New baby set

This weekend I've made a sweet little new baby set consisting of a hat, pair of mitts and a pair of bootees ideal for those first few week.

These would make a lovely gift for any new baby, hand knitted in #JamesCBrett white yarn.

Return to dementia mitts

A few yrs ago I made some dementia mitts for the local dementia society, since then I've also been making them for my mother in laws care home.   Sadly in February my mother in law died suddenly and I thought I would make some more mitts to say thank you for the care she received whilst in the home.

To make the mitts I use all my odd bit of yarn to make then as colourful as possible, I search in all the chairty shops for buttons, beads, jingle bells and ribbons and lace to make them eye catching, and the residents really appreciate them so do the carers as they calm them down with something to fiddle with.

A few weeks later the Covid 19 virus hit, so with this in mind I had plenty of time to make as many as possible, and would be delivering them as soon as I could .

So far I've made 13 I'm hoping to make at least 30 if not more

Face mask

With the on going Covid  19, I decided to help out daughter number one and her friend and make a few face masks for them to help them at work.

I sorted through my stash of fat quarters and pick these.



After a quick wash and iron I cut the masks out the size I use was 9" x 6" x 2 for each piece at this point my poor husband nearly died of shock when he found me on the floor using a rotary cutter on the new carpet, he couldn't see the cutting board underneath 😂😂





After attaching the elastic I  then added the pleats to give the mask room to cover the face, and placed the second piece on top this also had pleats and machined all around the edges leaving a gap for turning out.







Once turned out I pressed the pleats as this made it easier to then sew around the edges to finish it off securely.

12 masks waiting to be picked up at social distancing of course

Pretty in pink

Pretty pink dress

As soon as I saw this pattern (which was a surprise gift from a friend) I thought yes I must make this, I'm using #JamesCBrett super soft double knit I like this yarn as its machine washable because we all know what baby's are like but it's not to go the tumble dryer.

This little dress is pretty enough to be worn on a special occasion or just every day wear and I'm sure it will get a lot of use.  its will fit a 16" chest which is on average a 0-3 month baby.

It's got a lovely lace patterns skirt and a stocking stitch bodice with a lace panel on the front 

 The front of dress

Detail of the front panel

Detail of the back

Baby blue

Baby's patterned jumper

This weeks project was a pale blue  patterned jumper knitted from #Patons fab DK,  which is machine washable and can be tumble dry on a low heat, which is always good when you have a tiny baby.

This super cute jumper is for a 16" chest so that's an average new born to 3 months depending how big the baby is.

The jumper has a lovely moss stitch panel in the centre garter stitch panels each side ending with a double moss stitch on the outside edges.   The back is knitted in stocking stitch and has two buttons and the sleeves are also in stocking stitch.

  back of jumper

  front panel

              

front detail

just before being sewn together

As you can see it's a short jumper which I personally don't like on baby's I like a nice long jumper to cover their little backs to keep them warm so next time I'm going to add an extra inch or so to the body of the jumper.

Taking a break from craft fairs

Taking a break!

Over the past 2 yrs I've been doing a craft fair each month except to January, August and December, so as you can imagine this plus working full time has left me exhausted.

Taking stock 

After doing 20 craft fairs with virtually only weeks in between I was rapidly running out of stock, and so I took them momentous decision to take a year off from craft fairs, as I was rushing to make new items and really not enjoying knitting anymore.

So I've been looking for inspiration on the internet, and also I decided to  look at what were my best sellers and redesign a few items and look at designing some new knitwear.

Having a large stock of yarn I wanted to make more colourful knitwear, and I've been looking at updating some of my patterns adding stripes and motifs, and using different stitches, I rather like the double rib as this makes a super cuddly jumper without the bulk of chunky yarn on little babies, and it's also stretchy for longer wear. !!

I particularly like autumn  colours, golds, oranges, reds, greens, purple so I'm thinking of making this one of my jumpers, with think stripes on each colour, at #Woolwarehouse they have a large supply of beautiful yards as well as buttons.

Looking through my stash of yarns I found some rainbow yarns I'd forgotten I had, these are  #Paton, and I've also found yarn from #Stylecraft and #knitsirdar, and my imagination took off at a fair sped, I could see lovely dresses, tops and legging for when those dark winter days need cheering up.

I also have a large range of pastel yarns from #JamesCBrett, #knitsirdar and #stylecraft, which I'm going to use to make lovely summery knitwear to match with the dresses I want to make, and I want to try hand and machine smocking. So watch this space.

Super cute angel top

This weeks make is a lemon yellow angel top made from #JamesCBrett super soft baby double knit.

The body was all made in one. 

 

And the sleeves were added with the yoke and knitted as one, and has 5 buttons down the back.

This super cute little dress will keep someone lovely and warm with a pair of white tights 

New surprise parcel

Lovely parcel

I had A lovely surprise today from #JamesCBrett as a thank you,  3 Lilac, 3 blue and 2 soft grey balls of yard all in super soft baby double knit.

Thank you #JamesCBrett I can't wait to use this

Lockdown knitting

Working from home

Whilst the Covid19 lockdown has been on I've had to work from home.  (Shame) 

This gives me extra time in the evening as there has been no traveling involved and I get an extra few hours each night to knit.

So far I made 3 cardigans and 1 jumper using #James C Brett and #Stylecraft yarns both of which I purchased from #Woolwarehouse.

Two white cardigans, a grey cardigan and a pale blue jumper and this weeks work in progress is a yellow angle top