Knitting for my Grandduaghter

Finally - Finally - finished ... the vintage style dress. This languished all neglected for a while but I finally bought some buttons (with shiny pearl finish) and dealt with the dilemmas caused by the collar. Thankfully I had knit it rather too large and so it will still fit my little granddaughter, she's 19 mths old now.

I think it'll look even prettier on her :-) it is a combination of 3 very vintage patterns (I think the earliest was from the 1930s) and I dyed the yarn myself - and ran out so I had to dye up some more the same !!! (see my post from March).

Here is a close up of the front bodice & collar


and the back with those buttons (from All Buttons Great & Small in Newtown)











I'm so pleased with how pretty this dress has turned out :-) here's another picture, this time of the skirt with its graduated waves ...

I'm also making a twin-set for my sweet little granddaughter - also vintage inspired but not quite a classic, conservative Twin-Set. The styling will be totally classic; all in 4ply (sock yarn) the jumper with short sleeves, in a lace stitch and with buttons at the back neck - the cardigan with a medium buttoning V neck, mostly stocking stitch with panels of the same lace stitch as the jumper. Very Classic - Very 1950s.

However, the colour is not classic & conservative at all ...
I kettle dyed that yarn too - both the mad, psychadelic purples and the aqua for the dress are Bendigo Woollen Mills "Luxury" 4 ply - originally "Frost" which is white. I dip dyed the purples twice - the first time most of the colours were really quite pallid, so I mixed up more colour and dipped again. Much Stronger Colours!

Well granddaughter looks lovey in all shades of purple and mauve so why shouldn't she have them all at once!

Finished the jumper this morning - here is it in all its eye-popping, digital camera confusing glory!

Purple-icious

I do like The Colour Purple - in all her many shades and variations. There are so many gorgeous purples in nature - from the soft tints of lavender, there's wonderful wisteria (and that mauve contrasts so beautifully with the fresh green of the new leaves), the amazing glow of jacaranda trees in bloom, through to the darker purples of irises and the regal purple of aubergines.

And here are most of those purples - all together on some hand-painted yarn

I handpainted / dyed 2x 200g of Bendigo Woolen Mills "Luxury" 4ply, originally "Cream". I had such a lovely time with all those purples, but I'm not sure how it'll look knitted up (planning a twin-set for my granddaughter) as sometimes a hand-painted yarn with short lengths of colour can look really messy when knitted. But, if I don't like it I can always pop it back in some more dye :-)