My Best Model

My beautiful Granddaughter.  I made several sweaters for her before she was born, and this Baby Surprise jacket has proven to be my DIL’s favorite.  I need to make a Totem for her next.  I also have some Dale of Norway Fair Isle sweaters in the waiting to take out next time we visit.

The hat pattern has received several inquiries.  It took a bit of sleuthing, but I finally found the pattern.  It is a Dale of Norway baby book #129

And the pattern is #12908

Here she is in the baby surprise jacket when she was a lot smaller!

Radio Silence is Over

I have been conspicuously absent in my postings this summer, and it was all for good reason.  My son and DIL are expecting a baby in December, and I have been knitting away to present these items to them at the baby shower.  The shower was held last weekend, and attended by all of Ethan’s high school friends, some from college, and many of Dan and I’s friends.

It was a lot of fun, and they received many nice gifts which will go a long way in helping them to get their young family established.  It was nice to celebrate, as we never really had a large wedding celebration like there was for Sofia and Mark, where I knit her this beautiful shawl.

So, here goes, fair warning that there will be a lot of photos here.  Most made with Dale of Norway Baby Ull, which I had to stock up on.  For those of you still looking for the one place in the US that carries it, you need to go to Heart of the Mitten.  Not quite sure why they are limiting the sales just to this store, but at least it is still available for the time being.

First, a pattern that I have knit more times than I can count.  It is an old booklet that my mother had from the 50’s, and as a child I knit baby sweaters from this for my mother’s friends and family.  I used a variegated sock yarn, and Baby Ull of course.  This is a wonderful baby pattern, as the raglan sleeves work well for a newborn.

And a matching hat

This makes such a cute set.

Next, I believe that this is from the same booklet.  And, this also is a pattern that I have made in the past.

This sweater got matching booties and a hat.

Then, I needed to make an Elizabeth Zimmerman baby surprise jacket as well.  I had made one from some of my early handspun a few years ago for my niece, and my sister loved it.  So here it is with handspun yarn, and some funky square buttons. It is so incredibly soft and squishy.

And lastly, my favorite baby booties, Christine’s Baby Booties that really stay on.  A free pattern from Knitty.

And of course, they needed a hat to go along with them.  These were made after we knew that the baby is to be a girl.

More in the work now that are gender specific…

Sheep 1, Sheep 2

Both of my sheep hats are finished.  The first, Sheep 1, was the pattern Baa-ble Hat by Donna Smith. I used the colors specified and the yarn as specified, Jamieson’s Shetland Heather Aran.  It is warm, but I think that I would have liked to brighten it up more.  My friend Jane made a bright version of this for a child with Dale of Norway Baby Ull, will keep that in mind for a baby gift in the future.

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I cast on with the size 6 needles (per the pattern), and was unhappy with the result pretty much from the beginning.  The Fair Isle portion was knit with size 7, and that works well.  So, when I was all finished knitting, I cut back to the start of the Fair Isle and knit the ribbing down with size 3 needles.  Much, much better.  And I did a double rib tubular bind off.  I will discuss how to do that in a later post.

Here is the inside of the Baa-ble hat.

 

Sheep 2 hat is the Sheep Heid tam by Kate Davies.  Kate designed hers using many of the natural colors of Shetland wool, Using Jamieson’s Spindrift yarn.  I had some of that yarn in my stash, but not all the correct colors.  So mine is a bit more colorful.  And very warm, I am really liking it.

and this inside of this hat…

Hats Progress

Progress on my hats is moving along steadily, both sheep themed.  Hoping to have them both done this week, then I will post comments about the patterns, and suggestions that I may have.

Sheep 1

 

Sheep 2

Scarfiss

Last Fall, we were staying with my brother for a weekend.  I brought along some fingerless mitts that I had made for my niece, and they were a great hit.  Later that weekend, I was working on a scarf for our SnB contribution to the local homeless shelter, Riley asked what I was making, and I told her a scarf.  Without missing a beat, she said “I need scarfiss!”  Yes that was a correct spelling, pronounced scarf-ISS.

Last winter I searched for some fun pink fluffy yarn to make a keyhole scarf with.  I ended up combining some cotton yarn with some soft pink baby wool.  Part way through the project I realized that I was going to run out of yarn, luckily I mentioned it at my SnB knitting group, and one of my fellow knitters came to the rescue with the exact correct yarn.  Here is the finished scarf newly worn by Riley:

And of course, I could not forget her brother!  Orange is his dad’s favorite color, so an orange hat it was:

They are too cute together!