I have just started a new little baby jacket, which I hope will be the last baby gift I make for some time. However, this pattern is pretty cute and I thought I would try something different. This pattern is free on Nikki Van Der Car's blog What to Knit When You Are Expecting. The pattern is called the Maile Sweater. Though the pattern is a little bit lacy, it is not overly so. I thought that if I kept the yarn colour neutral, it would work for both a boy or a girl. I bought King Cole Merino 4 Ply, after the fun I had with my Dad's Handyman's Hat, as I liked the yarn in the aran weight. More importantly, it is superwash, which will make the gift more gratefully received.
The colour I have chosen is Olive, Shade 69 and I really like this colour. It's a nice light olive green colour, which is quite yellow in hue.
The above picture isn't greatly in focus, but the colour shown is the most accurate out of the photographs I am going to share with you today. I got the yarn on a cone, from Texere. They certainly have a great range of yarn in their online store. If you know what type of yarn you want for a given project, I recommend you look there for generic yarn, rather than branded to see if you can save some money. They do have branded yarn, but you can get that anywhere.
I cast on this project last night, and after a brief hiccup with the lace instructions, this is how far I have got.
This is a knit from the bottom up, raglan pattern and it feels strange to be knitting something in the round from that direction. I am so used to knitting top down these days.
The hiccup I had with the lace pattern was caused by the instructions skp. I read that as SSP (slip, slip, purl) for some bizarre reason. I ripped it back and thought about it more carefully. I think it means slip, knit, pass slipped stitch over. I am unsure as it doesn't have a key on the pattern. Instead of doing skp, I did SSK (slip slip knit) as I prefer the look of it.
I think when it is blocked out, it will be fine. And by the way, this yarn really is lovely and soft.
I think I am making good progress. Hopefully it will be done in a couple of days and then I can play with my recent decadent purchase. Not one, but two skeins of Malabrigo Sock! Do you want to see them? They are very pretty.
This shade is Aguas and is a lovely green/blue colour.
This shade is Violeta Africana which I fell in love with when I saw this pattern, which I happen to have at the top of my queue. What could be more delicious than purple Malabrigo gloves with cables on them? I can't wait to get started!
I bought both these skeins just for me. It feels a little wicked to splash out so much money on myself, but I do spend rather a lot of my crafting budget on other people, and I deserve to keep something pretty once in a while. I have a feeling that this is going to a be selfish crafting year!
I'm hooking up, as usual to WIP Wednesday with my bloggy pals. Click on the button to look at some interesting projects currently in the works.
