WIP: Lady Kina

Back when it was still fairly warm and I wasn't really enjoying knitting with wool I put aside my Family Tree MKAL shawl (did you notice I never finished that?) and cast on for a Lady Kina by ?.. Using some Drops Cotton Light I picked up for next to nothing in the cotton super sale a while back. A combination of super long rows and my little 'holiday' courtesy of the NHS led to it being really slow going but I have finally made it to the body. The rows are much shorter now and it should be fairly plain sailing down the the bottom now.

So, of course, I've decided that it's time to put it aside! With christmas coming I can't really justify spending my limited knitting time on a short sleeved summer cardigan for myself. It's time to start knocking out small winter items for my family and also for gifts. I'll pick up my cardigan again after the holidays so that it is ready and waiting to go when it starts warming up in spring.

 

FOs: Quynn

Without meaning to I seem to have been on a bit of a mission to knit as many Woolly Wormhead hats as possible for my girls.

This is my back catalogue, minus a Tipper I recently made for a fellow Raveller's newborn which I forgot to photograph before I mailed it. And now I've added a pair of Quynns to the collection.

I had only intended to knit one for Cassie, out of some Noro Kureyon I had leftover from a pair of armwarmers I knitted myself a while back. I began to suspect quite early on that it might come out a little small, but I ploughed on regardless because I figured it would probably fit someone. It turns out that I was right on both counts, the hat was far too small for Cassie, but it fit Felicity perfectly.

Not that I can prove it because photographing a hat on Felicity's head in the split second before she whips it off is beyond my skills I'm afraid.

Because the first one came out so small I sized up pretty much everything I could think of for my second attempt. I knitted the next size up, on the next size needles and used some slightly thicker yarn. This time I went for Drops Delight in Atlantis which is also a slow striping yarn but the colour shifts are much less dramatic than the Noro. It's really nice.

Success! It fits and, although it does look a bit bonkers I do love it. It keeps her little ears warm and makes her face look all round and cute. I get the feeling she's not so keen, this was her response when I asked if she liked her new hat!

"NO!"

 

FO: Simplicity 1724

Well, this is the post I had 'all ready to go, except for a couple of pictures' before I got admitted to hospital. However, upon opening my Blogsy app I was confronted by only a post title followed by a blank page, aaargh! So either I've taken to dream blogging or Blogsy ate my post. Either way I've had to recreate it (which is pretty mad if I only actually dream wrote it in the first place) so forgive me if I don't put my heart and soul in to it.

I bought Simplicity 1724 in a recent sale with the intention of making view C for each little girl. I can also see myself making the jacket but without the weird shoulder frills, have no fear though, I have no intention whatsoever of making that hat! I had sort of hoped that I might be able to squeeze both dresses from one piece of fabric by using different fabric for the facings but the bias cut skirt saved my girls from matchy matchy hell and they both now have completely different dresses.

This is Cassie's

I bought a metre square of this fabric a couple of years ago on a trip out with my MIL. I've been waiting for the perfect project for it because it's quite small but really pretty so I didn't want to just make a toy or a bag. I love it for this dress, although I should probably have centred the print a little better down the front.

This dress came together so easily, I barely needed to glance at the instructions and could probably have thrown it together in a couple of hours if I was lucky enough to ever get a couple of hours uninterrupted sewing time. The only real issue I had was with the button holes, because I chose pretty massive buttons the button holes ended up far too close to the end of the button tab. Next time I'll remember to start the button hole at the top and work down towards to the garment instead of the other way round.

For a finishing touch I added this bright green ribbon which is lovely and contrasty. Instead of making a little bow I decided to just see in a button to hide the join. I'm too lazy for little bows.

For Lissy's dress I used some red heart print corduroy I've had kicking around for ages. I've been having terrible trouble finding a project for this because the hearts and cords run the same way. This meant that I had to either have the hearts on their sides or the cords running from side to side.

In the end I decided I could live with the cords going sideways but sideways hearts would forever make me twitch. I also didn't have enough fabric to cut the skirt on the bias, but after watching Cassie in her dress I decided that it was a nice design element but not really necessary for the movement of her legs. For this dress I went with pink ric rac instead of ribbon but added a button just the same and I really like how it turned out. Unfortunately, despite making the 6 month size, this dress is pretty huge on my tiny girl. It'll fit her in due course but it would have been nice to add to her wardrobe right away. And because this is Felicity, getting her to stay still for photos was practically impossible so we'll have to make do with these rubbish, but entertaining shots, of her playing peekaboo behind the curtain. Not great, but you get the idea.

 

 

...and then it all went horribly wrong!

Wow, it's been a little while huh?  I'd had a post prepared a few weeks ago and I was just waiting to get a last couple of photos before hitting 'post' when things kinda blew up.  I'd been having some pains for a while which seemed like they were probably gallbladder related but while I was waiting to see my GP I ended up getting admitted to hospital overnight where an ultrasound confirmed that, yes indeed, my gallbladder is full of little stones and that I should go home and await an appointment to get the little sucker removed.  6 days later I was back in hospital, where I was to remain for a further 12 days growing more and more jaundiced while I waited for a slot to get a stone unwedged from my common bile duct.  Lucky me!  The procedure was wholly unpleasant but I am feeling much better now and I'm home and waiting, again, for a summons to get my gallbladder evicted.

So much about this experience was awful, I missed my girls so much when I was in the hospital particularly as I am still nursing Felicity.  She has always been reluctant to take a bottle so it was pretty stressful knowing that she was miserable and hungry and other people were struggling to make that better for her.  I was also either in pain or out of my tree on painkillers most of the time so not a lot of knitting happened and I feel a bit like a lot of free time was wasted while I just lay around in bed.  Ugh!

On the plus side, I have lost a butt load of weight and I've finally been able to unpack a lot of the clothes I put away when I was pregnant with Cassie.  This has not been a weight loss regime I would recommend to anybody though!

Anyway, enough about my health, I'm home now and things are getting back on track.  I have sort of got the couple of pictures I was needing in order to finish that post from so long ago and I'll post that tomorrow.  I have a couple of hats I've made for the girls to write about, Felicity is the absolute devil to photgraph at the moment so I might not be able to get any modelled shots of hers, but hey ho.