Pirate Jumper

 I've got into the habit of knitting something special for my grandson at Christmas. Once I made a 'knight's jumper' to go with a knitted helmet; last year (because I'm slow with posting about things) I made a pirate jumper.

I've a couple of patterns with sailing ships designs but I decided they were too complicated and would require a lot of attention to charts, so I settled for a simpler flag with skull and crossed bones, and striped sleeves for a pirate-y look. 

Helmet and jumper for a very small knight

Before Christmas my eldest daughter spotted a knitted version of a knight's helmet, and asked if I could knit one for her 3 year old. A quick search of the web found lots of free patterns out there, and I picked this one from Sewing Away My Time blog. 

As I had more grey yarn, I decided to make a knight's jumper to wear with it - a simple raglan design in DK with a shield design on the front. It looks crumpled as it's not washed or pressed at this point as I was slightly hurried getting things finished before Christmas (as always) but for once it's about the right size. Now all that's need is a knitted sword ...

 

New lease of life

Just after Christmas I set out to alter an old jumper that I no longer wore. I wanted to shorten the arms, lengthen the body and remove the ribbing from the neck. So here it is all finished. no more throttling neck-line, no more sleeves getting in the way, and no more gaping bits between jumper and trousers! And all a lot quicker than starting from scratch - the hardest part was unpicking the old seams, after that everything went easily.

Scarf finished - and a change of plan

 Here's my first knitting project of the year finished already! One of my daughters bought me some fluffy sequined yarn for Christmas, and, with so much time over the holiday spent watching TV, it's already knitted and ready to wear!






So back to what I intended to knit next - or not. I'd sorted out a heap of blue/green/brown wool to knit into a short-sleeved jumper but, while thinking about stripes and patterns, I remembered this old long-sleeved jumper that I rarely wear any more, and I'm going to 're-do' that. I'll pull a thread or two and cut the sleeves just above the elbow, take the neck ribbing off (it's a bit high) and with unravelled yarn from the sleeves extend the rib at the bottom (it's a bit short for with jeans/trousers). It sounds a lot of fuss but will be quicker than knitting from scratch and I should have a finished garment while the weather's still cold.

another renovation

Yet another of my daughter's jumpers that she no longer likes!
It's not really been worn much and I quite like the big snowflake pattern so decided to make it over rather than send it to the charity shop.

It's a very snug fit but the main problem was its length. There was some left over yarn - a 100g ball of the red and some bits of white - not enough for a plain add on section but I wanted to leave the pocket patterns in instead of having to re-knit most of the front.

I unpicked the pockets and swiss darned the gap, undid the whole ribbed section, picked up there and knitted down to the bottom.
I've left the sleeves alone for now - they're tight and only three quarter length on me but it seems a lot of fuss to change them. As it's knitted in Aran weight pure wool, it's rather warm to wear it now, so I'll see how I feel about the sleeves in Autumn.

new from old

The changes to this old jumper are finished at last. The sleeves shortened and body lengthened with stripes from oddments of wool left over from other projects.

renovating old jumper

trying to give this much altered jumper yet another lease of life.

It started out as a cropped, high neck jumper knitted for my older daughter. When she stopped wearing it, the sleeves were shortened for my younger daughter to wear it as a long baggy tunic but she was never really impressed with it so I've started altering it to suit me.

At first I just took off the high neck but it's really too cropped and the sleeves are awkward at three-quarter length.
What I intend to do is turn it into a short-sleeved, longer-bodied tank top. Step one completed this weekend - sleeves un-ravelled and new cuffs knitted.
next step is to unravel the bottom and extend in with contrasting yarn.