WIP Wednesday

Today as promised I have a bottom up jumper to show you. I've never actually knitted a jumper this way before so it all feels a little strange. Knitting the sleeves first was rather odd!

Please excuse the phone picture. I was taking it in a hurry before a certain little girl started playing with the knitting!



It's a Ziggy jumper and will probably (yarn permitting) have a hood on. The yarn is a kind of forest green colour, much richer in real life. The zig zags are formed by alternating columns of knit or purl stitches and then traveling cables up the sides divide them off. It's also the first time I've done cables without a cable needle (or rather without a DPN as I don't actually have a cable needle yet) and because it's only two stitches it's very easy.

I'd like to say I'll have this finished by Friday but I think that is probably unlikely as I'm a bit busy this week. However on Saturday my DP is taking the children out for the morning so I will take full advantage of my 90 minutes of quiet and crack on with finishing this :-) How indulgent!

Fluffy post

I've been enjoying a bit of yarn/pattern/needle shopping lately! I've got some lovely patterns to knit up at some point, a lot of them from Elena Nodel after joining in a co-op on the Yarn Lovers Unite forum. There is one pattern in particular I'm super excited about but I'll post about that on Thursday ;-)

Today I would like to show you a couple of yarns I've bought recently and the patterns I'm planning on knitting with them. Firstly is this gorgeous blue cotton which is a slightly warmer blue than the my phone picture shows (DP has taken my camera to work with him in his coat pocket...)



This beautiful yarn is destined to become a beautifully cabled cardigan called Gramps cardigan and it will be for one of my boys. I've got enough yarn for the 4T size but it will depend how true to size it is.

The second yarn I want to show off today is some beautiful Malabrigo sock yarn *swoon*



No, you're not imagining that sheen, it's simply gorgeous! The colourway is Caribeno and it's destined to become not a pair of socks (can you believe I've never actually knitted some!) but another cabled jumper. Are you sensing a theme here? This time it will be using the Little Momo pattern and will be for Eli.


I'm on such a pattern knitting kick at the moment. Yes the yarns are beautiful and I'm looking forward to knitting them but it's the patterns I'm getting really excited about. The problem is not having enough time in the day to knit everything I want to (isn't it always?). My children are lovely but they do seem to want a lot of attention, clean clothes, food, stories, walks round the park... ;-)

However, I have found some time to work on my current WIP. It's my first bottom up jumper and I'll post a photo tomorrow :-)

FO Friday Ridinghood Sweater

Well, it's another Friday and here is Ava's Ridinghood Sweater in all it's glory :-)



I'll be honest, I didn't like this sweater very much. The skirt part took forever and the lace... Well actually the lace wasn't too bad, it was knitting it whilst tired and finding it hard to concentrate that was tricky! I ended up having to frog back 4 rows because I'd made a mistake and couldn't fix it. I did make another mistake later on but that was fixable and now I can't even remember where it was.



The sleeves were a pain. I tried magic loop, it didn't click in my head. I didn't have DPN's in the right size and I'm not a fan of knitting with them anyway, too easy for children to pull out or to poke myself with! I ended up doing them using two circulars.



I used a stretchy cast off called a "decrease cast off" (instructions here for the cuffs and the rolled collar. I didn't fancy knitting another hood and she never keeps them up anyway.

I looked at the unblocked sweater and was a bit "meh". It looked odd and the lace was all messy but when I gently held it out a piece at a time I could see something there. I washed it, blocked it and held it up to the light. What a difference!

And then I put it on her, and it looked so right. The full skirt made perfect sense, the lace was a delicate edging. The cuffs snuggle up against her chubby wrists. And she looked at me, and pulled this face:



And I fell in love with it again. I'm surprised quite how pleased I am with this sweater given how much I loathed it during construction, how tempted I was to frog it and make something else. I can't wait to knit another one :-)

Some special longies

I've finished them :-)



There are cables down both the legs



The cables start from the ribbing at the waistband




I've also got some sad news. I've decided, after a lot of thought, to close down my shop. I've spent 3.5 years knitting for other people and I think the time is right now to move on. I'm so very grateful for all the people who have supported me over this time. Thank you so much to everyone who has bought from me. I think I might go have a little cry now :-)

WIP Wednesday

Would you believe I don't actually have a WIP? I've finished the Ridinghood sweater and the cabled longies (photos of both coming up on Friday) and have yet to cast on my next project!

However, I know exactly what it is going to be, I've got the yarn and downloaded the pattern and everything. Only problem at the moment is this:



There is a poem that sticks in my head at times like these so I'd like to share it with you :-)

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing and butter the bread,
Sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

By Ruth Hulburt Hamilton