Tag: Crazy Wavy Toddler Dress

Saint Swithin’s Day

Today we went shopping in a field.

boots-2

Nevermind!  We still had fun at Fibre-East.

It was lovely seeing my friends’ stalls in particular Secret Spinner and FibreTastic at Spindependance and CamiKnitter at Outward Images.

There was sheep shearing (AKA child entertainment).

My daughter’s knitted dress was admired.  I was asked for the pattern and got the details wrong! I said it was “Crazy Waves”. It’s actually the “Crazy Wavy Toddler Dress” from “Sock Yarn One Skein Wonders”.  Here’s my daughter wearing it about a year ago:

crazy-waves-dress-2

I didn’t quite follow the instructions when making it – I decided I didn’t fancy picking up 128 stitches on one side of the waistband and 160 odd on the other! Therefore started by casting on 128 stitches and working 1 row 1×1 rib and 1 row knit for a few rows to give the waist band.

I bought a weaving book that I thought was out of print (I always manage to find a gem on the P&M woolcraft stand!) and a beautiful rim weighted IST spindle (it spins forever!)  My son was shown how to ply on a beautiful Turkish spindle.  However, he was bought a peg loom and as it’s only a week until the school holidays… I can see peg loom bags and scarfs being this year’s summer holiday projects!

As for St Swithin’s Day?  Well I’m pretty sure it’s rained for the last 40 days (at least).  It’s now gone 11pm and so far I don’t think we’ve had a drop…

Finishing Things

I currently have a quite large selection of unfinished projects (the ones I can recall are):

  • a woven shawl with overshot pattern.
  • a pair of brightly coloured socks – I’m knitting these simultaneously but they are still stalled half way through the feet.
  • a green jumper for my husband to my own design.
  • a pi are square shawl in very chunky yarn.

I realised, as I worked towards the finishing line on my daughter’s knitted dress, that I often stop working on projects when they are very close to completion.  The woven shawl, for example, is stopped half way through the second band of patterning (there is a wide band at each end of the shawl).  I probably only have another 6 inches to work and it’ll be off the loom.  So why have I stopped?

I realised that somewhere near the end of a project, I start to doubt that it’ll be as good as I imagined it at the start.  So, instead of facing disappointment, I simply stop working on that project and move onto the next one.  This is daft, because when I do finish things I’m usually delighted at the result.  If I’m not delighted then the item can usually be modified or embellished or given away (if it’s a poor fit for the original intended recipient).

Anyway, I was motivated to finish my daughter’s dress because:

  1. If I didn’t finish it quickly it would be too small.
  2. It’s a one ball project – so I wanted to use up as much of the yarn as possible.
  3. I wanted to see what the wavy pattern would look like once it had been blocked.

cropped_toocropped