The best kind of Finished Project

I’ve not been around here for a long time; it’s been a very difficult few months. Fortunately there was a good reason for it, and I have the best kind of ‘finished object’ to show for it.

This is my gorgeous boy. We shall call him ‘Pepper’. He is just scrummy! Pumpkin and Pickle are absolutely smitten.

Pregnancy was awful, pretty much from start to finish. Hyperemesis (severe sickness) put paid to doing anything but surviving the first few months. Months of lying on the sofa hugely affected my mobility, and I suffered further complications towards the end, which led to Pepper arriving several weeks earlier than expected. The pandemic situation didn’t help much either, but he’s here safely and we are both doing well.

Most of the projects I had on the go last summer have remained untouched, but I did manage a couple of baby projects before Pepper arrived.

This is the ‘Bounce’ baby blanket by TinCanKnits. Made in Stylecraft Special DK, with the colours chosen in an attempt to recreate the original colours without splashing out on the official Rainbow Heirloom yarn kit. It’s super snuggly and soft and I’ve had some lovely compliments on it already.

This is Newborn Vertebrae by Kelly van Niekerk, a free pattern on Ravelry, which I knitted up using some leftover Cuddlebums Sparkle Sock (used for my hat back at the start of 2020) and the contrast edging is Lamington Lass Soft Sock which I bought from Etsy. It’s a perfect little cardi for keeping him warm whilst having some skin to skin cuddle time.

Right now, I’m enjoying all the snuggle time as much as possible, so my hands aren’t free for crafting, but I am looking forward to getting back to some of my previous projects in due course.

Blocking nerves

I always get nervous when it comes to the final step in a knit project – blocking. Not so much the blocking bit, but the washing bit. So nervous that I usually skip the step entirely.

When you’ve spent so many hours working on something, the thought of it possibly felting, or otherwise going horribly wrong is quite nerve-wracking.

But, it had to be done, so after a couple of days procrastinating, I tried not to think about it too much and threw* it in the machine.

*carefully placed inside a mesh laundry bag, with nothing else in the machine, having checked and double checked all settings and the detergent, cross-referenced with all useful advice I could find in a quick Google search.

It emerged feeling lighter and softer and floppier than it went in, and has stretched out beautifully and so much bigger than I thought. I love it!

Can’t wait to get this packed up nicely and sent off to my friend.

Stewing

I’ve spent all day stewing over what to do about the edging. Do I hate it enough to be bothered ripping it back and carefully catching all the original edge stitches back onto a needle, or is it bearable enough that I can just continue and hope it blocks out ok at the end?

Friends, I have not knit a single stitch today, or most of yesterday, and I want this thing done so I can gift it as soon as possible. Not knitting is Not. Good. Clearly I don’t like it enough, and the only answer is to riiiiipppp!!!

I have successfully caught all the stitches up (I think! Better count.) and am ready to begin again. Phew. Here’s hoping my intended fix makes the intended difference.

Garter grumbles

Little Tern is coming along apace. I have knit two full balls already and the main body of the blanket is almost two thirds done. I’ve now started work on the first knitted on border, picking up my provisional cast on edge as I go, to calculate how much yarn the final border will take, so I can use as much yarn as possible for the body without running the risk of not having enough to complete it at the end.

I’m enjoying the lace section, though I’m not totally happy with how it sits on the end of the blanket. I feel like there are too many garter rows and it doesn’t quite match in with the garter edges in the body section. I’m debating whether to rip it back and begin the lacework again with one or maybe even two less garter ridges, but not sure if its worth the effort, or if it might block out and look better at the end anyway. What do you think?

Garden knitting

How lucky am I!? My yarn arrived this week, along with the beautiful weather, and I’ve got all the time I please to sit in the garden and knit a baby blanket.

This is Little Tern by TinCanKnits, in Cascade 220 Superwash Merino in Dark Berry. The yarn is super soft and mega squishy DK weight. It’s quite chonky in comparison to the sock yarn I’ve been used to knitting recently, but it’ll make a lovely squishy bubba blanket.

My garden isn’t very photogenic at the moment, but I’ve also been spending more time doing actual gardening. We have some wooden-framed veg boxes set in the lawn which haven’t seen much use since we moved here, (we managed a few mange tout last yesr, and a pumpkin the year before) but we’ve decided to make a more concerted effort to grow some veg this year. Anyone else getting more veg inclined at the mo?

I took at tip from Phil at The Twisted Yarn and have been growing a few things from kitchen scraps on the windowsill. The leeks and parsnips are sprouting merrily, so will be interesting to see if we can grow actual full size veg from them.

I’ve also got a few packets of flower seeds, so maybe we can have some colour in the garden a bit later in the year.

Baby, don’t wait for me

Yarn has not been forthcoming this week, so the baby blanket will have to wait a few more days. I can’t say the same for the baby it’s intended for, as she made her appearance yesterday and is doing well.

In the meantime, I dug out my big box of long untouched Stylecraft Special DK, and got to work crocheting a seriously frivolous item. Any guesses what this is?

Ripple reveal

The ripple blanket for Pumpkin’s teacher is finally finished. She goes on maternity leave on Friday, so it’s done with plenty of time to spare. I used the Attic 24 Neat Ripple Pattern as usual, which is such a simple but versatile and striking pattern.

FO: Baby Ripples

It’s taken just under a week, and it is finished!

I don’t really like working quite so fast – I was hooking in every spare moment I could find, including finishing the edging between scenes at rehearsal last night! – but it’s such a lovely simple pattern that it was easy to do quickly. I found a little ‘hand made with love’ label that I sewed onto the bottom corner which just finished it off beautifully.

Pumpkin gave it to his teacher at the end of school today. It was rather emotional all round. I think he’s really going to miss her.

Speedy Ripples

Pumpkin’s teacher is going off on maternity leave at the end of next week, so I thought I’d better whip something up quick. (Yes, I have known about it for months and I definitely should have started it sooner!) I’ve made a couple of blankets before for Pickle, using Attic 24’s Neat Ripple Pattern and Stylecraft Special DK. Stylecraft is great for baby blankets. Soft and easy to wash, and wears pretty well, and I have plenty of leftovers to choose from. The ripple pattern is simple but effective, rhythmic and relaxing to hook, so the choice was pretty much made for me.

I have no idea if she’s having a girl or a boy, so I tried to pick a fairly neutral colour scheme. I’m not the best at picking colours (though a little better than Pumpkin who wanted yellow, red, purple, pink and blue. Or ALL the colours.) but I think these ones work pretty well together. Yellow had to be included as it’s Pumpkin’s favourite colour, and I think it just lifts the others from being too much in the cool blue spectrum.

A starting chain of 84 gives a great width for a small car seat or carry cot sized blanket. I began work on it yesterday evening, and a couple of hours this morning has put me at a third of the way through.

I think I might just about manage to get it finished in time! Paired with a handmade card from Pumpkin, it’ll be a lovely gift.

How do you make colour selections for this kind of project? Do you have any tips or tools that you use to help you?

Crochet

My Granny taught me to crochet when I was around 10 or 11. Granny squares. For years, all I knew how to crochet was granny squares! I liked the motion of it, the rhythm of counting stitches, the way they grew quickly from one loop to a small square and bigger. It was faster than knitting, easier (I’d never been able to cast on or off when I’d tried knitting before) and there was only ever one stitch to drop.

I made a blanket for a new baby I knew.

Then stopped.

There’s definitely a limit to the number of granny square blankets I wanted to make. Besides, I had plenty of other things to move on to…

Then, in 2009, when I was expecting my first child, I pulled my old bag of yarn from the wardrobe and made a start on a new baby blanket. The blanket grew and was finished. I wanted to do more. Youtube is a brilliant resource for learning just about anything! I made a hat. I made a bootie. I had a baby boy. The hat was too small. The second bootie never got started. The blanket was all the wrong colours for my baby boy. I made one more blanket for a friend’s baby girl, and then back into the cupboard it went.

Roll on 3 years and I was expecting baby number two. I needed something I could occupy myself with whilst sitting down. I found a pattern for a monkey hat on pinterest (another great resource) and fancied having a go, but didn’t have anything like the right colours, so decided to make it as a polar bear hat for my son. I vaguely followed the pattern, but found it easy to understand the construction and therefore easy to adapt the pattern to suit my ideas and my son. By the end of the day my son was proudly wearing his brand new hat and demanded another – a dragon hat! Said dragon hat duly followed, inspired by pictures I’d seen, but entirely my own design.

I browsed blogs and discovered Attic24, and decided Lucy’s ripple pattern would be great as a baby blanket and started work. A cardigan came next, then matching hats – one for a boy, one for a girl as we did not know what our baby would be – a car seat blanket, then a cake for my son’s kitchen toy box, complete with a plate on request and a slice of cake.

Two weeks overdue and desperate for anything to keep my brain occupied I started a giraffe soft toy and was invited to join a crochet group on Facebook. Baby boy eventually arrived and time to crochet was limited, but the giraffe did get finished. I discovered Ravelry and learned about blocking and frogging, new stitches and tried new patterns, and there have been a few more projects since then – a second giraffe, a Heidi Bear Happypotamus, a doll’s blanket for my niece and a beautiful shawl that is very slowly taking shape. More hats and boots and even an attempt at writing a pattern.

I very much enjoy crochet, but I am quite selective in choosing my crochet projects. I don’t have the kind of house that lends itself to rustic, pretty homemade decorations (they’d just get buried under all the clutter) and I’m not always confident that homemade gifts will be appreciated in all quarters, so I largely stick to making things that I know I will use.  That said, there are the occasional projects I’ve undertaken just because I fancied having a go at something a bit different that caught my eye.

I will be keeping a record of items I’ve made – even just writing this post has made me realised that I’ve made more than I thought I had – and maybe posting a pattern or two should inspiration strike.

Let me know how and when you learned to crochet, and tell me what your favourite pattern is and why you like it.