Shhh we won't mention Madrigal. I have had nearly a whole weekend without picking her up. Just an hour last night.
I've been training instead.
Lucy Neatby's Baby Bonnet.
Double knitting with 4ply.
First part of training: the tubular cast on over one needle. There's a You Tube video showing how to do this for those people challenged by drawings who need to see it in action.

That was my second attempt.
The yarn I planned to use for this hat was some bright pink Rowan 4ply soft and newly bought King Cole baby 4ply. This is 100% wool appparantly, but not nice at all to knit with. Not exactly splitty, but more like cotton wool!
Anyone intending to knit this hat pattern should knit the swatch. Not necessarily for tension but to try out the the pattern. It really helps. You knit two tiny i-cords, do a tubular cast on (you can do a long tail one if you want, instructions give details of how to do the set up row) and join the icords at each tnd, then work nine ros or os of the double knit chart (with written out instructins) and striping the icord at each side as you go.
I did one swatch with the not-nice King Cole, and a second swatch with the much-nicer Wollmeise.

Sorry, photos all taken on mobile! And knitting attrocious! I was drinking a lot of wine...
Another advantage of swatching is that you csee how the colours look. I decided I did not want to knit a birght pink and cream hat! Luckily I has some Wollmeise remnants at hand, and did a second swatch (well frogged the colourwork knitting of one of these swatches)


Swatching also pinpointed my 'weaknesses'. I am prone to losing stitches on the I-cord edges, and more than once had to tink back the double knitting, as the stitches bunch together, and I often knitted or purled two by mistake. On one side one colour stitches are looser than any others, but I will correct that now by ensureing that when I have to purl the second stitch in from the edge I give it a tug. And try to loosen up on the i-cord. I tend to knit that tightly, which is also tightening the first stitch on the double knitting. Nut at least I am now set to start this event! Just have to add it to ravelry. It seems to be eligible for several events - baby, hat and double knitting, possibly another color event too!
Possible entrant: Ella Funt cardigan
I ordered some pink baby cashmerino as the main colour, and dipped into stash for the oddments.

Now that I've knitted this swatch, I'm keeping the elephant and colour and the bright teal colour, but will replace the pale teal (top pattern) with the darker elephant colour, and use purple as the dividing pattern.
Possible entrant: Sheep Yoke Cardigan
I seem to be doing a lot of colourwork during these Olympics!
For this one I'm going to use an acrylic yarn, Rico baby dk. First time for me, so I wanted to wknit and see if I could bear knitting with it. I can. Not one bit of wool in this yarn but it's absolutely fine to knit with! And it's cheap and hopefully wears well.
The problem is the colour choices for this particular cardigan.
Here's a photo I took of the colours I have (white is on its way). Navy, denim, grass green and light blue.

The difference betwwen the denim and green is a little more pronounced in daylight.
I originally thoguth I'd knit the cardigan with just denim and green (and white sheep), using the denim as the main cardigan colour, and the green for the borders. Now I'm thinking it just doesn't contrast as much as I'd like. I would like a brighter, more boy-like blue. Otherwise I'm thinking of knitting this in navy, with just the yoke as colour, using the green and LIGHT blue for sky.
What do you think? Looking on ravelry there are a few navy ones, but I've never thought of a dark navy or black for a one year old. The original cardigan has a tan main colour which I like, but think my niece might find it a bit .. brown for her son!
All of this baby knitting led to a nightmare last night about a new born baby! I dreamt I was babysitting, turned up to look after new born and 3yo sister, no sign of parents (as you get in dreams), one nappy, one bottle (for the weekend) , I had to trek to the city to find a pharmacist open to buy more nappies and milk! Carrying newborn in a small box with handles, no clothes and baby was cold!