Cutest little critters!

I was soooo happy yesterday when my new stitch markers arrived in the post. I got a set of woolly little sheep and a set of colourful cats from Etsy, where I had stumbled across this great seller. Of course, I couldn't decide so I got both sets! They are absolutely adorable and well made so no bits of metal catch on my yarn, and I'm afraid Iwas a bit mean and didn't let them get over their jetlag for long before I set them to work. They told me they are much happier playing around on the needles anyway and needed some fresh air after being in the well packaged box for their trip over from America. Here is one of them, making friends with Gryffin who is not a very good tour guide as you can see.

My favourite would have to be the little black sheep as he is so cute and sparkly. The picture doesn't really show just how tiny they are - they can easily fit the base of each one on my little finger nail - seriously TINY! I can not imagine how she managed to stick those pin prick sized eyes on.

Now what are they cuddling up to? WELL, it was supposed to be a pair of longies or 3/4 pants for Austy to wear as pj bottoms over his night nappy, but stupid here couldn't work out what a US 2 ply was and they have come out mighty small, as it's definietly not 8ply. I didn't bother doing a gauge check first (despite the pattern writing it in big bold print!) because I figured I will need a pair in smaller sizes for the next bub anyway, whenever that happens to be. So far bub #2 has more wool soaker pants than Austy! I was keen to get onto these tonight to split for the legs and use my stitch markers, so I'm afraid if it wasn't for the stitch markers, they'd be a dreaded UFO for a long while. However I do love the colourway (except it has a little too much grey and not enough teal for my liking so I added a few random stripes of this to blue it up some more), it's very nice to knit with and I don't have much to go now so they will get finished sometime soon, and put away with the other 2 soakers. Poor bub if it's a girl - it will be wearing boyish colours at night. The colours in the photo are a bit off because of the downlights. I will try and get the finished photo in daylight. The marooney colour is more a deep purple, and the teal is stunning, it's just that as soon as it gets to the teal portion, it's over in a few stitches and there are plenty of grey stitches till it turns lavender. It's not that I don't like grey, I do, but I like the deep purple and teal more. I am thinking of knitting a piece in the shape of a star with the denim yarn and stitching it on the bum of the pants, just to add a special touch!

I did see a gorgeous blue/teal/dark chocolate colourway in the right ply that I loved on etsy but they didn't ship to Australia. DOH! I have some acid dyes on order and now know where I can order a 12ply undyed yarn, so Austy's pair will be a hand dyed project - my first go at acid dyes! Then I will be able to make almost any colour I want, hopefully...

I have also started work on a cotton jumper for Austy because the evenings have been a little warm for kniting wool, and because I couldn't resist buying the jo sharp cotton on sale. I am just wary of doing what I did last year when I started Austy's cotton jacket in the Autumn and didn't finish until Winter. Finding it a little chilly for cotton, I started making a warmer one. When I bought the yarn, I was looking for wool as I only like natural fibres but the guy at the shop convinced me SIDAR Snuggly was the way to go as it was machine washable and more wear resistant for kids. Silly me didn't realise I was not buying wool, and halfway through the project I looked at the ball band and saw it was nylon. I freaked out, and put it aside for awhile, not returning to it until October when I got over my silliness, realising that in the old days most baby clothes were made with nylon for it's softness. So the hoodie didn't get finished until just before Christmas. Result - two little jackets that have hardly been worn as they were finished in the wrong season.

So, having learned my lesson I have started the cotton one in a size 2-3yrs so, while it will be okay for the warmer Autumn days if I finish it before Winter, it will fit him best NEXT Spring/Summer. Think I will do the same with the brown chunky knit I want to make him, and make it to fit this winter (it will be a nice thick, warm, woolly 10ply so good for our ski
trip) but fit best next winter as he already has the 4ply hoodie for this winter.

Okay, better get back to these longies and see if I can finish leg one while I still have the motivation. I need to finish one of my 3 WIP's so I can start on the ISE4 scarf when the yarn arrives.