first, and so far only, time I've worked with such a chunky yarn. It's good seeing your work growing so fast, I much prefer it to working with fine yarns like 4 ply.

The pattern also required me to crochet :-S

Seeing this I hit the net again (mainly YouTube) in search of tutorials... This led to more projects that I NEED to make in the future...

Having finally sussed the crochet part, I was able to complete the poncho. The best part is it's all knitted in a big circle, so the only bit I needed to join was the top of the hood! Whoop! I need more projects like this :-)

All finished...

And in time for our Christmas holiday to Paris.

Just finished and in need of a model, I grabbed baby sized Tigger and popped it on... Poor guy has been used to practice swaddling, by the midwife to demonstrate breastfeeding positions, to model new baby knits and probably other things he never counted on being used for.


Shoshone finally woke from her nap and was immediately plonked into model mode...

Here she is pulling off a classic catalogue pose, the "I wander what's going on over there?" Just need to work on the "checking your watch" and we're all set :-)

3 years plus!

As in it took at least that long to complete.

I think it was my second knitting project. I started it while pregnant with Wiyot and completed it just in time for the birth of Shoshone :-S

It is made up of small garter stitch squares, which are then sewn together... it was the sewing that was the problem!

All but a few squares were knitted during my first pregnancy. I used to knit the squares on the bus on my way in to work...


And then began the sewing...

It took so long to join each square, probably because I didn't have much experience, so it took a lot of concentration, only to have to unpick at the end as the edges weren't coming together level. ARRRGH!

I'm still don't enjoy the joining process and usually have all the knitted components finished for some time before I get round to the sewing. You'd think it would be exciting as you finally get to see your work coming together to form a wearable garment.

Anyway...

Surprisingly, after giving birth to Wiyot I didn't get much time for knitting, let alone the sewing part. As he got older there seemed no point as he wouldn't need the blanket anyway!

When I found I was pregnant with Shoshone I realised I'd better get it finished! We aren't planning any more babies, so if she didn't get to use it all the hard work would be for nothing.

I didn't finish it all in one go. I kept coming back to it, sewing a few more squares here and there. My sewing skills must have improved as it took much less concentration and I could do it right first time round. After finishing it I decided it wasn't big enough and ended up adding a few rows at the bottom and sides... luckily I still had some left over yarn.

Well, it took ages but I love it! I took it to the hospital for when we bought Shoshone home and it's still the first blanket I choose when we're going out :-)

BTW, if anyone is wondering, the pattern is from Baby Knits for Beginners by Debbie Bliss

Finally...

I have been working on this jumper for ages!!!

I started it when I was pregnant with Shoshone, and just managed to finish it the weekend just gone... I must have known it would take this long as I decided to make it in the patterns largest size.

Other than a baby blanket I made, this must be my longest running (knitting) project... I'll blog about the blanket at some other point.

Actually come to mention it, I'm not 100% sure its complete... I planned to try a bit of embroidery on the chest, where the thicker yellow stripe is.

I might still do it...

Got the buttons from Dunelm Mill, they were to go allong with the embroidery, but think they look good on their own too.

In the pattern the jumper is supposed to be striped all over. I thought I'd run out of the white/speckled yarn and so decided to go for plain yellow sleeves... After knitting one of the sleeves I found another ball of the white yarn >:(

I couldn't be bothered to pull out the whole sleeve so the jumper now has yellow sleeves... Thought it might look weird, but quite like it now it's finished.

And here's Shoshone wearing it for the first time... Again, not a happy model :S




If anyone's interested, it is basically the first pattern in Simply baby by Debbie Bliss.