Little Country Coat

Choosing the colours for a project can sometimes be a big headache especially when you have several combinations you want to try out. I thought for this project (another little hat and coat set) I would take a departure from the usual blues, pinks and lilacs, and opt for green and white. It’s a pistachio green which works well with the white giving it a  pleasing fresh look.

The colour reminds me of green fields which is why I’ve called it a ‘Little Country Coat’. It’s knitted in a DK yarn in a combination of stocking stitch and double moss stitch.

The double moss stitch gives a lovely texture to the fabric and provides a good contrast to the stocking stitch. The front has two patch pockets which I’ve embellished with little knitted daisies which are repeated on the hat. The little collar I think completes the coat. I was lucky with the little heart shaped buttons, I already had these in my stash – I love collecting buttons! – and they were a perfect colour match with the yarn

 

Another Knitted Teddy

Well I don’t think you can have enough teddies in a collection and I do love making them. Took a break over the last few days fron making some baby jackets and created Daisy May

She is a blue-eyed bear measuring 12 inches and dressed in her best.

I used the same pattern that I used to knit the Hannah and Joey bears last month, but used a chunky yarn and knitted her on 5mm needles. It’s amazing just how much bigger she came out. The pink  Daisy dress and  blue shoes are also a chunky yarn and knitted up very quickly.  So the littles bears now have a big sister!

The Big Gender Divide: Pink or Blue

I was asked recently if a particular shade of pink would be suitable for a sweater for a baby boy and my immediate response was  no.  This made me realise just how strongly conditioned we have become (or at least me) to assigning these colours to either boy or girl. I can understand how using specific colours allows for immediate identification of the sex of the baby, which is usually the first thing we want to know when we see a new born, but how long has using pink or blue been the norm?

It appears up until the mid 19^th century all baby clothes were neutral and both sexes were dressed the same with baby boys wearing what would appear to be dresses. This was for practical purposes, it made changing nappies easier. Colours for baby clothes were predominately white, again for practical reasons; soiled clothes could be boiled and bleached to clean them.

At the beginning of the 20^th century we have the emergence of using pink and blue for babies, but it seems to have been the other way round. In a parents magazine of 1909 pink was thought to be more suitable for a boy, being a lighter version of red it was thought to be a stronger colour, while blue was thought to be a gentle pretty colour and more suited to girls. But we don’t know if this was the common practice at the time.

Only after the Second World War with the rise of consumerism we start to see the serious emergence of pink for a girl and blue for a boy. It is thought it may have started as a trend in France to use these colours on babies and since France dominated fashion in the 20^th century it was a fashion that stuck and these colours were successfully marketed to us.

I came across an interesting article which suggested we maybe prehistorically conditioned to favouring blue for boys and pink for girls. A scientific study on colour preference was done by Newcastle University (2007) were colours were shown to a culturally diverse mix of both sexes . Females naturally preferred the red/pink part of the colour spectrum while men preferred the blue/green part. The conclusion was that back in our days as a Hunter/gatherer, clear blue skies for the man meant good hunting, while women would have been conditioned to seeking out the pinks and reds of berries and fruits to gather.

I think a lot more research needs to be done before I’m convinced of the prehistoric conditioning. I think our pink for a girl and blue for a boy is probably down to a clever marketing ploy.

Little Boy Blue

I was asked recently if I would knit something for a little boy 2 months old, and it had to be quick, as it was needed urgently for a gift! Knitting for a boy came as a nice change as most of my projects seem to be for girls, but finding a pattern I liked was a challenge.

Boys obviously tend to be ‘no frills’ but all the patterns I looked at were either very plain ‘old man’ type cardigans or intricately cabled aran style cardigans. As I didn’t have time for the cabling I thought I’d jazz up something plain with the old standby, a few stripes.

Thought I’d go for a little duffle coat with matching wellies, a must have in any little boys wardrobe. Not that this little chap is going to be splasing about in any puddles soon.

I used a powder blue merino blend yarn which is lovely and soft and machine washable too, and used a royal blue yarn and dark blue toggles for the contrasting details.

 

The coat is knitted in garter stitch throughout so it knitted up very quickly and the stripey pockets match the stripes at the cuffs of the coat. The hood was knitted separately and then attached at the end, If I knitted this again I would consider picking up stitches at the neckline to knit the hood to give it a seamless look.

Once the coat was finished just had to make some matching wellies.

 

These were fun to do, they are in stocking stitch to give them a sturdy look! with a garter stitch sole for a good tread! They were all feverishly knitted up to meet the deadline with plenty of time for gift wrapping.