More catch ups

Still waiting to go off to the USA are a few dolly diapers made from Maggie's tutorial at Smashed Peas and Carrots.  The fabric came from JoAnns in Fairfax last time I was visiting.  There's a house move in the offing so these won't get posted just yet.

The third stage of the 2014 Tour de France comes to Cambridge on Monday 7th July so loads of people, including my WI ladies, have been knitting yellow, white or green jerseys to make bunting to decorate the route through the city.  I strung this batch on to the approved shock cord and delivered them to our local yarn shop and they are now fluttering over the city, along with a couple of thousand others.

My younger nephew and his partner had a baby girl in January, so I made up a welcome package for them:

Some burp cloths with a micro-fibre backing and Hoot Owl fabric to match the wallpaper in their nursery and a little cardigan from Sirdar pattern #1802 made up in Sirdar Snuggly Baby Speckle - in green because they didn't know beforehand whether the baby was a girl or boy.

Now the older nephew and his wife are expecting a little boy in July, so I've made up a similar package for them:

Two Puerperium cardigans from the adorable pattern by Kelly Brooker, again in Sirdar Baby Snuggly Speckle, but this time in grey.  The buttons came from a stall at Yarndale 2013 in Skipton. I've made at least half a dozen from this pattern now and it's always a joy to make - and it's top down and seamless!














Burp cloths with the micro-fibre backing and some fun Angry Birds fabric from Ebay.
















And the latest thing to be finished is this little lamb for my grandson.  He already has one and his Mummy wanted another so there would always be one available while one was in the wash.  Alas, I just haven't been able to duplicate the yarn from the original so I'm sure he will be able to tell the difference!  This one is made in Sirdar Snowflake in white.  Pattern is Barbara Prime's Fuzzy Mitten Lamb

Catching Up

Haven't posted any pictures in a while but I have still been making stuff.  So, first of all:

A little drawstring bag full of knitted rabbits for my grand-daughter to help her learn colours and counting.

Not all the rabbits are shown but they are done on four dpns with oddments of double knit.  Each rabbit only takes 10 -12 gms.

24 stitches cast on with a figure-of-eight cast-on so that there are no seams.  Eight stitches on each of three needles, knitted for about 5 cms.  Then arrange the stitches onto two needles with twelve stitches on each - work in moss stitch on six of the stitches to make one ear, decreasing when it looks long enough.  Work the second ear on the other set of six stitches, leaving a long-ish tail at the start.  Weave in the ends at  the top of the ears, stuff the body and use the tail of yarn to thread through the remaining twelve stitches and draw them up and finish securely.



Use contrasting yarn to embroider eyes.

The original pattern came from a free Ravelry download:

ravelry.com/patterns/library/catnip-bunny

but I changed it as I got on better with dpns.

These have now gone back to the USA with their new owner.







Then another little sweater for my grandson:

This one is made in Peter Pan Sweetheart cotton/acrylic DK (the blue) and Sirdar Flirt DK (shade 230).  The pattern is design #1310 from the same Sirdar Tiny Snuggly Textures book 412 but using the block #137 Bricks from the book 200 Knitted blocks for blankets, throws and afghans by Jan Eaton for the colour work.  Much simpler than it looks as it is just a slip-stitch pattern. 

A stripey cardi

This one has taken far longer than usual to finish, largely because I've been doing a fair bit of running around as my daughter and granddaughter were over from the USA for a short visit.  Most of the time was spent with my son sorting through the contents of their late father's flat, getting it to the point where it can go on the market.  Now everyone is back home and I had time to finish this little cardi for my grandson.

Pattern is basically 1312 from the Sirdar Tiny Snuggly Textures booklet 412 but instead of working the textured pattern I kept to stocking stitch and included the cream stripes and did the bands in moss stitch. Yarn is an acrylic of some sort but it came from the Oxfam shop on a day trip to Windsor and had lost its ball band so is something of a mystery. Definitely dk but quite bulky.

Making a start!

I've been doing quite a bit of sewing and knitting over the last few months, both for charity and for two gorgeous grand-children, so this seems like a quick way of keeping track of everything I've made lately rather than just a bunch of photos randomly stored on the laptop.

So, just finished this little top-down cardi from a free pattern on Ravelry  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/top-down-baby-cardi

Knitted on 4mm needles using Aldi's 'Gorgeous Baby Yarn DK'.



I've also started working through various squares from Jan Eaton's 200 Knitted Blocks:

This is block 8 'Little Blocks' worked on 4mm needles and it worked out correctly at 15cm square. It was also made using some of Aldi's variegated DK yarn this time from last year's stock.  They only seem to have yarn once a year but it's usually quite nice to work with and not expensive. 

The yarn was left-over from a Mitred Baby Blanket.  I printed off this free pattern from a website that I can no longer find but it's the third one of these blankets I've made.  It's good because you never have more than 23 stitches on the needle - except for the border of course!

The first photo below shows one of the blankets as well as another version of the top-down cardi.  The second shows a pink version of the blanket.  These were all made about a year ago - I was given a lot of pink yarn at that time!

And a couple of recent quick sewing projects.  First is a travel jewellery pouch adapted from this tutorial http://www.sew4home.com/comment/11055

I wanted mine smaller than the original so changed the measurements, not entirely successfully as it should really have been a bit bigger to allow it to gather up properly but it works well and was easy to make.  The fabric is from a pure silk cushion cover passed on to me by one of our WI members as it had blotches of spilled ink that wouldn't wash out.  There's enough untouched fabric left to try another, slightly bigger one.

The second was a slip cover for my new tablet - a lovely Christmas present.  I would show the cover on the tablet but I was using it to take the photos  :)  No pattern for this one, just a make-it-up-as-you-go effort.