Sometimes you receive something that just blows you away :

It’s SO beautiful. And soft. <3

It was crocheted by Moothing - thank you! We’re very lucky indeed!

In other news I finished a pair of Blu (ravelry link) for baby!W, since the boy had no pants. (The boy needs no pants! ;)

I knit the 3-6 months size, but i think they’re going to fit for about 5 minutes. Mind you, they were a fun, quick knit, so I won’t mind knitting another pair, all too soon. :)

Next up… some toast for me…

Thank you SO much for all your kind messages. im starting to slowly but surely work my way through replying to them. I’m sure you can understand what’s holding me up. ;)

The Framed Blanket baby blanket pattern is now available here (PDF file).

ETA: The pattern is now available for free here!

FO: Framed Blanket by Me
My Ravelry Post: here
Yarn: Sirdar Peru Naturals 5×50g balls, Turquoise-Brown (not that you can tell that from most of the photos. I probably should have opened the red curtains before I took the picture. *facepalm*) But basically any chunky single ply would work really well.
Approximate Cost: Just under £20, not including needle.
Needles: 8mm

Finished Size: Approximately 40″x34″

I really love that the blanket is reversable. Especially when it’s blocked, the ‘wrong side’ takes on a very similar look to the right side. And since the edging is knitting on, all the way around, (and garter stitch), there aren’t any raised seam edges or whatever that give away which is specifically the back and which is the front.

Notes: I have sleeping bags for the bump when it arrives but last week it suddenly occured to me that we would probably still find a blanket useful, for travelling, or napping, or when out and about. And I hadn’t actually bought any waffle blankets (which is kind of ridiculous given that I have full sized version for our bed, and single bed versions for around the house! But anyways…)

Plus I was in the mood to crank out a chunky blanket, and I’d spotted, and been really impressed by, Sirdar Peru, which is both wooly, and squishy.

Conclusion: At some point in the future (and I have added it to my ‘To Do’ list and everything!), I’ll try to sort out a PDF and make the pattern a free download, since it’s a quick-to-knit, useful pattern, and I’m pretty proud of it. :)

Sleeveless Tunic Top by bergere de france
My Ravelry Post: here
Yarn: Rowan Classic Cash Cotton - sea foam, 5 balls (though i bought 6, and without the adjustments - see notes - it would have needed all 6.)
Needles: 3.25mm
Notes: The pattern calls for it to be knit in as a front and a back, so I converted it to knit in the round, and lopped a good 2 inches off the length, since otherwise it would have been closer to a dress, which i wasn’t sure was going to work since I’m 5′6″ and naturally pear shaped.

The yarn is incredible. Seriously. I don’t like knitting with cotton, but this stuff is special and has a lovely colour range. (That said, right now it’s liable to pill, though i’m hoping it’ll settle down after a while.) It’s certainly very soft, and smooshy, for a cotton.

It’ll be interesting to see how this looks after the baby is born. I’m hoping it won’t be too loose the flappy as a top. (That said, i think there is room to grow in the body of the top, so i’m hoping it’ll get lots of use for the next 4 months at least.

So, much of the bank holiday was spent at Jaq’s house, watching tv, catching up, and being fed incredibly well. (Mainly from the Ottolenghi Cook Book, which i cannot recommend highly enough.)

I was introduced to CSI, (which is good, and why haven’t i been watching it, since it’s not hard to find it on tv?), Boston Legal (which was wonderful!) and we endured Eurovision, and did the traditional thing of feeling that the UK was robbed.

(Given that Bump can now apparently hear things in utero, i do feel a bit bad about it having been exposed to Eurovision so early. But i guess it had to learn sometime?)

Oh and I also knit. A LOT.

My tunic top went from this:

to this:

in just over 24 hours. I brought two extra balls with me, each of which was 180m, plus i had about a third of a ball already in use, and i came home with far less that a third of a ball left. This is what happens when you take public transport to go visit a knitter.

It was perfect catch up knitting though - mindless enough that i could concentrate on conversation and what we were watching, (though it did mean i the odd ripping back half a row to fit in the decreases where necessary), and luckily Jaq and I have been friends and knitters long enough that the constant wiggling of my fingers wasn’t a problem.

I was perfect for my knitting too, since this top wasn’t in my list, and snuck in as something that might be useful to me for the next few months. So i wanted to knock it out of the park as soon as possible - as soon as you can, with 4ply yarn, and 3.25mm needles that is! - so that i could actually wear it.

I’m now just at the point of decreasing for the straps, and given I re-jigged the pattern to knit it in the round, i’m hopeful i can get it finished in the next few evenings, especially since I’m off to the Bluestockings tonight.

(Of course, if it turns out that cutting two inches off the length was a bad idea, i’ll have to split the body at the relevant point, knit the two inches, and graft it all back together again - which is going to take a bit longer. But we’ll see.)

I love it when endless knits turn out not to be endless. Mind you for it not to be endless I have to get on and actually do it. :D