The end result

So you know all that knitting that I had to get through- well I can now update you on some of it.
Those afghan squares? Well I got all the bits made up and then washed and blocked my squares out to the right size. Only they aren't the right size. After taking out all the blocking pins and measuring them again they are now half an inch too small. So I have to them again.
The socks that I planned to start? Didn't even manage to get them cast on yet. Won't be entering those for the Ravelympics then.

The good news however is that I did manage to get three baby items finished off which were very well received last Sunday at the baby shower.
The first thing I made was some little baby bootees. The pattern is Baby Slippers by Zoë Mellor from her book 'Adorable Knits for Tots'. I love this pattern- it's my go to for emergency baby gifts. So far I have made 3 pairs, each of them from a different yarn and in different combinations. It's so easy to adapt the pattern to fit each individual gift giving occasion. Plus you can easily do a bootee in an evening so its only a couple of days work to get it done.

For this pair I rummaged out some cotton from my stash- it's a 4-ply by Patons I think. I like it because it has a shiny thread running through it which is a bit different. The dark orange is the remains of some Rowan Cotton Glace that I used for my Sourcery afghan square. I ordered the buttons specially from e-bay (search for 'Waddles the duck').

I also made a Totoro baby bonnet from Debbie Bliss Cashmerino. I made the smallest size and it took less than half a ball of yarn making an excellent gift in all sorts of ways. The fact that it is super cute probably wins over everything though.


My final knit was a little hooded kaftan made from Debbie Bliss Eco baby. More on this in another post as I made a couple of alterations to the pattern that I thought people might be interested in.
All modelling by Olas the bear- didn't have a handy baby to dress up in my newly finished knits.

Both of the last two projects I entered for the Winter Ravelympics (instead of my socks) in the Junior event so I'm sporting the following with pride :D