Sunday, February 21, 2010

Ravelympic Travel Knitting

Okay, I know that I said that I was going to concentrate on WIPs while the Olympics /Ravelympics was on, but to tell you the truth I got bored doing all the miles of stocking/stockinette stitch of Riley's very plain footy jumper.
I got the sleeves finished, the shoulder seams done, and the neckband on, but I'm really dragging my feet on the sewing up.
Mattress stitch is not a favourite.
Especially not in hot weather which it has been all week
Anyway the temptation got too much for me - plus I needed something small to take with me for travel knitting on my Thursday roadtrip. I wanted to be able to stuff it in a small zipped bag that would be easy to cart while I was waiting at the station.

Add in the fact that a non-knitter friend is going to become a grandmother again soon - to twin girls - and something small and pretty seemed called for. Or rather two somethings.

So I'm making two lace cardigans in a very tiny size [ working on the premise that twins will probably arrive early and small ]

I'm making them up as I go along but taking the stitch/row count from a basic vintage Patons baby book

The lace is done side to side and then stitches picked up for the rest of the body.


I'm using one 100gram ball of Patons Big Baby 4 ply [ fingering ] and 3.25mm needles, and given that I only have the one ball of that yarn, once I had the body and sleeves on the first one done, I went ahead and cast on for the second.

The reasoning here is that if it looks like I may run out of yarn, I can make the front bands and the neck of both cardis in a contrast. That would have to be better than obviously running out of yarn on the second one, right ?
As it turns out, I should have more than enough.
I've almost finished the body of the second one, so just those teeny sleeves to go and then I can put them together [ more mattress stitch! ] and add the bands etc.

I know they're not finished so I'm probably tempting fate, but I have to say that I'm rather chuffed with how they're turning out.

7 comments:

Alwen said...

Aw, and what cute little somethings they are!

Robbyn said...

The only thing better would be to see the twins actually wearing them! Beautiful work Susan, as always :)

Allison said...

And well you should be. So adorable.

Anonymous said...

Lovely once again. You are just so good at improvising and designing patterns. I just am not that talented.

Monika said...

Those are lovely Balby sweaters! What a great idea with the lace knit sideways!

Lynne said...

Very pretty! I was in a specialty babywear shop today; I seemed to be the only one looking in the boy's section!

It's hard to adjust my thinking to boyswear - having only had a daughter and being used to loooking at girly things for so many years.

Kate/Massachusetts said...

Oh my! I LOVE that lace! It is so perfect for the baby sweater! The sweater is beautiful!