More puerperium love, with a twist

I have made the puerperium cardigan many times. It is my go to newborn cardi. I can't help myself. I'm a sucker for a raglan sleeve and a quick knit. And any opportunity to have cute buttons is always a plus. 

But I like to play with things I'm familiar with. I usually use a recipe once or twice and follow it exactly as written. Then I can get a bit more creative with it. 

What I did in this instance was to change the sleeve on the cardigan to a short, ribbed sleeve. 



Here's how I did it, should you wish to do the same. 

When you pick up the stitches underneath the armhole to do the arms, pick up 5 stitches to make it 36 stitches in the round.

Then knit in rib, k2,p2. Do so in the round until the cuff measures about 2-3 cm. Cast off in pattern.

TA-DA! Ribbed short sleeved cuff. I think it looks cute and means that I was able to knit this cardi with just one ball of the yarn. The lovely alpaca yarn from Drops. 

Enjoy!





Raveled here.

My third Washi - a tale of a dress that has many iterations

I am an enthusiastic sewer of things. That is sew er, as opposed to sewer where the toilet waste goes. I didn't have a sewing machine here for a long time and it was only when TWO was almost 1 year old that I got one. 

I am also prone to my belly blowing up like a balloon due to eating the wrong foods. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) has been the bane of my Swedish existence. Starting some six to eight months after I moved here, I had a stomach that would range from the normal "fitting into my clothes from the start of the day to the end" to "not fitting because I looked about six months pregnant" with all the contained gases. I would also regularly have horrible attacks which would leave me feeling incredibly sick and sorry for myself. The phrase 'peeing out of my arse while feeling like I want to vomit copiously' comes to mind. Really rather unpleasant.

As a result of the unpredictable (until recently) nature of the size of my gut, I have spent a goodly amount of time looking for clothing that compensates and allows for a variable gut size. The washi dress from made by rae is one such item that came to my attention as perfect for those days when I was blown up like the aforementioned balloon.

It is also a great "all you can eat" dress, which also compensates for overconsumption of delicious food.

I have made three washis in total thus far and have plans for at least four more. The first two followed the basic pattern appropriately and I made a size M which worked well. But I wanted a stretchy one for the summer. 

So here's what I did to alter it and how it ended up.

I made a S size rather than a M to allow for the extra ease/stretch in a knit fabric. I then lowered the neckline a bit and took up the shoulders about an inch. This is mostly because I am quite short between my shoulders and bustline and I had problems with the armholes being a bit low. I added a couple of rows of extra shirring on the back to avoid a puffy top section of the back of the dress. 

I also used some cheap remnant fabric that I picked up at my local fabric store, so I wasn't wasting expensive knit fabric on what was a (hopefully wearable) muslin. So the stripes aren't exactly straight everywhere, but I'm still pretty pleased with how it worked out. 

I hope you can see that I'm a bit happy with it and a couple of close ups to see the details of the neckline. I just finished the edges by folding them over and sewing them down. I think next time I might use some vliesofix to make it a bit more sturdy. 

Enjoy!