Another Pair of Greemy Baby Booties

I haven't knit any "Greemy Baby Booties" (pattern available for free from the wonderful Chopped Tomatoes blog) since finding out I am pregnant. When I was at the knit store the other day I picked up some wonderful yarn that screamed "BABY BOOTIES!" The pattern I turn to? Greemy Baby Booties! They are fabulous to knit - easy to make in a couple hours and turn out so cute!

I casted these booties on with size U.S. 2 needles and knit them with JoJoLand's Melody Superwash sock yarn. This made tiny newborn booties. They are super stretchy and I'm sure will fit great at birth.
Go over and take a look at Chopped Tomatoes Blog and make a pair today! They are great for charity knitters (hospitals are always looking for baby socks and booties for their baby patients since hats are always the "go-to" item...)

Sirdar Baby Sweater Finished

I knitted another sweater from the book, "Early Arrivals 3" by Sirdar. The book is meant to knit small treasures for little babies who arrive too early. I thought this would be the perfect book of patterns for my charity knitting since most of the babies are extremely tiny. However, the patterns are pretty poorly written. This pattern, named specifically "Pattern A", is a V neck sweater with a raglan sleeve. The pattern has a stitch count problem (many times it didn't match with the amount of stitches I had on my needles) and the raglan decrease section was extremely poorly written - hard to follow which led to a messy looking raglan. So I just "winged it" when it came to the raglan, placing a stitch marker at the appropriate spot for the raglan and just made the decreases as I saw fit. This turned the sleeve much neater looking and all in all the sweater turned out just fine. However, if you're new to knitting and want a pattern that is quick and easy to follow - this is not it.I knitted the sweater in inexpensive Vanna's Choice (by Lion Brand) Baby in the color Cayenne (a orange-red color) I'm not thrilled with Vanna's Choice yarn which is 100% acrylic, but I had a skein on hand and thought it would be easy to care for with the hospital washing machines. But I don't think the yarn is soft enough for such small preemies. If I had this to knit over I would probably use a cotton/bamboo blend.All in all, the sweater is finished and ready for donation. I think I've given up on this book of patterns - too much headache for something that should be so easy! F.Y.I...

Happy Weekend

This Saturday has been one of those days that you just want to cuddle up with your hubby (or any person of your choosing) on the couch, pop a movie in, and do a little crafting. I woke up this morning to pouring rain and it has continued to rain for most of the day. So I got a little knitting done (yes!) The "project du jour" was finishing up a sweater from a new book I got at my most recent trip to the local yarn store. I finally got the project casted off and blocked today. I still have to sew up the arm pit - but I'm close enough to call it done.
The book I knit the sweater from is called "Early Arrivals 3" by Sirdar. It was 25 designs that they recommend using Snuggly DK and 4 ply yarn for. The designs are for super tiny preemies to 12 months. I got the book because it's extremely hard to find cute patterns for preemies and the hospital could use some cute donations.
To kick off the book I knit the "Frill Edge Cardigan" following the directions for the V neck cardigan version (they also offer a round neck version). I knit the 0-6 month size using Sirdar's Juicy Dk yarn (a cotton/bamboo blend) in place of the recommended Snuggly Dk yarn. The Juicy yarn translated fine in the pattern - my gauge was perfect using size U.S. 5 needles (one size smaller than the recommended U.S. 6 - but I knit loosely). All in all, the sweater turned out ok. The pattern was pretty easy to read. I believe there must be errata out there somewhere for this cardigan because I ran into a stitch count problem towards the end of the pattern but I was able to wing it just fine. I also winged a couple of areas where they had you do some counter intuitive knitting steps and I overruled them:

1. Sleeves - they have you knit them flat and seam them. I just knitted them in the round and boy I am I glad I did. When the sweater was done I only had armpit holes to seam.
2. You have to cast on hundreds of stitches for the ruffle at the bottom. I used the 2 skein technique to avoid running out of yarn which I do so often with the long tail cast on method (you knot the ends of two skeins together and start casting on at the knot with the long tail method. When you have the desired amount of stitches you cut the yarn you don't plan to knit with and weave in the end. You then knit with the yarn that is left. Voila! You can't run out of yarn!)
3. They have you cast off the remaining stitches when you are finished with the back of the sweater. Keep those stitches on a needle holder!! You will knit them when you pick up stitches around the edge for the button border! It makes it much quicker as you don't have to pick up so many stitches and it really looks cleaner.

OK - enough about the pattern. All in all it was a decently written pattern. Not the way I like to knit but it worked. Moving on to the decisions that I made: The Yarn. The Sirdar Juicy yarn is super soft and slinky which is perfect for a baby but it was also extremely easy to split since there is no twist to the yarn. Therefore there are 3 areas where there is a split thread that shows. On wool I don't think you would notice, but this yarn is not forgiving! It shows every little detail of your knitting - from even gauge (or lack thereof) to little splits. Would I knit with this again? No, probably not. I would knit with a yarn that has a little more spring in it but that's my personal preference. I'm not a fan of slinky yarns.
The color of the yarn was called papaya even though it is a very khaki colored yarn. When I think of papaya I think of peach or oranges but there's not a hint of that here (thank goodness). I finished the cardigan off with a little silver elephant button which I thought was kind of cute.
All in all this project took me 3 evenings to complete.

Sorry about my ramblings. Since this book is fairly new I thought I would review the pattern. Next I'm moving on to knit the "Design A" raglan cardigan in the smallest preemie size - a whopping 10 1/4 inch chest measurement. It will be like knitting doll clothes, I'm sure.

Free Online Pattern: Better than Booties Baby Socks

Here is another pair of baby socks that is my favorite pair to knit for charity. You can knit a sock a night and I have the pattern memorized already! Really, if you're looking to do some charity knitting or looking for a baby sock pattern check this one out! This time I did the decorative top edging but I decided that I would focus on the beautiful Panda Silk yarn by Crystal Palace Yarns and I knit the socks in plain stockinette stitch. They turned out beautiful I have to admit!
I also used up a left over skein of "who-knows-what" and made another pair. Take a peek...

Busy Little Bee

I've been a busy little bee - crafting and enjoying the summer sun! So I apologize for not updating this as often as I would like! I have several projects in the pipeline (including my first quilt!!) But I haven't had time to upload pictures from my camera. So you'll have to wait in anticipation for the multiple pairs of socks, a couple wool soakers, some hats for charity, and an extremely cute sweater that I've made. I'll also update you on the quilt that I started (and will hopefully have finished piecing in the next couple weeks).
I grabbed a couple knitting books from the local library and used a couple of skeins of extra yarn for some charity hat knitting. I set the goal that I would finish 100 hats for charity by the end of the year. I've finished about 40 hats already, but the year is more than half done - so I better get working!
Here is a charity hat that I knitted from the book "101 Designer One Skein Wonders" edited by Judith Durant. The hat is the "Edge of Lace" hat. I added a row of bobbles and for symmetry added another section of garter stitch above the bobbles. It made it a little more interesting of a hat. The hat was knit in some left-over Gedifra Mayra yarn.I'm glad that I have the opportunity to review books from the library before purchasing them for my own library. I was actually quite disappointed with the 101 designer one skein wonders. There were only a couple of projects that I was interested in making - and that was just because the patterns were free. Most of the projects in the book are generic and not all that useful. I know it's hard to have a super ingenious, useful projects to make out of a single skein of yarn - but that's the challenge and interest of the book. Take your imagination and let it run wild!! In contrast, I ran across a really fun one-skein project that's available for free online from the talented Susan B. Anderson (author of some amazing books). The pattern is called, "Ribbit" and it uses a single skein of a new yarn called "Spud & Chloe". I haven't worked with the yarn, but I am super interested since it's a mix of wool and cotton, my favorite combination yarn! The colors look luscious and I will be on the look out for a couple skeins! Hmmm... all the things I could make with it.
I'll get my camera out and update this site soon. I promise!

Stash Buster Alert!!

I've been knitting like a crazy woman for the past couple weeks trying to use up my stash making baby hats for charity. I've tried various patterns, used many yarns and ended up with 20 hats and counting to donate for this month! I'm giving myself a pat on the back! My favorite patterns ended up being:
1. "Baby Hat" by Leigh Radford in the book "One Skein"
2. Preemie Hats for Charity by Carissa Browning
3. Bunny Tail by Susan B. Anderson in the book "Itty Bitty Hats"
I also made several hats making up patterns as I went to use various skeins that I had laying around. Does anyone have any charities that they recommend? The hospital I work at has a plethora of baby hats and I was thinking about trying out some different charities. Let me know if you have any ideas.
All in all, I'm pretty pleased with my knitting this week. Now I'm going to start the Woodland Shawl by Nikol Lohr . I'm excited about the shawl because it's a beautiful leaf pattern that will work great for my sister's wedding in Nover. Hopefully I'll have it finished by then because I'm not great at keeping at monotonous projects such as shawls...

Foster Children Gift Drive

I took a moment this last Saturday afternoon to round up the ladies from church and my husband during the busy morning of wrapping and sorting gifts for a quick picture! Say "Cheese!" Every year our church has a gift drive to give gifts to local children in foster care. We have fun wrapping, laughing and giving back to the community. It always kicks off the holiday season for me!