Gifted (1)

Baby F was lucky enough to receive some gorgeous gifts, includings some beautiful handmade things. This lovely jacket is from Esmerelda. The picture really doesn't do the colour justice - it is a lovely variegated forget-me-not blue. Thank you, E - it is truly gorgeous, and gets lots of comments when we go out! And thanks for coming to visit on your hectic UK visit :)

This baby is growing so fast, none of these baby handknits look like they will fit for long, but the weather is ensuring we are getting to make the most of them while we can!

Snuggypants

Speaking of sewing, I managed a little before F was born. These are some trousers for the new boy - snuggly and warm, made from a felted men's vest I got at the charity shop, using an Ottobre pattern. They were meant to have the intact bindings as cuffs, but I cut the pieces out wrongly. In the end they worked out fine though - they are a bit high-waisted, but that is useful for a cloth nappied baby in winter - everything is kept nice and warm. Also, the stripes in the gusset match at the back, but not the front. I still love them though - he feels a bit like a teddy bear in them!

Covetousness

If you sew, and you have little ones, you have probably heard of Oliver + S. They do lovely patterns. And now they have a book coming out - Oliver + S Little Things to Sew. I am very much coveting it...so much so, that I might just have to buy it! These things are almost always 'girl' pattern heavy, but even so, it looks very sweet. There is a trailer here and some info here

PS Happy Australia Day for yesterday - hope you saw some sunshine/ate some anzacs/drank some good Aussie red in celebration (or all three!)

Christmas update

I know, I'm miles behind the times, but I have an excuse! Anyway, this is a quick post mostly for myself to remind me about Christmas cake next year :) In 2010 I made a Christmas cake from Delia's recipe (see blog post here). I fed it and petted it and the day my mum turned up, we cut it (16th Dec). The three of us managed to eat it over almost exactly a month (S ate the last bit on 17th Jan). It was very nice - more boozy and a bit more crumbly than Mum's melt & mix fruit cake recipe (my usual). I would definately eat it again, and it was pretty easy to make - but not the pinnacle of Christmas cakes for me.

Made with real gorilla's chest

Before I went on maternity leave, I started B a vest. It was autumn, and I figured it would be useful. I used my standard vest pattern (Drops b17-9 sleeveless top, Ravelry link here), made up some colourwork and used some yarn I got on special (Sublime Organic Merino DK). The yarn is a single, very soft and in very pretty colours. Despite growing to hate knitting this (thus the looong time it took to finish it), it turned out pretty nicely, and fits B well. The picture above is after two washes and one de-pill. It has sort of become a tunic vest - it's grown widthways quite a bit (luckily it was already pretty long, so it will now fit next winter as well as this one!), and the yarn has felted somewhat. I wash the kid's woolens on a wool wash in my machine and then line dry - if they can't handle this then they tend not to get worn. I'm a bit miffed that I put so much time into knitting this with yarn that I wasn't sure about, because I don't feel this is going to wear very well at all. My verdict: as usual I love this pattern, and think vests are the bee's knees for keeping boys snug, but will probably get rid of the rest of this yarn now.

Christmas Dress

I didn't do much crafting for Christmas this year, what with babies and two year olds and work and most family being in hotter climes. I did make one dress, for my niece G. It was a crazy day, sitting and sewing a sundress in the freezing fog (you can see some of the fog on the bushes behind the dress). But it is a great pattern, super easy and quick, and if I could just get the tension right on my machine then the shirring would be excellent fun! I'm slightly tempted to make one for me for the summer...although I don't think I can pull off red gingham anymore.

Pattern: Heather Ross' Smocked Sundress (you can find it either in her Weekend Sewing book or at Martha Stewart's website ).

Fabric: I have no idea where this came from, but I obviously bought quite a bit of it - I've used it for lots of things now. The ric rac is from the V&A.

Gratuitous freezing fog picture from the same day.

New Year, New Things

So the new year bought us a new family member. He is wonderful and gorgeous, and I'm having a lovely time swapping him through the handknits both generously gifted by various talented folk and handed down from B.