Buttons!

Just ran and got cute blue buttons and sewed them on my finished baby cardi.... voila!

Wound up

I wound up a ball of the Purl Soho yarn, but haven't knit with it yet. It's ready and waiting for me though! :-)

In other news, I am blocking a wee cardi for my friend's little boy. This time (first one I made see here) I did the tapered sleeves instead of the straight ones, as I think it will be better to stay close to little newborn arms. I still need to get buttons but here is a progress pic from when I was still knitting it:

Pattern: Puerperium Cardigan
Yarn: Alpaca with a Twist - Baby Twist

Currently on the needles is a pair of fingerless gloves for my friend Natalie. She sent an amazing package in the mail which contained not only YARN, but hot chocolate mixes AND homemade (yes!) marshmallows. YUM!!!! In exchange all I "have" to do is knit the yarn up into things. The yarn is super amazing, so it's really just like one big treat for me!!!!

Yarn: Shepherd's Wool (Stonehedge Fiber Mill) - worsted weight

It's super springy and cushy for 100% wool! Plus when I was winding it up it DIDN'T shed little bits of fuzz like a lot of wool has in the past. I'm a big fan of this stuff! :) As for the glove pattern, she had sent me a photo of some gloves she had seen in a store that she liked. Working roughly from that, I am really just winging it with my own pattern. (scary!) Here is what I came up with:

I borrowed the amazing stitch pattern from this hat: Claudia Hat

The rest is cobbled together and I am hoping they will suit her tastes!!!! I will keep you posted to see if I can make the 2nd glove the same size/pattern. LOL. (I took notes but it's still hard!) I might also have some ideas for the rest of the yarn (seeing as I am going to have plenty leftover!).

Last and also least, I finally gave it up and frogged that sweater I had started for Norah. It just wasn't what I wanted, and I'd much rather make something we will both enjoy wearing and using. Oh well!

It's July???

Whoops it's suddenly July! I guess I should do a wrap up of anything that came off my needles in the past few months! I haven't worked much on that blue cowl (surprise surprise, because it's for ME).

OK this one is actually from April?!? I made a cowl as a birthday gift for my friend Natalie. I used some yarn I had reclaimed from an old navy sweater and it's really nice... has some wool and I think even a touch of angora? Anyway I had fun modeling it for my project photos :) I really want one for myself now!

Pattern: Columbia Cowl

I also made some preemie and baby hats, and a ballband dishcloth (which pulled me out of a knitting funk where I was not in the mood to do anything! Scary!!!)

Then after finding out the sex of my cousin's baby-to-be, (Boy!) I got to working on a few things:

Pattern: Baby Sophisticate

Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Encore

I liked the pattern but I made the 6-12 month size and it came out newborn.... yikes. So keep that in mind if you want to make it. The arms were long enough for a 6 month old but it would barely button around my friend's 2.5 month old kid.... sooooo thats why it is going to my cousin (was originally making it for a baby who is already born, oops).

I also threw together this "Phoenix Suns" hat - I hope the basketball button makes them realize it is in team colors! hehe!

Whew - Still more to share!!! Hope you guys aren't getting tired :)

My friend from college (she's the one who made those cool knitting cookies!) is pregnant again... with TWINS! She found out they were going to have 2 girls (woot!), so along with passing on some of Norah's old clothes I made these hats:

Pattern: my own, notes here

Yarn: Leftover Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride bulky (they knit up so fast!)

And last but not least, mom's birthday present:

Pattern: Ilene Bag

Yarn: Sugar & Cream kitchen cotton

I followed another user's mods to make it slightly smaller than written, I think it turned out nicely. I think if I make it again I might make the strap a few stitches narrower, but it is comfortable on the shoulder. Anyway I think mom liked it! Happy birthday! :-)

Baby owls to match

Remember how I made my friend Erin the owls sweater? Well as soon as I finished her sweater I started thinking about what to do with the leftover yarn I had. (Remember I accidentally bought way too much yarn? Oops :)

My lovely SIL Mare had made a baby owl sweater for Norah, and it got me thinking about Erin's daughter (who is almost the same age as Norah!). It just seemed too perfect, so I had to do it - I had to make a MATCHING owls sweater for Erin's daughter!!!!

I used the same buttons and everything. I tried to make a 2T size so that her daughter can wear it this fall!

I am so excited to eventually see a photo of them wearing their sweaters together! I will definitely share it here when that happens! Yay :-)

In other news, I started the Casu Cowl for myself using some beautiful yarn my husband got me for my birthday ages ago...

...but it's going slow. I was knitting it lever style for awhile, but I really think the whole Yarn Harlot class broke me. LOL. I've been in a knitting funk and haven't been doing much at all. By the end of next week I should know the gender of my cousin's baby so I can start some knitting for her! In the meantime, does anyone else get into a bit of a mood? Where you don't feel like knitting much? What do you do to get out of it... should I go upstairs and roll around in my stash? Haha!

Mossy out!

Finished the Mossy baby sweater, sewed on buttons and mailed it off. I forgot to get pics with the buttons but here it is drying on a towel:


I like it! I'm glad I didn't do the sleeve stripes. Hope it fits its little boy recipient sometime after he is born this year :)

In other news, I've finished the body on the Owls sweater and have started a sleeve. I have a playdate next week with the recipient so I hope she will humor me and try it on so I can make sure it is the right fit. Otherwise I will be ripping and ripping.... so cross your fingers!!!!!! :)

Slow progress

(Mossy Jacket)

Mid-weekend recap

TGI...weekend! I had a great day thanks to my parents, who babysat while G and I caught a movie. It's been forever since I went to a theater! We saw "Red Tails" which we enjoyed. Lots of action & suspense!

Anyway, let's get to the knitting. The aforementioned blanket project that I'm doing with my SIL has stalled out as we had to switch patterns - we realized that with the pattern we had and the amount of yarn we bought it was going to be a super short blanket. Oops :) Our new plan is to make the Radiating Star blanket. Stay tuned because I'm supposed to be casting this on. M: I will do that as soon as I finish...


...this baby sweater! LOL. Since we had a lull with the blanket I was getting itchy and had to cast something on. G's cousin is expecting a baby boy this year. I had made them those cream-colored baby pants previously (pre-ultrasound), but now that I know they are having a boy I wanted to make something boy-ish! I scrounged around in my stash and found some Cascade superwash in a pretty blue-green, and some naturallycaron.com Country in dark grey. Pattern is the Mossy Jacket. Today I just found some buttons at that almost match the blue-green color. Woo!

Let's see....I borrowed my friend Erin's favorite store-bought sweater that I am going to measure and use as a template to help me make her Owl sweater, so that's good. I just need to work on it!

In non-knitting news we finally got some snow. Yay!

Norah's sweater

Norah is a lucky girl... she has a very talented Auntie who knit her this AMAZING sweater!


And it fits like a dream. Thanks so much Auntie Mare!!!!!!!! xoxo


(yes she tried to eat everything on the ground lol)

Finished photo

I realized I haven't gotten a nice "finished" photo of the green newborn sweater!


I really love it. I need to mail it off to its recipient!

In other news, that pretty teal yarn that I ripped out? Well let's just say I ripped it out, AGAIN. I finished the yoke of this sweater dress and it was huge, like 2T or so! Oopsies. Poor Norah, I am going to knit you a sweater for this winter if it kills me! :-)

Done but not done

Well that newborn sweater flew off the needles! I've even washed/blocked it twice, because the first time I didn't use wool wash and the yarn had a bit of a smell to it. The second time I used some lavender SOAK that I got from Cynthia. :-)


I still need to add the buttons, which is why this isn't "DONE" done.... and the reason that hasn't happened is because they sell buttons in packs of 5 (which I had one), and this sweater needs 7! Sheesh! I hope I can get to the store this weekend for some button shopping!

In other news, remember the cabled baby sweater I had started a couple weeks before Norah was born? (crazy me) Well I finally decided it wasn't worth the yarn to finish it (considering it would be too small for Norah) and also I just wasn't "feeling it" anymore. Soooo rip rip rip, and a soak:


And now I've cast on for a big girl sweater/dress for my big girl!

Pattern: Little sister's dress (rav link)

I'm knitting the 12 month size but using slightly larger yarn/needles... so we will see how this turns out!

Don't you love....

...baby knitting??? There was a wave of people having babies last year. I enjoyed knitting lots of little tiny things, especially for my OWN wee one! Luckily the wave seems to keep on going, because we recently found out some friends of ours are expecting their first little one next year. Even though they JUST told us, I couldn't help but cast something on.....


Pattern: Puerperium Cardigan (rav link)

I am already casting off the body! I love how quick newborn knits are! Plus this yarn is gorgeous. I think Jessica sent it to me for a gift (if my brain serves me correctly). Thanks Jess!

Back in the groove

It's nice to be back in the groove of knitting again! After getting Christmas stuff out of the way, I have had several baby items to make (so many friends having babies! Must be something in the water???)....

For my friend from high school Sarah, who is having a baby girl ANY DAY now, I sent her this hat and bootie set:

 

Pattern:  Hat pattern   Bootie pattern (Rav link)

Next up, one of my coworkers and his wife were also due to have a baby girl (she is born now!) so Cynthia and I collaborated to make a hat and booties (she did the booties) out of some fun orange yarn:

Pattern: Aston hat

Third in line is another one of my high school friends, Becca, who is having a baby boy in March! We just had her baby shower this last weekend, so I got these things together:

Booties:   Garter stitch booties  (used some mods from ravelry)
Sweater:  Felix's cardigan

I also threw in a couple of bibs for Becca as well:

Pattern: Sideways Garter Stitch Bib (rav link)

Pattern: I love stockinette baby bib  (rav link)

WHEW! I have a couple other bibs but I haven't gifted them yet (for 2 other friends who have already had their babies). It's the same garter stitch sideways bib as the solid blue one above, only I cast on less stitches and used small scraps of different colored cotton I had lying about. It makes for a cute bib and a good use for all the tiny balls of cotton I have!

Anyway I think that's enough for now! Will post again soon with some charity knitting and something I just cast on for Norah :)

Chugging along....

I got some progress made today.... thanks to the Colts game (too bad they lost though)!!! Right front is done and left front has begun. Only 5 days until my official due date! haha!!!!

"Crazy" project update

Complicated cabled baby sweater that I am making for my baby which is due in a week and a half?

Back is done! :-)

August round-up!

Yeee haw, welcome to the August round-up! It's a hoedown of a hootenanny! OK, I will stop now... just trying to find a more exciting way to start a catch-up post on here!

This weekend I've felt super productive! Friday evening I finished Holden's tie sweater... yep, in the last post I had just cast it on, and here it is, all DONE! (Pattern is here: boys can wear pink)

Isn't it awesome??? I really loved the pattern. It was simple, but looks really cute. I want to order a bag of Swish and make these for all my friends' little boys now!!!

Another project I haven't even posted about is a baby bonnet and socks set I threw together for some friends who aren't finding out the sex of their baby due Nov 4th. I kept things neutral with a bright yellow and a non-frilly pattern (Aviatrix baby bonnet, and then the socks are from the Layette in Itty Bitty Nursery):

Turned out pretty cute... I haven't put a button on the hat yet, I can't decide to use a gender neutral one, or wait and put on a more cutesy-looking one if they have a girl! :-)

In stash enhancement news, Cynthia attended Stitches Midwest last weekend, and was kind enough to do my shopping for me! I gave her a little money and free reign to pick out whatever she thought I would like. Can I say that she did not dissapoint???? Check this beauty out!

Gorgeous, no???? It's Madeline Tosh "Tosh Vintage" in Baltic. I loooove the shades of blue in here. It's superwash too, which makes me want to make myself some fingerless gloves with this for the winter. Ooh I could even make matching baby mittens for my lil girl... wouldn't that be adorable? LOL!

I need to focus on her baby blanket first! That's my plan for today, so wish me luck. I've been unhappy with how the woven-in ends are looking. Due to the yarn being a cotton/acrylic blend, the yarn is not "grabby" enough to hold the ends down, and they keep popping out. I am trying something new - using sewing thread to secure the ends down instead of weaving them in! I think this is the best solution. Mare, if you are reading this (she is knitting the 2nd half of the blanket), I was thinking you could leave your ends "free" and I can sew them down myself!

Hope everyone has a lovely relaxing Sunday!!!! I can't believe August is almost OVER!!!???

Matinee Jacket

Greg's cousin is expecting his first kid, a baby girl, this year! The baby shower is this weekend and my SIL and I have been teaming up to work on some handknits. She agreed to do a hat and booties and I tackled a sweater. Thanks to my MIL, I had the awesome book "Vintage Knits for Modern Babies" to flip through, and I found a cute pattern - the Matinee Jacket!



It turned out pretty cute! Mare (my SIL) picked out the yarn color (vanna's choice brand), and I found the adorable ducky buttons. :) Can't wait to have their cousin open our gift!!!!!!!


(the extra 2 are for Mare to use on her booties!)

Back on track!

I got in a bit of a knitting funk with my latest sweater project. it was going okay until I tried it on and realized it was toooo small. :( Rip rip rip... ripped it all out. After that I was a bit depressed and scrounged around to see what else I had. Luckily this resulted in some "finishitis" where I finished off 2 projects! I had a blanket square half done, and I had a baby sweater I was unhappy with that I "fixed"! I will post about the baby sweater later when I have current pics!

The adult sweater though... I was griping about restarting the pattern, and before that I would have to do MATH and try and upsize it (it only came with numbers for one size, lame). Then - TO THE RESCUE - Cynthia happened to randomly email me a link to the most perfect pattern EVER! It was FATE! I can't share it with you all yet though...Just know it is really cute & the yarn I was using for the other pattern works perfectly!


Just know, I have 2 pattern repeats done and I am loving it and it is going to be MUCH better than the last pattern! Yippee!!!!

FO timeeee

Babylegs: Done.


Autumn leaves baby sweater: Done, but needs some buttons! (I need to buy some!)


It turned out really cute. I did less increases for the body so it's less flared than the original pattern. I like it!



In other news, I finally sat down and joined my mom's sweater pieces into the yoke and feel like I will be able to get it done soon! Unfortunately there is a lot of rolling, so I am devising various ways to combat it. (It is cotton/acrylic yarn, so I am not holding my breath that a block will do anything). Many people who have knit the sweater sew ribbon on the back of the edge to help keep it flat... I am planning on doing this on the front edges for sure!

Also... today it was rainy, then sunny, then all of a sudden rain poured down and then with crazy HAIL... then back to sunny, then dark? Indiana keeps you on your toes!

(photo of the hail on our deck courtesy my hubby and his nice camera)

Finally.... not a hat!

Yes folks, I did not knit any hats lately, I have decided to move on :) I cast on for an adorable baby sweater called Autumn Leaves!



I love the purple and I think this will turn out great. Yarn is Patons classic merino... one of my favs!

Don't know who I am giving it to, but my friend Andrea just had a baby girl, and my friend Larissa is currently pregnant with a girl, so i think I will be OK!

Sweater done and new project...

I got the baby sweater done. It's not bad for a sweater, just has some elements I am not totally pleased with. One thing is I suck at is sewing up the sides/arms, so I might try and redo that again with thread instead of yarn. Anyone else have sewing tips? I typically turn it inside out, pinch the two sides together and do a whip stitch (I believe) to join. It really isnt the greatest... but it is all I know how to do. Suggestions welcome!

ALSO I am trying to think of something to use to hold the sweater closed! I am thinking a large safety pin? Maybe a plastic one? Something the baby can't eat or hurt themself on....

My penguin likes to model sweaters for me.


I am working on the ribbed turtleneck shrug for my friend Meg.... I am only a few inches away from being done! WOOT!

Finally I cast on for a pair of booties for my coworker... she mentioned how she wants to get pink baby converse shoes for her future baby girl... I thought what would be better than pink BOOTIES that the baby can wear soon!!!!


One is cast off, I need to sew it up and weave in the ends and then add the fake "laces". Hope to get to that at lunch today!

Lots of snow... hope you all are staying warm!