Some Handmade Loveliness

Today I received a lovely gift in the mail.


This was part of the Facebook 'Pay it forward' (assumedly the opposite of paying it back?) thing-me-bob! It's a totally gorgeous, soft and gender neutral baby mat.  Thank you so much Rachel. Mmmm - my gifts aren't quite done yet, so perhaps in my case it will still be paying back!

I recently made this myself too.


There are booties to go with it but I haven't made them yet, the pay it forward project is now what I am spending my crafting time on  (truth is they seem a bit fiddly and I have a bit of a mental block regarding them, but pay it forward is a great excuse!).

My next project is going to be to knit a baby blanket. My nana gave me some cream wool a while ago - most of this was still in an enormous ball, but some of it she had knitted into the back of a cardigan for herself, before her eyesight deteriorated too much for her to knit anymore. She said to undo it and use it, but it was my nan's last piece of knitting, and being the sentimental old git that I am I just couldn't bring myself to do that. So, somehow I am going to incorporate her handicraft into the blanket.  Ideas on how I can do this would be gratefully received. Here is what it looks like at the moment.



 My current idea is to undo it back to the start of the sleeves and then cast off - or maybe do 6 rows of rib stitch so that it matches the opposite side, and then use this a a square, perhaps in the centre, or as one of a few squares... what do you think? The main body is in moss stitch. Also, I want to somehow make sure that I always know which bit is nana's work... ideas on a post card - or just comment!

Hello, and thanks for stopping by. My name is Emma and I am a lifestyle entrepreneur, writer, teacher, coach and mentor. I am passionate about eating real food, learning, travel and health. I get to spend my days with my amazing son who has chosen to learn from the world rather than at school. We write to share the life we love and to help others create a life they love too.

3 comments:

  1. Yunno, what I'd do is to take it back like you said, then cast off so you have a square. Then using an alternative colour, pick up and either knit or crotchet all around the edges so that you take it out further. Your other alternative would be to make granny squares in a plethora of colours and then sew them to the edges of the large square so that you have a middle piece and crocheted (or knitted) granny squares around the edging. Ooooh i can see it now... I'll see if I can find a picture of what I'm thinking! xx

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  2. I like your idea of the different colours but I am not sure granny would. I have told her my plan to use the back of her cardy somehow and she is really pleased. She is sad that she can't see well enough to knit me something herself.

    BUT she does keep saying to me " You are going to put the baby in white aren't you - not bright colours like these youngsters do these days" so I think i should use the wool that she gave me that is the same colour (and be careful how I dress bub when I go see her!). Knitting it will be as I can't crochet to save my life - just ask Tameeka, she has more patience than most people I know and tried to teach me once - she gave up in the end and said I have special needs!!! I can do different knit stitches though - so it could kind of be patchwork. And I like the idea of granny's bit being in the middle...

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  3. An alternative colour could be a taupe or a beige? Do you have enough of the colour your gran was using to edge it? Wish I was closer - what fun we could have an a cold Sunday afternoon lol!

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