Not yet nesting

35 Weeks pregnant but still not getting round to making much for Bump. My second child arrived on his due date so I doubt I'm going to go overdue. I'm procrastinating quite a lot at the moment. Give me a couple more weeks and I'll be panicking ;-)

I got this beautiful yarn this morning:



It was a custom dye from For the Love of Fibre. I choose 1ply uruguay merino and asked for a "peacocky" type colourway. Holly has excelled herself, it's beautiful and perfect for making some cute longies out of. I'll wait until Bump has arrived though so I'll know the right measurements and can add a bit of extra growing room too. There should be enough for a cute hat as well.


Speaking of hats, I had some yarn left over from the longies in my previous post. I took the advice of a couple of people who suggested ruffles and this is what I came up with:



I'm 99% certain the ruffles are the same length but no matter how many times I count the rows one always seems to look bigger than the other. Might try blocking them a bit after they've been lanolised.


Anyways, hats. Or rather a hat. For my gorgeous little boy:



It's a tri-peak hat from a free pattern by Woolly Wormhead.

A lovely pattern to knit. Basically just a tube with a fancy crocheted bind off at the top to get the peaks. I've never done that technique before but it was very easy and quick.

The pattern said it needed 50g of yarn, well I had exactly 50g of the plain purple colourway and didn't want to risk running out so I added a couple of stripey sections in the varigated colourway. I also made the hat a bit longer than the 7 inches suggested by the pattern cos in the past I've made hats which turn out too short and any extra on this one can be rolled up into the brim.

I think he likes it:



It's the first hat I've made him that he's happy to wear. Seriously, this boy normally hates hats but he is currently sitting in the lounge, hat on head and cuddling his Iggle Piggle toy. It's got a bit of growing room so he can wear it next year and it covers his ears nicely. Woo :-)

FO

I finished these shorties just over a week ago:



They're lovely and soft. Felt a bit strange to be making shorties in January but they have been sitting in my yarn box for months half knitted so thought I'd better get round to finishing them.

I'm making my final pair of instock longies before my third baby is born. This photo was taking a while ago but I've misplaced my camera so can't do an updated one! I'm currently almost all the way down the first leg. Not sure what cuff to do yet, anyone have any suggestions?



I can't decide if it's a girly colourway or not. Then again my 20 month old is currently running around in a pink top so maybe I'm not the best judge!


I'm 34 weeks pregnant tomorrow and feeling tired most of the time. I'm struggling to find the effort to finish my WIP's and they're just sitting there in my knitting bag. I'd like to get the matinee jacket done for Bump and I've offered to make a friend a hat for her newborn.

Oh and I've got to make a tester soaker sack for an imminent arrival as well as one for my own.

I should probably spend the weekend catching up on my knitting, but at the moment sleep is a lot more appealing. I'm already having 10 hours a night! *yawn*

Collecting WIP's

I've been a bit naughty recently. I haven't been finishing things. I currently have 6 WIP's. Whoops!

I'm making my 3 year old dd a swing jacket. It's a bit further on than this photo, I'm now doing the increases for the "swing" part.



I'm using some lovely BFL from Fyberspates in a colourway called Pinks and Purples.

I've also cast on a matinee jacket for Bump using some 100purewool.com yarn in blues. I haven't got a photo of it yet but it seems to be constructed in a similar way to a Baby Suprise Jacket, but the pattern itself is one that my Mum got from a newspaper when I was a child. I'm about halfway along with it.

I finished these crops last week as a stash busting exercise:



They are made using Colinette Skye pure wool in a colourway called Fire. I was hoping for longies but I wanted to make a large size with baggy legs so crops is all I had yarn for. I finished them with garter stitch cuffs which I think turned out rather well.

They are for sale in my shop The Soaring Sheep.

My current stash busting exercise is a pair of medium shorties in some lovely organic merino yarn I bought months ago for one of my first customers. I bought extra yarn as it was such a lovely colourway and I've had these half finished shorties sitting around since November. Hopefully I'll have finished them in a day or so and can post photos :-)

Quick knits

Following on from my previous post, I decided to make a hairband using some Noro Kureyon that has been sitting in my stash for a while. Despite using bigger needles for casting off it is still a bit tight on that edge but that doesn't matter if I wear it with the cast on edge closest to my face, if that makes sense!



I love how the colours go with Noro yarn. I was going to make it a little deeper but I liked how the darker band looked.

Unfortunately DD (3 years old in 5 days!) decided that it would work quite well as a hat for her...






Yesterday I felt I should probably start on making some small soakers for Bump's imminent arrival. This is a small size curly purly soaker made in yarn that I dyed using food colourings MONTHS ago! Unfortunately some of the red dye transfered onto the green section which is why there is the occasional weird blob



I'm going to do some ribbed cuffs for the legs but need to work out how many stitches to pick up. I tried doing 34 last night using the same 3.5mm I used for the waistband and it came out far too small and tight looking. I'll try again later :-)

What to knit...

I've finished another pair of longies



I need to take a better photo of them though, the light is rubbish here in winter :-( They're in a colourway called "Caterpillar's Dream" by Mamalonglegs on organic merino. Soo soft and squidgy.

Haven't finished sewing in the ends of the baby jacket yet. I'll probably do it this evening if I'm not too tired.

I've finally ordered some Knit picks interchangeable needles. I went for the nickel plated set rather than the wooden, I can't really get on with wooden needles, apart from DPN's. Whilst I was buying the needles some skeins of cascade 220 (for a cardigan for my nearly 3 year old daughter) and some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino aran (for a jumper for Bump) also slipped into my basket. Whoops!

I think the problem is because I've sorted out the chest of drawers in my bedroom and now I've got a big empty space that needs filling with yarn. I'll probably put some yarns that DP already knows about in there and hide the new ones in the bottom of my blanket box which is where the majority of my stash currently resides.

Yeah I'm devious, I blame my Dad and his extensive CD collection that he sneakily added to throughout the years. Hoarding is genetic :-p

Going to make something for me now I think. Will have a look on ravelry and see what inspires. Preferably something that doesn't require a lot of concentration and uses up yarn I've already got...