M's Wobbly Scarf

After a mild run up, it seems like autumn is suddenly here. There is a cold bite to the air, trees are dropping their leaves, the cats have started staying indoors, evenings are drawing in and my thoughts have turned to winter knitwear.

I actually spared a thought for the coming winter a few weeks ago when I sorted out M's coats. Being a fast growing girl she needs new coats every year and hanging them up lead to me looking at her scarves. Sadly, M has outgrown the lovely cabled scarf she has been wearing since she was about three. This was a bit of a shocker for me as I don't think of scarves as being something you can grow out of, but she has. If we wrap the scarf in question around her neck twice (as you do) the tails are very short, with no weight to keep the wraps in place let alone keep the draft out of the front of her coat.

I declared it was time to knit a scarf, my first in several years.

After talking to M, she came up with a design...

M's design for the scarf she'd like.

Cables. It has been a long, long time since I attempted cables.

I dug out my copy of the Harmony Guide to Cables & Arans, quickly feeling out of my depth and realising I have no idea how to read a cable chart. This is something I'm going to need to fix in the future, but with winter looming I decided to wing it.

Using M's design as a guide I swatched some simple 2x2 cables, setting them inside some bands of 4 purl, with two single purl columns separating the middle cables. Most of the twists are on the eighth row, with one cable being offset and twisting on the tenth row. I added a 2x2 rib to each side to finish.

I had a go at charting the result myself, but it's not quite up to Harmony Guide standards!

This sounds more complicated than it was, mostly I had to keep track of row counts so I knew which cable I was working. I also had to watch the direction of the twist as M wanted the cable to snake from side to side rather than twisting around.

Work in progress, slow but steadily getting there.

After some thought and in the hope of speeding up the knit, I decided to add a keyhole to this scarf as well as working the yarn double. I wanted the extra loft and to make it easier for M to put on herself as she has problems with repeatedly wrapping a scarf around her neck.

The finished scarf.

Vital info -

• 6.5mm needles.
• 38 stitches.
• Yarn: 200g Mercia Wools Superwash Pure Wool DK (worked double). The colour is Dashing Red.
• Width: 16cm
• Final length: 135cm.

Apparently the extra length was a bit scary, but she'll grow into it. Right?

The final result is a little on the long side because I was sizing for a scarf to fit a six to ten year old.
So here we have the final scarf.

Harmony Guide: Cables & Arans - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cables-Arans-Stitches-Harmony-Guides/dp/159668058X.

Phoebe in blue

It's been a busy couple of weeks here as Olympic fever has taken hold of my six year old. This means I've learnt more about the history of the Olympics and watched more sports over the past two weeks than I've probably done in my entire life! Finding time to update a blog between hosting our own toy Olympics has been tough.

I finished a cardigan for M a few weeks back and thought I'd better write it up while I still have access to the computer. It will undoubtedly be co-opted for something sport related in a short while.

The simple Sirdir cardigan which has been my go-to pattern for M over the past couple of years, only runs to age 6-7. I'm considering whether to resize it, but in the meantime I need to branch out and try other patterns. The only thing is, there don't seem to be a huge selection of sweater patterns for little girls. And of those that are available, the field becomes even narrower when considering the child in question's personal taste. Honestly, there is no point spending time knitting a cardigan for a small person if she doesn't like the end result.

After some thought, I eventually settled on Phoebe (Ravelry Link) from Sublime Yarns. This is a simple, close fitting cardigan, with a 'V' neck and contrasting band around the collar, front, hem and cuffs. I decided to knit as close to the pattern as I could, rather than fiddling around and modifying it as I usually do. I was hoping this would make my life easier.

Until of course, I tried to get gauge.

The short version of this story is I couldn't.

I like the Drops yarns from Garnstudio, and having used a dark blue Muskat for M's last cardigan, I'd decided to use the light blue for this one. For contrast I had to choose between turquoise and the left over dark blue from the previous cardigan.

Swatch to consider contrast colours.

After swatching, the dark blue won. It wasn't that I didn't like the turquoise, but it just didn't pop in the same way the darker blue did.

Matching tension proved to be something of a problem.

The pattern for Phoebe requires 10cm = 22 stitches x 28 rows.

The Drops Muskat is a calendered cotton with a high sheen, very pretty and with good stitch definition. It also has an expected gauge of 10cm = 21 stitches x 28 rows.

I'd not been able to match the required tension for the last time I used Muskat, but it hadn't worried me too much. I deliberately loosened the tension, going for a swing type cardigan and making the finished garment bigger. The downside was I went through a lot more yarn than I expected and had to order more to be able to finish the project.

With Phoebe, I wanted to knit as close to gauge as I could and end up with a finished garment sized as described in the pattern.

This proved a problem for me as I could not get the Muskat to knit to the required tension. I had to settle for the expected gauge for the yarn, i.e. 21 stitches, rather than 22 stitches.

My working needle was 3.75mm and 3.25mm where the pattern asked for a smaller needle.

That difference of 1 stitch over every 10cm adds up and in this case would have resulted in an increase of 1.5cm around the chest. Thinking about this retrospectively, that doesn't sound too bad and is certainly able to be absorbed into ease but would have resulted in an inevitable looser fit. After my previous experience with this yarn, I was also worried that I'd knit a lot more yarn than expected and run out, which would raise the issue of matching dye lots.

Some deliberation later, I decided to adjust the cast on numbers for the pattern to match the new expected tension of 10cm = 21 stitches x 28 rows.

i.e.

I made the second size, intended to fit a chest of 61cm, so my cast on stitches became:

Back - Cast on 70 st (instead of 72)
Fronts - Cast on 34 st (instead of 35)
Sleeves - Cast on 42 st (instead of 44)

Naturally this meant adjusting all expected stitch counts throughout.

Other than that, I knitted as directed, matching lengths to pattern directions.

Phoebe in blue.

I deliberately knitted one size up, resulting in a cardigan which is a little too large on the shoulders, but not so big as to look silly.

Sitting reasonably well on the shoulders and across the chest.

For future cardigans I need to remember that M is tall for her age, or at least compared to the children the pattern designer has sized for. Even though I added 1cm to the sleeves and 2cm to the length of the body, as you can see from the photographs, the length is actually spot on for M right now.

The back view, showing the hem at exactly the right length.

I'm a bit disappointed with this. I was hoping to get two years wear out of the cardigan, but now expect it will be too short for her by September next year. Lesson learnt, add a lot more for length on future garments.

It is worth mentioning that I'm not an experienced cardigan knitter. Apart from a baby cardi I made while I was pregnant, I've only knitted one child cardigan pattern before, albeit making it up three times.

In this case, the cardigan was a straight forward knit. There were differences in approach to handling the decreases to my previous experience, but nothing terribly difficult to understand. The fun came when I tried to make the collar.

I've never tried to pick up stitches for a collar before and the results were messy. Very messy. In fact, it was so bad that I ripped the whole thing out and started again. Normally I'd have reached for a crochet hook, adding my own collar and front, but resisted the temptation and instead dug out my copy of Montse Stanley's Knitting Handbook.

This hefty tome is one I think every knitter should have on their shelf. It is a reference work of so many different techniques, with advice on everything, including how to handle picking up stitches for a collar. Following the advice in the book, I picked up the stitches in the main knit colour, which acts as a foundation and masks any irregularity in the stitching. Once the stitches were on the needle, I switched to the required contrast colour to work the rest of the front.

The rolled collar - look carefully and you can see the foundation row in the main colour.

The other area to give me problems was the button holes. I couldn't understand the instructions in the pattern. By now, I was truly fed up with the collar and front, so I did my own thing. I had a quick hunt on YouTube for examples of button holes, which I followed instead of the pattern.

Buttons as chosen by M.

The end result looked OK, were the expected size and in the right place, but were not made in the way directed by the pattern.

Yarn quantities used:

6 x Garnstudio DROPS Muskat 50g - Light Blue.
1 x Garnstudio DROPS Muskat 50g - Blue.

M was pleased with the result and other than it not being as long as I wanted, I think the cardigan came out OK, so overall I'm happy with this.

Useful Links:

• The Knitter's Handbook (Montse Stanley)
• This project on Ravelry
• Garnstudio

One last time

About a week ago, I finished the blue cotton cardigan I started for M back in March. Considering I swatched for this project in February, this means it has taken me over three months to knit a garment to fit a nearly six year old. I really am not a speedy knitter these days. Fortunately, M had asked for a summer cardigan so my timing is impeccable.

After a lot of thought, I decided to make the Sirdar simple cardigan one more time. I've already made this pattern twice before (last year and in 2014), so it was a familiar make. I wanted to make the cardigan in a size bigger than M, so for a 7-8 year old, which presented a challenge as the Sirdar pattern only goes up to 6-7. I was all set to rework the numbers, but started with my swatch and no matter how I tried I could not get my chosen yarn (Drops Muskat) to come out to the specified gauge of 22 stitches x 28 rows in stocking stitch gives a 10cm square.

I had two choices:

3.75mm needles 21st x 28 rows = 10cm

4mm needles 20st x 26 rows = 10cm

I could have tried dropping needle size again, but was worried about drape and ending up with a cotton cardigan which was too stiff.

After working the numbers, I decided to knit this cardigan with 4mm needles. The resulting gauge made the piece a couple of centimeters bigger across the chest, bringing the expected size closer to that needed for an eight year old, which was what I needed.

A finished cardigan.

Having made this cardigan before, I decided to mix things up a bit by adding stranded colour work to the bottom of the body and sleeves. This was a new technique for me and keeping tension even proved tricky, but I was pleased with the effect which was very pretty.

The back view.

I was astonished at how quickly this cardigan ate the Muskat. The pattern predicted seven balls and I'd bought eight. By the time I'd finished the back, I knew I'd be in trouble as I'd gone through nearly three balls! By my estimates, I'd run out of yarn on the second sleeve... So I hastily bought another five balls of the same dyelot, because I wanted enough left over to add to another project. I am so glad I did, as this project used nine balls of the main colour and one ball of the contrast.

The original Sirdar pattern calls for a knitted border, but the first time I made this I found the border wouldn't lie flat and the collar was messy. I much prefer a crochet border, so I decided to do my own thing.

Getting adventurous with the collar.

Stranded knitted colour work, with a spiked treble, eyelet and scallop edging.

M wanted a ribbon and a turquoise scallop to match the turquoise stranded work, I fancied doing some tiny scallops and spiked stitches, so we ended up with all of those things incorporated into the bottom hem, fronts, collar and cuffs. While I enjoy knitting, I'm more confident with crochet and as such I'm happy to experiment. At one point I was afraid I'd overdone it, but after the last stitch was placed, I decided the crochet finish brings the final garment alive. Finally, M chose the button to match during a trip to the local yarn store.

Collar and front.

The end result is a very pretty cardigan. It is deliberately too big, which is why it currently sits more like a jacket, but by this time next year I think it will fit my daughter well. She may even get a third year out of it!

A happy little girl.

M loves it, so everyone is happy.

Yellow, or maybe blue

Saturday I placed my last stitch on the cat scarf I've been making for M, meaning I'm very close to the end of what seems to be an epic project as the scarf has been on my hook since Christmas Day. Even as I considered sewing up and finishing, my mind turned to the next project, namely a cardigan for M. If the scarf hadn't taken so long, I had intended to make another winter cardigan, but with spring upon us I've changed my mind. M needs a summer cardi (or maybe two) that she can live in through the cooler days and use to protect herself from the sun on warmer days.

M agreed and declared she wanted a yellow cardigan, or maybe a blue one. The only problem was, I don't have much in the way of cotton or bamboo, let alone in yellow or blue. If buying yarn, really I needed a pattern first, which presented another issue. M is five and at the top end of desirable target for knitwear designers. There are lots of patterns for babies, but the number dwindles as children get older. I have some patterns for older children, picked up a year ago, but not an abundant supply.

Saturday is a busy day for us, with a lunchtime dance class carving out a huge chunk of the day, meaning we weren't free to hit the shops until after 4pm. By this time my favoured Local Yarn Shop was closed, so we went to Hobbycraft instead.

Unsurprisingly, I did not find the pattern book I was looking for. Neither did I find suitable yarn at a price that I was willing to pay.

We did however find buttons, which M insisted I should buy in readiness for her cardigan. Blue buttons. Lots of them.

We also found card stock, so I replenished my craft supplies.

I also found some booklets on drawing cats and horses, so I picked those up as well.

Hobbycraft were selling off their 'paint your own' money boxes at half price. M wasn't too interested in these until she spotted a Beetle Car...

M couldn't resist this paint your own money box.

It had to be bought, brought home beeping in my bag and painted immediately!

After which, M had to play with these dress up stickers, on sale for half price. Apparently, the children were feeling cold.

And dress up stickers.

This demonstrates why M and I should never visit a craft store of any kind together. We just can't help ourselves!

As for the yarn and pattern. I decided to do my best with the patterns I've got... And placed an order for blue cotton from Wool Warehouse.

Blue.

M is happy.

A knitting and crochet catch up

It's been a while since I've posted here, mostly down to life getting busy, meaning I just haven't had time to collect my thoughts enough to write. It was only when I popped onto Ravelry to update a project that I realised how lax I've been. Ooops!

I thought I'd do a quick round up of some of the projects I've been working on over the past few months, which means casting my mind back a bit as I try to recall...

I went on a glove knitting drive towards the end of the summer, preparing for winter. I started off with gloves for M, adding to her dwindling supply of pairs that fit with ones that don't fit because they're a bit on the big side. I am currently embracing the she'll grow into it theme when making things for M!

First attempt at gloves.

I'd never made gloves before, so this was a steep learning curve which is why I started with a practice pair, intended for no one in particular. I picked up a book called Gloves by Sussette Palmer, working through the pattern for  'Childs Play' gloves and treating it as a tutorial (link to my Ravelry project) .

As these were for 'playing' purposes, I didn't worry about gauge or fit, concentrating instead on the process of what it was I was trying to achieve, namely learning how to knit fingered gloves. The result is OK, all things considered, but they won't fit anyone in this house, so I may end up passing them on.

The tricky bit with gloves has got to be the fingers, knitting such small tubes and keeping the tension even was difficult. I don't think I got it right and I had issues with ladders between DPNs, something that mystified me because I don't recall having problems the last time I worked in the round. It took me until the ninth finger to find my groove, so I tried again this time with a pair of gloves for M.

Finger gloves for M.

These were made exactly to M's specifications, but I upped the sizing a little so they should fit for a year or two. M loved them. I like them, but wasn't completely satisfied with the thumb. Tricky things, thumbs. My Ravelry project for these is here.

Not to be deterred, I also made M a pair of mittens (here on Ravelry).

Mittens for M.

The mittens were made using the Pretty In Pink pattern from the Gloves book and there were a couple of errors in the pattern. i.e.

• When working the last row of the frill (R5), the pattern says ”k2tog to the end”. R1 starts on the wrong side, so R5 needs to be purled, hence the instructions should read ”p2tog to the end”.
• Following the instructions for the thumb gusset will give 15 stitches to save off on waste yarn, not 13 as specified in the pattern. If do you want 13 stitches, increase until there are 11 stitches between your increases. (Personally, I liked the 15 stitches as it gave a nice roomy thumb.)

These definitely are too big. An (albeit small) adult visitor tried them on  and declared they fit her, which gives an idea of how big they are, but I like them and they'll fit ok in a year or two.

So I made another pair of mittens (on Ravelry here)...

Mittens for M.

M liked these ones and the fit is better. Still on the large side, but more wearable I think.

Lesson learned here - I really do need to work on how big, is too big and how big is just a bit of growing room for small people.

Next, I used some left over yarn to make a pair of gloves for me (Ravelry link).

Gloves for Me.

This time, I worked without a pattern and I sized exactly for me. I have long fingers and shop bought ladies gloves are usually too small, so this is the first pair of gloves I've owned that actually fit. I tackled my dislike of the thumb in this pair, offsetting its gusset by 3 stitches, meaning I have a left and right glove.

M said she liked these too, but I insisted they are for Me.

Hopefully, they'll see some good use this winter.

Next up, I tackled socks (here). It has been a long, long time, so I made a pair of bed socks/slippers for me.

Bed socks for Me.

Again, no pattern just me trying to remember what to do and while I'm OK with how these turned out, they are too big. Where there was some rounding up needed for pattern purposes, I went up rather than down which means the sock is much looser on than I'm happy with. They're OK for bed socks, but if I'd intended these for regular wear I'd have been disappointed.

A bit big, but fit for purpose.

Next I went on a hat making binge, making up three nearly identical hats except for the striping pattern.

The first hat was for M (Ravelry link), with the young lady herself choosing the colours and yarn. She also helped me with the striping pattern. I used a 100% wool Sublime Yarns Natural Aran and while it might have purported to be aran weight, it wasn't consistently so. Deliciously soft it might have been, but the yarn went from fat to thin and in some places becoming very skinny indeed, which meant I couldn't hit gauge for the pattern I used (which was Lindsey Carr's Seamless Earflap Hat). 

M's new hat for winter.

In the end I picked a hook that worked (5mm), swatched to work out the tension and subsequent gauge, then recalculated everything accordingly. All of which means, I mostly used the pattern to get the proportions right.

M loves this hat, even if again, it is too big for her. She'll grow into it, right?

Finally, we have Blue Bed Socks for M (Ravelry link here).

And finally, bed socks for M.

Again, this is my own pattern and are hot off the needles this weekend. I used 4mm DPNs and stash yarn, using a simple 4x2 rib and shifting it either left or right every seventh row. The result was effective and M approves, although she has yet to put them to the test.

Fresh off the needles.

And that about brings us up to date, with the knitting at least!

A Chinese sheep

February is full of holidays with so many crafting opportunities for myself and M, which has led to a busy few weeks. I've signed up for a MOOC with FutureLearn on Richard III which is taking up what little free time I have in the evenings, plus I have a BSL course to make progress on, meaning I'm feeling a bit over commited at the moment.

It is all good though, I just need more hours in the day!

Knitting wise, I've been plodding along, making another cardigan for M. Sadly I've been thwarted by the yarn. I am one of those people who likes to match up stripes in self striping yarn. Knots in said yarn are frustrating, because it makes matching those stripes harder. The more knots, the more difficult it gets. I ditched the yarn I was using, frogged and started again after the seventh knot. The yarn in question is now destined for pompoms, or kids crafts, or dresses for teddies, or anything where I don't care if the stripes don't match.

I restarted the cardigan immediately using a different self striping yarn and this time it is coming along nicely. I have only one piece to finish before making up, so hopefully it will be finished this side of summer!

Work in progress cardigan.

Most of my crafting efforts have been directed at things I can make with M.

For example, we made this ram for Chinese New Year (it being the Year of the Sheep, or Wood Sheep, or Ram or Goat).

Our Chinese NY sheep

He is a rather cute ram, made from two pompoms glued together. A big pompom for the body, with a smaller one for the head. I pushed some pipe cleaners through the middle for the legs and stuck a felt face on the front.

M did her share of wrapping the pompoms, a good fine-motor activity for little ones. This was her first attempt at making pompoms and M was worried when I cut the threads, asking me if I was _sure_ that was what we should do. I assured her that this was indeed what we needed to do, so M watched closely, but with a doubtful expression, as I snipped my way around the proto-pompom. I tied the pompom tightly before easing the template off, then presented the resulting oval ball to the delighted M for fluffing, which she did an expert job of.

M drew the face for the sheep, which I used as a template for cutting out the felt shape you can see in the picture above. M was worried it looked too much like a cow, but I assured her the face was suitably sheep like and you can see the result for yourself. M also chose the eyes she felt were most appropriate in size. I warmed up the hot glue gun and went to work, the sheep taking shape quickly in my hands.

Next time I do this, I want to look for extra strong sticky dots so the glueing can stay within M's remit and it might be nice to have more substantial pipe cleaners to hand, as my standard stock ones are a bit spindly.

We were both very happy with the result and M ran off to add the ram to her flock of sheep in her toy farm.

A knit for my baby

Back before M arrived, I had plans for my maternity leave which involved a lot of knitting or crochet. I had this vision of me with a new baby all tucked up in her bassinet beside me while I gazed lovingly at her sleeping form, my needles clicking or my hook hooking, as I made up all manner of woolly goodies for her. I planned accordingly, picking up suitable baby yarn and patterns, in readiness for those first few months...

Of course, as is the case with most new mothers, reality turned out to be a little different to my imaginings. I ended up with a baby who was happiest in my arms and I was happy to oblige, which meant my ability to knit or crochet was severely curtailed.

In fact, while I have crocheted intermittently since M’s arrival I had not picked up knitting needles since her birth until earlier this year! My first knitting project was started at M’s request and was Miss Sophie Bear.

My knitting break has left me with a stash of baby patterns and yarns, but instead of a baby I have an independently minded four year old, who has definite opinions on what she will or will not wear. I was determined to knit some of those baby patterns, with some of that yarn so was delighted to discover the Sirdar patterns I’d bought are actually sized from birth to seven years.

While I may be knitting again, I have to sneak it in around the edges of everything else I do, as spare time is practically non-existent these days. This means it takes a comparatively long time to make anything up and I make mistakes as I don’t have time to concentrate properly. I decided that with only three years to go before M outgrew the patterns, I needed to get started knitting straight away.

I chose the simply named ‘Design E - Striped and Plain Cardigan’ from Sirdar’s Little Stars and Stripes, which is a basic cardi with set in sleeves, a ‘V’ neck and fastened by a single button. A little lace adds interest at the cuffs, bottom, fronts and collar.

The yarn I chose from my stash was a pretty pink, self striping special deal from Aldi in a DK weight. Nothing in the way of natural fibres, but soft, cheap and picked up in a haze of hormones a few years back. It knit up nicely on 4mm needles, to the desired gauge of 22 stitches x 28 rows = 4 inch square.

Here is the result, pre-blocking (link to my Ravelry project - here).

Finished cardigan, before blocking - note the curl of the lace edging...

And here, after some steam had been applied.

Finished cardigan after blocking, curl much improved but still sneaking in.

Finished cardigan after blocking, curl much improved but still sneaking in.

Oh how that lace edging taunted me… It curls horribly at the cuffs and needed some seriously blocking to sort it out, but since I was working with a ‘baby’ yarn (code for acrylic), I was very timid when it came to blocking as it is so easy to over do the steam and kill the fabric. I did steam block this, but not heavily due to the acrylic fibre and although it was improved by blocking, that lace edging still has a slight curl to it, particularly at the sleeve cuffs.

Close up of the lace edging (after blocking).

When it came to the front edges and collar, i decided I didn’t like the suggested border or the way it was worked in two pieces and joined at the back of the neck. I decided to add a crochet edging instead, worked on a 3mm hook as follows:-

• Lay down a foundation row of dc (repeat of 4 + 1)
• 5tr shell around, 5dc-ch for the button hole

If I make this cardigan again, I will probably skip the suggested lace altogether and crochet a shell edging instead. I worked the edging (both the suggested lace on the cuffs and bottom, and the crochet edging) in a white baby DK from my stash. This contrasted nicely with the pink self striping.

I added a single lilac button from my button tin, which immediately decided it was a complementary shade of pink once I had sewn it on.

I am very pleased with how this turned out. I haven’t knitted many cardigan’s and due to the long break, this project represented a lot or re-learning old skills. I tried to stick to the pattern, but couldn't resist doing my own thing when the lace edging didn't behave, which was why I substituted with a far more civilised and far less scary crochet edging.

The finished cardigan, modelled by my 'baby'.

M likes the cardigan too. However I have a problem. She took a great deal of interest in how this project developed and has discovered my Ravelry queue which she has now co-opted. Rather than another cardi from my baby knits list, M has insisted my next knitting project should be a cat.

Introducing Miss Sophie

On Easter Monday, I finally got to visit Toft Alpaca's which was holding an open day. We had a fantastic time and the alpacas were a big hit with M, who thoroughly enjoyed walking her own alpaca around an obstacle course (with a bit of help from Mummy). M chose her own animal, picking the feistiest alpaca available which meant it was given to sneaking cuddles and sitting down while we were trying to walk it.

M walking an alpaca (with Daddy's help, while I take a quick piccy)

M however was smitten.

The next day, M was inspired and so she made her own alpaca herd. She also decided I needed to knit something.

An alpaca in progress...

Now, anyone who has read back through the archives of this blog will know that in the dim and distant past, I used to knit quite a bit. Not one to let a good opportunity pass, I cast on immediately. I was very relieved to discover that my fingers remembered how to use two sticks and some string to produce fabric!

By picking up and knitting whenever I got a spare moment, within a week I'd amazed myself by producing this collection of bits:-

Knitted bits...

Which when sewed together and stuffed (with lots of help from M), became this:-

Ta da! Miss Sophie Bear.

M immediately named the bear Miss Sophie Bear and I began to work on phase two - a ballet outfit. In the meantime, Sophie began to explore the world around her and turned out to be quite an adventurous, outdoors loving bear.

M and Miss Sophie explore a hedgerow at Brandon Marsh.

The pattern I was working from, within a book of charity knits called “Knit Together For Short Lives”, published by Hobbycraft. The original pattern was by a lady called Val Pierce and as far as I can tell, the basic bear comes with lots of options for clothing, according to occasion. The big stumbling block with the patterns in the Knit Together book, was the assumption that the clothes would be sewn onto the bear. M had very definite ideas that she wanted a bear that she could dress and undress, which of course meant I had to modify Miss Sophie’s clothing to allow this.

I started with the ballet dress from the book, knitting it as per pattern but adding a crocheted tab on one shoulder to hold a press fastening. I had left over tulle from M’s tutu, which was pressed into service for Sophie’s skirt and I raided my ribbon bag for lace trim picked up from Croft Mills a few years back.

Miss Sophie's tutu - added shoulder tab, ribbon at waist, lace trim at the hem.

A close up of the tulle underskirt - I added maybe four times the amount recommended by the pattern.

Rather than sewing flowers or pre-made bows onto the dress, I opted for sequins, of which I have a huge stock  for general craft purposes. I’d intended to just put a few butterflies and flowers onto the bodice, but once M saw that sequins can be sewn onto things, she was hooked. I did dictate how big the sequins could be, but otherwise M directed and I did the sewing until Miss Sophie had a dress fit for a ballerina bear.

Teeny, tiny ballet slippers.

The final touch was the ballet slippers, which proved to be a challenge. In the original pattern the toes are stuffed, then the slippers are sewn directly onto the bear’s feet. For Miss Sophie, I stuffed the slippers’ toes, before sewing in a tiny knitted (eight stitches by eight rows in stocking stitch) panel to keep the stuffing in place. Ribbons tie the slippers onto the bear’s legs.

Miss Sophie Bear, complete with tutu and ballet slippers.

Back view of Miss Sophie's tutu.

And there you have it. One ballerina bear.

All pieces were knitted from standard cheap acrylics in DK weight, on 3.25mm needles. I used a 3mm hook for the crocheted extension. Apart from the ribbon, which was bought for this project, all other materials came from my stash of crafting bits. M was delighted and is now designing the rest of Miss Sophie’s wardrobe.

As for me… Gosh, it feels good to have knitted something. Really good.

More baby gifts and one I made myself

A week on and I'm still here and still waiting, perhaps a little less patiently than last week, but waiting none the less. I keep being asked if I'm excited and if I'm honest, the answer is no. The main feeling I've got at the moment is one of impatience, a sort of need to just get on with things now. And I could still have a couple more weeks to go, so I guess I need to do what I can to distract myself!

At the end of last week, my mother took me completely by surprise when a large parcel was delivered by the postman. Inside it was crammed with blankets and baby cardigans, so time to give another shout of thank you for more baby gifts.

My mother, who doesn't really knit very much, made a sweet little lemon cardigan, trimmed with ribbon...



Isn't it lovely?

She also crocheted a double layer blanket in yellow and white - I didn't know my mother could crochet, so that was a double surprise. It's gorgeous and sure to be useful if the good old British summer continues to be as unpredictable as ever!



There were also several cardigans and a couple of blankets knitted by my mother's friends, plus a stack of blankets passed along by my little brother from when his daughter was a baby.

So a big thank you to my Mum, my brother Gary and my Mum's friends.

In the meantime, I've actually had a go at making a baby cardigan myself. I decided to make something simple and dithered for a while as to what exactly I should make. Then Dave came back from one of his usual wanders around a charity shop bearing a gift in the form of a book called Baby Gifts, The Australian Womens Weekly Craft Library. Inside I found a pattern for a simple garter stitch cardigan, so I had a go and here is the result.



I knitted this one up in Paton's Cotton DK, left over from my Tiramisu blanket; the pattern called for 4mm needles, but being a tightish knitter I used 4.5mm so that I made gauge. I knit the 0-3 months size, so it should be wearable straight away and followed the pattern as best I could, but have to say it didn't seem to be terribly accurate.

First problem was with the fronts, with the instructions for left and right rather confused. The pattern writer had assumed they'd be mirror images of each other, adjusting stitch/row counts accordingly, but then seemed to forget they'd done so half way through so there was no way they'd work.

Next up, the instructions to pick up stitches for the bands wouldn't work no matter how I tried, so in the end I just picked up what seemed like a good number and placed button holes myself. I think it turned out OK and the little duck buttons seem to sit well, so hopefully I got it about right.



Finally, I was concerned about how much bulk was being added to the shoulder and underarm area on such a tiny garment, so decided to pick up stitches at the shoulder and knit towards the wrist.

I studied the original sleeve instructions and then picked up 40 stitches, knitted 12 rows before decreasing one stitch at the beginning and end of the next row. The pattern didn't say which kinds of decreases should be used, so I just knit two stitches together. After that, I continued to knit, repeating the decrease row every fourth row until I had 30 stitches left. Then I knit another 3 rows before casting off.

I don't really have a lot of experience with seaming knitting, particularly garter stitch but I had a go with mattress stitch, discovering it doesn't produce as smooth a seam as I'd like. Still, I think it's serviceable and not too shoddy for my first knitted cardigan and baby garment. Not as good as the one's made for me, but I'm fairly pleased with the end result and I'm sure the baby won't notice!