Sheepish Sophisticate

As April blows in so does the urgency of finishing up the baby knits I started in February. My sister’s baby shower is this coming Saturday.  It didn’t hit me exactly how close it was until I sat down Easter night to relax and I pulled out my new In Threes project that I cast on the night before.

I quickly put aside the cardigan and went to get the Baby Sophisticate Sweater that I knit several weeks ago.  The only thing I had left to finish on it was to sew on the buttons and add the legs to the sheep applique.  I ordered the buttons from Etsy. The name of the shop is Forbeadin’ Treasures, there is a lot of cute buttons to check out.

I used the same technique to sew on the buttons as I did for the Hungry Caterpillar In Threes Cardigan.

For the legs of the sheep applique I used the duplicate stitch, which is a new technique for me. I can’t say that I am absolutely thrilled with the way the duplicate stitch came out. Yet at the same time I don’t hate the results either. I am sure that, like most things, the more I use the technique the better the results will be.

From a distance the misshapen duplicate stitch is hardly noticeable.

I paired the sweater with a pair of longies, that I had made after I first found out that my sister was expecting. As well as a pair of lamb booties that I recently finished up the seaming on.

I think the set goes really well together. .

I am hoping to sew together the elephant blanket in the next day or two. I am a little disappointed that I didn’t get to all the projects I had planned to make for the shower, but I at the same time I am thrilled with the ones that I did get to.

 

 

In Threes Finished

This morning I finished up the In Threes Cardigan that was working on. Just in time too, this afternoon was my niece’s 2nd birthday.

Yay, it’s all done!

I am always a little nervous when it comes to attaching buttons. I am afraid that they will fall off or sag and not look the way I envisioned. So when I put the buttons on this cardigan I decided to used the grosgrain and button tutorials that the Knitmore Girls made.

The backside of the button band with grosgrain ribbon and backing buttons.

I have watched these videos a few times over the past couple of months, then watched them again while sewing the buttons on. I have to say that I found the videos to be very helpful. I managed to get the buttons to line up perfectly with the buttonholes and the ribbon on the back of the button band provides excellent stabilization so the buttons don’t sag on the knitting.

I couldn’t be happier with the finished results.

I am also very pleased with how great the sweater fit my niece.

My niece happily wearing her new sweater.

First Day of Spring

Ah, the first day of spring. It is time for warm breezes, birds singing and rain showers that encourage flowers to bloom.

Spring where are you?!

Umm…. well maybe not quite yet, but at least I know that warmer days will be here soon.

I ordered buttons from an Etsy shop, for the In Threes Cardigan I have been working on. The name of the shop I ordered from was Handmade Buttons By Ayarina .

I started to worry that they weren’t going to get here before my niece’s birthday when I received an email that they had shipped on the 11 and would take up to 14 business days to arrive!  I totally forgot to see where they person I bought them from was located, and it turns out they were being shipped from Romania!

However when I saw a small padded envelope in the mail my fears were eased. I couldn’t believe it, the buttons had arrived quicker than I expected!

I love the way it is packaged

Look what was inside!

 

The buttons are definitely reminiscent of the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar written by Eric Carle. Which is one of my niece’s favorite books. I couldn’t be happier with my purchase.

Now I just have to finish the sweater on time and everything will be perfect.

About 3 more inches to go!

 

In Threes

I am sorry for the unexpected hiatus that the blog has been on for the past few weeks. I lost my bag with my knitting, my camera and all my other important belongings 2 weeks ago. Luckily someone I know picked it up and held on to it for me until I saw them a few days ago.  So now that my world is back in order I can once again start blogging again.

The knitting project that was missing in action was my InThrees Baby Cardigan by Kelly Herdrich. The pattern is downloadable on Ravelry for $6 US.  I am planning on making 3 of these sweaters so it totally was worth the price. The one is going to be for my nieces 2nd birthday, which is this Saturday coming up.

Progress so far on my first In Threes Cardigan.

I am knitting it out of Knit Picks Swish Worsted in the peapod colorway. This is the first time I am using this yarn and I really like it so far. I think it is super soft and has great stitch definition. Plus the color is so bright and Spring like.

Right now I am hoping that I have enough yarn to finish. I bought 3 skeins of yarn in hopes of knitting a size 3t. I have knit 1.5 inches (4cm) below the armpit and have come to the end of the second skein. With 5.5 inches (14cm) still to go I am more than a little nervous.

Weekend Update

It’s Sunday, another weekend has come and gone! Time seems to be flying lately, not that I can complain too much the quicker time goes the faster spring arrives.

This weekend I have been super busy. I took the kids roller skating on Saturday. I didn’t get any knitting done but had I had a great time watching the kids learn how to skate.

DS taking tentative steps in his skates.

 

DD zooming by!

DD seemed to catch on so much quicker than DS. I think because she is younger she had less fear of falling.

As for my knitting, I have started on the Baby Pears the Blanket Buddy by Julie L. Anderson. I am using Knit Picks CotLin yarn (from the recent shipment I got).

The unstuffed head and one ear for Baby Pears.

I zipped through knitting the head and ear but spent the good part of today seaming the front and back of the ear together. I am glad I decided to seam as I go, at this rate if I had to do multiple seams at the end of the project then the baby might get this blankie pal as a graduation present. LOL

I have also made progress on the sheepy applique for the Baby Sophisticate sweater I made.

Sheepy Applique

This is the second sheep I made. The first sheep I used size 7 needles as suggested and the sheep was so large that I would have taken up the whole back of the tiny sweater. I started over using size 3 needles and switching from a worsted weight yarn to a sport weight. The face is (a little hard to see in the picture) made out of left over sock weight yarn.  I still have to add the legs to the little guy and the button search is still on. :-\ I have now looked in 3 different stores and no luck yet. I am hoping that I can make a trip to a Joann’s or Micheal’s some time this week. 

Some Knitting and a lot of Waiting!

It seems like forever since my last post! The past week has been filled with some knitting and a lot of waiting!

First I’d like to talk about the Baby Sophisticate sweater I was knitting. This  is knit from top down, so that it is seamless. I think this is the first time I have ever knit a seamless sweater, and I have to say that I love it! It is amazing that when the knitting of the sweater is finished you actually have a sweater, not just pieces of a sweater!

The knitting part of the sweater is done!

I did make some adjustments to the pattern. I picked up 4 stitches in the armpit of each sleeve to avoid the hole the would need to be sewn (can you tell I hate seaming knitted items).  Then to avoid the wrist opening from being to large I decided I would decrease the 4 extra stitches out just before the cuff.

I have found the grosgrain ribbon that I am going to use on the button band, but the search for the perfect buttons is still on. :-\ While on a button hunt this weekend I thought I came across the perfect buttons, only to be disappointed to find out they only had 2 of the buttons in stock and I needed 4! Also I am planning on adding a sheep applique to the front of the sweater.

I had placed an order from Knit Picks and have been waiting for what seems like forever for it to arrive. Today after sending 2 people to the post office to check the mail it finally arrived!

My first yarn order from Knit Picks ever!

I am not sure if you can tell, but I am super excited! I have never ordered yarn from Knit Picks before and I can say that I have thoroughly enjoyed fondling all the yarn this evening! The colors are amazing and the textures are great! Definitely worth the wait.

 

Elefante

Last week I mentioned that the month of February was going to be mostly baby knits, and I have finished my first baby project for the month. Shortly after posing last week I cast on for Elefante by Susan B. Anderson, using size 3 dpns (double pointed needles). I used an array of worsted weight acrylic yarn.

Working with stripes is a challenge especially when knitting in the round. Often the stripes don’t line up exactly where they join. I tried to use the jogless stripe technique (the tutorial I used can be found here) and I think it turned out alright.

You can still see where the stripes join but not as noticeable as if I hadn’t used the jogless striping technique.

Everything was going great until I was almost done with the head of the elephant and my boy friend points out that if it is supposed to be an elephant shouldn’t it have a long trunk. After taking a good look at it I had to agree it looked more like a pig snout then a trunk. I reread the directions and noticed I overlooked a tiny part in the directions that said – continue knitting until trunk measures 1 1/2″.

Of course I frogged and re knit the head. Better to redo your mistakes then to hate the finished project, even though I had thought about leavening it the way it was.

Side view of elefante.

 

The elefante is all finished! Ends weaved in and all!!

I still have to order the yarn for the other projects that I had planned on doing this month. Which left me with nothing to knit! :-O So I spent a good part of the night last night looking for a baby pattern that I could do, while waiting, with yarn I had on hand.

I decided on knitting a Baby Sophisticate sweater by Linden Down. This is a free pattern on Ravelry and has been knitted than 4,400 times! I have just cast on today using red heart yarn in heather grey. I am also ordering buttons now, hoping they will arrive around the time the sweater is done.