Knitted Baby Things

Tags

baby, blanket, sweater

Lately, I’ve been working on a few little things for the newest member of my extended family, my second cousin – er, first cousin once removed?  Hmm, not really sure what the classification is, but I do know that he’s a little bitty guy and definitely deserves some itty bitty knitted things to keep him warm!  Enter obsessive, related knitter (me).

First, I knitted him a blanket in bright green Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton, with an all-over basketweave pattern.

Then, I knitted him a little baby pullover in Malabrigo Sock – in the most gorgeous blue I think I’ve ever seen!  The colorway is called “Impressionist Sky” and that is exactly what it looks like to me.

I love the crispness of the little 2×2 twisted rib on the cuffs, and I chose some little blue gingham buttons from my button jar for the collar.  The buttons are purely for decoration in this case, seeing as I didn’t knit any buttonholes (I’m going to assume this baby boy has a casual-unbuttoned-collar type of personality).  I love this little set because I can’t get enough of the bright green and blue together – last time I knitted baby things a chose more subdued colors (which I still love), but I like the change to bright hues this time.

These little knits are on their way to baby Logan (maybe they arrived today!), and I hope he (and his parents) enjoy them (and that the sweater fits).   : )

I just had to include this picture because of how regal Hugo is looking in the background!  Look at how straight he’s sitting – adorable!

February Baby Beanie

Tags

baby, baby hat, elizabeth zimmermann, free pattern

After knitting Elizabeth Zimmermann’s February Baby Sweater (ravelry link) (AKA Baby Sweater on Two Needles) from EZ’s Knitter’s Almanac, I had plenty of yarn left and wanted to make a little hat to go along with it. Thus, my version of a February Baby Beanie was born.  Others have done it, but I think I came up with an original lace pattern for the crown decreases.  The hat construction is simple – a few garter stitch rows followed by the gull lace pattern from the baby sweater, crown decreases worked in a simple lace pattern and a cute little i-cord antenna on top!

As I said, the pattern is simple – but it hasn’t been test knit.  Please let me know if you find any mistakes or have any suggestions!

February Babies, Ladies and Beanies

Tags

araucania, baby, baby hat, ez, february baby sweater, february lady sweater, mission falls

Last weekend Emily and I went to Stillwater to hang out with Kristen [and by hang out, I mean help her move : )]. I wanted a small, quick project to take with me since I am currently working on a huge tweed sweater and I didn’t want to lug it around. A ball of Araucania Ranco Solid has been staring at me from my knitting basket for a while and before we left I decided that it ought to be a February Baby Sweater (ravelry link) (or Baby Sweater on Two Needles) from Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac. I’ve been wanting to try out this pattern for a while, so I was excited to get started!

It turns out that Araucania is ideal for this pattern, and the result is one of the cutest things I’ve ever created!  The only modification I made (and it’s not really a change) was to knit the sleeves in the round to eliminate seaming.  To do this, I cast on 14 stitches at the beginning of the sleeves and then worked them in the round using magic loop.

After finishing the sweater I had plenty of yarn left over, so I decided to try out a baby hat.  The hat uses the gull lace pattern from the sweater and the decreases are designed to look like they are a continuation of the lace.  I’m going to write up what I did and post it here if anyone is interested.  I think the only thing I would do differently is make the hat a little longer.  What do those of you with little baby heads to knit for think?  Does the hat look like it needs more length?

I liked the February Baby Sweater so much that I’ve moved onto the February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne.  Since it’s summer, I wanted to use cotton to make a lightweight version.  I chose Mission Falls 1824 Cotton in coral.  So far so good . . .

In completely un-knitting related news – there’s a watermelon in the garden!!!!  There’s a bunch of other stuff, but I’m most excited about this little guy!

Baby Sophisticate

Tags

baby, baby sophisticate, free pattern, mission falls, sweater, top down

I would like to introduce you all to the newest member of the baby sweater social elite – Baby Sophisticate.  This sweater is ideal for the baby who enjoys the finer things in life – silver spoons, gourmet mush, and Baby Einstein as a personal tutor.  No silly pockets for this baby; only a sophisticated and luxurious shawl collar. :-)

Of course I’m kidding – your baby doesn’t have to be an Upper East-Sider to look adorable in this sweater!  Using Mission Falls 1824 Wool and with a gauge of 15 sts/ 4″, Baby Sophisticate is an extremely quick knit (perfect for last minute baby shower invitations).

The design is a top down cardigan, with a picked up all-in-one button band and collar.  This means no seaming – minimal finishing is the only way to go!

I want to give a HUGE thank you to Emmadoodle (aka Emily) for test knitting this design!  She did a wonderful job of helping me find mistakes and just making things all around more clear!  We hope that all the bugs got worked out in this process!

Happy knitting!

Download Baby Sophisticate:

Pattern Page

Baby Bunting

Tags

baby, baby cole, free pattern, miss babs, pockets, sweater, top down

One round of Kristen and Emily making adorable baby sweaters for friends, and I just had to join in. This first pattern [in a series of two :-)] I like to call  Bunting.  This name arises from my lack of finesse for pattern naming, but mostly from the fact that I love that the colorway of the yarn is Indigo Bunting.  The prototype has been sent to Baby Cole, and I’m told he looks adorable in it!

This is a really simple sweater, knitted from the top down with contrasting color button bands and pockets.  I love pockets on everything, so they are my favorite part of the pattern!  The pockets are very easily done by knitting waste yarn while working the body and then picking up live stitches around the pocket and knitting a little pouch.  I don’t expect many babies to actually  use the pockets on this sweater, but they will look good while not using them!

The yarn is Miss Babs Yummy Sock and Sport Weight (which I seem to be using a lot lately).  The main color is Indigo Bunting and the contrasting color is Coventry Green.  I was able to get some lovely light green buttons from Tinker’s Button Shop on Etsy that I think look great against the Coventry Green.

Gauge for this pattern is 18 sts/ 24 rows to 4″ in Stockinette stitch on US 5 needles.  This is a pretty simple pattern, however it has not been test knit by other knitters.  It has only been knitted by me, and since I made it up everything made sense to me.  So if you find a mistake (or just something that could be made clearer), please let me know.  I’m pretty quick to respond, so don’t be shy!

Download Bunting:

Pattern Page

Next up: Baby Sophisticate . . .

ERRATA (03/24/09): Originally, this post called for Miss Babs Yummy Sock and Baby.  Actually, I used Miss Babs Yummy Sock and Sport Weight.  Whoops!  Sorry!  The pattern PDF has been updated as well

UPDATE (04/06/09): I’ve updated the pattern pdf to include more complete instructions for the increases for the yoke as well as correct a mistake for the smaller size that was brought to my attention. The file is much smaller as well! Yay!