baby

What do you get a one year old?

What do you get a one year old? I was faced with this question a little while ago, and as this was quite a special little man I wanted to get him something quite unique.
I spent ages trawling through the Internet trying to find the perfect gift, but, admittedly, I left it a little bit too late to order anything truly bespoke. So I rolled my sleeves up and did something myself!

I cut out some big, tall triangles….

Then made a stencil out of some cardboard…

Added some very funky colours…

Checked they all fit together…
Then added a few sticks and a little whizz on the sewing machine and….
Ta da!!!!
My very first tipi!!

Unfortunately I’m a little bit too big for it, but it fits the one year old just fine.
C.x

Granny squares galore!!

So, big news, my sister is up the duff (she hates it when I say that, but what’s she going to do?) This news is SOOOOO EXCITING!!! I still can’t believe it and it’s going to be popping out in November, not long to go!

As this is the first baby of the family I wanted to make something very special, but she has refused to find out if this little sprog is a boy or a girl, my money’s on a girl. As much as this is a nice idea, it has made it VERY difficult to decide what to make, but I think I’ve cracked it!

To cater for all eventualities I had to pick a fairly mixed colour palette. The last thing I wanted to do was go from cream, or yellow, or green, or orange on their own, so I thought I’d go for all of them, and throw in a bit of pink and blue for good measure.

Unfortunately this meant breaking my only remaining new years resolution and buying more wool. But as this baby was not anticipated at the time of setting the resolutions, I believe this is entirely justified, really it is.

I cannot stop smiling at the (nearly) finished article!!!! A baby blanket fit for a Queen (because it will be a girl).

I spent a LOT of time trying to decide how to join all the little squares. I could have joined them as I went, Lucy at attic24 has a good method for this, but I really want to get all the squares done and play with the layout. Lucy has a good method for doing this too, but I decided to do it like a seem and sew the little v’s together, if you know what I mean.

I LOVE the effect, it makes a really cool little ridge between all the squares on the front, and the back is very neat and tidy. I have to add more photos of the back…

The 4-way joins were a little bit more complicated, I had to make them tight, but not so tight that they made the blanket inflexible. The last time I tried joining granny squares I made this mistake at the finished piece was all warped and just not right.

I was just going to add a few granny square rows around the outside, but if I do that I won’t get this nice ridge around the outside. So I’m experimenting with a little bit of granny square stripes and then attaching these to the outer edge in the same seam join, hopefully this will work, I’ll let you know.

I just LOVE this blanket! I’m quite tempted to keep it for myself, but I suppose I should give it to my brand new baby niece, when she arrives, so I should get a month or two longer to look at it, before it ends up covered in baby vom.

Welcome back…finally!!

Well… it’s been a while. Since my last post a few months ago there has been…

1 house move, still unpacking boxes

1 new job, i’ve finally got the hang of it, i think…

3 new babies, none mine, but all keeping my knitting needles busy

1 amazing new discovery, stamford cheese cellar, cheesy heaven!

1 car crash, not too serious, but quite scary, all sorted now

4 overseas trips, all for work, not for pleasure, but summer holidays are coming up soon!

1 shade darker, hopefully a new hair colour will compliment my new tan, when i finally get some sunshine!

1 marathon – my amazing sister completed the moonwalk raising money for breast cancer wearing a crocheted bra…

1 new gym membership, so toning up nicely, but all the scones this weekend won’t be helping

1 weekly crafting club, which involves as much eating as crafting

1 rugby match, and pre season training will be starting again soon, yay!

and finally, most importantly… 1 internet connection!! i’m officially back!

The lack of internet for the passed 3 months has not been all bad, it has meant I’ve had a bit more time to do a bit more crafting. With all the babies popping out everywhere at the minute, i’ve gone baby knitting crazy!! I found this amazing bootie pattern on ravelry and been busy ever since.

This is my first attempt…

With the addition of a little bow, they were beautifully modelled by their new owner…

;

I also made a version for a little baby boy too. I changed the pattern slightly and, as I’m definitely not the best knitter in the world, this ended up being a bit harder than it should have been, but I’m quite happy with the results!