Thankfully they did and Maria has kindly let me use the photo of one of her kitties (George) providing scale to the tiny, tiny shoes. I can’t wait to see the wee one in them as soon as they decide they’re ready to appear!

Otherwise, it’s mostly baby knitting at the moment and secret baby knitting at that. It’s kind of amazing how many people I know are pregnant at the moment!

Finally got around to writing up the pattern (In the sidebar or Here.

The pattern works pretty well, I think. There’s lots of stretch and the bias from the decreases/increases means that it stays in place, but isn’t tight at all, so there should be some room to grow. It’s a little loose on the Earthling, but he’s a little small for six months and it still stays on without any problems (as far as I know!)

Plus, it gave me a chance to use some of the casbah which is a gorgeous yarn, lovely colours, nice springy texture… but yeah, I really have to accept that the types of pattern I like to knit don’t work so well with that kind of self-striping yarn.

And yet, I still can’t quite stop myself buying it.

It’s been so long since I posted anything to this blog. So about time, right?

This, by the way, is the most recent project I’ve finished. The pattern is from Sidar, to use with their baby bamboo (great yarn), but I had some baby cashmerino so…

I’m very happy (and deeply relieved!) with the way it turned out. I like cabelling to knit, but the yarns are very different –cashmerino is soft and springy, bamboo is slippery and drapey- but it’s ended up being the right size. I still want to block it, just to make it that little bit neater, and find some buttons but it’s pretty much done.

Just trying to get back in the habit of, you know, updating.

This is the Debbie Bliss Donkey Jacket, from the Baby Knits book.

First off, I like the Debbie Bliss products, the end result of the patterns, but the patterns themselves? I think they’re pretty bad. They’re poorly written, unclear and frequently make you do things the longer and more awkward way around. This pattern (which is for a girl -my father assures me that gunmetal grey is fine for a girl, even a newborn, and the mother wears blues and greys more than pinks anyway) was adapted in the following ways.

The sleeves were knit in the round, rather than flat and sewn up. This is because I am lazy and want to avoid as much extra work as possible.

The hood was shaped using shortrows, rather than casting off at the beginning of rows. This is because I am lazy and want to avoid as much work as possible (three needle bind off or grafting is easier than sewing).

The shoulders, where the pattern says to cast off, and then sew the tops together? Three needle bind off, because I am lazy and… well, you get the idea.

The lining (which is basically the outer jacket knit on smaller needles) was not sewn on to outer layer. Instead, I used poppers to join it where it needed it (hood, the button-side of the front, one at the back), so that it could be taken off. The idea is that when the weather warms up and the baby gets bigger, they can take out the lining and still use the jacket.

Baby clothes are so much quicker to make than normal clothes, especially when they’re knit on aran weight yarn. I do like the cashmerino yarn, and I do like the end result of the pattern, so I’d give a cautious recommendation to the book, but with a pretty hefty qualifier that the patterns aren’t written well and there are no schematics.