Chatiryworld

Meet Harvey and Lottie

My friend Jill is due to give birth a few days after our wedding - hopefully she and her family will make it along.  I've knit up Lottie from Rowan Junior to give if she has a girl.  I used Rowan 4ply Soft, I've made a few things in this colourway after buying it up in sales, now I have just under a ball left.  I believe it's being discontinued, which is a real shame.

Should the new arrival be a boy, he will be receiving Harvey here, from Louisa Harding's Natural Knits for Babies and Mums.  This is knit in some Jaeger Baby Merino, also discontinued and also from the sales.

My friend Liz is also expecting a baby, due in October, maybe Jill and Liz will each have a different flavour baby and then they can each have one of these cardigans.  If not, well more knitting then!

Now we can get married

For the shawl, it is finished.  I've stopped feeling emotional about it now but it continues to amaze me.  Because it is knit from angora, which sheds everywhere, I've mainly knit it with the majority of the body tucked in a bag, so I hadn't really seen it properly laid out (apart from taking this photo, which I did very quickly before I went to work one morning).  Now it's blocked and I've been able to see how the patterns fit together, spot my little mistakes (!) and also enjoy not working on complicated lace whilst more and more bunny hair goes all over the sofa (going to have to take a clothes brush to the wedding to keep Jon's suit looking nice).

The pattern is Papay, by Orkney knitting designer Liz Lovick, and was designed with weddings in mind.  I would knit it again, but not in angora.  At the time I was so carried away with having an Orkney connection to the day that I saw beyond the practicalities and bought a load of Orkney Angora.  But if the chilly May weather continues I'll be very glad I made the shawl.

Helping with more than hats

I don't know, since Emily came along I may well have developed a soft spot when it comes to children with tracheostomies, well I suppose most people want to help children with health problems.  I suppose tracheostomies aren't something you hear a lot about and charities supporting parents have to work that bit harder as the conditions aren't in the public eye as much.

Anyway, I was reading Craftzine, as I do of an evening, and noted a long post with a cute kid in it.  It's all about little Ike (who has a tracheostomy) and his family and how you can help with their medical expenses by taking part in a craft auction.  We moan about the NHS in this country but thank goodness we don't have to worry about how we are going to be able to afford lifesaving care.  There are many other items apart from crafty goodies but most of them seem to be more aimed at people living in Austin, Texas (which you may well be, I don't know).

I know things aren't easy with people moneywise at the moment, but maybe you're looking out for a gift for someone anyway, please consider helping this lovely family.

Sew your own Chatiryworld

My Clothkits dolls pictured above are both over 25 years old, and looking a bit faded but new Clothkits is now selling the kits for Kitty and Polly, as well as Kitty's brother Kit.  You can also get their new range of cloth dolls as well, I've got the tea towel version.  I'll probably make it after the wedding when I can think about other things again.  Plus at some point I would love to make myself the Rob Ryan skirt.

6 weeks and a day

The wedding is rapidly approaching and there's still plenty to do.  I'm trying to knit at least 20 rows of the edging on my shawl every night to have it done by the end of the month.  Then will come the fu of working out how to block angora.  I am slightly regretting my choice of yarn as it sheds everywhere but I did want as many Orkney connections as I could find.

On Monday we wore ourselves out by going to see the new venue manager of our daytime place, taking our forms to the registry office who neglect to inform people on their website that you need to make an appointment for this.  Then they insisted we put 'religious ceremony' on our envelope which irked me.  I know legally that Humanist ceremonies are seen as religious, that's why you can have them, but it is about as unreligious as you can get.  Grrr.  Then we decided to go to John Lewis and finish the gift list, too many people about but I suppose it is the school holidays.

Other people have been crafting for the wedding, here is the bowl for the rings made by one of my dads, Hugh, resting on some bunting made by one of my sisters, Ellen.  Both look great, but it's impossible to get a decent photo of the bunting in the flat.  Hugh is also going to make a little ring for me to thread ribbons on for Emily to hold, a bit like these but with shorter ribbon so she doesn't get tangled up!

This weekend sees the Writing Of The Vows so our lovely celebrant Juliet has something to say, and we have something to promise on the day.  I suppose we could ad-lib with 'I love you more than anything else in the world and want to spend the rest of my life with you now let's eat cake' but we both feel the beginning of our marriage warrants something a bit more serious than that.  I also need to make a start on the outdoor bunting, plus have my final dress fitting.  Nearly there!

Emily explains quantitative easing to Jon

Second in the series 'Jon, Emily and the financial crisis' (first photo here).  We spent a lovely day hanging out with Emily and her parents, going to Bothwell Castle to look for the Sleep Fairy and trying on Emily's bridesmaid dress.  Jon and Emily also had a discussion about whether Emily's view that the Early Learning Centre catalogue was better than Dr. Dog was a controversial opinion or not.  Em made some marvellous attempts to say that phrase.

We gave Emily her birthday presents from last month, I had made her a shrug (Debbie Bliss Baby shrug - free pattern!).  I used Artesano Aran, as recommended by Katharine at K1 Yarns, and it was lovely to knit with, should keep Emily nice and cosy.  I really could have done with an extra skein though as it was getting a bit short towards the end.

Mother's Day

Just got back from a weekend at my mum's in Ilkley, lots of fun.  Here's the scarf I made her for Mother's Day.  It's the Mist Lace Scarf by Lisa Dykstra, available for free.  I used a small amount of the huge cone of laceweight yarn I got in Wool and Wine in Orkney last year.  No idea what it is, but it will be some of Tait and Style's leftovers.

Only 4 months late...

Finally finished the fluffy lace camisole by Alissa Baptista from Melanie Falick's Weekend Knitting .  I originally aimed to knit it to wear to a wedding in November, but that didn't happen.  It's knit in Rowan Kidsilk Night that I got in a sale.  I edged it in Anchor cotton perle embroidery thread.  The pattern said to do two rows of single crochet but when I did that on the neckline I couldn't get it over my head so had to unpick it back to one.  Jon struggled to take a photo of me in this where I didn't look bigger than I am (this one was the best), I did make a size bigger than I needed to but I didn't want it to get stuck and stretched going over the bust region.  So yes, it could be a bit more flattering but it does fit. 

Recently Amanda wrote about feeling guilty because most of the sweaters she had knit for herself didn't get worn because they weren't quite right.  That was so great to read, because I feel the same way too.  I hope to knit something that becomes instantly loved like her Garter Yoke Cardigan.  That's one reason why I prefer knitting for the littlies, they are generally pretty accepting of what I knit, and the garments take up much less yarn!

I've been trying to knit Ysolda's Grown-up booties as some travel slippers but I think the yarn I used is cursed or something.  It's some Adriafil Globe and I tried to knit some other slippers with it a while back but the first one was way too small.  This time the first one was too big, I should have checked it more carefully.  I think the yarn is too stretchy as well.  I love the pattern and am going to try it again in the future, but with different yarn.

Snowing and knitting

We finally got some proper snow on Monday morning but it didn't stay for that long.  I scampered out early to get some photos but by the time we went out in the afternoon the pavements were getting slushy.

I made these the other week for my friend Jill.  They are the fingerless mitts by Ann Budd from Melanie Falick's Weekend Knitting .  Although they are garter stitch, they knit up much quicker than I thought they would.  Plus I got to try the three needle bind off for the first time - and survived!  The yarn is some of the Tait and Style leftovers I bought in Wool and Wine in Kirkwall back in May.

This is a hat for my friend Molly's little girl, Phoebe.  Molly is due to have a little boy on Monday (if he hasn't already arrived) and I thought I'd make a little gift for Phoebe as well.  It's based on the nightcap pattern in Lucinda Guy's And So to Bed but I didn't have enough yarn to go for the full nightcap effect, plus this is a bit more practical.  Knit in RYC Cashsoft DK and Cashsoft Baby DK.

It's coming up for 7pm and I still haven't started reading today's paper.  I suppose it's just the news section that gets out of date quickly!

Knitting for the kids

A week off is a good time to get some knitting done.  First of all we have a belated christmas present for one of my little friends, Ella.  It's the cosy tank top from Lucinda Guy's And So to Bed and was a nice easy knit, made even easier by omitting the pocket and crochet edging on the bottom.  Knit up in RYC Cashsoft DK and Cashsoft Baby DK.

Next up, another tank top for a baby boy who is due in a few weeks.  I forgot until it was too late that knitting jumpers for babies worries me as I'm concerned about getting them over their heads.  So hopefully this will be ok, I think I've got enough yarn left to do some bootees too.  I'm also knitting a hat for his big sister at the moment, I like to include a little present in for big brothers and sisters when new babies come along.  The pattern is one I got for free and is the Henry Tank from The Third Little Sublime Hand Knit Book.  For the first time in years I sent off an SAE, under the impression that I would be getting the whole book(let, really) but there had been a printing error and it was just one photocopied pattern.  I knit in Sirdar Country Style DK.

Finally, the not-wildflower sweater, again from Lucinda Guy, this time her Handknits for Kids book.  I started this last summer when I was off, as I wanted some easy stocking stitch stuff to do, and this fitted the bill perfectly.  It's supposed to have wildflowers on it knit in interasia but I didn't want to do that and I think it looks lovely plain.  This was my first project where I attempted cable stitching and it went fine, it's knit in Rowan 4ply Soft.  I originally started knitting it for Emily's christmas but it's far too big for her so it may go to someone else or wait until she's a bit bigger.  I have a whole bunch of patterns for my little friends that I'd love to knit for them all, especially before they start deciding what they want to wear for themselves.  Unfortunately the price of yarn means I can't knit all these goodies, but nevermind.

I went to to K1 Yarns yesterday to get some Debbie Bliss yarn but K1 are phasing it out in order to stock more interesting Scottish yarns.  However, I got lots of help in choosing a decent subsitute and came away with some gorgeous soft yarn in a beautiful colour to knit something for a certain special girl's birthday soon.  Thanks Katharine for all your assistance!  I managed to finally fill up my loyalty card with that purchase so had £10 to spend, I put it towards a book, Natural Knits for Babies & Toddlers by Tina Barrett.  Lots of gorgeous projects in there.