Baby Sweaters.

 I used up a ball of leftover Super Saver making a sweater for my baby. I used a top-down raglan recipe I found via ravelry.com The Incredible, Custom-Fit Raglan Sweater was a fun knit. I kept it simple and fairly plain, though I may make a more creative version in the future. I made it a tad large so he can grow into it over the winter.

 This is the earliest picture I have, one sleave finished. I didn't decrease on the sleeves for shaping at all, rather I decreased right before adding the cuff.

 All the knitting except the collar is finished here and the ends aren't woven it, but I just had to try it on him to see if it fit :) When your teething baby is in a good mood, you need to seize the moment, lol

 Poorly taken picture, but all finished!

 This is the second sweater. I have a few more rows done on it than is shown here, but not enough to warrant a new picture. I am doubtful that I have enough blue to finish the sleeves, but I plan to try anyway. The blue yarn I believe is some recycled acrylic that is either Red Heart or Bernat; I bought it too long ago for me to remember. The grey yarn is a smaller weight, closer to a DK or Sport than Worsted, and honestly I have no idea what brand it is. The horrid darker stripe is pencil lead... my 7-year-old colored the yarn darker for me, but left it a surprise that I didn't discover until I had knit a bit with it and my fingers were all grey and yucky!!

No pattern used for this blue sweater, just a basic bottom up using a geometric stitch pattern I'd used on a sweater for my husband years ago. I adapted the stitch pattern to be shorter/smaller to look better on a smaller man ;) That old light-blue sweater I made for the hubby was a complete disaster, by the way. I didn't check my gauge (hated it as much then as I do now, only I didn't knit on gauge then). It looked nice until he put it on and it became apparent it would fit at least two of him, lol

I am not terribly fond of using cheap acrylics, especially for baby clothing. This is what I had that needed used up though, and I plan to try to soften it up some. I have never attempted this, but googling has led me to believe there is a way to do it that involves using hair conditioner... I'm a touch skeptical, but it's worth a try. I won't attempt the experiment until I have the second sweater completed as well.

Striped longies complete!

The longies were finished a bit ago (my concept of time is way off right now, so best guess would be a couple weeks). I have not tried these on the little boy yet, as I am slowly working on lanolizing them. They are sitting in their 3rd lanolin soak as I type.

Hooray for something finished! lol

Baby bib.

I just finished making this baby bib today. I used the pattern "I-Love-Stockinette Baby Bib" by Laura Treadway (downloaded free from Ravelry.com), size 6 needles ('cause that's what was on my cable from the last project) and Sugar 'N Cream yarn. I've never used this yarn before. My mom uses it all the time for dish rags, but I kinda hated knitting with it. It just sort of felt cheap in hand and didn't move very easily on my needles which really slowed down my knitting. The price was good though and it's just going to be catching baby spit, so no biggy. I have another skein, so all in all, I will most likely end up with 3 bibs in this color. If I were to buy yarn for this again, I would get a blend that was softer (not that I could find such a thing locally).

Update: 10/11/2013

I was correct on getting 3 bibs out of the two skeins of yarn. They soak up a good amount of drool, and bub enjoys chewing on them. I'm happy :)

Striped longies.

I have no red wool yarn :( So no monster longies for now. I frogged the striped longies and am reknitting those instead. The orange and black alone would not be enough yarn, so I added the avacado green and reduced the size of the black stripes.

I am using size 6 needles (size 4 for the waistband) for a gauge of 5.5 stitches per inch. I measured my little guy at 17 inches at the waist, 20 hips, 17 rise. I intend for them to be big so cast on with a 3 inch ease, or 112 stitches. Each color stripe has an increase of 4 stitches (ending up with 124 stitches), plus one short row. I could have added two short rows per color stripe, but don't want it to be so obvious that there are short rows (nothing like chunky stripes on the tush to give it away). In the photo the back is on the right side.

I am nearly done with the body section of the longies. I will finish the green stripe, the next black stripe, then start the gusset in the -orange- color. I am a bit nervous about possibly running out of black yarn, as I intend the cuffs to be black. I have used up approximately half a skein worth of yarn. Now that bub is getting bigger, those skeins of Wool of the Andes worsted don't seem to be going very far.

I've been working on these for nearly a week now. I hope to have more time over the weekend, and possibly get them finished up. Lanolin is on my shopping list, and I have some woolies waiting to be lanolized so might as well do these at the same time if I can. I have been getting very little knitting done, so it will feel great if I do manage to finish something.

Braided longies - on.

I said I would post pictures of the re-knit braided longies, and I am finally getting to it. They fit my baby okay for now, but not for long. I did not count on the legs being so snug and would prefer to have quite a lot more ease in the thigh portion. Next time I make these I will keep that in mind.

Braided longies - update/finished

I just finished weaving in the ends on the braided longies! I'll lanolize them over the next couple days and then post a picture of them in use :)

Knitting at night.

Knitting at night while sleep deprived is STUPID!!! I decided to stay up and knit while waiting for my husband to get off work last night. After a couple hours of good progress, I noticed I had made a mistake, 10 rounds ago!! I miscounted and had an extra round, which messes up the cable. My husband (the man who can't seem to find anything while grocery shopping) spotted it right away, then tried to convince me no one would notice and I should just leave it :/

I know the mistake is there, and it would bother me every time I saw the longies. I can't leave it. I am just a little too OCD to allow that.

That longer section just messes up the look of the braided cable.

The only question is, how do I go about this? Do I just take the needles out and frog back to the mistake, then carefully put the live stitches back onto the needle? Tink back 10 rounds? Try to make a too-late life line? Or just drop the cable stitches and try to "fix" just that area? I opted for the last one. It'll be a piece of cake, right?

That doesn't look so bad, now to "fix" my dropped stitches.

Okay so that wasn't nearly as bad as I was anticipating. It was actually fairly easy and quick. It looks alright. Now to fix the other side and then start on the gussets increases.

Maybe I've learned my lesson and won't knit when my brain doesn't function... Yeah right! Lol That would take all the challenge out of knitting ;)

Slowly making progress.

I haven't had as much time to knit as I'd hoped. Once I get the baby to bed for the night, there is still so much to do. Hopefully I can find time to finish these longies soon. He needs some more wool for night time so I can wash his shorties. Anyway, I have the majority of the body done. My gauge is a touch large, but it seemed fine and I'm not concerned if they measure a tiny bit large (we'll see if I end up regretting this decision later on, lol). Here is a picture of my progress so far.

This would be the right side (as in not the left), showing the cable braid. Note that I don't use stitch markers. I figure there is no point since I am using magic loop method and the front and back are split where the markers would go anyway. If I can avoid using extra tools, I do. I don't need extra pieces to get lost in the couch ;)

Braided longies - redo

I have the too-small soakers and longies stripped and FINALLY dried. It seriously took a couple days for them to fully dry. Apparently I was too lax when it came to squeezing the water out :(

The plan, of course, is to frog and reknit in a size that fits my baby. I really loved working with the Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in the Jade Heather color; sooooo pretty! So I am going to start with the Braided longies pattern. I have a huge advantage this time. I can measure my baby to make sure it will actually fit him.

I am a touch concerned about running out of yarn. They may end up being shorties instead of longies, lol

Hopefully I make decent progress and have an update picture in a couple days :)

Lacy baby hat, completed!

Again I am slow posting for finished projects : / I made these hats as a gift for the baby I knitted the Larkin blanket for. I used some of the left over yarn, Knit Picks Comfy Sport in "Sea Foam." I used a free pattern found here on Ravelry.com. The hats took very little time to knit up, maybe a couple hours each. It was a fun little knit that should make cute little summer hats for a cute little girl : )

Wool shorties, complete!

Just a quick post to show the wool shorties I finished! I used just under 2 skeins of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in the color Merlot Heather (which leaves me one skein left for making a soaker!). The shorties are a size small, but I should be able to use them right away, just pulled up to his armpits, lol

Washcloths for baby!

I purchased Knit Picks Dishie yarn to make gift placemats about a year ago. I had quite a bit of leftover yarn, so I decided to make some cute washcloths for the baby.

I won't post which patterns I used (because I'm lazy) but I found all of them on Ravelry, for free. Be forewarned, none of the following washcloths have been washed or blocked, so they aren't exactly "finished" looking.

 The first washcloth I made was this one: a Dalek!

The pattern was called "Exfoliate!" lol

 In case this doesn't show up that well, this is supposed to be Joe Cool.

Cute little fishies; these are probably my favorites. It is surprising how little yarn it takes to make one of these. I made the variegated blue with a ball of yarn barely larger than a golf ball.

These are the wash mitt version of the fish washcloths, sized for a little kiddie hand.

See? Perfect size for a toddler.

"pinkgreen Knit Wool Tie Wrap," Completed!

I've made a few wool soakers by now, and wanted to try something other than the pull-up kind for a change. I found a wrap style soaker on Ravelry, and whipped one up really quickly (seriously it only took part of an afternoon to knit up). I made it in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky (discontinued handpainted in the color "Polar." I really hate that they don't sell the handpainted colors currently as many of them were very pretty), and it turned out quite well I thought. I made the newborn size and used about half of the hank.

I think the wrap will be very easy to get a really good fit with, and should fit for a longer amount of time than the pull up style. The wrap pictured above was made for someone else, so I won't be trying it on my baby. I did however make another wrap with worsted weight yarn for my baby, though I did not take any pictures of it. Since I have all the wool items sitting in a lanolin bath at the moment, pictures will have to wait. Obviously the bulky weight yarn made a little stiffer, thicker, and bulkier soaker, but should also absorb more. Both soakers turned out really well and I will be making more of these; hopefully I'll remember to take pictures when I do ; P

Buzzy Bee Baby Blanket

I actually finished this baby blanket quite awhile ago, I am just now getting around to posting. I enjoyed working the pattern which I got from Knit Picks. I used Knit Picks Swish worsted yarn in the amount called for in the pattern, and have barely less than a full skein of each color left over (maybe a cute matching hat?) It only took me 32 hours to complete the knitting and weaving in of the ends, and the end result looks well worth the time spent : )

 Finished and unblocked!

 This is the blanket, lightly blocked.

 Just a little closer shot of the bees.

Folded and ready to be set aside for baby!

Striped Longies, Complete!

I got distracted by baby patterns on Ravelry, else this would have been posted an hour ago!

So, I finished the striped pair of baby longies. I can't really say that I followed a pattern for these really. I kind of Frankensteined it using techniques from a few patterns, and inserted my own touches here and there. I am tired, so not much detail about this project. Here are the pictures!

Go-Veralls, Completed!

I completed the "On the Go-Veralls" pants last night. Over all I really like the finished product. The pattern was fine to work up, though I did not use the suggested gusset moderation, but just did my own instead. I haven't put buttons on yet, and the straps are a bit short. I ran out of yarn while knitting up the straps, so they are 4 inches long instead of 6. I am hoping they will stretch enough so it will still fit (fully stretched they are close to 6.5 inches long). It would be very easy to attach more yarn and make the straps longer, though I've no idea when my next yarn order will be. The pattern called for 200 yards worsted weight for the 0-6 month size, and I used 220 yards (with exact gauge). I would have had enough if I'd left the gusset increases out, but I don't want to frog and redo that much of the project.

Finally, pictures that show how pretty this yarn is! The legs don't look bad here, and I am glad that I decided to make them a bit narrower. The final project looks pretty big for 0-6 month size. I plan to make this again, and will go down a needle size or two.

 The bib portion here looks a bit small to me. I am interested to see how it looks on.

 Here is the back. You can see that I added three rows of short rows for extra diaper room. The pattern didn't call for it (another area I used too much yarn).

 The suggested gusset mod looked strange to me. It had a row of purl stitches running between the gusset increases and the legs, and just looked kinda out of place to me. I just did my favorite left and right leaning increases for sock toes, and am pleased with how clean it looks. Please excuse my sloppy kitchener stitches, I straightened them up a bit after taking the picture.

I started a pair of longies last night after finishing the above project. I am nearly done with it, so should be posting pictures of it either tonight or tomorrow morning. It is the crazy black and orange striped pair. I was thinking something along the lines of construction signs, but working on it just makes me think of bees. Anyway, there will be no losing the boy wearing those things, lol

Hopefully I'll get around to washing and blocking the bee baby blanket later today. It has been sitting, all folded up, mocking me for days now.

Go-Veralls redo.

I did frog and start over on the legs. I just couldn't stand how wide they were. I cast on the smaller size on the leg instead of the called for cuff size, 46 stitches instead of 52. It isn't that many stitches, but looks much better and takes an inch off the width.

This morning I spent about the same amount of time on the legs as I did last night, but have much more progress thanks to the fewer number of stitches. In fact, I am nearly done with the legs. All I have left is a couple rows, then to make the gusset before I get started on the rise.

A little note about the yarn - I love this color! The yarn is the same Wool of the Andes worsted, but the "Sapphire Heather" color is just beautiful! I hope at some point the variations within the blue shows up in a picture.

On The Go-Veralls, started.

I just started this pattern today, and I'm having doubts. My gauge is spot on for both stitches and rows, but the legs look huge! I am pretty sure my little boy would be swimming in the pants with just how wide the legs are. I'm making the 0-6 month size, and the legs are 5.5 inches wide! I'm pretty sure that would fit my 8-year-old daughter's leg comfortably.

The problem is that I've spent about 4 hours working on the pattern so far, and I would hate to start over from scratch. I am torn on whether to start over or not. Also I am having reservations as to how wide the body will be. I guess this calls for some research to see what other people chose to do and if theirs turned out so wide as well.

Here's my progress so far.

Braided Longies, Complete!

I just got my yarn for the baby pants today, and I already completed a pair! I'd say I worked for approximately 7 hours throughout the school day and the evening. I used the "Braided Longies" pattern by Raya Budrevich of www.blissfulknits.com (I got the pattern off Ravelry.com of course). Mine didn't turn out exactly like the ones pictured on Ravelry, but I'm fine with that. I do believe the yarn I used was a little lighter, and my gauge was a little on the small side where rows are concerned (next time I make this pattern with this yarn, I will go up to a size 8 needle instead of the size 7 I used this time). The pants still look nice, and I've no complaints about the pattern.

I made the newborn sized ones, and have over half a skein leftover. I used the dark green Wool of the Andes Worsted, called "Aurora Heather." It is a beautiful heathered green, and the pictures just don't do it justice. I am pretty pleased with the amount of yarn used. I guesstimated that I would need almost 2 skeins for newborn longies, but had a tiny bit of a panic moment when I saw just how small the skeins looked!

 The 3 rows of short rows did add a little bit of extra room in the tush. I'm not sure they were needed, the cable along the sides adds a ton of stretch (though I have yet to have experience with the famous cloth "fluff butt" that is supposedly so difficult to fit pants over).

 I choose the braided cable pattern along the side.

 They look pretty long, and I did make the legs half an inch longer than the pattern called for. I do think they will look quite a bit wider and not so stick-thin and tall once I get them lanolized and blocked (or actually on a baby ;).

I suppose that's about all there is to say about my first knit longies. I have a few other projects to get finished before I start another pair. My 6-year-old has been waiting patiently for me to finish her leg-warmers, and I have the bee baby blanket to block still. There is of course that jacket for my husband, and socks for me, but those aren't going to get touched while there is baby stuff to knit, lol

Yarn order for woolies.

I ordered a bunch of yarn from Knit Picks today. I got some of their Valentines sale yarn (good on pinks and reds only). I was able to get a couple skeins of the "Andes del Campo" since it was cheaper, but mostly just stuck with "Wool of the Andes" worsted. For about $52 I got enough yarn for 8 wool pants that will double as diaper covers. That works out to only $6.55 each! Those will last the baby through his 1st year, and if I frog and reuse the yarn even longer than that.

Since I was getting cheaper yarn, I didn't stick with just the sale yarn. I don't think I could stand for him to only have red pants, lol I really wanted to get some Full Circle in worsted weight, but they were out of the red : ( That's okay though, because I got a pretty good variety of colors. I should have some leftovers to make a funky stripped pair of pants too, so I may even get 9 pairs out of it.

I saved a picture from my checkout so I don't have to try to list all the colors, so here's that.

I figured two skeins, or 220 yards, should be enough to make 0-6 month sized pants (according to several longies patterns I looked at for reference) and 3 skeins for 6-12 month sizes. I got single skeins of the orange and black, because I plan on those being a super loud pair of striped longies ; )

I'll post a yarn haul with pictures when my order gets here. I should have my order by the end of next week : )