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A 5 hour baby jumper in…

There has been a massive influx of newborns into my circle of friends and family. I do love making something to welcome the new little person but can find myself overwhelmed by knitting projects that the babies will probably have grown out of before I even finish them.

And so this 5 hour baby jumper pattern by Beverly Leestma came as a saviour. The pattern is easy to follow and very easy to customise. Short sleeves, long sleeves, cropped cardigan, long, buttons, no buttons. Each one can look completely different and can show your love without burning out your fingers!

I have made a number of these now but I don’t know how long it has actually taken me. I wanted to test the 5 hour claim and see if it is true. So I gathered my equipment, the pattern, a pot of coffee, a supply of films and a timer.

The wool:

I have this Loren cake wool that I picked up in Wilko, of all places. It is 80% acrylic/20%wool. I think acrylic wool for babies is much kinder to new parents. This particular wool is machine washable at 30°C which isn’t totally ideal but it’s better than hand-wash only. The pattern calls for 4oz (which is approximately 100g) and since that is all I have of this wool it makes it the perfect project.

The needles:

I really love my KnitPro Lace needles. They are light and smooth. I find knitting with them really comfortable and so I use them for almost every project that requires circular needles.

I am also going to test a new wool bowl. I bought this from Tiger because it looks pretty but haven’t used it yet. This cake wool looks like it will lend itself well to using it so I’ll let you know.

Here goes:

1 hour later….

The first section, the yoke, took me 1 hour and 10 minutes. It’s only 25 rows but there is a lot of increases and the fingers are warming up.

I opted for KFB as my increase so it made a solid yoke. Previously I have used YO to add a little decoration and I am also planning (one day) to design a zigzag pattern rather than the straight lines in this pattern.

1 hour and 40 minutes…

I have completed the increases. I have made and put in markers to separate out the fronts, back and sleeves.

I use a different colour wool as a marker for a few reasons.

  • 1: I am cheap. I don’t want to pay for stitch markers when I have more wool than I need.
  • 2: I lose little things. I can barely keep track of my keys and purse, never mind tiny little stitch markers. I have bought and lost many a tiny stitch marker.
  • 3: I am lazy. I have wool to hand but I store my knitting stuff upstairs. Unless I was organised to bring them downstairs at the start, I won’t be getting up to get them.

2 hours and 30 minutes…

Halfway through my time and I have finished the first sleeve.

I stopped for lunch because I thought my fingers might drop off. It is quite intense knitting to a deadline as tight as this one feels. It’s amazing how timing yourself can make you feel like you’re knitting slowly even when you’re trying to knit fast.

End of hour 3…

By just over 3 hours, the sun was going down and I had completed the second sleeve.

And so, I have 1 hour 50 minutes to knit the body of the jumper. That feels like a long time but the last 3 hours have told me that they will fly by…

End of hour 4…

It’s easy knitting but a long slog. I find I keep counting rows because I think I must be farther along that I am.

Hour 5…

It is done.

Sure enough – a baby jumper in just under 5 hour. All that needs to be done is sewing up the arms, weaving in the ends and attaching buttons. Then wrap it and give it to the new baby.

But…

While you can knit it in 5 hours that is a measure of actually knitting time. A finger numbing 5 hours…

I set out today to do only this but I had to eat, drink, live life and rest my fingers and so it took me 11 hours to actually finish knitting. Not only that but I haven’t done the finishing. I was going to but I can barely type, never mind sew a seam!

Also, this is a pattern I am familiar with, having knitted it a few times before, so that helped me keep my time. If it is the first time you are knitting it I would say it would take a lot longer.

Despite being familiar I still made mistakes:

I don’t know how I did it but I managed to pick up a stitch from somewhere and knitted it for 5 rows. Normally I would have unpicked and started again but I was on a timer and I didn’t think I would make it if I did that.

This is the kind of mistake that no-one but you will notice so I don’t feel too guilty about giving this one away but just bare it mind if you’re planning to knit one in an evening for a baby shower you forgot about tomorrow.

All in all, this is a great pattern to keep to hand for those “don’t know what else to knit” days and especially when you’re on a time limit or have lots of babies to knit for. It’s easily editable to make each one slightly different and helps you show your thoughtful side to many friends at once.

Happy knitting!

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Popping Candy Firework cakes: Welcoming in 2019

These cakes add a bit of fun to a party and reminded me of being a kid. I absolutely love them. You can make them whenever you have fireworks. Or just because you want to.

Recipe:

For the cakes:

  • 2 eggs
  • 110g golden caster sugar
  • 110g self-raising flour
  • 110g butter
  • 50g cocoa powder

For the icing:

  • 250g Icing sugar
  • 100g butter (at room temperature to soften)
  • 1 packet of Popping candy
  • Sprinkles of your choice (I used “gold crunch”)

For the decoration:

  • Metallic cupcake cases
  • Cocktail sticks
  • Scissors
  • Sellotape

Method:

  • Preheat the oven to 180C
  • Line a 12 hole cupcake tin with the metallic cupcake cases
  • Melt the butter
  • Whisk the eggs and sugar together
  • Add the melted butter
  • Fold in the flour and the cocoa powder
  • Fill the cases evenly
  • Bake for 15-20 minutes or until risen and browning.
  • Once baked leave to cool
  • Whisk together the butter and the icing sugar
  • Spoon (or pipe) onto the cupcakes
  • Sprinkle the popping candy and the sprinkles you have chosen on top

Making the decorations:

Use spare cupcake cases and cut out the base. Then cut in half.

Make a fringe by cutting down the ribbing in every other space, leaving 5mm at the bottom.

Put a piece of sellotape at one end and start wrapping this around the cocktail stick.

Once wrapped all the way around secure with more tape.

Finally stick them in your cakes for that added sparkle!

The cases I bought came in bronze, silver and gold. I used two colours for my decorations. You could do it with as many as you like.

Children seemed to love these, running around waving them like sparklers!

Find and excuse to give these a go.

Happy New Year!

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My wedding dress: a knitting dream come true

It came as no surprise to the people who know and love me that I knitted my own wedding dress. I still don’t know where the idea came from but once I had it, it took hold and I couldn’t stop until I had done it! It was a simple project in the end. Very lengthy but so worth while. I highly recommend it!

I am also proud that I managed to keep the whole thing a secret from my husband.

You will need:

  • Good quality circular needles: I used Addi Click Lace
  • Lace weight wool: I used Patons Lace Sequin in Crystal
  • Stitch markers
  • Imagination
  • Many a good film or TV series to keep you company

The skirt

As soon as I saw Renata Brenner’s Heliotaxis Pi Shawl I fell in love. I knew I wanted a leafy design in my dress and this could not have been more perfect

copyright: Renata Brenner

The shawl pattern is available on Ravelry and is really easy to follow. It knits up really quickly and it really looks like I worked much harder at it than it felt like I did.

See YouTube on in the background so I don’t go completely mad!

The Pi shawl was created by Elizabeth Zimmerman and is explained in great detail in her book:

If you follow her basic principle you can have any design you like for your skirt. You can make it as simple or as complicated as you like.

To make it a skirt rather than a shawl I skipped the first rounds and started at row 26 by casting on 144 stitches onto 5mm needles.

I follow the pattern exactly using stitch markers to keep track of where I was.

At the very end, to add a little more flare, I gradually increased the needle size. From row 103 I did 2 repeats in 5mm and then I went up 1mm at each repeat until I was at 8mm. I them finished of with the 8mm needles.

The finished skirt:

The top

The top was a piece of cake… I made this (available on eBay) :

I knitted 2 the same (front and back). The lace is so loose that there is no need to knit 2 panels for the back – I just wanted it to look like there were so I sewed buttons down the middle.

Making up:

I put both pieces on (many times) and sent endless photos to my long-suffering sister:

We started looking for embellishments to match my purple shoes:

…before settling on the dark purple you see in the final images.

I finally put the outfit on all together to decide how it should sit. My sisters decided that the skirt was too long so I ended up weaving elastic in about 2 inches from the original cast on and pulling it tight. This actually looked quite nice because it created a bit of extra “puff” around the hips. I decided to sew the top and bottom together after this so it would all stay in place on the day.

I bought a tutu skirt in the ASOS sale to go under the skirt and then I had to worry about the top.

I took a cheap white spaghetti strap vest top, turned it inside out and draw a sweetheart neckline on it. I recycled the spaghetti straps to edge it and the sewed this into the dress. It was not neat or pretty but no-one could see it!

And so:

What I learnt:

Knit a test square: I don’t always because I roughly know my tension with most wools but lace knitting is so different and comes out different each time so practising your tension will make it a more uniform piece.

Know what you want: The design is really important. You have to know where you’re going before you start or you end up with mismatched pieces and something that doesn’t quite fit right.

Don’t sweat the detail: I made SO many mistakes in this dress. At first I would unpick and correct every mistake but as the dress progressed most minor errors were hidden in the overall design and I only knew they were there because I stared at it for so long while making it.

Just start: The hardest part was starting. I thought it was ridiculous to think I could knit my own wedding dress but I started and then just kept going.