England & Wales 2018

  

Even though this was not really a well-planned holiday it ended up being quite a roadtrip. The idea was to visit two good friends from Uni (who know each other but are not close friends) and who both had babies on Christmas Day - is that a coincidence or what? Anyways, the idea was to have a "get to know the babies" visit since we were all busy with our own new family additions.

This was extended to a cross-country roadtrip from Dover via Essex, London, Hampshire, and the Cotswolds to South Wales. From there we also visited Bristol and then back to Dover via Oxford. I feel quite accomplished, doing all this with a 5 months old baby! And it was actually less stressful than expected, we're lucky to have a baby that sleeps well in the car most of the time. 

We visited many places that were new to me, too. I really liked Cardiff and Bristol, I almost wished I had studied there because they seem to be very vibrant student cities while not being too big at the same time. Of course we also enjoyed the phenomenal weather at the Essex seaside and Wales was the perfect destination to cool down a little bit while still having more sunshine than usual in this part of the world. London was great as usual (even though we had quite some rain but thank God for museums!) and I must say I forgot how pretty Oxford was. 

Now we're back and we have filled up on takeaway curry, egg & cress sandwiches, fish & chips, and Fentiman's lemonades for a while. But since it was so easy to get there by car this was definitely not the last time we drive to the UK, unless of course BREXIT spoils the fun next year.

 

Surprisingly, I also managed to do a fair bit of knitting. I have now perfected the art of knitting in the car (as a passenger, obviously) to use my freetime as efficiently as possible. So far it works quite well, even though I have to recover the occasional dropped needle or an unravelled skein from under the seat. Above you can see the early stages of another "Branches & Buds" jumper which is actually almost complete by the time I'm typing this. I'm still debating whether I should make it into a cardigan again, as I did with my first version of this pattern. 

More knitting updates to come soon!

Tweed "Marigold"

As with most patterns I like I tend to knit them again (and again, if I really like them). It just makes sense to go back to something that fits well and worked out the first time around, although in some cases I do the second knit because I learned from my mistakes. I also like it because for most patterns you can make sooooo many variations by only including small changes that it would take a long time to get bored of it.

In the case of "Marigold" it was mainly because it fit well and I ended up wearing my first cardi a lot over the last winter.  But because the alpaca yarn is extremely warm I also wanted one that I could wear in slightly warmer weather (i.e. above freezing point) and I still had this lovely light blue tweed in my stash. To make the tweed structure stand out even more I omitted the lace panel in the back, I didn't want to distract from the beautiful yarn and I also wanted to keep the cardigan as neutral as possible to match my other clothes.

Apart from the lace panel I also made the sleeves full-length and increased the button band (or however you call this if it doesn't have buttons) to 10 stitches in garter stitch. In the first version that I knitted according to the pattern the band keeps on flipping itself around so I wanted to make it a bit heavier. Not sure yet if that issue is solved though because the band is turning by design to make the transition in the neck.

Still a great pattern and I just realized that I now also fulfilled my self-imposed obligation to knit at least three pieces from the "Making" magazine to make it worth the shipping from the US. Score! And I'm especially proud to finish this project because I knitted it during my maternity leave and believe me, it was not easy to find the time with a screaming baby around.

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Pattern: "Marigold" by Cecily Glowik MacDonald, published in "Making" Magazine, issue 1 "Flora"
Yarn:  Rowan Fine Tweed, colourway 380 "Nappa"

Baby stuff II

Once I start, there's no stopping: I'm continuing my baby knit FO parade and there's more to come! I'm still a bit unsure about sizes but if I'm in doubt I'm always going for the bigger ones so that baby can still grow into it.

First one up is the "Little Waves" cardigan based on this jumper I knitted a few years ago and of which I still had some leftover yarn. Just enough for this cardi actually, I'm feeling so efficient using up all of my stash! The wave pattern is taken from Maria Carlander's "Little Scallops" hat, which is also still on my knitting list of future projects. The basic cardigan pattern is the same old "Raglan Baby Cardigan (top down)" pattern I've been using for most of my baby cardis. Originally, I was looking for boat-shaped buttons or anything maritime themed to match but couldn't find nice ones. For now the red ones are doing fine but I might change them later.

The second cardigan is constructed in a different way and knitted in one piece. The pattern is Drops' "Grey Gosling" and it was fun to see how it all came together because the whole cardigan is knitted sideways and then folded in half and seamed under the arms and on the sides. I've read on other blogs that many people don't like the Drops patterns because they aren't well written but I didn't have any issues with the instructions. It was quite straight forward and I didn't make any alterations. I wanted some neon buttons to go with it but again, I couldn't find the right kind. So i opted for those which are more lime green actually than it looks like in the photos. Also, blocking was not so easy with the garter stitch and I didn't want to overstretch it. That's why it doesn't look very neat in the photos.

I don't have any matching hats yet but I'm still debating whether it'll be worth it with the summer coming up (hopefully) soon. At the moment I'm working on something else and trying a new thing for me: cotton yarn. More in the next post.

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"Little Waves" cardigan
Basic pattern: "Raglan Baby Cardigan (top down)"
Incorporates: Maria Carlander's "Little Scallops" hat
Yarn: Rowan Pure Wool 4-ply

"Grey Gosling" cardigan
Pattern: Drops Design "Grey Gosling"
Yarn: Schachenmayr Merino Extrafine 120; colourway 192 (Medium Grey)

Baby blanket

Another one of those lovely Purl Soho patterns! I had an eye on the "Colourful Wedges Baby Blanket" for a long time, mainly because of the original colour scheme (see my previous post about this obsession of mine) and now finally the occasion has come.

Knitting blankets is usually not my favourite thing to do, actually I think it's a bit of a waste of time and yarn. To make a decent size blanket with decent yarn you have to spend a fortune and then you can't even wash it in most cases. Plus there are so many cute baby blankets available to buy (such as this one for example which I splurged on in a moment of weakness) that I'd rather spend my time on knitting teeny-weany clothes.

But this one is different! I had some yarn in my stash that I recycled from a scarf I knitted years ago - I still love the colours but the scarf was a bit meh. Perfect colour combination and amount for this baby blanket, almost as pretty as the original colour scheme.

After finishing the first wedge I realized that with casting on 130 stitches, I'm very very close to running out of yarn at the end. I just managed with the petrol coloured yarn but with the grey I was already playing "yarn chicken" and with the orange it was even tighter. So I decided to do the "wrap and turn" for the short rows every 5 stitches instead of every 4 stitches. That changes the shape of the wedges a little but I don't mind that.

Hooray, in the end I had just enough yarn to finish the blanket!