I have been working away at this project for many weeks. I started the beret as my holiday knitting. Perhaps fair isle is not such a good idea for knitting in the car. It is a present for my great niece, who lives in Ireland, and has just turned one. But having finished the beret I thought it would also be nice to make a matching waistcoat.
Both are now off in the mail, and I am hoping they fit her, and I will get some photos of her wearing them. But until then my model is Clopper, my daughter's toy. Clopper has appeared on this blog once before, when he went on holiday and met a Dartmoor pony. He seemed more or less the right size, although I am sure my niece is not as tubby as him.
Both beret and waistcoat are knitted from a book I bought in a charity shop Bright Knits for Kids by Debbie Bliss. In the pattern the beret was knitted flat with a seam, but I decided to knit it in the round on 4 needles. That was fine for the lower section for which there was a chart, but I may have got slightly muddled at the top, where the instructions were written out with knit and purl rows. I sometimes forgot to convert this, as in the round you are always on a knit row. But I think it looks OK.
I also found adding the buttonband to the waistcoat difficult. It is a little puckered. It shouldn't have been hard, but it is a long time since I have made a garment in this way. Then I accidentally sewed up the side seams, before adding the armhole bands. So instead of unpicking I knitted these in the round as well.
Knitting fair isle is extremely satisfying. The end result is so pretty, but running in all those ends was very hard work.
The school production of Peter Pan is next week. My daughter has the part of Noodler, one of Captain Hook's crew. So I just thought you might like to see her costume. She is wearing one of my blouses, and a handmade waistcoat. I sewed it from a suedette fabric (not real suede). It was not too difficult to fit the metal eyelets. They came with a tool, and you had to bash with a hammer. (Very satisfying.) And the tie is just a really long shoelace. You might also notice that Noodler is wearing a Canadian bandana, but I am hoping that by the time she is on the stage it will give the right effect.
I told her that she looks a bit more medieval serving wench than pirate, but she was very happy with the look. You can't see the bottom half unfortunately, but we found a long pair of boots in a charity shop, to add to the costume.
She turned down my other suggestions. You know the sort of thing: beard, eyepatch, parrot etc. Probably just as well as she has to make a quick change and become a lost boy later in the show, which I forgot to photograph. But maybe I will be able to get some photos at the show.
Thank you for the all the kind messages last week. I am very much recovered, and back to my needles.