Knitting tiny hats

I don't know if you've ever spotted Innocent smoothie bottles in the shops with tiny, knitted hats on? I first noticed these a couple of years ago whilst my husband & I were on a trip in Birmingham; the campaign worked - we must have bought at least four bottles (those tiny hats are now on some of my teddy bears) and we were introduced to the Age UK campaign that those sales contributed to (25p of each sale goes to their campaign to help keep elderly people warm this winter).

Now, for the first time, I actually appear to be in time to take part in the Big Knit by knitting my own tiny hats and I'd encourage anyone with even basic knitting skills, a little time and some spare yarn to join in, too. Make sure you send any hats off to the address on this page (along with your name, address and the number of hats that you've knitted) before this Friday (14th October)!

You can find patterns on their website, or make your own. Personally, I'm tempted to humour my inner geek and make a few hats inspired by Firefly's Jayne Cobb, using this pattern.

Baby knitting

I thought I'd just run through a couple of completed projects. Two years ago, everyone around me seemed to be either pregnant, or be very close to someone who was, and it was the inspiration provided by the impending arrival of cute, tiny people that encouraged me to get back into knitting. 

Having not tried any knitting since middle school (the last project from which that I recall making was a knitted pencil case in very vibrant shades of pink, purple and yellow), I wandered nervously into a local knitting shop and distracted myself for at least an hour with the wide variety of delightfully soft baby yarns available.

I eventually decided to start knitting a jumper for my best friend's as-yet-unborn baby boy. Not knowing at that point that he was going to be a boy, I finally decided to use Sirdar Baby Bamboo in a lovely, pale green/blue shade, as seen in a poor photograph of the finished jumper, below.

Baby Bamboo contains no acrylic and feels extremely silky against the skin, but did have a habit of splitting occasionally. Not enough to keep me from using it again, however, as it comes in a wonderful array of colours and, according to my friend, washes well (although I should probably note that you can't tumble dry it).

The pattern was an "Easy Knit" one from Sirdar and, sure enough, it was. Given that I've only ever knitted rectangles before, though, I did learn a few abbreviations and techniques. It was so much fun, watching it all come together, though! I'm longing for another Baby Bamboo project just thinking about it.

For my second baby project, however, I decided to try a different yarn: Sirdar's Snuggly DK. Although this one is more artificial in its make up, you can tumble dry it (something, although I don't have any children of my own yet, I think I'd appreciate) and it's still very soft, albeit less silky. It doesn't have the "drape" of the bamboo, but also because of that feels lighter.

Feeling positive after my "Easy Knit" experience, I decided to try another Baby Bamboo pattern by Sirdar: Duffle Coat 1733. I simply chose it for its looks! Plus, I wanted to learn how to knit cables and thought I'd just run with it.

Now, the "Easy Knit" took me three months or so to complete. This is primarily due to my work/busy weekend schedule, but I also think I'd knit more on the train now than I used to (knowing when you're likely to bother/distract those around you and how much to care about it - a subject best saved for a separate post, I think!). I simply have to admit that it didn't cross my mind that the duffle coat would take much longer. In actuality, it took me just over five months to finish. Now, it turns out (!) that baby's grow quite a bit in that length of time! Fortunately I had vaguely thought that this might happen and made a size bigger than the one I had initially intended. This obviously would have added to the knitting requirements, but I'm still slightly ashamed of the five months. We eventually gave it as a Christening gift to the baby for whom it was intended.

Anyway, enough of that saga! The wool was lovely to knit with and makes me crave hugs because it's so soft, especially when it's all neatly in a ball. There's also a great choice of colours in this line, and my current, low-priority knitting-on-the-train project is yet another Baby Bamboo pattern in Snuggly DK in a lovely shade of pink.

In the past few months, inspired by the sunshine, I've also managed to find, dust, and set working my sewing machine! I think this is a long enough post for now, though!

"Knitting is very conducive to thought. It is nice to knit a while, put down the needles, write a while, then take up the sock again."

- Dorothy Day

Knitting is also very addictive... I find myself wanting to do it all day, in every one of those little moments between doing tasks!

I'm currently working on two of the projects that I mentioned previously: the cardigan (the baby arrived two months early, so it's going to be way too big until the handsome little guy has put on some weight! I also need to finish it sooner rather than later), and the pretzel scarf. I haven't drawn up a chart for the pattern on the latter, but have started the length of the scarf (it will only have a pretzel at one end, of course (!) ) and am making progress with that.

I continue to thoroughly recommend knitting, though, as a creative outlet, a method of relaxation, and - as Dorothy neatly put it - as a conductor for thoughts.

Sara

Change of Direction with Progress...

Progress on the smoking jacket has officially come to a complete halt, and by "officially", I mean that it's been agreed with my (very patient) husband that other projects have more immediate deadlines. These are:

1. A baby's cardigan, for the baby of my best friend, due in December;
2. A scarf (decorated with some kind of a pretzel pattern) for a dear friend as a part of a murder mystery evening that we're hosting, also in December;
3. A pair of short crocheted gloves for myself for the party (these are somewhat less important, especially given that I cannot currently crochet).

The scarf that I began after hearing about the 'Knit Your Bit' cause on the Fedora Lounge is nearly finished - I just need to finish the many coloured "ends" (bits of wool that I left whenever I changed colour, because I had inconveniently lost my darning needle at some point in the past seven years, or however long it has been since I last knitted), knit a few more rows of the second half, and stitch the two halves together.

I have to say, in addition to this being for an excellent cause, this is a wonderful way to get into knitting from a pattern (as opposed to just rectangles, which was all I knew how to do before this) and so I'd enthusiastically encourage anyone who wanted to try knitting to try this.

What's more, having bought some short, bamboo knitting needles, I have now discovered the joy of knitting during my commute on the train: it's very therapeutic (even more so than knitting on its own), and the new needles mean that I both don't poke anybody, nor do I make any noise (unlike those businesspeople tapping away on their laptops and/or poorly designed mobile phone keyboards). It has, in all seriousness, improved my train journey no end, and I'm going to recommend it to all of my friends!

Anyway, I shall leave this update here and pick up my baby cardigan knitting, and hopefully get a good few rows done before I have to shower.

Sara

Slow Progress

Smoking Jacket

Progress so far: 3 pieces (out of about 11!) cut out and marked. This could take a while, although I'm hoping to get a little more done this weekend.

The good news is that I am now successfully getting into work earlier, as planned, and have kept it up for nearly three weeks (to the point where I have now sent an email to my team-mates letting them know that my official office hours have changed); I'm extremely pleased.

Knitting

On a separate note, I learned four new knitting stitch abbreviations last night! I'm starting upon another learning curve - that of reading simple knitting patterns - in order to take part in this: http://www.nationalww2museum.org/calendar/knit-your-bit.html.

I already appear to have gained a stitch from somewhere, which would normally bother me immensely, but I've decided that learning to knit cannot be something in which I indulge my inner perfectionist, or else I'll go crazy. So I'm doing a "rough" version of the scarf first. We'll see how that turns out (!).

Sara

An Introduction

Welcome! I thought the best place to start would be with somekind of an introductory post, so here we go. My name is Sara, and I live in the U.K.. During the day, I'm an analyst, but alongside my passion for patterns and numbers is a passion for patterns of another variety, as I have a great fondness for sewing projects of various scales.

I want to give a little disclaimer here and note that I am by no means any sort of expert in this, merely an enthusiast. A partial reason for this is the amount of time that I have to dedicate to the many projects that I have floating about in my head is somewhat limited by the amount of daylight (and energy) left by the time I return from my daily commute. To help combat this problem, my husband proposed the two following courses of action:

1. Go into work earlier, thus enabling me to leave when it is still light; and
2. Log any progress made on my projects.

The former recommendation is being successfully implemented as I scribble this on a scrap of paper from my handbag (heading into work on an early train), and has led to a number of unforeseen benefits, for example a significantly calmer and more pleasant commute! The latter recommendation is what this blog is for. And I'd best get to business, otherwise I will ramble for a good while and not get this posted (alas! this kind of behaviour is another reason why projects often don't progress very quickly).

Project of the Moment

So, my first project is: a velvet smoking jacket (for my husband, not me). The velvet will probably be green, and I plan on using a shawl collar and adding a number of customised pockets.

My first thought, even as I type this, is that this project doesn't seem like one for an amateur, but I think a large portion of its benefits lies in the fact that there is a rather steep learning curve (one that I shall be taking slowly and surely!), and that the potential benefits in being able to make jackets and coats for both myself and my husband are great. I am planning on making mistakes - albeit hopefully not too many expensive ones - and learning from them, one by one.

Initial Resources

• Vogue Pattern V2383 - http://www.voguepatterns.com/item/V2383.htm?tab=men&page=1. This is the pattern that I will be using to create an initial mock-up and to get an idea for the basic structure of a man's jacket. I'm hoping to get this completed over the next month so that I can establish: (a) how tricky this is going to be, (b) how many alterations I am likely to have to make from the basic pattern, and (c) where the pockets are going to go.
• Classic Tailoring Techniques: A Construction Guide for Men's Wear by Roberto Cabrera - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Classic-Tailoring-Techniques-Construction-Guide/dp/0870054317/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250797923&sr=8-1. This is a book that I got a while ago and looks to be very thorough regarding construction techniques and also has a section on the alteration of commerical patterns, which I will definitely be turning to after I've made my mock-up.
• Just Pockets: Sewing Techniques and Design Ideas by Patricia Moyes - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Just-Pockets-Patricia-Moyes/dp/1561581704/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250798247&sr=1-1. My husband bought this for me as a gift and it made me smile, because he's got a great fondness for pockets (he recently bought a two-piece travelling suit that contained fourteen); I, personally, didn't realise that you could write an entire book on pockets, but evidentally you can, and this is it. I'm not sure how many of the ideas I will use, but I'll keep it handy for inspiration.
• The Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Readers-Digest-Complete-Guide-Sewing/dp/0895770261. I bought this at a car boot sale for 50p (the gentleman who owned that particular car boot wanted only 10p, but I disagreed with his pricing assessment!) and it's been a fantastic buy - it's got every sewing-related method I've ever wondered about in it, covered to a reasonable (and oven greater-than-needed) level of detail; I'd highly recommend it to anyone who's getting started on such crazy projects as myself.

Anyway, I had better tidy up my sewing box and start reading some of the 8 pages of pattern instructions so that I will be ready to start the mock-up at the weekend...

Sara