I do love little newborn handknits...

I had all of these photo's uploaded already in a draft post but I had completely forgotten that I still hadn't posted them on here. These are the little knitted things I made for one of my very good friend's who had her third baby around 6 weeks ago. 

Due to some tricky complications she had him 3 weeks earlier than was expected so I never actually got a chance to block them! The cardigan luckily was looking okay-ish without being blocked, so that was a big relief! It was all finished very last-minute. It's all been worn lots by her sweet little boy though, so I'm so glad I rushed to get it all done in time.

The cardigan is the Puerperium cardigan which is a brilliant free pattern on Ravelry.

I bought the buttons from The Eternal Maker which I'm lucky to have just down the road from me. My friend didn't know the sex of the baby, so I wanted to go for something quite natural and neutral looking.

The booties were knit from this pattern and are super quick and simple. I made a pair for Arthur out of an Aran weight yarn which he wore a Lot.

The little hat is knit from a pattern by Ginny at one of my favourite blogs Small Things. 

Here is the link to the pattern on Ravelry, it's a lovely sweet little knit.

Isn't he just the sweetest little boy!? He was so small that even though the hat was tiny, it was still a little baggy on his tiny little head! 

xxxx

Back to blogging about the little things.

I'm going to try and blog more often so that I have a record of some of the normal every day thing's we get up to. I love looking back through my blog from when Rose was a lot younger and some of the special day's out we had. We've had plenty of day's like that recently but I just haven't even thought to record them. I think you look at the little things in a totally different way when you are going to blog about them. You take photo's of the small details that would easily be forgotten about if they weren't recorded on a blog. I'm hoping this will motivate me to use my camera more. I use it so little these day's just because of the fact I usually have my phone so close to hand when I want to take a photo and so I usually end up taking most photo's on my phone. The camera on my phone is pretty good but I don't think the photo's would be of high enough quality if I wanted to get them blown up as printed photographs though...

We recently went back to stay in Dorset with my Grandparents for a few day's because it was my Great-grandad's 90th birthday and we were all having a big meal out to celebrate. I had such a lovely time being back there, I can't wait until we're living a little bit closer so that it's possible to just pop over for the day with the kids.

Rose and Arthur surprised me and were actually really well behaved for the meal. I had mentally prepared myself for the worst and thought it would be a bit of nightmare keeping them occupied and happy for the whole evening but we were relieved that they didn't play up at all!

I've been trying to use up some of my left-over scraps in my wool stash, just to have my Tiny craft corner a little more organised... I decided I wanted to knit a hat  to go with Arthur's Rocky blanket using up the wool that I hadn't needed to use up for the blanket. I used this pattern on Ravelry to get the right about of cast-on stitches for the 12 month size and then sort of made it up for the rest of the hat. It's the perfect way to use of the left-over little balls of wool and I love the scrappy look it has to it. Rowan pure wool is such a lovely yarn to knit with, not at all splitty and so soft.

Here's Arthur in the finished hat. It's supposed to be the 12 month size, so Arthur either has a very large head of the hat is a little smaller than planned. It's got plenty of stretch to it though so I think it will last him for a good while anyway...

I also knitted up this sweet little hat using some green Debbie Bliss Cashmerino aran that I had left over, it's wonderfully soft. He can either have the brim folded up like this or it looks really cute as a slouchy beany, maybe he'll wear it that way when he's a little bigger. I'd like to knit a hat for Rose now, for the winter... but at this rate she'll need a hat very soon as the weather isn't exactly sunny and warm!!

Right, well have to go now... the kids are needing my attention. Especially Arthur right now! I'll be back soon to show you a couple more things I've made.

xxxx

I actually knitted something for myself!

A little while ago I started knitting myself a Honey cowl from this beautiful yarn from The Yarn Gallery. It got pushed to the side for a little while as I wanted to finish Arthur's blanket but as I've now finished that, I got knitting this again and finished it off yesterday morning. I'm thrilled to bits with it as it is So soft but it's a pretty dense fabric knitted up and so will have to look forward to wearing it once Autumn and Winter are here again... not that I'm hurrying that along at all! 

The yarn is made up of the most beautiful colours and would look amazing knitted in plain stocking stitch too I think. I seem to have a real love for hand dyed yarn these day's, it's just so pretty!

You can wear it either in one long length or wrapped around your neck twice, that is how I think I will wear it mostly as it's just so soft against my skin! I'm trying Really hard to resist buying any more yarn from that website as it all looks so wonderful but I have So much in my stash to get through and I'd really like to get some projects knitted up that I have in my mind to go with yarn that I already own. Plus I just can't afford it!

I really love the stitch that the honey cowl uses, it looks really interesting but was super simple to knit. The perfect type of knitting to be working on whilst keeping one eye on my two children at all times!

I now need to finish knitting my pair of Veyla that I started Ages ago and I would have knitted two (well three really..) items for myself! I find that I always have a huge list of lovely patterns that I'd love to knit for myself but I just never get around to because of knitting presents for other people. I Love knitting presents for my family and friends but I also wish I had just a little more free time so I could simultaneously makes things for myself too!

xxxx

Arthur's blanket is finally finished!

Well, I've finally finished it!

It's taken quite a while for me to get this blanket done... about 3 months longer than I had planned to take but the time that I have free to knit these day's is a bit more limited to what I had before!

I'm completely chuffed with it, I love the look of the garter stitch in the ripple pattern and it's got a lovely texture to it.

It's knit with Rowan Pure wool DK and the pattern is one of Suzie's at The Wool Sanctuary and you get get it here on Ravelry.

I decided to pick the colours out in a random order instead of following a strict pattern with the stripes and I'm really happy with the final look of the blanket, I'm so pleased to be able to finally use it when Arthur's out and about in the buggy!

I was trying to take a photo of Arthur with the finished blanket but Rose had to obviously get in on a bit of the action!

It's all very civilized around here.....! Arthur seems to giggle at a Lot these day's, it's such a lovely sound when he's laughing. Rose and him are interacting with one another so much more now and she loves to give him kisses... even if she is a little Too enthusiastic with them!

He's such a cheeky chappie...

I'm shocked at how grown-up Rose looks in this photo. She's definitely a big two year old now! We've been potty training today (hence the lack of bottoms!) and she's done brilliantly. Let's keep everything crossed that it all goes smoothly again tomorrow! It's such a big step in my mind, no more nappies means she's really not a baby anymore... it's all going so quickly!!

Sorry for the photo-heavy post but I'm just So pleased with his blanket. :-) Now I can try and finish all of my other half finished projects that I have on the go!

xxxxx

The New bittersweet cowl...

My lovely friend Sarah and I went (with my two little ones!) down to stay with the lovely Cuckoo and her family. I had the most wonderful time and the time just went far too quickly while we were there! I know I have definitely made a couple of friends for life there!

Anyway.. I wanted to knit her a little gift to say thank you for taking on myself And my two children. I chose to knit her the New bittersweet cowl which is a lovely free pattern on Ravelry. It was a joy to knit, when Rose and Arthur gave me a few minutes here and there to get on with it that is... It is knit with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino aran which is so soft, it just glides over the needles.

It can be worn like this...

...or like this! (I'm not particularly fond of the photo, I still have my pregnancy chubbiness! Finding it Much harder to lose the weight this time round!)

..and in the meantime I am soldiering on with Arthur's blanket. I'm over half way now but it's taking a little while, I love the way it looks but I really like how quickly crochet is worked up into something compared to the speed of knitting.

xxx

The beginning's of Arthur's blanket.

A couple of months ago I purchased quite a few balls of Rowan Pure Wool DK from Suzie at The Wool Sanctuary with the intention of knitting Arthur a baby blanket. I've crocheted a few blankets now but really lovely the look of knitted blankets and even though they do take a bit longer to make, I wanted to give it a shot for Arthur's blanket.

I meant to get going on it right away but I had other projects that really needed finishing, so I decided to get them out of the way so I could concentrate on this. I chose to knit one of Suzie's own patterns, the Rocky blanket. I had a tricky start with it and just couldn't get the number of stitches to work right but after a lovely conversation with her on the phone she advised me to do a smaller sample knit of the blanket. It worked! I got to grips with the counting of stitches and figured out the pattern. I think it's a great pattern... I was just looking at it in a more complicated way than was actually necessary.

I'm trying to get one or two colour sections done a day but with a two year old and 4 month old to look after at the moment, it's not always that easy finding a moment to sit down and knit! 

Hopefully I'll be back soon to show you some photo's of the progress I'm making...

xxx