Antipodean February Baby Sweater

Pattern: February Baby Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmerman

Yarn: Sundara sock yarn in Charcoal over Blue Lagoon

Needles: 3.75mm circular

Cast on: February 2012

Cast off: March 2012

A friend saw the green February baby sweater that I made and was disappointed to find out that it had gone to someone else. I had did a lot of travelling this year and as this is a perfect travel knit I decided to make another.

This was cast on on the runway at Heathrow and cast off in Paihia, New Zealand.

The little buttons came from the button jar at home, and quite possibly from something I wore as a child.

I think if I make this again I might try a different lace pattern just to mix it up a bit. 

Baby Yours

Look some one made me a cardi!

Pattern: Baby Yours by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

Yarn: Socks that Rock mediumweight in Ghillie Dhu

Needles: 3.5mm bamboo 

Cast On: July 2011

Cast Off: December 2011

This is the companion pattern to Baby Mine. Where as the Baby Mine has delicate lacy detail on the sleeves and body - perfect for a little girl - Baby Yours has chunky cables and lovely off centre buttons.

Hey, look at me, aren't I cute in my cardi?

When my friend announced that she was expecting I knew this was the perfect knit for her. And with a Scottish dad the yarn - Ghillie Dhu - that I had purchased with the pattern was perfect too. Ghillie Dhu is an off white, it has the lightest hint of green to it in a delicately variegated yarn.

The pattern is really sweet. A nice boxy little boy cardigan with a great cable on the front and moss stitch borders and sleeves. I love the interest of the a-symetric buttons allowing for the wide cable motif on the front.

Look, here's my man an C & A pose.

I went for nice chunky wooden buttons for this knit. Again, these were from John Lewis and chosen for this cardigan.

Dude, enough with the photos already. I know I'm cute but seriously!

Mmm, cosy cardi xx

Baby Mine

Pattern: Baby Mine by Stephanie Pearl-McFee

Yarn: Socks that Rock medium weight in Lauma

Needles: 3.5mm bamboo DPN's and 3.5mm Addi lace circulars

Cast on: November 2011

Cast off: May 2012

I purchased the pattern and yarn for this in November 2008, just after it was released. I also bought the pattern and yarn for Baby Yours. The intention was to knit Baby Yours for a forthcoming baby of unknown sex and Baby Mine for the older sister. Then as is often the way, life happened and the yarn dropped to the bottom of the stash.

I added the two patterns to the 11 in 11 list as I really wanted to make them. I figured that babies the right size would come along to claim them once I'd completed them.

It was a good pattern to knit, easy to follow, and I'm really pleased with the finished cardigan. I did have to knit the sleeves twice as I picked up a different size needle for the body, and found I preferred the look of the body to that of the sleeves. So, I ripped back and re knit the sleeves - a happy accident as I think the finished item is better for the size smaller needle.

I chose some contrasting grey buttons from John Lewis which I think finished off this cute knit nicely.

My Big Fat Baby Blanket

Pattern: Square Shawl from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitters Almanac
Yarn: Rowan Little Big Wool (507 Brown), Rowan Big Wool (043 Forest)
Needles: 10mm Addi Circulars
Cast on: November 2011
Cast off: November 2011

This is a little pram/cot sized version of my Big Fat Bed Blanket (hence the name). I used a couple of balls of pale brown that were left over from my blanket and bought a ball of green for the edging to make it up to a sensible size.

The edge is in moss stitch to help to keep the blanket flat. As the yarn for the edge is thicker it has a bit of a ripple to it which I quite like. I like the colour combination too, perfect for the little bruiser that it has gone to.

11 in 11 Update

Well, it's been quiet around here lately. I've been blogging sporadically here and knitting has been happening which I'll try and get onto the blog. But first 11 in 11. As I'm sure you've guessed from the silence at the end of 2011 I didn't manage to complete all of the planned projects. I've continued with the list into this year so a quick round up is in order.

Baby Surprise Jacket #1 Finished, blogged and delivered.

Tiny Tea Leaves #2 Finished, blogged and delivered.

Poppy #3 Finished, blogged, still waiting for a home.

February Baby Sweater #4 Finished, blogged and sent to a new home, complete with matching socks.

Baby Yours #5 Finished, blogged and delivered to this little chap. 

Kusha Kusha #6 Knitting finished, blocked, still needs the ends weaving in.

Alhambra #7 Still on the needles with zero progress.

Pomatomus #8 Waiting to be pulled out and reknit - tension too loose. 

Baby Mine #9 Finished, delivered but still to be blogged.

Girasole #10 Finished, waiting to be blogged.

Anemoi #11 Still waiting to be started.

As I did so well on last years challenge I decided not to set one for myself this year. I'm still trying to use stash yarns and the remaining 11 in 11 projects are still on the knitting list and hopefully might be finished by the end of 2012! 

My Big Fat Bed Blanket

Pattern: Square Shawl from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitters Almanac
Yarn: Rowan Big Wool, Rowan Little Big Wool (501 Pink, 507 Brown, 511 Green, 512 Blue), Rowan Biggie Print, other oddments of Rowan chunky wools
Needles:10mm bamboo DPNs, 10mm Addi Circulars (1 x 90cm cable, 2 x 1m cable), 10mm Inox circular (80cm cable)
Cast on: October 2010
Cast off: April 2011


This project had been percolating for a while before I cast on. I had a bunch of  chunky yarn remnants from my early knitting projects including a sweaters worth of yarn that I reclaimed from a very unflattering FO! I bought some additional yarn to make mittens for Christmas 2009 knowing that the remnants would be added to this project.



I used the Square Shawl pattern from EZ's Knitter's Almanac. I decided not to add any kind of lace or cable pattern but to just stick with stripes. I didn't plan the sequence of stripes but just looked at what I had when each ball ran out and decided then whether to change colours or knit another ball of the same colour. I kept an eye on the amounts I had, using the small quantities early on. I only set myself 1 rule and that was that each colour had to do a full round. The stripes are different widths depending upon the amounts I had of each colour and what had fallen before the current stripe. I tried to mix up wide and narrow stripes to keep the irregular look. I had to rip a few rows at one point as I had overestimated the amount of the bright blue I had and it ran out midway around. It's a great pattern, and the circular cast on is pretty nifty (it did take me a few goes as I'm rubbish with a crochet hook).


This was a bit of a monster knitting project and by the end I was working with 4 large circular needles and knitting sat on my bed as I couldn't wrangle the project whilst sat in a chair! It did keep me warm while knitting it and I had to keep fighting the urge to stop knitting and take a nap. A blanket (or blankets) are a necessity at home as the heating is only turned on for a few days over Christmas each year and this is living up to expectations on the toastyness front. Which makes me very happy. I cheated a little (a lot!) and only wove in the ends that were close to the edge or the corner shaping (don't tell anyone will you?) and would show from the front (there were an awful lot of ends to weave in after all).



Oh, I should probably mention that the blanket comfortably covers my double bed (I think it would happily cover a king size). Definitely a Big Fat Bed Blanket!