Keep Knitting





When I received this card for my birthday it brought a smile to my face because that is exactly what I do, especially now I have grandchildren to knit for. Anyone who has been following my blog will have seen  earlier posts dating back to April this year when I posted a smocked jacket for Martha. Then there were a few last year, one in August and one in December, and these were a cerise cardigan and another jacket style cardigan for which I wrote the pattern.  Since then I have been so busy knitting I have neglected to share any of them with you so here is the last six months worth in one go!



Kimono style jacket











Sorry this is the only snap I have
of her modelling it right now

 













Lynsey and I saw this pattern in a shop in Northallerton and decided we "needed it" even though it was the wrong season but now there has been a change in the weather it's great with jeans.

Chunky short sleeved jacket




  

Great with jeans

Rear view

Clever pocket detail

When I went to my favourite wool shop, Bobby Davisons in Hartlepool, to get the wool for the kimono I spotted this chunky knit jacket in the window so got the pattern and wool for this as well!

Chunky Knit cardi for the winter

Close up to show embroidery
and ribbon detail

Autumn stroll to the duckpond

At toddler group









 








This is another great pattern from Bobby Davisons and I loved knitting it but when it came to the embroidery I had my "Maths head" on and got a bit frustrated by the fact that the no of loops were not a multiple of the second type of embroidery stitch so i just left it out rather than end a row with half a chevron

The beginning of the next assignment

The completed cardi

Close up of embroidery detail
and cute buttons

Martha sporting her new cardi at ABC

This simple little yoked cardigan was dead easy to knit, a bit tricky getting a neat finish when picking up the loops for the yoke and definitely challenging for me to do random lazy daisy embroidery with no right or wrong placement.

For a change I knit a dress from the neck down

 

My stitch markers came in very useful
as keeping the pattern correct whilst
increasing was a bit tricky

Completed dress



 

Martha is always good at
coordinating her accessories

Perhaps not the most appropriate
dress for a soft play area

My daughter Lynsey spotted this dress pattern on the internet and we went off to buy the cotton yarn in our local branch of Boyes, where you are always granted good value for money. I loved the pattern so much I wanted to knit it but so did Lynsey and since she had spotted the pattern it seemed only right that she should. However we reached a compromise and decided we would both knit it but in different colours!

As I speak hers is not yet finished, as she does have a much busier lifestyle than me with 2 kids under 4 years, teaching part time and running Handmade by Martha a bespoke service making hair slides. I will just remind her though of the lovely cardigan she did that took so long it didn't fit!!!!!

Lynsey's creation now destined for someone other than Martha

I spotted this pattern and sequined wool
and thought it would be ideal for
Martha for her dance class

 


 

Project complete



Mini dancer

As Martha at just 2years has joined S&N dance school she did of course need to look good so to coordinate with her leotard she needed a little bolero to keep warm.

Aran "hoody"

hood detail

 


Cable detail

Looking a little uncomfortable



Lucas loved it at first.....







... but soon realised that it itched

 I decided that after all these knits for Martha it was about time Lucas got his turn. I had started this navy aran jacked about 17 years ago, and the models on the pattern were definitely from another era, but basically it was a very classic knit. My son Matthew advised knitting the hooded version but I didn't have sufficient wool so on his advice I went for a contrast colour which I also introduced into the ribs and button bands. I was really pleased with the outcome but we did hit a snag when Lucas declared it was "itchy" round the neck but I'm sure this can be resolved with a shirt with a collar. Fingers crossed.

 I've decided to stick with girly projects for now until we solve the scratchy problem

Selection of cotton DK from
earlier projects

Random stripes

After rummaging through my stash of yarns I discovered that I had sufficient of one type to knit another dress but this time in "random" stripes (well actually carefully planned to take into account how much of each colour I have) .