Knit, knit, knit and knit...

I have lots of things on the needles at the moment, but not much getting completed! I have finished two spring berets in bamboo blends. One for me, and one for a swap partner. The pink one is a bamboo/wool blend and the turquoise is bamboo/nylon blend. I kept the turquoise and have worn it practically every day for the last ten days.

Here comes the sun!

So I finished the cotton dress for Eloise. It is knitted in Samba Katia - a 100% cotton yarn from Spain. It was the only pure cotton yarn I could find with long colour changes. It hasn't got the same effect as I wanted but the ramdomness of the colours actually has its own appeal and I've decided the overall effect is quite pretty. Eloise certainly likes it, and despite the weather still being cool, refused to wear leggings or jeans underneath!

I knitted this in the round and had to modify the pattern to take account of the tiny chest size but tall height of my 7yr old.

Spring dresses

So now that Spring actually feels like it might really be here (my daffodils have grown 12" in the last week and my crocuses have been blooming) I decided to knit pretty dresses for my girls.

Firstly I have knitted for my youngest, Amelia, who isn't the girliest of girls, but was very excited to watch her dress grow on the needles. I desperately wanted to knit this in the very yarn suggested as it is such a pretty yarn. The pattern called for Elle Escapade, but a bit of research showed that this same yarn was now manufactured under a different name, Creative Yarns Rainbow. I had to scale down the pattern as the smallest size is 26" and Amelia's chest size is only 22" despite being 5yrs old! It wasn't too difficult, and I deliberately kept it short so it would be nice for summer and can also be worn over leggings and T-shirt.

I have started the same pattern for Eloise, but in cotton. Her eczema simply would not stand up to an acrylic yarn. I am knitting hers in the round as the pattern in the yarn is so random. I don't like it as much but when I was knitting at the dance studios this morning I received lots of compliments and most importantly, Eloise is very excited by it. I'm knitting hers in the smallest size (she also only has 22" chest and she's 7 and a half!!) but I am lengthening it by spreading out the decreases further.

Gayle has arrived!

Yes, she's finally done. And I'm so pleased with her. I don't think the photos are over flattering... but I love this jacket and can see me wearing it a lot over the coming months. I think it will be a favourite to wear at the weekends and we're planning a day trip to London in April to visit the Natural History Museum and I'm already thinking I will be wearing this.

Ravelympics

So I am still knitting these Jaywalker Socks. I'm very happy with how they're turning out, but they are very yarn hungry. I finished the first sock with only about 10 metres to spare. I am trying to match the yarn on the second sock so they look like a matching pair so I took off the first part of the skein until I got to the right colour. But I think I will have to use that yarn at the end meaning the toes probably won't match.



Meanwhile, Gayle is also looking beautiful. I am now on the armhole section of the fronts and have about 10" left to go. I think I will knit the sleeves together to make it go faster. I really want to have this finished in 2-3 weeks time.

Fish!

Please feed my fish! If you click on the fish pond it will give sprinkle some food for them. They are always hungry.

Jaywalker!

Here are my Jaywalker socks (pattern can be found ravelry) that I am knitting for Ravelympics 2010 and also as a RAK for a fellow raveller. I am using Regia Design Line which is designed by Kaffe Fassett. I managed to get quite a few inches knitted at my eldest daughter's dance festival today.