Finally back... Just in time for Christmas!

So, anyone who has read this blog regularly will have noticed that I've not posted for a while - in fact its now nearly two months since my last post!  Now, I won't bore you with too many details, but the reason for the lack of posts is I've been ill (I ended up in hospital after a severe allergic reaction, which then coupled with exams in September has meant a bit more time off work now to recover) and also I was packing up my craft stuff as we were hoping to move house...  That also fell through in mid September (brilliant timing all round really!).  So its been rather stressful eight weeks or so.

Thankfully I'm now feeling much better, if still a little tired, and I'm looking forward to returning to work tomorrow (albeit on reduced hours for a few weeks to build up slowly).  I think getting back into a better routine will help!

The advantage of needing to take it easy is that craft projects are the perfect thing to do (though in my tiredest days a few went a bit wrong...) and it is now only 11 weeks and two days to Christmas!  Seems a long way off, but I've lots of crafty plans (as usual) so to have any chance of doing a third of them I need to start now.  (if you're interested, one of the silly errors was trying to knit using the short cast on end, not the actual ball of wool...  I only realised when it ran out most of the way across the row!)

However, I think I'll save Christmas for next week...  I'm sure many of you have been into shops and thought "it gets earlier every year!" - I know I was surprised when Christmas stuff appeared early September...  This week, I've finished a jumper and bootees set that I was making for my godson.  Unfortunately, my godson has grown quicker than I knit, so it is far too small for him!  So it will probably be a gift for the next of my close friends / family that find out they're expecting a boy!  (I couldn't even pass it on to my in-laws side of the family, as in recent months the two babies born have both been girls!)

Anyway, this is the finished jumper:

 



 

The whole thing is knitted in one piece in simple stocking stitch.  It didn't actually take that long to knit really, I just got distracted by other projects, especially once my godson was born and I knew it wouldn't be done in time.

 

The advantage of it being knit in one piece (see the picture below) is that it reduces the amount of sewing up that needs to be done (something else I'm very good at putting off - I still haven't finished the bags I mentioned in my last blog post on 12 August!).  This also helps speed up how long it takes, and given how many times I put down the project made it easier to keep track of!

 

 

The matching bootees are also rather cute - each was knitted in less than an hour:

The whole set is made to fit a three month old, and was completed in less than 100g of Sirdar Snuggly DK.  The wool was nice and soft to work with (and so will be soft for baby) and given it only used two 50g balls it was a relatively cheap make.  The patterns for both the jumper and bootees can be found in "Simple knits for cherished babies" by Erika Knight.

So, as I''ve already mentioned next week will feature a few of my Christmas makes that I'm working on, as well as hopefully another square or two of my throw (for those that consider it too early to be thinking of Christmas!).  I'll see you next week (and I mean it this time!) - have a good one.