Friday, August 16, 2013

More Booties

 Lord knows there are plenty of babies around here or on their way so I've been kicking out a few more pairs of booties.  This pattern is so quick and easy from 60 Quick Baby Knits and the best part is they are knit with worsted weight yarn.  Who doesn't have a homeless stash of worsted sitting around?
These will go to my new niece Laina and were knit from the very last remaining yards of the Lornas Laces Sherpherd worsted.  I had enough to get to row 14 on each one and then finished them with some gray Patons Classic Wool.  I would have given them to Melissa but they only fit a 6 month old. 

 
These were knit from Malabrigo worsted and will go to cousin Christine.  These are Maynerd buttons again.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

We've had a run on pins around here lately...

 My dear, dear friend Melissa is adopting a baby girl!  The child is actually a relative of hers and although I haven't actually spoken to her recently, it was supposed to be finalized yesterday or the day before.  She and Brenda and I are getting together towards the end of the month to have a belated 1 year birthday party for her.  Well of course that means hand knits so I produced this for her.  I tell ya, I am knitting the crap out of my Reno yarn because this was knit from the two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted (Midway) I got at Jimmy Beans Wool with the baby in mind.
This pattern is called Presto Chango and was the result of a design contest held by Jimmy Beans Wool.  That connection was total coincidence but how cool is that?  I was simply looking for a 12-24 month sweater pattern that took 450 yards or less.  This thing was so simple to knit too and only 2 seams to finish it.
 I think I spent more time sewing on buttons than I did seaming.  That is my kind of sweater!  I sure hope the baby likes it and gets plenty of use out of it.  The yarn is machine washable too so that makes it more "Mommy-friendly".  I've said it before, if there was anyone put on this earth to be a mother, it is Melissa and I couldn't be happier for her!
I used some shell buttons that I got years ago because I needed 14 and these were the most uniform that I had.  I have slowly used these for different things and I store them in a spice bottle I bought in a grocery store in Paris thousands of years ago while backpacking.  The herbs are long gone but I am a nerd/pack rat and love little containers.
These I am not sure will fit.  I had a terrible time finding booties for 12+ months.  This pattern went up to 9 months and I'd made a pair before and they seemed large.  I thought I'd do one better and knit them with needles 2 sizes larger than called for.  I guess we'll see.  She can always use them as pot scrubbers or fire starters if they don't fit!

Tuesday, August 06, 2013

Baby for Christine

My wonderful cousin Christine is pregnant with her first baby.  She and her husband Paul are expecting a girl in September.  I bought this Koigu at Jimmy Beans Wool in Reno because I loved the colors and thought I'd use it for a pair of socks.  It looked so nice next to the leftover gray from my last Sprinkle sweater so it became another Sprinkle instead.  I thought I'd made a mistake on the last one because the neck edge was slanted and the picture in the book had a straight edge.  This neck edge turned out slanted too.  My mom has had problems with errata in that same book so I am chalking it up to that.  The two buttons came from Grandpa Maynerd's button box.

 
Of course I knit my go-to baby items to go with it.  There was enough Koigu left over for some multicolored sockies and I used some Spud and Chloe to knit a star baby cap.

These I kind of came up with by accident.  I was looking for some appropriate leftover worsted in my stash for a different hat and booties.  I didn't really have enough scraps of anything but I have all kinds of white Patons Silk Bamboo.  It is so soft and perfect for baby items but I thought it would be kind of boring or would look too baptismal.  Then I remembered I have 3 different colors of leftover Rowan Kidsilk Haze that I didn't know what I was going to do with.  I stranded the two together to make this pair of booties and a Aviatrix bomber helmet.  The cap is finished with another Grandpa Maynerd button.