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!

Bad Girl

For a girl on the wagon I've acquired a few skeins of yarn this year.

Misti Alpaca - Northern Lights

Kozmos - Mallard

Juno Pearl - Canopy

Wollmeise Twin - Sabrina

Wollmeise 100% - Sanguinella

Cascade 220 - Framboise

Cascade 220 - Azure

Cascade 220 - Burnt Orange

Cascade 220 - Hunter Green

Cascade 220 - Chocolate

The Cascade is for hats as requested by my god daughters (one pink with flowers and one striped), but I have no firm plans for the rest. The Wollmeise will most likely become socks. I was thinking Baby Surprise Jacket for the Misti Alpaca and some kind of shawlette or scarf with the Kozmos and Juno Pearl but who knows?

Slow Going

Well 11 in 11 has gone from ticking along nicely to very slow going. Some progress is being made but not nearly enough if I'm going to manage to reach the finishing line.

Baby Surprise Jacket #1

Tiny Tea Leaves #2

Poppy #3

February Baby Sweater #4

Baby Yours #5

Kusha Kusha #6

Alhambra #7

Pomatomus #8

Baby Surprise Jacket, Tiny Tea Leaves, Poppy and February Baby Sweater are all finished.

Baby Yours has been knit and block and just waits to be seamed.

Kusha Kusha has been finished and blocked, I'm just waiting for it to dry so that I can weave ends and declare it completed.

Alhambra has passed the half way mark but remains stalled as I have to concentrate while knitting it. A concerted effort on this would see it done in a week.

I have been knitting Pomatomus on the tube and have reached the foot on sock one. I have 2 more weeks of tube travel before Christmas and hope to get sock one finished and a good portion of the second leg done.

Baby Mine is the last of the started projects and at the moment is one almost complete sleeve. This will be going with me to Spain and a couple of airport waits, flights and nights away on my own will (fingers crossed) see the back of this project broken.

And that just leaves projects 10 and 11. I had planned these to be Anemoi (a pair of stranded colourwork mittens) and Girasol (a circular lace shawl). While finishing the cast on projects this year is a possibility I'm pretty sure I'd need a thirteenth month to add completed Anemoi and Girasol to them. While my rules would allow substitution of a simpler pattern it feels a bit like cheating as I'd always planned to include Girasol in the years knitting. The most important knits will be finished - baby garments for imminent arrivals - and if they others don't quite make it ...

New Tricks

Yesterday I went to London to take a knitting class. My first ever knitting class. Fair Isle the continental way with Juju Vale at Loop in Islington.

I had a great time. The group was nice and small and each student was able to move at their own pace with Juju working her way around encouraging people forward as they were ready. The classroom is in the basement of the shop and quiet despite the bustle of the store above.

When we arrived the table was set with a circular needle at each place and inviting groups of Spindrift yarn.   We started off working with one colour and learnt the long tail cast on before joining into a round and learning to magic loop. Once we were familiar with magic loop we moved on to knitting continental style. And here I stayed for a while as I just could not get my fingers to cooperate! Finally I was able to introduce a second colour and start to follow a chart.

 We were then shown how to catch long floats, purl continental and knit corrugated rib. I started to try these but with my new slower continental style ran out of time! I have a stranded colourwork project lined up for 11 in 11 and hope that by the time I have completed that I shall be a dab hand at continental knitting as I can see how useful it will be to have in my arsenal of skills. I don't think I shall be swapping my DPN's for magic loop any time soon though.