Smocked Baby Dress in Action!

Here is a link to my friend's cute little baby wearing the smocked dress I knit for her!

Smocked Baby Dress

All my friends are having babies, it's a marvelous excuse to flex my knitting muscles. I haven't actually knitted very many things before. In fact, prior to this dress I knit: a washcloth, a hat, a baby vest, and a pillow. That's it, my friends. So here I present the smocked baby dress.

The sleeves look all weirdly bunchy, I think it'll be fine once it's on a baby. The pattern is Modell 6 from Filati Kids Special 10. The yarn is Patons Beehive Baby Sport in a cute self-striping color scheme. I love how it worked up on the body, not so much how it made big plain bands on the sleeves. I went down two needles sizes.





Ha ha It looks downright goofy from the back. Maybe my friend will post pics of her baby in it, then I can put them up here.

Basketweave Pillow, Finished

I finished this a while ago, I just forgot to post these pics! It's finally done. Rainbow's husband said the pillow looks like a sweater. So I beat him to death with it.

Back

Front

Basketweave Pillow

I am thisclose to done with the pillow! All knitting done, I'm just stitching the pieces together. I ordered some buttons off etsy...let's see...here's the link to the shop. I love the buttons, they're 1/4 inch bigger than the pattern calls for, and the buttonhole band instructions made absolutely no sense, so I just made the buttonhole band how I thought it should be, and with slightly larger holes.

Oh and I joined Ravelry. So I'll put up a link to my profile on this page.

Gnome Hat

I always forget which order to load photos in Blogger, so these are backwards from how I wanted them, and I'm not redoing them!

Here is a closeup of the gnome hat I made for Cassie's little one. It was quite easy and fast. The earflaps are knit first, then you add on the rest of the stitches around the earflaps and start knitting in the round.

Earflaps with little decorative ties.

Here's the hat, slightly offset so you can see in better detail. I used a worsted weight yarn I had lying around and dpns, size 9.

And picture 1, at the end. Ha ha

WIPs, again

So I finished the baby blanket for Teaje's little son, then shipped it off so fast I totally forgot to take a picture! Ugh! Now it's on the East Coast and it's very unlikely a picture of it will ever appear here. I'll have to stalk Teaje's FB page, maybe she'll post her baby using it. Lol Anyway, it was a 5-row shell pattern, very lovely. I crocheted it using most of a Pound of Love in Denim, which was actually quite nice, much better than it sounds. Went down one hook size as I have realized I am a loose crocheter & knitter.

Now I am working on a gnome hat (pattern here) for another baby. No pictures, because this friend reads my other blog and I don't want her to stumble over here and see it accidentally. Her baby is actually already three months old (oops) but that's okay because I think this hat will fit a one-year-old.

My friends are reproducing at such a frantic rate, I may never be able to put down my hook or needles again! (Pretending to be sad about that.)

I had to frog my pillow cover (*tear*) because I finally admitted it was 17" wide and not 16" like it was supposed to be. I had 10 inches done!!! All gone. I went down TWO sizes before I finally got the right gauge. *sigh* So I think I have like six inches done on the pillow back. Someday I swear I will be done with that thing.

Oh and I frogged the sock because the ankle was all strangely big and I would never have worn it. I think the pattern may have sucked. It wasn't my hooking, because I followed those instructions perfectly.

Pic of the Baby Hat

Still working on the sock, and started a little baby blanket for my friend who just had a boy.

Update

I finally finished the baby blanket. Well, I haven't blocked it yet, but the crocheting is all done. It turned out much larger than the pattern said, and it took quite a bit more yarn (approx 14 oz instead of 10 oz). I think what happened is I had just come off of that little baby hat. Same hook, but something about that hat caused my tension to go all tight and tiny, so when I started the baby blanket the gauge matched up, but as I continued my tension got looser and looser and voila, 5 ft wide baby blanket. That might be a slight exaggeration. I haven't measured the blanket yet, but it is extremely large. Besides, what was I going to do, switch to a finer weight yarn, when I had already purchased a bunch of DK? I don't think so. I couldn't go down a hook, since I was already using a D. It's fine, it's just really large. Ha ha

Now I'm working on the socks. I am almost done with the gusset on sock #1 and despite some yarn store owner's assurance that one skein of Sockotta would be enough for a pair, I am going to run out of yarn somewhere in the leg of sock #2. Grr. Perhaps crocheting socks takes more yarn than knitting them?? Either way, that yarn store closed so I'm just going to order the yarn online.

I found a bunch of fingering weight yarn at the thrift store in white and a lovely dark gray. I think I might try my hand at knitting lace.

Yesterday I made capes for the kids. Ace came to me with a request that I tie a sparkly blue skirt around his neck and I realized he had no dress ups, while Miss E has quite a bit. So I decided to make him a cape. However, I could not make him a cape without making Miss E a cape as well. Thus two capes. Miss E picked out her fabric (bright pink) and I chose basic blue for Ace's. I spied some Hello Kitty ribbon, and we were ready to go. By using some coupons I got it all for $5 (and have extra fabric left over). Miss E's was first and it took about three times longer than Ace's, where I had figured out how to do it all. They turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. Miss E wore hers to bed last night!

Still Can't Get the Camera to Download to the Laptop

• Still working on the circular baby blanket. I'm on the edging, and it's getting quite large. It's really cute, though I'm not looking forward to blocking the 64 flowers around the edge!
• Knitting a basketweave washcloth in Linen Tweed in this adorable color:
  

• Crocheting some socks in Plymouth Sockotta #5612, delightful ice princess colors. I'm almost to the heel on sock one.
  

Ha ha

I kind of want to knit it just for the name...

the Badonkadonk Bobbles Scarf.

Woo!

Haven't posted since 2008. That's awesome.


Sorry long-neglected little blog. I still love you.


Fall 2008 saw no itchy fingers descend upon me. No crafting all through that winter. I read 133 books in 2009. See the correlation? My fingers still did something - turned the pages of books.


It wasn't until Fall 2009 that I felt the familiar itch. I realized my s-i-l A was having a baby in March, and wouldn't it be lovely if I made something for her little one? I further realized that s-i-l J was having a baby in May and I certainly couldn't leave that one out.


I crocheted a sweater for A's baby, sorry I completely forgot to take a picture of it! It was cute and quick. I ran out of yarn, so bought what I thought was the same yarn. Yeah, so not the same yarn. In good light you can really tell. In fact, if you are paying attention at all you can tell, because the hand is totally different. Oopsie. A's pretty mellow, so I think even if she notices she won't care.


I made a hat for J's baby. That hat. I hate it. It's worked in a sport weight yarn, but with a D hook. (D! Tiny!) So it took forever and I felt no small amount of animosity toward that thing, especially since I worked it in yellow. I hate yellow, but J likes it, so J gets it. It's from Adorable Crochet for Babies and Toddlers by Lesley Stanfield. It turned out well, it has a rolled brim, and that blasted D hook means it's tight and smooth. I'll post a picture once I upload the pics from the camera. My gauge was slightly big, and yet I have a hard time believing this hat will fit a 1-year-old. Perhaps my kids just had big heads. I'll suggest to J that she start trying it on her baby around 6 months.


Now I'm working on a circular baby blanket in white. Never done a circular one before. I spotted the pattern on eBay and had to have it. I'm not sure who it's for. As it gets bigger, I find myself thinking I'll just hang onto it until I have another baby! Cause I'm selfish!