Wee knitted things

Corrin is wearing his Beyond puerperium cardi that I knitted for him in the 0-3mth size with gorgeous and soft hand dyed Red riding-hood yarns 4ply merino.  I used an I cord bind off around the edge in Malabrigo Sock in the scrummy 'Chocolate Amargo' colour which has really finished it nicely with the matching buttons. This has been my favourite knit for him so far and it has lasted him quite a while considering he has grown like a mushroom. I'm quite sad that he is finally growing out of it at nearly 5mths.

Tessa is very happy with her cosy Paige babydoll that I knitted for her with a scrappy set in Wooltopia worsted 3ply 100purewool.  This is a super soft merino yarn which many yarn dyers use for a base, perfect for baby knits and super soft projects, perfecting for felting which tells you that it is a hand wash only yarn. 

 Our sweet Corrin has settled into the family really well and Tessa just adores him.

My creative space: Darwinia again :)

So I did knit another Darwinia dress again like I promised, this time in some lovely bendigo woolen mills cotton in a discontinued colour called Damask Rose I bought from a destash on ravelry. It was my first go knitting in cotton and I must say I'm hooked


It's going to a lovely wee dress that Tess will get lots of use in summer and layered in the cooler months. As you can see she is quite chuffed with it and loves her sunnies too.
Sorry November I didn't mean to neglect the wee blog again but I have been busy creating, more photos to come :)

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Blogtober: Creative space

I finished another wee baby knit last night. This one was for a new wee girl next door. I used another wonderful pattern by Tikki called Darwinia which has two different bodice types and two different skirt variations. A pattern I have been meaning to knit for awhile and now I can't wait to knit it in a Tessa sized version in cotton. I'm just waiting on some special yarn to arrive so I can get into it, I'm trying to start thinking ahead for christmas. I can't believe it's only weeks away really.


I'm quite pleased with how this wee dress turned out, it certainly isn't a colour I would normally go for, but I'm definitely warming to it.

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Blogtober: KCWC, Eden

Last week I finished Tessa's little vest, perfect for spring weather. I used the simple but well written called Eden's Adam by Tikki. A very popular pattern if you have a look on ravelry.


I used the last of the Family Roots, Wisteria that I bought from a Coop and contrasted it with Woolganics Krishna. I love this colour combination.


And lastly another big sister little sibling set of pants. These were made from my lovely Mum's fabric stash. My sister and I always loved this fabric and always had fights over, hehe.

Blogtober: Kids clothing week challenge

Well its time for the fall (spring here in the southern hemisphere) Kids clothing week challenge over at the lovely Elsie Marley Blog. Over a 300 have entered this time around.
The aim of the week is to spend an hour per day sewing for the kids in your life, by just doing that hour its amazing what you can get done. I'm sure handcrafting in general would be ok, ie knitting etc.
Well I have nearly managed the requirement but I must take some photos soon to post, although the grey days aren't ideal .
The above wee hat I knitted at the beginning of the year but have shared yet. Don't you just love the curls. The pattern is the popular Poppy hat pattern which is quite clever as it is created by short row shaping.
So have a look a what everyone has been creating for Kids clothing week challenge and I will be back soon with a post of some of my sewing creations.

Blogtober: Baby Boom

Well the start of our local wee baby boom has begun, with three girls born in as many weeks.
Very sweet and I have been busy knitting up a storm. The above top is an adaptation of the Dueling Wands pattern by the talented Kelly Brooker. I added puff sleeves and a sweet heart lace insert to girl it up.


A more unisex option is the above Young Einstein by Julie Stanfield, which experimented with and steeked. Cutting knitting is certainly not for the faint hearted, arghh but it was quite interesting and I enjoyed it. The sweet little stranded hat in Benji by Sheryl Greenfield, I loved learning two handed stranded knitting and knitted one for Tessa straight away. Very unlike me to the same pattern twice in a row.


And finally a more boyish colourway, I knitted a short sleeved Puerperium cardi by Kelly Brooker also. So practical for newborns and very cute.

Now to figure out what the next girly baby knit will be.

Some more test knitting

I think this year is fast becoming the year of the test knit. These are my sixth and seven finished test knits for the year so far and I have another two tests on the needles. I guess I work much better with a deadline. And I love the little thrill of being one of the first few to knit a new pattern.


The sweet twirly skirt above is my test of the Tropical Fish Skirt from the very prolific and talented pattern designers Elena Nodel. It was a great stash buster knit, I used some lovely Cleckheaton country paintbox variegated purples and a plum for the trim.

The above and below pics show the test of the Sweet As ... pattern by Amber Bertram. I knit this a month or so ago in size 3, it had a unusual and new to me construction, top-down set in sleeves. This was a gift knit for a different little girl to the gorgeous model in the photos.

Yarn dying

I have finally managed some yarn dying this week. The above skein is 150gm of Naturally Sensation merino 8ply. I'm quite pleased with it, now that I have wound it up into skeins, but when I had originally finished I was discouraged.
I used food colours as I have done in the past, but I tried a new and quite interesting technique for setting the colour.
Solar heat, I did this by hand painting the yarn as you would for the steam setting technique and wrapping in clingfilm. But instead of steam setting I lay the skeins in a polystyrene box lined with reflective building paper (aluminum foil would work too) and put it outside in a sunny position and covered with a piece of glass and left it for a couple of days. This works even faster if you have hot sunny days like we have had lately.


The above (out of focus but was closest to colour) pic shows the largest batch I have experimented with 800gm of 10ply Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury yarn. I love this yarn, and it's really affordable, soft and quite hard wearing. I'm not the only one if you have a look at the many projects on Ravelry.
Now to decide which cardi to knit for winter. A few on my long list are Rosamund's cardi (not sure as this colour is so dark and the the cable details will be lost), Tea leaves, Juliette (8ply pattern) and Kerrera (I'm not sure there enough). Have a look at the links and tell me what you think?


This is the wonderful swift I bought off Julia last month with some xmas money my lovely Mum gave me. It's brilliant you can change the size of the skein and wind it up with ease, it's so much faster than put the skein on the back of a change and hand winding. If you check out her blog you can win one along with a whole lot of other lovely knitty goodies to help support a little girl called Hope who has cancer.
Hope Osborne is a little Wellington girl turning 4 in almost a week who was diagnosed with cancer 2 years ago. Since then she's gone through countless painful and difficult procedures and earned 900 beads as a badge of her journey with child cancer. Please support her and her family in their time of need and head over to Juila's blog and donate.

Ariane Dreams

In January I was lucky enough to test knit the Adriane Dreams pattern by Anne McCrea, she has done a wonderful job with designing this pattern. It has so many options, three different lace patterns for the skirt, four different lengths, heaps of edging options and sizes written for 8ply or 10ply. The sizes are a great range from 3months to 14-16yrs, so this is a very economical and well written pattern.


I really enjoyed knitting this pattern and the instructions were simple and easy to understand, especially for a beginner lace knitter like myself.

I used bamboo yarn which is great for summer but cotton or wool yarns would be suitable too, probably better, as bamboo doesn't have as much spring. The straps might stretch more with this yarn than wool or cotton. I can see this getting lots of wear over long sleeved tops in winter too.

Hansel and Gretel Dress

I knitted an adaptation of the Kaia Babydoll dress a couple of days ago, it was a nice and quick project. I was inspired by the AliGknits version's of this pattern I've seen lately, she recommended casting on in the size smaller and then increasing to the size you want. I did this but there was still a bit too much gaping at the neckline so added shirring elastic, this worked a treat.

I used an 8ply bamboo/cotton yarn called Bella baby layette, doubled on size 6mm needles. I then hand sewed the fabric skirt which was originally a very cute apron I found at an opp-shop.


Tessa really does love her Pusscats and like to make sure they are very well fed and watered.

Summer Yarn Swap

This was the yarn I dyed up for the summer yarn swap, that was organized by the lovely Hannah of Rainbow Child and Red Riding Hood Yarns.

My lucky swap recipient is Kate from Chevgirl. I used berry colour tones for a summer berries theme, added some yummy berry chocolate logs and wildberry tea. I also gifted Kate a pattern on ravelry that I had been looking at for awhile. The sweet Spring Garden Tee by Alana Dakos of the wonderful blog Nevernotknitting.

I dyed 200gms of pure wool with Queens food colouring in the crockpot, wow was it fun and amazing to think what you can do with something as simple as food colouring and vinegar. It was my first attempt at semisolid colours but it didn't work very well as I didn't use enough dye. So I overdyed using the steam method, on the stove.

Meet Milly

Tessa is quite excited to have a new knitted friend.

Millie is knitted from Jean Goodhowe's Twin dressing-up doll pattern


Just because I'm loving her sweet curls at the moment and I know they won't last.

Tessa loves carrying Milly around but her head is so heavy from all the hair that it just flops over, I think I will sew it down to the neck a bit to see if that helps.

So the pattern has all the info for knitting lots of clothes for the dolly. But by the time I had finished sewing on the last of the hair, I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to use Tessa's old clothes to dress Milly.

FO Milo and Ripley

Pattern: Milo by Georgie Hallam

Yarn: Cleckheaton Country Silk (discontinued) 8ply, 1 1/3 50gm balls. I got this yarn for a bargain from our local yarn shop, yay for discontinued yarn 11 balls for $3/ball.

I can't say enough good things about this pattern what a gorgeous vest so simple but very cute. The option of five easy cables is great for anyone wanting try cables for the first time. I knitted this up in the 3 month size with a little extra length to fit for a bit longer. Something I do with most of the kids knits I do. The aran cable looks great and I can't wait to try one of the other cables, maybe the owls.
This is a gift for our friends having their second wee boy due next week. Our weekly friday mummy and baby catch up group are giving her a surprise baby shower tomorrow afternoon I can't wait. Second babies don't seem to get as much fuss and adoration as the first so we thought we do a little something to make her feel pampered and special.



Pattern: Ripley by Ysolda

Yarn: Naturally Sensation 10ply yarn, about half a ball

Another knit I finished lately, a cute hat for my gorgeous sister's birthday last month, modeled by my lovely MIL. Hopefully I will get some photos of the hat modeled on Sis (hint hint). What a nice knit, simple and interesting enough for TV watching without being too complicated. My first of Ysolda's amazing patterns she is so talented. I bought her Whimsical Little Knits ebook and I can't wait to try the rest.

I have a few other WIP (works in progress) on the needles at the moment. Including Young Einstein hooded cardi for Tessa, a little ruffle scarf for myself and an Earflap hat for little bro's birthday. Hopefully I will have a few more FO (finished objects) to share by the end of the month.

My Creative Space

In my creative space this week I finished knitting my first attempt at pattern design. It's not perfect by any means but a nice start I think.


This wee knitted dress features a rib bodice for lots of room for growth, the idea is that it might fit for two or more seasons. The contrast edges and waist band is done in reverse stockinette to create a nice roll effect. With a dramatic ruffle on the skirt it creates a sense of fun.


The yarn I used was about 250gm Shepherd merino 8ply in chocolate, and 75gm Shepherd baby merino 4ply in pink, held double.
The pattern is still in notebook scribble stage but I think I will have something sorted soon. Hopefully I might even get some help with pattern testing from the amazing testers on ravelry, if anyone is interested.


I am not sure of a name for this pattern any ideas?

Away

We got away for a much needed break a couple of weekends ago. To Rotorua, it was cold and wet the whole time, but it was bliss to just relax and spend some time together. As you can see Tessa really enjoyed it, especially chasing mummy with the camera. We got a room with a spa bath mmm it was great soaking and Tessa had great fun splashing us.

I got to go to some yarn shops and spotlight, which we don't have here. It was great I spent far to much but it was so much fun. I was like a kid in a candy shop, heaven.
I even splashed out and bought some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK to knit Tessa a cardi design that has been rattling around in my head. The yarn is so soft I can't wait to cast on, I must hurry up finish some of what I have on the needles at the moment

These boots are made for walking

Our gorgeous girl learnt to walk last week, we are so proud of her. She is still a bit wobbly but getting more steady by the day. She is quite pleased herself, and loves all the praise.

Congratulations Honey you are so clever and special.

She is wearing my first knitted FO (finished object) of the year, I know terrible but I seem to be easily distracted hence the six or so WIPs (work in progress) on the go.

Anyway the pattern I used is Tikki’s well written Eden’s Adam.

It can be knitted up in 4ply, 8ply and 10ply cotton or wool yarns. With an amazing 14 different sizes NB up to child size 10.

Tessa’s version above I knitted size 18m with my first try of hand dying which I was quite pleased with. And Shepherd baby wool 4ply in a coordinating lime green. I knitted the ruffle by increasing kfb of each stitch and carried on in a lace pattern which I think was lost in the multicoloured yarn, also it have sit better if I had knitted the ruffle twice as long. Oh well we live and learn, next time I will know. It was my second time using circular needles and I am hooked it seems so much faster and smoother than straights.

My Creative Space

I found these brilliant buttons last month when I visiting my mum for her birthday, Tessa and I surprised her which really quite special. Anyway we went shopping at this really really amazing yarn shop, and these are what I came away with. My self control was quite good for once which is very unusal as normally I would have to buy some yarn any yarn to add to my stash. Anyway getting off topic, these gorgeous wooden heart buttons just had to come with me, I took all they had left. I am thinking a cute little pinafore dresses for Tessa this winter, or maybe to decorate a sweet knitted hat.

I got these gorgeous rose buttons at the same time I just love them. I think a cardy for me, when I finally get around to deciding which one to knit either Mr Greanjeans modified similar to this or the Febuary lady sweater also lengthened. I have 18 50gm balls of cleakheaton country silk yarn, in a charcoal grey with flecks of a lighter grey silk through it, quite a rustic colour.

This is something else I have sneaking away to sew, its not quite finished but I thought I would like to share. A sweet wee dress for Tessa to wear to my sister in laws wedding. Its made from lovely light muslin. The lining is from a muslin wrap of Tessa's that we didn't need, so this is kind of a refashion.

A close up of some of the detailing.