A Hat for Ruby

My brother has a new granddaughter, Ruby, and although she was born this past August, I couldn't decide what to make for her. I have lots and lots of patterns for little girls, but I never have an opportunity to actually make any of them. Usually, I'm pretty prompt with gifts too, but for some reason, I kept putting this one off. Now that I'm going to see my brother for Thanksgiving , I really had to come up with something fast! I decided on this sweet little hat. It's a free pattern that you can get here. I went back and forth trying to decide on the color and then decided to go with a bright red, or a "ruby" red, if you will. I used the Cascade 220 Superwash and U.S. Size 8 needles. It looks just like a little tomato.

It was so much fun to knit and fast. I did the whole thing in about two hours. The pattern calls for k2tog, but I read that someone said the leaves twirl better if you slip one, knit one and then pass the slipped stitch over, so that's what I did. I don't know if this is actually better than the written pattern, because the original is pretty darn cute too, but it worked beautifully, so I can recommend it.

Since the hat was so quick, I decided to do a pair of socks to go with it. I had the idea to try and incorporate the leaves in the toe of the sock, so after a couple of false starts I ended up with these:

I cast on 32 stitches on a U.S. 5. They are really tight and I think they'll be pretty cosy. I'm not so sure that the leaves really work, but they do look cute together. My first version had the colors reversed, but I decided that it looked too much like an olive!

I didn't even bother with a second one. This will probably end up as a cat toy, since one of my cats really has a thing for baby socks!

I'm pretty sure that the socks will fit, but I am a little uneasy about the hat. Babies heads are always so much larger than they look!

We are the Dinosaurs

My grandson, Jack, just turned 5 and for his birthday, his parents decided on a dinosaur theme, so what's a grandma to do, except knit something with a dinosaur on it! Jack loves orange and I just happened to have some in my stash. A few years ago, I made another sweater for him out of Plymouth's Stone Cotton, which has now been discontinued. I really liked this yarn. It washes well and because it has a little acrylic in it, it can go into the dryer as well without shrinking. When I found out they weren't making it anymore, I started buying it whenever I came across any, so not only did I have the orange, I also had a few other colors. This sweater was based on a pattern by eweCanknit. This is a great line of intarsia patterns which can be found here. The sweaters are so basic so I just used their measurements. This dinosaur is from an old Leisure Arts pamphlet that I found on the ebay. I was contemplating charting my own T-rex, but this one was perfect.

Jack has a little brother who just happens to wear the same size even though he's only 3. Micah was a big help, as he very patiently let me try Jack's sweater on him as I was progressing with it, to check for length, etc. It's only fitting that his patience should be rewarded with a sweater of his own. His favorite dinosaur is the anklyosaurus. Try finding a chart for that one! I had no choice but to chart it myself. If you've ever seen a picture of this dinosaur, he's truly homely. Very spikey. I used some purl stitches to try and make him a little bumpy. I'm not so sure he's as recognizable as the T-rex, but Micah knew him, so that's all that mattered!

Since both Jack and Micah were getting dinosaurs, I couldn't leave out the baby. Marty ended up with the stegosaurus. You might recognize him from the bib pattern. I just tweaked him a little bit to fit on the sweater. Because I wanted the sweater to be easy to get on and off, I put a placket in the back, just like the turtle sweater.

I found these little stegosaurus buttons which fit in with the dinosaur theme nicely. Don't you think?

Three cute sweaters all from the stash. If only they had actually made a dent in it. I still have some red, just enough to make a fourth sweater. Maybe the boys would like a little sister? Hmmm, I wonder if there were ever any cute dinosaurs?

Turtle Love

I seem to have acquired quite a bit of green yarn so while digging through my stash, I decided to take another stab at modifying the Turtle Butt into a pair of longies. The first pair I made were too small to fit around chubby legs and so they are waiting in my pile to frog and repair. In the meantime, I started a new pair in very "turtley" colors.

The variegated is Cascade 200 Hand Paint in Forest and the solid green is called Palm, also by Cascade. This time, I'm fairly confident that the legs will have a lot more room. Of course, while I was working on the pants, I thought maybe he should have a sweater to go with them and what goes with Turtle legs, but a turtle sweater........

All the patterns that I found called for DK weight or they had raglans, or something wasn't what I wanted, so in the end I came up with my own. I used the measurements for an 18 month size and just did the math myself. I wanted a placket in the back to make it easier to get on and off and I just happened to have these turtle buttons.

The lighting wasn't very good for this picture as it doesn't look anything like the true color and I'm not so sure that the butons really match, but they are on the backside, so I decided to use them anyway. The sweater is knitted with Cascade Superwash as I wanted it to be easy to launder. I charted the turtle myself and embroidered the shell with Cascade Heritage sock yarn. Oh yes, sock yarn:

There HAD to be socks to match the pants. Cascade makes this yarn in the Forest color just like the 220 wool. It was the first time I've used this yarn and I just love it. The socks are so nice and soft and the yarn holds up really well to frogging as I ended up ripping out this pair a couple of times. I wasn't happy with the proportions I was using and since I didn't have a pattern for these either, it took a couple of tries. I made a second version, which I actually like better, but I gave them away before I took a picture! Here's the sweater and pants together. Cute, eh?

I just love the striped longies that I've seen posted on Ravelry, so I decided to make a coordinating pair with this whole turtle theme.

Hmmm, there is a definite trend here with the Cascade yarn. Cascade 220 wool, Cascade 220 Superwash wool, Cascade Heritage sock.....I wonder if the company is hiring?