FO: Birthday outfit, New Look 6205 and Miss Marple cardi

Our wonderful daughter turns 3 this weekend, and for her birthday, she asked me to make a purple dress.  She asked me this way back in January (when we made a birthday cake together for her dad, and she started getting excited about birthdays), so I'm not sure she'll remember this request, but I wanted the Mom of the Year award, so I followed through.

I used New Look 6205 again (first version here) in a Joel Dewberry print.  This time, I opted for the little strapped sleeves instead of the cap sleeves.

Again, the bodice is lined, but in a sort of weird way that still requires you to finish the neckline with bias tape.

I made a size 3, and the neckline is a bit big on our 3 year old, but at least it gives her room to grow. 

For the sweater, I used a pattern called Miss Marple.

Isn't that the best name for a little girl's cardigan?  Miss Marple was an Agatha Christie character, right?  I used two skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca that I had in my stash.  They were intended for a hat/cowl set, but I didn't like those patterns in this yarn.  So much the better, because it works perfectly for this pattern. Although I'm not sure anyone needs an alpaca/wool sweater in late April. 

The knitting only took a week or so, but it took me forever to finish the cardigan (see my previous confession regarding button anxiety).  I really wanted to practice finishing the cardigan with grosgrain ribbon on the button band.  This was good practice, and came out marginally successful.  In the first place, the grosgrain ribbon is the wrong color, but this shade purple was impossible to match.

The main problem is that my knitted buttonholes were horizontal.  I really wanted them to be vertical, so I machine stitched vertical buttonholes on the ribbon.  I'm not sure why I got such a bee in my bonnet about making the buttonholes vertical, but it seemed very important at the time.  The button holes are a little tight, and actually, the bottom one won't go through at all.  I may have to fix that. 

I found these great buttons on beadfreaky on etsy.  Again, not exactly the right purple, but I think they still work. Raverly page here.

So Happy Birthday, dear daughter!  We love you.  Enjoy your purple dress and your special day!

FO: Patina socks!

These are the best socks I've ever made.  I started with this:

This is the March installment of the Tanis Fiber Arts Year in Colour Club.  This gorgeous perfect-for-Spring colorway is in her Blue Label fingering weight yarn, and it is a perfect sock yarn.  I love it.  Tanis designed a pattern to go with this variegated yarn, something that would help the colors play well together while not totally obscuring the stitch pattern.  That is a very tricky line to walk, but I think Tanis got it just right.  

This yarn is completely amazing, and I am stalking all things Blue Label right now.  I'm dying to order a skein in the pink grapefruit colorway.  I need pink grapefruit socks!

It's (finally finally finallllllly) spring here, so I'm not wearing socks at the moment, but that's okay.  I have these beauties on my dresser, and I'm just admiring them as works of art.  I'll look forward to wearing them when the weather turns cool again.  And maybe by then, I'll have another pair of TFA socks to enjoy, too.

Ravelry page here.  The next installment comes in May!  I can't wait! 

It's a boy!

 He arrived!  And he's a he!  We've been getting to know our new little one for almost three weeks.  He arrived on Friday, March 29, long before the due date, April 9.  Labor was pretty quick.  I had some contractions over night, but I mostly slept through them.  I went in to work to do a couple of quick things before maternity leave (which was to start April 1), but decided I better go home as contractions were increasing.  We went to the hospital at 11:30 am, and he was born just before 5:00 pm! 

We're doing well, with more sleep some nights than others.  Pregnancy is full of anticipation and mystery, and it gives you this false idea that when the little one is born, all the mystery will be revealed.  But I still feel like our little one is pretty mysterious.  What is his personality like?  Who will he become?  What will he do that will make us laugh and make us proud?  What new gifts will he bring us?  What will he teach us?  I will love finding out, and I'm glad that it will take a while.  I'm grateful for all the time to spend getting to know him, and grateful for all the new steps his big sister is constantly taking, and grateful for the time we will all spend growing together as a family.

And am I still knitting?  Oh yes I am! 

FO: A couple of baby blankets

Time is waning!  I think this baby is going to be here soon.  Fortunately, I think we're as ready as we can be.  And slightly less importantly, I've finished most of the projects I set out for myself for the baby and our daughter.  In the last week, I finished up two blankets, one knit and one sewn. 

I originally set out to make the High Fidoodlity blanket, but it was just ugly.  So instead I went with the Chevron Baby Blanket from Purl Soho.  I used Berroco Vintage Chunky, a wool/acrylic blend.  It's very squishy and cozy, and should be very easy care as well. 

Our daughter is already using it to wrap up one of her baby dolls in the baby's bassinet.  That's a good sign, right? 

The other blanket I made is a little quilt made up of scraps of Notting Hill from my diaper bag. 

While I didn't use a pattern for this, I did find inspiration from Bailey Girls Boutique etsy store.  I figured, Hey, I can do that.  (And I think this counts as my quarterly Pinterest crafty completion New Year's resolution.)

I made 5" squares and sewed them together with a 1/4" seam allowance.  Then I backed it with white dotted minky fabric, which is really incredibly soft. 

I am really very happy with how both of these things turned out.  I'm looking forward to wrapping up baby boy or girl in both of them!

FO: Finished, with buttons even! Wasabi Cardi

I always feel like I should knit more cardigans.  Everyone loves them and talks about how easy they are.  And then I knit one and it sits for three weeks without buttons, and I wonder, What's easy about this?  If it were a pullover, I'd be wearing it by now.  I hate picking out buttons for the same reason I hate deciding where to hang pictures on the walls.  It feels permanent, and a bad decision will ruin things and haunt me for the rest of eternity.  Perfection is the enemy of done.

I couldn't find pink buttons that I liked or were the right size, so I went with white buttons with little white embossed flowers on them.  I sewed one on and instantly knew it wasn't right.  I showed my husband, and he put his finger right on it.  The white button was almost silvery, and the rest of the cardi is golden.  "Yellow would be better," he said.  Inspired!

One trip to the fabric store later and I had perfect non-haunting buttons, and later that day had a finished cardi.  Thanks, Honey! 

Pattern: Wasabi by Amber Bertram.  It's a free pattern!

Yarn: Knitpicks Stroll Tonal.  This is a great sock yarn because it wears really well.  It's not luxurious, but for a child's sweater, it should be a good fit.  I bought two skeins, but it only took one.  I turned the second one into a Cachou cowl. 

The yarn is tonal, and the very second I stopped the front V-neck increases, I got intense pooling.  This yarn has a tiny golden streak, and it was creating a little pot of gold in the back left.  So I alternated rows working both sides of my skein, and that fixed the problem.  It's not very noticeable from the front.

Process: This one was fun to knit.  You start with a provisional cast on for the center back lace panel, and do short rows in lace to make the panel curve over the shoulders.  Short rows in lace!  Knitting is amazing.  When you knit to where the raglan increasing begins, you pick up stitches along the lace panel and start your increases.  After that, it's a normal top-down raglan cardi.  I was actually done before I knew it, and was a little sad to see it end!

The sleeves have a little cuff detail.  I don't think I followed the directions exactly, partly because I couldn't really understand them and partly because I figured out how to do it myself.  I love that little detail. 

Product: I love it, and it fits my daughter very well, with a little room to grow for the summer.  It does look like it will be a little loose around the shoulders, and other Ravelers have commented as such.  I don't think it will be a huge problem, though. 

New techniques: Mmm, none really.  Asking my husband for button advice? 

FO: New Look 6205

I'm trying to make my daughter a few more things, especially sewn clothes, since sewing is so speedy (relative to knitting).  I really don't care for so many of the children's clothes currently on the market.  They all seem to be more appropriate for American Idol contestants than little kids--too much glitter and neon and sequins.  I tend to like beautiful prints and unique colors and more classic shapes with slightly quirky color schemes.  I love Boden. 

So for Easter, I set out to make a Boden inspired dress.  I used a quilting cotton I found on fabric.com, and New Look 6205, which is a new pattern.  Here is the result:

  

 This is a raglan sleeve dress with a pleated skirt.  I liked that the pleats allowed for a fuller skirt without being gathered.  The sleeves provided for a bit of coverage without being puffy.  I love the pattern details and I love the resulting dress!

The process was a little weird.  The bodice is lined, but the sleeves aren't!  Because it's not really a full lining, you have to finish the neckline with bias tape.  I'm not super experienced with lining garments, but this seems a little odd to me.  Why not just figure out how to line the whole thing?  I didn't really spend the time to figure it out myself, either.  In fact, it was a little confusing how to sew the lining in.  You sew it along the raglan seams, with the lining right side facing the sleeve wrong side and the bodice right side. 

I'm trying to muster up the energy to repress that center pleat. 

The directions called for sewing the skirt to the bodice and lining so the raw edges would be showing inside the garment.  I thought that was a little silly, so I slip stitched the lining to the bodice/skirt seam allowance, and it looks clean and should feel comfortable. 

One thing I haven't figured out how to do is really finish the sleeve seams.  These are two-piece sleeves so that you get a really nice curve on the top.  But it seems like you'd need to clip the seams, which are then left raw because they aren't lined.  How would you finish clipped seams?  One on sleeve, I zig-zaged the seam allowance and then clipped notches.  On the other, I clipped notches and then zig-zagged.  I can't remember which one I liked better.  

I also knit her a sweet little cardigan.  

 

It's probably a little bit bigger than it needs to be, but then it will fit all summer.  I still need to sew on buttons before I can call it done and write a review of it.  Buttons will always be the death of me.  

 

I'm really excited for her to wear her new dress and sweater!  Since she'll have to share attention with a baby soon, I wanted her to feel special in a new dress.  She'll be three in a month, and she's really starting to get into telling people, "My momma made this for me!"  So I might have the messiest house in the zip code, but hey, I made a cute dress. 

FO: Cachou Infinity Scarf

I love winter, but even I get ready for spring after a point.  That point has arrived.  When I saw this pattern on Ravelry, I thought of a spare skein left over from something else and cast on immediately.  This cowl is screaming spring!

There's not much make up happening around here these days.  I'm doing good to do my hair.

I have dreams of wearing it on a sunny day with a new white t-shirt, a denim skirt, some bare legs and cute shoes, and a waist.  I feel like I always have been and always will be pregnant.  If I get my waist back, it will be a springtime miracle. 

Pattern: Cachou by Hillary Smith Callis

Yarn: Stroll Tonal by Knitpicks.  I had a whole skein left over from another project.  This is a great sock yarn, but it's not luxurious. 

Pattern: Easy 4 stitch lace repeat.  Great TV knitting and would make a great gift. 

Final thoughts:  Lovely springtime infinity scarf.  Perfect for dreaming of sunny days, new blooms, new babies and returning to a normal body weight.