Family Tree MKAL: Clue 1

I promised myself that if I finished Felicity's Baby Bubble before the second clue of the Family Tree MKAL arrived then I would go ahead and knit along. Liss got her new top on Thursday and the clue wasn't due to to arrive until the next day so I got to casting on and 336 stitches later I was ready to go.

The cast on was a two colour cast on so I've got this rather lovely pop of my contrasting colour right from the beginning.

After a few rows it was time to start a Latvian braid, something I've not done before so I was quite looking forward to it. It was actually really easy once I got into the rhythm, although it got a bit awkward towards the end of the first row because my yarns were OMGsupertwisty. Similarly the beginning of the second row was a bit fiddly until the yarns had unwound themselves a bit but it turned out really nicely in the end. I did the whole thing sat in my parents garden while my mum and sister played with the little misses. I'm pretty sure that if I'd attempted this at home it would have been a very different story!

I'm also really pleased with my colour choice, I decided to make this one a bit more high contrast than my last shawl and I'm really glad I did. I was undecided on whether to have the white or the teal (which seems to be looking more blue in the photos but I promise it's a dark teal colour) as my main colour. I plumped for the teal in the end because I figure it'll hide dirt better. It's as good a reason as any other!

Clue 2 has now arrived and there's a bit more to it that the first one, but hopefully I won't fall too far behind after my late start.

 

FO: Baby Bubble

It feels like it's a while since I actually finished anything so this quick little top for Felicity was the perfect thing to kick start my knitting again. The weather had certainly been a lot more mild over the last few days and I've been able to knit whenever my hands have been free.

After all that casting on this project went pretty smoothly right up until I started to realise that I might not have quite enough yarn. It wasn't a total disaster, I could tell that it would be close, but in the end I decided to err on the side of caution and cut the body a little short and have a look in the stash for something I could use if need be.

It turned out that I did need just a few metres more so I ended up knitting the last few rows of the ribbing at the waist and arms using Rowan Calmer in a slightly lighter shade of purple. It is slightly heavier than the main yarn and really stretchy so it actually worked pretty well for ribbing. It's also not totally obvious unless you know it's there but it's a pretty cute feature too.

Pattern: Baby Bubble by Yarn Madness

Yarn:100g Drops Muskat plus a few metres of Rowan Calmer

 

Making hay while the sun doesn't shine!

When Friday dawned all grey and windy and rainy I'm pretty sure everybody else groaned, but I rubbed my hands together with glee for around 5 seconds before realising that I should be putting them to better use and got out my knitting. This being August (albeit August in England) I'm was sure I couldnt expect this state of affairs to continue for long so, children and housework be damned, it was knitting time. Unfortunately the kids didn't get the memo, apparently nursing infants still require feeding even when there is knitting to be done. So inconsiderate! However I do still have something which is beginning to resemble a garment.

Plastic lady is guarding my knitting from that tiny hand on the left

Being a tiny wee thing for a tiny wee girl it is coming together pretty quickly. So it's time for a little agreement with myself. The first clue for the Family Tree Shawl MKAL came out today and I've been trying to decide whether to cast on for it. I really enjoyed the Me and You MKAL by the same designer earlier this year and this one looks really interesting with a two colour cast on and Latvian braids, but I've got loads of other stuff I want to knit too. I've decided to leave it up to fate, if I can finish this Baby Bubble before the next clue comes out then I can go ahead and cast on for the MKAL if not then I just move on to the next item in my queue when I do finish Felicity's top. Sounds fair enough?

Oh and speaking of Felicity, she surprised all of us by taking two tiny little steps on Thursday! I'm super impressed but she's 7 months for heavens sake, I'm not sure I'm ready for her to be trotting around just yet.

And lastly, how cute are my little owls? My sister gave them to me for my birthday in May and I love them an unnecessary amount.

 

Cast on and and on and on...

The weather here is till not terribly knitting friendly so instead of throwing a total wobbly and upping sticks to the North Pole I decided to put my sock to one side and cast on with something from the giant bag of cotton I got in the Drops cotton super sale last month. So, cast on I did and then again and again and again. Seriously, I want to say I've had to cast on for this project four times now, but it could even be five I don't even know. The first go round my circular needles were too long, the second time I found shorter needles but they were shocking awful cheap ones and my stitches wouldn't go over the join. Then I found the right length cable for my interchangeables, cast on, started knitting the first row, got distracted halfway round and then somehow a load of stitches came off the needles and it was time to cast on yet again. Oh well, at least it's only 68 stitches.

I'm finding it quite sad that this tiny bit of knitting is news!

So here we are, all 68 stitches safely cast and the first row knit, hopefully for the last time! Should I actually manage to get to the end of this project with no more problems this will be a Baby Bubble, another pattern by Yarn Madness. I love her stuff for kids and one day I'll get round to trying one of her adult patterns for me. This one is for Felicity which means it will be a quick knit because she is so wee. At 7 months she is still growing into some of her 3-6 months clothes, such a contrast to Cassie who has always been quite large.

Being tiny certainly isn't stopping her though, she is now very competently cruising the furniture and can even let go and stand for a few seconds before grabbing on again. She's growing up so fast but she just continues to get more adorable by the day.

Mwah!

 

Hot. Sweaty. Yuck.

It has been hot hot hot here in the South East of England. I hate to be all British and complain about the weather, but for serious, I flipping hate this sodding weather! I can appreciate the sunshine but I would really prefer that it came with a side order of gentle breezes and hold the humidity!

So, because I find knitting really difficult in the heat it has taken me around 3 weeks to turn the heel on my Greenwich socks. Because they are not much different to the last time I posted about them and also because I am very lazy I'm not going to bother to photograph them.

In an attempt to make myself feel like I am creating something I've turned to my sewing machine. I don't have too much to show for that either but I don't feel like that's a bad thing. Sewing is something I'm still very much a novice at and I'm trying to slowly remedy that. To that end I've been taking my time, making practice garments and polishing my finishing skills. I want to feel confident enough to use better fabrics than I have been which in itself will improve the look of my garments. I'm also not going to bother posting any of these practice runs until I finally finish a wearable garment that I'm proud of. It feels much better to say "here's a load of crap I made, but hey look at this great thing I made off the back of it"

However, I'm not just here to tell you what I'm not going to post about, I do actually have a little FO. I made shorts for Cassie!

These are sort of a practice run, which is why they are made from kind of formal looking herringbone fabric with bright yellow pockets, but they are wearable and pretty fun for a two year old.

She wore them to a family get together and I got loads of compliments on them so I was really pleased. They probably only took a couple of hours of actual sewing time so I'm definitely going to make her another pair in fancier fabric.

Rockin' cock!?

The pattern is from Burda Magazine 06/2014. Because they are little kiddie shorts tracing the pattern and adding seam allowances wasn't too painful and the instructions weren't too mind bending either, again because tiny kiddie shorts. The only change I made was to shorten the waist elastic a little because it wasn't gathering the fabric at all and there was no way the shorts were going to stay up. Next time I'll probably leave off the back pockets, especially as I plan to use a busy patterned fabric because I think they'd be lost in the detail. Although I wasn't really sold on the necessity of in seam pockets in shorts for a toddler, I think they are really fun so I'll probably leave them in on any future versions.