Slowly catching up ....

When last I was here I was telling you about the up and coming Moonwalk, which we duly completed and gathered plenty of sponsorship money too. But I have not sorted out the (one, perhaps two) photos we have documenting the event, so the full story will have to wait for another day.

Today we shall be catching up on September's first completed project, for my family's latest addition. Back in April (I know, how could it have taken me so long?!) my cousin and his wife brought their little baby girl Ellie into the world. And oh! such plans I had to knit for her! Well it took some time, but she finally has a knitted item from the resident family knitter. I present to you Ellie's spring green baby shrug:



Now I had high hopes for all the knitting I would do for this new family member. After all, who can resist the cute baby knit patterns and quick finishing times! Yet here I am, nearly six months after her birth, and the poor girl has only received one little baby shrug. Well, there were many failed attempts before this, let me tell you.



First was the pink yoked baby sweater, which is finished (all except for it's buttons ... that seems to be a blocking point for me) but apparently MizzAdamz's six year old son could squeeze himself into it, if he so desired. So that went to the "present for much later in her life" pile. Then came the baby blanket, which had a promising start as I zoomed through the garter stitch centre, but failed miserably at the border (that one i'm sure will deserve a post of its own when I can face it again). And then came the knit-in-a-flash little lacy vest, which is gorgeous but probably would only fit her for a week. So that was a no-go ...... then I bought a lovely little dress for her (which of course I forgot to take a photograph of) and decided to make something to match it.



Cue a skein of Red Heart Soft Yarn that I had in waiting to be a cable scarf, one week of knitting on the bus and at tea breaks in work, et voila! One completed baby garment, in a size that might actually fit her in now or at least within the next year - success!



Now, this is not a perfect garment at all. Above is the pretty matress stitch side seam (which I love) but even it has a dodgy loose stitch at the bottom (which I believe might have something to do with the picking up of stitches for the rib and wish I had noticed and fixed before I gave it away). But the real problem was the ugly sleeve seam (see below).



Now, this was as neat as I knew how to make it at the time. But the very same day I was catching up on some blog reading and found this post on CrazyAuntPurl. So now I know and the next one will have beautiful seams, I assure you. But I'm sure this one will look fine on, don't you think?