I've always thought these were exceedingly cute, and so the impending arrival of George's bump provided the perfect opportunity!
Details
Pattern: Denim Drawstring Pants (demin pantses!) from Last Minute Knitted Gifts (3-6 month size). This pattern is written to knit in the round (hurrah!) with minimal seaming. It's in the 4-6 hour section of the book. Either that's an optimistic prediction or I'm a very slow knitter - I suspect quite possibly both!
I like the moss stitch cuff, which can be turned up or down - cute feature which adds length too - very helpful if the baby has giraffe like legs!Yarn: Rowan Denim, 2.5 x 50g balls in shade 229 (Memphis). I really like this yarn. It is stiffer to knit with, like all cottons, but it is still quite soft and it just gets better the more you wash it. I know lots of people experience it bleeding on the hands or needles, but I've never had any of that - partly because I've never used bamboo needles for it, and also possibly because I've knit with it in winter, rather than summer.
It definitely does fade when you wash it, which I hope you can see in this photo.Sticks: KnitPicks Options, 4.5mm, long cable to allow me to magic loop the entire project.
Time: 3 June 2008 - 15 June 2008.
What I learnt: For this project, I made both legs at the same time by magic loop (using this book as a guide - thanks MadMad!). It took a while to get used to it, particularly having two balls of yarn and two tails of yarn, but I got into the swing of it which made it a lot easier. And it guaranteed both legs were the same length, which I think, you know, is fairly important in a pair of pantses.
It's also the first time I have sewn down the cast off edge - ie rather than casting it off, you sew it down to make the turnover bit at the top of the pantses, where you put in the drawstring. The pattern suggests to run a line through the top where you will be seaming, to make sure you seam in a straight line, but I didn't bother with that, I just made sure I picked up the stitch right next to the last one, and that worked fine. I like the i-cord drawstring but I'm never sure what you do with the tail when you make i-cord - it doesn't seem to be able to be darned in - what do you do? (I knotted it, and then knotted the end of the i-cord itself, which I thought might make it a bit less inclined to come out of the pantses as well).
I think these are fab (if I do say so myself)! One of my work colleagues wants me to make her an adult sized pair, although somehow I'm not sure they'll be quite as cute!
Yarn: I bought the yarn last year on a 
I bought these on sale a couple of years ago - not long after I read about a shoe repair service in the city that can expand knee high boots - oooh, the opening up of the options for knee high boots for those with shapely calves! Since these were reasonably priced, leather, and had a straight inside leg zip, they make the perfect candidate for alteration.
Not all shoe repair places can do it, they need a special machiney thing (oh yes with the technical terms) but if you desperately desire knee high boots, but have the shapely legs, knee high boots are within your reach (without having to resort to 
The adjustment is not invisible, but if done well can look like an additional gusset, and they do mean you have the glory of skipping down the street in your flirty skirt and knee high boots! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Upon arriving we had champagne and a little complimentary starter, while we perused (heh!) the lengthy menu - they do degustation style, where you can choose 4, 5 or 6 courses (or more if you want) plus you have the option of having the matched wines. So we choose away, and I was very glad I'd had no breakfast that morning.
This was the best course, for me.
Wow! The mushrooms were so fabulous, not really meaty like normal mushies but really good flavour and picked up the ravioli immensely!
Look at the presentation of the food - so gorgeous - I guess they thought we were nutters taking pictures of all of our food! Braised lamb shank is one of my favourite winter meals - all tender but slightly gelatinous and just delicious.
Everyone at our table except one had this! (there were 7 of us all together).
Rhubarb and hazelnut crumble with yoghurt sorbet - I didn't have this - I don't care for rhubarb or yoghurt - but I was happy to leave it for others, as it also meant more room for the white chocolate panna cotta with poached pear. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
And as if all that wasn't enough, we finished with coffee and petit fours...we couldn't eat them all. Actually, I think it was the petit fours that tipped me over the edge!
It really was one of those "once in a blue moon" experiences. Husby and I hardly go out any more (you can't get much knitting done at a fancy restaurant!!) so it was a great treat. Especially as we could see how the other half lived - this couple was being picked up by seaplane to fly back to Sydney!
And the people on the boat you can see behind the plane had their desserts taken back to the boat so they could eat on board, rather than in the restaurant!
These are my first pair of knee high boots. I bought them in Dublin - I think it must have been at least 3 years ago now, possibly even 4 years ago! I remember planning on buying boots on that trip, but the London shops were disappointing - I think it was about April and so boot season really was over. But I found these in Dublin and wonder of wonders, I could get them zipped all the way up!
When I opened the curtains in our lounge room I discovered workmen in our neighbour's yard, so I thought better of swanning around in my dressing gown and decided to have a shower before having breakfast.
Weekend winter breakfast is usually porridge, with lots of brown sugar, and mashed up banana - easy, filling, nutritious and delicious!!
Winter has really hit and despite the rays of sunlight trying to warm things up it was pretty chilly. Nelly managed to find a spot in the sun for a nap, but I stayed indoors and spent a lovely hour or two knitting and reading blogs, emails and catching up on Ravelry.
Grabbed a quick bite to eat for lunch at around 12.30, then had to pack my knitting bag for the Sydney WWKIP day get-together, which was at Darling Harbour (yes, right near the Exhibition Hall where the 
Finally left there at about 5pm and arrived home to find husby asleep on the lounge - he'd had a big day working in the yard. Put the heater on and settled down with my knitting to watch the news. Checked Ravelry again - there were already pictures of the WWKIP gathering posted in the Australian Knitters Forum!
When he woke up we got some dinner (takeaway - a bit naughty, but it was getting a bit late to cook and we haven't done the grocery shopping yet this weekend, so the fridge is a little bare) and as Saturday night is a slow tv night, we watched Elizabeth: The Golden Age on Foxtel. Fabulous costumes on Cate Blanchett, I loved how the colours of her dresses and the colour and styles of her hair represented (to me anyway) her mood and the mood of the times she was facing.
Oyster Blush (which is a bit more cream and a bit less brown), and
Sahara (thanks to 
Alchemy Haiku in Clarita (yes, that is 40% silk, 60% mohair) (
Frog Tree Pima Silk (80% pima cotton, 20% silk). I was only going to get 5 balls of this, but they only had 6 left, so in an outstanding act of selfless community service, I bought all of them - can't leave a lonely ball of red there can I?
Now who doesn't need a pair of purple knee high boots? I am totally sure the answer is "no-one" - because purple boots rock!
Especially when they are made of stretchy faux suede fabric that easily zips up over the shapely calf. 
I got her picture first, and treasured it and looked at it every so often, when I needed a lift. I made sure I had the right yarn for the love spell to work most effectively, buying it just after I found out it was discontinued. I even tested the yarn to make sure it would be right. Twice, that's how dedicated I was to my pursuit of Pearl.
And now I've started making the love spell, and I can feel it working already. I love my Pearl, oh yes I do!
You bet I do!! This winter I saw these in my LSS* and I could not say no. But it's really about the subtle differences...perfect wedge height - can be worn casually or dressed up. And suede, not leather. And stretchy, so they will actually zip all the way up my (ahem) "shapely" calves. I think they are perfect.
And I learnt a new trick from the lady in the LSS (those with skinny legs may ignore this). I already knew that it helps to sit or lie down and stick your leg up in the air when zipping up knee high boots, but another tip is to thread a sturdy shoe lace through the zipper pull, and use the ends of the shoe lace to pull up the zip - trust me, it makes it a lot easier, especially towards the top of the calf.
These are indeed my new favourite boots.
Gorgeous hand-dyed indigo yarn from 
Lovely 8ply Fibreworks yarn - the colours in the picture aren't quite right but I couldn't do much better today, it was so overcast. The yarn on the top is really a mix of greens and blues while the yarn on the bottom is reds and oranges - just fabulous colours. 
And this - natural alpacky - not dyed, this is the actual colour of the alpacky - how cool is that!!
