Current knitting plans, and lanolizing.

I just posted a whole slew of finished projects, and I think I am finally caught up. I haven't been posting very regularly here lately, and things were getting away from me.

I have two sink-fulls of baby woolies lanolizing right now. I never really thought about just how long it would take to get a wool item fully prepped for first use. I thought once would be fine, but nope! First time lanolizing needs 3-4 rounds! It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't take the thicker wool items two full days to dry between each lanolizing. I am finding that the process is pretty easy, it just takes a while.

I probably have plenty of soakers made already, but I plan to make up a few more. I want to make a couple more of the wrap style soakers. I think they will work best during the newborn stage. I have three pairs of pants made for my little boy, and that really should be all I make in newborn size. I will make a few in the 3-6 month range, but maybe not for a week or so.

To break things up a bit, I started working on a baby hat today. The only problem is that the hat is going to be a super quick knit. To extend the life of the project, I am going to make another one in a toddler size as well. I am making these for the little girl the blue blanket was for, and I am using the left over yarn from that blanket. The hats should be pretty cute and are quite girly and frilly without being over-the-top.

I have a few patterns that I found a couple weeks ago that I need to buy yarn for, otherwise I would be working on them right now.  I found a pretty awesome pattern for a knitted Cactuar!! If you know what that is and anything about me, you can only guess how badly I want to make it! I will make that thing, as soon as I can justify buying "unnecessary" yarn. I also found a pattern for a Totoro toy that looks pretty cool. I am pretty sure my baby boy NEEDS a Totoro toy (at least as much as he needs a Cactuar toy anyway, lol).

That's about it for my current knitting plans. There is so much going on with preparing for the birth and the baby that I don't really have much time to knit outside of school hours. There are so many things I want to make, but such limited time and yarn : )

Slippers for kiddo.

This is something I made today, just because. I used scrap yarn and a random pattern off Ravelry. It took me about an hour and a half to make these during school. My 6-year-old likes them, despite the child's size being pretty snug on her. Not too bad for a random little knit : )

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.