Monday 16 June 2008

Taste 08 is underway, and I've made a load of baby stuff

It's been a while since my last post, because I've been gadding about all over the place like a headless chicken .... Taste 2008 is well underway! We've done Edinburgh and Leeds so far, both of which were very tiring but a lot of fun. Tomorrow I'm off to London for the big one, so looking forward to that. Just in case you all thought the world of events was a non stop party, here's the kitchen area of my lovely studio apartment in Leeds - every night someone has to take home all the teatowels and make sure they're washed and dried ready to go again the following day!
A Taste colleague of mine is expecting a baby at the beginning of September, so I've been busy turning that Trekking sock yarn from Twist on Tour into a little cardi. I didn't know whether it's a boy or girl, so I thought the reds/greens/browns would be a good mix of colours for either and I'm really pleased with the way it has come out, especially with the fact that I managed to match the pattern of stripes on the two sides. I used a pattern from knitty called Devan, and 2mm needles. The original is in stockinette stitch but I decided to do garter instead, partly for speed and partly because it feels springier and thicker.




An unexpected train trip from Birmingham to Dundee and back meant that I had time to make a pair of matching booties as well, I hope they both fit at the same time! I had to buy a second ball of yarn to finish the cardi, so there's loads left over for other little projects. For the booties, I used an adaptation of the very popular Saartje's booties, and some 3mm needles. This version, by bockstark, is knit in the round to avoid a seam down the middle of the sole. Very clever.






Since my last post, I have also made a turtle from Laurence's book World of Knitted Toys by Kath Dalmeny. He will also go to the same baby, I'll be sad to send him on his way though because he's very cute! Putting him together reminded me how rubbish I am at sewing.