Pink Parade!

I went a little crazy with the pink this Christmas season and decided to shower my little girl with pink knitted things:

First the Upside-Down Daisy hat from Susan B. Anderson Itty-Bitty Hats. It's a very popular pattern and I can see why! The knitting was easy but I didn't enjoy all the sewing on of the petals. Oh well, I cannot wait to see it my little pumpkin's head. So cute! And it's all wrapped up and under the tree. Shhh!

Then I decided that she'd have fun with a little scarf and I had just enough Baby Britches yarn to make a hat and scarf set. I figured, hey, it's cheap yarn, she can wear it on the playground and I won't stress out about it, whatever. But it ended up being one of the cutest things I've made yet, I think! The little white pom just slays me. (I didn't have enough of the pink yarn for the fringe, so I decided to use a white accent color. I think it was a great choice.) Once I wash it, it will be under the tree too!

And though it won't be in time for Christmas, but I'm getting some good work done on the Samantha Sweater by Kate Gilbert. It's a precious little things and I hope I can finish it before the pumpkin outgrows it. ;) These pics are from the back, which I recently finished. It's my very first sweater project and I'm nervous about doing seaming and hemming which will be new skills for me. But as the Yarn Harlot says, it's just knitting and there's none of it I can't do. OK!

busy, busy!

I'm taking a class at my LYS about doing two socks at a time, toe-up. It's actually a very simple idea, doing two at a time: just use a longer cable (magic loop) and work from two balls of yarn. No prob. I've never done toe up before, so that's really where I'm learning. Our instructor taught us Turkish cast on which is crazy simple: just wrap the yarn around your needles then start knitting the wraps as if they were stitches! It's like I'm just flinging myself straight into a sock!

Here's the socks I've started:

I received a review on one of the baby hats I made this year. I unfortunately couldn't make the shower, but I sent the gift along with someone else and I hear it was a big hit!

I bet that the mommy-to-be would love the colors. I just wish I'd placed those darn stripes lower.

5 stars!

Well, I now have a review on the socks.

"Squishy."

OK! He said they are thicker than his usual socks (yeah) and that they have a little more squish to them, which is comfortable. Maybe I have a convert? He also said they were rather warm. And he was a good boy and showed them off at work. And Pumpkin has enjoyed running around the bedroom with "daddy's socks." All in all, a success.

More footwear, this time in the Baby Parade of 2008:
Cute, CUTE, CUUUTE little Saartjes for my friend's little boy due in September. I don't really enjoy knitting booties, I've decided. But the cuteness of these makes it worthwhile. It's the buttons.

The pattern was a little wonky at times, but once I finally was able to project the finished bootie in my head, I was able to figure it out. I had to knit a little on blind faith until then. I was going to do this set over again for another friend, but I don't think I have quite enough yarn for both hat and booties. That's OK, though, because this way each of my friends can get something different for their bambinos-to-be, which oddly enough, equalizes things.

Come back, Jack

OK, coming back to my blog after a while I actually realized how long it's been since I updated and... how long it's been since I started Anouk! Well, Anouk is done with the exception of adding a snap to secure the shoulder. Bonus picture on the blog of Pumpkin showing off her dress!

I did lots and lots of math to make this thing work, given the re-formulation of the yarn. On my gauge swatch, the yarn knit up smaller, so I calculated how many more stitches I needed to get the size in inches that the pattern wanted. I added that many stitches throughout the pattern then doubled all the instructions since I knit one piece in the round, not two pieces flat.
I widened the shoulder strap, as per another Raveler's recommendation, but then didn't think to add another buttonhole. So one button isn't really cutting it, hence the need for a snap.

Pumpkin seems to enjoy the dress, but she does tug at it a lot, which stresses me out. Please don't stretch out mommy's work! On the plus side, she has now learned the word 'dress.'

It was a bit mind-bending to make this dress work, which is why it took so long. I also have whipped out one of the many baby hats I'm going to need for the year and I'm just getting warmed up! So far, I'm not behind at all. The babies being born next month have knitted things ready for them, and the next babies are due in August. For now I'm going to concentrate on DH's socks, then return to baby hats and hopefully knock those out quickly so I can get a start on Christmas knitting. Which is pretty much all socks. Accio socks!!!