The Charlotte Dress

So, after three months of knitting I have completed the Charlotte Dress (designed by Nicole Montgomery, * and available here on ravelry).
I loved knitting this, and found the pattern excellent- clearly worded and very easy to follow.

Having knitted a tension square, I adjusted my needle size down, and knitted it using 2.25mm circulars.  I got slightly bored knitting the skirt, since, with such small needles and 4 ply wool, it took a long time to knit about 11 inches!  Doing it in the round was, in some ways, even harder, because you didn't even know when you had completed a row, given that it was all knit!  Still, I was delighted when I finished the skirt!

Having got that under my belt (pardon the pun!), I was convinced that it looked too big for 6-12 months.  However, I'd been good and done a tension square, so I kept going and got on with the bodice, which was so much fun!   I loved working the smocking stitch, and seeing something other than stocking stitch appear on this pretty little dress.  I was impressed by the attention to detail, for example, the pretty little button band at the back.

I also loved knitting the little arm borders- very simple and elegant.

The little one fits beautifully in the dress (being 2 weeks shy of 6 months), and it will be perfect for the colder months ahead.

A thoroughly enjoyable knit, and a very satisfying project to have completed.

I hope your week is going well.

C x

* Nicole also has a very beautiful blog here.

Changing Rooms

So the last week has seen big change in the Crafternoon household.
Biggest one has moved from his tiny little room into a brand new room that has just been shifted around and lovingly painted and decorated by Al and I.

The little man is rather excited about his new room- particularly about the fact that he now has a train set in there!

And the smallest one has moved out of our room (gulp!) and into her own room!  At first I felt rather mortified that it was totally bare and bereft of anything girlie at all (not that she would notice, I know, but I minded!). However, after a little creativity, I felt much happier with her new little space.

Not a bad little space to call home (what difference a little bunting makes!).

I'm sure that I wasn't particularly emotional when we moved E into his first room, but last night I could be found weeping into the washing up.  Possibly the product of much sleep deprivation (one of the reasons for her going into her own room) and possibly just that I am getting increasingly emotional with age...

The Charlotte dress is now complete, and has been washed and blocked.  Photos will follow once it has dried and been tried on its lucky little recipient.

Have a lovely week, friends.

C x

Kitchener Stitch

Today I have learned how to do the Kitchener stitch- a stitch, used to graft together the top shoulder seams on the Charlotte dress.

I used this helpful You Tube tutorial.

The dress is still coming on, although progress is very slow.

Any nice plans for the weekend?

C x

A Warm White

We have been decorating. Hence the slight shortage of posts.  We had a loft conversion recently, and we are repainting a room which used to be a guest room, but which is shortly about to become E's room.  He doesn't know this yet, and it's been really fun dreaming up a fun first proper room for him, because his current room is pretty tiny, so he can't do much in it.  This new room will have a little reading corner, and plenty of space for his trains and diggers...

I'm delighted, because when we moved in, the guest room was really quite a bright yellow and purple, and it is now a warm white and (soon to be) corn-flour blue.  Much Better.  I am just getting a bit of a headache trying to distinguish between the white emulsion and the "Cotton White" which is much warmer and nicer.

In other news, the dress is still getting knitted... just a little more slowly than I'd like...

I've also been cooking through some of Jamie's 30 Minute Meals.  A particular favourite is the Frangipane tart. It's quick to cook and very tasty- try it out!

Have a lovely weekend.

C x

Summer Catch Up

Posts have been a little sparse recently.  We had a lovely holiday in Cornwall, and this has been followed by a few days staying with family.

A few photo highlights...

I also got a bit of crafting done.  I have been working on something I'm doing for myself (more in a later post) and P's "Charlotte dress".  I have finally reached some more interesting knitting having completed a knit, knit, knit marathon of 10.75" in 4 ply yarn, with about 230 stitches per 'row' in the round! Slightly dull! Still, Now I am onto more interesting bits and I am really pleased with how it is going.

Fun.  I will be back home in a day or two, and I have a few things I need to get to on my sewing machine.  That, and there's a whole lot of tidying and cleaning to do...

Are you having a nice summer?

C x

His and Hers.

Another of E's little friends has a birthday coming up.  I decided I wanted to make something again, and settled for some summer trousers from this book. It's such an easy little pattern, they didn't take much time at all.

I used a lovely blue and white striped cotton (a remnant from our local fabric shop), and then did the pockets and tie with a little of one of my lovely Cath Kidston fabrics.  Suitably girly I hope?

Upon seeing these, E decided he rather liked them, and so I thought I'd quickly sew him up a pair, as some holiday trousers.  I left the pockets off his ones, and, needless to say, did not use my pink Cath material for his! I love making something the second time from a pattern, as it takes so much less time.  They were done in about forty minutes.

I'd made his a little loose, so just needed to tighten the elastic and sew up the waistband.  He was delighted, and so was I!  I think they make a nice little pair!

That then got me thinking that I hadn't made anything for P for our little summer holiday, so, using a pattern for a smock top from the same book, I adapted it to make her a little dress.

Again, this was incredibly simple (I love my new sewing machine!) and I just waited for this morning to measure it against her before I hemmed it and added the straps.

Voilà! Two little summer outfits for the small ones.  I shall use our time away to catch up on my knitting, which I have been neglecting a bit of late.

Right. I must go and entertain my smallest one.  I always think I will get lots done when E has his morning with Grandma, but in reality, P misses him, and all the noise, and is much harder work!

Wishing you a lovely week.

C x

A skein unravelled and some sushi

So I decided to follow Meg's advice and ball up my skein of knitpicks wool.  It was definitely a good idea, and I figured it'd take about half an hour... Alas no.  Given that I'd started knitting with it already, some of the skein wasn't as neatly packaged as when it first arrived and it took nearer 2 hours to ball-up- the entire duration of a Craft evening I had on Tuesday.  Still, it made for some fun group activity at times...

But look how lovely it looks now...

It turns out that 100g of 4-ply wool is actually quite a lot!
Still, it's done now (particular thanks to Georgie!), and is nice and neat, and the Charlotte Dress is making slow but satisfying progress...

In other news, we went to dinner with some friends last Saturday and rolled sushi for the first time.  It was great!  Although I was a bit of a coward on the raw fish front, and didn't get any more adventurous than smoked salmon, I loved the ones that I rolled, and had a generally lovely evening!

Rachel's looked incredibly professional (she is quite experienced at sushi-rolling), but even mine looked quite cool for a first-time attempt!

A fun, and very sociable meal! (Thanks Nick and Rachel!)

I hope you are enjoying a leisurely weekend.  We are enjoying the beautiful weather, and our sixth wedding anniversary!  Happy Saturday, Friends.

C x

Cards, Cake and Knitting

Yesterday I made some cards again.  Using the papers I blogged about here and some inspiration from here, I stitched some cards...

It was fun doing them on the machine, and it made an interesting change from just sticking papers onto card!  I didn't have matching envelopes for every card- some in my stash were too large to go with anything, so I cut them down to size and them stitched them on my machine too, which made for a nice 'set'.

All three of my new knitting projects are underway, and though I shan't reveal them all now, I shall mention one of them- the one I am using my lovely knitpicks yarn that I mentioned in my last post.  I am doing the beautiful "Charlotte Dress" by Nicole Montgomery.  I am enjoying working in the round on my circular needles, and at the moment, because the skirt of the pattern is pretty simple, it's easy to pick up and put down when I have a moment or two.

The only frustrating thing about knitting with this lovely yarn is that it comes wound up in a skein, which then is rather messy when you're working with it (see first pic above).  Does anyone have any tips for keeping this neat? Do any of you bother to wind it up into a ball as I am slightly tempted to do?

Lastly today, I have made a yummy chocolate cake for a craft evening tonight...

Mmm. Can I wait for tonight?!

How are you this week? 

C x