Baby-Theo has arrived into the world, and that gave me the umph needed to finish the jumper I was knitting him, in time for when we go see him and his folks, F and J.  To be honest I ballsed this one up a bit. The smallest size is 6-12 months, but at the time i couldn’t help myself since his father, F, is swedish and a keen sailor given half the chance.  So it’s far too big for a new born, but i guess they’re probably inundated with tiny-tiny clothing so maybe that’s not such a bad thing?

Also i’m a much better lace-knitter than intarsia-knitter. *shrugs*

The pattern came from Adorable Knits for Tiny Tots by Zoe Mellor, and while it’s a lovely book, by the end of this pattern i was wishing i’d taken the bare bones of the information and re-written it in the round. (Yes, another knitter who hates to seam…)  But that’s something to remember for next time…

On a related note I struck gold at one of our local charity shops: A stack of 80’s baby knit booklets for 50p each. I ended up snagging 7 of them! Of course everything is made up with horrible 100% acrylic, but the some of the actual patterns are ripe for re-working.

Obviously this is a great basic jumper. i even love the stripes, though i’m not sure about this obsession with pastals.  but in, say nut brown, beige and a bright contrasting colour – orange, or torquoise, or pink even…

I think this is lovely and intend to knit it up at some point using a great variated yarn from here.

I am NOT broody!  But these are very cute. (Hood up!)

I really love this pattern but in bri-nylon (which is what the pattern calls for) it seems more like a boil-in-a-bag baby suit, rather than the lovely soft thing it would be if knit up in washable merino or something.

Of course there were also some scary patterns:

Chubby-babys are cute. But this is going too far.

Ah yes, all over colour – all over pattern. it worked with the baby-sac but this… maybe for a ‘sing-along-a-sound-of-music’?

Baby’s first golfing weekend with the board…

I have been in the house too long. This time off is great but i’m going a little stir crazy and not seeing my friends enough. So this afternoon i’m off to one of the local stitch ‘n’ bitch meeting. I was meant to go a couple of months ago but then the wedding planning got a bit crazy. Now things have quietened down and my need to be alone and nest has swung the other way.  🙂 Wish me luck, since i’m shy and not very good at this stuff in the beginning.

Here is our new workroom. When W first moved here it was our bedroom, (which wasn’t so bad since we were only actually there on weekend), and then it became M’s room when he lived with us. For the last couple of months it’s been just a spare bedroom of sorts, with a futon on the floor, but now it’s all change. 

Having abandoned our attempts to find a desk W decided to dismantle the cabin bed he made, and use the desk from that. It’s a tiny bit short but as long as the room is wide, and at least 3′ deep so there will be plenty of room to sew on it (assuming we can keep it tidy. 😉 )

This shelving is scarily empty – but i’m enjoying the lack of clutter. My wool stash is in the bottom draw, and above that are my smaller pieces of fabric. 

The other side of the room has our design books – the upper shelf has all W’s woodworking and furniture design books, and the shelf underneath has some of my art books, sketchbooks, toymaking and knitting books. Underneath are patterns, and under that bigger pieces of fabric.  On the wall there are things to inspire me – including cycling posters of lance armstrong and the british trackteam, and more usual craft-type inspiration, like the illustrations from last year’s pumpkin exhibit at kew, and the birthday card J (of the bag fame) gave me about two years ago.

Now i have somewhere to stick all the pictures i rip out of magazines. 🙂

This morning i have tidied this room and given everything so far a home. I have also cut out a new skirt for me, and a secret suprise thing for christmas that i can’t talk about. it’s 2.20pm and i need lunch. 🙂 Afterwards I’m going to sit down and make a big plan of all the things i’m making for christmas, since my income is limited and needs eaking out this year, and also because i went way too far overboard last year and can’t afford to make the same mistake twice.

Plus i keep starting new projects, or thinking about new projects and people keep popping new other people into the world, which as a knitter means ‘omg knit cute things!!’ All of these things need to be squeezed in, along with christmas decorations – especially if everyone ends up at ours (which is what i secretly hope will happen.)

But first – lunch. 🙂

This morning I got up at 6.15am because my body hasn’t got used to the clocks going back yet. Mind you that was fine because it gave me a couple of hours to sort out the kitchen and back oatmeal and raisin cookies to add to the birthday parcels i’m posting after lunch.

breakfast ended up being broken bits of cookies and toast. my bad.

As I mentioned in my last post, here is the bag I made for my friend J. It’s based on the front cover of this Japanese Craft book that i think i probably first saw on Bella Dia’s blog.

Inside are said cookies and a bar of dark chocolate.  🙂

Also, while I was tidying up I came across W’s marble collection, and rather than leave them in their current shoebox home, I decided to fill up the big plastic jar that usually contains corks and conkers and sit it on our window ledge in the lounge. 

There are some great colours in there. I’ll have to find the time to have a play and take some photos of my favourites. 🙂