Tag: Bootees

Not quite, but Yesterday the 8th of May, marked the 75th anniversary of VE day.

A little history: Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the end of World War II in Europe.

And for this big event I had knitted a whole bunch of poppies. That were never used as the event was cancelled due to Covid-19. (Pattern used was the free pattern knit flat, no-sew poppy by Suzanne Resaul)

But life continues, and my mum asked me to knit up a few baby things for a colleague who was expecting her own “little ray of sunshine” so with that to go on I made these:

Does anyone else think it screams sunshine? Managed all these in a day and posted them the following. Which was good as the little ray of sunshine arrived yesterday, 4 weeks early!

Patterns used are ‘Rainbow’ and ‘Sun’ by Sarah Keen from her book “100 little knits” and ‘Beautiful Bootees’ by Sue Whiting from the book “Cute knits for baby feet”.

I shall leave you all there, not much has really happened here apart from baking and playing and home schooling and child wrangling and adventuring and gardening…oh, and I dyed some wool and some fluff for spinning…

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 36 (1 this week)
Wool bought – 7
Wool given – 6
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 680

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One of Andrews cousins is having their first child, a little girl, due June/July, and I couldn’t resist making this adorable set for when the little baby arrives!

I used the following free patterns for this set:

Watermelon Baby Cardigan by Stitchylinda Designs

Watermelon Baby Hat by Stitchylinda Designs

Basic Mary Jane Baby Booties by Christy Hills

The first two are made pretty much as written, but with red rather than pink wool, and I just played about with the colour placement/changes to make the bootees match the rest of the set.

Very pleased with how it came out! Can’t wait till the baby arrives to send them!

In other knitting news I’m still ticking away on a different ongoing project, and not sure when it’s going to stop, but it’s been great for using up all my odds and ends and scraps! Which means the wool count is going down pretty quick!

More about that in a week or two when I hopefully decide I’m done!

In non knitting news, it’s been a busy week at work and a fun weekend – a wooly playdate with Sisterix which included a wander down some trails, a hedgemaze for the kids, and a stroll through Broadbottoms Midsummer yarnbomb!

If your in the area, it’s in until the end of June and I do recommend going for a stroll! Though maybe in drier weather, we had to time our stops to view the various pieces between rain showers!

Today it was another playdate at the Didsbury beer festival, I was designated driver but had a good time catching up on all the gossip and getting a bit of knitting done!

That’s all for now.

Wool Count

Starting total – 576

Wool used – 46 (12 this week!!)
Wool bought – 13
Wool given – 155
Wool gifted – 31

Total – 670

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I don’t know if a lot of people feel the same way, but 2016 was cursed. My family was hit pretty hard, there’s been death, terminal illness and long term ill health. I won’t go into detail on those.

One I will speak of however is Salem, he died in Engels arms on the 21st of December.

(Picking a photo of him just now brought the tears back)

Despite the rest of the menagerie (2 more cats, 2 tarantulas, 1 snake, 3 fish, small child) the house feels a little empty. Explaining death to a 3 year old, whilst an important lesson, was not a delightful experience. I’d have rather gone over where babies come from with her again! (Yep, had that talk a few months ago as well)

So here’s to 2017 being a better year. Fingers crossed.

In knitting news, just one complete project to show:

It’s the last knitted thing for my neice to be, over in America. It’s based on the pattern Little Daisy Cardigan by Sublime Yarns – I made the garter at the bottom deeper and used two colours. Also knit numerous prices together rather than separately to be sewn together afterwards.

Got a more fun, but giant, project on the needles at the moment – more on that when it’s finished!

Lastly, as it’s a new year, I get to reset my wool count and start again – hopefully I’ll have a bit more restraint this year and not buy so much!

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 6
Wool bought – 0
Wool given – 0

Total – 644

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I think I’ve knit the last Christmas gift, I hope I have anyway as I’ve moved on to other projects.

Present 1:

This is for my nephew and uses the free pattern A PokéHat by Mrs Luedeke. Quick and easy knit surprisingly! It fits me, so if my nephew doesn’t want it, I suspect my Pokemon loving sister will nab it…

Present 2:

For my mum, who nabbed off with a replica of the original Fairground Fish (free pattern Frida the Fish / Francis the Fish by Lion Brand Yarn)

I have the one photographed above, it was originally given to my grandfather in 2011 as a random gift as he often fondly told us the tale of ‘that cursed fairground fish, it lasted 25 years it did!’ The sole purpose of this was to make him smile. It worked. He passed away this year, and it’s the only thing that I took as a reminder of him before the funeral. The replica was more or less an identical match, a gift I never got around to giving, and when my mum tried to walk off with the original, I gave her the replica instead.

The reason for the silver version? My mum had fish. They all died this year – curse of 2016 we’re calling it – but before they went belly up, they laid eggs, and out hatched two fish. A gold one and a silver one.

So the silver one I just made is to join the gold one from before.

Pretty convoluted, I do apologise.

Not a Christmas present:

Same patterns as featured in my previous post back in April 2016. (Cardigan is ‘long or short sleeved coat with flower’ from sirdars ‘Beautiful baby knits’. The booties are from the same booklet, they’re from the ‘Sweetpea’ set for those who don’t want to read the previous post)

These are part of the growing bundle of gifts for my neice to be in America – I’ve got another on the needles at the moment, but will post about that when it gets done.

Anything else to comment? Not much except it’s getting scarily close to Christmas, and now I’ve finished the last of the Christmas knitting I think I may actually be getting excited about it…

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 117 (4 since last post! Again!)
Wool bought – 53
Wool given – 7

Total – 650

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For lots of baby knits!

This is a little blanket for Felix’s childminder’s daughter’s baby. (Say that five times fast – I knit a blanket for her first born last year) and is based on the free pattern ‘Jericho Baby Blanket’ by Shana Schasteen. I also added a fluffy trim to make it even more snuggly! The photo is it folded up, just so you all know!

Another two adorable pair of bootees for the new mum whom I made a set for featured in this blog post. Same bootee pattern, just different detailing. The pom poms I winged, the butterflies though are a free Ravelry download ‘Springtime Wreath, Butterflies’ by Frankie Brown. So cute!

But I couldn’t just make two pairs of very (pink) bootees, that’s a bit boring!

So I made these monster feet! It’s a free pattern again – ‘Monster Baby Booties’ by Needyl and they are so very, very cute. But a baby needs a hat to match such cute shoes! Especially with winter approaching…

L

It’s a monster hat!!!! And it matches (same fluffy wool, same contrast wool). Yet another free pattern – ‘baby monstaa’s very scary bonnet’ by Jones & Vandermeer.

OK, I’ll admit, no Christmas knitting has taken place at all this past week, but the main reason wasn’t because of all the very cute distractions, but because it was Felix’s third birthday on Wednesday! I took the day off work and we had a ball at the ice cream farm, and today we had a few friends and family attend a little gathering at Stockley farm (it’s dog friendly so Felix’s doggie ‘cousin’ Missy could join! She has her own blog btw, it’s worth a look for those looking for doggie adventures of their own)

Alright, it’s been a long day and I for one am tuckered out. So I’ll leave the blog post here and finish off with the wool count – five balls used this week! OK, almost all of that was in the blanket, but hey, five balls used is five balls used!

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 105 ( 5 this week)
Wool bought – 13
Wool given – 7

Total – 612

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My neice was given a doll (a 16″ American Doll whom she named Holly) but she didn’t have many clothes for this doll. So she gave me the puppy eyes and asked me to make a few little pieces for her, and well, I’m a soft touch when it comes to the puppy eyes…

Felix can attest to that.

So without further ado, a whole little party outfit:

All free Ravelry patterns:

Knotted Openwork Girls Shrug – with matching American Girl size by Kristen Renneke

American Girl Doll Empire Waist Lace Dress by Elaine Phillips

Doll Shoes for 18″ Dolls by Onelia

And for when the weather gets colder, which it will:

Again, all free Ravelry patterns:

American Girl Doll Retro Winter Outfit (Coat, Hat and Muff) by Elaine Phillips

Easiest and fastest baby UGG booties ever! by A la Sascha (Doll size)

Cute, aren’t they? Haven’t decided if they’ll be a Christmas present, birthday present or just spontaneous gift yet – guess i’ll see what’s closest when I see my neice next!

It’s been a busy week – Wythenshaw Garden Festival yesterday, and I have to say I was impressed at just how much Felix could get involved with. We now have a 3ft scarecrow she (helped) made in the front garden, button bracelets, banana badges and lots of colouring, and she got to do painting, eat crickets and mealworms (taste like pork scratchings and…creamy?) She planted pumpkin seeds and made her own fruit salad!

Her highlight: getting to hold the tiniest owl I have ever seen. Which was comical as the man demonstrating was holding a greater horned owls which weighs about as much as she does…

And today has been arts and crafts and swimming – knackered now!

All in all, a good weekend.

And this week I managed to use up three balls of wool!

*Does a little dance*

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 95
Wool bought – 10
Wool given – 4

Total – 616

 

P.S.

I’ve made a start on the Christmas knits for this year so there won’t be many new projects posted over the next few weeks (I wouldn’t want to spoil any surprises), but I’ll try and post a few things from the archives to keep things interesting!

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Does whatever knitting I can…

For some reason the spider man song leapt into my mind. Must be the sleep deprivation catching up with me! Work, being a mum, attempts of a social life and a house keeping have just killed me lately.

Have managed a fair bit of knitting though!

These were made using the free Ravelry download ‘Stripy baby dungarees’ by Becky Smith. This was a request from someone at work who is expecting their first grandchild – they asked for grey dungarees and this was the pattern I settled on.

I do like the two tone grey – its very soft on the eyes and gender neutral.

This is also the first project I’ve used a hammer on! (It was for the big silver fasteners – but still, a hammer! For a knitting project! Engel appeared to feel that my invasion of his sacred toolbox warranted him the right to ‘supervise’. Or maybe he doesn’t trust me with heavy tools…)

But that’s not all this week! More baby things!

Lots of baby things! The cardigan pattern is ‘long or short sleeved coat with flower’ from sirdars ‘Beautiful baby knits’. (Got to love the incredibly unimaginative names!) The booties are from the same booklet, they’re from the ‘Sweetpea’ set. The hat is another free Ravelry download – Alfafa Baby Hat by Kate Gagnon Osborn. Lastly, the mittens pattern is a free online pattern ‘Wee baby mitts’ by Christine Vogel. Adorable! To tie the set together I added the flower from the cardigan onto everything. I think it’s worked out well. 

Though I still have a ball of that wool left – maybe a matching cuddly toy?

Wool countdown!

Starting total – 697 balls
Wool used – 22 (5 balls used up this week!)
Wool bought – 9

Total – 684

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