Clara

The sun was hot, the day was still, and I've been out and about with my camera for a little finished project photo shoot.

The project in question is of course Clara, sat patiently on the dresser for almost a week waiting for a sunny day to coincide with enough free time to play with the camera.

I made a few amendments to the original pattern; I wanted to use up as much yarn as possible so I knit the garter section until I had 46 of my 113g skein left in the ball.  The original had used 50g for the garter and had 25g left on the skein afterwards but either the maths doesn't quite work, or there was a bit more than 100g on Sarah's skein as I ran out on the lace pattern with three rows to go so I pulled back three rows on the final set of arches to make it all fit and ended up with about a metre left over.

The design is by the very talented Sarah and knit as part of a knitalong with the girls of the Healing after Pregnancy Loss group on Ravelry; a kind of woolly group uniform for the only club where we all hope the membership never increases.  It honours the children we didn't get to know (in particular Sarah's daughter Clara, after whom the shawl is named) and a phenomenal group of women who I am proud to consider my friends.

If you like the pattern Sarah will be selling it here shortly to benefit March of Dimes


All in all it's a gorgeous squishy little shawl/scarf that will be perfect for keeping me toasty warm should that ever be a requirement again - at the moment I strongly suspect we are having our summer so we're all rattling through the summer clothes before it's too late.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on the season, our house holds heat so even though the sun's been below the horizon for a while, the thermometer in Kitty's room still glows an angry red and gives me a frown face.  As her summer weight sleeping bag needed a good soak this morning before it met the washing machine this afternoon she's had to go to bed in her winter weight one - dressed in a short-sleeved vest, pyjama shorts and a cropped long sleeved cotton cardigan to try to keep both tummy and arms at a comfortable temperature.

But as Kitty has developed a charming habit of growing effortlessly out of her clothes while they're in the washing machine so that all of her sleeves are 3/4 length, and this little summer transplanted to spring is never going to last, I've done a little casting on: