Simple Knitting Project

Ever since I can remember (and my mom can rememebr, in fact!), my Ouma has been busy with either a knitting or crochet project (or ten!)... Since she lives with us and is quite an influence in all of our lives, a little bit of her rubs off every once in a while! I have shared a few projects which she's had something to do with and this one was no excpetion. Wonderful as she is, my dear Ouma feels it necessary to forcefully offer advice when it comes to my handiwork... Nothing major this time around and I managed to gently get her to understand that I needed my own personal twist on this one!  

My inspiration came from a trip to the yarn shop to buy supplies for Ouma to make blankets - she makes about 40 knee rugs for retirement homes every year which means a few trips to various wool shops! :-)

I think it turned out quite gorgeous!

I found the most divine cotton knitting yarn and couldn't resist buying enough for a few projects! My motivation for making a baby jersey is nothing exciting I'm afraid... It's just that making a jersey for a big person takes so darn long and I'm prone to making mistakes along the way - I figured a baby was less likely to notice the errors than an adult would and they certainly wouldn't be in a position to put my jersey in the back of a cupboard to be forgotten! I searched online for a pattern I liked and this was the second one I tackled... The first one is about 50% complete but I decided I didn't really like the shape of the jersey so I started on option 2. I will finish the other one now that this one is done and post pictures shortly! This jersey is called the "bellflower baby hoodie" and is available free on Lion Yarn's website which you need to sign up to gain access. I didn't use Lion yarn but the cotton is double knitting. I used size 3.5 needles for the ribbing and size 4mm for the rest.    

How cute is this hood?! I'm in love!

The buttons came from billabong pants and shorts I've bought through the years - I thought they added a little character!

Quilting Project

Growing up going to a Waldorf School and having a grandmother who owned a boutique and made everything beautiful you can imagine has inevitably resulted in my becoming infected with the hand-work bug! I remember tackling a hexagonal quilting project with Ouma a a little girl but I don't remember much about it and never saw a finished project (I think Ouma was protecting me against major disappointment!!!)

I recently saw the most divine quilt in a home magazine... I've seen a few in some stores too but lets just say that my credit card would melt beyond recognition even after a great month :-) Got me thinking and inspired though... I headed out the next morning into retail bliss - a fabric shop in Salt River and bought the most gorgeous coloured Taffeta, some crushed and some normal.

Here's where I'm at so far:

Each piece of fabric was ironed and pinned to a paper template before being hand stitches into rows. You'll never believe how many pins it took to make a king sized quilt! (I headed back to the haberdashery store at least 4 times to restock and I was never stingy!)

Once the blocks were all sewn together I cut a piece of backing (lining) and batting (the stuffing part). Next task is to sew the three layers together and then sew around each block. The outside edges can be done on my machine but the quilt is too big to all fit through the machine... I guess it'll stay truly hand-made :-)