a little ‘me’ knitting

you may have noticed that I haven’t been showing you the ‘latest’ in my shop for ohh at least a fortnight (it’s still there!). I’ve been doing some ‘me’ knitting. I’ve made myself a cowl in the same designs as those in my shop from some lovely mohair and alpaca pink and grey yarn I received on a destash swap. Some fingerless mitts that I’m trying to pluck up the courage to felt (they are currently too big for that purpose) and I’m back to knitting some preemie cardigans for Loving Hands – from some yarn I received from a fellow charity knitter in a yarn swap and some beautiful merino and silk yarn I received from Yarn box. I hope to post pictures of them all later this week (you can see the Yarn box yarn in my flickr photos below).

On chatting with my mum I explained that I now find it hard to put the knitting needles down, it’s my way of relaxing, so no matter how busy I am with work I always have to have one project on the needles – today she gave me a pattern and her choice of yarn for a cardigan she’s fallen in love with – solves what to get her for Mother’s Day!

 

The results are in …

 

… for the Bliss/Knitting Institute Preemie set design competition … and I didn’t win.

The Winner!

The winning set is very cute and by Teresa Channell. I love the little button and strap detail on the booties and the cardigan looks as though it is knitted in one piece.

 

The blurb in the magazine states that they had a very long shortlist and there was a picture of the judges looking at the entries – I spied my set in the bottom right hand corner (the green one with the mistake in – eek). I’ve tried to take a photo (below) but it isn’t very clear. The top 3 entries are going to be put on the Bliss website as patterns for people to use when making premature baby sets for hospitals.

My entry?

If you’ve had a go at my pattern please let me know how it worked out – it was my first attempt so I am eager to learn more.

 

My First Free Pattern

In fact this is the first pattern I’ve ever written. I caught the preemie knitting bug whilst knitting for Loving Hands and have been experimentintg with different designs and stitch patterns.

A couple of months ago Knitting Magazine (from the Knitting Institute) ran a competition to design and knit a preemie set. The result was this:

 

Bee Stitch preemie set

It is my first ever attempt to write a pattern and you can download it either by clicking on the patterns box on the right hand side or from the link on the Free Patterns page.

It looks a bit complicated but once you get used to the stitch it is easy and the end result is really cute. Please feel free to comment with your tips and experience in writing knitting patterns.