Cardigan for 2-3 year old in Rowan Baby Silk Merino DK; pattern ‘Aggie’ in Little Rowan Kids by Lisa Richardson & Sarah Hatton
The smallest person’s Christmas present is knitted in the same yarn and from the same pattern book as the cardigan I made for her birthday (seen here). I was going to embroider some flowers on this cardigan but I haven’t been overly pleased at how well the first jumper washed and thought embroidery might complicate the washing even further. (All the handknits in need of washing are put on one side for me to do. I use either Eucalan – no rinse, but incredibly expensive – or Ecover clothes washing liquid which is superb for everything from general washes in the washing machine to fine silks and wools done by hand.)
“What’s this for? ” (Cardigan for 2-3 year old in Rowan Baby Silk Merino DK; pattern ‘Aggie’ in Little Rowan Kids by Lisa Richardson & Sarah Hatton)
“Oh, that’s what it’s for. Every home should have one!” (It can’t be that loud or intrusive as, in the background, the second smallest person hasn’t even raised his eyes from his Lego!)
But we do love a bit of detail, so this cardigan received a set of very pretty ceramic buttons from Kate Holliday. Years ago I used to buy the odd card of attractive buttons, often not having an immediate use in mind. When I was rifling through my hoard for ones suitable for this cardigan, a little card I’d bought in Liberty’s (about 20 years ago) wormed its way to the top. To the card were attached 4 pearly ceramic buttons, each with a ladybird, but there were only 4. Happily, both website and button maker still exist, so I was able to order more – plus 2 further sets of 6 (and it will be more now Kate has made further batches in other covetable designs). As you can see, I then chose the buttons with little violets!
Lovely little ceramic buttons by Kate Holliday https://www.kateholliday.co.uk
Over the last week, I’ve got back to embroidery. Greatly relieved, I’ve now finished two of the embroidered initials I gave, in sketch form (a bit of a cop out!), as Christmas presents to my two younger daughters. I suspect they thought I’d never get round to actually doing them, so they had become a bit of a priority. Fired by the upswing in dopamine produced by being virtuous I’m now turning to tackle more of the embroidery backlog and then will I return to the whitework alphabet. But goodness me, embroidery doesn’t half make you realise how little natural light there is on a January day! So it’s embroidery till 4pm and then knitting. Perfect!
6 Comments
Even before four o’clock is sometimes too dark for embroidery in this house. Thank heavens for my craft light!
I like the little cardigan. It’s a nice, cheery colour, and the dainty little buttons set it off beautifully.
It’s good you are happy with your craft light. My husband bought me a light with a magnifying mirror and we have several other very good lamps but I still prefer hand sewing in natural daylight.
I like the green too, Rachel – and it was a lovely bright colour to knit – day or night!
Perfect buttons indeed, and such a nice smallest size surprise on the spring green sweater. I see what you mean about the embroidery temptation, and agree that washing practicality takes precedence.
ceci
Glald you like the buttons, Ceci. Now I’m going to have to chose the wool and pattern in order to use the set of ladybird buttons and also the blue and white ones that look like chips of one’s favourite pottery! It comes to something when the buttons dictate the knitting!
I have allways had a “thing” about good buttons. They can make an outfit. These ones are so pretty and really set off the perfect knitted present. The Button Queen is another online resource for all sorts of buttons which I have often used.
Me too, Nella. I know the Button Queen well and remember that first shop on Marylebone Lane. I’d never thought of it being online though, so, thank you for telling me this.