Addison Embroidery
at the
Vicarage

Debbie Bliss jacket with moss stitch band knitted in Sublime Baby Cashmere Merino Silk (Silver)

Little Xanthe was born early Thursday morning and took us all by surprise for being a girl. (The nurse operating a recent scan had suggested mother and father look away at a certain point if they didn’t want to know the sex of the baby, and well, after that we all assumed one thing… ) But what a delightful surprise! As yet little Xanthe is very contented and peaceful, so fingers crossed this sweet disposition will continue.

Debbie Bliss jacket with moss stitch band knitted in Sublime Baby Cashmere Merino Silk (Silver)

Nothing is more chic than a little unstructured Chanel jacket with patterned banding around neck, hem and cuffs, even if you are only a matter of hours old. After my recent passion for coloured knitting and Fair Isle patterning, handling the shawls shown in the previous post reminded me I hadn’t made this new little baby anything even vaguely whitish and when I saw the Debbie Bliss pattern for this simple classic jacket I was hooked. The moss stitch borders in particular attracted me and I enjoyed the way the front band segued into the neck edge.

Debbie Bliss jacket with moss stitch band knitted in Sublime Baby Cashmere Merino Silk (Silver)

It was a very satisfying piece of knitting, although a couple of aspects of the pattern made me stop and chew on my needle.  After knitting the moss stitch band, the cuffs looked much too narrow, so I undid what I’d done and cast on again with an additional 5 stitches. Even now, with the garment finished I still think the cuffs look too tight and should I make the jacket again I would add a further 5 stitches at least (10 or more in total). You can always roll the cuffs up a bit if they’re a bit roomy. I was also not very keen on the tiny buttonholes, which take a bit of scrutiny to find.  I’m not sure Xanthe’s dad will work out where they are  as the requisite two stitches knitted together followed by yarn forward  scarcely causes a visible hiccough in the pattern. Does anyone have any favourite way of making buttonholes?

Debbie Bliss jacket with moss stitch band knitted in Sublime Baby Cashmere Merino Silk (Silver)

The pattern called for DB’s baby cashmerino but I as I had her Sublime Baby Cashmere Merino silk I wanted to use, I did a tension square and was pleased that it knitted up as required. It is a lovely yarn – 75% extra fine merino wool, 20% silk and 5% cashmere and a joy to knit with. Although a bit more expensive – I think I paid about £6.25 a ball in Loop –  I only needed 2 balls.

Xanthe comes from the Greek for yellow. I did try yellow buttons on this little cardigan but the plain mother-of-pearl looked so much nicer. There’s only one thing to do – get the needles out and make another little jacket in primrose this time!

Xanthe (not quite a week old) in her new cardigan

Hand knitted lacey woollen baby shawl

Great is the joy at discovering the moths had not feasted on these baby shawls. Made nearly 40 years ago by by first husband’s grandmother before she fell and fractured her wrist – which put paid to the knitting – they tumbled out of the least careful of packing as springy and bouncy of stitch as when they were first made. A little yellower perhaps and with stain here and there but just as gorgeous to touch and pleasing to look at. I suspect that I may never have washed them, fearful that I would never have  cajoled them back to their proper shape.

Hand knitted lacey baby shawl

Hand knitted lacey woollen shawl

Well, you really can’t wrap a newborn baby in half a life of grime, so I filled the (well cleaned) sink with coolish water and dollops of Eucalan, gave the soaking mass a swirl and went off, leaving it to stew for 20 minutes or so. On return the staining looked horribly visible so I reached for Ecover, my usual clothes washing liquid  and dripped it on neat, directly on to the offensive patches. This seemed to be more effective, especially when followed up by a gentle rub with a bar of Vanish. (So many products!) I then covered the spare bed (double) with layers of towels and laid out each shawl in turn on this absorbent bed, smoothing the body of the shawl and tweaking the edges gently until they looked a good shape. The towels had the unforeseen benefit of providing a bit of grip for the knitting, rater like a bed of velcro. With heat from sun through the window and a bit of a boost from the highest heat of a small portable radiator, each was well dry by the next morning. Quite perfect.

Hand knitted woollen baby shawl

We are all really pleased at how good they look and how soft they still feel. They were always ‘the best knitting’ and kept away from day to day babycare – another workaday one did that. Great granny became very keen on the then newish french yarns which had more artificial fibres mixed with wool. The white was a bit too bright and the yarn had a different feel to it, but the pattern was simple with few fancy holes for baby fingers to get caught in and by Jove, it didn’t half wash well and determinedly kept its shape without too much fussing around in the manner above! I even came to love this workhorse of a dutiful garment. This too has been washed and despatched for a new user – but it will be the 3 year old  as his mother felt the inherited goods needed sharing round a bit.

Hand knitted woollen baby shawl

Now nearly 2 weeks overdue, daughter No 1 is off to hospital today for induction to begin.

Hand knitted woollen baby shawl