A Little Something

I used to be a very keen knitter. I took an interest in it at age 16 and knitted fairly consistently from then on. Becoming an aunty for the first time eleven years ago gave me new scope for my efforts although by the time of the third arrival there'd been a considerable drop off in production; I'd started going out with Doug and obviously had other things to do with my time/hands :-)

I picked up the needles again following Jacob's birth and knitted him a couple of v nice things, as well as finishing a jumper that I'd started for Conor, some eight years previously! However, being the mother of an increasingly active toddler meant that, once again, production dipped.

I hadn't knitted anything since I became pregnant with Sam; I didn't want to exacerbate the carpal tunnel syndrome that I suffered from while expecting Jacob. Unlike my first pregnancy where it started up about 20 weeks, I didn't suffer from it at all, and about 7 months in I decided (rather unwisely) that I would give knitting a shot and knit a little something for Solveig and Adrian's first who was due around six weeks before Sam. Halfway through producing the jumper, CTS kicked in. I ended up giving the jumper to my mum to finish and by this time it was far too small to give to Freyja, so it ended up as a gift to another baby born later in the year.

This time the CTS lingered long after the birth and I still am prone to it, especially after driving lessons or pushing the double buggy for half an hour or more. But I decided to have a pop at knitting again, figuring that I might be able to produce something for Caroline's baby that was due in May.

I managed a little jumper, but wasn't entirely happy with it. I knitted it in DK cotton which I felt was a bit too bulky for the pattern (even though it was the yarn stated). Also, although I knit to tension, the sleeves weren't wide enough to fit in the arm holes which leads to a rather odd shape when making up; I didn't remember until I'd got to the making up stage that I'd actually knitted this pattern before and encountered the same problem.

However, the main thing was that my arms had coped with the recursive activity of knitting. So I had a go at knitting a second item; finally a little something for Freyja to make up for not producing something on her arrival. I had to adapt the pattern as I didn't have quite enough wool in my bag, and as I was knitting with a different yarn to the one suggested, I had to alter the pattern for the sleeves so they weren't too small/too big for the armhole shaping.

This time, I'm very pleased with the finished product:




I altered the method of tying the wrap, however; in the pattern the ribbon went right round the back before tying at the side, which I felt wasn't necessary. Also, it didn't address the issue of the right front - in my experience of wrap-overs, you need something to tie that inside the wrap and keep it from dipping below the level of the other front. So I fished out my button box and found a suitably small button from a Monsoon top that was the right colour. That's now on the inside to secure the right front.

My right arm, neck and shoulder did start hurting as I finished it, a clear sign that I'd knitted too quickly and not sitting square and straight. It did, however, completely clear up overnight once I'd finished knitting, courtesy of Deep Heat and the use of my lovely back massager that Doug bought me for Christmas.

Anyway, I hope the cardy fits Freyja and I hope Solveig thinks its suitably stylish for her daughter to wear. It didn't really cost anything to make (it was from the spare wool bag and so long since paid for, iyswim) other than my time and the 58p for the ribbon, so I'm happy with what I've produced.

I do have loads of odd balls of nice wool in the bag, but I doubt I've got enough to make a complete jumper in one shade so I'll be looking through my patterns and see if there's anything adaptable. I've thought about doing a fair isle pattern, but I'm not happy with the mix of colours available in the bag.

Anyway, enough of these woolly ramblings. It is a post worthy of the Knit Nurse :-)