Busy July

I haven’t blogged in a while, as I’ve been super busy – working, knitting, sleeping and generally trying to keep on top of everything. The weeks seem to be flying by, but luckily I’ve managed to be quite productive and get rid of a substantial amount of stash. I finally knitted up the rest of the yarn from the little selection I’d pulled out, making another Fuss Free Cardigan.

It’s a great pattern, and then I bought more yarn and made another one, which found a home with a friend’s new grandchild, along with a wee Felix cardigan. I’m really enjoying top-down knitting, and trying to avoid seaming as much as possible.

I still had some Drops Merino left, so I ended up knitting a Gidday Baby, finished off with strawberry buttons. Baby knits are so quick and satisfying!

Unfortunately my own children are way past the baby stage, and I took a long time to knit a Granny’s Favourite for my daughter. She’s very tall, so top down patterns are ideal for her, as you can knit the arms and body to the right size and extend them if necessary.

After all this baby and child knitting I finished up a commission for a friend – some Iron Man mitts which were super quick to crochet with DK yarn held double.

I also finished my own winter mittens, using Drops Lima. They’re a bit baggy, but they should be quite warm. The moss stitch feels lovely and textured, but it’s my least favourite stitch to work. I don’t have the patience to learn Continental knitting, so moss stitch just seems very cumbersome to do.

After all that knitting I did a wee bit of crochet for a change, working up a couple of dishcloths. These are in Anchor Style Creativa, which is nice and solid when crocheted. I used an easy pattern with a V stitch, created with half trebles.

Then I started looking at my stash again, and pulled out a packet of Rowan All Seasons Cotton that’s been sitting there for years. I picked the Deauville pattern by Nick Atkinson, and decided to make it two sizes too big so it would be nice and baggy. The crossed stitch pattern was way too complicated, so after a few disastrous attempts I decided that I couldn’t be bothered, and substituted a garter stripe instead. This made the sizing all wrong, so I had to rewrite the raglan shaping to make it all work out. I’m happy with the finished sweater, but I might have to reinforce the neckline so it doesn’t stretch.

There were still four balls of yarn left, so I knitted up some really cute owl mittens from an old issue of Simply Knitting – these only took two hours to make! The rest will become some kind of hat.

It’s reassuring to see how much I’ve actually managed to knit in a month, as sometimes the stash pile seems invincible!