POTD: Puerperium Cardigan

Finally the Sun Shines!!!!! Happy Monday Everyone!!! Hope you are all well, and today because the sun is shining I'm sharing my most favourite pattern for baby clothes, and then we can move on to other things to knit- I promise!! I have knit three of these so far, and I really think there will be another in due course. They are so easy and make the cutest little cardy!!!

Puerperium is designed for little ones, about 8lbs-11lbs. However every time I knit this I get a different size. I have knit it on the recommended 4mm needles twice, one in Mirage DK- a cotton yarn, and in Trentino- an acrylic yarn. The cotton one is bigger because of the yarn, but both are really cute and I guarantee that with 5 siblings between us we are bound to have a little one that will fit each one.

This is the Mirage DK version, with some red buttons from my stash. You use circulars and stitch markers like the other knits and it is so quick and fab. The one below is made from Trentino and again some buttons from my stash.

I've also knit this pattern on 4.5mm needles using pink Bambino, and it has made a bigger cardigan and it is very snuggly too.

I seriously cannot recommend this pattern enough. It is so simple to knit, cute and makes a great little knit for anyone expecting. If you only knit one pattern of all of these baby knits, knit this one.

Come back tomorrow because it will be the start of my competition!!! I have two prizes to win and I am really excited, and I hope you will all come and take a chance at winning!!

YOTD: Peter Pan Sweetheart

Hi Everyone!! Hope we are all doing well. Thanks to my lovely Ladies over on Rav, I am going to get better at this reviewing malarky, and they have given me so many tips on what they want to know about their yarn and their knits that hopefully I can be the best reviewer on the web- then (pay attention yarn companies) I can get sent lots of free yarn!! Oh, and be incredibly useful to knitters everywhere!!!!

So todays YOTD is Peter Pan Sweetheart. Now the 2 particular balls I started with were gifted to me by my mum. Where I say gifted, I mean she really didnt like it. But I'll go into that later. Lets start with the essentials. A 50g ball will afford you 158 yrds and its tension over 10cm is 22sts x 31 rows on 4mm needles. This is another DK yarn, and it is a 45% cotton 55% acrylic blend. A ball of this will cost you about £3-£3.10 depending on where you find it.

Now this yarn is soft, but I am just not a fan. It is designed primarily for babies, and Peter Pan are normally my staple baby yarn but this is just not my favourite. As you can see from the swatch above the stitch definition is a bit off, its splitty and it kinda pulls as you knit it. (Watch out for all those technical terms there!!) It is soft, but not in a dreamy baby sort of way, it has a bit of a scratch to it. It blocks quite nicely, and does become softer with blocking. As you can see from below, I knit some lace with it, which is the ultimate test for blocking and it did come out quite nicely. It is machine washable, on 30, which is always a bonus. I am torn really on whether or not to like it or not.

Now I didn't buy this yarn so the major question is going to be would I? If I am totally honest, No. I just wasn't a fan. I found it too splitty and the stitch definition wasnt perfect enough for me for such a smooth yarn. The same reason it found its way into my stash in the first place. For the just under a ball I have left, I will probably use it for something Im not so bothered about keeping, maybe bibs, small hats or washcloths. I wish I could tell you all I love it, and rave about it, but above anything with this reviewing I want to be honest.

All the colours in this particular yarn are solid colours, and the one above is called Dove (1607). It is a bluey grey and is a nice colour for anyone. The colour hasn't run on washing and it seems to have retained its colour well. There are seven colours available in the range at the moment, and along with Dove, there are Primrose (1604) which is a pale yellow/cream, Blush (1603) which is a very baby pink, Poppy (1608) which is a bright red, Mallow (1605) which is a pale lilac, Cloud (1602) which is a pale baby blue and Atlantic (1606) which is a deep blue (not bright, just a dark blue).

Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow, and as always, your comments are always welcome, and thankyou all for reading and enjoying!!

YOTD: Patons Mirage DK

So yesterday's post went down well, so I am going to continue YOTD and hopefully you will find it useful!!

Today's yarn is Patons Mirage DK. (No, I'm not sponsored by Patons either, just remembered that yesterdays was a Patons yarn too- tomorrows will be different I promise!) Mirage is a 50% Cotton 50% Bamboo Viscose yarn, and knits to DK. You get 120m/131yrds on your 50g ball, and a 50g ball is around £3.90 a ball. I bought this ball in John Lewis at Bluewater, and fortunately found it in the odd ball bin, and found 4 at the end of a dye lot. I paid £1.75 a ball.

Patons Mirage DK comes in 10 different colourways, and each one is a mix of colours. The colourway I have is called Bright Blue Mix (shade 00082) and in the colourway is red, dark blue, light sky blue, white and green. As you knit through the ball more and more colours arise. This is great if you are knitting a one piece item, but for me, I just cannot have sleeves that don't match so I had to roll some off a ball to get the right pattern on the sleeves. Luckily I had spares. You can see the colours best in the cardigan I knit below. It is the Puerperium Cardigan which can be found on Ravelry. 

The yarn could be described as splitty, as it is quite a soft yarn, but it is nice and knits up well, the stitch definition is good. It is machine washable and again dry flat. I still recommend this for all knits, dry them flat, and lay them out, they will thank you and always keep in good shape. I was happy with this yarn, and I was surprised with the number of colours as you go through the ball, and if you have a one ball knit, then this is a great yarn. Due to my inability to have unmatching fronts or sleeves on a cardy or item, the striping was too irregular for my liking. Love the yarn, not sure I'd buy it again.

There are 9 other colours available in this particular yarn, some are very light and delicate colours and some are much more bright. Alongside my blue mix above, there are three other bright mixes. Jamaica (86) is purple, black and yellow and Exotic (80) is blue, pink, yellow and orange. Sea Mix (89) is another of the brighter shades and features many shades of blue, from a navy to a light sky blue. The rest are lighter mixes, much more muted colours. Soft Blue Mix (85) is pretty much as it says on the tin, various shades of light blues and yellows. Soft Pink Mix (83) is light shades of pink, yellow and grey. Purple Mix (84) is light shades of purple, green and blue. Lemon Mix (90) is pink and yellow and again a very light shade. Natural Mix (91) is made up of shades of light browns and greys, and lastly Violet Mix (88) is a mix of light purple, blues and greens. (Again Deramores is a great place to see the swatches for these colours, maybe if I mention them enough they might send me yarn- is that wishful thinking?!?!?!!)

I was very lucky to get to go to John Lewis yesterday too and found more bargains in their odd ball bin. As you probably know, I tend to only knit one or two ball knits, because I get a bit bored!!! This makes an odd ball bin a wonder to me. I will be sharing lots more as I knit them up.

I hope to get a YOTD every day, but because I want to knit them up first to give you all the best idea of how they knit up, the stitch definition and all the colours I own in that particular yarn it might take me more than a day.

Please please let me know if they are useful, or if there are any other things you want me to add to my reviews that would be useful to you