Tag: <span>cardigan</span>

Knitted Baby Gifts, Part 1

Apparently everyone is pregnant and due this summer.  There must be something in the water, and just in case there is,   I think I’ll stick with beer!  The great thing about this, aside from excited new parents welcoming a baby into the world,  is that this gives me the chance to knit sweet little baby gifts for my friends which is a ton of fun.  Baby-sized sweaters have basically the same construction as adult-sized items but use less yarn and knit up much faster, so it’s pretty close to instant satisfaction.  There’s also something about a handmade gift that’s really special for folks who appreciate the work that goes into them.  This is the first round of gifts which have already been given to the recipient, so I figure I’m okay to blog about them and won’t spoil any surprises.

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Pattern: Tilting Blocks Baby Blanket
Designer: Ranee Mueller
Needles: US  4  (3.5 mm)
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease in, “Maize”
Ravelry Project Link
It’s a really simple stitch pattern and works up so quickly.  The original pattern had a square of stockinette in the center, but I opted to just do the whole blanket in pattern.  I used just about three whole skeins of yarn which is a basic cotton/acrylic blend which makes it great for use for baby knits.  Durable, washes well, still pretty soft.  It stretched out MUCH larger than anticipated since it’s lace, but it really looks great and will make a wonderful summer blanket for a summer baby.  Plus, the parents have opted not to know the gender of their child, so yellow is a nice, neutral color.

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Pattern: Sunnyside
Designer: Tanis Lavallee
Needles: US 4  (5 mm)
Yarn: Kangaroo Dyer Franklin Hand Dyed in, “Fried Green Tomatoes”
Ravelry Project Link
Knit in under a week!  Super fast knit and I didn’t even use a whole skein of sock yarn.  I made a small modification and flipped the cables on one side of the cardigan so they’d mirror the otherside (right twist instead of left twist).  The size I knit was 6-12 month, but it came out at more like a newborn-6 month size.  Next time, I’ll have to go up a size.  Still, a really cute and easy cardigan to knit!  I definitely prefer knitting baby items in fingering weight yarn instead of worsted or DK – babies are so small that a bulky sweater just doesn’t work out, and for a summer baby, a lighter cardigan is defintiely best.

Knitting update

I know it’s been a while since I’ve had a knitting/spinning update, in the midst of the One Local Summer fiesta I’ve been having. I’ve still been knitting and spinning, honest! Now that it’s been half the year, I suppose we should go back and look at the knitting resolutions for this year and see how things are progressing.

1. The American Aran Afghan. This is the beast that I will tackle and finish this year.
Yeahhh.. I have four squares done. I’m finding the charting and the way the book is set up to be VERY frustrating and it’s putting me off from knitting the squares. Each square goes rather quickly if I sit down and work at it, but it’s an absolute pain to copy, cut, and arrange the charts so that it makes sense to knit row-by-row.  Plus, there was this random odd injury that made knitting painful for a few months.  So, I was spinning A LOT but barely knitting a stitch.  Then there was the Tour de Fleece which took up almost a whole month of just spinning.. Not sure if I’m going to finish this afghan this year.

2. Knit /spin any club yarn/fiber in the month it is received.
Doing REALLY well with this one. I’ve had three club shipments for yarn this year that resulted in three pairs of socks so far. There was also a fiber club with three braids of roving that ended up as three skeins of yarn.

3. Knit two sweaters.
One down, one to go. I knitted the Leaf Pattern Gilet which knitted up rather quickly and will be a fall favorite when weather comes back around to actually knit. Here are the details!

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Pattern: Leaf Pattern Gilet
Needles: US 6 (4mm)
Yarn:  Balmoral by Sirdar
Ravelry Project Link
So incredibly pleased with this project from the color to the yarn to the pattern. It’s a really lovely and simple knit and I’m so glad I was able to grab the magazine that contained this pattern while it was available.

4. Knit one double-knitted item.
Uhhhh… Maybe this winter? I’m still feeling a little overwhelmed by the idea and it probably sounds more complicated than it really is.