Free Jumper finished...

Here is the jumper I have been working on.  I found the pattern in Yours magazine.  It was described as "for knitters with some experience".  I'd say that was a fair description.  The tricky parts were the neckline and shoulders.  I am well used to knitting v-necks and shoulders.  But the magazine didn't really help matters when it published the photo back to front.  It showed the buttons on the right shoulder and I had to read the pattern several times to make sure I was following it correctly.

I'm calling this a free jumper as the wool came to me as a donation from a Freecycler and the buttons were sent to me by Joanne of the Cup On The Bus blog.  The photo doesn't show them clearly but they are lovely wooden buttons and go well with the real wool.

I knitted the size that should fit a seven year old child.  That has left me with about 100g of the wool which should be enough to make a matching hat or scarf.  Then I will be sending them off to Operation Orphan.

I now have absolutely no works in progress.  I can't remember the last time that happened.  Decisions, decisions.

A new jumper...and a disaster averted

I had some lovely cream Aran yarn, quite a lot of green and cream 4 ply yarn and lots and lots of wooden buttons all needing a good project.  I settled on the Child's Top-Down Henley pattern which I found on Ravelry.  The pattern calls for the Aran yarn and the 4 ply yarn to be knitted together, so it makes a very thick and warm jumper. Bulky seams are avoided because this is basically knitted in one clever, seamless piece.

I had to juggle with my colours a little to make sure that I didn't run out of the 4 ply yarn.  The sleeves are the same length even though the photo makes one of them look shorter!  So I enjoyed carefully counting rows and switching colours until I eventually produced a wearable striped jumper.

The real disaster was averted much earlier in the knitting process.  As this is a top-down pattern, I started at the neckline and increased stitches regularly until there were 168 stitches on my long circular knitting needle.  I then knitted 2 more rows and was finally ready to divide the stitches for the sleeves and body. At the end of the second row I pulled my needle with a celebratory flourish and.....horror of horrors.....the needle tip separated from its cable.  The tip flew out of one end of the row and the cable whizzed back through at least 70 stitches.  Argggh!!  

Luckily, I am not a swearer.  Otherwise the air might have turned blue.  Instead I surprised myself by staying calm as I worked my way back through the dropped stitches until I had picked them all up.  This was made difficult by the fact that each stitch consisted of the 2 yarns held together and by the fact that my cat seemed to sense a problem and was trying to make it better by nose-butting me!

I considered myself lucky that the disaster had happened on ordinary stocking stitch. If it had happened on lace, I would have had to rip back the whole thing.  Eventually I managed to save the situation in 30 minutes and I learned a vital lesson.  Don't expect a cable to hold 168 stitches when it can really hold only 100.  The irony is that I have a longer cable and could have used that.  In future, I will.

The Aran yarn and the wooden buttons were donated to me by Joanne of the Cup On The Bus blog.  The 4 ply yarn came also as donations or in cheap bargain lots.  The jumper will go off soon to Operation Orphan.  It should fit a four year old child and will hopefully be strong enough to be passed down through a whole family.  It was that thought that kept me going when it was really tempting to have a knitter's meltdown!

Two little baby dresses...

The light is terrible at this time of  year.  Daylight photos of these dresses were even worse than this flash photo.  If you put on your sunglasses and ignore the white flash, you can see the lovely dresses that I knitted from the super-simple-baby-tunic pattern which I found on Ravelry.  

This is a lovely pattern, so quick and easy to knit. Even though it is free, "caveat emptor" applies as there are minor mistakes in the front bodice instructions.  But most knitters will be able to spot and solve them easily.  I just thought I should mention them.  I don't usually recommend patterns that contain mistakes.  But this dress is so beautiful, I have made an exception.

I had yarn left over from knitting a hat and scarf set.  The colours are not typical baby colours, so I added some pink.  The patterned yarn came from Poundstretcher and the pink yarn is from Hobbycraft.  They are both double knit weight, but the patterned yarn was thinner and tended to roll at the hem.  I added a couple of rows of double crochet (UK) and that seems to have fixed the problem.  Yay for learning to crochet!

Here is a close up of the buttons:

They are lovely quality wooden buttons that were generously sent to me by Joanne of the Cup On The Bus blog.  There were hundreds of buttons of 2 sizes, plus one lonesome flower button.  I have sewed that to the centre of one of the bodices and it looks really at home there.  Thanks, Joanne.

I really like the way these dresses turned out.  I am going to send them to Operation Orphan. The pattern says it will fit a baby aged 0-3 months.  But I think it would last a bit longer than that.  The beauty of Ravelry is that you can see comments from other knitters. Many say that the dress can still be worn as a little top when the baby grows.

This pattern is very adaptable and economical.  Even with the buttons added, it weighs only 48g which I think is amazing.  How do I know it weighs exactly 48g?  Well, I finally caved in and replaced my useless kitchen scales with some digital scales.  I have already used them a lot for weighing parcels, wool, and even food(!) so it was a good purchase.  If you choose a really special yarn and add flowers, bows or lace etc, you will end up with a unique gift for someone.  Or you can use a cheaper yarn for a really practical top that will become a favourite daily outfit.

A tiny baby sleeping sack....and a mystery project

I am used to knitting preemie items, but the size of this sleeping sack surprised me. The pattern gave no indication of the size, so I was quite surprised when the finished item weighed only 20g and barely made a dent in my ball of 4 ply yarn.  

Some knitters find it upsetting to make these small items, but I find it strangely uplifting.  I suppose I am happy to be making something useful that is hard to find in the shops.

I found the pattern here.  It is the "sleeping sack" pattern at the very end of the list.  It was fairly easy to knit and involved minimal sewing.  It also let me use up some of the many buttons that I have saved over the years.  I will definitely knit more of these.

I find it amazing that I could, in theory, knit 5 of these from one ball of yarn. I probably paid about £1 for this yarn.  So one sleeping sack costs 20p to make.  What else can you buy for 20p these days?

......and now here is a sneak preview of something that I will be working on for several weeks/months.  I am combining these 2 coned yarns to make a mystery project and I'm already loving how it is turning out.  The pink really is that bright and I'm relying on it to cheer me up during the grey winter months ahead.  Watch this space!

Buttons galore...

Look what arrived in the post this week!  I love buttons.  I remove them from any clothing that is so past it that it has to be put into the recycling bin.  I very occasionally buy new buttons and I have a small collection of antique buttons.  So this parcel from Joanne of the Cup On The Bus blog was a lovely surprise.  

Amazingly, I didn't have any wooden buttons.  Now I have several hundred in 2 different sizes.  I should have taken a sideways view photograph as there really is a small mountain of buttons here.  

These coordinate very well with the yarn Joanne sent me a few months ago and they are the same good quality.  They will look great on the children's cardigans I am planning to knit soon.  Some measure 2cms in diameter and some measure approximately 1.5cms in diameter.  So they will suit a wide range of sizes.

Joanne has kindly given me permission to share these goodies.  If any bloggers in the UK can use some of these, just contact me.  Sorry about limiting the offer to the UK, but postage rates here are really extortionate!

Thank you, Joanne.

Kindle cover completed......

I usually like to have one slow and one fast work in progress.  This was last week's fast one; a knitted Kindle or iPad cover for my sister who is into gadgets like these.  I found the pattern in a library book but sadly didn't make a note of the author and title.  It was very easy to knit as it is simply a long piece of knitting folded almost in half with a couple of inches remaining to use as a button flap.

The only difficult part of the pattern was the horizontal button holes which take three rows of stocking stitch to complete.  I pulled out two botched attempts and eventually found an online tutorial for a one-row horizontal button hole which looked much neater.  Here is the tutorial:

The buttons don't show up clearly in the photo but they are lovely chunky black buttons that I have had for years.  I can't remember where they came from, but I probably cut them off an old garment.  I never throw away buttons!

I rarely recommend yarn, but this one is worth a mention.  It is Wendy Aran 400g which is a mix of wool and acrylic.  It is pale silvery grey with tiny black fuzzy threads throughout.  It was lovely to knit with and I have lots left over for scarves or hats.

Christmas knitting.....

I like to knit colourful things at Christmas and anything complicated is a no-no while there are so many distractions.  So I found a pattern for a baby kimono-style cardigan which interested me.  Here it is.  It used up only about 75g of yarn for the biggest size which should fit a 16" chest.  A great use for such a small amount of yarn.  The yarn is King Cole Comfort Prints because I had some left over and I really love the colours.  I was also able to use 2 pretty buttons from my big collection!

I found the pattern on Ravelry here.  It is basically knitted in one piece.  There is some seaming to do on the arms and sides, but it doesn't take long.  Some knitters on Ravelry comment that the neck is too small.  But the garter stitch edge is very stretchy and, from distant memory, it seems large enough for a baby's neck.

This is a lovely warm top as the front is 2 layers crossed over each other.  If the top is for a boy, all you do is cross them over in the opposite direction.  This works because the button holes are on both front pieces.  The holes on the "invisible" side are used for a ribbon tie inside the top.

I recommend this pattern to anyone who wants to try something a bit different.

                                                                                                                                                                                                           

                                                                                            

Buttons, buttons and more buttons....

Serious knitters will, sooner or later, have to put down the wool and pick up the buttons.  I love buttons.  I grew up in a home where buttons were never thrown away.  They were snipped from worn out clothes and saved in "the button box".  Even well cared for clothes eventually wear out; but buttons are almost indestructible.  I would often take this box to the dining table and spread out its contents.  There was something comforting about finding that the old favourites were still there.  I still remember my favourites....a big set of chunky red coat buttons.

When I grew up, I started my own button collection.  It helps that there are 3 of us in my family.   Hubby in particular is terrible for ruining shirts which explains why I have so many shirt buttons.  I have been a bit more choosy about which buttons I will save but have still amassed a collection of two or three hundred.  These were thrown haphazardly into one compartment of my lovely old wooden sewing box.  Whenever I needed matching buttons it would take me ages to sift through them.

Recently, I decided to sort them into a more useful order.  I bought some little clear storage bags from Ebay and made a start.  I'm not rushing the job, partly because I still enjoy fishing through buttons to find lost treasures and partly because good daylight is a necessity for distinguishing various shades of white......how many shades of white can there be?.... and this time of year is not known for its long days!

The photo shows that I have nearly finished.  There are just fifty or so loose buttons to match up and put into bags.  They are mainly black, brown or dark blue and definitely call for good daylight before I can confidently sort them.

Almost all the buttons in the photo have come from family clothes.  There are a small number of exceptions, namely the lovely little anchor buttons I found in a charity shop and some pretty flower buttons I found on Ebay.  So far I have resisted the many joblots of buttons that are listed on Ebay.  But I feel an onset of cardigan knitting coming on and, if I ever use up all my buttons, I know where I can buy some more!