Sir Lolo Bean

It occurred to me as I started knitting Nettle Knits' castle cardi, that nearly everything I have ever knit for Logan has been too small for him to wear longer than a week! It's true! Shocking isn't it? So this time, I was determined to make him a little cotton sweater he could wear on cool spring and summer evenings and perhaps even early fall.


So I took out the biggish yarn and the largish needles and added extra length to the body and sleeves and managed to knit the 12 month size with plenty of extra ease for my Lolo bear... and my friends, I finally did it!!!


It might be hard to tell from the pictures, but the sleeves are rolled up! And the body has lots of growing space. Even the neckline has some room to spare! This Sir Lancelot of mine is ready to brave the cool summer winds in royal style ;0)


The pattern for this castle cardi (don't you just love the crenelated collar?) is from Nettle Knits and is very well written. Though I think there may be errata in the picking-up-for-the-collar department, but I was so sleepy by the time I got to it that the problem might very well be with my brain and not the pattern!


I knit the 12 month size and did knit the collar over 62 stitches, but I had to pick up 4 stitches on either side of the garter bands and 8 stitches over each of the sleeves to get to that number.

As much as I love this pattern though, what makes this sweater for me though is the yarn. I used Rowan All Seasons Cotton and I must say, I think it is my favourite sweater yarn ever! It is so soft and breathable and I've noticed that I am always extra cuddly with Stephen and the boys when they wear their sweaters knit with this stuff.

It is aran weight which I think is a great weight for kids stuff as it speeds up the knitting but isn't so bulky that it's hard to design with. It is also hard wearing and very easy to care for. And as a nice little bonus, you can get amazing deals on this stuff from places like Cucumber Patch or Janette's Rare yarns (see links in my sidebar) that are often clearing discontinued colours. Both shops are in the UK but ship incredibly quickly (I'm talking less than a week to get to Canada) and for very cheap. I've bought several 10 ball packages of this yarn for $20 each. You just can't beat that price...even though the colour selection (for the sale stuff anyway) is often less than scintillating.

Happy knitting!

Winged Heart Tattoo

Out of ideas for mother's day? How about a knit winged heart tattoo?!

I've been working on this pattern for a while now but was struggling on what to do with the wings. And then it came to me quite suddenly this weekend: why felt them of course as my little Jujube would say!*


The felted wings worked out brilliantly - so cooshy and fluffy! And with just the right amount of stiffness so that they aren't droopy.


And just like that, this rocking little number is ready to soar out of my knitting bag and perhaps into yours. Get the free pattern from Jujube & Lolo here.

Happy knitting!

* I don't know where he picks up these expressions, but his current favourite is adding "of course" to the end of every sentence. What a kooky boy. I feel so lucky to get to spend my days hanging out with that little guy of mine. He's just pure sunshine!

Crafting with Julian: Part one

So my little Jubilee Bubilee is approaching the big 3 this summer (can you believe it?) and while I am a little sad to see my baby grow into a boy, I am so excited at being able to do more and more things with him. We've been baking and 'cooking' and drawing and colouring and reading and singing and playing together for a while already...

But now we're crafting too and I can't tell you how much joy this brings me! And he's really enjoying it too. I guess the crafting apple doesn't fall too far away from the crafting tree ;0)

Check out the slide show above for details on one of our first craft projects: a bug in a jar. We got the idea from one of our favourite new Treehouse shows, Mr. Maker. This is a great craft for the little-ish ones! Julian pretty much made these guys on his own. I just helped with the eyes and legs...

I should mention that since we didn't have any play clay and were too eager to get started, we sought out a home made recipe and came up with this one from Martha Stewart's website which was fun to make and held up really well.

Happy crafting ;0)

Cluck!

Well it looks like Spring has finally sprung around these parts so this weekend was all about putting away the warm woolens and taking out the spring gear. A couple of Julian's old jackets worked as perfect hand-me-downs for lolobean, but sadly none of the hats fit! So naturally, I had to knit one up pronto...



Cluck! Isn't this hat a riot?! I came across the pattern on Ravelry last week and it had my Lolo's name written all over it. I knit it from a ball of stash Rowan All Seasons Cotton in 'cookie' and a few yard of Knit Picks Shine in 'cream' for the bone tips and ties. I looove it!



I made a few mods: I altered the placement of the earflaps by counting 7 stitches from the centre back rather than 10 as indicated in the pattern before picking up stitches for the earlflaps so they would fit better, and I knit he drumsticks separately and then sewed them on rather than picking up stitches. Other than that, I knit it as written. And can attest that it is a riot to knit as well. Can't wait for it too be cool enough for him to wear it.

You see it's been unseasonably warm this week and except for the mountains of snow that remain, it's felt a lot like summer. In our desperation, we've taken to shoveling our yards and helping mother nature melt the snow faster by flinging it across the driveway in the warm air and letting the sun do the rest. This sounds crazy I know, but we're all doing it daily. It's gonna take some time still because there really was a crazy amount of snow this year...

Ah, but that's all behind us now, come on Summer!