Knit, knit, slow

It’s slow progress on the knitting front. I started knitting a baby cardigan back in June. I’m undecided yet as to whether it’s for a friend’s baby due in October or another one due in November. Depends how big the October baby is as it’s coming up pretty small …

I got off to a frustrating start when I couldn’t work out how to ‘continue knitting in pattern’. Having put out a cry for help on my local craft group’s Facebook page, I was soon on my way again and finished the back of the cardigan.   

And then knitting got put firmly on the back burner while I was making all things wedding-related for my friend’s wedding.

Now, I’m back on it, I ran into problems again when knitting up the fronts of the cardigan. It was the knitting in pattern again that I struggled with. Even more so the fact that ‘stitches made and lost in the pattern are not included in the stitch count after row 12’. Kept getting my sums wrong and having to unpick and start again. But, I worked it out in the end, and the left front of the cardigan took much less time than the right.   

Today, I’ve started on the sleeves during my weekly Wednesday pubcraft trip with my friend ThePolkaDotGiraffe. We’ve recently changed our choice of pub and the past two weeks people have commented on us knitting in the pub, but not today. Maybe they’re getting used to the sight of two women in their 30s knitting/crocheting over a Coke and some pickled onion Monster Munch 😀

Meanwhile, I’ve also been busy making a birthday card for my little man’s upcoming 2nd birthday. It’s now been sent off to CBeebies (a children’s TV station for non-UK readers) to arrive well within their required deadline (at least a month before the child’s birthday). Only half the cards that get sent in get shown on air, so I don’t rate my chances. Last year, I submitted the card less than a month before his birthday and it didn’t make the cut. That was a much better card too in terms of the efforts that went into it.  😫 This year, I’ve gone down the easy cheat’s route of buying a magazine and cutting out pictures of his characters, rather than creating them myself, as I did last year. Lazy Mummy. However, I did include a door, behind which there is a photo of the man himself. They love a photo hiding behind a flap on CBeebies, so fingers crossed it makes it on TV! I gave Little Man a sneaky peak before it went in the post as the cards don’t get returned. 

  
 
Oh, and I also made some Peppa Pig-themed fairy cakes for a 2nd birthday party last weekend. I’ve saved 12 cake toppers as I have quite a few nieces and nephews who are Peppa Pig fans.   

That’s all from me for now, time to watch The Great British Bake Off and carry on with my knitting …

CBeebies birthday card

My attention has been diverted from the memory quilt while I’ve been busy working on a birthday card for my little man who turns one on the 14th. My brother has had great success getting cards he’s made for his girls read out on the birthday slots on CBeebies. So no pressure.

Stanley (my little man) enjoys watching Waybuloo of an evening. I thought I’d be a mum that doesn’t encourage tv-watching. But come the witching hour, I’ll take anything that helps us to get through to bath time. It’s a programme about four ‘Piplings’ who live in a land called Nara. They do yoga! And there’s children (called cheebies, bit creepy I find) that join in with the yoga poses.

So, it had to be a Waybuloo themed card.

I’m not much of an artist so I cheated and printed off colouring in sheets of two of the characters (Nok Tok and Yojojo) to use as templates.

Their faces posed a bit of a challenge. Rather than colouring them in, I used a piece of scrapbook paper and just coloured in the eyes.

Added their mouths …

Made the background. Couldn’t have a blue sky as Nok Tok (the blue one) would’ve blended in.

At this point, I encountered a slight hitch when my photo printer ran low on ink. But I managed to print a reasonable photo on normal paper on our normal printer. I added his name and age. Voila!

I’ve just posted it off to CBeebies for the princely sum of £3.20. I don’t get it back and it may not even appear on the TV channel on the day of his birthday. I really hope it does. I’ve not helped my chances as they ask to receive cards 4 weeks before the birthday. But, seriously, who’s that organised? I thought I was good starting it with two weeks to go.

Now I can get back to the quilt. It’s non-stop! Who knows how I’m going to get anything done when I go back to work 2 days a week in a few week’s time.