Purple Toddler Coat

 We have had a lot of rain this month and so while I finished this coat a week ago, there has not been enough light to take proper photos till now. It may look benign or even nice, but it was one of the most tedious things I ever knit. Not fun at all. In addition, the honeycomb pattern can be physically challenging to the wrists.

The technical details..Initially, I picked this pattern to knit, but my yarn was a different weight, so I decided to do my own math. And go with a top-down, contiguous approach, which I later realized, was all wrong for this design because of the considerable gauge difference between stockinette st and honeycomb pattern. So when I tried to get proper sizing at the yoke, the sleeves caps grew quiet loose. At that point, I had already invested a great deal of time and energy (remember the honeycomb pattern being hard on the wrists) to rip back. So I decided to move on and get it done.

 Thankfully my toddler does not have an eye for such details yet. She is happy and content with the fact that her mom made her a new cardigan. And that is good enough for me. It is a bit large on her at the moment as it is intended to fit her next winter.

A Bit Unravelled

My current wip (work in progress)

I am knitting this cardigan top down. I had planned to finish the neckline with a few rows of ribbing and it was to have the first buttonhole as well. So i put in the rest of the buttonholes accordingly. However I had a nagging suspicion that the neckline was too small and ribbing would make it even smaller. So on reaching the bottom of the cardigan, I decided to knit the neck ribbing before the bottom edge and just as i thought, it made the neck opening too small. So I frogged the ribbing and did an I-cord bind-off instead. But that meant the first buttonhole was now too far down, thus creating the need for this unravel of the buttonhole band.

Thankfully the band is all fixed now and I am binding off the cardigan now. I have made several mistakes while knitting this cardigan ans sadly not all were so easy to fix. So I have had to put up with them. More on that when I show you the completed cardigan. For now, I am happy to be almost done with this cardigan and if I am wise, I should be sticking to tried and tested patterns for a while (highly unlikely..).

Looking For Suggestions

I know I have been neglecting this blog for some time and I am sorry about that. What with a new baby, two rounds of flu which escalated to something worse for our youngest two, the annual exams of the older kids, life has been an ongoing series of hectic. That did not leave much time for knitting or blogging. Things are still pretty busy but the final exams are over at last and we are recovering from our latest colds, so the things are looking up. Hopefully I will be able to blog more frequently. The cardigan I am working at ought to be done soon and I am planning on some spring sewing soon. So I will have some stuff to blog about. However I am looking for blogging ideas in addition to my usual knitting and sewing projects. Are there any particular topics my readers would like? I would love to have some input/suggestions.

Peplum

 

Once we somewhat settled into a routine with the new baby, I treated myself to some yarn shopping and bought three sweaters' worth of yarn for the older kids. I got to work on the first sweater in late January. It went quite slow because the only knitting time I get is after the kids' bedtime. Still, a few rows at a time and I got this sweater done in under a month.

   This is for my oldest daughter. I knit this top down, checking the fit as it went along. I did not follow any pattern, just did some math and cast on. She specifically requested raglan sleeves otherwise I had initially planned set-in sleeves. I miscalculated the button band width and it turned out too narrow. So, to avoid gaping, I sewed the cardigan closed from the second buttonhole down to the peplum. About the peplum, I have been wanting to knit one for some time and I think it looks awfully cute on seven-year olds.

  The yarn is our local acrylic DK weight which is surprisingly soft and wears well. My daughter is quite pleased with the sweater and I had a fun time knitting it. I guess that makes it a success.

 Now, on to the second sweater. That is half the size of this one and ought to be done sooner, inshaAllah.

Minion Hat

These days, my toddler is quite fond of minions (of the Despicable Me animated movies). At some movement of overwhelming maternal affection, I promised her a minion hat a couple of weeks ago. So this had to be the project marking my post-partum recovery. I used this pattern for the basic hat pattern (it is an awesome pattern by the way, and I was much tempted to cast-on an actual fair-isle version) and improvised with all the minion components. I am happy to have fulfilled my promised and my daughter is happy to have a "min" hat, which she would much rather hold and look at, than put on her head...
  

Introducing...

...our newest family member. Our daughter was born on December 20, via c-section, alhamdolillah. We both are home now and getting a much needed rest.

Around The House Cardigan

Someone gave me some old yarn recycled from an old sweater, a while back. Since it was a color most often by me in sweaters, I used it to knit a cardigan for myself to wear around the house. The yarn is somewhere between sports and DK weight. After figuring out the needle size and gauge, I knit a top-down cardigan using contiguous method for shoulders and set-in sleeves.I incorporated a cable for the saddle shoulder.

 Even though I was a bit uncertain about the fit, seeing how I was winging the whole process, it turned out fabulously well, at the first go. Even though it is my third contiguous project, I still get thrilled by how this method makes wonderfully seamless sweaters.  

I used cable charts from this pattern. In the end, the yarn ran a bit short so I ended up with a slightly cropped cardigan and three-quarter sleeves.