~Baby Jumper tada~

I've been back at work and too busy to blog since 1st September, but thought I'd share this latest finished project. I do feel good when I actually complete a project. I liked the shoulders on this sweater pattern and wanted to knit it for my baby niece Evelyn. It's Sirdar 6013 for baby cashmere merino silk DK.

 

 

I chose to make it up in Sirdar Simply Recycled Cotton DK in shade 0022, a dark chalky pink with a marl appearance. I went for one shade rather than stripes.

 

 

Here's the finished jumper...



 

 

 

 

 

 I crocheted 2 flowers for embellishments (pattern from Nikki Trench crochet book) in cream cotton yarn...

 

I wasn't happy with the not-very-neatness of my picking up stitches round the neckline, hence the flowers to hide a wonky bit :)

My sewing up isn't great either - must practice more!

I also found these mittens for Evelyn; £1.50 at the Monsoon outlet...



 So, I had a lovely day over in Manchester yesterday catching up with my brother and his lovely family in their new home.  On the drive over I spotted a fab sewing shop nearby in Eccles and we had a walk there.

 Bambers is a family business over 2 floors, selling overlockers, machines, wool, fabric, patterns, haberdashery, and they also run sewing courses.  I feel very guilty because I quite impulsively bought a dressmaker's mannequin (hurrah!) for a very good price - cheaper than I'd researched on ebay and the web. So, hence I felt the need to get up at silly o'clock this morning to do a car boot sale.  Unfortunately I only made £35 today but it will add to my ebay sales of late and pay for this essential bit of kit, so my homemade clothes fit me better.

~Baby Gifts~

This Saturday is the baby shower for my new niece who is due in July, so we will zip across the Pennines to Manchester for some tea, cake and fun.
Here are some things I have been making.
First, another Puerperium Cardigan from Ravelry - this time it's the long-sleeved version in a dark pink yarn (Wendy Sorrento) with chunky wooden buttons. Pictured here with Mrs Bunny, a one-off for my new niece, inspired by soft toys and cuties I've admired on other blogs. 

And finally, my biggest reveal...
Who would have ever thought I would complete a crochet project? No more crochet-fear here -well not much :)
Thanks to the 2 crochet lessons at Me and Mrs Fisher in York, here is my cushion for the baby's room...

 The wool is a bamboo cotton type in 3 lovely shades of pink and the big granny square is just stitched onto a cushion I've made from Laura Ashley cream woven fabric.

Hope you like them!
Made with love x

Yarn Shop Day & simple pleasures

Yarn Shop day was Saturday 3rd May - did you visit a wool shop? I did -  I visited Needlecase at Tadcaster, which I've blogged about before. They had a plentiful supply of tea and cake going on, as well as a knitted flowers workshop - however I just popped in to purchase some wool and a pattern to knit for my new niece, expected in July. I bought Sirdar Snuggly in this blue/purple colour and some mother of pearl buttons...

The pattern is a chunky aran type cardigan with bobbles round the yoke

 which I'll do in a 6-12 month size.

 

Jack and I went to give Laura a lift home from the coast and took the dog for a long walk at the seaside.

Hornsea beach - I love it.

Definitely my 5-year plan to live there.

The tide was coming in and the sound was so calming.

Pebbles, pebbles, pebbles...I could look at them all day!

I made this chocolate cake today - just a Victoria Sponge with added cocoa and chocolate chips topped with leftover Easter egg melted chocolate and filled with fresh vanilla cream

It was gorgeous!

 

~Baby Shower & Cardigan~

Today I went to a Baby Shower; my first one - I didn't know what to expect but it was lovely.  It was a vintage afternoon tea, with some added 'guess the baby' photo games and opening of gifts. and was hosted by some friends for their sister/daughter whose baby is due on 21st April.   I thought it was very much an American tradition we had adopted, but reading about it on the tinterweb, it appears that worldwide we have always had these kind of events in every culture, though they may evolve and change over time.  In the late 19th Century apparently Victorians held afternoon tea parties for expectant mothers - I didn't know that!
I made the Puerperium cardigan (newborn - 6 weeks) which is a free Ravelry pattern I read about last year on Country Rose blog here

I made the short sleeved version (as I ran out of time!) but you can do a long straight or tapered sleeve.  It's knitted top down in one piece with sleeves knitted last 'in the round' which I did on my preferred 2 bendy pins. I have to be honest and say I didn't enjoy it at first -  faffing about with stitch markers, but actually it'll be lots easier next time as you can see where to increase and don't really need the markers past a certain point.
It only took less than 3 25gram balls of Yorkshire-spun Erika Knight British Blue Wool in 'Milk' (appropriate eh?)
I bought mine from Wool & Buttons see here  £3.95 for 25g.  After washing and blocking you can see the lustre of the wool, it's really soft like mohair.

I've already started another version in pink and I'm much quicker this time round!

~Knitted Cowl~

Just finished this cosy cowl scarf which I've really enjoyed knitting.  The lovely simple cable pattern was from this month's Prima magazine  (February issue page 128 - I got the magazine subscription as a Christmas present.)  The pattern uses 10mm needles and Debbie Bliss Paloma wool, but I knitted it on 6mm needles using some Louisa Harding Fleuris in 'Meteor' I had already.

As well as keeping my neck cosy...

if you remember I knitted this tea cosy in some of this wool last year!
Think I may need this scarf this week as it's getting colder. Keep warm  x

~Woolly Winter projects~

I haven't posted since before Christmas which is very remiss of me...I usually want to hunker down and hibernate from December til my birthday in February, but my SAD symptoms haven't been too bad this year - thanks in part to Holland & Barrett Max Strength 284mg St John's Wort  I really believe it's made a difference.  I'm also relaxing more and reading stuff on my new Kindle, a gadget I've resisted with a dismissive ' I like real books; but I've read loads - 5 'books' since Christmas and it must be good because I went to physically turn the page on more than a few occasions!
Small Boy is now a Young Man and was 12 yesterday, requesting a grown-up lemon tart in place of his usual chocolate cake. Laura also made him some choc chip cookies.

My brother and his partner have a baby on-the-way so I have a few sewing and knitting WIPs at the moment, and a cowl scarf for me that's nearly finished.
This is a hat I've knitted for myself, in some gorgeous Yorkshire wool with a faux fair isle effect...

It's West Yorkshire Spinners Bluefaced Leicester DK Prints in 'Owl'  £9.70 for 100g.
I bought mine from the lovely Needlecase in Tadcaster.  For those of you further afield, they have an online shop too.

image from www.wyspinners.com





~Half-term catch-up~

It's half-term, which means time off work for me to catch up on stuff at home. 'Stuff' being household jobs like dripping taps, leaking radiators, overgrown garden needing putting to bed and an ironing pile the size of York Minster - you know the score. Plus household appliances going *kaput* all at the same time.

I am now also on a mission to make as many gifts as possible for Christmas, in the name of much-needed thrift, but also in the name of being grateful for all that we do have. We do not need big and unnecessary material spending - just time and a smidgin of love.
So, do you remember this pile of wool bought at a local car boot sale?...

Well, I taught myself to knit in the round using 2 sets of flexible needles in the Summer.  It was fiddly at first, but just remember  to use 1 set at a time - one is your working set and one is your sleeping set.  Detailed and excellent instruction to be found in this book by Loani Pryor...
Once again I am knitting wristwarmers; but these little beauties require no sewing up.

1 working set, 1 sleeping set - half the stitches on each set

A finished pair of these lovely wristwarmers finished

off with some vintage buttons...

The pattern for these wristwarmers is a lovely one found via Julie at Little Cotton Rabbits here
See you soon, keep warm x