Secret project: baby basketball jumper

I have made my first garment! I couldn't blog about it as I was going because it was a present and that would have blown it. But now I can unveil it - a baby jumper for Google Baby. Here it is, in pieces, in progress: 

It's a simple striped stocking-stitch jumper with a shoulder opening. Or rather, it should be simple. It actually took me three tries just to get past the 6 rows of ribbing at the beginning of the first panel. Once I got going it was pretty straightforward though, as there's hardly any shaping. I was really pleased with managing the ribbing around the neck, and with how fast I was making progress. 

Until I started sewing it all together. Here you can see where I've invisibly sewn my shoulder seam (looks good hey?) and my brilliant neckband. Note to self: finishing takes almost as long as making the garment in the first place. 

There were two panics involved in making this. I was very nervous about having enough of the dark blue yarn, and getting more and more nervous as I got nearer and nearer the end of the second sleeve. I decided to hold my nerve and just hope for the best, and the blue just about held out. You can see in the first picture that there was maybe a yard left over. 

The other big panic was that Google Baby has turned out to be a baby basketball player. The day after I finished the jumper, I talked to Google Mummy and she mentioned how he was too big for 6 - 9 months clothes. *Gulp* 

So I blocked it. 

Some knitters I know have told me how they don't block things as it flattens out the stitches and they don't like the effect it has. On the other hand, if your carefully hand-knitted baby jumper is too small, what can you do? Block it so that it's bigger by half a size, is what. 

Happily, word is that junior Michael Jordan does fit into the jumper (and he looks really cute in it too, if I do say so myself). Although with all I've found out about miracle-blocking, I don't know actually know what happens to a blocked garment when it gets washed. But at the rate he's growing, he'll only be able to wear it for the next two weeks anyway so it might not even need washing, ever. 

On circular needles

I've noticed that a lot of US knitting patterns seems to use circular needles. Like, a LOT. One of the things people seem to like about knitting garments in the round is that there's hardly any finishing involved - no side-seams to stitch up or anything. 

On the other hand, it kind of feels a bit cheaty to knit in the round to avoid finishing. I don't really know why. I just seem to have conceived a distate for circular-needle-knitting. It's mainly to do with not wanting to end up buying more and more equipment - circular needles don't only have a gauge but a length (they could be 40cm, 60cm, 80cm, 100cm) so you could end up with zillions of needles. This pattern for example wants two lengths of 3.5mm gauge needles. Or look at this tank top. It's great (although well beyond my capabilities - intarsia and fairisle? I don't think so) but uses two lengths of circular needles in the same gauge again, plus another one. And it's not even to avoid finishing, as front and back are separate pieces put together with side seams and shoulder seams. 

Either I will have to start buying more and more circular needles (which are an absolute bastard to store incidentally) or I will have to resign myself to not trying any of the really cool free patterns on US sites. 

What's wrong with straight needles anyway? 

Tube scarf

To go with the wristwarmers I eventually made a scarf, which I call the tube scarf for two reasons: firstly, a lot of it was knitted on the tube. Second, it is in stocking stitch, so it rolls itself up into a tube. This was a deliberate decision, as the wristwarmers are tubular themselves, and in stocking stitch. 

I wanted a long, skinny scarf that would be more decorative than warm. It started off like this: 

But this was obviously too short, so I carried it on for quite a bit longer, as you can see in this picture of the finished thing.

  

The finishing touch was a stretchy garter-stitch toggle to hold it together, decorated with crocheted flowers. It doesn't really show, but the flowers have 3 layers of petals, so are satisfyingly three-dimensional.  

Pixie hat

This funny little thing is a hat - I had two balls of Noro Spring Thaw which were reduced in John Lewis so I couldn't resist. It was made from 7 long oval panels, knitted using lots of increases and decreases. It took a bit of concentration, but was quite straightforward. Once I had seven panels, I seamed them on the inside with a crochet slip stitch, which was nice and simple, although I think I should maybe have seamed it on the outside side with double crochet in a contrast colour, which would have made more of the panel construction. 

When I finally tried on the finished item, I realised the panels were too short and it made for a very strange, skull-cap kind of fit. I did knit a tension gauge swatch, but didn't really take a lot of notice of the results. There's a lesson in that, probably. Anyway, to make it a bit longer I crocheted a double-triple border all around the edge, which improves things, but I still don't actually like it that much. I'd rip it out, except that I'll end up with 8 short bits of yarn, which isn't very inspiring. A bit of a waste of one and a quarter balls of bargain Noro, all in all. 

Future projects

Things that I would like to learn to do in knitting: 

Lacy knitting:

Cables:

Entrelac:

I haven't even completed a garment yet, so I don't think I'll be doing any of these things soon, and besides which I'm working on a secret project at the moment, so everything else will just have to join the queue.

Inspiration

Here are a couple of things I've found to be really inspirational recently. 

The great thing about blogs is that someone somewhere is doing something you'd never imagined. This selvedge project is amazing. God knows how long she has been hoarding selvedges for. I usually throw mine away (although apparently they're very good for waist stays as they don't give or stretch). Not only has she collected them all up, not only has she done something with them, but she's done something amazing with them. Kudos. 

Secondly, this is from December 2008 Livingetc. Apparently designer Natalia Pepe knitted wool flowers and stitched them onto a wool base. From what I can see of the flowers in the photo they look crocheted to me, but still, that's a quibble. Available to snap up for a mere £3,900. I've no idea what size it is, but for four grand I want it to be big. Very big. 

What I love about this is that it could be a fantastic way of using up bits and pieces of your yarn stash. The flowers are simple 5-petal single-layered things. It could take forever to get this many flowers together, but each flower would be the work of a few spare moments on the tube. At the very least it has inspired me not to throw away the little scraps at the end of a project. 

The season of Christmas presents

The thing about any hand-made item is that it's slow, and often painstaking, to create. That is one of the joys of them, of course, and why they're expensive to buy, and risky to make for other people, who might fail to appreciate the time and effort that went into them. 

In this season of shopping (what do you mean, Christmas has a religious meaning?), I can't help thinking I would prefer to make things for people than buy things. Why buy an anonymous chain-store piece of mass-production when you can make something personal and unique? I'm sure that the people who I would make for would appreciate the time and effort, but there's still the possibility that the recipient mightn't like the gift. A shop-bought scarf in the wrong colour can go on ebay or to the charity shop with hardly a pang of conscience. A hand-knitted £7-a-ball silk-mohair creation, well it's probably got little charity shop value, certainly won't sell on ebay and if I ever found out it was unwanted I would be gutted. 

I've got one or two ideas on Christmas presents, but I'm still undecided on whether to go ahead or not. Hopefully if people don't like them they'll learn to be good actors, quickly.