My brother and his wife have been expecting a baby and I’m very pleased to say she arrived on Saturday. Mummy, Baby, Daddy and Dog are very well and at home.
Anyway...this is what I’ve been up too all these months. I looked and looked for something suitable for a boy or a girl and also something that was traditional and that she/he would be able to keep. I looked through many modern patterns but they just weren’t as nice. I settled on a Sirdar blanket from a book of old Sirdar baby patterns. It is knitted in Sirdar Snuggly.
I started knitting at the end of October and worked out that I needed to do 10 rows per day to be finished in time, allowing for days when I wasn’t well. It was a good job I allowed for those days as not long after I started I ended up poorly with a tummy bug which I think I got from the hospital and it knocked my off my feet for about 2 weeks. So I was already 140 rows behind before I’d even started!!
It’s not a difficult pattern but you need to concentrate, each square with a petal is done individually and worked diagonally so at most you only have 35 stitches, so the 10 row thing isn’t too bad. Each petal is raised and stand out. Don’t ask me how because I have no idea but it just does, it's probably something to do with the decreasing. I ended up working two or three petals at a time and then taking the stocking stitch part to my knitting group so I wouldn’t make a mistake.
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| So this is 4 worked squares sewn together. |
I also got a brilliant tip from our resident knitting expert at Knit Chic's. Sew up as you go...and I did. The thought of sewing up 24 squares didn’t fill me with much confidence. So I sewed two together, then another two together, then the first two to the second two and so on, and so on. The biggest challenge was sewing the middle of the work but I did it in stages. I also had to do two rows of double crochet around the edge which again was a bit of a challenge but I did it with a little help from my knitting friends.
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| The crotchet boarder was a bit of a challenge. |
I wanted to do something else so I decided on a Sirdar Snuggly cardigan which came free with a copy of Simply Knitting. http://simplyknitting.themakingspot.com/
I’ve done it in yellow (which I think they call duckling) and put on some dummy buttons which I think these are the best bit of the whole cardigan. After doing the blanket this has flown up really quickly and I’m really pleased with it. The arms are really long but there's nothing I can do about that now. I’m doing another one at the moment in a pale green for another lady who has just had a little boy. A lady from knitting has shown me how to knit the back and front together so I don’t have to sew up the sides.
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| The best part is the dummy buttons. |
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