Knitted Baby Hat

One morning I suddenly relised I've made so many baby hats for my friends babies but I haven't made any thing for mine!!

A great excuse to knit a new hat!

 I knew I wanted some thing I could knit up quickly so I searched the net and this is what I found.

Lele Baby Hat.

It said on the pattern it could be knitted up in only a few hours but it took me maybe double that. Could also be the size of the yarn and the needles i used. That can make a big difference. It was still quick to knit up. My needles were size US 8 circular or 5mm.

My yarn is from Lincraft, Big wool. I don't know the sex of my baby yet so I chose a colour for both sex's. There were so many other beautiful colours I wish I coud have used in the big wool range but they suggested boy or girl a bit too much for me.

I love the end result!

I can't wait to try it on my baby!!

Homemade modern cloth nappies

Well it's been a while but I have a wonderful excuse!! But first a few hints.

 I've been very tired, hence my lack of entries, I've been much hungrier than usual and I've had unusual aches and pains and if you haven't worked it out yet the fact I've had a bit of nauseousness should give it away.

I'm Pregnant!!

My partner and I are so excited. We still can't believe it. I will be 15 weeks tomorrow and am still getting used to my new body!

I had to wait till all my family and friends knew before I could post anything here.

However I have been busy and have a new project completed and about a million I want to have a go at!! So hopefully I'll have a few more projects to show off soon.

This is my latest..

Homemade modern cloth nappies.

I had a picture in my head of what I wanted and needed some easy to follow instructions for my first go. This is the result of the project I found. .

It was pretty easy. The hardest part was working out how to fit the snaps.Turns out I was trying to fit them backwards! I'm thinking of making my next few with Velcro instead of snaps. I''ve no way of knowing how they will fit my new born baby and Velcro would give me more flexibility with the fit. However snaps are more durable as Velcro tends to loos it's grip after time.

Each nappy has a towel material liner that can be pulled out to help it dry quicker and make wash better. The red one is made from flannel bought from the shops and the blue one is made from one of my partners old flannel shirts. And yes I did ask him if I could cut it up first!

My partner was delighted at the idea of our baby wearing a nappy made from one of his flannel shirts. Perfect for the next generation of bogon babies!! Now only another 18 or so nappies to go!! Oh and I can't post this one with out a link! Here it is. Great instructions. I found them really easy to follow.

Choc Caramel Cups.

Today was a miserable rainy day with no end in sight - but perfect weather and a perfect excuse to eat comfort food! The days getting better already!!

 I had butternut snap biscuits handy so I used Google to come up a recipe to use them.

This is what I came up with!

 Choc caramel cups

from Recipe Adaptors.

The recipe was so clear and easy to follow.

YUM!

I made my caramel cups with a thinner layer of biscuit base which resulted in more caramel cups! This is a very sweet recipe so a small portion is plenty. And of course I had to make each layer thinner too so all the ingredients would also go further.

I was really pleased with the result - only how do I stop my self eating them! Yum!

Standard fuchsia update

This is an update on the standard fuchsia I was attempting to train. I planted it from a few neglected cuttings and this is the result so far. I was excited to see leaves growing then this happened!!

'

I'm looking forward to getting some growth I can train. May take a while but I'm really excited about this project now it has flowered! 

Baby cardigan

I haven't posted for a while. But I have been busy crafting away.

This is my latest project from Knitsofact design called Demne, a vintage inspired baby cardigan. I am finding the pattern a little bit challenging, however the actual knitting is quite simple. I'm still a beginner to intermediate knitter and am experimenting with a few more challenging patterns to improve my skills. I am so inspired by the elderly ladies I grew up with who could knit really quickly. Hopefully I'll be as skilled one day.

 I'm not sure about my colour selection, I was going for a unisex colour and trying to use what I have however the wool is a really nice quality. It's Cleckheaton country 8ply. 100% wool and nice and soft and I'm guessing it will be warm!

baby booties

Gone booties nuts lately!!

I found some easy patterns on line and I had to try them. This pattern was really easy. I made pair in only a few hours. The blue and grey booties are from Ooo Baby knits. I made some modifications. When is says to switch to smaller needles I kept using the same size because my first attempt the top of the booties was so narrow I could imagine fitting baby foot in it.

The needle size only gives the size not metric measurements so I kinda guessed the size with the help of a converter still not aware if it was a US size or a UK size. Might be where I went wrong and please read all the comments because they will make your life much easier because they go over a few miss understandings in the pattern. Very easy, quick pattern.

The greeny/blue booties are called Sweet Baby Booties. Another very easy pattern. I intent to make this one again in a chunkier wool. I like to see quick results!

Oh and the material under the booties, that's the matching pillow slip to my baby quilt. Still needs to be completed!

Chinese dim sims

What a busy week. It was so nice to have a fabulous night in with my partner.

 Together we made dim sims and rice paper rolls. The time spent together was one of those priceless occasions. I would definitely do it again!

The dim sims were so yum!

We sat in the kitchen on high stools as if at a teppanyaki bar and ate the food as it was freshly cooked. Delightful!

We had never made rice paper rolls before. Better warm we thought. Takes a bit to get used to wrapping them and learning what to put in them. We found they need plenty of flavour.

We used carrot, cooked pork and prawns, lettuce, been shoots, spring onions and vermicelli noodles and dipped them in hoisin, sweet chili or soy sauce. They tasted fresh but much nicer when we tried them steamed.