
Regency Blossom by Ruth End ( a Cheltenham square in Spring)
Yes, it’s another outing for one of my very favourite knitting patterns. Why look for novelty when something ticks all the required boxes for a successful children’s jumper ? It’s not as if they’ve all been knitted for the same individual, which might be a bit sad, though I now I come to think of it I could live with that – each in a different colour and each with a different Fair Isle pattern! Umm tempting. Multiple buying of the same thing certainly works with shoes for me – I’ve never looked back since I discovered how well Skechers footwear fit and now I have boots and shoes for all weathers and (most) occasions, some of which I’ve been able to walk out of the shop wearing which had never happened before. But, back to the jumper; I know recipients’ mothers love this pattern too and even ask for repeats – in fact daughter No 1 would like a repeat for the smallest person, who at 4 years old is well beyond the maximum size for the pattern. I shall have a go but it will take a furrowed brow and much pencil chewing during the scaling up.

Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino Bk 3 Polo shirt
However … after my sixth knitting of this jumper I came late to the realisation that the 4 balls the pattern required for size 18-24 months was not enough. At least 5 balls of yarn were needed and possibly 6. By the time I came to jumper number seven, I initially forgot this (having made no note on the pattern) but those 4 balls in the chosen colour suddenly looked too few and out of caution I thought it a good idea to go for contrasting collar, placket, cuffs and bottom ribbing. Before starting number 8, I had 4 whole balls and most of a fifth but I still needed to use another colour for the collar. The next thing I do will be to annotate the pattern accordingly…

Detail: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino Bk 3 Polo shirt
It’s daughter No 1’s birthday today. My birthday phone call caught her in the car on the way to (or from) the council tip offloading rubbish while at the same time giving her younger sister driving practice, which is one way to spend your birthday. She knows I shall be making her a botanical wall hanging – which I haven’t yet even started let alone finished – but the older I get the more I realise you really shouldn’t let the birthdays of those you’re close to go by without sending them something, possibly something small but it must certainly be something lovely. With all the current pandemic emphasis on washing hands, we’ve turned our backs on liquid soap in plastic bottles and gone back to old fashioned bars of the stuff. Pears soap is one of our favourites but, as I pass Cologne and Cotton several times a week, I seem to have accumulated several really pretty boxes of their finest soaps. Now I know why for they make the nicest of special but not inordinately expensive presents. Happily daughter No 1 loved them and even said “they were just what she wanted”. Now the pinkest of pink boxes sits on a shelf in the pinkest of pink loos and all those little hands can come to the dinner table clean and rose perfumed. (Although I’m not sure the children have mastered the art of using soap to wash their hands without simultaneously flooding the floor and the soap shooting out of their hands into the most inaccessible parts of the room.!)

Detail: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino Bk 3 Polo shirt
The lovely weather of Easter has given way to duller and colder days. This year blossom seems to have been early, to have been battered about at its peak and so has not lasted very long. Forty plus years ago when I went into hospital to have daughter No 1, there was little hint of spring anywhere. Four days later, I went home with new life not only in my arms but all around me. In those few days trees had erupted with billowy blossoms, garden plants unfurled bright petals and green was lime rather than khaki of later in the year. Such a nice time to be born. Ruth End has captured the season beautifully in the picture at the tope of this piece. It sits on my bookshelves through the year and reminds me that winter will pass. My husband having just had his second jab, reminds us that other things should get better too.

Swatch Fair Isle sample (Mary Jane Mucklestone: 200 Fair Isle Designs. Design 194, p.192)
Note to self: Knitting pattern:Fair Isle Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino Bk 3 Polo shirt. Fair Isle pattern : Mary Jane Mucklestone: 200 Fair Isle Designs. Design 194, p.192). Yarn Baby Cashmerino Navy (008) and Kingfisher (072)