Do you remember I said I had a load of stuff to finish before I started anything? Well I did finish a couple of them and then realised I should get on with two different new baby presents so rather than the big pile of too much yarn diminishing it now has grown by several colours. They are lovely colours and I did think about putting on photo of a heap of wool but I thought that would spoil the surprise so you’ll just have to wait until I’ve finished those to see them.

I had a plan in the back of my head for a stripy jumper for Tiny a while ago but I was being good and not buying any more wool for a while and then a friend who was having a tidy up of her stash gave me some bright blue aran that she said wasn’t enough for a whole jumper for her grandchildren but it might do one for one of mine (children not grandchildren). When I suggested to Tiny that perhaps she might like a blue jumper she had clearly remembered the conversation from a month or two ago about stripes and was quite insistent about it and Small seems quite keen on the bright blue. I had a think about it and realised that I have several ends of balls of aran left from various jumpers so I could do her the striped jumper out of those and probably have enough left for a blue one for Small if it had a different coloured pattern on the yoke or maybe blue and green stripes because I have most of a 400g ball of green left as well.

So here is the beginning of a stripy jumper which I started at the weekend. I had forgotten how fast children’s clothes are, especially in big yarn, I haven’t made any for at least six months! I’m not sure why I am knitting it now because I am having to guess how much she will grow before it gets cold again but we are going camping in the holidays so perhaps she will need it then – August, cold and dank and wet, brings more rain than any yet. The pattern is called Fiver and is a free one on the Love Knitting blog. There isn’t a really clear picture of a child standing up wearing it so I’m not sure if it is meant to be short but the length they gave for the 4 year old size wouldn’t reach down to Tiny’s belly button even the size she is now so I have added about five inches to the given length in an attempt to cover up the almost permanent builder’s bum. I’m not too sure whether the colours really go together but she seems to like it and we’ll be able to see her coming a mile off – on a scale of one to Smarties-before-they-changed-to-natural-colours it is really a notch or two brighter than it looks in the photo!