Wednesday 25 February 2015

A knitting round-up

There was a long blog silence while I knitted a lot for people's impending babies.  This post has finally been made because all the babies have been born so I can finally not spoil the surprise.  (Unless you stalk me on Ravelry, in which case you've been nosy already.)

I had quite a bit of fun using the same hat pattern and churning out lots of baby hats with some funky intarsia.  I'm definitely getting better at knitting with both hands at once (that is, with a different yarn held in each hand, of course you need two hands for "normal" knitting anyway).

Firstly we have a hat with a pattern and colourway pinched from a WI magazine.  The pattern was printed for a blanket which called for oodles of posh yarn, rendering the whole exercise very expensive.  In any case, the blanket was stranded and not backed, so would have been expensive and delicate to boot.  I shamelessly copied it onto a hat for Zack who has the honour of sharing his birthday with Christmas Day.


Archie got a hat with space invaders on it.


George gets a hat with hearts.


I had a lot of fun making this squirrel cardigan for Phoebe.  I ordered the 100% wool yarn without having ever touched some and I was pleasantly surprised!  I did move the "nut piles" in the design to the front of the squirrels and away from the centre back.  I am honestly surprised that almost 70 people had made this cardigan before me and not commented on Ravelry that it looked like the squirrels on the centre back were having a poop.


The little whale cardigan has been sent to Alfie.  My intarsia has definitely improved from the top of the whales toward the bottom - oops!  Turns out 100% cotton is not the most forgiving yarn for this kind of work.  I hope he won't mind.  Also the cardie turned out massive.


For my dad (not-a-baby!) I made this grey beanie hat for his birthday.  The crazy super-bulky yarn felt like knitting with worms, and I don't recommend teaming that with cheap plastic Pony 6mm needles.  Bendy!  I hope it fits.


Finally, for my own brand-new baby Button, I used up some of my left-over knitcol from this jumper to make a norwegian-style yoked number.


If you are interested in any of the gory pattern or yarn details, you can browse my Ravelry project page here.