Monday, November 30, 2009

The dreaded baby blankie

I have spent the last 4 months making a baby blanket... its not taken 4 months but has been a total Ugh! project!! I started a Debbie Bliss alphabet blanket and it quickly became apparent that trying to knit and look after a 3 year old and crazy puppy weren't a good combination, so that blanket got ripped about 2 months in. I then had the dolls to make for Christmas, and then I got a Phildar Naissance book which has some beautiful, simple knits in it and I decided that the baby blankie in there was perfect for baby George... fingers crossed his parents like red!! It has turned into a Christmas gift so red is a good colour!!
I love the heart on the blanket (and the fact its not colourwork, but sewn on afterwards with a different coloured yarn).

Now I have 4 gifts to make for my daughter's kindy teachers... hmmm what to make....?!

I'm also blocking the 2nd of the 2 shawls I knocked up on the knitting machine - this one is a proper lace pattern - looking forward to finishing it off with tassels and wearing it...



Sunday, November 15, 2009

Machining away...

I finally had a bit of time to play with the machine this weekend - had great fun!!

I knocked up a lace stole in an hour - although the finishing took
about 3 hours!

I've also knit up a larger lace shawl in a lovely beige colour, but still have the finishing and blocking to do on it.

My hand-knitting has taken a bit of a bashing!! I must get on & do some more as I'm in the middle of a baby blankie and still knitting my drop stitch scarf!

The weather has gone all summer-like and so I've been getting out into the garden more - last week I made a scarecrow with my daughter - it was great fun - the best bit was stuffing the scarecrow with old newspapers and straw - Charli loved that.
Also been getting out in the garden with pup - here's a pic I took yesterday after a long walk on the beach & 3 hours gardening when he was very placid and would sit still for the camera!



Sunday, November 8, 2009

One woman knitting machine

'What have I been up to the last week or so?' I hear you cry...

Well apart from hand-knitting my final doll as a Christmas pressie...

I've acquired a vintage knitting machine that I'm rather pleased with.

After a bit of grumbling to myself whilst trying to work out how to use it and the fact I couldn't use 8 ply yarns easily, I've finally got it going and on the machine is my first test swatch.
I've ordered some lovely cones of wool for machine knitting and can't wait for them to arrive so I can get going properly.