Buzzy Bee Baby Blanket.

I just started this blanket Sunday afternoon, and have 7 hours of work put into so far. I am using the Buzzy Bee Baby Blanket pattern from Knit Picks, and their Swish Worsted yarn in the colors "Honey" and "Black."

This is the first full pattern repeat finished, and the start of the next striped section.

Do these look like bees? My daughter thought they were birds :/

I gotta say, working with this bright yellow yarn is fun and kinda uplifting. The pattern is really simple so far, though I have run into one small issue so far. On the chart, it lists to do the cable stitches again on the reverse side. It doesn't specify on the written pattern at all. It says to purl for the yarn overs and decreases, but for some reason doesn't include the back sides of the cables. I thought it seemed pretty weird, so went and looked at the designer's blog. Another knitter had asked for this to be clarified, and the designer stated it was to be purled, like I assumed it should.

I have four more repeats of the pattern to make, then knit the border on the sides. I think it is a cool looking blanket so far, and I can't wait to see how the finished product turns out! Hopefully baby boy likes it!

Baby leggings!

I finished two pairs of baby leggings a couple days ago. This was my first time using Knit Picks Felici Sport stripping yarn. I got the color Depths. I like it well enough. It is pretty soft and pleasant to work with, but I see what others say about weird little flecks of color where they don't belong and the occasional light spot between colors. I am making these for a little boy to crawl around in though, so I don't really mind the imperfections that much. Besides I paid less than $6 for two skeins which made two pairs, with some scrap yarn left over. I don't think I would use this yarn for making a gift, but is awesome for my own kiddos. In fact, both of my daughters were begging that I make striped socks for them, lol

This is the first pair I made. They turned out well, though I kinda don't like that thin strip of dark blue on the top cuff. I am all about symmetry, so it kinda bugs my inner ocd.

Here are the two pairs next to each other, as you can see, I made the second pair on the left longer than the first pair. There isn't anything in the picture for size reference (totally spaced it out!) but the shorter pair measures about 8 1/2 inches.

I sort of used a pattern for these, as in I looked to see how many to cast on and about how long to make them (the first anyways). I might make some later with different yarn and maybe incorporate some cables. This was just my first attempt at making simple leggings, and I'm pleased with them. I knit both of these over the weekend after I finished the Larkin baby blanket, so I think they are a pretty quick little project. Some super bright stripped green ones would be cute next time!

Larkin baby blanket

I finished the Larkin baby blanket a couple days ago, and think it turned out pretty nice.

Here it is, unblocked.

Blocked, but still wet (why it looks blotchy).

Close up of the edging, which took forever!

All folded and ready to be wrapped up!

Of all the pictures, this one is the most accurate color-wise.

I really enjoyed working the leaf pattern. It was simple but still interesting and fun. It took a couple pattern repeats to memorize the lace pattern, and I could still manage it while multitasking. I really liked the yarn as well, but that was no surprise. I really enjoyed working with Knit Pick's Comfy in fingering weight, so it makes sense that I really liked it in sport weight as well. The Sea Foam color isn't quite what I was going for, but I like the finished product quite well anyways.

I tracked hours spent working on it for fun (blocking not included, or course). I put in a total of 63 hours over the course of about 4-5 days (they kinda blurred together, so I'm not sure which it is!). I pretty much worked all day long on this blanket during the days I worked on it. I spent as much time as I could during bookwork hours in home school, and all my free time in the evenings working on it as well. I started watching Bones on Netflix (love that show despite the yuck factor!) and am now on season 8, lol. My weekend was spent relaxing with my feet up, watching Bones, and knitting like a mad woman! lol Not all of that time was spent working on this blanket, but a good chunk of it was. I don't think the number of hours is too bad honestly. I've made socks that took upwards of 100 hours (they were beautiful too, lol), so 63 for a pretty little baby blanket is a nice number :)

MoH dress.

So this dress has been done for what seems like forever. My issue was finding some way to block it, and yes, it seriously needed to be blocked. My husband finally found me something that would work, and not cost us an arm and a leg. He found workout mats at Big Lots (the grey mats in the picture below). 4 of them for $12! I honestly could have used another set, but the dress did fit on the mats plus the ones I already had. Who knew floor mats were either so hard to find or so stinking expensive?

Here it is, all blocked out :)

Larkin Baby Blanket

I did start the gift baby blanket today, and managed to get 5 hours work in. I am using the Larkin Baby Blanket pattern from Knit Picks. I chose Knit Picks Comfy Sport (75% Pima Cotton, 25% Acrylic) in the color "Sea Foam." The yarn looks bluer on the website, and greener in real life. My pictures make it look more of a grayish blue.

5 hours progress!

So far I am liking the pattern and working with the yarn. Knit Picks Comfy yarn is very soft and nice to work with, and shows stitch definition very nicely. The leaf pattern on the blanket looks a little smooshed right now, but I think it will be very pretty once I get it finished and blocked. I feel like I've gotten quite a bit knitted up with just over half the skein of yarn. I bought 10 skeins total for the blanket.

I do have a tiny bit of concern when it comes to finishing the blanket on time. It is sport weight and I am working it up on size 4 needles.  It feels like it goes kinda slow, so hopefully I can consistently find the time to work on it. Thankfully today, my daughters needed little direction during school and I was able to multitask some :)

I plan on keeping track of how many hours I spend on this blanket, just for curiosities sake ;)

Baby yarn!

The yarn came! It is always nice opening a big box of yarn; feels like Christmas :)

This is the yarn I bought for the gift baby blanket, and will be the project I start today! The color looks more greenish in person, which wasn't what I was going for unfortunately. It is still a very pretty color though.

Just a close up of the label. I really like the cotton Comfy yarn, it is very soft.

This is the yarn I bought for the bee baby blanket for my baby. The yellow is a little more muted and has a pretty brown undertone that isn't really showing that well in the picture.

A close up of the label here too. I was impressed with the Swish yarn while making Xmas gifts year before last. It is definitely soft enough for a baby blanket.

Here is the Full Circle yarn I bought for a soaker (or two, depending on how far it goes). I've never used this yarn before, but it is quite soft and looks like it will be nice to knit up. This yarn is being discontinued currently, and I'm not sure if they will be bringing it back or not. I thought I'd try it while they still had it in stock.

Here is another yarn I have never worked with before, though I have heard plenty of good things about it. Felici is a self striping yarn, and I will be using this for baby leggings!

Now to get knitting!

Fully moded "Cheeky Soaker"

Here's the front of the just finished newborn soaker!

The back!

I quite like how the ribbing looks when extended

from hip to hip instead of just in the center.

A close up of the hip ribbing, just showing the stretch :)

The stretch on the bottom is actually quite impressive! I think.

I should be able to fit a baby, prefold, and insert in there :)

Showing the leg cuff stretch here.

Over-all, I really like the Cheeky Soaker pattern. Granted it is the only soaker pattern I've tried so far, but I don't really feel the need to look for a better one. I will probably make a couple different patterns eventually, just for kicks and giggles. I think it is fantastic that this pattern is not only free, but the designer doesn't care if you sell the ones you've made (not that I plan to do that!). Many designers won't allow you to sell things you've made with their patterns, so it is always great to see a designer who supports work at home mothers :)