On hold for too long.

I made this little sweater pattern about 3 years ago from the Debbie Bliss book "Baby Knits for beginners". I love the simplicity of the patterns in this book. A beginner can make these cute little projects, but I think that other knitters appreciate the quick, simple and classic patterns. Well, it was just seasonally off for all of the baby boys born to my friends during all of that time. I'm now very happy to say that it has finally found a home and this winter it will realize it's full potential.

Here's mine. Try not to compare it too closely to Debbie's okay? I just love the little jowls, mouth and chin of the sweater model.

Hopefully after ALL of my other of projects are completed, I'll be able to get back to knitting!

Will it ever end?

Yes, another sweater post. (Gee, H.A. can't you make anything else?) I'm sorry, I just can't help myself, I love to knit. I currently have 2 projects in the works and I'm toying with the idea of doing a book, but who could commit to that with so many other projects in line? Anyway, here is the another one from the Beehive classic collection. This is the honeycomb layette pattern. Although this pattern was from the 50s or 60s (I can't remember which) it has been re-released and also has a matching hat and bootie option which I did not make. It's a little cardigan as seen in the bottom detail picture.I can honestly say that I will NEVER knit this sweater again, since it was a real struggle to stay focused on it with my short attention span, but I love how it turned out and it looks so darling on a little body :o) Isn't that little baby head just so cute?

Shoot me an email if you want to know where to get this pattern :o)

Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize!

I was at Michael's yesterday and I saw that there are some new lines of yarn that I hadn't seen before (and believe me I'm very familiar with the yarn at Michael's). I agonized over one particular style putting it in my cart and returning it to the shelf three times, finally deciding that I have enough yarn in my stash that needs to be used and therefore can't justify buying more....yet.
One project that I'll be making for sure next month is a hat for girl-1. The pattern was an old one from Beehive knits called, "pussy cat" which is part of the Nanny collection. (We had this exact same hat as children) I've made it twice and now I'm in need of the next size up. Not only is a so cute to me, but girl-1 one begs to wear it. Just when I thought she couldn't get cuter, ladies and gentlemen (like any men read this blog.) I give you...winter kitty.

I'm actually really excited this year since girl-2 will also be wearing one of the smaller kitty hats and then I'll have 2 kitties at once. How lucky can a mom be?

The taste of success...finally

When boy-1 was quite small I decided to design and knit a Nordic sweater for him. I got my graph paper and got started. I learned some interesting facts 1-the traditional colors for a Nordic sweater are/were black and white since those are naturally occurring wool colors 2-The more colors you add to the design, the more cross overs occur on the inside making the sweater warmer (a good thing in Scandinavia) 3-Since it's suggested to alternate colors every 3 stitches or so, pattern sequences are best when small and repeated often. The last thing is that generally the multi-tonal pattern exists on the sleeves, chest, and shoulders of Nordic sweaters since, while working outside sweaters were tucked into pants and couldn't be bulky on the bottom or they would not fit....so these were my guidelines...phew, now for the project. After graphing out and test knitting what seemed like a whole heard of wonky horses, I finally got a winning reindeer for the final design.

I did some small designs around edges and around the shoulder/chest region. Minus my designs this can be a blank slate basic cardigan pattern where any design could be added. I have this in both 12-18 mos size and a 2T size. I'd be happy to email it to anybody interested. Just let me know which size.

Here is another example of the same basic cardigan with a different design. (Click photo to enlarge)

I just needed a reason

I made this little 'set' for girl2 who was born in May, no I don't live in Alaska or south of the equator, but I was looking for a reason to knit and what better reason right? The pattern for the booties was from Zoe Mellor's bootie book and the hat was from Knitting for Baby. You might be thinking, could a baby born in May have occasion to wear a newborn hat and slippers? Well the answer is 'no' so these go in the gift pile. Somebody I know MUST be having a girl this fall or winter right?