A Sweater For Ava (or Anya)!

Finished this sweater a little while ago for one of Alana's twins. Mom knit the other one so we could send them two!

Pattern: Cottage Creations hooded cardigan

Yarn: Berroco, Comfort (nylon/acrylic blend)

Color: 9737

A Wee Gnome Hoody for Becky & Josh

Just finished a hoody for our good friends Becky and Josh. 

The pattern came from a book of my mom's, but I can't remember the name. 

Yarn: Madeline Tosh, sport weight,

Color: Faded Parka

An Aran Sweater for Madeleine

A couple of weeks ago I finished this Aran baby sweater for my friends Cait & Vince. They didn't know if they were going to have a boy or a girl-so I found a great cornflower blue to knit the sweater in. Here are the details:

Pattern: Aran Pullover from the book 'Knitting For Baby'
Size: 6 months
Yarn: Dream In Color Classy Superwash Merino
Color #12 - Malibu Sail

Chunky Mobius Cowl

Not the worlds best picture - but I just finished up this cowl that I knit as a trade with a friend who is sewing a longer canvas strap for a bag I own.

yarn: Cascade Magnum, color# 8012
needles: size 15
pattern: easy mistake stitch - CO 15. *K2, P2, K2* to end, P1. Repeat every row.

I found this as a scarf pattern, but twisted it once and sewed ends together to make a mobius cowl.

Sarai in her Sweater!

Awhile back I finished knitting this sweater for my friend, Merriah's, daughter Sarai. I thought I'd lost these pictures of Sarai in her sweater, but I just found them - isn't she sweet!? And you can see how nice and deep the hood is on this sweater - it's perfect for large baby noggins!

Kathryn's Birthday Scarf!

Ooops! I just realized that I never published this post about Kathryn's birthday scarf! I started it before her birthday (january 18? I can NEVER remember the exact date...I get confused between the 18th & 23rd - and it's probably neither of those!) and didn't want to ruin the surprise - so I held off, and then....well, you all know what happened!

Here are the stats on the scarf:

Pattern: Fiber Trends #AC-41 - Oak Leaf & Acorn Scarf
Yarn: Toots Le Blanc & Co. (www.tootsleblanc.com) - 40/60 Angora/Merino blend in white

Overall I am really happy with the way it turned out, although I would have liked it to be a tad longer. I bought the yarn and pattern at the Madrona Fiber show back in 2009 - so there wasn't much to be done about buying more yarn! It tucks up nicely into the neck of a jacket without a lot of bulky ends though - so maybe it's perfect depending on how you want to wear it!

Sofia's New Hat!

Look at this smile! I delivered this hat to Sofia last night and was quite pleased that it actually fit her (I was convinced I'd started decreasing too early and it wouldn't fit on her head). Lucky Sofia - it's just long enough to fit her through the end of the winter. She's a lot bigger than she was when I knit her a hat almost two years ago!

Merriah's Sweater

I haven't given this sweater to Merriah yet, but I don't think she even knows this blog exists so I'm in no danger of spoiling the surprise! I knit this sweater in Encore, which is a Plymouth Yarn, in color #960 (which they call Deep Mulberry). The pattern is called 'Babies & Bears Sweater' by Carol Anderson of Cottage Creations' in Iowa. I have made this sweater a number of times - and it always turns out well. It's adorable, but not so fancy that you're worried about letting the kid play in the dirt while wearing it! The pattern is well written, easy to follow, and easy to knit! If you want to get the pattern your best bet is probably to order it online. Carol has another neat pattern, called 'The Wonderful Wallaby' (a hooded baby sweatshirt) that I think I'd like to try sometime!

Grammi's Birthday Gauntlets

I finished my Grammi's birthday gauntlet gloves the other day! Her birthday is this Saturday, November 28, but I have no fear of spoiling the surprise since I know she doesn't read this blog. They are knit out of Lamb's Pride worsted weight wool in a dusky rose color. My grammi thinks fingerless gloves are silly, but my mom tells me her hands have been getting rather chilly at dialysis when she wants to read - so maybe she'll reconsider their potential practicality this year!

I found the pattern online, and usually when I do that I'm good about noting the website or designer - but I must have completely spaced that this time because I can't for the life of me figure out where I pulled the pattern from. I scanned it in though, and you can click here to see the pattern I used. It's 'easy' - but not at the same time. There is nothing hard about what the pattern is asking you to do, but at the end when it says "knit left gauntlet basically the same as the right" what you actually are supposed to do is reverse the pattern on your own - I would recommend just writing out the pattern for the left gauntlet before you start knitting - it's too easy to get mixed up trying to just reverse everything in your head!

Lowe's Sweater!

Last week I finally finished the sweater for my friend, Michelle's, daughter Lowe. I say finally - because I had the darn thing completely knitted in July - and then I stalled out on sewing all the pieces together. Lowe has been getting bigger & bigger recently - and I started to get worried she'd get bigger than the sweater - so that made me motivated to finish up. Here's a shot of little Lowe-bug in her sweater, and also an adorable pair of ruffle pants that Michelle just whipped up last week. Michelle is a sewing genius!

I knit the sweater using a Blue Moon Fiber Arts pattern called "Baby Yours" - the yarn is also Blue Moon Fiber Arts - Socks That Rock, lightweight, in Sunstone.

Mia's Sweater!

Here's a quick update pick on Amy's baby sweater that I finished back in May. Little Mia is adorable and fits the sweater perfectly right now - so cute!

Amy's Baby Sweater

I finished this baby sweater for my friend, Amy, last week. Amy races on the same bike team as I do, and although we're VERY excited about her new little addition it has been a bummer not to get to spend time with her on the bike this past winter.


I used a pattern from Blue Moon Fiber Arts called 'Baby Mine' by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. Loved it! The pattern was easy to follow - and I think turned out really well. I knit the 6 month old size using one skein of Blue Moon Socks That Rock in their mediumweight - the colorway I used was Quilla (one of their 'spirit way' colorways).

The gauge called for 6 sts/" - which for me is about a US size 2. When I went to root up my needles though - I discovered that my double points are 2.75 mm and my circulars are 3.0 mm, but both US size 2. Hmph. I didn't feel like buying new needles just for this project - so I winged it. In retrospect I wish I had gone out and bought a 2.75 mm circular needle for the project. I don't think anyone else will be able to tell the difference between the sleeves and the body of the sweater, but I like the feel of the material knit on the smaller needles better.

The buttons I used are Dill Buttons. As far as I can tell there is no identifying style number or colorway on the packaging (except one number -870 - but I'm not sure what that refers to) - this is too bad because the buttons are really cute and perfect for this sweater. They are a 1/2" diameter -- the only hard thing about them is that the actual hole in the shank is so small that Thor had to rig me a little button threader out of fishing line to get my yarn through the hole!

Nick's Swedish Mittens

I just finished these mittens for little Nick Nardecchia this past weekend. They were so quick to make! I finished one on the plane ride down to Phoenix - and then the other I knit while watching the Grammy's on Sunday night. I might have gone a little too quickly though -- I was converting a child's mitten pattern to an infant size and messed up on the thumbs. They are so small I can barely get my pinky fingers in them. oops. They're more like chewing nubbins now.
The stitch pattern I used is called 'Pattern From Gammelgarn' out of the book The Mitten Book by Ingrid Gottfridsson. (You might notice this is a rather pricey little paperback book...that's because it is out of print!). I used leftover yarn from Thor's Christmas stocking to make Nick's mittens [Rauma 3tr. Strikke-garn in Light Yellow (#120) and Gold (#148)]. The 'string' attaching the two mittens is actually a two-stitch I-cord that I grafted into the cuff ribbing on each mitten so it's pretty solidly attached!

The mittens.

Nick demonstrating how to use the 'chew nubbins.'

*Note adorable hat hand-knit by our friend, Stacy Maiano!*

Thor's Scarf

One nice benefit of all the plane time last week was finishing Thor's new scarf. I used a pattern out of Scarf Style called Interlocking Balloons Scarf by Shirley Paden. Due to my terribly inept photography skills I have been unable to capture a picture of the scarf inside my own home (read - not enough light to be able to see the stitch pattern). So I took this photo from online at http://garn.poppyfield.net/books/scarfstyle/41interlockingballoons.jpg :

Thor's scarf is much darker -- I used Peruvian Tweed - 100% Superfine Alpaca in Color # 113. It is a dark brown with smoky blue flecked in. The best picture I could find of the color online won't let me link the photo to my blog -- but if you're so inclined you can check it out here: http://www.kyarns.com/joseph-galler-peruvian-tweed-alpaca-sport-worsted-weight-knitting-yarn.html

The link will take you to color #106 -- but #113 is the very farthest on the right in the top row. I loved this yarn. So nice to work with and you get 600 yards in a skein! (Granted, you do pay for it. I won't admit to the cost per skein here, but you'll get an idea if you follow the above link!)

Bea's Lamb!

I knit this little sheep for our cousins Amelia & Justin's little girl, Bea. We met Bea at the Tingey Family reunion earlier this fall and she is the sweetest little baby! These are not the best pictures ever - but you get the idea of what the sheep looked like. I used Fiber Trends pattern #206x called 'A Felt Flock' to make this little guy. I just used some left over mohair and a pink worsted weight yarn that my friend Kim sent to me from her grandma's house. That yarn is well traveled!

Thor's Christmas Stocking

Hooray! This winter ice storm has been good for something as I finished Thor's Christmas stocking this evening. I used Judy's Colors 'Red Velvet' Christmas stocking pattern. For the most part the charts were really good - there were some parts of the actual pattern that were open to interpretation though....it was definitely possible to figure out what you were supposed to be doing, but the pattern doesn't lay it out for you. Just in time for Christmas!

Kirkham's Hat

Yep - this is exactly the same hat as I knit for little Nick (two hats out of the same yarn purchase - sweet!) - but I put a chin strap on this one instead of braids on the earflaps. I think it turned out really well - and Erica & John just sent a picture of Kirkham in the hat -- he's adorable!

Sofia & Her Hedgehog.

I posted a picture of a pink hedgehog that I knit back in May for my good friend, Joanna's, daughter Sofia. Here's a picture of the recipient with her little animal - she's just now getting bigger than the hedgehog!

'Hernie' the Hedgehog

Here's the hedgehog I finished for Nick Nardecchia last week. You'll have to ask Stacy about the name -- she christened him Hernie when she was over at my house last week -- it fits him well. I put Hernie through the dryer to try and super shrink him -- it worked really well, but he's still about twice as large as Nick!

I made this guy following FiberTrends' pattern for Huggable Hedgehogs (#228x). The main body is out of Lamb's Pride worsted weight yarn in the color 'Dynamic Blue'. The fuzzy part is a Crystal Palace Yarn, 'SPLASH', in color #9406 (one of the freebie yarns from the Knitting with the Blazers event that some of you went to with me last year).

Lil' Nick's Red Hat

I finally finished Nick's little Norwegian hat the other day. I was on pace to have it finished before he was born -- and then he showed up 6 weeks early which put a damper on my motivation to finish a hat mid-summer when it was 90 degrees every day. Here's the glamour shot of Nick with the hat on for the first time. Obviously it's still a little large for him, but that's okay since it's still pretty warm here right now. The hat should fit him perfectly by mid-winter - it will be his apres ski piece.


I used a pattern out of Dale of Norway's pattern book - Designs for Baby (#162)
The pattern is #16209 and I used Dale Baby Ull yarn in red (#4018) & cream (#0020).