Twelve Things: October's Cardigan

On the announcement of a little person joining the family, it was the perfect opportunity to get my knitting needles out and make a tiny item of clothing. I bought Rowan's Just Baby book, which has some gorgeous, modern patterns, and I was particularly enamoured by the cardigan on the front cover. Perhaps a bit advanced for my current skills, I loved the yarn colour so picked a moss stitch cardi and got started. Over the next couple of months I worked through the different pieces of the garment and by October I was near completion with an age deadline to meet too - these babies do grow fast! Even though it's a small piece of clothing, I've learned a lot about putting the pieces together and the importance of taking time in making up the garment. After all the effort, I was so pleased with how the cardigan turned out with the four, cute buttons and rolled up sleeves…plus little Penny looks great in it too.

Looking back: in January I started to learn to swing.

In February we learned how to make pasta.

In March I sewed some curtains.

In April I planted herbs.

In May I started running.

In June I learnt to knit Fair Isle.

In July I planned a party.

In August I experimented with chocolate.

In September I started a new job.

Baby Blanket

When I was growing up, my bed always had a hand crocheted blanket on it that my Nanna Eileen made and they are still used to this day. I certainly inherited her love of wool crafts and a while back I started making a crochet blanket of my own. When we found out there would be a new little person in the family I thought a traditional crochet blanket would be perfect for a cot or pram. Crochet squares are one of the best ways to start learning to crochet. Once I'd laid out the squares selecting the more ladylike colours, I found this tutorial on how to join them together. There are a number of techniques to do it, but this one continues the pattern of the squares and does so subtly. After a border around the edges of all the joined squares, the baby blanket was complete! 

A week later Penelope arrived, and I gave her the blanket when we went to meet her at 8 days old. Hopefully it'll keep her warm over the cold months, and when she gets older she might want to wrap her dolls up in it to keep them toasty!

PS. This is my 500th post since I started this blog in June 2009!!