my boy the chef ::

one of Milo's main christmas gifts was a little kitchen unit.  It's super special because it was handmade by one of our friends for his son and it's perfect for my boy who loves to help in the kitchen.

To accompany the kitchen we got Milo some of these lovely wooden slicing fruits and just 2 days before christmas I decided to stitch him up an apron, hat and oven mitt!

I used (though really I should say that I glanced at for inspiration) these patterns for the hat and the apron.  I really must reiterate that I didn't actually use this pattern, if I had I'm sure it would have turned out a whole lot better, the hat at least I'm sure, I only used it for inspiration.  I wouldn't want you thinking badly of the pattern, because of my bad workmanship!

The oven mitt I made all from my head!  I might try and post a small tutorial here at some point in the future if I make any more.

Most of the fabric I already had stashed away, the lovely kawaii fabric came from mine and my Mum's etsy shop, and the blue ribbon actually came from my step brothers wedding cake.  I suddenly realised this in the midst of stitching it in to the apron!

I wasn't sure at first whether he would actually like dressing up in these bits, but I'm pleased to say he loves it!  Watching put his little had in the mitt, declare 'hot' and then open his play oven, makes my heart swell!

another placket neck ::

I made Joelle Hoverson's placket neck sweater for Milo back in the summer and I loved it!  The pattern was so easy and quick to knit (it does come from last minute knitted gifts after all).  It also introduced me to some new techniques, including knitting on circular needles, which is now by far my favourite way to knit.

So at when time was running out for all the holiday handknits I had promised myself I would make, I figured I'd revisit this for my youngest (and only) nephew.

I used sublime organic cotton, as he has fairly sensitive skin, I thought this would be the best bet and added stripes to the pattern.  Adding the stripes meant a whole lot of weaving in at the end, which was fairly painful, but other wise all was well!

I'm afraid, it was so last minute that I didn't have time to photograph it properly, but I did get this one snap of him with my mum, whilst wearing it!

• pattern available to download as a pdf on ravelry for free :: here


• my ravelry notes :: here

loveheart pixie ::

I have been admiring Meg's lovely version of the stella pixie hat on her boy for a while now.  But somehow it didn't seem right for Milo, plus I think that boy has quite enough hand knits for his head for the time being!  But when my step sister went in to labour a little earlier than expected with her baby girl, I knew that this would be the perfect little hat for her.

In retrospect I should have tried to alter the pattern to make it smaller than the 3-12 month size, but at least it will last her a bit (though of course she probably won't fit in to it until the spring!).

I used some beautiful hand-dyed merino from snowberry and lime, I already had.  I love the colours and the way it knitted up, plus I still have some left over.

  

I used one of my own loveheart buttons for the fastener.

• pattern available to download as a pdf on ravelry for free :: here.


• my ravelry notes :: here