Christening Party

Brace yourselves folks.

Unbearably smug knitting content coming up...



I won't deny that this was a challenge to finish up on time.



Or that the dragonfly was embroidered on the way to the airport.



Or that I had to steal the buttons from another project.



Or that 18 sets of little French Knots isn't a royal pain in the a**.



But wasn't it worth it?

Oh yes.


(There were some key modifications required and some serious mishaps along the way, which I'll report on next time. Let's focus on the joy for now.)
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Christening Sunday Brunch Update

There has been great progress on the Christening Sunday Brunch jacket. I’m knitting it in the round (of course) on my lovely new harmonies (did you doubt it?).

I calculated the number of Berry Cluster Stitch repeats that would fit across the stitches. 234 stitches. TWO THREE FOUR. There’s a nice symmetry*. Anyway, it seemed to be absolutely HUGE, so I took out a repeat (207 stitches) and jumped right in.




This has been flying zipping zooming along the needles. Even through the Vast Plains of Stocking Stitch. Probably because I’m absolutely in love with it and snuggle up with it at every opportunity.


My heartfelt thanks go to Jellyknits [Ravelry link], for preventing me from knitting the eyelet row at the bodice BEFORE the decreasing row for the smock effect. Phew! That would have been a painful mistake.


As it was I had to frog 5 rows (that’s 1,028 stitches people) but it was worth it. Jellyknits also encouraged me to retain the Moss Stitch pattern for the upper part of the jacket. I thought that a double Moss Stitch would be more pronounced, but she pointed out that the single Moss Stitch was really appropriate on a little person.


Dead right there babe. Thanks! It’s especially effective with the pearly incandescence of the Prima yarn. Each stitch looks like an individual seed pearl. (I can see why they call this the Seed Stitch in other parts of the world.)



So we’re flying along. Have divided for the armholes already and sprinting towards the left front neckline.



Happy happy happy.

* I won’t tell you how long it took me to work out that the 23 stitch pattern fits 10 times into 234 stitches, with 4 left over. I even had to use a pencil to work that out. (But I won’t admit it.)

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Love Bunny

The start of another school season means lots of new stationary, pens, folders etc. I love stationary.

Little Monkey does too, with a vast and chaotic collection of notebooks, drawing pads, colouring sets, papers and folders*. Of course, it’s waaaayyyy more fun if you decorate your folders too, so out comes the glitter and pens.

This particular scene is based on her current favourite book. Dear Bunny: A Bunny Love Story. Normally we don't do schmaltz in our hourse, (sentiment yes, schmaltz no) but this is delightful.

Valentino and Valenteeny, (Tino and Teeny for short) live across the valley from each other but have never spoken because they are VERY VERY Very very very (very) shy. Anyhow, they write each other little notes and eventually meet and fall in love. I just love the way these bunnies are shown in profile with their ears straight up. They look like they’ve been electrocuted!

And can you see the little hearts coming out of their mouths? Sweet innit?



Oh yes. Knitting.



There's that too.



* I guess she didn’t lick that chaos off a stone either.


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Christening Sunday Brunch

Am VERY excited about this project. It’s for my friend’s new daughter Victorine Tam Thomas who will be christened on 28th Dec 2008 in France.

We met at TIK on Saturday and settled on Debbie Bliss Prima to make this jacket. It will be worn layered over a traditional Vietnamese Ao Dai costume for the Christening deremony so it needs to be a little longer to make a more formal/classic look and fit with the full length style of the Ao Dai. Gorgeous.

We put our heads together to come up with a colour scheme and some mods that will make this just perfect. The jacket will be mostly in a delicious cream yarn, with some lovely blue/green for some embellishments and matching Mary Janes. We also picked a stitch pattern from Nicky Epstein's Knitting On The Edge - the Berry Cluster Stitch, only we're using the beaded version...because my friend prefers it....(nothing to do with the bobbles on the Berry version, I swear!).

I couldn't wait to swatch the yarn so I got right on it as soon as I could that evening. I predict a little bit of a Jolly Green Giant delay (sorry Dad!). Got perfect gauge thank goodness and yesterday I started to swatch the stitch pattern for the edge. It's a bit tricky, but after a few goes I think I have it now. It will be lovely.

Yay. I love knitting!

Don't you?

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