Dalmatian Baby Coat

I am hoping to start knitting another Noro Kureyon throw tomorrow when the Wimbledon tennis tournament starts and so I have been trying to finish off some of the other things that I have been knitting.

A friend of a work colleague is having a baby this summer.  She is very keen on Dalmatian dogs and so I said I would knit her a little coat for the baby.  I have been knitting it on and off for the last 2 weeks.  It is expected to be a boy – so I decided to knit it using blue yarn. 

 

As far as I know this is an original idea.  After hearing about the recent court case about whether the some of the music in the song Stairway to Heaven had been copied from another song – I began to wonder – have I seen this idea somewhere and remembered it?  I don’t think so – but where do ideas come from?  I think I have seen an animal print knitted cushion – the basic idea may have come from there.

I am now off to finish knitting a penguin!

Commit to Knit

I have been told that knitters are being encouraged to knit for charity during the month of June.  When I was last in Reading, I was given a pattern for a Twiddle Muff to knit for patients suffering from dementia.  As I was away last weekend, I missed the last meeting of the Reading Branch of the Knitting & Crochet Guild at which they were going to knit these muffs -  but I thought I would give it a go.

 

The muff was easy to knit as the pattern is simple and I have a lot of odd balls of yarn but I found it difficult to decorate.  The instructions tell you to sew it up and then decorate it – this seems very odd to me – so I ignored that and decorated it first.

 

It could be better – for example – my stripes could all line up  -  but I think it is OK.   I still have several other unfinished items but at least something is finished. 

More Noro

On Saturday I went to Oxford for the latest Knitting and Crochet Guild branch meeting.  I went early so that I could take my English Adventure throw to Oxford Yarn Store.  It is now having a holiday at the Store – so if you would like to see it in the flesh wool – that is where it is at the moment.  It is a good excuse to show you some of Karen Draisey’s photos of it – which are much better than mine.

Karen advised me to wash it and block it – as Kureyon becomes much softer when it has been washed.  She was absolutely right – I knew she was – but it was hard to wash and block in the small flat where I live. 

At last the next issue of the Noro magazine is on sale.  I found it last Friday.  I didn’t even open it – I took it straight up to the counter to pay.

It contains lots of lovely shawl patterns.  There are 2 that I plan to make one day.  What I haven’t mentioned so far is the Noro yarn I bought in the Oxford Yarn Store and the Noro yarn I bought on the stall on Gloucester Green market.  I can’t knit either of them yet as I have a cardigan to finish and then a baby’s coat and twiddle muff to knit.  However,  I have roughed out a pattern for a new throw – more about that in a week or so.

Summer Cardigan – Progress Report

I think I am doing quite well with my summer cardigan.  I have done the back, 2 fronts and 1 sleeve so far.

I haven’t done as much as I thought I would this week as I have been distracted by other things.  Something knitting related is that I have been reading the latest edition of Knitting magazine.

When I say “reading” – I really mean looking at the pictures.  It is a men’s knitting special and it is the first time the magazine has had a man on the cover.  It has lots of patterns that I would like to knit.  I don’t like frilly patterns and prefer the more classic or plainer styles which are aimed at men but can be uni-sex.  There is a 4-ply cardigan that I particularly like – but if I decide to knit it – it will take months and my blog will not be very interesting.  Perhaps I could knit it in stages and knit other things at the same time.  I suppose I could finally get around to tackling the partly finished items.