catchup

I really have fallen off the blogging wagon recently.  I blame in on A Certain Project that I'm doing right now, which is eating up all my time and all my mental capacity - with the result that when I do have time, I have zero mental and/or physical energy left for knitting.  But its a fun project so I can't complain.  I'll tell you all about it soon, I promise.  (wait, who actually reads this blog anymore? maybe you already know what that project is... is it possible that I lost all my non-local readers through lack of posting?!)

Anyway, for lack of anything more entertaining to post, I thought I'd show you the bits I have been working on.  My good friend Tiffany had a little baby recently, so of course some baby knitting was in order.

I decided to make her a Newborn Vertebrae using some pretty blue and rainbow sock yarn.  Its meant to be a frontless cardigan to keep the baby warm, but not overheated - plus it makes for less fabric between you and the wee-one when they snuggle against you.  This was such a great pattern - I used slightly larger needles than recommended, and it ended up a little on the big side for Tiff's wee one (which means extra wearing time - yay!).  The designer has released a pattern that goes all the way up to adult size, but only the newborn one is free.

In an attempt to do some (very much needed!) stashbusting (and cure a rather tenacious bout of startitis), I've also been trying out more baby patterns.  This one is the Sunnyside cardigan from Tanis Fibre Arts (the yarn is from KnitPicks).

Makes a cute cardigan, but I found the instructions a little confusing... but maybe its my fault for miscounting the cable pattern, and then not checking with the pattern photo to see whether or not to end the raglan cables after separating the sleeves...  :)  This is supposed to fit a 6-12 month old, but again I went up a needle size, so it may well fit a larger child.  I had 200g of this yarn and this sweater used less than 100g.  I'm now making a second cardigan with it (different pattern), but I think I'll have lots of leftovers from it.

When I first started knitting, I went to Touch of Wool in Dunbar (now closed) and bought enough tweedy blue DK yarn to make myself a sweater.  Not surprisingly, I never made that sweater, and the yarn languished in my stash for something like 11 years.  In that time I used enough bits of it in various projects and swatches to reduce it down to kid-project only quantities - which made me decide that it would make a very cute rustic-style pullover.  Like this one, from a Sirdar pattern I'd seen at Homecraft:

Turns out there was actually more there than I'd calculated - I made the sweater first (size 3-6 months, supposedly) then the hat (my own design), then the booties (modified from a Drops pattern), and I still have a small amount left over!  I think this yarn wants to stick around forever!

The last thing I'm doing right now is a surprise for someone, so you only get a sneak peek:

More details once it has been sent off to its intended owner!  :) 

Oh, I've also been desperately trying to finish the next installment of my correspondence course on Knitting Design.  Look at all the pretty (albeit acrylic!) swatches!