FO: Cape Palliser Cardy

First of the catch up crafting posts.  This is a lovely quick knit that I did for ME!!  Yes I stopped knitting for the kids long enough to make something for me for a change and I am so pleased with the end result.

The pattern is the Lighthouse Keepers Wife by Melissa Schaschwary and the yarn is Cascade Eco.
There are so many things I loved about this pattern as soon as I saw it and I have been wanting to knit it for a long time.  So when we were heading away on holiday and I knew I would need some mindless knitting it seemed like the perfect project.  I opted for the short sleeved version for autumn and I have already had a lot of wear out of it.  I made the size small but I did add a few extra raglan increases to increase the armhole depth or it would have been a little tight under the arms.  I also just kept knitting until I ran out of yarn so it is slightly longer than the pattern specifies.  Which brings me to another point, this would have to be one of the best value adult knits ever, completed with hood from a single skein of yarn.  Okay they are 250g skeins but still a very cheap cardy.  Also knitted on 9mm needles it is done in no time :-)

Although I have worn this a lot I don't really have any decent modeled pics so here are a few that Mr A snapped when it was first finished, excuse the terrible posture.

A final note on the name of this project.  I called this Cape Palliser as I knitted this while on holiday with Granny and Papa to Martinborough where we visited the Cape Palliser Lighthouse :-)

A return to blogland

Well somehow it has suddenly been almost three months since my last blog post.  How did this happen exactly?  Is there actually any reason or am I just slack?  Well in truth there are a load of reasons, one of which being I am just slack (and busy).
There has been a lot going on here since the end of January, a lot of which I will try and catch up on over the next week or so in a barrage of catch up posts.  In a nutshell we have had a fabulous time with Granny and Papa visiting from Scotland, sick kids, sick pets, more visitors, and more birthdays than you can shake a stick at, oh as well as all the usual day to day stuff.
On top of that though I've not been that well myself.  A comment made at my local knit night ages ago got me thinking.  I overheard someone saying "bloggers are such happy people" and I wondered if that was really me?  Am I one of those eternally happy people? Do I just blog about things that make me happy?  Or do I just blog when life is going along ok?  I think for me it is really a mixture of the last two.  Things have been tough since Feb with medication side effects and anxiety issues added into the mix of the chaos above.  The exhaustion has meant that I haven't been on the computer much, haven't been crafting much and as a result of both of these haven't blogged at all.
On a plus note though I am feeling heaps better now and getting back on top of things, crafting again and generally enjoying life :-)

More soon.

FO Seeing Double

Look, I made this.....

...and this!

No that's not two photos of the same top but yes they are two identical tops, same pattern, same material just different sizes.  So why would I do this?  Am I just losing it and going slightly mad?  Many people may well argue that is exactly the reason and I guess in a way it is but it's not the whole reason.

First of all I made the top in the first picture.  I carefully measured Miss M, chose the pattern (ottobre 6/2008, number 3, Elly raglan top), drafted it out in her size (74cm), chose the fabric (some lightweight pink knit from Mum's stash) and made it up.  I was feeling oh so pleased with myself at how this turned out until I went to put it on her the next day only to find it was a real struggle to get it over her head.  Once on it fitted nicely although I could see it wouldn't last her through autumn and into winter as I had hoped.  Here she is wearing it.

So in a bit of a huff with myself I sent this top off to a friend for her DD and went back to the drawing board for Miss M.  I really loved the top so decided to try the next size up and drafted out the size 80cm. About this time I also learnt something very important, READ THE CUTTING INSTRUCTIONS!  I'm sure I did this but obviously not because you do NOT add seam allowance to bound edges on ottobre patterns, that could well explain the small head hole on the first top.  With this information in hand I sewed up the larger version.  The only alterations I made this time were doing the neck binding slightly differently, and how I was meant to do it the first time, and doing a smaller hem to give the top added length.

I am really pleased with how the binding turned out although I really should still get out the cover seamer and use that instead.  The fit of the second top is much better as well and it fits over her head fine, phew!
I love the wee bit of shirring across the front of this top and the slightly puffy sleeves.  I'm deciding now whether to make more of these for winter in thicker knit fabric or to branch out and try another pattern.

FO A Baker's Dozen

During my flurry of finishing up long suffering WIPs I finally finished a stack of nappies over the weekend that have been in progress for months.  They were all cut out months ago, then left for a long time finally all being snapped before christmas.  Now they are all done.  Thirteen size medium pocket nappies, some front snap and some hip snap.  Now I just need to find room in the nappy storage to put them :-)

FO: The trial run....

Well the sewing theme continues for a bit here.  I am making the most of having my sewing mojo back and getting a few things made for the kids.
Months ago I bought some lovely knit interlock with monster trucks on it to make Mr A a t-shirt just like one he had spotted in Ottobre 3/2011.  I blogged very excitedly when it arrived and am ashamed to say that even to this day it is still in the package it arrived in, oops bad Mummy.  I am pleased to say though that said t-shirt is now one step closer.  Because the fabric wasn't cheap, and I more than likely only have enough for one attempt, I decided to make a trial run of the pattern first to check for sizing etc and I am pleased I did.  Going by Mr A's measurements I chose to make him a size 98cm with 110cm length, he is pretty tall and slim.  The pattern I used was ottobre 3/2011, number 24, Slim Fit T-Shirt.
My first mistake was not reading the instructions properly when cutting out the top and adding a seam allowance to the bound neck edge which meant when I sewed on the binding there was no way it was ever going to fit over Mr A's head in a million years.  Oops, lesson learnt (well theoretically), do not cut out in a rush of excitement late at night.  Once I had cut down the neck and rebound it the rest of the top went together really smoothly.
Here is the result:

I was really pleased with it, even the binding went on well, and Mr A liked it this morning even if Daddy does think he looks like a little retro boy from the 70's in it.

Excuse the goofy face and pose I interrupted some
important lego making to take this photo.

Although this fits Mr A really nicely I have decided to go up one size in both width and length for the 'real deal' so hopefully he will get next summer out of it as well.  I am also left pondering whether I should be big and brave and drag out my much unloved coverstitch machine from the cupboard to do the bindings on it?  Argh still find my coverstitch pretty scary, lol.

FO: Summer top for Miss M

A week or so ago when I picked Miss M up from daycare one of the teachers commented that they were worried about her skin going a bit red even with lashings of sunscreen and thought long sleeved tops might be a good idea on the really bright days.  Miss M is certainly very fair skinned and I do share their concern about sun-exposure and also know that she loves nothing more than to spend every possible minute pottering about outside.  Of course though on going through her clothes when I got home I realized that all her long sleeved tops were thick winter ones and putting those on her in the middle of summer seemed like some crazy kind of torture.
So what else was there to do but drag out the pile of ottobre mags and start planning a few tops.  Having decided that light weight fabric and a full floaty style would be the key to 'cool but covered' I found a cute pattern with shirring at the neck and sleeves.  The pattern itself was for a short sleeved top but I figured lengthening the sleeves wouldn't be a big issue.  Also thankfully I had grabbed the perfect fabric during a trip to spotlight a few weeks ago when I happened to notice it on sale, woohoo.
Here it is all done.  The pattern is from Ottobre 1/2010, and it is design 11, tunic, in size 74cm.  Apart from lengthening the sleeves the only other alteration I made was that instead of doing 5 individual rows of shirring at the neck and sleeves I stitched them as a continuous spiral.

I will admit now that when I finished this I was in two minds about it, seeing it hanging up it had the ability to go either way, would it be ridiculously cute or simply ridiculous?  Now I must admit I am leaning towards ridiculously cute but you can decide for yourself.

Excuse the mess we were rushing out the door to daycare

Best friend handshake with Daddy

Now to decide whether to make more the same or try something different.

FO Long Awaited Socks

It is my Mum's birthday on Tuesday and I made her socks!  Sounds like a nice simple idea except this ia a story 2 years in the making.  Just over 2 years ago I knitted my Dad a pair of socks in very special custom-dyed yarn for his birthday and he loved them.  So did Mum so I decided to knit her a pair for christmas.  Well suddenly it was christmas and I still hadn't even started the socks so I made Mum this cute bookmark, let her raid my sock yarn stash to choose what color she would like and told her they would be coming for her birthday.

Around about this time I found out I was pregnant with Miss M and completely lost all my knitting mojo for months, so Mum's birthday came and went and there were still no socks.  I did finish the first sock a fe months later but then the project languished in my knitting bag for over a year, oops!
With her birthday coming up again I decided the time had come to finish THE socks so here they are.  ll blocked and ready to be posted tomorrow.  I really hope she likes them and that they fit!  The yarn is Vintage Purls sock in colourway "Dusky Garden" and the pattern is Diamond Gansey Socks by Wendy D Johnson.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!