Helen Knits

Knitting and Crochet adventures

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This is one of the tiny cardis I knitted for my baby when I didn’t know what sex he was going to be. I suddenly realised about a couple of weeks before he was due that all the cardis I had made were far too big for him and even though he was born in June, it was still quite cold here then and he might need something warmer to wear. So I knit Linnie, I used a mini skein for the yoke section, but it wasn’t quite enough, but I just changed to the main colour earlier. I learnt that really you should do long sleeves on a cardigan because if you need a cardi on you really need long sleeves! 

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A stella pixie hat, made for a friend of Reuben’s. Not the best pattern I’ve ever followed, I adjusted it by adding an i-cord to each side and an i-cord edge along the bottom. This is much simpler in my opinion than sewing on a strip of knitting! 

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While I love the techniques and beauty of this little hoodie (wee Carson by Ysolda), there is a big practical problem... the zip is too long! It’s annoying because the zip edges rub on the side of Reuben’s face. 

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Silly Mummy... giving Reuben a breastmilk ice lolly and not putting on a bib! But at least that means you can see him wearing his jumper! This is the little cabled crew neck sweater, which is from a Sublime booklet. 

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Net Cowl by Jenise Hope, worn with my favourite cardigan ever - Exeter.

No idea why I haven’t posted this before, pretty sure it has been in my draft folder since last Christmas. Decided to get back on the blog wagon. Hopefully I will have a bit more time to blog until I go back to work at least! I have no idea where my time goes on maternity leave. I expected to have a lot more free time to knit and blog, and it’s just not happening! There are always more important things to do, like looking after my gorgeous little boy! 

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I've been quiet on the blogging front since baby Reuben was born 10 weeks ago. Here he is in the Icelandic cardigan I knitted and James designed. He's the most adorable baby and very happy to wear his wardrobe of knitwear :) more pictures coming when I have a hand free!

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Not the best pictures ever of this lovely cardigan, I think it’s hard to photograph the cardi and not the bump at this point! We took these pictures in the woods on the way to our NCT class. 

This lovely cardigan is made using the pattern Rosemary and Thyme by Alicia Plummer. I found the pattern easy to follow, although at one point I did end up with an odd number of stitches (we were at Wonderwool Wales) so I just followed my knitters intuition rather than doing any frogging and pattern analysis, but I have a feeling there is a mistake in the size I was making. 

The yarn is a Drops yarn called Bomull-Lin, which is a cotton/linen blend. I like the colour a lot, although I am concerned it might stretch a lot. It already falls off my shoulders more than I would like! 

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My favourite baby jumper so far, this is the Little Cabled Crew Neck Sweater from “The eighth little Sublime hand knit book”. Again there was too much sewing for me to really enjoy the finishing, but the yarn, pattern and buttons go together so well I can’t wait to dress my little one in it! 

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Cute baby jumpers, from cute baby books. Since I’ve been pregnant the number of baby knitting books I own has increased substantially! This Chunky Cable Sweater came from the Adorable Knits for Tots book by Zoe Mellor. I enjoyed the cable section, but dislike knitting things in pieces that need sewing together. So many baby knits require sewing, there is a definitely a need for more seamless baby knits! Something so small shouldn’t need so much sewing! 

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I adore these monster bibs (another free pattern for baby/child things), I crocheted this mostly from stylecraft yarn. 

As you can imagine I’ve been knitting and crocheting up a storm since I found out I was pregnant, but I was really reluctant of posting it on the internet because I prefer to tell people about the baby in person, anyway I’m now more than 7 months pregnant so I guess it’s about time I shared! 

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I love this little stripy hat that I made for little Rory. It’s so cute and fits him unlike the first attempt I made at a hat for him. His mum says that the little icord at the top makes it easy to get off too which is good! It’s made from scrap yarn, although the main cream is a cotton. 

The pattern is a free one, called rialto baby beanie. 

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The first thing I made for our baby, we meant to use it for an announcement card and then we never announced our pregnancy! 

The baby booties are from the Hut’s Amore free pattern and I just used scrap yarn to crochet them. 

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The last time I knitted the duck feet pattern, I said I would never knit them again. But James said when we have our own baby I would have to knit them for it. So, I have knit them again for our baby :) I used the scheepjes invicta extra yarn, which was a really nice 4 ply in wool and nylon. I found it a much easier knit this time, although fiddly, my knitting skills must have improved because it did not feel as much of an effort, only taking me 3 days to complete. 

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A go to crochet cardigan for a cousin’s baby made using scrap yarns to give a very colourful outcome! The pattern is Sue’s no hole hexagon cardigan. The construction is very cool, you basically make 2 hexagons (in blue), crochet together and then add the trim and collar (in yellow). 

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Rye socks, for Dad!  I love that every year in the run up to his birthday I get hints from my Dad that the socks from last year are wearing out! At least I know he wears them to destruction and that he really likes a pair of hand knit socks. 

This year I went for the Rye pattern by Tin Can Knits. It’s a simple and free pattern which is very easy to follow. The socks turned out beautifully and I have had good feedback from Dad on the fit :) 

I used some Stylecraft Special aran with wool, in a beautiful ocean colour with 3.5 and 4mm needles. 

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I can’t believe that I’ve knitted 12 sweaters this year. I know more than half are baby cardigans, but it does surprise me that I’ve made it to 12 in total. It feels like all my knitting has been really slow this year. Lots of boring projects rather than anything inspiring. My favourites are certainly the wee ones, all of them, they aren’t so boring to knit since they are small and of interesting construction. I also can’t believe it was only this year that I knit my exeter. This has fast become my favourite sweater, I just love it and wear it all the time.

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One Cardigan that is incredibly unflattering for my body shape… Total failure. 12th cardi of the year. I actually love the pictures James took of this Cardigan but in reality it just doesn’t suit me and will be frogged to make something that does work for me. The pattern was from drops which means it was quite hard to follow. The yarn came from Australia, my sister brought it back for me.