baby blanket or table cloth ?

At last I finished this baby blanket (started in July), pattern from Brooklyn Tweed. I intend to give it to a lady working with me. She expects her first born in about two weeks time - that's if the little girl decides to make her appearence on time.

I am not an experienced knitter and struggled quite a bit. But it was also a great learning process, especially to interperate such a pattern. Now, afterwards I discovered one or two tiny mistakes. ( I have an urge to knit this again sometime in future).

This could also do as table cloth - I have a vague memory of a grandmother having a knitted or crochet table cloth adorning their table - oooh . . . that was more than 40 years ago.

designer wear and white roses . . .

My version of the Mariniére pattern that Julija e-mailed me a while ago. I knitted the pattern but left out the palet in front and added a little bead to bind the two pieces. The garment is knitted in a 100% cotton yarn, namely Vinnis colours – Nikkim. According to the label the yarn is hand dyed and balled by women from an economically "depressed" rural area of South Africa. The colour is Lavender. It is double knit and knitted with 4mm needles.

It wears very comfortable and because of the hand dye the garment has a marbled effect (the second photo's tone seems more accurate than that of the first one).

By the way . . . it is mid November, the sun is supposed to shine and it is supposed to be hot here south of the Sahara. But the opposite is true - its raining, its cold and snow is forcast for the Southern Drakensberg.

The weather seems to affect even the roses - have a look at this iceberg - under normal circumstances it would be pure white . . .

splatterings of colour . . .

Beauty of the pelargonium - photo taken early morning through the window while raining, complements of unusually late winter rains in early summer.

sewing weekend . . .

The first weekend in a long long time I spent time just sewing, preparing some easy meals and sewing again.

Trousers for myself in white linen - easy sewing, it fits nicely, wears comfortably.

A apron splattered top to wear with the trousers, but unfortunately not my style. It does not suit my frame - to bulky (the top!). I would need something more tailored, I presume.

A nearby shot of the print Lize assisted me to stencil the splatters on the fabric. I thought it would look better on me, but oh no, not quite - the style seems to remain the main problem.

And lastly Lize liked this fabric. I made a flair skirt to reach just above the ankles, but she wanted it shortened. She prefers it above the knee to wear with her ballet leotard. A very happy colour coded girl . . .