Another one finished

I have just finished the baby jacket for baby Charlie but by the time I had sewn it all together and picked up the stitches for the front and hood border it was too dark to take a photo. I had finished all the pieces last night and thought that it would take just an hour or so stitch it together and do the borders. Wrong, It took me ages to get it just right.

The pattern instructions for the knitting have been less than perfect and a novice would have given up a long time ago. The stitching up instructions are practically non existent and a less experienced knitter would never have worked out which way around was the back seam of the hood and which side to sew it to the body. I am not impressed with the bands either I think that they are a bit loose and wavy. I am attempting to correct this with blocking but if I had time I would re-do the bands and pick up at least 10 sts less per front and work them on a finer needle. I guess I am a picky knitter. I won't be rushing to make any more from this book (Chic knits for Stylish Babies by Patricia Wagner)in the future unless the instructions are a lot clearer. Plus patterns in the book only go up to 12 months which means the book has a limited use for babies already here.

I received a surprise in the post today. A pair of Swarovski crystal earrings as a belated birthday present from Jen. I tried to take a photo but they don;t show the purple colour in artificial light (the postman didn't come until the late afternoon) so I will try to take a photo of those tomorrow.

I feel that I am running behind now with my projects as I hadn't expected the jacket to take me so long. On with the crochet Cinnabar tonight I think. I have finished one sleeve but still got the other sleeve, the rest of the body and all the edgings to do. Another late night for me I think!