piccys galore

Right.... I have a few FO pictures for you today. I have finished the bolero with a few modifications and I also have the blanket pictures though I finished the knitting of it before I went into hospital.

Here is the finished bolero















In the end I just couldn't face knitting a mile of garter edging and sewing it on. Also... the edging was supposed to produce a shawl collar but I thought it would be a right P.I.T.A. and not lie down so I decided to try crochet. This stitch is the shell stitch which I found after browsing through crochet bible the "Happy Hooker" by Debbie Stoller. I love this book and learnt the little crochet I can do from it. I'm hoping that eventually I'll be able to do more than edging or really simple stuff.

This is a close-up of the edging.













The crocheting itself wasn't hard but the calico is quite splitty and made it harder to hook those DCs.

Here are the last of the blanket pictures.













This is the front of the blanket which I was super pleased with. I picked up around each finished edge in a different colour to tidy it up a bit but I wouldn't have had enough of one colour to do all the same. Still, I thinkit worked out ok.














However, this was what the back looked like after it had been sewn up. I have to sew things so they're indestructible so I didn't just tack the edges together, I used my usual method of sewing up which has a name I cannot remember. This left the back looking messy so I fixed it with....fleecy fabric. Or rather mum did ;o)














Mum added the fabric on the back for me while I was in hospital bless her. Also, it means that Ava has a non-wool/alpaca surface against her skin while her skin is still dry and flaky from being so overdue. The Rooster Almerino is super soft but I can't have pure wool or animal fibre right next to my skin.

Lastly, I have a gratituitous Ava pic since she's wearing something I knit while I was pregnant. I was super impressed with this cardi I made. Not because it was difficult but to have the sticking power to finish it in time. I get bored or just a short attention span and this was a lot of fiddling with hoods and bands etc.


















This was knitted in Sirdar Kisses DK. It's acrylic but soooo soft. It's the softest acrylic yarn I've ever felt and it's a semi-solid colour. I made lots of minty-duck egg things this time around. When I was having Seth my "neutral" colour was yellow and I wanted a different unisex colour this time. The little suit she has on has some mint in it today so I put her this one on. I definately recommend this yarn for baby knits as it's machine washable and dryable and very very soft. It isn't often I rave about acrylic so make the most of it!

I think thats all I have.... I'm amazed I got the bolero done in under a week, but to be honest it's not a big knit. The bolero is obviously a cropped pattern but nontheless it was 4ply and I don't usually knit that fine.

Until next time,
xxx