Auntie knitting

Debs requested pictures of 'Auntie knitting' on my blog. So, ok. :)

First of all, one that doesn't fit.



My nephew Jaiden was born on 20 December at about 9.30pm. (The twinges Debs was having on the 7th were a false alarm.) It felt like we were all on tenterhooks for the whole of December waiting for this little guy to make his appearance and of course, he eventually did.

This is the Puerperium cardigan (rav link). Here's a better picture.



It's a sweet little cardigan, knit from the top down, with raglan sleeves and buttons down the side. But I forgot that babies in our family tend to be on the big side and it just wouldn't do up round JJ. Ah well. It'll find a baby it'll fit one day.

Other knits were a little more successful.



You might recognise this hat from the post below. It fits, with room to spare. :) (Also that cardigan, originally made for Sophia. Lovely to see it being passed on to the next small member of the family).



And the socks fit! Aren't little newborn legs in little socks adorable? :-*

(Also visible in that picture, phone case and bear knitted by my other sister Hannah. Knitting definitely runs in the family!)

More Christmas knitting

I loved knitting this!



Pattern: Ella Funt by Flint Knits

Yarn: The main purple colour is Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. The patterns are made of various scraps of DK I had around.

Mods: None. I knitted the 18-24 months size.

As you can see, it's a bit big on Sophia here. She was 14 months then. She's 17 months now. I'm hoping it'll fit for a good long while.

More notes and pics on Ravelry.

Birthday cardigan

My little niece, Sophia, aka Tiny, was 1 year old last week. I made her a birthday cardigan and yesterday Rob and I went down to my parents' for lunch and got to hand it over in person. This is what happened.



Ooh look, a present.



Mummy had better help open it.



I think she likes it. :)



Pretty posing.

The details:

Started: 8 September

Finished 30 September

Pattern: Maggie's Flower Tunic by Nancy Barrett with the addition of sleeves.

Mods: The sleeves and an i-cord bind off in the contrast colour on hem and sleeves.

Yarn: Adriafil New Zealand Multicolour. Under half a ball of the purple colourway and just over a ball of the rainbow pastel colourway. The yarn was a lovely gift from friends when I was in hospital.

Needles: 4.5 mm circulars

Buttons came from Sew Creative. I wish I'd made it bigger. It's sized for an 18months child, but Sophia, like the rest of our family, is on the large side for a one year old. In future I need to take this into consideration! It fits now, though the sleeves are a little short, but I suspect it won't for long.

Ravelled here

I'm working on a hat to semi-match.

cardigan sleeves

ridiculously bright cardigan sleeves, originally uploaded by the pig wot flies.

As promised, photographic proof of progress. I think I need to work on my technique a bit, the colours are a little washed out. Still, the hand-dyed cardigan has sleeves.

hand-dyed cardigan in progress

hand-dyed cardigan fronts, originally uploaded by the pig wot flies.

This is what the little strip of knitting in the last post has grown into. Onto the back next.

a pile of hand-dyed yarn

a pile of hand-dyed yarn, originally uploaded by the pig wot flies.

Terrible photo cos all I've got is PhotoBooth on my Mac (anyone want to buy me a digital camera for my birthday?). But here is the yarn I dyed with Rosie last weekend.

I'm turning it into a cardigan, or more likely the body of a cardigan in stripes of the different yarns. The narrow vertical stripe is to make the most of the short colour sections in the rainbow coloured yarn I dyed. I didn't like the mixture of colours when I wound it into a ball, but when they line up they're gorgeous. So, this is my first garment sized intarsia project (does it count as intarsia if it's all in one stripe?). I tried out my technique on a little hat last week. The bottom has a knitted in hem to keep it neat (first time I've done that on a large garment too, though I've done it on socks). I think I've got enough yarn to make 2 fronts and a back, with some left over to do little stripes on the sleeves. I'm not sure what the sleeves will be made from yet. Something plain, maybe more off-white aran, though I've not got many balls that match, or maybe something else. I'm basing the pattern on the Go-Everywhere, go with everything cardigan (Ravelry link) but since I've already deviated from that by changing the gauge, adding stripes and a hem, and will probably add a little waist shaping, it's really only a guide.