Baby bunting!

Okay, now that I am entering my third trimester today I should get going on some baby projects, shouldn’t I?  I found the cutest baby bunting pattern, which I’ve started in Plymouth Encore Chunky.

I got a gauge of 3.5 stitches to the inch with Size 10 (6mm) Knitpicks metal Options needles, and the honeycomb stitch pattern is a really easy mini-cable stitch.  Of course, as usual I am modifying the pattern to avoid seaming as much as possible.  The front and back and hood are supposed to be knit separately, then sewn together, which I hate!  So I started the bottom pretty much like a giant t0e-up sock, using Judy’s Magic Cast-on, and am knitting in the round to the point where it divides for the button placket.  What a great technique!  It took me no time to cast on 108 stitches (54 for each side), and looks beautifully seamless.  Here’s a link to Cat Bordhi’s video demonstration of the cast-on.  So this is what I have so far; hopefully in chunky yarn it shouldn’t take too long.

 

As for my Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl in Sea Silk, it’s almost done.

I’ll just knit until I run out of yarn, and omit the crochet edging on the top edge.  It is taking forever to get across a row now, but still an enjoyable knit.  The Knitpicks Zephyr needles have been lovely to work with for this yarn.  

Maybe a bit too sticky for wool though – I’d have to try and see.

 

Clara Dress for Lillian

Poor neglected blog..  I haven’t even looked at it since April.  The main reason is that shortly after the last post, I started a new WIP in my uterus – which led to fatigue and not doing that much besides working, spending time with Chris and Tim, and sleeping.  After the first trimester, I did manage to do a little knitting for my niece Lillian, who was a month old in these pictures (about 2 weeks ago).

She is so sweet!  The dress is a little big on her still, but she’ll grow into it in no time!  These two pictures were taken by her mommy and my sister Pat, who took the photo of Tim’s Baby Surprise Jacket that was published in Spin-Off Magazine.

When she fills it out I’ll post new pictures.  I also forgot to photograph the cute flower button I used for the back of the neck.  That will come too!

• Pattern:  Clara by Karin Vestergaard Mathiesen
• Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy, colorway Wisterious
• Needles:  Knit Picks Options (metal), US size 5 (3.75mm)
• Ravelry link here

This is the dress in the Soak ads from a while back.  The pattern is a little hard to find, and it only comes in kit form – from the Ravelry forums I found this source.  You need to call them, but their service is great! I called on a Saturday and received the kit by Tuesday.

The yarn that comes in the kit is alpaca/wool Isager Strik Alpaca 2, quite lovely, but not very practical for a baby. So I’m saving it for myself and used the Dream in Color superwash wool instead.  Smooshy is listed as fingering, while the Isager Alpaca 2 is listed as sport, but the Smooshy is actually thicker than the Alpaca 2. So I used larger needles and came up with a larger gauge, about 5.5 stitches to the inch (I also wanted it looser for better drape, given that it is pure merino with no alpaca).

The pattern is rather sparse and has no lace chart. I recommend a good swatch to make sure you understand the lace pattern, as well as for sizing purposes. I decided to use SSK instead of K2t tbl, since it looks better.

 

After finishing the baby dress, I started on a project with the Handmaiden Sea Silk that had been sitting in my stash, calling to me for some time.  It’s a 150 gram skein in colorway Blackberry, that I had been wondering what pattern to knit with it, since the colors are quite contrasty and not really suitable for complex lace.  I chose the Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl, since Feather and Fan makes any yarn look great, and I thought a triangle shape would hold my interest more than a rectangle.  I am trying out the new Knitpicks Zephyr needles for the first time with this project – I think the “stickiness” of the needles is perfect for this slippery yarn.  Here’s a photo from the start of the project, along with my baby bun, though this was also two weeks ago.  Both the shawl and my belly are bigger now, more photos to come later!

 

The Fractal Stripe Handspun Scarf and Reid cardigan

Oops!  Long time no blog, due to technical difficulties.  I’ve gotten some knitting done.  During a conference in October, I finished the feather and fan scarf I knit from my fractal stripe handspun.  I had reversed the pattern front to back in the middle of the scarf because I was knitting during a concert and messed up, but decided to leave it that way.  It turned out lovely.

You can see that one half of the scarf has slow color changes, while the other has more frequent color changes.  I love it!  However, when I was blocking it, I discovered this:

Aaaaaaaaugh!!  I hate dropped stitches in lace.  As you can see, I salvaged what I could and put a safety pin through 3 stitches that seemed to prevent any further damage.  I am not sure how to pick these up again, and may just have to fudge it.  This was going to be a gift, but I don’t want to give something that I messed up.  So I may end up keeping it for myself – it depends on how well the repair goes.

So instead of working on that, I started a new project – the Reid lace cardigan, from Knitty.com.  This will be for Annabelle, and hopefully in time for Christmas.  But in trying to be clever and avoid seaming, I managed to mess up in a few different ways.

First off, I decided to knit the right and left fronts together with the back up to the armhole shaping.  Once I got there, I realized that there IS no armhole shaping – it’s a drop shoulder design.  Duh!  So basically I knit in one piece up to the neck shaping.  It really didn’t look that big to me.  Instead of frogging, I started on a sleeve.

I’ll see how it looks as a longer cardigan.  One of the ladies in my knitting group suggested putting a ribbon through the waist – I think that would look cute!  We’ll see how it goes as I fudge it up.