Matilde

I just received these pictures a few days ago and wanted to share with you.

I would like to introduce you to baby Matilde . She is the cute owner of the little sweater Maile that I made and posted about on January 17. This was a baby gift that I sent to Portugal for my cousin's daughter's baby that was due in February.

What is so extra special about these pictures is that I also get to see the baby's grandma and she is modelling  one of the  6 shawls that I sent over to the family in Portugal  iin the summer of 2012.    I had been told by the family that they would send me a picture of everyone modeling the shawls but that never happened, so I was excited to see this one. 

looks like the sweater will last a couple of months

nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby.

Proud Grandma, happy Mom and sweet daughter.

I`m so happy I decided to make this little sweater and send off to Portugal, as I would have missed seeing these wonderful pictures.  

Alice 

Pink Beret

Beret for Baby it`s a free pattern on Ravelry.

My notes:

This is the baby beret that I made to go with the baby cardigan I posted about yesterday.  This was not the design I had in mind originally.   I had thought of finding a toque that I could use some of the lace pattern from the sweater and incorporate it.   But at that time I thought I was on a time restraint and decided on this instead   I also wasn`t sure if I had enough yarn leftover from the sweater.   But I  did.    It`s amazing how much yardage are in the Madelinetosh skeins.   

I`m very happy how this turned out.  Glad I didn`t try to get to matchie with the set.   It`s a bit bigger size that the sweater so it may fit up to 6 months.   I`m going to request that I get some pictures sent with the baby wearing her gifts from me and then I can show you.

Just need to wrap everything up and just wait for the birth announcement and sent it off to Europe. 

All the best to you today.

Alice

Waiting for Baby

Waiting for Baby is what is happening now that I finished the gift I started a couple of months ago for a relative's daughter.  I found out she was having a girl and got promptly into making something girlie like.  I was initially told that the due date was in January but after completing  the gift I'm told that it's  February, thus the waiting.

This sweater i chose was done as a store sample at the local yarn store except it was done in a dark green and it looked fabulous.   I did not have yarn so I knew that I'd better use something machine washable and decided on Madelintetosh.

  Pattern:  Maile Sweater by Nikki Van Der Car

Yarn:  Madelinetosh Sock

Needles:  3.5 mm - extra notes

The pattern is Maile Sweater by Nikki Van Der Car.   I decided to work with the Madelinetosh Sock Yarn as I knew it was wise to select a machine wash yarn for the baby.   There was a lot of frustrations around this pattern on the instructions.  It definitely is not a beginners baby sweater, with the lace pattern and all.  It's a knit bottom up in one piece and you knit the sleeves flat and then join to begin the yoke.  This is another area people had issues with in the joining the sleeves.  It was so tight to join the stitches of sleeves that you  thought you were stretching things out of shape.  After much perseverance and 3 - 4 rows later you were back on easy knitting. 

The sweater looked so tiny to me at that I lengthened the body by 1 " and also the sleeve.  I could now see that you could have gotten away with going all the away to 2" to get more wear of the sweater.  It's probably only going to fit for a couple of months.

I

An adorable newborn sweater.

I also made a tiny little tam that a fellow knitter Cathy Wong had suggested.   I used the left over yarn I had from the sweater and  just finished with a couple of yards left over.  I'll share the picture on another day. 

I have been itching to find a cardigan/pullover n to knit in January with 10 balls of Rowan Felted Aran that I purchased from a sale a couple of years.  That is my knitting mission right now, besides finishing a couple of little things I have on the go, that are not giving me any excitement.

Happy Day to you.

Alice



.

Terra 2

This is Terra.   The first one I made was  so awesome I wanted to make another one in the same yarn, and in this colour.   This a pattern by Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed, first time doing a shawl of his.   Will definitely be checking out more of his designs.   Great patterns to follow.

I began knitting shawls for gifts for my family on May 21, and it will be exactly one month tomorrow.  I started working on shawl # 6 yesterday, the last one.   I was aiming to have them completed for Father's Day weekend,   as per this post,  but  I have had my time extended to completing them till the first weekend in July.    I'm so close to finishing them, that I don't want to start anything for  myself till they are all done.    It's been a very rewarding experience to challenge myself to this, I didn't expect to achieve as much as I have.

As far as this picture, I have to say it was totally (sort of) spontaneous.   I had not planned on taking a picture of myself with it, as I have never modeled my own shawls.   But after dinner I looked out in the front lawn and had a flash of this pose.   Sitting on the lawn barefoot with jeans and the shawl wrapped around like that.  I didn't even think of the fact that I needed to do my hair or  makeup, I just went as I was.

Of course I could see it  in my head what I wanted, now that trick was to get my husband to cooperate with the camera.    We took 6 pictures and I was so pleased at how well a couple of them turned.  It was rather fun.

It was tricky capturing the lace.  It's a very simple pattern, but even in this picture it looks flimsy and it's not. 

I know this picture has shadows in it but that's why I liked it so much.

Till next time.

Alice xox

Impress Yourself

Hello friends, hope all is well in your life.

I have turned into a knitting machine in the last couple of weeks.   I am knitting gifts (shawls) for   my family overseas.   I have an uncle going there in July and he will take them for me.   I thought I had plenty of time till I found out he's  coming to visit his daughter in town for father's day and that was a great opportunity to give it to him personally instead of mailing it out of town.  So I have been aiming for 6 shawls in total..but I think I can only do 4-5 realistically.

One thing I have learned is self-disciplined through all of this. I keep telling myself " Alice get knitting !! "  I have discovered an  appreciation of hard work.    Knitting is a craft that takes a lot hours and dedication to do good work.  

I can show you one of the completed I just finished.  As well I wanted to share this really excellent article I just read. You are not impressing me.

These pictures are of Thunderstorm Cladonia.  Love this one..I'll have to make for myself.

I will share more when  I have more time and everything is finished.

See you soon,

Alice xox