Finished Object: Packaged, Sent & Received!

A couple of things to share this evening. Firstly, old wood, type setting (?) letters. I picked these up back in March to use as part of my ORK care labels and this is the first time that I have used them - really pleased!


I packaged the Baby's Ballerina top together with the main posts that have referred to it and made up an ORK Care Label:

- vital statistics about the project

- ball band care label!



Now, having dutifully shared the above with you, I am utterly and totally delighted to share the following two pictures with you. My finished object arrived safe and sound today. So without further ado, please meet my incredibly gorgeous gift recipient, aged 4 months, sporting her very own ORK:

Now that's what I call job satisfaction!

(Feeling clucky...who me? A-hem, perhaps!)

Thank you A & I, I hope that your ORK serves you well!

Baby Ballerina Top - Ready to Post!

What to say? It is finished. I just need to create an O.R.K. care label, print off all blog posts, package and post to its gift recipient.

I started working this top back in May. I finished it in early June (I think) but somehow, I got daunted by the job of sewing it together.

So it sat. And sat. And sat. I finally started to sew it up on the 7th August, during a train journey back from a business meeting in Sheffield. Two hours and I managed to set in 1.5 sleeves.

It got put aside again.

Until I realised that the gift recipient was about to hit the target age for the top!
So the final push has been this week.

Two round commutes sorted the rest of the sewing up, plus its buttons.

I just really hope that it fits and that the gift recipient's mother likes it!

The summary of photos for this top can be found in my Flickr photostream, Finished Objects set.

Phew. Onwards to the next item.




Have a good weekend all - I won't be knitting. I will be running a Championship and competing.

Finished Knitting!

I have finished knitting the baby ballerina wrap. As I type, the pieces are laid out on my ironing board drying (it has donned its black bin liner again) all spritzed and neatly pinned.

At least, as neatly pinned as I could manage.

Here are some of the photos. I have decided that I like blocking - there is something much calmer, more gentle and controlled about spritzing, pinning into shape and allowing to dry, than ironing something to death through a damp tea towel and hoping that you cannot smell burning.

Nggg!

There are times when only an inarticulate noise can really sum up how I feel. You see, technically, I have made progress. Technically, I can confirm that my baby ballerina wrap has a back, two sleeves and 1.75 fronts. Technically, I am almost finished.

Except I am not - almost finished, that is.

What did I say about not knitting or thinking through design alterations when tired?! Those moments when I very carefully and deliberately make decisions that in retrospect are, in all frank honesty, really quite stupid.

Like not noticing (until after I had cast off one front) that I'd started the heart pattern two rows earlier than I did on the back - and it shows.


Fizzle! There goes a week's worth of train knitting in one little, damp squib pop!

Like not putting a buttonhole in where I planned one (twice, actually - on both fronts) because I persuaded myself that I wouldn't find the buttons I wanted, so I told myself to compromise and knit up some i-cord.

Then I found...great buttons. In John Lewis.

Oh ho...do you hear that?!

Pop! Another little damp fizz-pop, as the knitting done in front of Harry Potter last Sunday evening (three quarters of the second front) must vanish into thin air, so that I can increase the size of the button band and add a buttonhole.

Sigh...at this rate, this child will be too big for the wrap by the time that I have finished it!

Yet I c-a-n-n-o-t help it - I want my decision to alter the design to work out.

I want this top to look the way I planned it at the very start. Uh oh, does that make me a perfectionist? Or just very stubborn?!

So my apologies gift recipient: you will have to wait a little bit longer. I need to bite the bullet and start ripping!

Don't you just...

..hate it when this happens?!

Ignore the other errors in the button band (which came about as I changed my mind about a button hole about 3 times, putting one in, taking one out etc.) but I couldn't really let the even more obvious purling error go....rip!

Note to self: knitting or thinking through knitting when tired will lead to obvious errors - guaranteed.

The knitting pattern suggested that this knit was a weekend job - ho ho ho, my razor sharp knitting speed strikes again! I think that I have been knitting this during my daily commutes for almost 3 weeks now.

It is very lucky that I am knitting the 6-9 months size, as the gift recipient arrived safe and well almost two weeks ago...yes, I am behind - I know, I know! I am doing my best!

It is not the most photogenic knit in the world either...but here is a picture (albeit a bit fuzzy) to prove that I am actually working away in the background!

Clash of the Cuties...

Well, I suspected that it was only a question of time before I caved in! Here it is - a tension square for a baby sweater (plus a pattern debate which I think I have resolved - sort of).

I did say that it might be difficult to keep on knitting for myself when friends are popping out children!

I was driven to this swatch by the 'shame' of turning up at Friend Number 1's house with a gift for her newborn son that I did not make.

When I handed the package over, it felt completely beside the point that it was a very practical summer baby gift and that, as Child Number 4, this baby might be very grateful to receive some t-shirts and trousers that no other sibling has worn before.

It didn't help that my friend gave a huge smile when she prodded the package and asked whether it was something that I had knitted specially...nggg. Gulp, no.

It is not a scenario that I wish to repeat when Friend Number 2 gives birth. She is pretty certain that she is having a little girl. So...here is the start of a Baby Ballerina Wrap Type Top, Sort Of.

I have swatched for this pattern from the RYC Mother and Baby book.

However, instead of Cashcotton 4 Ply, I am using 4 Ply Soft. I knitted the tension square in 3.25mm and 3mm needles.

Neither gets to me the correct gauge.

Although both yarns have exactly the same stated tension and yardage, I seem to knit looser.

While I love the heart-like lace pattern, I am not keen on the bobbles or an edging that is knitted separately and sewn on at the end (I think). On my swatch, I have played about with/without bobble and adding an extra hole, just to see which effect I prefer.

Then, just as I thought I was there but reconciling myself to the fact that my top would be bigger than the pattern states. I spotted this pattern in a magazine supplement that a friend gave me. I did the yardage conversion and checked my gauge. My tension square is much closer to the stated tension for this pattern than the RYC one!

I really like the simple, clean lines of Debbie Bliss's designs. I also like the slightly ruffled edges on this pattern.

However, I have just finished knitting reams of plain sticking stitch and I am not sure abut the practicality of the ribbon tie finish so...

...I think that I am going to fiddle and come up with a hybrid of these two designs and a different type of closure at the front. If you are not chuckling yet, you should be - my bumbling progress could make an entertaining read!