Baby knitting!

As soon as I found out that we had a grandbaby on the way I was looking for baby projects to knit for her. Baby items are small and quick to make so I made quite a few before this little one arrived!  Nothing like a first time grandma who loves to knit right? I decided it was about time I shared some of what I made.

Because my daughter and her husband had decided not to find out the sex of the baby ahead of time, I tried to make some things that were gender neutral. My daughter loves color so the first sweater that I made was multicolored.

This is a basic top-down raglan cardigan pattern from an old pattern card that I found at my local yarn shop.  The yarn was a DK weight. I love how the stripes worked out on this.  I even found buttons in several of the colors.  Isn't it cute!

I finished that sweater in May then I had the opportunity in June to test knit a new pattern for a designer. The Simply Stripy Baby Sweater was made from two sock yarns that I had in my stash.  One was solid purple Cascade Heritage, the other was a long striping yarn called Mini Mochi from Crystal Palace Yarns.  I made a simple hat to go with the sweater and there are tiny socks too!

 
  The pattern for this sweater is available here.  It includes options for short or long sleeve sweaters, a onesie or a dress with sizes up to 24 months.  Now that I know we have a girl I may have to make the dress!

She seems to have found it to be quite cozy.

And the Winners Are...

I am really pleased with my State Fair results.  Though it is sometimes hard to understand just why they choose the things they do.

Blue Ribbon (first place) and Best Child's Sweater award from the Des Moines Knitting Guild -- Cabled Sweater made in River Jeans cotton yarn. 

Blue Ribbon -- Eggplant round-yoke sweater with stranded designs 

This is my favorite sweater of all that I have knit.

Red Ribbon (second place) -- Purple & Green Stripy Baby Sweater

This cute little sweater has beautiful classic lines with some fun striping.  It was very easy to make.

 

Pink Ribbon (fourth place) -- pink & white sock knitting tote
This is the one that I was most surprised about. It is a very simple project that I put in with the entries because I  had an extra tag. There were several other more complex bags that didn't place at all.

Iowa State Fair time

Ten Items or Less -- oh wait, that was the name of a children's book that we used to read to the children. This is the pile of knitting that I sent off to the fair. There are actually 10 items in the pile ready to go. Sweaters, afghan, hat, shawls etc.  Wednesday night there is a preview for the entrants.  Last year Ames was flooded on the day of the preview, let's hope that doesn't happen again! 

If you get to the fair don't forget to check out the Fabric and Threads display on the second floor of the Varied Industries Building.

Baby projects

With a grandbaby on the way, I had to knit some things for this little one to wear!  They live in Las Vegas which is generally pretty warm to so hot you can't stand it! But they do have cool weather in the winter and especially at night or in the air conditioning. 

I just finished a cute sweater and hat in purple and greens which I hope they will feel they can use for either a boy or girl. I think I still have enough yarn to make some booties too. Here are some pictures of the set so far. 

They are made in sock yarns which are machine washable.  Important for a new mom! I was test knitting the sweater pattern for Rae Blackledge of Extravayarnza.  The pattern should be ready mid-July. It looks like it will have several options for variations. She has several other beautiful patterns as well.  I made up my own pattern for the hat and finished it off with a bit of I-cord tied in a knot at the top.

 

I have also made a fun cardigan sweater in multi-colored yarn.  I need to put buttons on it and then it will be finished.  

My younger kids all love this one because it is so bright and fun.  This is a self-striping sock yarn as well.  It is interesting to see how the colors worked out in different places on each side of the sweater. The pattern is an old one that is worked from the top down all in one piece. 

Next, I want to make up some booties that will go with the purple set.  I haven't found a pattern so might have to make up my own instead, as I did for the hat.  Baby things are so fast to knit and cute too!

Ta Da! New Patterns!

I finally finished up some pattern design work this week. Some of these have been a really long time coming. I am glad to have them finished and hope people will like the patterns. You can find them all for sale on my web site www.denisesneedleworks.com along with lots of other great patterns, needles and some fun notions. I am working on adding more products to the site so keep it bookmarked and check back to see what's new!

Jessie's Blanket $5.00




Tutti Fruity Socks $6.00




Magic Family Socks $6.00-- This is the first of a group of "Denise's Favorites" patterns that I plan to do. They will be easy to follow patterns for some of the things that I have knit repeatedly and often teach others how to make.

First Grandbaby on the way!

I love to knit. You all know that by now! My knitting enthusiasm had dipped a lot though this spring and I wasn't sure what to knit any more. Then my daughter, Jessie, announced that there was a baby on the way and when were her blankets coming! Ha! She knows me well!

I started a blanket, of course but it got a bit off course somewhere. I think I was mathematically challenged. I started making a round blanket and calculated how many stitches I needed to have the lace edging come out right. I kept knitting and knitting. I had to go back to the store for yarn twice! You would think that would have given me a clue, don't you? But I kept knitting, all the time thinking that it was getting awfully large.

It suddenly dawned on me that I was using the number of stitches in each section instead of the entire number of stitches to calculate and I could have stopped in at least 2 places already. So the blanket is almost 5 feet across! Jessie and the baby will be able to snuggle up together under this one!

I can't seem to get the colors to come out right in the photos. It is a dark teal and purple.

Finished sweaters

I got the striped sweater finished earlier this week. It is in the tub ready to go to Arnhild's Knitting Retreat tomorrow. It is made of Vamsegarn, a worsted weight yarn from Rauma of Norway. It is a cute sweater but there were sooooo many yarn ends to weave in!

Carl says that he would like it if it didn't have the pink in it. He is okay with the purple though.

I also finished the little pink and blue Baby Surprise Jacket. This one is going with me to the retreat too. It is made of Rauma's Babygarn. Babygarn is so soft you can hardly believe it is 100% wool! It is washable too which is really nice for a baby garment.

We are all packed up for the retreat. We go set up tomorrow morning. It will be a busy weekend!

Out with the old, In with the new

Since the mittens were done I decided I needed to cast on something new. Well, it isn't new exactly. The Baby Surprise Jacket pattern has been around for quite a long time. You can find it in Elizabeth Zimmermann's books and as a separate Spun-Out pattern, all from School House Press.

I wanted to try out the Rauma Babygarn. It is a wonderfully soft, washable, 100% wool baby yarn. And there are lots of colors to choose from, not just the usual baby pastels. I can think of lots of projects that would work well in this Babygarn.

I started knitting this little sweater thinking that I would try to take some progress pictures along the way. It knits up so fast though that I suddenly realized that it was almost finished and I hadn't gotten a single picture of it. So here it is, almost finished. I think I have less than a dozen rows to knit now before I sew it together.

This sweater is a little piece of origami. First you can see it flat as I have been knitting it. The last picture is folded together the way it will be finished.

It is an amazing transformation! I am convinced that Elizabeth Zimmermann was a genius.

Blue and White Baby Surprise

This BSJ is a long time coming but isn't it pretty? After knitting the light blue for what seemed like forever I decided that it was a little boring looking...well, maybe a lot boring...so I added the white and I love the way it came out!

It is made of Hobby Lobby's Baby Bee Sweet Delight Twist in bare blue, 85% Acrylic/15% Polyamide. The label claims it is bulky weight but it seems more like a heavy worsted similar to the Red Heart yarns. Has anyone else noticed that Hobby Lobby's Baby Bee yarns are not labeled correctly? I used most of 2 skeins, 226 yards each, on size 8 needles. The white is some Utopia acrylic yarn that was left over from another project.

I think this one would probably fit about 9-12 months, maybe even to 18 months. It measures 11 inches across the chest when flat, so 22 inches circumference and 14 inches neck to hem.

I added fold back ribbed cuffs and did an I-cord bind off around the edges. I cheated on the shoulder seams and crocheted them together with the white yarn. I haven't decided on buttons yet. I need to go dig through my button boxes and see what I might have.

Yes, I have more than one box of buttons, shoe box size actually.

TOFUtsies sock goes visiting

My finished sock went down to the Rose Tree Fiber Shop to visit all the other TOFUtsie yarns. It will be on display for a while until I can finish the second one. Then I want to wear them!

It joins several shawls, a baby outfit and a couple of tank tops that I have knit. Customers love to see sample projects!

I taught a crochet class last night at the shop. It was a great class but I am afraid that I may have overloaded them. I was trying to get to the basics stitches and how to read a pattern so they would feel confident enough to try something on their own, but we only had 2 hours. I may have to set up a crochet clinic so people can come in for extra help.

The house is quiet. The kids are at Vacation Bible School mornings this week so I am trying to get some patterns written up. Keep an eye out for them....

"But that is not all," said the Cat....

"Oh no, that is not all."

Here are a few more things that I can do....

I am almost finished with the Cat hat. I just have to weave in ends on the inside before I finish the inside hat. I think I may make a drawstring so the stuffing can be removed for washing. I am not quite sure what to stuff it with yet either.

I also have been trying to get another Baby Surprise sweater finished. Fiaba Baby is a really soft cotton yarn. I need to seam the shoulders and sew on some buttons. I was thinking that I might make a hat and booties too. There is plenty of yarn left. The baby has arrived already but the sweater will be a little big for her right now. Still, I'd better not put it off too long. It is amazing how fast babies grow!

Cotton Baby Set from One Skein Wonders

Well, not all of it is directly from One Skein Wonders but it was inspired by the patterns in this book at least. The sweater is the Bamboo Baby and the booties are a very reworked version of the Be-ribboned Booties both from this book. The hat is totally made up by me to match the sweater. The whole set is garter stitch with eyelet edging.

I used size 6 needles with Phildar Licorne cotton yarn. I had 2 balls to start and there will barely be enough left to make ties for the booties. This is a really soft, smooth cotton yarn. Lovely to work with. I think I would enjoy making a summer top from it as well.

This set will be going to the Rose Tree Fiber Shop as a display sample for the yarn when I get the booties finished and find some buttons for the sweater.