The rest of the stock for the store

My shop is Previewing now and Going live on Sunday 22nd June at 8pm Brisbane time. Now I have finally got it all up I have a chance to Blog about the rest of the stock I have finished.

Here are some pics, I'll leave the descriptions out, you can check them out in my store if you are interested :)

Newborn Longies Sets

Blue Fish colourway from The Yarn Cafe with co-ordinated Blue Steel Treliske

Turkish Delight 3ply Worsted Merino with purple Treliske co-ordinate.

Vest

Walker Vest (12-18 Months) Uses 12ply Polwarth Merino in the Walker colourway from The Yarn Cafe and 3plt Worsted for the Green trim.

Dresses
This is another one I've finished as an in-stock items for the shop. I also have 2 semi-custom dresses I am offering.

Hearts Dress (12-18 Months) Kundalini and Raindrops WOOLganic Organic Merino for the bodice and trim. Black 4BF Merino for the skirt of the dress.

Berry Beanie's

Raspberry Berry Beanie (infant size) Uses Blossom and Kyoto WOOLganic Merino.


Blueberry Berry Beanie (infant size) Uses Leura and Kyoto WOOLganic Merino.

Grape berry Beanie - Kundalini and Kyoto WOOLganic Organic Merino.

Curly Purly Soaker

Size Large made from Aran BFL in the Black Dahlia colourway from Jolly Jumbuck.

Seamless Baby Kimono

6-12 Months. Made from DK BFL in Merman and Treliske in matching Turquoise from The Yarn Cafe.

Stock for the shop opening

I have chosen a name for my shop: StitchyMama Handknits. Big news here is that I am now licensed to sell Curly Purly Soakers and use the waistband on longies/shorties. Very exciting!!! I have also decided to place my shop at Yarn Collective. I will be opening in June sometime. I'll keep the Blog updated with opening dates when known.

Here is my Logo:

Finished Projects for the shop:

I have been knitting up some stock for the opening over the last couple of weeks. Here are some piccies:

Rainbow Tweed TiKKi Dress and Beanie
This dress and beanie were knit using Jolly Jumbuck Demeter (Treliske) in the colourway Rainbow Tweed and Pink Tweed. I used 4mm needles for the dress and 3mm and 4mm needles for the beanie. The dress is knit in the 3-6 month size and the beanie is 38cm circumference to for a bubs 3-9 months old. The hem of the dress was finished with an i-cord bind-off and both are embellished with i-cord flowers.

Ocean Dreams Curly Purly Soaker
This soaker was knit using the large size of the Curly Purly soaker pattern and uses Yarn Cafe Aran BFL in the Ocean Dreams colourway. I used 3mm, 4mm and 5mm needles to complete it.

Misty Morning TiKKi Dress
This 0-3 month size TiKKi dress was knit using some Yarn Cafe Treliske in the Misty Morning colourway. I used 4mm needles and embellished the dress with a garter stitch hem and a knitted flower on the bodice. I am thinking of knitting a matching shrug in light purple for this one.

Custom Orders:

I have also been working on the two custom orders I have atm. Here is the first one. It is a Black TiKKi dress in a size 1 (to fit a 52cm chest). It is knit on 4mm needles with Patons Merino Totem in Black and is embellished with flowers using Enchanted Eggplant DK BFL.

I initially knitting this dress with some 4BF I dyed up. Unfortunately the first 150g batch had so many breaks that about 50g was useless to me. I dyed up another 90g but unfortunately the colour turned out a glossy black while the old lot was more of a matt black. No amount of overdying could rectify the problem so I ended up starting over with some yarn from Lincraft. I knit the customer a Meanthead Hat as a gift to say sorry for taking so log. This was knit using Cleckheaton Gusto 10 on 10mm needles and embellished with a flower same as on the dress.

The other custom I am working on is using some BFL I dyed myself. It is a pair of large Curly Purly soakers. I am really happy with the way the dye up has turned out, here is the first of the pair:

Free Pattern - Mistake Rib Neck Warmer

I decided to make a pattern up for a neck warmer today. I've made it in Mistake Rib pattern to match the Mistake Rib Beanie by Kniterati. I have permission to knit the beanie pattern so I am going to make beanie and scarf sets for the shop using these patterns.
I've listed it as a free Ravelry download

Here's some piccies:

April Knitting

New developments:
I have decided to open a WAHM shop to sell my knitted clothing for NB-2year bubbies. I will be selling from another blog I have set up to start with and later joining one of the WAHM Malls. I will be selling in-stock items as well as offering customs for some items. I will be stocking TiKKi dresses, Seamless Baby Kimono's and Seamless Kimono Sweater's using Jacki's pattern, some round neck sweaters and sweater dresses I am working on atm (based on another Raveler's patterns with her consent) Wooly Weaver longies and shorties, Curly Purly soakers (and the waistband option for longies/shorties) and items from my own patterns ie shrugs, baby jackets, Swing Coats and Vests. I may also stock the occasional scarf and beanie sets for children.

Custom Orders:

Atm I have a couple of custom orders I am working on. I am working on a couple of soakers for a friend also with some BFL Aran I dyed up. I am in the process of getting a license for Curly Purly Soakers and waistbands. This is the pattern I will be using for these soakers once approval has come though. Here is the dye job for this custom.

I call the variegated colourway Siberian Tiger as it was inspired by an iron-on transfer I have of some tigers with their beautiful white, grey and black coats and vibrant blue eyes.

The other custom is a TiKKI dress in the 1 year size. This will be all black with a picot hem and some variegated flowers around the bottom. here is a progress pic of what I have done so far:

On the Needles:

Night Rainbow Peace Longies

I am making these for DD using a pattern written by one of me fellow Woolaholics members Candice. I am one of the test knitters for her pattern. I am using part of my Easter Yarn Swap from Suey - the Blackberry Ridge yarn in the Night Rainbow colourway from Monster Knits. I also ordered 50g of 3ply worsted in black to use for the waistband and cuffs. I can't wait to get these finished, it has turned decidedly cold here and for little DD doesn't have any longies, only soakers.

Finished Projects for April:

Seamless Baby Shrug
This is a pattern I designed myself. This shrug was the first, the prototype if you may. I knit it in the 6-12 month size for my DD in some Dashing I had dyed deep purple. The pattern is currently being test-knit for me by some friends from Ravelry. I will be making these for the shop and if the pattern is good enough I will also be selling that at a later stage.
Here are some piccies of the shrug in action on DD. Sorry about the face blurring, I can't bear the thought of photo's of her loose on the internet.

Lillypilly TiKKi Dress
This dress was made using some 4BF I dyed and some 8ply Superwash Live2Knit in the 'Lillypilly' colourway. I used 4mm needles and TiKKi's Rainbow dress pattern in my adapted 9-12 month size. I added a picot hem to the bottom and a picot flower to the bodice. I've also added a piccie of the dress worn by my DD. These little dresses are so good for all year round. They look really cute with leggings and a skivvy underneath in winter and a singlet and soaker in summer. I'm going to try one in cotton when Summer comes round too.

Lillypilly Picot Seamless Kimono and Picot Beanie
This Kimono was inspired by two patterns, Louisa Hardings 'Harvey Kimono' and Jacki's 'Seamless Baby Kimono'. Basically I painstakingly melded the two patterns together, using Jacki's seamless top down approach and the stitch counts and shaping from the Harvey Kimono. I used the Live2Knit 8ply Superwash Lauren in the Lillypilly colourway and 4.5mm needles for this project. This is knit the 12 month size for Cady for this winter.

The beanie is made using the Louisa Harding 'Beanie Hat' pattern (adapted to be knit in the round) in the 12 month size.

Tannenbaum NB Seamless Sweater and NB Beanie
This has been made for my sisters bub, due in August. I used Yarn Cafe 4BF in the Tannenbaum colourway and some Treliske in Chocolate. The pattern used was Jacki's Seamless Kimono Sweater in an adapted newborn size and I used 4.5mm needles. I further adapted the pattern to make it more boyish by continuing the eyelet lace around the entire neckline, excluding the mid-section tie and adding a strip of Chocolate to both the bottom of the body and the arms. I also adapted the arm shaping.
The beanie was knit with the same size needles and same yarn using a pattern I found at Knitting on the Net. I adapted this pattern for 8ply yarn and a 34cm head.

March - The Start of the Winter Knitting

Some Special Custom Fluffy Mail from Cherubs Kiss

The lovely Lesley made this wool cover up for me based on some fabric I got from the US. I will be making some summer dresses to go over this at the end of the year. It goes wonderfully under the Stormchild Dress as well.

Yummy Woolly Mail

Here are some pics of the lovely woolly mail I have recieved from JJ and The Knittery in the last few weeks

On the Needles:

Enchanted Eggplant Rainy Day Scarf

I am making this using a pattern I found on Ravelry called 'Rainy Day Scarf'. I am using my xmas gift from DH, some JJ Bertha in the Enchanted Eggplant colourway. I have altered the pattern slightly to improve the edgings but it is proving to be a really easy knit.

Purple Night Branching Out

I have been wanting to make one of these for a long time and finally had an excuse to do it. The Knittery had a sale on their Silk Merino 8ply and I thought it would be erfect for the job. It is harder going than I thought it would be. It is my first lace project and it takes alot of concentration to make sure it is correct. I have been frogging nearly as much asI have been knitting on this one LOL. I don't think I will be getting this one done quickly.

Cherry Ripe Beanie

This beanie I am making for DH as an anniversay present. It is our 7th wedding anniversary on the 14th April so I am trying to get in early and get it done ahead of time. I am knitting this beanie using the Jaques Cousteau Hat pattern I found on ravelry. I am using 3.5mm needles and the BWM 8ply I dyed in the Cherry Ripe colourway. I have done about 3 inches so far, should be finished in a couple of days.

Finished Projects for March:

Turquoise Retro Prince Shorties
These are going to be for my little nephew coming sometime in August. They are knitted on 3mm and 5mm needles using the Picky Pants pattern. I used Aran BFL 'Athena' in the Retro Prince colourway with some matching Turquoise. I will embellish these at a later date, probably with some dog paws or the like.

Galah NB Cardi

I made this using Jacki's Seamless Baby Kimono pattern for a Woolaholics KAL. I used some JJ Pear Tree Merino 8 ply in Emily Rose colourway and some Treliske I dyed to match. This was a quick, fun knit and I will definately be knittng more of them.

Flower detail

Neckline Detail

I-cord Tie detail

Stormchild Dress

I made this out of 4BF Yarn Cafe wool in the Stormchild colourway. I also used a miniskein of Treliske in purple for the bodice and the skirt trim. I think it turned out lovely and it fits DD perfectly. Looks great with a skivvy and leggings underneath.

Front

Back

Days of Dyeing

I signed up for the Easter Yarn Swap in our Ravelry group this month. Because of this I have been experimenting with various methods of handpainting/handdyeing yarn. My first couple of attempts were shocking but I learnt more as I kept trying. Luckily I didn't use any black so I could overdye anything I stuffed too :)

My first attempt: 125g of BWM Colonial 8 ply. I was trying to get this to be sea blue and dark brown. It was looking really good until I went to pick it up. One of the blue patches then immediately went brown and I was left with only one small blue patch left. Yep, you guessed right I didn't mop up any excess dye and used WAY too much. I tried to save this by overdyeing using the kettle stovetop method with red. It ended up a semi-solid browny mauve colour, not very interesting. My last attempt to save this yarn was successful, I found a mens beanie pattern that needed over 100g of yarn and decided to try and overdye in the microwave with the darkest manly colours I could. I ended up with sections of dark chocolate, milk chocolate, burgundy and cherry red. I call it Cherry Ripe.

Brown -Mauve colour

Cherry Ripe
I had been kettle dyeing a solid skein to match the original brown/blue combo a lovely blue colour. It turned out great but with nothing to be used with I figured I should overdye it in a more useful colour. I first attempted to handpaint sections of it in purple. These ran so I ended up overdying the whole lot using the kettle method with the same dark purple.

A bit depressed with my dyeing ability I then skeined my last ball of BWM into 100g lots. I used the handpaint method with the microwave, dividing the sections of colour and soaking up the excess dye as I went. These turned out much better:

Left to right: 1st attempt (Brown-mauve semisolid), 3rd and 4th attempts at handpainting, 2nd attempt (blue with overdyed sections of purple)

Left to right: Seaside (3rd attempt), Purple Berries (4th attempt),

Dark purple solid (2nd attempt overdyed)

Flushed with my success with the 3rd and 4th attempt I decided to try using my precious 200g of 4BF. I divided it up into 140g for a variegated colourway and 60g for a co-ordinating solid. I was trying for a dark purple, mid purple and deep red combo, with a dark purple solid to match. The colours turned out the depth I wanted but there are white patches throughout. Unfortunately I ran out of the mid purple dye so I have to wait until this arrives to fix it up.

Purple Night

Dark purple solid

I decided to also try my hand at kettle dyeing variegated yarn. I was trying for a semi-solid red/pink combo with this attempt. Unfortunately I did it in two batches so the first 100g are as I wanted but the second 100g is more of a solid colour. I've since worked out that it is really hard to replicate colourways using this method as they run if there is too much water in the pot. I'm going to try with another 100g to get the variegated colourway again soon.

Strawberry Semi-solid set

My last dyeing attempt was on some pale green Dashing I had. I wanted to replicate the Seaside colourway I had done previously on the BWM and do a 50g skein in a co-ordinating green to match. It worked pretty well :)

Seaside Skeined

Seaside Colourway on Dashing

This is what I ended up sending Tanya for my contribution to the Easter Yarn Swap. Along with some choccies as well of course!