June 27, 2007

Kiddos and socks

This is a dress that I made for Miss B when she was a year old. She'll be three in a few weeks, and it still looks cute. It has shoulder buttons and a cross-over back. I just love this style for little girls! I made the hat too, but it is too small now. The pattern is McCall's Easy Stitch and Save M5353. It was huge when I made it and the bloomers were about 4 inches too wide, but they are perfect now! She loves wearing the things that I make for her. It does a mamma's heart good! (Of course the glasses have to match!)
Since I don't have any pictures of A in his new sweater yet, I thought I'd put up this cute one of him running around outside. Both the kids love to be outdoors, and the love to walk up and down the sidewalk in front of our house.

Melissa requested a picture of the watermelon dress modeled, so here it it. This dress (and purse) garners numerous compliments every time that B wears it! It helps that she is so cute too. Time well spent!
This is the second sock of a pair that I've been working on off and on (mostly off) for a few years. It has gotten packed away during several moves. It resurfaced during our latest move, and I finished it on our trip to CT a few weeks ago. They fit well, and the cuff isn't too long. The yarn and pattern are from the Opal SOTM club that was sponsored by PT Yarn from 2001-2002. It is good to finish a pair of socks for myself, since I only have one other pair. I'm working on th second sock of a pair for hubby, then the sock yarn that I spun here will be next!

June 14, 2007

Watermelon Dress and Purse

I finished Miss B's dress last week, but only sewed on the buttons today. I used the pattern for the dress found here. Every summer I feel the need to knit cute things for the warm weather, but I don't care too much for knitting with pure cotton yarns. The dress called for Kraemer Yarns Little Leigh, which has 2 plies of acrylic, and 3 of cotton (55% acrylic/45% cotton) and there was enough give in the yarn to make the knitting go smoothly. I did make the pattern a bit bigger, but didn't make any other changes.

I didn't like the hat in the pattern, and who needs a hat like that in the summer anyway? So since my little B is a girly girl (much to my chagrin) I made her a matching purse. It is just big enough to fit her pocket-sized New Testament (her Bible in which she "reads" about Daniel and the lion's den :) to the amusement of many at church) and her sunglasses. The purse is about 5" in diameter, but can be made larger by using a worsted yarn. I'll also give you some rough decrease calculations on making it bigger too.


Semi-Circle Purse Pattern
Yarn: DK weight cotton blend in MC and CC, about 50 yds each. I used leftovers, so I don't have exact yardage.
Needles: US 4 (or one size smaller than used to achieve ball-band gauge)
Gauge: 6.5 sts per inch, but not really important
Notions: 1 button (opt.), scraps of black yarn for embroidery (opt.)darning needle, 3 dpns in one size smaller than used for the body to knit the I-cord

Using the provisional cast on and MC, cast on 8 sts. Work in garter stitch for 12" or 68 ridges.
Shaping for handles:
Row 1: K1, ssk, k2, k2tog, k1
Row 2: Purl
Row 3: k1, ssk, k2tog, k1
Using these 4 sts and smaller dpns, work I-cord for 16" or until desired length.
Undo the provisional cast on, and work the 3 handle shaping rows, making sure that the right side is facing. Graft the end of the I-cord to the 4 live sts remaining after the shaping rows.

Body
First Side:
With MC pick up 68 sts along one edge of garter stitch strip.
Row 2: inc. 1 sts in each of the first and last sts and purl the remaining sts.
Row 3: decrease 5 sts evenly spaced while at the same time working the first and last 3 sts in I-cord as follows: slip the first 3 sts to the right hand needle purlwise, working the rest of the row as written. Maintain I-cord edging for rest of body.
Change to CC.
Rows 4-8: work
as established.
Row 9: 3 sts in I-cord, (k1, k2tog) to last 5 sts, knit.
Rows 10-14: work as established.
Row 15: 3
sts in I-cord, k2tog to last 3 sts, knit.
Rows 16-18:
work as established.
Row 19:
3 sts in I-cord, k2tog to last 3 sts, knit.
Row 20:
3 sts in I-cord, p2tog to last 3 sts, purl.
Row 21: 3 sts in I cord, ssk, k1, k2tog, k3.
Transfer first 6 sts to dpn and place remaining 3 sts on aonther dpn. Using third dpn, work applied I-cord on remaining 3 body sts, grafting the I-cord together after eliminating the 3 body sts.

Second Side: Repeat as for first side through row 21. Finish as for first side if an open bag is wanted. If a button closure is desired work as follows:
Row 22: 3 sts I-cord, p2tog, p4.
Transfer first 4 sts to one dpn and the last 4 to a second dpn. Using a third dpn, work in I-cord, knitting the last 2 sts together. Work I-cord until about 2" long, or long enough to fit around chosen button. Graft I-cord to 4 sts on first dpn, decreasing one st while grafting.

Embroider seeds using lazy daisy stitch and sew on button.

If you want a larger bag, knit the garter stitch strip until there are a multiple of 20 ridges. Pick up one stitch for every ridge. Omit the decreases on row 3, and decrease 20 sts every 6th row until 60 sts remain, then work rows 9-21/22 above.

Copyright Carissa @ Chrysalis Knits. For personal use only. Please do not sell or otherwise distribute this pattern without written consent.

June 05, 2007

Finally a FO!

I started this little sweater for A at the beginning of May and only just finished it this past weekend! It still needs to be blocked and for buttons to be sew on, but I think it is very cute! Nausea and morning sickness (baby #3 is due in December) have kept me from knitting for over a month now, but they are letting up. Pattern: My own, loosely based on the Open-Collared Pullover from EZ's Knitter's Almanac
Stitch Pattern: Diamond Brocade from Barbara Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Patterns
Yarn: 2 skeins (123 yds each) of KnitPicks CotLin in Key Lime. I only had several inches of yarn left!
Size: 20" chest, for my 13 mo A. Hopefully I'll get him to model it after I find some cute buttons!

I'm working on a project for B at the moment. I should have it done by the end of the week. It is good to be knitting again! Then I need to decide what to spin for the Journey to a Shawl KAL. It will be great incentive to spin up enough yarn for a big project! I also have a bit of yarn spun to make B some more slipper socks since she loves the pair that she has.