Babies finally in their jumpers

Yeah! The Babies are finally big enough to wear their Nanna D creations.
Oscar was the first. Unfortunately they were also the first jumpers I made and I hadn't quite got the dimensions correct, whoopsie! the arms are a little short, but I've learnt from this mistake and future jumpers won't have this issue.

Here is Oscar in the very first jumper I made.

Next up my wonderful nephew little Leo is in his stripey jumper. Nice jim jams Mat!

and Finally Evan in his Tiger jumper, a roarrring success, BOOM BOOM!

Hats Hats and yet more Hats

I've put the baby jumpers on hold for the past few months and been concentrating on Hats! I've found a nice easy pattern on Ravelry which I've used again and again but varied it by adding stripes. The link to the pattern is down so here's my abbreviated version

Basic pattern for Adult woolly hat

Using 4mm double pointed needles

DK yarn

Tapestry needle

Cast on 110 stitches.

If using double pointed join to form a loop being careful not to twist.

K2 P3 int he round for 6 rows

K in the round until measure 5-6 inches

1.*K8, K2tog* repeat for one row

2. K whole row

3*K7, K2tog* repeat for one row

4. K whole row

5*K6, K2tog* repeat for one row

6. K whole row

Repeat this pattern until you *K1, K1tog*

Using the tapestry needle, thread the yarn through the remaining stitches and pull tight to close the hole at the top of the hat. bind off the thread and there you have it!

These hats only take me a couple of days knitting on the bus and train so they have been great as little pressies for chums.

The first I did was Julien's Lyon hat. I'm afraid I don't have a picture of it, but will add it in when I get hold of one.

Then there was Nigel's birthday hat, featuring his favourite colours purple and blue.

Oscar also had a go with Nigel's hat, what a charmer.

Next up a leaving pressy for Kev. Hes off on his world travels so I thought it would be nice for him to have a hat in his LFC team colours to keep him warm on those chilly New Zealand nights.

Last weekend we had a little family meet up, all surrounding a Brentford - Rovers game. As my Uncles Neil and Louis and my Cousin James are Brentford FC fans I thought it a perfect hat opportunity.

Here are the Brentford Boys sporting the Bees hats I made,while enjoying a visit to Clifton suspension bridge.

More hats to come shortly!

Fixing bad habits

Since I've been knitting again (past year or so), I'd picked up some bad habits, mainly I wasn't holding the tail yarn incorrectly, gripping it in my fist rather than wrapping it round my index finger. This meant it was very tricky to do any interesting colour patterns. I'm now in the process of re-training myself so my knitting is quite slow at the mo. Its a bit frustrating but its worth me putting the effort in now so I can do more interesting things later!