Dolphin Delight

My friend from university is expecting a baby in July.  She's mad about dolphins so wanted to do a dolphin knit for her.  I couldn't find anything dolphin to knit, so designed my own.

It's in 4ply cotton (she's allergic to wool). I thought the dolphin would look better in 4ply. She’s expecting a girl so was going to do a dress, but then went with a cardie in case the scan was wrong. She did say not to go mad with pink. I was aiming for 3-6 months. Elisabeth is just gone 6 months so I think I’ve got the size OK.

It's a fairly simple design cardie as it's my first design with sleeves. I went with droped shoulder sleeves so I wouldn't have to worry about shaping the sleeve tops.

The ribbing is k2p1.

Perfect patchwork bloomers

I wasn't going to do another test knit just yet, I wanted to get on with a design of my own, but these bloomers caught my eye.  They were a reminder that I don't do much colour work!

The pocket was meant to be on the back - whoops!

The dolphin cardie is nearly done now. I just need to sew in the second sleeve, do the neck and front bands, weave in ends and add buttons.

I visited this is knit in Dublin the other week and found it to be a lovely shop.  I picked up a ball of lambs pride worsted to make a soaker.  Reading some comments about it being ichy has put me off this idea and I think I will do a dress instead.  

Will it never end...

Last year my mother bought me 9 balls of Debbie bliss rialto that was on sale.  It was a lovely shade of purple so I said I'd make something for my sisters new baby.  So I knitted a tank top, and still had loads left.  Since my sister liked the top, I knitted a bolero for my nieces first birthday earlier this month.  I still had loads left so I knitted a tanktop for my little one as I thought I didn't have enough for sleeves.  I still have 1 ball left. It is the yarn that will not end.

Here's what I did with it:

Birthday bolero

This is a Sirdar pattern, from the baby bamboo book.  It has cute bobbles around the edge.  They were fiddly, but worth the effort. The colours in these pictures are not a good representation of the yarn colour, the second set of pictures for 'seedling' are closer.

Seedling

This is my own pattern.  I think I will need to tweak it a bit before writting it up. I'm not happy with the armhole depth or the neckline.