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.

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!

Cowls to keep out the chill

The first thing I have to cover when the weather gets cool is my neck. If I get a draft down my neck, I am cold all over! So I have been making some cowls and scarves to keep myself and others warm.

I started out this summer making a cowl from some beautiful, soft sock yarn called Mini Mochi from Crystal Palace Yarns. I had gotten 2 different colors in this yarn. The first one was greens, golds and dark reds. I made it up in the Willow Cowl pattern which is available as a free pattern on Ravelry.com


Then I took those 2 balls in the background of this first picture and made one for myself. This one is blue, purple and green. Here it is collapsed down on itself like it would on my neck. There is still a needle in the last stitch because I need to hem the top edge. I think it is interesting how when it is collapsed the green is mostly hidden in the folds. But when it is stretched out as in the next picture, the green shows up again. This one is long enough to pull over my head if I need to cover my ears. Click on the pictures for a closer look if you like.