Puerperium

No, I have not yet delivered in case anyone was wondering and thus not yet in the puerperal period - I have (technically) 6 days left, but given that my other two were 8 days and 13 days late respectively I may be waiting a while longer!  Medically speaking 'puerperieum' refers to the initial 6 week period post-birth, but in this instance it refers to a lovely little cardigan designed by Kelly Brooker specifically for this time.

It is a lovely knit - all in the round - with the choice of short sleeves or long sleeves.  Just the thing for a newborn to wear over a sleep suit.  After much research on Ravelry I was very much inspired by the versions made by alternating a solid colour with a self striping yarn.  I used Debbie Bliss Rialto DK in purple as my solid and Noro Kureyon shade 329 ( I think!!), alternating every two rows.  I'm not sure if I should have made the button band in just the solid colour in retrospect and it has turned out slightly larger than I expected but it may just fit a little beyond the puerperal period!

I'm wondering if I have time to knit a solid colour variety while I wait.

Happy New Year

I've been a bit lazy with posting over the festive period hence the quick, slightly fussy pictures uploaded from my iphone!  Christmas was lovely but very busy.  Just before the Big Day I posted a picture of some of my festive knitting projects so thought I should perhaps elaborate a little.

I've been a Mollie Makes subscriber for a wee while now, I can't claim I've made a lot of the projects featured each month, but the pre-Christmas issue captured my imagination.  The featured knitting pattern was 'Catching Snowflakes' - fingerless gloves/wrist warmers designed by Tiny Owl Knits.

So I made a pair for my friend Helen using some Jamieson and Smith Jumper Weight yarn I had left over from my Hansel baby blanket project.

They were a lovely, quick knit and I loved the snowflake stitch pattern.  I did, however, decide to omit the fine crocheted snowflakes though.

I then made a pair in plain old stockinette using Rowan Fine Felted Tweed.  I'd never used this version of the yarn before and it was not only perfect for the project but was also very cost effective - £3.50 for a 25g ball which made a pair!

As you can see I didn't add the ribbed border to the top of the gloves this time - I added a few extra rows of stocking stitch before casting off with a flexible bind off.

Finally I made two pairs of 'Toast':

This is a free pattern by Leslie Friend which is very popular on Ravelry - I am not surprised as it is a fabulous pattern with quick results.  The original pattern uses an aran weight wool but I decided to do some stash busting and use the Rowan Felted Tweed DK I was hoarding so downsized my needle size to a 3.5mm accordingly and cast on 40 stitches rather than the 34 in the original pattern.

You may have noticed that I don't post pictures of my children very often but I can't resist sharing this one (which is an appalling quality phone pic) of my Busy Boy wearing his Christmas Pudding jumper - made by myself using a pattern from the 2012 Simply Knitting Christmas Supplement: