More little stuff.

Here is the little lion in his bright yellow/orange hooded vest. He might be the disadvantaged kid (of all my children) when it comes to knitted presents, because I'm bound to improve as I practice. However I followed the instructions, used the right yarn, and even knitted a swatch, so how the hood could be so big, I don't know. You could chop out a handful on each side of his face there... but he's still cute! I do like the ears Ü


And this... is a baby hat made of bamboo/cotton mix. It was the softest, nicest yarn, and I struggled and knit it on 5 dpn's... but it just didn't work for me. For a start, it's too "cotton" (which I really should have known right away) so it didn't stretch and mesh together like wool does. It looks too aerated to keep a baby head warm. And the errors (like when I'd accidently pull out a needle instead of grabbing the empty one, and then put the stitches back on wrong) are easy to see. And it's harder to hide the ends. On a good note, the 2x2 rib hides the dpn ladders well, and using 5 needles instead of 4 seemed to help. But I was going to make two of these for my friend's twins... and I can't bear to waste the time making another one!

Instead, I started a bright colored one with baby wool. I started it on Sunday, I think, and it will be finished tomorrow, if not tonight (Wednesday). I love it. Forget that bamboo/cotton rubbish. I gave the rest of the white ball to Byron, for his knotty amusement, and it ended up in the bin.

Watermelon hat

I picked this color for watermelon because it wasn't "pink"... so if this baby is a boy it won't be weird to put it on him. Turns out, though, it's the exact color of the watermelon I had in my fridge Ü

In the absence of a baby capable of modelling the hat, I have used Byron's dog, Sam. The green is moss stitch (I don't like the st st roll) and all but the white and black are merino totem, which is very nice wool to knit with. Might try and block it with a baby soccer ball inside... smooth out the top.

Here is Byron's Zoomy vest (with ears and a bit of fluff around the hood). The fluff was to cover the knot, made by Patons to join yarn in the middle of the ball... they cut the ends so short I couldn't do anything with them, so, naturally, it ended up on the front edge of the hood. A fluffier edging would have been better, I think, but that was all I could find to match. The photo doesn't do it justice... hopefully next week I can put up a picture of B wearing it... if he will.

The finished product: my Palindrome Scarf became 1.5m after its super-fringe. (I had to buy a whole new ball, so I thought I may as well use it up).

Scarf

Palindrome scarf: The easiest scarf, but not too boring, either. It's a 2x2 rib (even in the cables) which makes it reversible. My 3 balls of Prism got me 88cm. It wasn't much fun to knit with at first, because it's wool that has barely been twisted, let alone plied. I wet blocked it to the ironing board, and stretched it out to 1.2m. It was a little long for the board! hehe.

See the little bit of yellow on the end? That's how much I had left. Now I have to decide if I should buy another $6 ball just for a fringe, or use something similar from the stash. I am contemplating matching mittens or wrist-warmers.

Now I'm onto Byron's birthday top, which is this top in yellow Zoomy, size 1. It is so much fun! I knitted a swatch (!!) the first night and ripped it back and knitted the back hem. Yesterday and the day before I have almost finished the back. It's such a happy yellow! I went out and bought Byron a grey, white and yellow top to go under it. It's plain stocking stitch, and I was going to jazz it up a bit, but the yellow shades (which never seem to pool at all!) are enough, I think.

Maybe I'll put ears on the hood. And a fuzzy-edge "mane". LOL.

I got some extra spending money, and bought a cheap ball of sock wool I found at Spotlight. It appears to be the same fibres as the Opal (which was 4 times the price) but won't be so nicely self-patterning. My plan is to practice with the blue-brown and then use the orange-pink Opal.

So many projects ahead...

Birthday wool

Yesterday was my birthday, and I took my birthday money (and some of my own) and visitted a few local yarn shops!


"Sue's Sewing and Craft" was the best. Very friendly little shop with lots of decently priced wool, and the first thing she did was pull out a box of toys for Byron, so I could look around more easily. I went to "Workbasket Wool Shop" by myself, but I doubt I'll go back there. The wool is expensive, and there are no prices listed anywhere. I was embarrassed at the checkout, because I had to put wool back that was far out of my budget...

Anyway, my total wool purchasing (thanks, Gran) came to 3 balls of merino totem (for a watermelon hat), 4 balls of yellow Zoomy (hoodie for Byron), a white and a grey ball of bamboo-cotton mix (baby hats, I think, maybe for Linda's twins), some Opal sock wool, some more Prism (for the scarf I'm on), 3.75mm set (to try 8ply socks), 2.75mm set (to knit the Opals when I've had some practice) and cable needles (have lost the one I had behind my ear... somewhere).

Byron continues to be "interested" in knitting...

...especially in whatever yarn I'm using at the time. I have given him his own wool; he doesn't care. He wants mine. My sister kindly wound this back up for me Ü

Slippers

These are the easiest baby boots in the entire world, and you find the pattern at http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/abctree.html#boot1 ... it's so short you'll probably miss it. Here are the instructions:

3mm needles and baby yarn.

Cast on 34 stitches and knit 14 rows

k2tog twice at start of next two rows

Cast off 3 at start of next two rows

Do K2P2 ribbing for 14 rows

Cast off, fold in half, sew up seam.

There are a few errors in mine, but it's hard to tell with this fluffy wool. In fact, I couldn't even count the rows. But it hardly matters. They will look good on the new baby's little feet!

Next project is undecided. I've bought some colorful fat wool, and I'm trying to decide what to make with it...

Toy sheep

er... modeled by my little gorgeable adorous boy, Byron, who drags it happily around the house. I made it from a pattern in "Treasury of dolls and cuddly toys" which looks like a book from the 60's, but is in fact from 1990. What it should ideally look like is on the front cover.

I used two strands of 8ply for the wool, as I have no idea what Boucle is. The legs are extremely dodgy, and I couldn't work out the ears, nor tail, so I made something up. It looks a bit wolvish, to be honest. But Byron likes it.

Slipper number two is cast on. I haven't sewn up the first one yet, but the white "fairy floss" is sooo soft. I wonder if the legs should be narrower, but I can't be bothered frogging all that rib when the first pair of slippers were the same... and ended up looking perfectly cute.

Rainbow dress

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Here's my rainbow dress, modelled by Gillian, the pattern of which can be found at http://tiajudy.com/rainbow.htm
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I used 4ply merino bambino and 3.25mm double point needles. I'm not good at the joins between dpn's yet, so I swapped stitches between needles to break up the ladder! Don't think my niece will notice, though Ü
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The headband was made with the last strand of the 25g ball, and I finger-knitted it, then finger-knitted it again. It doesn't reach all the way around her head... that's how little was left of the ball. The bows were not as tricky as they looked, except I couldn't figure out Judy's instructions for gathering them up, so I just took the middle purl stitch off the left needle, down behind the 5 strands and up the front, back onto the left needle, and purled it. In the skinniest part of the pleat I dropped the stupid stitch and had lots of trouble fixing it. Don't think I fixed it properly, but you can't even see the bow there, let alone the mess I made. hehe.
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I think the pattern said to use smaller needles, but I almost couldn't get it up past Gillian's hips. Perhaps it goes on better over her head... It was also quite a wrinkled mess by the time I finished, so I blocked it by sticky taping a "cone" of hard plastic around her waist (which held the skirt out nicely), soaking her in the kitchen sink for 15 minutes, and then letting her dry for about 24 hours. Worked nicely. Had to be careful not to felt it, though, as it's 100% wool. Perhaps 4ply cotton would look better... I think that's what Judy used. Plus her wool has lots of pink and purple, which suits her model, Jasmine. I reckon Gillian looks better in reds. lol!
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My next project is to finish my little lamb. All the bits are done but the ears, so it shouldn't be long. Then I'll finish up my new baby moccasins in white Fairy Floss. One slipper is half done. Then I'm hoping to make a stretchy baby hat like I made for a friend's baby recently. I also want to try and make tiny circulars. You can get them overseas, but not here. Then I can make some no-ladder barbie clothes. Ü