Baby shower stuff OR How I made a sweater, and did intarsia all in one week!

My friends Brooke and Pat recently had a baby boy! The baby shower is today so when I got the invite last Tuesday I thought I’d take the opportunity to knit something small and baby-y!

I know when I had my son, Caleb, 8 years ago, that I quickly got sick of all the pastel blue and cutesy-wootsy Winnie-the-Pooh coated baby items I received. Brooke and Pat are a really cool couple, so I want to make something cool for their little one, so I went on the search for patterns.

I found two hat patterns that I thought were pretty neat-o, and I really wanted to try them both, so I decided on two hats, two pairs of matching booties and a hoodie! I made the two hats using the hoodie colour as the contrast colour, so everything is matchy-match and the hats and booties can switch up the look of the hoodie. I chose to knit everything in acrylics, because they’re easier to care for. I remember when my son was a baby, if I couldn’t throw it in the washer, I didn’t want it, plus, lil' baby won't be allergic to acrylics, and they won't make him itchy.

The hoodie pattern can be found at this site: http://fibredaze.blogspot.com/2008/03/baby-hoodie.html

Its the first sweater that I’ve ever completed, so I’m pretty happy with it!

I found a few things in the pattern a little weird, so I changed it ever so slightly to better suit what I wanted, such as adding ribbing to the edges of the hood so that it didn’t roll. I also left out the pocket, cause babies don’t need pockets, holding stuff is what a momma is for!

I didn’t like all the hand-sewing and end-weaving-in that I had to do. In the future I’ll be knitting sweaters in the round, thank-you very much.

By the looks of the finished product I’d say it’s a size 3-6 months, which should be a good size, cause it’s currently COLD here in Newfoundland, and will be until at least June.

Here it is being modeled by Caleb's Cabbage Patch kid.

I used this pattern for the baby booties: http://ooobabyknits.typepad.com/ooo_baby_knits/2005/02/mi...

I highly recommend it! They knit up super fast, and even a beginner shouldn’t have any problem with them.

I used this pattern for the skull and cross-bones hat: http://pippi-ob.livejournal.com/6735.html
It was my first time doing intarsia, and I’m pretty psyched about how it turned out!!!

This is the second hat from this site: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/skater-baby-brim-hat

I loooooooved knitting this hat! It turned out so well! I’m actually thinking of modifying the design a little to make a bigger version for Caleb, cause it is seriously so cool!

Toasty while you type: Momma's Xmas Present

My mom spends a lot of time at her computer, and she gets cold in the winter time. She asked me to make her a pair of fingerless gloves that she could wear while she types to keep her hands warm, and I wanted to make a cozy pair of slippers for her too.

I chose Patons Stretch Socks yarn because it's thin. this is so that the gloves wouldn't feel bulky on her hands, cause theres nothing worse than having a pair of gloves on that make your hands feel awkward. The stretch in the yarn also makes sure that the gloves fit snuggly. In the future i would choose a plain yarn, because this one sort of overwhelms the pattern.

The pattern I chose was Knitty's "Spirogyra" http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring08/KSPATTspirogyra.html It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, and I did my first yarn overs and slip slip knits. :D I think this pattern is really pretty, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to make a really elegant looking pair of fingerless gloves.

I found this one skein of Blueberry Red Heart Light N' Lofty at Zellers and loved the colour so much that I had to buy it. It doesn't match the gloves, but it was such a nice colour (I'm a sucker for periwinkle).

I used the same pattern as I did for my cast sock, but I knitted the medium size and altered it a little to make sure the foot part would be more narrow, and added some pom-poms for decoration. Light N' Lofty is a big yarn, and really fluffy so it makes a nice pair of comfy slippers.

Now that all my Christmas knitting is done, I can't wait to give everyone their gifts! :D

Trigger Mittens: The Brudder's Xmas Present

Since my brother, Danny, found out that I can knit he's been asking me to make him a pair of trigger mittens. When I told him I was knitting Xmas presents he said "Trigger mitts for me? Green and Black ones???"

Well now that you went and got all specific, I suppose so...

So I set to making trigger mittens.

I couldn't find a pattern that I liked. I found a few that were really traditional Newfoundland patterns that involved a lot of colour-work, but honestly, I'm not ready to dive into colour-work yet. I like stripes. They're nice. They're simple.

After searching for a pattern to no avail, I decided to alter an existing pattern. Since I had already made Knitty's "Cigar", I decided to stick with that basic concept. I changed the rib from k2 p2 to k1 p1, instead of two rows of thin stripes I did one thick stripe, and instead of binding off half a finger and thumb, I knit a full finger and thumb, and just made one big ol' mitten section instead of working 3 more fingers. It wasn't difficult at all when I thought about it. I just stuck to the basic stitch count, and improvised where I needed to.

Trigger mitts are traditional in Newfoundland. I think it's my brother's memories of home-knit trigger mittens from our Nan Attwood that made him want a pair. We had lots of these mittens as kids, sometimes we called them "finger mittens" too. Always nice to have that one finger free, yet you've still got the snuggly warmth of a mitten.

I made Dano a beanie to go with his mitts. Unlike my dad, Danny is young and hip enough to be able to rock a beanie without a fold. It's my own design, based after a hat that Danny used to have that I liked (I do believe I stole it from him and lost it...) Its a k3 p2 rib. I think it's quite suitable. They're knit in Green and black Paton's Canadiana