Rabbiting on...

Okay, so the reason I’ve been so absent the past week or so is because of this:

This little bundle of delights is my gorgeous baby niece, who was born this week.

I’ve been honoured in that she’s been given my name as her middle one [long, touching story], and I maintain that the only reason she came out when she did was that I finally managed to finish knitting the slippers I had been working on for 3 weeks previous to her arrival! I knew that I wanted to get them done before she arrived in the world, but as more and more got in the way of my daily life, I thought it was an impossible task. Thankfully for me, not so much for my sister, baby was not keen on coming on time, so I got an extra 8 days to make all the finishing touches.

The pattern was from this Debbie Bliss book, which is going quite cheap these days and is chocka with loads of really nice, really makeable things for kids. Keen followers of the Facebook feed will know that a lovely customer inspired these! I used some trusty sale yarn from GBY, and hey presto. The pattern was really easy, and it’s amazing how it goes from this:

To these:

The best thing is that when they’re done, they look really impressive. I feel like I’m slightly cheating because they really were easy to make. Best of all, I was able to follow the pattern all by myself, with no help from any of the various knitting gurus I have surrounded myself with in the past. It was such a sense of achievement to finish and to hand them over. Though it did take me a long time to actually sit down and knit, they didn't take that long to actually make, which is always good.

I doubled up my gift by purchasing some gorgeous knitted wares from Potting Shed Crafts, and, sticking to the theme I chose a gorgeous bunny ears hat.

Babies really are the best! I can't wait to make lots of new things for my namesake.

Give Peas A Chance.

The Saturday just gone was a day of progress and a day of breakthrough. The glorious spring sunshine had spilled over into my wonderful country garden, and I couldn’t resist bringing my knitting outside with me to try and tackle something I’ve been wrestling with for a while.

The undeniably gorgeous weather that led me gardenward.

  Before I even began knitting, before I even knew what a purl stitch was, I fell head over heels with Amigurumi. I persuaded my mum to buy a few books, in the hope that she would be as encompassed as me and would want to knit me some of the adorable creations that lined the pages. Alas, my mother didn’t, and as soon as I had a basic grasp of knitting, I dug a few of the books out of my mum’s ‘to read’ pile. Which, I might add, was not an easy feat, the tower stretches over a metre high, and is made of rather heavy cooking and knitting books. 

Apparent book-related danger aside, I’ve always had an affectation with all things Japanese, from manga to sushi, it seems I can’t get enough. Flicking through the book, I wanted to attempt something small. In my naïve mind, I thought that smaller things would be easier to do. Oh, how wrong I was.

When you’re not a confident user of double-pointed needles, it is recommended that you steer well clear of things that require you to split six stitches between three needles and work from there. I did not heed this advice. It is extremely difficult, endlessly frustrating, and hopelessly fiddley. So, for the past few months, when I had been feeling particularly dextrous, I’ve had a go at following the pattern in this book to make this tiny bird.

Photo from [http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathrynivy/4800103514/]

  Looks simple enough, right? Well, until a few weeks ago, I didn’t even know how to use DPNs properly. I meant well, but I’m pretty sure that, should my attempts have been at a public knitting event, many tears would have been shed due on account of my lack of form and general ignorance. I was essentially just tying some yarn to three sticks. Thanks to the workshop, I have a new found confidence, and this led me to pick up pattern and yarn on this sunny Saturday just past. 

I’m not going to lie to you; I undid and redid it about 6 times. I deviated from the pattern in ways that I couldn’t explain to you even if I tried, but, finally, I came out with something that resembled my end goal.

My Hap-Pea! You have no idea how many pea-related puns I'm sitting on right now.
You're exceedingly lucky that in this entire post I've only used 2.

The yarn is an unfortunate colour for a bird to be, so instead, I have made a pea. Out of what yarn, nobody knows. I found it attached to some vintage needles in my house and decided to pinch it and breathe some new, vegetabley life into it. I have no shame in admitting that it is stuffed with the filling from my dog’s bed, which fortuitously for me, had been ripped open a week previous. I have, however, found a glorious free pattern for tiny pigeons, made out of one of my favourite yarns, Knit Pick's Palette. I'm definitely going to attempt this soon.

I cannot convey the joy and pride that has resulted from such a silly little creation. I hope to hone my Amigurumi skills over many more projects, and hopefully one day, actually make the bird I was supposed to!