It's a boy!

He's here!  Actually he's been here a while now - 10 weeks.  It's taken that long for me to find the time to update the blog!  He was nearly two weeks overdue, and weighed a very healthy 10lbs 4oz (ouch!).  He's lovely, and we're all enjoying having him join our family.

Of course, in the weeks following his arrival I had no time at all to do any making.  I put my knitting needles and crochet needles down at the end of February and I haven't picked them up again yet.  So, no progress on the woolly projects.  I'd already abandoned my sewing machine back in January, and I hadn't even been keeping up with the other blogs I read, so I didn't think I'd have much to show for myself on returning to the blog, but.....

Then I watched the Great British Sewing Bee - hooray!  The show was just what I needed to reboot my creative drive and get me thinking about future projects.  I really enjoyed watching the contestants (including Tilly from over at Tilly and the Buttons - surprise!) working through the challenges.  I really liked Lauren's style (if in doubt, flower it out!) but Anne certainly deserved to win.  She's 81 and has been sewing nearly every day for 75 years!  I guess there's no substitute for experience.

So, whilst watching the 'Bee and feeding the boy I browsed the online fabric shops and purchased these beauties from Frumble:

Aren't they lovely?  On delivery of said items I immediately felt the need to sew.  I'm restricted to post-bedtimes at the moment (at least until junior gives in and starts sleeping in  the day!) so I needed some quick and easy projects to get me going.  Also I only bought fat quarters so whatever it was would have to be small.

The Young Whales fabric really lent itself to the wet bag I've been meaning to make for ages.  I used a tutorial I found over at A Lemon Squeezy Home, only I modified it a little by sewing french seams (a la Handmade Jane's wash bag tutorial) instead of making an inner and outer bag.  The main reason I did this was to avoid too much direct contact with the shower curtain material.  It's horrible to work with and I developed a  loathing for it whilst making sponge bags over Christmas.  Next time I will shell out for some decent quality waterproof material instead of trying to net a bargain at IKEA!

I made my wet bag long and thin so that I could fit a fair amount into it but without using up my whole fat quarter.  I also split the strap and added a giant popper so that I can hang it from the buggy if need be.  Overall I'm pretty happy with it.

It's a lot neater and more professional looking than my wash bags - mainly thanks to the gorgeous fabric!  The only problem is, now that I've made it I don't really want to ruin it by putting soiled reusable nappies into it!  I guess I'll just keep it handy for damp clothing instead.


Next up - Kerchief-style dribble bibs!  I've coveted these in the past when I've seen them on other people's children or in fancy shops, but never got around to buying any for mine.  Well it just happens that, being a thumb-sucker, Jacob is quite a dribbly baby making it a well-timed project!  First off I made a practice bib using fabric from an old, stained babygro that I was going to chuck out.  I took the dimensions from this tutorial at Love Me Sew and followed the same basic process.

Once I was happy that my practice bib (does this count as a wearable toile?!!) fit ok I ran up a couple more.

Such a satisfying little make - I can easily run one up within an hour now that I've got the hang of it, and they'd make great presents, so I expect there'll be more of these to come!  And boy, are they cute...!

All together now..."Ahhhh!"

Still waiting, still knitting...

Life is almost on pause at the moment waiting for the little one to arrive.  I will officially be 40 weeks tomorrow, so hoping he/she won't be much longer.  Not much to report as a result.  I am working away on my various knitting projects, but the downside to knitting is that things take so much longer to produce, consequently I have no photos of beautiful finished articles to post yet!

I am loving the Honey Cowl pattern.  It knits up beautifully and is simple enough to be a 'take anywhere' kind of project.  I even think it will make the cut and join the contents of my hospital bag when the time comes!

So, keep checking back.  Normal service will resume shortly!

Can you guess what it is yet?

Poor neglected sewing machine! It has been sat on this chair in a forlorn manner for nearly a month now, with nothing but a shepherd (painted by a 3yr old) for company.  I feel very sorry for it, but am resigned to the fact that I'm unlikely to use it now until after the baby's born.  

I have been resorting to more crochet instead!  My ripple blanket is coming along - although I realised I had made a HUGE error whilst using my Ravelry pattern!  I had forgotten that many Ravelry users are from across the pond, and consequently use American crochet terms, which look the same as English crochet terms BUT ARE DIFFERENT!!!  You say tom-ay-to, I say tom-ar-to?  In this case a dc or double crochet in American terms does not mean an English double crochet, but a treble crochet.  Doh!  I should have had a better look at the picture first and I might have noticed that something didn't quite add up!!  As it is my blanket still looks lovely, but it is probably a lot more dense and less soft than it would have been if I'd followed the instructions correctly!  It may just end up being a 'rolling around on the floor' type blanket instead of a 'wrap me up so I'm nice and cosy' type blanket.  Nevermind - I'll know for next time, and because I've started I'm going to blinking well persevere!! 

For those who may be at risk of making the same mistake I did, here is a chart comparing American and English crochet terms that I lifted from About.com:

British vs American English Crochet Patterns
British English	USA - American English
double crochet (dc)	single crochet (sc)
half treble (htr)	half double crochet (hdc)
treble (tr)	double crochet (dc)
double treble (dtr)	treble (tr)
triple treble (trtr)	double treble (dtr)
miss	skip
tension	gauge
yarn over hook (yoh)	yarn over (yo)

Hope it helps!

Anyway, the ripple blanket is currently on hold as I ran out of yarn yesterday - double doh! - and need to take a trip to Hobbycraft to get some more.  I've been trying to go with more neutral colours for this one as we don't know whether we're having a girl or a boy (and my granny square blanket did have a distinctly girly feel to it!!) so I went with purple, green and cream.  That meant I was still left with my remaining pink and yellow yarn (also from the granny square blanket), so I decided to make use of this on a smaller project until I can get to the shop for more supplies.  

Can you guess what it is yet?

Despite looking alarmingly like a toilet roll cover, this is in fact going to be a baby doll dress for Emily's new Baby Bjorn.  It's another Ravelry pattern (Delightfully Pink Baby Doll Dress by Anna Ness) and yes, I did work out that it uses American crochet terms - yay!  I'm loving the fact that crochet projects come along so quickly (soooo satisfying!) and also that they are so portable.  I've been taking my crochet everywhere with me lately, and it's such a conversation starter!  What with that and being nearly 9 months pregnant I've been talking to all manner of folk recently!  All good fun.

The urge to crochet!

Must be a new record for me.  I only finished my granny-square blanket on Sunday and I already have another project 'on the hook'!  So strong was the urge to crochet that I cast on (is that the right term, or is that just in knitting?!) another baby blanket.  Not that I need to make one - I was just desperate for something (anything) simple to crochet.  Perhaps I can put it down to the nesting instinct!

Check out that bump!  Something to rest my crochet on!

I said before that I have only recently taught myself to crochet.  This is mostly true, although I did make an attempt to learn in the past, only to give up in frustration.  Previously I had tried to make a blanket out of treble crochet stitch, but I found I had difficulty making a starting chain of the right gauge.  As a result my blanket would start out one size, only to get wider and wider and w-i-d-e-r!  After frogging and retrying it several times I eventually gave it up as a bad job.  

This time, after completing a successful project, I'm glad to say I started with more confidence.  I also went for a pattern with a little bit more structure, although still very simple.  I am trying my hand at a ripple or zig zag pattern I found on Ravelry*.  It was still a pain to started off, but very quickly became more solid and dependable after a couple of rows.  Now it is a dream to crochet!  Up the hill, increase over the top, down the hill, decrease through the valley - ahhhh!  So relaxing.  Almost couldn't put it down to go to bed last night!  This will now give me something crafty to do till the baby's born.  I have mostly given up my dreams for last minute sewing as I still haven't hit the haberdashery dept for all those necessary bits and bobs.  At least the crochet can slip easily into my hospital bag and come along for the ride!

*Ravelry is a free site for knitters and crocheters.  There are tons of patterns (many of them free) to browse and use, and you can build your own profile and record of your creations.  It's ace!  You can also see what projects friends are busy creating.  My Ravelry sign on is SuzySu if you want to look me up.  

Gran-tastic pram blanket!

It's finished!  Took me the best part of 9 months to make it, but it's finished just in time for baby's arrival, and I'm really pleased with it!

I'm particularly pleased with the border which I sort of made up as I went along.  It adds an extra 6.5cm all the way around, extending my rather small granny square blanket (52.5cm x 39.5cm) into a much more respectable 65.5cm x 52.5cm.  It also didn't look finished until I had crocheted the frill.  I experimented with three different sizes of scallop (to treble crochet height, double treble height, and triple treble height) and decided the middle size balanced well with the rest of the design.

My final task was to block the blanket.  Blocking, for those that don't know (which was me until I looked it up!) is a good way of ensuring your finished knitted or crocheted item looks the way it should, cutting down on curly edges and evening out the gauge.  Essentially it involves pinning the item out onto a flat surface in the shape that you want it, either whilst wet and leaving it to dry, or (as I did) dry if you want to steam it with a steam iron or steamer.

And here's the finished product!  Nice to have something handmade and new ready for baby no. 3 to snuggle up in.