June

June.


Winter has arrived.


Today it's cold and damp. The little DDs and I are planning a quiet day inside in front of the fire. We recently got given a DVD set of Fraggle Rock the 1st season. Talk about flashbacks to childhood. Entertaining!! So we will try and keep warm, watch the adventures of Uncle Travelling Mac, Red and the others and I hope to get some knitting done.



May was keep us warm knitting month. June is my month for swaps and gifts.

First up I'm knitting Anouk by Kate Gilbert. One of my online friends had a little girl a couple of months ago and she has hip dysplasia (clicky hips). Unfortunately she has to be in a full body cast for a few months. I really can't comprehend how difficult the next few months will be for them - her cast splays her legs and so she can't fit in a car seat and they will have to try and find a buggy that will accommodate her. Even just picking her up, changing her and feeding her is going to be difficult. I wanted to gift her something to let her know our family is thinking of her and finally settled on Anouk. The beauty of this design is that it isn't seamed at the sides so it should fit over the extra width of her bright purple (very funky) cast and she may even get to wear it next winter as a tunic rather than a pinafore. I'm not doing any modifying of the pattern except for doing the 12mth width and the 6mth length to better match her measurements.



I'm also not doing the pictures as per the pattern but knitting this in variegated wool I hand dyed myself.




I used Dylon cold water dyes for this which wasn't as successful as it was using cotton fibres but an interesting learning experience anyway. Blogged here.




I wasn't so keen on it to begin with but now I quite like how it is knitting up



This isn't the first time I have knitted Anouk. I made one for baby not long after she was born. Her one is heavily modified but very cute nonetheless. This is a great design although, like many others, I don't find the pattern that well written/sequenced. It definitely pays to read all the way through before you start and keep reading ahead as you knit!! There are some really gorgeous Anouk's on Ravelry. Very inspiring. I'd quite like to do DD another one. Maybe next winter....