Baby Daisy Dress

My new pattern has taken quite a bit of thought. I love dresses with a yoke, and I also love moss stitch. So to combine the two took a bit of working out. I also love fair isle, but not the really tricky kind. So the fair isle daisies are pretty, but quite easy to follow.

So my Baby Daisy Dress incorporates all of these, but is still a fairly easy knit. The pattern comes in two sizes (0-3 months and 3-6 months) which is why it has taken me so long to produce. It even has a proper tension square.

I like baby clothes not in the traditional blue/pink, which is why I went for this gentle green. (This may be a bit radical, but I also think baby girls can look pretty in blue, and I like babies in dark colours.)

I have photographed it hung on my new willow screen, which hubby put up to hide a rather the neighbour's ugly fence. I thought it made a rather cool backdrop. 

It is knitted in Aran wool, which makes it a fairly quick knit. The front and back are the same. If you don't like the daisy pattern it would be quite easy to knit it plain, or come up with your own pattern. I will be posting about another version of this dress with an interesting intarsia design in a few days.

This dress has gone to its new owner, whose Mum's favourite colour is green!

And here it is knitted in the smaller size, using Rowan Felted Tweed Aran wool.

The pattern for Baby Daisy Dress is available on ravelry, Etsy and LoveKnitting.

Egyptian Sandals

Egyptian Sandals in the British Museum. Hmmm.... Am I thinking of a new shoes design? It amazes me how complete and well-preserved they are.

My Crochet Diary - Country Flowers

In my first crochet diary I thought I had shown you all the crochet books that I own. But then I remembered that I have two other books, which I think of as knitting books, as I had only used the knitting halves of them.  The 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet by Lesley Stanfield, is the book that enthused me into resuming knitting, after not doing it for a few years. And the 75 Birds, Butterflies and Beautiful Beasties was one of my leaving gifts when I moved jobs. Although I have knitted quite a lot of the projects, the crochet sections of both books had been completely ignored.
 

These Hellebores took several attempts

The 100 Flowers book divides the patterns in Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. So far I have manly stuck to basic, and still have to sit with my other book open to remind myself on how to do some of the stitches. Annoyingly most of my favourites are in the intermediate and advanced sections of the book, but hopefully I will get to some of them in time.
 

Lazy Daisy and Flared Rose

These two both have errors if you looks closely. I spiralled the rose the wrong way, and the daisy is one petal short.

Forget-me-notes and Primrose

I really like these ones, perhaps because they are some of my favourite flowers in nature, and the primrose has a 3-D quality.

 

Mistletoe

I thought it would be really fun to make a bunch of these to hang up at Christmas.

 

Cloverleaf

This cloverleaf was made in a hotel room in Bruges. I thought maybe I could crochet on the train, but this was just too hard.

 

Narcissus is the only one I have managed to make from intermediates.

I love these projects - partly because they are small, so not too daunting. I'm not quite sure what I will do with all these little flowers and leaves. I definitely think I am getting past the fear stage of learning - particularly of the diagrams. So I may be working myself up towards a granny square.

"I Could Make You One of Those ..."

So many times when I am out shopping with my daughter we see something nice, and I hear myself saying "Yes, but I could make you one of those ....". 

OK, so most of the time I don't actually get round to the making, but I found myself saying this when she wanted one of the kimono style robe/jackets that have been all over the shops this year.
  

The thing that often puts me off sewing is that I know that by the time I have bought pattern, thread, material etc. it would really be cheaper just to buy the garment. But for this simple garment I thought I could make my own pattern. So out my old copy of Winifred Aldrich Metric Pattern Cutting, the bible for pattern cutting, and I had a go at blocking out the pattern properly. I used the basic bodice block, which is then adapted into a basic kimono block. It is quite a while since I have done this, but so long as you take careful measurement and follow the instructions step by step it is not too difficult.

 
The material was from Fabricland. It was very fine, which was quite tricky to sew and cut as it was quite slippery. I couldn't save time by just pinning, but had to tack all the seams. I used French seams, which is great as all the raw edges are safely sealed away. It turned out so well, and I now have a pattern, so I may have a go at another version of this kimono. Or even make one for myself.

Here are a few more photos of my daughter wearing the kimono in Bruges, where we had a short break last week. A beautiful city - which has museums of chocolate, beer and chips. Something for everyone.

... and with slightly more camera shy big brother.

My Crochet Diary - Two

So I am still working at learning to crochet, and here is my first completed crochet project. Isn't he cute. I saw an appeal on Linda's Crafty corner for knitted/crochet bear puppets for a charity record attempt. Linda has also really helpfully published a Bear Crochet Pattern. What was reassuring was having read through it I thought I could understand the pattern. The only thing I slightly altered was making him a little circle for a muzzle. He also has a little bit of wadding in his head and muzzle. I must find out where to send him to for the record attempt in September.

I am still making a few mistakes, but I am learning as I go. The first major mistake with teddy, is that once again I have put my crochet hook under one strand, not two. (Thank you CreativeJewishMom for explaining this to me.) The book I am working from only illustrates the first row, and doesn't explain that further on you insert the needles under both strands. 

Thank you everyone who gave me tips and advice and encouragement after my last Crochet Diary post. I have found that Youtube videos are really helpful, although the UK/USA difference in stitch names is a bit annoying. The main thing you can really learn from a video is how to hold the thread and hook (another thing I have been getting wrong and doing much more like a knitter).

The other things I am finding hard is how to count how many rows I have done, and how many stitches I have. How many extra chains to make at the end of each row, and how many stitches in to start.  I can see if you get this wrong your work could start shrinking or expanding. So turning at the end of the row is always a bit scary.

My target is to eventually make a granny square blanket, or perhaps even a single granny square would be a good start. But for now I am looking at little crochet projects to learn a few more skills. More advice would be very welcome!

Sea Urchin

I only occasionally knit to order, but someone contacted me through Etsy to ask if my sea urchin pattern would knit up smaller. They wanted a sea urchin that would be 3 inches across to go on a mobile. I was not sure, the only way to find out seemed to be to try to make one. So this is my sea urchin knitted on smaller needles, with a rather strange, but I thought sea urchiny wool that I found in my stash. 

The size turned out exactly right, and I also found one tiny typo in my pattern. How does that happen? I test knit again and again, but I think sometimes the eye just sees what it wants. But anyway, I was also pleased that I could put that right as well. And the sea urchin is already with its new owner in the States.
 

My Crochet Diary

I usually see my summer holiday as a great opportunity for, yes you've guessed it, knitting. But this year the special holiday request from hubby was "no knitting". I guess a vacation is meant to be a break from the norm, so was I cheating when I agreed to the no knitting, but decided to use this time to try my long talked about ambition to teach myself to crochet.

So I rather proudly present my first ever piece of crochet. Now I think I may be feeling a bit like the kids in my knitting club when they have completed their first bit of knitting. I am going to try and do a series of posts on my attempts to learn to crochet, so you might want to follow my progress.

I would really appreciate any advice from experienced crochetters (is that even a word). Easy patterns, or books that I can understand would be useful. These are the only books I have. The two books are both fairly old - I think my mum gave them to me. I look at the amazing variety of stitches, but I think I need a much more basic book with some practical projects, as these are just a bit overwhelming.

So I started by borrowing my daughter's Cath Kidson's kit. It's aimed at kids, so surely it can't be too hard, I thought, but soon realised that the instructions to make a granny square cushion were way beyond me. So thinking of how I teach knitters, I decided to just make a square, and think I have learned the doublechain and treblechain. Although even that is a bit confusing, as there seems to be a half treble chain, double treble and treble treble!!! After a bit I did find it quite relaxing, and got into a bit of a rhythm. There are a few mistakes, and the things I found difficult is to judge where to put the hook in, and also turning at the edge of each row. (In knitting it is really obvious if you have gone wrong as you can just do a stitch count.) I got a bit fancy at the end and had a go at a scallop edge, which I think would have worked if I had had a longer edge and could have kept going. 

What I think I am doing wrong is that I am thinking like a knitter, so I felt fairly happy to crochet with rows going back and forth. But I want to make some of those cute amigurumi that I see, and for that I think I need to go in a circle. The other thing I find confusing are the patterns I have seen that are diagrams. Beautiful series of squiggles and shapes, but no idea at all how I would follow one.

This was my only attempt at a little circle. I was just going in each stitch twice. Seemed to work, and I think I have made a little hat.

I just can't decide who it looks best on ....

That is all for now ... but there will be another crochet post soon. As I said I would really welcome any pointers to easy patterns or books that have some very easy projects to try.