A penguin for Leo

My friend's little one's first birthday was just the reason I needed to make this delight. Not sure now when, or where, I came across this pattern for the Up and Down penguin by Emma-Jayne Fakes but I was itching to make my own. Well, Leo's own.

This version has a slightly more elongated head than the original which is totally my fault - I should have paid more attention! He was made using some unknown black wool from the basket but I do think it was thicker than the DK used in the original pattern, and so he simply needed less rounds for his head. Oh well, by the time Leo has cuddled him and sat on him a few times, I'm sure no-one will notice.  The wheeled base is part of a toy I bought in the M&S sale a few years ago, for this very purpose.

Do hope you are having fun being one, Leo!

The other baby cardigan

Now knitted so long ago it possibly fits baby no longer... This was the second cardy I knitted for a soon-to-be-Gran-again last summer

Soon-to-be-Gran chose the pattern from a pile of my knitting books, which I was most happy about because of the moss stitch. This is the matinee jacket from Claire Montgomerie's easy baby knits. It is worth doing a quick Ravelry check for errata as my copy of the book has a few mistakes for this pattern. The wool used is a wool and bamboo mix - cozy bamboo by Ella Rae in Lullaby - chosen because the bamboo seemed suitable for a babe living in Australia

This is a very silky, drapey wool with quite a sheen. I had to size down to 3.75mm needles to get the correct tension. Oh, and like others before have said, this seems to be a fairly wide knit, certainly compared to the other cardy knitted at the same time.

How dreamy - a little pile of baby cardies!

Moss stitch mittens

Mittens for me. And oh, how I love them. Mittens and moss stitch...

My mittens happened as happily the same day the purl bee released their free seed stitch mittens and handwarmers pattern and I fell in love and had to make some now, Mr R gave me some wool as a Valentine's Day present. I am a lucky duck. That was two years ago. I decided that this was to be the pattern I learnt the magic that is the  knitting in the round magic loop. And it took me an age to understand but now... now everything for the almost last two years is knitted using the magical magic loop. No more ladders up the sides of my knits thank you.  And so I oh so happily knitted a mitt. And then, just as when I knitted some socks, I felt the happiness of having finished my pair of mittens and was all eager to wear them. The only problem was, I had finished one mitt. And so this one mitt sat, alone in a bag until I needed some telly watching knitting this Christmas time and they were rescued.

 The wool is the gorgeously soft and lovely to knit with Sublime baby cashmere merino silk dk, in Teddy red. Well done Mr R, you chose well

Did I really just knit a minecraft hat?

Not so long ago, I had little idea that this is how I will spend my time. But I had pleading from P that I make one for his friend for his birthday. And that pleading has continued once P realised I had wool leftover and is now planning one for his very own lovely head

Strange, mottled effect on P's navy t - sorry. 

A few minutes on Ravelry found Alexandra Davidoff's Creeper beanie. I didn't happen to have any suitable colour wool in the basket, so ordered a ball of Cascade pacific in kelly green from Wool Warehouse. A true kelly green seemed the right colour, so this limited my wool choices, but really I have little idea what makes a good minecraft green. Cascade pacific is a rather floppy wool - I think the word may be drapey - with a slight sheen to it. The pattern is for a one size fits all, and I made a slight change from the pattern by knitting it on the same size needle, ribbing and all. Because I had the required 4.5mm and not a 5mm, and as it is made to fit adults and children I thought this would be OK. And it is OK, though the ribbing is fairly loose and it is quite large for a child's head. Also, peculiar gathered effect at the top. Next time (gosh, did I really say that?) I would use a simple hat pattern used before for a better fit and then add the duplicate stitch. The black wool was from the basket and whilst a similar weight it was much sturdier which may be why the green shows through the stitching. 

So, whilst I may not see this as one of my favourite makes, Ben was most happy with his hat. And Patch just a little envious. Happy birthday, Ben!

Those Christmas pyjamas I mentioned...

Oh my, there has been poorliness for all in our home this past month. Hopefully we have now all shared so can get on with being healthy and cheery once more. And even though it may be one of the sunniest days of the year so far, I am going to show these pyjamas - which P is still wearing. He doesn't seem to mind snow globes in spring

 The pattern is the much used oliver +s sandbox pants at its most simple - actually, just without the pockets, but that is enough to make these a quick make. Made in the size eight I think (oh why don't I pay better attention, or make a note somewhere as to which size I'm making? I end up each time looking to see which is the largest size traced off and using that... there has to be a better method!) If these are a size eight then they are still rather long on my newly nine year old, and would be massive around the waist.  I have learnt to use Patch's waist measurement rather than that suggested in the pattern as they do seem to come up oh so large.

The fabric was the main reason for these pyjamas. Oh, and it was Christmas. It is cotton + steel's snow globes and it is oh so soft and a delight, purchased from poppies and polka dots. And they should still fit come next Christmas!

Mother's Day presents

I'm finding that writing about an event that occurred this very month is making me feel rather organised and happy. So I may still have to take photographs of P's Christmas pyjamas, which are probably already far too seasonally inappropriate to mention, and there may be piles of stuff to sort balanced around our home but still I'm happy. And the sun is shining and I've just eaten a delicious rhubarb filled Pump Street Bakery doughnut. That may well have something to do with it...

Mother's Day presents this year were a spring plant and a wooly make for both lovely Mums. For my Mum a shawl

 Which was rather tricky to photograph. Because it is a pretty shawl, not as rag-like as it looks here. Beautiful oh so soft wool - the delightfully named scrumptious lace by Fyberspates in Rose Pink. The mix of silk and merino means that this is dreamy to touch but I didn't  love knitting it though - maybe I'm not yet a fan of knitting with lace weight wool.

The pattern is the waif shawlette, a design by Izzywoo which includes two sizes - a scarf and shawlette. This is the larger of the two. And still there is lots of wool left. Hmmm, maybe I have to embrace the lace weight as it would be a shame to let this peach of a wool sit squished in the basket

For the other Mrs Robinson I made a string bag which she loved. In navy because that is the colour of choice, always.

I started following JustBeCrafty's pattern (found here on Ravelry) and am left slightly unsure whether it is written in UK  or American terms. I followed it as a UK pattern and it looks suitably like a string bag

I used three and a bit balls of Rico creative cotton aran which happily leaves me with some leftover to make another string bag for me. I have little need for another and yet am itching to make one using the rest of the dark blue combined with a gorgeous rhubarb colour

Yet again, using up wool from the basket involves purchasing more wool...

Somebody had a birthday... and a Quidditch party

And it wasn't me. Well, I have just had the birthday bit but not the Quidditch party. Not that I was thinking of my birthday at all when I wrote that title - mine was lovely and gentle but most non-blog worthy. Patch's, though now a few weeks ago, was slightly more blog worthy as it involved two cakes and a few makes. The first cake for Patch's birthday

This one made our cat loving boy very happy. Followed a week or so later by a not so gentle looking cake for the party

Which made a group of serious Quidditch players very happy. Both cakes were made with the same chocolate cake recipe - the hummingbird bakery's devil's food cake, with dairy-free butter and milk substitutes, which makes for a most yum choc cake but the very best bit is the creamy icing holding it altogether. In this house we obviously like to include all the family in being able to munch such celebratory cakes but it can sometimes result in a slightly hmmm, you can tell that's not made with butter treat. Particularly so for butter icing. But no longer, with a mix of dairy-free marg, almond milk and Trex. That stuff works wonders for a non-butter butter icing. (I know the supporting kit-kats are not suitable for a dairy-free diet but those concerned were fine having them resting on the icing)

The crazy amount of sugar was just the thing for half time in the Quidditch match. When a Quidditch party was first mentioned, I thought we would maybe blow up a balloon Quaffle and a few bludgers, fashion a golden snitch out of something gold and gather together a few brooms. The most tricky thing was going to be how to attach the hoops for goalposts. But then Daddy got involved and there was talk of official Quidditch teams and a World Cup and proper rules. 

They loved it! All came with brooms (Joshua's freshly made broom still had green leaves), though Zofia misplaced her broom and we had to have a rummage in the village hall broom cupboard. There  were various balls, bright pink laundry baskets for goalposts, a snitch made from a golden cat's toy ball - the ones with holes which was most handy to poke through a length of white netting for wings. Mr R happily took on Madam Hooch's role and amazingly all the children understood the rules and went home undamaged

I did want to make something other than the team bands and decided that Patch really needed a Gryffindor scarf. I had thought that P would be wearing the Harry Potter costume made last year which included a generic wizard cloak made a few years before that. It was only when P was discussing his upcoming party with the lovely owners of Delphine's Diner where we were having an actual birthday milkshake, that P mentioned that the wizard's cloak simply was not the thing for a student attending Hogwarts.  Luckily we had just over a week until the party so time for me to make a suitable cloak. But then lovely, lovely Delphine owner presented Patch with an official Harry Potter cloak for him to borrow. I think she may have seen my face when I realised I had a cloak to make, and had dashed upstairs to ask her daughter if we could borrow theirs. How lovely! Leaving me to get on with knitting a scarf.

I looked on Ravelry and sort of mainly followed this one though rather vaguely followed. I loved knitting the double sided scarf but on straight needles - a little bit of knitting magic! The wool is Drops Nepal in deep red and goldenrod and I just knitted until a good length and then added the necessary tassels. A rather lovely Daddy of a rather lovely friend of  Patch's amazed and astounded us all by making these gorgeous wands for all of the children. Each of the wands was different and made       a magical party bag present. He will be forever known as Mr Ollivander.