Nina Kina

A couple of weeks ago I finished the Baby Kina cardigan that I supersized for Nina, so I managed to get all 3 knit before the start of summer which is an fantastic achievement. Nina, most importantly, loves the colour and the soft drapiness of the fabric, and wanted to wear it straight away. Here she is in her Kina, self-styled.

There is a girl's version of this cardigan, which looks to be a little tighter around  the neckline and with more pronounced gathers. Since I was using a different weight yarn to that specified I figured I would have to fudge it a bit either way, and this way I didn't need to pay for the pattern again. If you are interested in my mods check out my Ravelry project page. 

Pimp my Baby Jogger

It is that hot and humid time of year here in Queensland, so I desperately needed cool cotton seat liners for the twins' Baby Jogger City Mini Double, as they were getting so sweaty in it. I found some to buy online here but being the crafty type I decided I should make my own. I didn't really want to wait the 3-4 weeks the website indicates, nor pay almost $100. 

I found this great tutorial on the Floating World blog, took a few measurements and drew up a pattern. The fabrics were purchased from Lindcraft but I couldn't find cotton batting there so I found this great eBay seller and bought it there (also got some toy rattle and squeaker inserts for future knitted toys - I've never seen these anywhere before!). I even pre-washed the fabric. It's not something I normally do (although I know I should) but after a recent shinkage disaster I didn't want to take my chances. Unlike the tutorial, I didn't use binding to finish the edges, but rather sewed it together with right sides facing, turned it in the right way and then top stitched it. 

The tutorial instructs you to make friends with the buttonhole function on your sewing machine. Unfortunately my buttonhole function and I are no longer on speaking terms. After a couple of hours of screaming and swearing I got there in the end, but not before chewing up all of the green cotton I was using, so 12 out of 14 buttonholes are black. 

After the stress of it all, I am very happy with how they turned out. Mind you, next time I might just buy them!