Leafy Shrug

As mentioned in a previous post, I am participating in a few challenges for 2010 on Ravelry. One of those challenges is a month by month Knit Along, with a different designer offering up one of their patterns as the challenge of the month. January's KAL was the Leafy Shrug by designer StitchyMama (Katherine) and this is what I created:

It's really cute and is a perfect accompaniment to the Kaia Babydoll I've made as a custom order for a friend's niece. I had originally intended it for Tessa but will give it to my friend as the two items go together too well! I think I may need to knit another Kaia and Shrug for Tessa as she keeps wanting to put them on.

I've also knitted a really cute cabled hoodie cardigan for another friend for her great niece and I'll post pics later when I've attached the buttons and finished the booties that are going with it.

Izzy's 8th birthday

It is Izzy's 8th birthday today and she had a sleepover party last Sunday evening with two of her best friends. I can't quite believe my big girl is 8 - she's growing up so fast!

She lost one of her front teeth the day before this photo and the other one is very wiggly - she thinks she looks like Nanny McPhee!

Holidays

I haven't been on here in a while - in fact January has been a complete write-off! Our lovely summer holiday (all one week of it) in Ohope which followed Christmas, DS 2's 10th birthday and in the midst of the school holidays, left little time for blogging. Well, school's back and so am I! I will post a couple of pics of our holiday away, where we got to see many sightings of Moko the dolphin as he camped out in the sea right in front of our beach house.

The kids all had a ball and it was very relaxing. We had been dreading the drive up and back as last year (when we stayed in the same place) Tess had screamed most of the car journey home and quite a bit on the way up - very stressful. But this year she was wonderful - very chatty and happy, despite not actually sleeping in the car, except for the journey back when she fell asleep 4 minutes from home!!

I am now officially on a yarn buying ban and have joined a shop the stash group on Ravelry. My yarn collection is rather large (see below) and it really needs to be used up before I go buying anymore wool.

(that's a king size bed, by the way)

I think the picture says it all, don't you?!

I have also joined a few other Ravelry challenges this year, namely 10 in 2010 - which is basically knitting 10 of many different things (there are different categories), which should keep me busy and motivated, and will hopefully help with the shopping the stash challenge too :)  I'll take an updated picture of the stash later in the year to help me track my progress.

I have been knitting during my January break from here, but there's not a lot to show for it yet. I'll display the things I've knitted as I go through them. Right, it's pretty late right now so I'll be finishing now and back in the next few days with some items I've knitted recently.

Introducing a new custom order item - Seamless Kimono Sweater

I have finally completed my first Seamless Kimono Sweater, by designer Jacki Kelly. I am happy to say I am now licensed to knit this gorgeous sweater for your little one, in any colour combination you choose. This is a gorgeous design with a number of options. This one is a short sleeved  3 - 6 month sized sweater, knitted in WOOLganics organic merino yarn. This is such a lovely yarn - very soft and quite dense.

This sweater can be knitted with short sleeves, or long, slightly flared sleeves. I can add embellishments and it can be knit with either an eyelet row and a knitted i-cord, or ribbon or no eyelet row. Sizes available are: 0 -3 months, 3 - 6 months, 6 - 12 months, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years, 6 years. Please enquire regarding prices as these will vary according to the yarn chosen.

Post Christmas ramblings

Well, another Christmas has been and gone and we've had a bit of an up and down time of it. On  the morning of Sunday the 20th we discovered our beloved chocolate burmese cat Charlie had been killed by a car, probably on the evening of the 19th. This was devastating for all of us, as Charlie was such a loved member of our family. We've always joked that he was part dog, as he would follow us around and was extremely social and cuddly. We held a funeral for him and buried him at Kim's mother's house so that we'll always be able to visit his final resting spot. He will be greatly missed by all of us. (I'll post some pics of him when I've got them from the old computer)

On the knitting front I've completed another order for a Kaia Babydoll - this time in cotton (modelled above by my petite two year old). It's a size 2 - 3 years old and I added some length so it can be worn as a dress now and last longer as a babydoll top.

I'm also halfway through a pair of socks for Kim's Christmas present - not terribly exciting for him to get one sock only on Christmas Day!!

And thanks again to Julia's DH for the fantastic sock blocker!! This was my first ever sock, and although it took f.o.r.e.v.e.r I'm keen to get stuck into the second one as I've learnt a lot from the first and want to perfect some techniques for future socks.

I have also decided that next year I will spend time during the year making things for gifts for next Christmas so that there isn't the extra time pressure too close to Christmas. It is such a great feeling to make something that someone else can use and treasure - and handmade gifts mean so much more. Having said that, my children are pretty delighted with their Singstar present!

I have a couple of things on my needles right now, so will hopefully be updating this blog again soon.

r~u~f~f~l~y

I've finished a test knit of a dishcloth for Kelly. It took a bit longer than I thought - mainly because the ruffle bit is quite a lot of stitches! But it was fun and I'm really pleased with the result - it'll be a fab dishcloth.

Twin Kaia Babydolls and Lilly Hats

Well, the last week or so I've been working on matching Kaia Babydolls and Lilly Hats for a custom order for twin girls. They are so cute all together! These are a six month size.

Easy Baby Cardigan Custom Knit

This is my latest finished object - another Easy Baby Cardigan. This is an 18 month size in The Wool Company's 8 ply 100% wool in Avocado. This is such a lovely knit - and so versatile. Contact me here if you would like to order this hooded cardiagn in any colour.

Tessa's Turns Two

Well, it's official - my baby is no longer a baby :(  On November 9th my baby girl turned two. And boy, has she turned into a two year old! We're getting independant, demanding behaviour and some pretty good tantrums when things don't go her way as well, haha!

Anyway, I thought I'd share a few photos of her - although I forgot to take pictures of her party (I've got video footage).

From this (a few moments after she was born) ...

And with her proud siblings

To this ... the morning of her 2nd birthday - looking rather surprised!

Dressed and ready for her special day.

At her friend Lucy's party (the same day as Tessa's)

This is where I found her after we got home - time for a snooze?!

It has been a wonderful two years, and my little girl has given me so many things to be thankful for. Through having her I found The Nappy Network (TNN) and have met many wonderful people (including the lovely Kate and Julia!) and through TNN I rediscovered my love of crafting, particularly knitting and sewing. It was also through TNN that I learned about (and very quickly joined) Ravelry, which has also been a huge inspiration and resource for my knitting.

Latest Knitting

I have just finished another cute wee Kaia Babydoll in a 6 month size. This was a test knit for Rachel Evans's new and improved Kaia Babydoll. I really love this pattern - it's so versatile as it can be worn as a wee dress to begin with, then later as a babydoll top over trousers or leggings. It can be worn in summer as a top on it's own, or over a t-shirt and shorts, and in winter over a long sleeved top and tights or trousers/jeans. This means it can be worn over a longer time frame which definitely represents value for money!

I can custom knit this adorable wee top in any yarn - cotton or wool. This one has sold, but email me at aligknits@gmail.com if you're interested in ordering another.

School Fair Madness

Well, I have spent the last week sewing madly, trying to make things for our school fair. It's funny how you think you'll have loads of time to make things, but in reality life is normally fairly busy with four children anyway (and one of those is a demanding, time consuming bundle of nearly two year old energy!), and all the extra things to do get pushed into small pockets of time. I didn't manage to make quite as many things as I would have liked, but I did make a few:

Some bunting - I made 5 of these, 4 of which had 7 flags, and the other one had 6.

Book bags - I made four of these, two 'boy' type patterns (roads, as pictured, and pirate ships) and two 'girl' type fabrics (green floral and pink floral).

A wee card wallet - I just made this up and quickly sewed it together, but I might perfect the design and make a few more. Very handy for all those spare cards that don't quite fit into your normal wallet. I put snap closures on the wallet part, so paper money doesn't fall out. You may recognise the fabric from my needlecase, lol!

A total of 11 nappies (the others were already at school when I took this picture). The top three are made from my own pattern, and the others from a couple of different patterns I have (Button Boo and Very Baby).

I love cuteness factor of the newborn nappy (made from Shar's newborn pattern on TNN), here pictured next to a medium/large nappy from my own pattern.

I also made a couple of cute notebook holders/passport holders, like these ones.

 Some of these items will be available for sale on here shortly, so if you are interested in anything, please ask and I will do my best to fulfill your requests.

Official Launch Day for Coco Kids

Today's the day! Julia, Kate and myself are now officially working as a team to bring a range of quality and cute knitted items to you. Pop over and visit our collective blog, Coco Kids, and see what we can offer you in the way of custom knitted clothing and accessories for the small people in your life.

We are very excited to be able to join forces and share the fun of creating beautiful items for everyone to enjoy and look forward to working together to achieve this. All of our items can be knitted in the yarn of your choice, and prices may vary to reflect this yarn choice.

Yarn, yarn and more yarn!!

I started by winding a hank of yarn last night into a ball for a Kaia Babydoll I'm about to start, and then while I was knitting the contrast yarn I'd chosen I decided I didn't want to use those colours, and stopped knitting. So today I grabbed one of my other hanks to use as contrast and wound that, then I realised I needed the main colour too so sent my son into my bedroom (yarn storage room) to get the other hank, but he came back with two different hanks instead. Sigh. If you want a job done properly, do it yourself!! So, I went and fetched the correct one, but thought that while I was doing those two hanks I might as well do the others! This is the result:

Bottom photo, top row, left to right: 10 ply hand dyed (unsure of brand - possibly Chuckanut Bay Yarns) 'Herb Garden', TWC 'Purple', TWC 'Gelato', TWC 'Blueberry'. Next row, left to right: TWC Mangrove, TWC Seaweed, TWC Avocado. Bottom row: TWC Watermelon.

Did I mention I LOVE my new swift??

Easy Baby Cardigan

This is my first Easy Baby Cardigan, by designer Diane Soucy, and it was a lovely knit. It's completely seamless, apart from the top seam of the hood, which makes it much more fun to knit! I love that it can be modified in several ways to make it a very individual item. It can be knitted with or without the hood, with buttons, ribbon or ties for the closure and embellishments can be added, as desired. It can be knitted in either wool to cater for the cooler weather, or cotton to be a lovely summer jacket.

Contact me at aligknits@gmail.com to order one of these versatile cardigans.

Softies for Mirabel

I've just been catching up on some friends' blogs and one caught my eye in particular tonight. Kelly (designer of many of my custom knitting items) came across 'Softies for Mirabel', which is a handcrafted softie (toy) drive hosted by meet me at mikes. Kelly has been knitting lots of gorgeous little soft toys for this drive, which is bound to put a smile on many childrens faces this Christmas.

(from Kelly's blog) "They are asking for handcrafted (ie sewn or knit) softies that they will collect and then right before Christmas, deliver them to the Mirabel Foundation for distribution to the children that Mirabel has on it's books.

Borrowed from the MF website: Mirabel assists children who have been orphaned or abandoned due to parental illicit drug use and are now in the care of extended family (kinship care). Mirabel believes that every child deserves a childhood and its mission is to break the destructive cycle of addiction and disadvantage."

I will be attempting to make at least a couple of these cute wee soft toys for this wonderful cause - items must be finished by 31 October. So many children's lives are tipped upside down by drug abuse and violence within their family - it's heartbreaking to think that so many innocent children are hurt by this vicious cycle. If I can make a child smile and feel even a little bit loved at Christmas by doing something I love and creating a toy, it will be well worth the small amount of time involved.

Ishbel

Well, I finally finished the Ishbel I was knitting as a gift to my mother. I started back in August (her birthday month), but was waylaid by other things that needed to be finished sooner. Unfortunately the yarn I used (50/50 merino/silk blend) had very little elasticity so the edges aren't nice and pointy because I just couldn't stretch it enough during blocking. However, it's lovely and soft and I'm pleased with it overall - especially as it's my first ever shawl.

Needlecase

This was made to test Jo's (CrazyCrafterNZ) new needlecase pattern. Well, it's a fabulous needlecase and an easy to follow pattern. I love it!!

Lilly Hat

I have just received permission from designer Larissa Brown to knit for sale her delightful Lilly Hat. Larissa has published a fantastic book, Knitalong, which celebrates the tradition of people coming together in groups to share their love of knitting. I have knitted three of these gorgeous hats so far and look forward to creating many more - each can be personalised with your choice of embellishment.

My beautiful new swift

I was lucky enough a couple of weeks ago to obtain a fabulous swift from my friend Julia and her talented husband. It really is wonderful! I have only managed to skein three hanks of yarn so far (one was for a swap, so isn't in the picture) - mainly because we have been staying for part of the school holidays at a friend's house and I didn't take it with me. I have several hanks of yarn waiting to be reformed into beautiful balls of yarn, which will happen over the next few days. I'll take a pic of them all when I'm done, so I can admire all the pretty yarn :)

Yarn Dyeing

For another swap I did, I was keen to create a deep red yarn. My first, using food colouring, resulted in a dark browny/black wool (I used too much black to 'deepen' the red). The second attempt, using wine red gel colours, resulted in a semi solid pink yarn, and my final attempt, using three bottles of Hansells Red food colouring, resulted in quite a bright red yarn. It wasn't as deep as I was planning, but it's vibrant and I really like it!