Where's all the knitting?

For someone that used to blog an awful lot about my fo's (finished objects), I've just done a look back at my posts this year to check that I won't repeat myself to find that I haven't really posted about my knitting since this post here which was pre-David!

So here are just a few things I've knitted this year, I've got plenty more to add so I'll just start with a few.

This Rainbow Dress was knitted for my daughter Penny's 4th birthday (in February!). The beautiful yarn was dyed by Shannon Passmore.

Since then, I've had a go dyeing a few rainbow gradients of my own.

I did these two for a couple of swaps, though I need to have another go soon, I owe one of my lovely sisters some as a belated birthday present ;)

Actually, speaking of Rainbow Dresses, I knitted another special little girl one for her 4th birthday (though yes, it's modelled here by my Penny)

And these Barbie sized ones were actually knitted recently, testing them for Georgie who is working on a plethora of dolly designs at the moment. The barbies are naked no longer.

If anyone's interested in me popping up a wee blog tute on how I did the rainbow gradents, leave me a comment and I'll get onto it :)

Rainbow Dresses

I am licensed to knit Rainbow Dresses - designed by Georgie Hallam, aka tikki.

The Rainbow Dress is designed to fit snugly, yet the clever design still allows plenty of room for movement and growth. In winter it looks great layered with long sleeved tops, in warmer weather - a short little tee or on it's own looks lovely.

I am able to knit it for you with a variety of options to invidualise your dress:
- picot cast off for the bodice shoulder straps
- eyelet rounds for the bodice (which I can thread a matching ribbon through)
- garter stitch hem
- ruffled hem
- lace hem
- picot hem

In essence, the rainbow dress is a simple dress with simple clean lines. It can be knit with a solid yarn bodice and variegated skirt (which is quite popular) or all in a solid or variegated yarn.

Sizes - NB - 10 years

Contact me via email to enquire or place an order

Gotta Make You Smile

You know when you are so focussed on something - and then looking back you find something that makes you crack up?

I was taking photos of Penny in this dress - an Eden's Eve designed by Georgie Hallam (and able to be knit by myself and any of the Coco Kids team for orders).

I used self striping magicline which is 100% cotton, and I was taking a few snaps on a day that the sun was finally shining in my conservatory. In fact it was still freezing outside, but it was nice enough to actually strip off Penny's woollen singlet and woollen layers and take a quick pic.

Anyway, I think the fit and colour of it is just lovely, but as I was going through the photos, I found this one:

I had to laugh - Tim was playing in the conservatory at the same time, but I hadn't realised he was even in the frame for this pic. It perfectly sums up my rascally little rogue.

eden

I am licensed to knit Eden's Adam and Eden's Eve, by designer tiKKi (Georgie Hallam). I was lucky enough to be a tester for this wonderful pattern for Georgie and am very happy to be able to knit these for sale.

This is a fabulous top - it looks great on both boys and girls, and can be worn in summer knit in cotton as a singlet top on it's own. Knitted in wool, in the winter wear it as a bottom layer against the skin or over the top of a long sleeved top as a vest. You'll get plenty of wear all year round from a garment like this!

The Eden's Adam is pictured here as I am yet to knit the Eden's Eve, but if you are interested in seeing what the dress version looks like you can see that on tiKKi's blog here

The size ranges from newborn up to size 10

There are a number of options and ideas in the pattern to personalise it and make your garment different and special from others. Both my children's have garter stitch stripes at the top - but you may prefer to have it knit in a solid colour, or a variegated with a solid colour at the top. Have a look at more pictured on Coco Kids for just some ideas of how it can be made.

To enquire about or order an Eden's Adam or Eden's Eve email me. The other Coco Kids knitters, Ali and Kate, are also able to knit one for you.

I (along with Kate) am also currently licensed to knit Milo Vests, also designed by Georgie Hallam

eden's Been Released

You may have seen me blogging about test knitting 'Simplicity' for tikki recently here and here

Here's a couple of pics to refresh your memory

Well, the pattern was released yesterday with it's new name 'eden'. Eden comes as an e-book with 2 different patterns, eden's adam for the singlet/vest version, and eden's eve for a dress (watch out for an example of this one in the next couple of weeks hopefully)

From tikki's blog:
"Both share the same starting point in the pattern and are knit on 3.25mm needles and 4mm needles.

The pattern is primarily written for cotton or cotton blend yarns and the beauty of this pattern (I think) is that you can actually knit the garment in either 4ply, 5ply, 8ply or 10 ply yarn for the same sizing. It is also suitable for wool, but I would recommend the 4, 5 or 8ply for that for a suitable end fabric.

The pattern also comes with a palette of ideas at the end on how you can individualise your own eden, think stripe ideas, pockets, embellishment, hemlines"

Now for the exciting news - the lovely Georgie has gifted me a cottage license for the eden patterns as thanks for the test knitting which means I'll be knitting them for sale soon! Watch this space for more updates. Thanks Georgie!

Hey, and Georgie is also running yet another fabulous competition over on her blog for eden, pop over there and have a look

They Call Me The Testing Wench

And I love it - have I mentioned how much I like testing? Tee hee

I've been involved in 2 fabulous test knits in the last week or so. The first for a soon to be released dress and skirt pattern by Shannon Passmore (of Crafty Desires) called 'The Flapper Dress'

This fabulous design uses 10ply and results in a lovely full twirly skirt - perfect for little girls that love to dance and spin.

I knit this using Bendigo Luxury (one of my favourite yarns) and was going for a skirt that would go with a lot with the main colour being Denim Blue. Penny picked the pick contrast (of course).

I have yarn lined up to knit a couple more too, one for Penny for nice winter wear, and another for a fabulous warm layer for mucking around in at kindy (seeing as my madam often refuses to wear trousers, a warm dress at least keeps her chest/back warm and toasty)

The other pattern I've been lucky enough to test has been a new design by Georgie Hallam - otherwise known as tiKKi, called Olearia. This simple knit is knit with 8ply in a yarn that ensures good drape. I would've loved to have knit this in some Bella Baby Layette I have in my stash as I think this would've worked prefectly with the pattern, but I also wanted a little warm layer for Penny to wear over everything this autumn and so a 100% merino was selected.

This pattern is called Olearia after a native flower that grows in Aussie that must come in lots of different varieties. This pattern has 3 different versions - this shrug version and 2 cardigan versions.

This was cast off a couple of days ago, and since then we've worn it out heaps and received lots of compliments too. It's perfect for this time of the year but I know that it's a pattern that I'll definitely knit again.

Completely unrelated - notice anything different about my blog?

Another One Bites The Dust

That's another FO this year - an Oriental Lily (designed by the Georgie Hallam who is constantly coming out with new must-knit patterns) in a soon to be released 3T size. Georgie has worked out the 3-10 sizes also and so they are in the testing phase at the moment.  This is knit in The Wool Company's 'Watermelon' with 'Avocado' as the contrast waistband.

I did take rather a lot of photos of Penny in it this evening.I was surprised she actually had no problems with wearing it as it's been very hot, but luckily it has pink and is girly so she overlooked that it was a long sleeved kimono!

'Another One Bites The Dust' may also seem like a bit of an odd blog title for this, but this project is #3 of 10 challenges I am aiming to knit this year. It's all part of the TNN 10 in 2010 group on Rav, and more specifically the '1 of each' challenge. They include:

Baby/Toddler knit
Dishcloth - DONE Ugly Dishcloths
MCN Knitting
Older child - DONE Oriental Lily
Shawl or scarf
Socks
Toy - DONE Dinosaur! Roarrrrr!
Adult knit
Bag
Dolls Clothing

This is going towards my 'Older Child' and while it doesn't exactly fit the criteria of being for a 5+ child, I just don't have a 5+ child to knit for. Plus, with the long sleeves and fullness of it - it'll do (hose TNN chooks are good sorts, no one's going to tell me off)

There are also 2 other 10 in 2010 challenges I've joined up for on there too, 10 baby and toddler knits and 10 new techniques so I'm sure to waffle on about those at some stage this year too.

As well as signing up for the TNN challenges, I'm also down to 'Shop my Stash' - so I'm not buying yarn this year (though I can win it, swap for it or be gifted it - phew!) but I'm aiming to knit only from my stash this year unless I have a specific item I need to cast on that I don't have the right yarn for.

This was the 7th STS project this year, can't wait to see how many I get by the end of the year!