Saturday, May 19, 2007

Some knitting stuff

Recently I've been working only about 20 miles from where my brother's family live, so I've been able to see much more of my nephews in the evenings. If my bro's on a night shift I've been helping my SIL with bathtime (which is great fun!) and also babysitting as I've arranged to stay in a B & B not far from them. And one time I managed to get a photo of the first knitted garment I made (I made it before I had a digital camera so couldn't photo it at the time!). It was originally made for Noah (I thought it would take 6 months to make; it took 10 days, so it took him a while to grow into it!). Now Dylan can wear it:

It's a Sirdar cabled cardi pattern, using Sirdar Snuggly Aran and the wooden buttons are from the Button Queen, on Marylebone Lane in London. I'd been knitting for about 6 weeks when I started this, and didn't know any other knitters, so there was no one to tell me that a plain stocking stitch garment might be easier than cables and bobbles for a first go... I knitted it in the final fortnight of Dad's life, so most of it was knitted in a very dimly lit living room at Mum's house whilst I was sitting with Dad (what was I thinking - navy blue with hardly any light, as well as all those cables?!). But it looks cool now (just don't look at it too closely, especially the seams) and both the nephews turned out with blue eyes so they look really sweet in it!

I've also been trying to teach Dylan how to catalogue. It's never too early to recruit future librarians - 11 months old, why not?

And I've finished my Helter Skelter socks (anyone who was on Skip North - you saw me start these off!). This was one of the patterns from the Fyberspates sock club, and the yarn is the January yarn from the sock club - 90% alpaca, 10% nylon. They're lovely and soft and squishy, and will be very warm! I used 2.5mm needles for the cuff and 2.25mm for the heel and foot.



14 comments:

Seahorse said...

What a very special cardigan - in so many ways.

I do hope you're appreciated for the WONDERFUL aunty you are!!!

Piglottie said...

What a special heritage that cardigan has, and what a challenging first project. I love the socks and the pattern. I have this yarn and its gorgeous, so its great to see it knitted up.

Rain said...

What a cutie. That's lovely and looks like it's standing the test of time.

Mary Anne said...

The navy blue cardigan is gorgeous! Imagine knitting that in 10 days, and after only knitting for 6 weeks. You are amazing. Love the socks too.

dreamcatcher said...

Love the cardi, definitely very special, and certainly standing the test of time! That was also a pretty amazing project to take on as your first! The socks also look lovely, nice to see the yarn knitted up.

Sue said...

A great heirloom that cardigan will have to be, especially considering the circumstances you knitted it in. I cant believe that you knit cables and bobbles as a beginner knitter too, what an excellent job you did. Your nephew looks very very sweet in it too.

T said...

That is a great cardi :) Delicious socks too.

acrylik said...

What a wonderful cardi, and it has so many memories attached to it, which makes it even more special.

Your socks are excellent, what a great pattern They certainly do look snuggly!

Kat said...

The cardigan is beautiful! And the socks too! See you on Saturday

Janey said...

I just love those socks! Beautiful cardi too. Your meme answers made me smile - you sound alot like me - I hate girly things like facials too!

Anonymous said...

Daisy Green and Blacks is now owned by Cadbury/Schweppes .It's on their site. The product is probably still vegetarian but the company might change that policy .

Sue H said...

Great cardigan, even more so as you were such a new knitter at the time.
Dylan looks good in it.
Those socks look terrific.

Badger said...

I love those socks - I still can't get over how soft and touchy feely they were.

artyfartykat said...

That is one special cardi! And one gorgeous model!