A Beautiful Gift

Emma Jervis gave us the gift of her time, patience and skillset to capture images of our three generations.

We adore these images.

Emma did a wonderful job capturing Wyatt’s personality and the features and expressions of his that we associate with our little Squidge.

This is a link to her website. Go and explore some of her other photography. It will be a feast for the eyes.

Here is a selection of some of the beautiful gift she gave us.

In news of the knitting kind, I’m two thirds of the way through a commission for a classmate.

Magic Coffee Baby Hat designed by Tracey Kay

She was quite taken with the colourway of one of Wyatt’s Magic Coffee Baby Hats and asked for one in an adult size in the same colourway but without the top knot.

So, after checking in with her about what kind of adult hat she’d like, we settled on a slouch style and I’m using this pattern from Knitting magazine, August 2010 Issue 79. You may recognise it from here.  I’ve made two hats from this pattern already and they were both welcomed and worn by their recipients.

These two balls of Sirdar Snuggly Crofter Fair Isle Effect DK yarn became a slouchy hat for a classmate of mine

This is the yarn that my classmate likes so much when knitted. It’s Sirdar Snuggly Crofter Baby Fair Isle Effect DK.

For anyone who’s interested, and for my future ease of reference, the Shade is 0166 and the Dye Lot is 145149.

This is the stage the slouch hat is currently at. My classmate tried it on for size this morning (DPNs sticking out and all).

It fits (she was very relieved about this as it looks smaller on the needles and the ribbing pulls the fabric in).

This post is going to be a baby-kniting-baby sandwich type of affair. I led with baby photos and I’m ending with baby photos.

I hope you all had a Happy St. Patrick’s Day. So does Wyatt. 🙂

Milk Drunk on Paddy’s Day

Super Irish Baby! Hon the Irish!

Oh the tension!

Tension!

Let me tell you all about my tension!

See this thing?

This is my Lervia sewing machine

The fabric you see is part of an applique cushion project that become part of a craft demo in Hickey’s on Cruises Street.

The tutorial I was provided with was lovely and straightforward.

My machine, on the other hand, was anything but lovely and straightforward to use.

The top thread kept snapping.

My lovely friend Hazel advised that I needed to sort out my tension.

Rum and coke! That would sort out my tension I cried!

As you can see, I made some headway amid all the snapping thread and snapping nerves.

Alison in Hickey’s is a credit to all that is patient and helpful. I came into the store on high doe worried about my woeful work and was greeted with her smiling, encouraging and helpful self.

All was well in the end. I even got a round of applause for my efforts (though I think that was more to do with the good nature of my audience and my comedy routine than my craftwork).

The librarians are getting antsy and I have to go (in LIT using the internet dontcha know).

So, as is becoming my tradition here, I shall leave you with a slice of cuteness in the form of my little Squidge.

Happy crafting folks!

 

 

Fab

Patons FAB! DK, pictured above, is a thoroughly decent buy.

From this ball I have made a hat.

And two tops.

Wyatt obliged his nana by modelling this top for size before it had sleeves or buttons added. He was hiccupping at the time.

 

I swear that this face was in response to hiccups and not to the knitwear. His mother states otherwise.

 

This is the same top with sleeves and buttons. I’ve since rethought the sleeves. Ribbed sleeves on a wriggly baby do not make for easy dressing.

This is the second jumper in progress. It’s been cast off now and is awaiting the sleeve stitches to be cast off. It’s already been worn by Wyatt with the sleeve stitches held on tied life lines.

There’s still a decent amount of yarn left.

I like that in a yarn. Less than €4 spent on it and I have three items of babywear from it.

Decently soft and wearable items too.

I paired Patons FAB! DK with Double Knitting Baby in shade “Baby Denim”.

The Baby Denim colourway makes for a lovely edging, especially on riotous varigated knits, and is also acceptably soft.

And for no other reason than grandmotherly besottedness, I part your company with a photo of Wyatt bundled up snugger than a Mountie making his way over the Rockies.

Wyatt bundled up like an Eskimo.

Getting back into the knit of things

Having been thoroughly besotted with and distracted by this little, but ever growing, FO (though, I suppose, he really is a WIP),

He looks like he’s plotting mischief of some sort 🙂

 

I decided it was high time to cast on a yarn based WIP.

Of course, the yarny WIP is for the human WIP.

I used a some Double Knitting Baby by Stylecraft in “Baby Denim” to cast on the edge of, what became a heavily modified, Magic Coffee Baby Hat.

The crown of the hat was worked with FAB varigated DK.

It went from this……

The DPN’s used are Takumi 4mm

 

To this in a few hours.

It’s got a lovely basketweave effect and I really like how the crown turned out.

It can be worn either way. The top picture shows it as I knit it up with rows of purl breaking up a staggered 2 x 2 rib.

The 2nd photo shows the inside which really looks like a basketweave with some purling thrown in for good measure.

Wyatt’s momma didn’t notice the difference between the two sides of fabric (even with concentrated squinting).

I used the stitch counts from the Magic Baby Coffee Hat for 2nd size up.

I’ll leave you with a parting photo of my snoozing grandbaby (no wonder I’m distracted!).

He approved of the top I was wearing. You can read about it here and here.

Happy crafting!

 

 

Our household has been busy

No broadband yet.

We do however have a new baby.

Meet my darling grandbaby Wyatt.

He’s 5 days old in this picture, wearing a puerperium cardigan and lying on his log cabin blanket.

The knitwear should look familiar. 🙂

He’s all of 14 days old today. I had him out and about with  me in town this morning. We popped into Singer Sewing Centre and picked up two balls of Sirdar Snuggly Baby Speckle Shade 207 Dye Lot 110870. Wyatt was introduced to the lovely staff in Hickey’s and waited patiently in his front carrier while he was cooed over and while the materials for an upcoming craft demo were gathered.

I left Hickey’s with this cute little ducky.

It’s destined to be used on the front of one of Wyatt’s many Puerperium cardigans.

I managed to sew in the end of this cardi with Wyatt cradled in my arms. Dexterity for the win.

Hopefully, now that we’re getting into a routine with our little man, I’ll be able to get back into a blogging/studying routine.

Here’s hoping.

I’ll leave you with another cute baby photo. My online handle could now be #besottedwithgrandson.

Wyatt’s 1 day old in this photo and swaddled in a puerperium cardigan and a magic coffee baby hat

Another finished item

Another adaptation of the Puerperium cardigan measurements which has turned out quite successfully.

I’m rather pleased with it. It’s so exciting to think that my little grandson will be snuggled up in this sooner rather than later.

I’d realised that a lot of the cardigans that I’d knit for him are rather generously sized. As the lad is quite likely to be dinky I decided that I should make him some dinkier items. This cardigan was knit on 3mm needles instead of 4mm needles and I think the change in needle size did the trick.

I’m ever so slowly making progress with setting up my little craft business. It now has its own blog. As I’m without internet at home, things are not proceeding at the pace that I would like them to, but proceed they will.

As you’ve probably guessed, I’m typing up this blog post in the LIT library so I should probably make use of the last 30 minutes before the librarians start enthusiastically declaring that the library is closing.

This little red number is currently on my needles. It has a top down construction and is destined to be a V-neck jumper. The momma-to-be has declared that her son has quite enough cardigans with oodles of buttons waiting for him and that it’s high time that he have handknit jumpers with absolutely no buttons.

Right, I’m off. Happy crafting!

Oh the digits!

The digits, numbers and sums that had my crafters brain befuddled as I adapted the Puerperium cardigan into a regular front opening top down cardigan!

I’ve played around with the pattern before in order to create this.

http://instagram.com/p/gA9R3kHKsJ/

So you’d think, as I’ve done it before, that I would be able to easily do it again.

Alas and alack! Twas not so. With surreptitious tinkering of numbers and diagrams in Strategic Management (shhhh, don’t tell my lecturer), I managed to figure my way to rearranging the stitches without having to add or subtract any.

http://instagram.com/p/jaF1pAnKvW/

http://instagram.com/p/je-3KHHKmo/

It will nicely match the Magic Coffee Baby Hat I made

http://instagram.com/p/jXru_GnKob/

And this is what I made it out of. Sirdar Snuggly Crofter Baby Fair Isle DK

http://instagram.com/p/iRY-eTnKhk/

Shade 0174 Lot 148993

http://instagram.com/p/iRY2ZsnKha/

 

I have a request for my lovely readers. A lovely friend of mine has a studious son who is keen to get a good grade in a project which involves having a Facebook page. His page is called “iStyleUs”. It would be awesomely kind of you to take the time to head over to and like his page (if you’re on FB that is). Thank you!

As I’m back in the LIT library I should probably get back to doing some actual work now that I’ve finished my blog post.

Back to Ops I go, back to Ops I go. Heigh ho, the merry-o! Back to Ops I go!

Done, done, done!

This is made from what was left over from making Wyatt’s homecoming blanket

I think this is a sweet little colourway. .  I’d happily let it adorn my grandbaby boys head. His momma-to-be on the other hand disapproves as it has pink in it. *sigh*  So, instead, this is one for the Hope Chest and shall be gifted to another baby at some point in the future. There is a slight imperfection in it, thanks to a silly knot in the ball, which shall be disguised by the addition of a cute character patch. It’s not a glaring imperfection but I notice it.

The yellow item beneath the hat is another Puerperium cardigan. The sleeves have yet to be finished. More yarn is required to do this. The momma-to-be wants it to be a yellow cardigan so it makes sense that the sleeves also be yellow. I’m hoping it won’t be too much longer before I can splash out and get the yarn. Oh the joys of being a college going nana-to-be on a stupidly restrictive budget.

Wyatt’s homecoming blanket

You can see the weensie amount of pink. Weensie I tell ya.

It would have been handy if I had uploaded these in the order in which they were knit, wouldn’t it. That, however, would’ve been far too straightforward and not at all like me.

Look at those lovely crown decreases. Just look at them. The way they flow upward and culminate in the i-cord. Yes, I am a dork when it comes to the finer points of knitting and I’m just fine and dandy about that. I’m a dork and proud of it. 🙂

I’m such a dork about these things that I may have altered the decrease method so that it has more of a flow. I know. I know. I’m sweating the small stuff. It’s fun though and pleases me greatly.

This is the little hat that had to be frogged just as I reached the crown decreases. Look at it now. All lovely and with the right stitch count all the way through. There’s more of this colourway left. It shall become a top down cardigan for a newborn and also be placed in the Hope Chest. Credit where it is due, this is a Magic Coffee Baby Hat by Treacy Kay.

Buttons have finally been sewn onto the two latest Puerperium cardigans.

It’s thanks to the latest SnB meet up in The Hunt Museum Cafe that I got those buttons finally sewn on. The lovely hot chocolate kindly bought for me by Edell may have helped to provide the right amount of energy and focus required for the task. That, and several pairs of eyes looking at the progress I was making.

Thinking in Numbers by David Tammet

As we have established that I am indeed a dork, let me share some more of my dorky pleasure. “Thinking in Numbers – How Maths Illuminates our Lives” by David Tammet. The writer has a lovely way of sharing his fascination with numbers. I’ve just discovered that he has a blog *happy dance* The book isn’t all digits and dullness. David weaves his own recollections of his fascination with numbers with historical takes on math. For instance, did you know that the idea of zero was a relatively new concept in the time of Shakespeare? Equally, the use of digitis 1,2,3,3,5 and so on were also a relatively new development.

This copy of his book is on loan from The Granary Library. It’s free to join and the staff are only delightful.

Right, I’ve got to get back to the scintillating world of databases.

Happy crafting!

I miscalculated

You know how I was working on this

And it grew……

Stitches and Stacks

And I said that I would have it finished by the next day….

Well….

Quite fitting that there’s an assignment on implementation distasters in the background

Finishing my third Magic Coffee Baby Hat didn’t happnen.

I got as far as the first round of crown decreases and realised at the end of the round that I had too few stitches.

So near and yet so far!

To my mind, the crown decreases are one of the hats lovely features. I couldn’t muss about with a wrong stitch count in so obvious a place. Obvious to me at any rate. So frogging was called for. I have yet to cast on again.

Oh well. That’s the great thing about working with a sturdy acrylic yarn. It can deal with a lot of mistakes, tinking back and frogging.

For anyone who’s interested Limerick SnB will be meeting up in the Hunt Museum Cafe tomorrow, Sunday the 19th January, from 2pm to 5pm.

Happy crafting folks!

I don’t want to string you along………

I have a lovey skein of art yarn that made its way to me from a town in the vicinity of San Francisco.

It’s a wonderful concoction with a blend of exotic fibres and features. Yet I’ve let it sit and be pretty, kept at a distance from my needles and my hands, because I don’t want to make a mess of it.

Making a jolly old mess of things is how I’ve learned how to be the knitter, and dare I say, the person, that I am today. So why in the world of the purls and plains am I so afraid of what might be that I’m letting something wonderful just sit there?

It’s become my stash equivalent of that walking slice of hotness that is such a boon to your life that situating them safely in the friend zone is a safer bet than taking the chance that you and they could be something more.

Goodness gracious! I’ve friend-zoned my prize yarn!

Give me any type of acrylic, silk, cotton, rayon or woolly yarn you like and I’ll whip it up into something. While it’s true that I’ve come across yarns that I’ve declined to work with (such as that pink and white plastic fantastic monstrosity pictured below *shudders*), this is the first yarn that lands me in a state of anxiety.

I don’t even know what it is. It feels like condensed plastic shopping bag string. It was part of a bag of stash I was gifted.

Sure I’ve had my share of pretty yarns but this yarn is different to all the others. It’s a one of a kind.

Here’s the nitty gritty detail:

It’s Wild Stuff by Prism

Aran / 10 ply

Nylon, Mohair, Wool, Alpaca, Silk

300 yards / 180 grams

Skeins like this don’t come into my life very often. I make not be in the position to have such a beautiful and interesting skein in my life again, or at least, not for a very long time.

Oh the potential!

The unused and unexpressed potential curled up in the fibres of that delicately wound skein.

Is my skillset up to the task of showing it to its best advantage?

What in the world would I make out of it that would best suit its nature and make up?

It’s not the kind of yarn that’s easy to tink back, so what if I make a mistake and it becomes a ruined tangle?!

What if, and oh, and goodness gracious me! The anxiety!

My “I think about you a lot” queen of skeins, who makes me feel inadequate to the task of making the best of you.  I don’t want to string you along so don’t get me wrong when I pick you up and admire how your fibres intertwine. I can’t take my eyes off of you but I’m not the one you should be counting on to spend time on the couch with while we experiment with what shapes we could make together. Oh the wonderful things that could be……….. if only I’d stop being a wuss and get my crafting act together.

Instead I’ll make do with a respectable little acrylic blend to keep my hands busy and satisfy my immediate needs. There’s a comfort that comes from knowing what the outcome will be and knowing that I won’t be heartbroken if it doesn’t work out with the respectable acrylic blend. Besides, we’re used to each other now.

Why rock the boat by taking a chance on the exotic skein when it could go hopelessly wrong? As it is, I can admire it’s pretty self from a distance.

I mean, how could a skein as marvellous as this one is, be content with what I have to offer?

Could being transformed into a scarf with humbly simple stitches possibly satisfy the potential of such a skein?

I don’t know. It’s that lack of certainty that keeps my hands idle.

Of course, having taken it for granted for the past couple of years that my pretty skein will be there when I want it……….when I went to find it to take a picture of it for this blog post, I couldn’t find it………

That was to be expected really.

I may have been influenced by this before writing this blog post.