3 posts tagged “baby sweater”

long time, no vox!  my last update is july 4th. oopsy!  i'm sure no one even reads this any more, but i am going to write out a long boring knitting post anyways.  because i am bored and there is no one online to entertain me. *looks pointedly*  you know who you are.

anyways... what is going on the knitty world o' sparkli?  a few things. as you may or may not recall, my best friend turned up pregnant earlier this year.  i have been trying to crank out the baby knits something crazy, but of course, not as much as i'd like.  one of the main reasons is that i am stuck in baby blanket limbo.  i have 2 baby blankets on the needles.  festive fish and the pinwheel.  i have no issues with the fish blanket other than i am kind of tired of knitting fish.  i need to remedy that.  

i have major issues with the pinwheel.   can someone tell me what it says about a knitter who starts a blanket with only 2 skeins of yarn that dont even match?  i'm sure that knitter has serious mental problems.  that knitter would be me.  i started it with 2 skiens of brown sheep cotton fleece... same color, just two different dye lots.  and it's not reeeeaaalllly noticeable but it is to me.   so after knitting the 1st skein, i bought another skein from a fellow raveler, thankfully, even tho it was a different dyelot, it matched my first skien.  so now the pinwheel is 2 skeins big and measures a whopping 27 inches in diameter.   which is *not* big enough.  so i have this other skein that is a shade (or two) lighter.  now in my mind, it's perfectly ok to knit a border with this lighter color... but it is not ok to start in the stockingnette portion with this lighter color.  see, issues?  so do i just start the border at 27 inches and just make a wide border (and the 3rd skein probably wont be enough for a wide enough border to make the blanket a decent size) or should i just try to procure another skein of this yarn and hope that it matches the yarn i have been knitting with? 

what would you do??   i'm going to tell you what i am going to do right now.  today, and i mean TODAY, since i have been putting it off for over a week, i am going to put a life line thru about 20 sts of my blanket... then i am going to knit a swatch off my blanket with the 3rd skayn and see what it looks like.  so will see how bad it looks, or doesnt look.  but otherwise, i am going to have to figure out how to get a skien of brown sheep cotton fleece in sage.  anyone??

what else am i knitting?  oh last weekend, i knitted up a  baby sized center square hat.  it's really cute.  i used some knitpicks.com mainline yarn i had in the stash.  it's navy blue and ivory.  i had gauge issues (of course) and completely finished the hat before i finally admit to myself it was way to small, even for a baby. so i ripped it all out, which was fine, because i did a really shitty job on it anyways.  you cannot magic loop color work.  you just cant.  but the second go around was a success.  i still need to block it.   i did a roll brim instead of ribbing.  it's very cute.

i also started another hat with the bits i have left over from the mainline... trying to stretch the yarn, yo!  it's just a plain roll brim hat too... blue and white random stripes. just something easy (pfft, i have started it over twice too). 

THEN, i casted on a baby sweater on friday night.  kipling.  it is SO cute.  well the one on the site isnt THAT cute, but i have seen other pictures of other people's and they are V. CUTE.  so i started that with some of that vanna yarn from lion brand.  that yarn is CHEEP. like 2.99 a skein and it is sooooo soft.  it's acrylic, but really... with babies, it has to be washable... and they are just going to grow out of it anyways, right??  so i knitted about 3 inches on it... logged on IM saturday morning to discuss it with amy and then she conned me into not working on it til next week and she will knit it with me. so now it's laying here and i keep petting it. :D  i'm trying to be patient. 

hmm. and i still have 2 second socks hanging around... i really should cast one of those on.  but again, i wouldnt say that i have issues with them, more of road blocks.  one is a jaywalker and i have been thinking for months if i want the 2nd sock to have 1x1 ribbing like the first one...even tho i dont like it.  i suppose the should match, but eh... i dont like it.  and the other sock is just a zen for my sister...but i did a picot edge on it instead of ribbing... and while a picot edge is really cute, it's a pain in the arse to do.  and i was thinking about it last night and i cant remember if i did a 52  or 54 stitch cast on.  Amy??  it's pretty bad when i know that my friend will know my knitting details when i dont myself.  what would i do without her?  be pretty lonely and have long drawn out knitty conversations with myself, i guess. :D

i'm trying to think if there is anything else hanging around on the needles.  i dont think so... i think that is all.  there is so many things i want to knit.  but no time or i dont have the yarn that i need or i have other things i need to knit first. and i dont like to have a ton of things on my needles either... so i need to deal with some of the issues in this entry and get moving on some stuff.   because the knew knitty came out and i really like several things in it... one day... one day!   i need to find them on ravelry and put hem in my queue to help me remember.

and in addition to all this knitty stuffs, i am moving from florida to st. louis, mo in just a mere 2 weeks.  we have been working to find a place to live and stuffs.  but we are about to uproot our lives and move to some place we have never been again.  twice in one year!  it's ridiculous!  i'm really in denial about everything that still needs to be done... i just want to hide under a blanket with a flashlight and knit. 

ok!  i am off to deal with the pinwheel blanket, once and for all!  so atleast i will know either way about the other dyelot.   oh and the reason this is one long knitty post with no pictures is that my camera died a few weeks ago.  hopefully i will have one on loan soon and can take some pictures of stuff.

i made a sweater for a baby named nate.  he shares my birthday. 

started:  well it was after right after he was born (jan. 23) i think. :)
ended: well crap, i cant remember that either.  took about 2 weeks to knit and another 1 week to sew in the ribbon.
yarn: caron, some tweedy yarn.... i bought four skayns and this only used about 2.75.
needles: size us7
pattern:  daisy sweater, the manly verson with a hood.  cant be knitting a sweater without a hood!!
what else?:  i hand sewed the ribbon all around it.  i love that ribbon.  also, kitchenered the hood. yeah baby.
things i never want to remember:  buttonholes from hell (which means: kelly do not stare at the button holes. and DO NOT let your gramma look at the sweater too closely. she will see all my imperfections:))

inside out:

around the bottom:

the finished hood:

i sewed up the sleeves:

And if you havent figure it out yet.... with knitting, i just never know when to leave well enough alone.  that and i dont want to see any green yarn for a while!!   so i had to use up the last skayn of yarn.  so i give to little nate the cutest hat ever knitted on the face of the earth.  you may ooh and ahh now.  hell, i even surprise myself at the the things i can do by tying some string into knots! 

and you can flip up the rim of the hat and it shows off the earflaps better... i thought that it might help if there is sizing issues (which hopefull there will be none...it's quite stretchy!)

the top!  i love knitting!!!

and this little heart of love is going to baby nate too.  

(love how my camera focuses on what is in the background. grrr.)

SO!  it's definitely a kninja day around here at chez sparkli!

also on the needles is alpaca zen sock... this is the 2nd sock and it's almost done! yay!

maybe i will finish that sock today... today is a yarn travesty... the yarn i ordered friday night, i accidently sent to my address in TN... *CRIES*  so it will be forwarded to me but it will just take extra long time.   but derek should be on his way home for left over speghetti lunch.  Then i am going to clean the heck out of our apartment.  And then maybe a nap.... then some knitting on the sock.  And then i am not sure what we will do.... i think disney (magic kingdom) tomorrow, since derek is off fridays and i am now jobless too.  might as well take advantage of it.

i have called and yelled at the temp agency and she is supposed to be calling me back after she talks to them. i might be getting my old job back...wont know til monday tho.  so i am not going to worry about it til then.  next entry will contain pictures of us going to the race...

incase you werent paying attention, i am knitting a baby sweater for a friend's new baby!  he was born on my birthday!  it's the daisy sweater from knitty.com.    last night i was up til midnight, hooking it all together.... so now it's all one piece and i have about 2 inches done on the hood. 

i put my foot in for scale.  the sleeves are attached at the top, by about 9 sts each. otherwise, i have to sew in the rest of the sleeves.  which i think i am going to do tomorrow... outside in the daylight so i can see good and try not to make a mess of it.   you can see where i started the hood...it has about 4 rows of seed stitch separating it from the body.  btw, it's supposedly sized for a 1 year old.... but it seems big to me... which i haven't seen a 1 year old in a long time so i might not know anything.

close up of the sleeve

the back.  you can see where i have to sew up the sleeves better here.

and the seed stitch band going up the front and around the bottom keeps wanting to roll up.  and it's driving me crazy.  what will drive me even more crazy is thinking after i send this sweater off to baby nate, how it will keep rolling up and how kelly would keep trying to straighten her baby's sweater out.  and just thinking about that would drive me insane... it just would.... so my solution and it's really actually very popular in the knitty world is to back the button band with grosgrain ribbon.  i have been looking for ribbon for a couple of days and finally found some that i liked.... alot.  and it matches.  i couldn't get a good picture of it so i scanned it.  i plan to line the button bands with it... and probably around the waist.... i havent decided if i should go up the hood or not... i will decide when i get it done.  i wont put it around the sleeves... they aren't very rolly and i think it might be too rough around a baby's hands.

anyways!  ribbon!

oh! and what is this?  a sock!  when did i knit that!?

it's 100% alpaca yarn.  i think i made the foot part a tad too short... but i think it will be ok. i have been knitting this for a long time... been keeping it my purse and just get it out when i have to wait or other random times.  i finished it up today... and  i know that not many people understand this but, i am getting pretty kick ass at some kitchener stitching. i actually enjoy it.  i know, i am crazy.

the are so soft.

and i wanted to share how much i clashed today: