Baby Gift Reveal

Several months ago I finished making gifts for my new nephew, who was due on 31st May.  He was born 10 weeks early and spent several weeks in the Special Care Baby Unit.  While he was there I was not allowed to see him.  It was a tough few weeks being the only immediate family member who wasn't allowed into the Unit, but they have to draw the line somewhere and aunts are on the other side of the line.  I was really sad about this, but it gave me a little longer to finish off some baby gifts.

As you might remember from last year, I made my niece a crocheted bear, when she was born.  I decided that her brother should have a similar stuffed toy, but slightly different.  I chose a pattern from my book, Crocheted Softies: 18 Adorable Animals from Around the World .  As Stacey Trock (the author) designed my niece's bear, the toy I chose for nephew matches in style.  I chose to make La La The Panda.

He is a little boss-eyed, but this is the nature of sewing yarn onto crocheted fabric.  I couldn't use safety eyes because this was for a baby, and babies can chew the eyes free of the fabric.  I used Cascade 220 Superwash which is great for baby things as it is wool, but it can be slung in the washing machine without fear of felting.

His arms are curved, which wasn't as easy to do as I anticipated.  This panda is crocheted at a fairly small gauge and crocheting black yarn in a poorly lit room (which mine was) is not fun.  However, the result is.  When my niece "helped" by unwrapping her brother's gifts she grabbed hold of the curved arm straight away.  It is a perfect child handle!  The panda had to be smuggled away whilst she was distracted by her birthday gift.  This panda is pretty small, but as it's owner is only wee, I thought it an appropriate match.

As well as the panda, I, of course, decided to make a blanket.  All new babies need blankets.  It's the law, or something.  As I was on a crochet kick I decided to make a crocheted blanket.  I wanted to make squares for the blanket, but I wanted to make them fairly solid.  After some trial and error and searching I found this free pattern.  It was the perfect square for what I had in mind.  I bought lots of different bright shades of Sirdar Snuggly DK and some dark blue in the same yarn, as contrast, and crocheted each bright square before crocheting them all together with a dark blue border round each one.

I decided to single crochet the blocks together with the wrong sides facing to make ridges on the right side of the blanket, to create texture for little fingers to play with.  I edged the whole blanket in the more of the blue.

The first round of the edging was only crocheted into the back loop of the stitches.  After finishing the edging I then slip stitched into the front loop of that first round to create a matching ridge to create a frame that matched the inner squares.  I think it worked quite well.

As I had some brightly coloured yarn left over from the blanket I decided to make a short sleeved Beyond Puerperium, by Kelly Brooker.  I made a long sleeve version for my niece and I think it has had lots of wear.  As we are supposedly in the warmer months, I thought a short sleeved version would be appropriate.  The good thing about short sleeves, is that the cardigan should last longer, as most babies get longer before they get wider.

I love the bright stripes, but there were an awful lot of ends to deal with.  I wove in as I went, but the ends still needed a bit of tidying up.

I made the 3 month version of this pattern, again in the hopes that it could be worn for longer.  Having short sleeves means it should be ok to be worn straight away, and last well past the 3 month mark.  Full details of the cardigan are on my Ravelry Project Page.  I love this pattern and I think my niece and nephew will be getting several more versions of this design as they get bigger (unless my SIL and brother tell me to stop!)

So, at last, now I've met my little nephew, A, I can share his presents with you.  I think they were well received.

As it is Friday, and these are finished objects, I'm going to hook up with Tami.  Click the button to get more crafty inspiration.

A Gift for Me and a Gift for You

I have had rather an interesting week.  It's been a bit of a roller-coaster ride but I think everything is going to be ok.  Basically my new nephew, who was due at the end of May, was delivered rather unexpectedly on Wednesday morning in the very early hours.  As you probably know, I live about a hundred miles away from my family and it was very hard sitting on my own, a long way from my brother and his wife while they were going through scary things, especially as my other half was on another Continent with work.

However, my nephew, though tiny, seems to be doing well and his mother also seems to be recovering well too.  As you can imagine, the gift of my post title is a new nephew who is small but determined.  With a much earlier arrival comes the requirement for much smaller baby gifts.  I have, of course, been knitting like fury on teeny hats, that can be either used by my nephew or for other babies in NICU, if they don't fit him.

You may be wondering how this all ties into a gift for you?  Well, the nice people at The Aurum Publishing Group have offered up a chance for a reader of my blog to win a copy of one of their latest book releases; The Knitted Home: Creative and Contemporary Projects for Interiors, by Ruth Cross.

I haven't been given a copy for review, so I can only tell you what the blurb, I received, says about this book, which is:

Ruth Cross draws on her experience of designing organic and freeform collections to guide you through the process of making and creating your own items. Taking an experimental approach, Ruth combines traditional stitches with new stitches she has devised herself. She creates desirable fabrics that can adorn many different items around the home, from easy chairs to footstools, a doorstop to a table runner, vase covers to wall hangings. 

Throughout the book there are complete patterns for you to create these beautiful projects. But Ruth also encourages and gives advice on how to experiment for yourself to produce your own designs. Starting with the very basics – simple knitting and purling – and progressing to add further texture and embellishment she guides you through a range of different stitch patterns and techniques. As she goes through she shows how you can adapt these patterns to different sizes, scales and shapes so that they can be widely applied around the home to create completely personal pieces.

I am afraid that this competition is only open to UK Residents, as the prize will be sent directly from the publisher, rather than by me.  However, the publisher has arranged a discount on this hardback book, which normally retails at £20.

To order The Knitted Home (9781906417727) for £16.00 including p&p*, telephone 01903 828503 and quote offer code JS188. Or send a cheque made payable to: Littlehampton Book Services Mail Order Department, Littlehampton Book Services, PO Box 4264, Worthing, West Sussex BN13 3TG. Please quote the offer code JS188 and include your name and address details. *UK ONLY - Please add £2.50 if ordering from overseas.

In order to win a copy of this book, click on the +1 button on the Rafflecopter box and enter a suggestion for making a baby gift for either the baby or the parents, after logging in to Rafflecopter.  Quick projects are the ones I'm searching for!  The winner will be drawn randomly from the eligible entries.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The competition closes at midnight on Tuesday night, UK time, so that I can do the draw on Wednesday morning and announce the winner in my regular Wednesday post.  Plus I want to get cracking on any suggestions you can make.  I am sorry that not all my readers can join in with this contest, but I didn't set the rules this time.

I'm hoping that next week will be a little more normal as my other half will be back home and everything starts to settle into a new routine up North.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and that the snow due to hit the UK this weekend, doesn't inconvenience too many people.

Beyond Cute

One of the things I knitted for Christmas, was a gift for my niece.  My SIL had commented on how quickly little E was growing out of things, especially the cardigan given to her when she was born.  So of course I decided another cardigan was in order, in time for Christmas.

I had favourited on Ravelry a gorgeous cardigan pattern.  It was a free one, but sadly it was for newborns.  Looking at this pattern led me to discover a re-visited version that ranged from newborn to 2 years old.  It was a paid pattern but it was an incredible bargain in my view.  Beyond Puerperium by Kelly Brooker is $5/£3.19 and for that price you get 7 sizes in 3 different weights of yarn.  In my mind, that is a complete bargain, and it will probably get made over and over again, especially when you consider how cute it is!

Isn't she adorable?  Yes, she is even cuter in person.  I know I'm biased, but apparently complete strangers come up to my brother and SIL in the street and tell them she is cute too, so I think it must be true.

I made the 6-12 month size of cardigan.  She is just over 6 months old now and it seems to fit her well, but has plenty of room to grow into.  Apparently, more cardigans in bright colours are just what my niece's wardrobe requires, so I think I'm going to get plenty of use out of this pattern.

Here's a picture of the cardigan lying flat so you can see how it works.

I used Sirdar Snuggly DK in colour 197 for the main body of the cardigan.  The lighter purple stripes are made using Rico Design Baby Classic DK in colour 9715 (Elieder) which was left over from the Wee Hat I made in November.  I learnt how to do intarsia, set into a row like this, whilst doing the Spectra scarf, and it works really well.  In this case, it means the change in colour isn't on the open edge of the cardigan, but set inside the main body of the knitted fabric.  I think it makes things neater.

I love the little details in this pattern.  It's deceptively simple, but the garter stitch edges on the cuffs, neck and hem add contrast.  The neck is nice and wide, so it doesn't pull or rub against the baby no matter how active she is.  The buttons fasten nearly on the side seam, which means the buttons don't dig in when the baby is on her stomach.  Because I knew the buttons were going to be tucked away, I chose some fun ones.

I'm so pleased with this project.  I think it is pretty and very wearable for an active baby and whoever dresses her in it!

Thank you to my dear SIL, Emma, who let me use the photo of my niece in her cardigan.  It's a wonderful photo which not only shows off her wardrobe, but also how engaging my niece is too.  I am going to have so much fun knitting for my niece over the coming years.  I'm so lucky to have family who enjoy and use my handcrafted gifts.

A Wee Hat

I actually have something FINISHED to show you!  It's just a wee hat, but it's sweet.  The pattern was from Knit Now, Issue 14.  It's called Jamie's Hats by Sarah Ronchetti.  I subscribe to this UK magazine, and one of the reasons I like it is the mainly quick knits, that is full of.  The patterns in this magazine don't require vast quantities of yarn and may allow me to use up odd bits of stash.  This particular pattern made me think of the left over Rico Design Baby Classic DK I had from knitting this:

I knit this little February Baby Sweater 2 years ago, and I loved the yarn, despite it being nylon and acrylic.  It's a very soft and pretty baby yarn and I thought it was perfect for my niece.  My sister in law had put in a request for a baby hat and the magazine gave me the perfect pattern to use.

I cast on using the Tubular Cast On tutorial from Woolly Wormhead.  When I got to the end, I couldn't be bothered to match the cast off, so each side of the hat is different.  I think next time I won’t do a fancy cast on unless I can finish off in a like manner.  Especially for this pattern, which was knit flat and then seamed.

The chart for the cables, in the magazine, is wrong. The wrong side rows have the knits and purls the opposite way round to what they should be.  It took me several minutes to work out what was wrong, even though it was staring me in the face.  Once I got it right in my head, it wasn't too bad, though I still managed to do the cabling wrong twice!  I haven't ripped it back and started again, as I don't think it is noticeable unless you are looking.  It's worked out to have one mis-cable on either side in approximately the same place, so in my book that's balanced.

One of the best things about this pattern is the pom poms.  I love the pom-poms I made using my Clover Pom-pom Maker. It’s so much faster and neater than cardboard.  If you are interested in how they work, there is a video here.  They turn out so much plumper too.

This was a quick and interesting little project that will be heading North over the weekend to keep my little niece's head snug and warm over the next couple of months.  I think I may try the plain version of the hat too.  I've got plenty of this baby yarn left over, in several different colours and I have a little baby in need of warmth over the Winter.

To see other finished projects click on a button!

A REALLY good Finished Project

I have to share this finished project with you, even though it isn't my work.  This finished project was a good long time in being made, but I think everyone would agree it was well worth the wait.

This magical being is my niece.  This photo is of her at 2 weeks old.  She was born three weeks early but was fine, if just a bit small and jaundiced.  I met her for the first time last weekend, as my family live a couple of hours drive away and I wasn't well enough to travel for just an afternoon.  This little girl has been 9 months in the making and it wonderful to finally meet her, and to be able to watch her grow and change into her own person.  Already she pulls great faces.

Which leads me to the crafty part of today's post.  Just behind her head you can see a flash of orange.  This is a little hat I made for her with some left over yarn.  It was left over from the Baby Surprise Jacket I just had to make for her.

Apologies for the quality of the photo.  I forgot to take a proper  photo and this was one I snapped on my phone when I finished it, to share on instagram!  The yarn I used is Sirdar Baby Bamboo DK, which is 80% bamboo and 20% wool.  It is a beautifully soft and silky yarn which has a gorgeous drape and sheen.  It is also machine washable.  I chose to use orange as I was so depressed with the weather I had to cheer myself up with wool.  Luckily I know both her parents quite well and they are not scared of a little colour.

Once I'd knit this, my favourite baby pattern, which is proven by how many of these jackets I have made and gifted (this is my fourth), I had some yarn left over.  I wanted to make a little hat.  I did a quick search of Ravelry and came up with Beamish by Woolly Wormhead.  It's a very cute pattern that starts at baby and goes through to adult sizes.  Most of her patterns include multiple sizing which extends the pattern's use.

I made the hat in the smallest size (to fit 14" head) and wasn't sure if it would fit now, but thought it would be wearable at some point.  I omitted the cute tassels from the hat as I ran out of yarn and didn't really have any contrast yarn that would work well with the orange.  It really is a sweet little hat and I was suprised to see it wasn't too enormous on the recipient.

It is a little bit big, but it doesn't completely drown her, unlike the jacket.  We didn't even try to put that on her, as it would have been like a dress.

I'm so pleased that all my gifts were well received.  My sister in law has already become glued to the hap shawl I made for her, and I think the crocheted teddy bear may become more of a toy for my brother, but at least my niece will get to keep her hat and jacket!

I am, as always, sharing the love by linking up to FO Friday, so click on the button to see some other finished projects, but none will be quite as sweet as my niece!

Knitting & Crochet Blog Week 2011 - Day Five: And now for something completely different

This subject has, I'm sure sent a cold shiver down many people's back.  I was all set to do a video with the webcam I got ages ago, when I realised I just wasn't well enough.  I really was going to make a video, after many months of procrastination and I had even decided to do a FO Friday post, because I didn't have any tutorials to film.   However, as I am coming down with a cough, and really didn't want to have to do loads of editing on my first video to cut out the coughs and splutters, I decided to give it a miss.

So with that excuse in mind, I have created a little slide show of ALL the Finished Objects from the last year.

I hope that is different enough for today's topic, it was certainly a first for me, making a slide show.  Oh by the way, the music track was written by my OH and me in 2003, back in the days before I got too ill to sing and play woodwind instruments.  Finding that track again, brought back some fond musical memories.  I guess this is my version of "interpretive modern dance" Eskimimi talked about, in her topic instructions (I have a degree in the Performing Arts don'cha know!).


Apart from the bleeding eyeballs from reading blog posts, I am really enjoying this week of blogging.  I am struggling to keep up with all the wonderful new (to me) bloggers out there.  If you want to see how other creative types have tackled today's topic, click here to see a list of posts on Google.  The posts will always come up, whenever you click on this link, so you have weeks to read them all, if you want!

A Winner and Some FOs

So the names have gone into the randomiser and a winner has been chosen.  Numbers were allocated according to the order the comments were left in.

Above is the screenshot of the randomiser and according to my list, the winner is Heather Woollove.  So I will be in touch and hopefully the owlet will be winging it's way to you as soon as I have an address.   Thank you so much to everyone who took part, it's wonderful to know that many of you would have donated whether you got a little present or not, so this is my way of saying thank you, well at least to Heather!

Now the prize giving is out of the way I have a couple of finished objects to share with you.  I have a couple of things to share with you, firstly a cute baby jacket.  Do you remember way back when I first talked about it?  The knit was finished a couple of weeks ago but I had to wait for buttons and then for the garment to be sent to the relevant baby.  So I present to you the Maile Sweater for Baby B!

I love how it has blocked out.  The lace raglans are fabulous!

It's such a clever idea, to put the decreases in the lace pattern.  I really love those little yellow buttons too.

The lace pattern round the bottom of the cardigan is a nice touch and they balance out the raglans.

The yarn bloomed beautiful once wet for the blocking.  It really is lovely stuff, this King Cole Merino Blend 4 ply.  I recommend it highly.

I think in future, I would slip the edge stitches to firm up the button band, as it was a bit stretchy and wobbly.  Other than that, I was pretty happy with the pattern.  It has created a really sweet cardigan.

I also have some BROWN socks to share with you.  Despite the boring colour, I have to confess, I really like these socks.

The stitch pattern on the ankle was a bit of pain to do, which is why the leg is so short, but I think the socks look sweet that length.  The stitch pattern may have been a pain, but it is really pretty.

As always, this type of sock is really comfortable.  I have worn these socks so much since they were finished.

I still think the toes and the heel look funny close up, but they fit amazingly well.

I really do highly recommend this type of sock construction.  I don't think I'll be doing this stitch pattern in a hurry again though!

All in all, a very stylish sock!

If you are interested in all things fibre based, be it yarn, cotton or silk, check out at least ONE of the buttons below, because there are so many talented bloggers wanting to show off their pretties!  I bet you get inspired.

New WIP

You can probably tell from this post title that as I have a new WIP, which means I must have finished an old WIP.  I have, but I won't share it with you until Friday.  I shall leave you guessing which one it is.  I shall talk only about my new WIP.

I have just started a new little baby jacket, which I hope will be the last baby gift I make for some time.  However, this pattern is pretty cute and I thought I would try something different.  This pattern is free on Nikki Van Der Car's blog What to Knit When You Are Expecting.  The pattern is called the Maile Sweater.  Though the pattern is a little bit lacy, it is not overly so.  I thought that if I kept the yarn colour neutral, it would work for both a boy or a girl.  I bought King Cole Merino 4 Ply, after the fun I had with my Dad's Handyman's Hat, as I liked the yarn in the aran weight.  More importantly, it is superwash, which will make the gift more gratefully received.

The colour I have chosen is Olive, Shade 69 and I really like this colour.  It's a nice light olive green colour, which is quite yellow in hue.

The above picture isn't greatly in focus, but the colour shown is the most accurate out of the photographs I am going to share with you today.  I got the yarn on a cone, from Texere.  They certainly have a great range of yarn in their online store.  If you know what type of yarn you want for a given project, I recommend you look there for generic yarn, rather than branded to see if you can save some money.  They do have branded yarn, but you can get that anywhere.

I cast on this project last night, and after a brief hiccup with the lace instructions, this is how far I have got.

This is a knit from the bottom up, raglan pattern and it feels strange to be knitting something in the round from that direction.  I am so used to knitting top down these days.

The hiccup I had with the lace pattern was caused by the instructions skp.  I read that as SSP (slip, slip, purl) for some bizarre reason.  I ripped it back and thought about it more carefully.  I think it means slip, knit, pass slipped stitch over.  I am unsure as it doesn't have a key on the pattern.  Instead of doing skp, I did SSK (slip slip knit) as I prefer the look of it.

I think when it is blocked out, it will be fine.  And by the way, this yarn really is lovely and soft.

I think I am making good progress.  Hopefully it will be done in a couple of days and then I can play with my recent decadent purchase.  Not one, but two skeins of Malabrigo Sock!  Do you want to see them?  They are very pretty.

This shade is Aguas and is a lovely green/blue colour.

This shade is Violeta Africana which I fell in love with when I saw this pattern, which I happen to have at the top of my queue.  What could be more delicious than purple Malabrigo gloves with cables on them?  I can't wait to get started!

I bought both these skeins just for me.  It feels a little wicked to splash out so much money on myself, but I do spend rather a lot of my crafting budget on other people, and I deserve to keep something pretty once in a while.  I have a feeling that this is going to a be selfish crafting year!

I'm hooking up, as usual to WIP Wednesday with my bloggy pals.  Click on the button to look at some interesting projects currently in the works.

Baby FO

After the sadness of the bleeding baby blanket, I have the joy of the finished Baby Surprise Jacket.  I used Rico Design Baby Classic DK, which was left over from the blanket that was ruined.  I still love this yarn, I will just never order the red again.

Cute huh?  I am really pleased with how it has turned out.  I had forgotten quite how it was constructed so the striping was pure guesswork.  I'm so pleased the stripes ended up looking deliberate!

I do love how this pattern is constructed, with the top of the sleeves being the only seams.  It makes the knitting so much fun as the shape is created, and you wonder "how is this thing going to actually work".

I'm also really pleased with buttons, which I got from Mary Clare.  They are a lovely delicate pink, which softens the punchy pink and deep purple knitting.

Aren't they sweet.  I am really pleased that this baby jacket isn't a girly pink, as I think the parents will receive more than enough pastel pink stuff to last any baby.  This jacket is definitely pink, so as to avoid gender confusion, but not sickly sweet.  I am pleased with the outcome.

In fact, I liked this jacket so much, my WPC 2011 Challenge photo this week, was a shot of the buttons.

The subject this week was Repetition.  I don't think there is anything more repetitive than knitting do you?  The subject next week is Fear, what do you think, lace yarn and a complicated pattern as my photo?

For those people who adore this knitting pattern as much as I do, you can order it from Schoolhouse Press (you need to scroll down quite a long way).  It costs $10 plus p&p, which will add up if you are not in the US.  However the pattern is for baby, child and adults.  The pattern is sadly not available digitally.  I have to say though, you WILL knit this pattern again and again.

As it is a Friday I am hooking up to Tami's Amis for FO Friday, Fiber Arts Friday at Wisdom Begins in Wonder and Fibers on Friday at Visions of Sugar Plums.  All three linky parties can be reached by clicking on the buttons below.