Woosh!

Well, soon after I finished the last post I'd actually cast off on both sleeves, and now I've just finished the back and front of the wee little jumper!  I think by next week I'll actually have finished and photographed it!  I love baby knits, they're even faster than socks and you can do whatever the hell you want on them - stuff that would look crazy on an adult only ever looks cute on babies!

Had a bit of a find today - about 1.5gb worth of knitting patterns appeared on my computer, ones I swear I've never downloaded or even seen before!  Been doing some catalogueing and I'm slowly adding them to my collection.  They're all 70's and 80's style patterns for kids (so far!)but there's some really cute things in there, like little chequered jackets ad lace christening  shawls.

My tip for using up your leftovers...

Find a baby, and knit it a jumper!  Seriously, baby jumpers are tiny and if you have a range of colours and a bog-standard jumper pattern, then the world is your mollusc!



I had quite a lot of white yarn left over from knitting a blanket, and some sparkley white from some other baby clothes, and some blue from knitting that teddy.  All Acryllic and all DoubleKnit, so I've started knitting my friend's 7-month old nepphew a jumper.  The pattern I'm using is for the jumper in leaflet number 4273 by Stylecraft, which is plain stockinette stitch and is already intended to be knit using different colours.  I cast on both sleeves at once, so I could be certain they matched, but I have cast on the front and back seperately, since I don't have straight needles long enough to cast on both!



The plan for the body of the jumper is blue cuffs and neckline, and two blue stripes starting below the sleeves with the white sparkley stuff between them.  I've even drawn it all out on graph paper!

Aaron's Finished Socks

Well the socks have been finished for a few days now, and I've finally sewn in the ends of photographed them!  I've popped them in the wash and soon they'll be ready to post, just in time to cheer Aaron up after his spot of bad news :-(





Really loved the pattern, although I can honestly say these are unique since I've somehow managed to reverse the cabling on one sock!  This was only my second pair of socks, and I have to admit I do prefer the toe-up method using a provisional cast-on rather than a figure-8!  Again, the short-row heel is far easier than a heel-flap but i did find knitting all those wraps quite annoying.  I did find a blog post here which explains an alternative method to wrapping stitches, so I'll give that a go next time!


Vital Statistics:

Pattern:  "Boyfriend socks" by Alice Bell

Yarn:  Stylecraft Life 4ply in Mint Green.  Used 68 grams.

Needle size: 2.25mm (My Purple Pins, reviewed on Dooyoo.co.uk)

Size: I made the small 9" circumferance, and the socks are an American size 10½.

Time Taken: 12 days, but i had a day's break between socks!

This one's for you

As some of you may have noticed from my progress bars, I've started a new pair of socks for my friend Aaron.  He's been nagging me for a pair since I started knitting again, and since I have so much yarn left from Pioneer, I've been coerced into using it to knit a pair of "Boyfriend Socks" by Alice Bell.  The pattern is pretty neat, toe up with short-row heels.  This will be the first time I've done toe-up, and last time i used a heel-flap, but i think I'm really getting to like this method of construction.  I've already turned the heel and I'm about to start the cuff, which means extending the pattern from the top of the foot all the way around the cuff, but thats only 6 inches worth and I reckon I'll be starting the second sock tomorrow!  I may end up having to do another pair as I'm almost sure a certain someone was eyeing them covetously...

Just to briefly explain the progress bars - They're a nifty bit of code from the clever people at Ravelry which relays how much of your projects you have completed.  So at the moment you can see Aaron's socks there, and my Great American Aran Afghan, but when I first added the bars to my blog, you would have seen Pioneer and the Afghan.  No doubt some time in the not too distant future, both will be finished and this bit of blurb will make no sense at all :-P  Still I thought it was a pretty cool way to keep you all up to date on all my projects.