Baby Cardigan

So a while ago, my friend had asked me to make her gorgeous little daughter a little cardigan.  Other than a scarf and a snood, I'd never made a real item of clothing.  But seeing as my eventual aim is to make a penguin jumper, I accepted this new challenege!

One afternoon, me and my friend searched Ravelry for knitted baby cardigans.  Her only requirements were:
1. A very simple design (i.e. no fancy cable work or moss/seed stitch patterns)
2. Buttons that do up all the way down the front, not just at the top.
3. Greyish/Lilac colour.

I set to work on finding a pattern first as thought there was no point in finding the perfect yarn until I knew what yarn weight I needed!  Eventually I found a pattern through Ravelry on the Lion Brand Yarn site.   Now, their pattern requires their 'Pound of Yarn'.  It was a bit of a problem as a) LBY has no distribution in the UK and b) it's crazy expensive to get it shipped over.  Good thing is after some investigation I discovered it was of worsted/aran weight!

I wanted the yarn to be supersoft, but also breathable and hard-wearing, so ideally a cotton/acrylic mix.  I went to the first place I thought...John Lewis!  After a bit of a faff - I found my perfect yarn! It was the All Seasons Cotton by Rowan in Shade 253 (Fez).  Unsure of how many balls I'd need, I bought 8, just in case so they'd all be in the same dye lot too.  Now I say faff as the label on the yarn doesn't overtly say what weight it is and one lady in JL was convinced it wasn't as the needle requirements were 4.5-5.5mm which was what I needed anyway.  To be on the safe side, I came home to investigate and if you search yarns by weight on the Rowan site, All Seasons Cotton appears on the Aran weight.  In case anyone wants to know, I only needed 4 of the 50g balls for the 12 month pattern, which included the tails for the start/ends of a piece and sewing the seams.

I had so much fun making this, especially the pockets (cos I'm totally sad).  I need to get started on more baby clothes now...this has given me a bug for it!

Can't wait to see little J in this cardigan, she's going to look totally adorable :)

Update...

Sorry for not having posted anything in a while...I've been super busies the last few weeks as I'm going to be in the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony!

©The Yarning Darling 2012

I have been beavering away with some yarn in this time though.  Literally just finished knitting a cardigan for my friend's gorgeous little girl tonight.  Going to wait until the morning though to take some pics, will look much better under natural daylight, especially as we're having such glorious sunshine in London at the moment.

I've also been making yet ANOTHER Domo.  This time it's for my boy's work colleague's daughter.  I've been taking my Domo WIP to the Olympic Park with me as they give us like 5 hours to get ready :/  Randomly, I was sitting outside our holding area with yarn and hook in hand and a guy comes up to me...

Man: "Wow, you're crocheting!"
Me: "You know what crocheting is?! People always think I'm knitting."
Man: "My sister and ex used to crochet.  So what are you making?  Looks like Domokun."
Me: *mouth drops* (especially as I'm only half way through Domo's head and body)  "I AM making a Domo!! How do you know who Domo is?! Whenever I tell people they have no idea what I'm talking about!"

So basically after me being shocked that he knew what crocheting and Domo were, he said he'd love a Domo!  So we swapped email addys, guess that's another project on the list!

Anyways, I'll be posting all about the cardigan this week if I can...I've got my final dress rehearsal tomorrow and then the actual Opening Ceremony on Friday! I know it's not yarn stuff but I feel like I should post about that too :)  I'd love to say that it's back to normal after that, but alas, I go to see my boy in LA next week, and on my return I begin rehearsals for the Paralympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies!

Mr Giraffe & Mr Lion!

©The Yarning Darling 2012

Some weeks ago, a good friend of mine commissioned me to make a giraffe and a lion for her friend who was expecting a baby.  Last year, I had made her the same things for her gorgeous little girl and so she thought it would be a nice gift for another yummy mummy.

Mr Lion was created from a pattern bought from Etsy, and so I can't display the pattern.  But, Mr Giraffe was entirely my creation, so his crocheting DNA I can post! You'll find the pattern for him under my 'Pages' section or you can just click here for the pattern!

So, I present to you Lion and Giraffe, who are of course (after a bit of an altercation), the best of friends.

Mr Lion getting ready to pounce on the unsuspecting Mr Giraffe.
©The Yarning Darling 2012

Mr Giraffe is having none of it.
©The Yarning Darling 2012

Yay! Now they're bestest buddies :)
©The Yarning Darling 2012