A picture paints a thousand words...

Introducing our little rainbow baby who arrived 2 weeks ago. She's sleeping & feeding well, and with the help of play school for the Small Human and paternity leave for The Mister, I am actually finding time to knit, shower, and even do a little pattern writing.

After The Storm is a hat & cardigan set, sized for approximately 0-3 months and knit in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino.

The cardigan is a top-down raglan with textured stripes in 5 almost-rainbow contrast colours and with applied button bands. The hat is a bottom-up beanie, worked in the round, featuring matching stripes.
(modelled with the hem turned up on my 8lb newborn, so there is a little room for growing). The pattern is available to download for free.
download now
Ravelry page here.

Finishing things; a progress report

My efforts to finish almost-there projects started well over the last fortnight. Some of these projects required just 5 minutes of weaving in ends & a quick bath to finish them.

These baby hats were knit over the festive period; I wanted a project that would travel easily & require little concentration while visiting relatives; with all the babies due next year, some hats seemed ideal.

3 versions of Woolly Wormhead's Tubey knit in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran.

Woolly Wormhead's Buzzbee also in Cashmerino Aran

Multiple Devils' Caps by Irene Birk - I've been knitting these over the last 4 or so months, whenever I wanted some no-think project. They are knit in leftovers of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK & Rialto DK. These just needed some weaving-in & an occasional iCord tie.

The most labour-intensive project I have finished this week was to try finish some amendments to my Marlay Park Hoodie. About a year ago, I pulled this out of my wardrobe & put it to one side, with the intention of adding pockets & reinforcing the button band.. The button band & button holes were so loose that the garment was in the habit of falling open & it just looked sloppy.
Pattern; Central Park Hoodie Pockets by Becki Schneider
I finished the pockets with a 3-stitch iCord for structure, instead of the suggested 2x2 ribbing.

I've stitched some cotton tape to the wrong side of the button bands (after closing up the button holes); and added snap fasteners. I find it hard to believe that I've missed out on wearing one of my cosiest garments for almost an entire winter season due to my bad finishing habits. I suppose I was procrastinating because I had never used tape to reinforce a button band before, but, like many knitting-related things, it's not difficult; just time consuming. And now I have my favourite knitted garment ready to wear again... just in time for Spring!

In spite of great progress over 4 evenings, I may have gotten a little distracted & started something new. It will be a big shawl, intended for a specific occasion in 4 weeks time. I'd better get knitting!