Tuesday 18 February 2014

The milliner learns to knit...

With renovating our house this year, sewing has been out of the window (no space and too much dust, along with needing to use all our spare time working on the house). Millinery has been tough, again it takes a lot of space, equipment, daylight and time. But these hands need a project so I raided my mum's knitting box, stole all her needles and started to knit.

Until now I'd only knitted the odd scarf or very simple hat. I'd never followed a pattern and had never made anything up. Having a baby on the way was the perfect excuse to make something small. On the recommendation of a lovely lady in a wool shop in Ludlow I picked up Sirdar pattern 1982 - an easy knit hooded baby sweatshirt.


We had decided not to find out if we were having a boy or a girl so I got a beige-brown bobbly wool - Sirdar Snuggly Tiny Tots shade 957.


I HATED this wool. It looks gorgeous but my inexperienced fingers ended up with the gorgeous bobbles everywhere. And if you make a mistake and have to go back the bobbles unwind. It gives the most fabulous texture though and I'm glad I stuck with it.

This took a few weeks to knit up and I got quicker and more accurate as I went along. I learned so much (how did people learn to knit before YouTube? I tried using books but got nowhere). I particularly enjoyed the accuracy involved in pick up and knit around the hood.

Finally I had all my pieces and stitched them together. And it looked like a real jumper. It was another step closer to thinking that I had a real baby in me. I was about 20 weeks pregnant, half way through, and it felt like forever before I'd have a little person to put in it. I was knitting in early summer and the baby wouldn't be here until mid autumn.


The sizing is size 0-6 months. I first put our baby son in it at about 5 weeks. It was very tight going onto his head. Luckily it's still going on, and much more easily so I think the neck is stretching. It's also washing really well. The hood is a good size and the fit is good although he'll be out of it well before 6 months. I decided not to put the pom poms on the hood as it looked so damned perfect without them.

Here he is the first time he wore it. I tell you what, he takes up a lot more of his car seat now.


Tuesday 11 February 2014

Long time no see, and lots of news...

Good evening all, what a long time with so few posts. Hopefully I can start to share my projects again now. I haven't done many sewing projects, but we did buy a house that required full renovation. We had a brilliant time doing all the work and most of all designing the decor and decorating the house. We finished in October and have loved living here in this home we designed ourselves. I did a few sewing projects - mainly making our bedding which I'll go through another time.

A beautiful family house needs a beautiful family to inhabit it, and I'm thrilled to say that, also in October, we gave birth to a son. Most of what I've made in the last year has been knitted for him. Having him is going to make a change to the things I make, I'm excited to see where this takes me.

Here's me and Owen in our matching hats a friend gave us for Christmas (now there's a friend who knows me). Sorry for the slightly dodgy bathroom mirror selfie...


 
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