Look what I can do!

I can do this all by myself aren't I clever?

FO: Special baby gift

A dear friend Julia had a gorgeous baby boy a couple of months ago and you would have thought I would have been organised enough to have a gift all ready for the arrival, but no!  With life getting in the way I finally got this wee jersey to her last week so I can now update here with this FO.

I blogged a sneak peek of this some time ago.....

And here is the finished jersey :-)

I have had my eye on this pattern for years and was so pleased to have an excuse (and the time) to finally knit it.  Yes it is simple but there is something about the wide rib and the raglan shaping that I think makes it a perfect baby boy jersey.  Also it is completely functional!  I am not a fan of jerseys for wee babies as they are invariably difficult to get on and off but this one actually opens right down the back and fastens with domes so you get the look of a jersey with ease of dressing - ingenious!  So the details.  The pattern is from a Phildar magazine, number 447 and this was one of the very first Phildar magazines that I ever bought (I am now completely addicted to them).  They have the most lovely simple and stylish knits for babies and children and are just a bit different to local patterns.  I guess things have changed a bit since the introduction of Ravelry and so many online patterns but I was craving something 'different' to knit and having to send for the books from France and translate the patterns from french was not going to stop me.  Although Phildar occasionally bring out one of their pattern books in english I tend to just use the french versions, they are cheaper, there is more choice and once you have a good translation sheet for abbreviations it is easy enough to follow the patterns.
So anyway this is from Phildar Layette number 447 and I knitted it in Bendigo Luxury 4ply in colourway Stone.  This yarn is lovely and soft although I did find the 4ply varied in thickness a wee bit through the ball although this wasn't obvious once knitted up and blocked.
Overall I was pretty happy with this FO and glad that I finally got it to it's intended owner (before it was too small).  Here is a pic of it in action, isn't he just scrummy?  :-)

FO: Trousers for Miss M

Recently I had the opportunity to test a new pattern for trousers/leggings specifically developed to fit over cloth bums!  Since I was just starting to think about some sewing for Miss M to cover autumn/winter I snapped up the chance and here are the results.
First of all I LOVE this pattern.  It is super quick and easy, I whipped these up in about 20 mins including the cutting out, and the fit is fantastic on my wee one.  I did a size 72cm and Miss M is only about 68cm long so although they are a fantastic fit in the rise they are a bit long in the leg still on her, but hey that just means they will last through winter ;-)  As the pattern was developed for a fabric with 2-way stretch I chose a pink and white pinstripe cotton lycra for my prototype pair.

I was so happy with these that I just had to whip up another pair.  This time I used some merino I had in stash and as it was only really a one-way stretch I added about 1cm to the rise to give plenty of coverage over the nappy.  The results...

This pair do seem to cling a bit more around her nappy but I think that is really just down to the fabric choice.  This pattern will definitely be my "go to" pattern for trousers for her for this winter.  I'll be sure to blog more about it upon it's release :-)

Puffy Paint

A friend posted a link to a blog with a recipe for homemade puffy paint last week and I thought since Mr A is very into all things craft related at the moment it might be fun to try.  Of course I couldn't find the link when the time came but a quick search of Google popped up a nice simple wee recipe that we had everything for.  So this is what we did:

1 Tablespoon self-raising flour
1 Tablespoon Salt
Water to mix to a paste
Food colouring

EASY PEASY!

Here's our paint

We painted onto cardboard because I was a little nervous of putting the fairly thin craft paper we have at the moment into the microwave.  So the painting process, works best if painted on quite thick.

When complete pop in the microwave for about 10 seconds and voila, puffy paint :-)

Dinner Time

Visiting

A small person decides there must be endless treasures inside her big brothers hut in the lounge so goes for a visit :-)

Jewellery Making

Mr A has loved making wee bead bracelets for a while now, ever since an activity he did along these lines at daycare.  The bracelets he made there became very prized possessions and were worn for many many months until the once shiny red and green beads were all a dull shade of grey.
Last week I was looking in the back of a cupboard and came across a container with a few beads I had left over from bracelet kits I made for all the kids at his birthday party last year.  There were just enough beads for two more bracelets so Mr A studiously sat down and made these.  Then there was a cry for more beads but I couldn't magic some up out of thin air.  At a pinch we resorted to my bag of scrap yarn and picked out colours for some plaited wrist bands.  I did attempt to get Mr A doing the plaiting but he found it a bit frustrating and settled for picking the colours for me to make them from.

Bracelets

It was about this time, as I was wracking my brains thinking of things we could make a necklace from (we had moved onto necklace requests by this stage) that I remembered making necklaces out of those funny shaped polystyrene packing chips you used to get threaded onto string.  A quick email to Daddy and he arrived home from work with some of said packing chips (well actually the more eco equivalent today that dissolve in water but they do the job).  So the following day armed with a blunt darning needle and some yarn Mr A made his own necklace :-)

Carefully threading...

...pulling through the yarn.

The end result

Okay so it's not exactly the height of fashion but Mr A was very pleased with it and it was a great wee activity to utilise his fine motor skills :-)