Green monkeys from Ikea

Thanks to an extra long Easter/Anzac Day public holiday (5 days, woohoo!), I was able to get down to some serious making :)

So I finally finished the tiny baby quilt that I've been working 'off and on again' for the last few months now ... it's a really simple 'cheats' quilt, purely because I couldn't bring myself to cut up the super cute Ikea fabric :D (I love those crazy green monkeys, lol)

It is just Ikea animal fabric on the top, and Ikea red/orange striped fabric on the bottom, with all of the animal designs outlined with 3 strands of embroidery thread :)

I also made a whole heap of baby and toddler hats (most of them have already been gifted, but I'll try to get photos of them soon).

These are two hats that I made from the Ann Budd Handy Book of Patterns that I borrowed from the library ... I love the accessories in this book, knitted from a clever little gauge/size grid. Looking forward to trying the mitts and socks :)

I was intrigued by the sweater pattern, but after getting about half way through knitting one for myself, I decided that the pattern was just a bit too much 80's ... you know, big armholes shapeless body, so decided to frog it and make this Super Birthday Sweater instead. Easy top down knitting and hopefully a nicely fitted shape :) I will try another Ann Budd one soon, because I do like the pattern format, but next time I'll probably stick to a toddler one :)

Half a Gargantuan Melon!

I've been looking for a while for some warm winter hats for the little-ies in our family ... I thought that ribbed ones would be a good way to go as the circumference fit doesn't have to be perfect, and they would also allow room for growth. Looking through Ravelry, there were heaps to choose from, but I really liked this one because of the awesome decreases :)

Most were either circular, or swirly or kind of scrunched to have a pom pom on the top ... thought that this one looked more boyish :D

The pattern, Gargantuan Melon, is written for an adult sized, extra large head, so instead of using bulky weight yarn and 6mm needles, I halved the yarn thickness by using 8 ply and used a 4mm needle. It was a bit of a guess as to whether it would fit or not, but the end result was perfect :) I followed the pattern exactly other than starting the decreases after 5 inches instead of 6.25 inches.

I love it! ... there will be more of these hats to come :)

My serendipitous hat

...so, all winter I have been searching for the perfect toddler hat pattern. I've found a few that have come close, a few that have been cute but not functional (and visa versa), too small, too big, too hilarious ... (yep, I've tried one or two!), but decided that as winter was coming to an end, I'd give up the search for this year and tell his mum that I'd failed, and to use the earflap hat that we bought from the markets on our last trip to Melbourne (there are three things that come home with us whenever we go to Melbourne ... Earflap Hats, "Born to be Wild Melbourne" t-shirts, and Krispy Kreme donuts! :D)

On my "to do" list for ages, has been to try Elizabeth Zimmermann's method of knitting fairisle... so last week, armed with my Knitting Workshop book, some yarn, and a couple of hours free time, I followed her lesson, which happened to involve making a hat. I didn't give any thought to the size, or yarn, or anything about how it would turn out, as I was making it purely to learn a new technique.

The end result was, that I not only learned an ultra easy way of knitting with more than one colour, but yes, we now have an awesome toddler sized hat, that not only we love, but more importantly, that he seems to like enough not to pull off his head at every chance :)

(Hope it fits next year though, as spring has arrived and he no longer needs it!)

Warm ears and cosy sleeps ...

Finding a hat pattern to perfectly fit a baby's head is not that easy ... finding an online hat generator however, to design a hat in your own yarn, and to your own measurements, is as easy as clicking here :-D ... how cool are those ear flaps?! I thought that I'd made some sort of mistake whilst I was knitting it... having never made (or worn) ear flaps before, I imagined the flaps to be exactly opposite each other, but (very cleverly) they're not, they are positioned a lot nearer to the back than the front. The result is a hat that fits so well, that it doesn't move about, or need adjusting every few minutes ... love it! ... my only change to the pattern was to do a few less rounds in the main body of the hat ... other than that, I followed the pattern (surprised eh?! ... yep, me too!)
I finally finished a baby quilt that seems to have been waiting around forever. The top is all machine pieced, so that really didn't take too long ... the waiting was just for the quilting to get started (but as soon as it was, it only took a few days to complete). I placed the quilt top directly onto the backing, and hand quilted it, using 3 strands of embroidery thread. I'm not sure what the backing fabric is called ... it's got a really soft fleecy/furry kind of feel (it's the same fabric that heaps of this seasons dressing gowns are made out of) ... I'm sure it's got a name, but I just didn't think to look when I bought it from Spotlight ... maybe I'll remember to check next time I'm there :-D (but, whatever it's called, it's soft, warm, and very snuggly ... and perfect for this Adelaide winter)

Baby, baby ,baby!

......ok, so this blog title was supposed to be sung like this! ... aaahhh, Slade in the early 70's ... how cool is that ;-D
....it has, however, got nothing to do with this blog post, other than the fact that I had the urge to sing Baby, baby, baby!, Noddy Holder style at the top of my voice :-D
The reason why?......OMG,we're going to be Grandparents! (once again, insert said song here!!!)....if vividly remembering early 70's glam rock didn't age me, then the grandma bit sure did :-)
I started knitting already.... I couldn't help myself! I used this free pattern for the white one, and the Simple Baby Cap #2 from Itty Bitty Hats for the yellow. I used an unknown 8 ply for the first one (the ball band was missing), and Shepherd Cuddles4Me for the other (I love this yarn...it has a really nice squishy feel to it). I had a second trip to Big W to buy some more for a matching jacket...can't wait to start it :-)
Tracy, thank you so much for the blog award!...I'm really happy that you read my blog :-D
(Sorry that it took me so long to reply!)

Less slouch!

So....this was my second attempt this weekend at making a beret! I found this free pattern through Ravelry, and loved the idea of making it top-down, AND with my own gauge :-)
The first one I made had way too much slouch happening, so on this one, I just eliminated the 3-4" of stocking stitch between the increase and decrease rounds....much better!....it now sits on my head nicely.
I was aiming (as ever!!*grin*) for chic, but felt that the bigger slouch factor, made me feel less chic, and more Maggie from Extras :-D (NOT that that's a bad thing!..just not where I was heading at the time!)

Here's the first one (I had to turn the ribbing back on itself to stop it from enclosing my whole face ;-D)








Thanks to everyone for the awesome feedback I got for my grey sweater (last post) ... I liked it so much that I'm thinking of starting another one this week....I'm thinking maybe pink...?