Fair Isle Beret and Waistcoat

I have been working away at this project for many weeks. I started the beret as my holiday knitting. Perhaps fair isle is not such a good idea for knitting in the car. It is a present for my great niece, who lives in Ireland, and has just turned one. But having finished the beret I thought it would also be nice to make a matching waistcoat. 
 

Both are now off in the mail, and I am hoping they fit her, and I will get some photos of her wearing them. But until then my model is Clopper, my daughter's toy. Clopper has appeared on this blog once before, when he went on holiday and met a Dartmoor pony. He seemed more or less the right size, although I am sure my niece is not as tubby as him.

Both beret and waistcoat are knitted from a book I bought in a charity shop Bright Knits for Kids by Debbie Bliss. In the pattern the beret was knitted flat with a seam, but I decided to knit it in the round on 4 needles. That was fine for the lower section for which there was a chart, but I may have got slightly muddled at the top, where the instructions were written out with knit and purl rows. I sometimes forgot to convert this, as in the round you are always on a knit row. But I think it looks OK.

I also found adding the buttonband to the waistcoat difficult. It is a little puckered. It shouldn't have been hard, but it is a long time since I have made a garment in this way. Then I accidentally sewed up the side seams, before adding the armhole bands. So instead of unpicking I knitted these in the round as well.

Knitting fair isle is extremely satisfying. The end result is so pretty, but running in all those ends was very hard work.

Knitting Orders

I have been doing some knitting to order. I don't do very much of this, as sometimes it is hard to judge how long the knitting is going to take. But having intended to put some of my more popular knits in my Etsy Shop for Christmas, as usual I somehow didn't get myself organised, so was really pleased to get a few unprompted orders.
 

So as you can see my classic 2CV is driving off to someone named Pam

Some of the knits have been for a lady I met through one of the craft fairs that I did several years ago.

This is my Cherry Berry, but knitted in a smaller size for a toddler ...

... with matching mittens

and some baby bee shoes and shoe bag ...

... and finally my blueberry clutch bag, in sophisticated black, with a tiny silver fleck, and tartan silk lining.

I do like revisiting my own patterns from time to time. It is sort of reassuring to see that I can produce the same item. 

Also fun for me if someone wants a slight variation on one of my patterns, which is what I am working on at the moment ...

Hattie Models The Cherry Beret

I have some new photographs for the Cherry Beret on ravelry. My model is my friend's daughter, whom I have known since she was a tiny tot. I met her and her mum a lot of years ago, at the toddler group in the church hall. And now she is all grown up and sophisticated.  She was a little shy about modelling, but I think the photos are just charming, and as a thank you she now has the hat, which I hope will be the envy of her friends.

Tiddles decided to get in on the act too. He is one of the very handsome sons of my own cat, Noodles.

Slouchie Cherry Beret III

Finally I have finished my Cherry Beret pattern. This is my third version, and I think I am at last happy. It is more or less the same as version two, with a few alterations, but this time in moss stitch. It is a bit more of a slouchie now.

This pattern has been much harder work that my little critters, which just seem to fly off the needles first time without any need for a rethink or reknit.

Thank you to my model, who is one of my colleagues from school. Can you see why the children love her? We dashed outside in the lunch break.

The pattern is available on Ravelry. It does not include instructions for the cherries and leaf, as I did not really see what I could add to the several really great cherry patterns that are already available free online. Perhaps people would prefer a tassel or flower.

Click Here to Link to Ravelry