Saturday, February 11, 2012

Baby Gifts

Aren't baby knits cute? I made this little set for the mom of one of the boys Irene goes to school with. She is due anytime with a girl and said she wasn't really prepared yet. Of course, I felt like I needed to come home and "knit all the things!" for the baby. Instead I looked at what yarn I had available and picked out a couple of patterns that would work with them.
This is the Puerperium Cardigan. I had one small ball of Sidar Snuggly left and I knew I could get through the body of the cardigan with no problem. Once I got to the sleeves I was worried about not having enough yarn. My other problem was that I did not have the correct size double pointed needles. I used a size smaller needle and decided to make a three quarter length sleeve. I finally got buttons for it the other day. I wanted the buttons to be a similar color to the baby bonnet that I made.
The Baby Bonnet is from the book More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. It was super quick and knitted flat. I used a small amount of Shepherd's Wool in the Lakeshore color. The buttons on the hat are pink to match the color of the cardigan.
The Baby Socks are from the same book as the hat. Again, I used a small amount of left-over Berroco Comfort DK and knitted these quite quickly. The socks are made just like an adult sock so technically these are my first finished pair of socks.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Hoo! Hoo!

I received an email from my brother, Matt, saying that he loved the hat I made him. I wrote about the hat, Welldigger, as well as the other items that I sent in a recent post. Apparently, my sister-in-law, Kaye, also liked the hat and kept stealing it from him. Clearly, she needed her own! I decided to use some of my favorite wool, Stonehedge Fiber Mill's Shepherd's Wool, and make her the Owl Hat by Bonnie Jacobs.

If you've read my knitting blog before you know that I love the Shepherd's Wool and I have a small amount stashed. I gotta like you a lot to use it on a project for you! Anyway, I loved the owl pattern and it was free. I didn't have the correct needles so I used a size 6 and 8. I also cast on enough stitches to make two extra owls. The pattern was quick and easy and just a lot of fun to knit. It was fun to watch the owls come together with each row.

For the eyes, I only put button eyes on one owl. I figured it was a bit more subtle. A lot of the finished projects had eyes on all owls, multi-colored buttons and beads were used. I like a lot of the ideas people came up with. If I was to make the hat for one of my kids I would let them pick out beads or buttons for the eyes.

I haven't heard from my sister-in-law regarding the hat, but how can she not like it? It's cute owls!

I apologize for no links in this post. For some reason, I cannot get the links in the correct places.