OK, OK, OK

I'm so sorry poor blog. I have been ignoring you for so long I'm surprised you are still here. Life has been rather busy these past few months and blogging time has been non-existent. Heck, any form of personal time has pretty much gone.

Well we have actually had the baby so I didn't go to 4 months overdue :-) I was 40+15 which was hard enough. Our little girl Nadia was born on May 1st at 11.47am weighing 9lb10. It was a fairly straightforward homebirth lasting about 4 hours or so. Couldn't say that it was better than my hospital birth. Guess there were pros and cons for each. Anyway here are some pics:

Both kids in the first few days

Having a play

Our little girl

Have been doing a little bit of knitting but will update next time. Don't have any batteries in the camera. Sorry

Waiting....

Nothing happening on the baby front so we are all just waiting. Some days patiently, other days not so :-) So to kill the time I've started something new. I'm bored of baby stuff, Euan's jumper is driving me crazy and so is Dan's, so I thought I'd make something for me. Chunky sweaters seem to be all the rage so I've been through the stash and through Ravelry and found a pattern that I can start with. It's called the Shalom cardi. I'm planning on making a heap of changes but it's a good starting point. You can find the pattern here and this is my progress shot:

Doesn't look like much but it's fast knitting (double worsted yarn on 6.5mm needles) so hopefully I can show you something that looks like a cardigan soon.

Now just a matter of who finishes first, me or the baby!

OMG I am so slack!

I can't believe it has been well over a month since I last posted. I'm so sorry about that. I guess all the late pregnancy stuff just got too much for me and I haven't really had the energy to do much. Things got really hectic around here when our little girl turned breech which meant I couldn't birth on the government funded homebirth program. It turned out to be a bit of a blessing though, as I really didn't like my midwife and I am so much happier with the lovely independent midwife that I have chosen instead. Of course as soon as I found a midwife I was happy with our little one went head down so there are no issues with that any more. Cheeky little thing!

We've also gone through the wringer a bit with the house. We gave up on the first builders as they were twats but luckily found someone else who could do what we wanted for a much more reasonable price. We spent a while tweaking that plan and discussing various bits and bobs and finally signed up with them a few weeks ago (at Easter in fact). So they are now working on our plans and we should have something happening fairly soon. Luckily we won't have to move until after the baby arrives.

On the knitting front I have been fairly unproductive. I just can't seem to find the time or energy to knit. I have a heap of projects on the go or in my ravelry queue but I can't see when they'll ever get done. I would love to finish Dan and Euan's jumpers before winter so I'd better pull my finger out on those. Luckily I have at least one knitting project to show you. It's a little set that I made for the bub. I don't really know what the yarn is. Some Spotlight rubbish that I picked up ages ago because it was worsted weight and that stuff is like hen's teeth in Oz.

The top is a free Debbie Bliss pattern and the pants are just my usual made up pattern. I think I put a few extra short rows in the back for the bulky newborn nappies. They're not 100% wool so I'm not sure how they'll go as a cover but I think they'll be ok. I think the top will look cuter on than flat. It's hard to make that ribbing sit well.

In the last week I've found my sewing machine and had a burst of energy. This was mainly spurred on by the fact that I didn't have any newborn nappies and lots of fabric lying around. So using Shar's Newborn fitted pattern I made up a bunch. Aren't they the cutest.

It's been years since I made nappies and I actually found these quick, easy and enjoyable to make. My wonderful friend Pip has also lent me some little nappies so now we have a decent stash for when this one finally arrives.

While I had the machine out I made up a few things for me for the days and weeks after the birth. I know these aren't everyone's cup of tea but they are so comfortable and I'll be doing loads of nappy washing so they aren't any more work.

I've been meaning to make these for years, and once again they were so quick and easy to make. I'm thrilled with how these have turned out. They look just like ones I've bought in the past. I feel so clever :-)

So here's a nice little picture of all the baby things I have made so far.

Not a huge collection but I'm happy with it. I just can't wait to have some pictures with a baby in the clothes. 39 weeks now so it won't be long but it will always be longer than I want!

BSJ Modifications

I've had a few people ask about my modifications to resize the Baby Surprise Jacket so I thought I'd post them here. Sorry it took so long. I really need to update you all on the last few weeks but I'll save that for another day.

For these mods to be of any use you'll need the original BSJ pattern. I don't want to breech anyone's copywrite by posting the pattern, but hopefully these instructions will make some sense. If not, let me know please.

To make a newborn size BSJ using 100g (or a bit less than 230m or 250y) worsted weight wool and size 4.5mm needles (I haven't actually worked out my gauge but I'll have a look later)

Cast On 128 stitches

Mark stitches 29 and 100

After 8 rows (4 ridges) increase 7 across each end

At 70st work 3 even

At 86st work 8 evenly across middle

At 114st shape neck by bind off 4 at each end

At 118st work on centre 66 for 16 rows (8 ridges)

Mark stitches 34 and 100

4 rows then make buttonholes then 4 more rows

Then you should end up with something cute like this:

The big one!

This is the FO I've been wanting to show you for ages. It has only been finished a few days but it has been a lot of work and I'm really proud of it. This little labour of love is a present for my Nan's 90th birthday, which isn't until March but I didn't want to rush it. It took me a month to complete which is slightly quicker than I expected although I wanted to have time to resize it if need be.

Anyway, without further a do, may I present my Swallowtail shawl:

Isn't she pretty? Not a huge shawl but a good size for a little grandmother.

Here's the blocking shot:

This made me realise that I really need blocking wires so I'm saving up for a splurge at The Knittery asap, especially as I already have more lace on my needles.

Not sure what to say about the swallowtail. It is a fairly simple pattern to follow if you don't have a 2yo helping out. I used Knittery 2ply merino on 3.25mm addi lace needles.

Oh, and it has really whetted my appetite for lace. So I joined a Secret Stole thingy (for all my free time!). They send me a clue every week for 9 weeks and I knit them up and see what happens. Unfortunately I needed my only lace needles so I had to wait until the Swallowtail was finished, which meant I was 3 clues behind. Luckily it is fairly easy knitting so I got the first clue done in 2 days and have made good progress on clue 2. I'm really hoping to be up to date by the time clue 3 comes out on Friday night.

Here is a little progress shot of the stole:

Terrible pictures, but it looks pretty good in real life. I've done a fair bit more since this picture but I'm only going to take pictures at the end on each clue.

Unfortunately due to the lace bug that I've caught everything else has gone on the back burner. I hope I can get a few more things finished off in the coming weeks as I hate having lots of WIPs bugging me.

House report: who knows and not worth talking about. Hopefully we should start knowing a little more by next week but until then we're trying not to think about it.

Another FO

OMG has it really been that long since I last posted? How terribly slack of me. Sorry about that. Things have been on the busy side here and I have actually been getting quite a bit of knitting done. I started and finished another project in the last 2 weeks, actually it was in the last week! I while back I made this gorgeous little jacket for a friends baby and last week I decided to make one for my own impending bub. I thought it best to do a little bit of stash busting but only had worsted weight yarn that I wanted to use so I had to change all the calculations. Basically I took 10% off everything-ish and it worked out really well. I can't really post my number because that would give the pattern away but if anyone really wants to know I'm happy to give them a hand.

Anyway, not real point with the progress shots so here is the finished item:

It took 2 balls of Noro Silk Garden on 4mm needles. Sorry I don't post all the details on my blog. I put them all in Ravelry now and can't be bothered cross posting. Lazy aren't I :-)

I made a terrible cock up on the sleeves. You are supposed to increase a certain number of stitches across a section and when I wrote out my notes I forgot to mention this and just increased the stitches at either end. This meant my sleeves looked like this:

So I had to undo my cast on and frog down from the top. This was a PITA as the decrease stitched would not just pull out so I had to pull the yarn through everyone. It took bloody ages! But it was worth it in the end and I am really happy with it. It should be a perfect size for her first winter.

Stay tuned because I have an even more exciting FO for tomorrow!!!

Knitted baby FO

Here it is, my first knitted item for our little girl. It has been a nice knit and the yarn is just so scrummy. I just love it! Dan has reminded me, however, that it will probably fit her around her first birthday and not as a newborn, but who cares really. Knowing my luck and poor judgement it'll probably fit her around 9 months which will be the middle of summer, so not great sweater weather. Ah, who cares. Here it is:

Knitted in Knittery merino/cashmere sock yarn on 3.75mm needles. It's the February Sweater Pattern from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac. Sorry, I'm sure I should add more details but my brain isn't working and I need to head out. If I can think of anything important I'll write it up later.

I managed to save my lace but haven't had the courage to do any more on it. Hopefully I'll get some child free time this weekend and I can get a few more repeats done. This one cannot be late!