Pure Imitation

I don't belong to Pinterest (or Facebook for that matter) but I do like to check out some of the boards, particularly those that pertain to babies and kids.  I came across this sweet little cardigan.

I loved the whole design especially the little feather and fan detail at the hem.  Unfortunately, the post was all in French and even with the Google translator, I just couldn't figure out how to get the pattern.  Or even if there was a pattern!  I decided that it couldn't be that hard to recreate it, right? Well, yes and no.  The trouble with trying to recreate something is that there is a lot of trial and error.  A lot.

I started with my own Sweet Tee pattern.  Because I wanted a cardigan, I added two extra stitches to each end so I could have button bands with five stitches.  From there, I knit the whole yoke in garter stitch.  This was a little tricky as I had to knit more rows because the garter stitch shortened up the length.  I ended up with a few more stitches than the pullover has.  This was okay, because it just meant that the armholes would be larger and that's never a problem when you're dressing babies. The other problem was that I had to figure out how many stitches I needed to complete the feather and fan pattern.  Once I worked that out, I added the increases in a bunch at the center back.

They don't really show up in the picture but it added a little extra flair, if you will.  I'm not crazy about my shoulder increases compared to the original.

I added the same eyelet band to the sleeves and used some buttons that I had in my enormous button stash.  All in all, I think it came out pretty cute.  I used two skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I will admit that there was one huge, glaring error.  I hadn't seen Ruthie in awhile and wouldn't you know, the little bugger had the nerve to grow and the sweater was too small!!  How could she do that to me??! Still, I know the sweater will go to a good home and will keep some other little girl nice and toasty, but I was disappointed not to see it on my own grandchild!  They tell carpenters to measure twice and cut once.  I think that advice could also apply to aging grandmothers!  Measure first and then knit!!

Little Porker

Thank you for waiting so patiently for me to get my act together and to finally post another animal from Ruthie's Farm.  This time it's the pig.  I had a hard time coming up with a name for this one.  All of my great ideas were already taken.  I was complaining to my good pal, Tunie, that I didn't know what to name the little porker, when she said to name it that!  Duh!

I used Peaches & Creme in Sunburst, but I think it would look good in almost any color.

For the cloth, I used Army Tan.  I love this shade of brown.  It's a pity that they discontinued this yarn.  I know it was bought out by Lily, but it just isn't the same.  Fortunately, I stocked up on a whole bunch of cones before they went out of business.

The pdf files are in the sidebar or you can click here for the bib and here for the cloth.

The aforementioned Tunie knit both the pig and the chicken as hostess gifts for a friend.

Anyone for bacon and eggs?

Angry Feet

The Angry Mitts were such a big hit with the grandsons, that I decided to take it a "step" further (no pun intended!) and make them some angry socks.  My goal was to knit each of the boys a pair to tuck into their Easter baskets.  This sounded like a good plan at the time, except that the idea didn't occur to me until about two weeks before Easter!

This project turned into a marathon knitting adventure, but as you can see, I managed to get them all done!  The socks use the same premise as the mittens.  You use your favorite, basic top-down sock pattern and then embroider the faces.  They're really simple to make.

Mickey loves the blue bird.  I knit his pair first to try out the concept.  Then I knit the black bird for Jack.

Ugh.  I forgot  how much I hate knitting with black yarn!  I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that this is probably the most difficult bird to make.  It's so hard to see the stitches to do the embroidery.  I had to sit in the sunlight (when there was some.  It's been pretty scarce around here!) to be able to do it.  It was actually a strategic move on my part to knit this pair second.  I knew I couldn't give a pair to one and not the other, so I had to keep going.  Fortunately, the third pair that I knit for Marty were the easiest.

The white yarn was a welcome relief and Marty has much smaller feet!  Of course, I couldn't forget our Babe Ruth and since I discovered that there's also a pink bird, I decided to include her in the fun!

The hard part was having to actually buy pink yarn.  You all know how much I hate pink!  Still, I have to admit that they did come out pretty cute.

I've put the pattern for making the socks in the sidebar.  As I said, it's not really so much of a pattern as it is a recipe for making your own.  You can grab the pdf file there or you can just click here.

I also have updated the Angry Bird mitts pattern by including charts for the black bird and the pink bird.

Now who's to say that you couldn't knit a pair of socks using two different birds?

Out of the Running

Thank you, thank you to all of you who voted for my friend, Tracy.  Unfortunately, she had to withdraw her project due to a mix up.  As I understand it, once you posted your project there wasn't supposed to be any "chatting" until after the voting.  The time was based on Irish time.  Tracy updated her post to include more information and the moderator said it qualified as "chatting".  I don't get that, but here's the kicker, based on Irish time, she was still before the deadline!  Despite pointing it out, she still had to withdraw. In any event, both Tracy and I are grateful for those of you who tried to help her out!

On another subject, Knit Picks and I are on the outs.  They gave me a really hard time about an order I placed before Christmas.  I'll spare you the details, but it did take them six weeks to credit my account.  Then, of course, there was the fiasco with the stolen credit card information.  I didn't want to wait and see if I was one of the unfortunate ones, so I cancelled my credit card.  While I didn't have any suspicious activity, I did place an order during the time period.  Better to be safe than sorry.  If all this wasn't bad enough, I'm thoroughly disappointed with some socks I knit with their Stroll yarn.  There's a neat hat pattern on Ravelry called Dustland Hat .  I haven't knit the hat yet, but I thought it would also make nice socks.

See?  Nice huh.  I love green and had high hopes.  Well, while they might look nice from a distance, up close they're horrid.  The yarn pilled and fuzzed like crazy.

They look like they've been through the wash a few times and they were spanking new!

You can barely see the stitch detail.  Jack still liked them, but then again, he doesn't really care too much what he has on his feet!

I'm not anxious to use this yarn again anytime soon.  I have a ton of it too.  I guess it's true that you get what you pay for.  I know I won't be paying for this again any time soon!

Lucky Me!

I have been so fortunate to meet some really lovely people both through my blog and through Ravelry.  One of them is my pal, Christi, from Texas.  A couple of weeks ago, I was surprised to get a package in the mail from her.  I just couldn't imagine what she could be sending me.

Look at this gorgeous set of handwarmers and matching cowl.  Christi knows how much I love green and so she knit this beautiful set for me.  Not only that, but she also spun the yarn herself!  I couldn't believe my eyes.  I'm not used to anyone making things for me. She made this as a thank you for something I did for her awhile ago.  Something I didn't expect any thanks for, so needless to say, I was just overwhelmed.  I wish you could all slip your hands into the mitts and feel how soft and cozy they are.  I'm truly touched by Christi's generous gesture of friendship.  As I said, lucky me!

On another note, I'm going to shamelessly ask you to help me help out another friend.  Tracy lives in Arizona and has had some major health difficulties in the last few years.  She's entered a contest on Ravelry and I would love it if you would all vote for her project.  I think it's one of the nicest ones in the contest and it would be just so terrific if she could win.  All you have to do it go to Ravelry and vote.  Here's a link to the voting: St. Patrick's Day Celebrations  Click on "love" and that's it! You can read Tracy's touching story.  tracyvw is her Ravelry name and her project is post # 6.  A beautiful Irish scarf.

Isn't it lovely?  So I urge you, if you've ever knit one of my patterns, this is your chance to "pay" me back by helping Tracy out.  I sure hope she wins and I thank each and every one of you!!

A Cheep Set

I finally got around to writing up the pattern for the chicken that I used in Ruthie's Farm. Wow, I can't believe that it's been almost a year since I posted it!  In any event, I couldn't do a blanket without chickens since there are several that reside at her home (and one really mean rooster).  The boys have named all the chickens and they do tend to get annoyed with me when I forget their names! Fortunately, they're all different breeds, so I do have a little help in identifying them.

I'm not sure what breed this chicken is though.  It's definitely a new variety!

The patterns are both available in pdf formats and are listed in the side bar.  Or, you can click here for the bib or click here for the cloth.

You can name the chickens yourself, however, Gaffy, Cadbury, and Blackstar are already taken.

Olearia

Before I share the saga of my latest project with you, I just want to address the comment that was left for me a few days ago.  It was brought to my attention by Kerry that, apparently, one of you (maybe more for all I know), has been selling my patterns.  I can't believe that someone would take advantage of me in that way, but then again, there are a lot of low lives out there.  I especially feel sorry for anyone who was gullible enough to purchase one.  All I will say is that it's a round world and what goes around comes around.  I'm sure you'll be punished in good time.

On a happier note, my neighbors across the street have a new baby girl!  The mom went to school with my oldest son and so I've know her for a good many years.  She didn't want to know the sex of the baby ahead of time, so I wasn't able to get started early on a project.  She was born a week before Christmas and even if I wanted to drop everything and knit for her, I just didn't have time.  I started by choosing this gorgeous yarn by Holiday Yarns. I already had a skein of sock yarn in the colorway "Rose Garden", so I thought it would be neat to make a sweater out of some DK weight.  Once I decided on the yarn, I had to choose a pattern.  I found this sweet sweater on Ravelry called "Olearia".  (Olearia is a native Australian flower.)  It was just the weight I needed and I loved the design.  I started it, but after getting about half way with it, I started having second thoughts.  It looked really huge to me.

So, I reluctantly decided to choose another pattern and start over.  Instead of ripping this one out though, I just used the second ball of yarn that I had.  The second attempt was this easy Seamless Yoked Sweater a free pattern on Ravelry.

It was okay, but when I reached the same point as the first sweater, I realized that they were exactly the same size!  I really loved the Olearia, but I thought the ruching was too long.  I decided to go back to the first sweater and rip back the last pattern repeat.  It looked a little more dainty to me.

I really love the way this came out after a rocky start.  The yarn is so soft and after it's washed, it's even nicer.  I wish it wasn't quite so pink, but it's perfect for a little sweetheart.

I couldn't find a hat that I liked, so I made up one!  It's pretty simple.  I cast on 144 stitches and purled one row, knit one row, purled one row, then knit for about four rows.  The next row I knit 2 tog. to get down to 72 stitches.

I then just repeated the purl-knit-purl sequence until I had three ridges and worked one repeat of the pattern.  When the hat was about 3 1/2", I started the decreases.  k6, k2tog, around.  knit one row. k5, k2tog. around. knit one row, etc. until I had a few stitches left to knit a two inch I-cord and then tied it in a knot.  If she's like most babies, she won't keep it on her head anyway.  I like a little brim on a hat and this is just what I had in mind.

I finished up the set with some matching socks.

This is the same colorway, as I said before, only it's in the FlockSock.  This was a little more trial and error.  When I followed the ruching instructions, it was way too puffy, so instead of increasing in every stitch, I just knit one stitch and then increased in the next.

All in all, it's a pretty set.  I don't usually buy baby patterns as I have so many books and leaflets as it is, but this one was just so darn cute.  There are tons of sizes and lots of variations.  Short sleeves, cap sleeves, etc.  It's really well written and there are lots of pictures.  I will say that the ruching is a bit tedious, but the effect is well worth the effort.  I'm sure I'll be making another one of these in some form for my Ruthie.  She's even cuter than the sweater!