Introducing BP

In the middle of what has been a slightly hassly week at work (crises all of my own making) I had a wonderful day trip to the big city to see my brand new baby niece:



I was running rather later than intended so didn't have much time to sample the yarn delight of London. However, I did manage to snaffle a few balls of Jaeger Matchmaker 4-ply in John Lewis (there's still plenty left guys) to make a top for me and a cardigan (or something) for BP.

As it turned out my timing was perfect as BP had just been got up and changed as I arrived and was then awake and doing cute baby stuff and being very very good for the rest of my visit - she's a total charmer.

I'm not sure that Elijah really enjoyed his trip to London..



..but he looks much happier now:





He wasn't quite ready in time for me to present to BP on Wednesday (still missing most of one ear) but I finished knitting on the bus on the way home and he's waiting to be sent off as soon as I#ve taken the photos for my competition entry.

WIP - Elijah

I got in some good progress on Elijah whilst watching the final episodes of Heroes (season 1) with Ellen and Helen last night. It's not at all suitable viewing for a young elephant - lucky he's not got ears or eyes yet then!

I'm very much enjoying this pattern - the lack of sewing up is a joy and it really uses very little yarn, I may end up with a whole herd of elephants.

Diversions

I'm struggling to stay faithful to the Peacock Feathers shawl at the moment. It's not handy bus knitting due to the long needles it's on so if I want to knit it while travelling the boyfriend has to sit on a different seat which seems a tad anti-social.

Plus there are too many other temptations. I came across Oliver's blanket on the Mason-Dixon blog and discovered that it's actually a UK based project to raise money for equipment* for Oliver - a little boy with cerebral palsy whose mum blogs here. Blanket squares should be knitted from leftover sock yarn (of which I have more than my fair share) and should be 4 inches square. You can send comkpleted squares to Michaela until the end of November. Michaela is making all the squares up into blankets which will be raffled at the end of the year. Kay at Mason-Dixon knitting is also collecting squares for a US blanket.

Oliver's square



Pattern: see here (note the squares are garter stitch. Initially I knit mine in stocking stitch and ended up with more of a rhombus.
Yarn: Fyberspates sock yarn in Ocean Forest
Needles: 2.75mm

Even if you're not knitting for Oliver's blanket this is a great way to make squares more interesting and completely side steps the thorny issue of how many to cast on.

Meanwhile I also succumbed to temptation in the form of a little blue elephant who has been having the most exciting adventures over on Ysolda's blog. The final straw was finding out that Felix was already knitting the pattern and that I had the specified yarn in my stash (that almost never happens).

Introducing Elijah



Pattern: here for the grand sum of £2
Yarn: Rowan RYC Cashsoft baby DK
Needles: 3mm dpn

So far I'm progressing on the head at a steady pace but should speed up once I hit the trunk decreases. I need to hunt out some stuffing too as it's one of those projects where you stuff as you go so he should start looking more like an elephant pretty soon (although first he'll be resembilng a parsnip).

More knitting on Peacock Feathers at the weekend - I promise.

* Example a regular car seat costs around £20-£40, Oliver's costs around £1600!