four ply foolishness

Q: What do you do when you already have a jumper and a sock on the go, a quilt to finish, lots of Christmas shopping to do, a baby who has recently decided sleep is for the weak, and you've internally sworn not to do a) any Christmas knitting and b) any more baby jumpers?

A: Clearly, you need to start a suitably complex Christmas-themed baby jumper in incredibly fine gauge yarn. Because you saw it and it was cute. And because you've got your sewing machine back from the repair shop and want to have a go at steeking.

Pattern is Baby Norgi from Knitty. Yarn is Dalegarn Baby Ull. It is quite lovely, 100% merino but couldn't be more different from the Sublime 100% merino I am using to make my brown hoodie. It is much more sticky and warm feeling - the other is smooth and cottonlike. The stickiness comes as something of a relief, as I will be cheerfully cutting up this jumper later... *gulp*. It purports to also be machine washable, which I find difficult to believe... not sure I would have the nerve to do it, but we'll see after Rubbishknitterjunior has regurgitated his Christmas dinner down the front. Because it will be finished for Christmas - otherwise it will be completely useless - it won't fit him next year. No pressure then! Even though I'm using 2mm needles for this, which feels a bit like doing keyhole surgery. Lots of fun though I have to say. Haven't done any colourwork for ages, so I had to try and remember how, but it is very satisfying, and the yarn is very forgiving of my sausage-fingered blunderings.
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project proliferation

It seems I went from a short period of craftlessness, to a short period of frenzied overcompensation by starting a cornucopia of different projects. This is going to be Riding to Avalon. I am in dire need of nice warm jumpers that fit post-childbirth, and I have a surfeit of merino. Also I have been doing loads of knitting for other people lately and I decided it was time for something for me, dammit! The hoodie is progressing well, although I was alarmed to note that it appears to be rolling at the hem, despite a garter stitch row to counterbalance the stocking stitch. If I was making it again, I would probably put another garter stitch row in. As it is, I am far too lazy to unravel all that work and am putting my faith in a future stern blocking instead. The lovely shiny needles are Addi turbos kindly lent to me by Cat - thanks for that! The shininess is keeping me mesmerised as I knit.


I'm simultaneously ploughing through a pair of stripy garter rib socks in some lovely Kaffe Fassett / Regia yarn. This picture is a bit old, I'm nearly at the top of Sock 1 now. Plain, toe up sock with a short row heel. Making it up as I go along!

Flitting around between projects like a drunken butterfly, I also made a new hat for rubbishknitterjunior. It's getting a bit chillier now and I decided a warmer, room-for-growing into model was needed. The yarn is some Katia Scotch Tweed that I got out of a bargain bin ages ago when I was learning to knit, but hadn't yet learned the inadvisability of buying odd balls on a whim. So it has been sitting at the bottom of the cupboard for a year or two.

Babies are pretty useful for using up these kind of scrag ends of yarn. The wee fella looks a bit bemused by the whole thing, but I'm sure he appreciates the extra headwarmth. The pattern is made up, but based on a photo of me as a nipper, wearing a similar model. Am I really going to post this? Well, I can't really embarrass myself any more than I have done already on this blog, so here we go with some lookeylikeys for you. Don't laugh. My cheeks are slightly less prominent now. I left off the pompom on his hat so as not to compromise his masculinity.

Rubbishknitterjunior	The author, a short while ago

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