Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Baby Surprise Jacket
At last, a finished object to report! I’d seen this famous jacket before but this is the first one I’d ever knit. It was for Tia and her newborn little son, Rohan. I took it over to them at the RPA Hospital tonight, and wonder of wonders, it actually fit! I’m also happy to report that this is officially the first knitted item the baby’s ever worn (as poor Tia was too sick to knit for most of her pregnancy). It was knitted out of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino and I used size 3.25mm needles. Read on for more pictures, including yours truly holding a truly unhappy newborn.
Step One: Knit this thing. Doesn’t look like much, does it? I couldn’t even figure out which bit I was knitting for a while, which interfered with my plan to use stripes. Finally I just decided to throw in some random stripes and hope they turned out well.
Step Two: Fold it up. Believe it or not, that floppy thing actually folds up into this little jacket. The only seams you have to sew are the two shoulder tops.
Step Three: Finished! Here I’ve completed the shoulder seams and added buttons. In an elaborate attempt to avoid actually having to sew, I decided to try picking up along each shoulder and then doing a three-needle cast-off. It worked pretty well! Probably took me a lot longer than it would’ve to just sew the thing, but I’m nothing if not stubborn.
The back of the jacket.
The only problem I had with my shoulder joining method was that picking up on the back side of the shoulders created a weird little strip of stocking stitch on an otherwise all garter stitch garment. I decided that Rohan probably wouldn’t mind, but I may try to find a workaround for this in the future.So tonight the Snook and I headed over to the hospital to deliver the jacket to the little nipper in person. He was all swaddled up asleep when we got there but that didn’t stop Mum from dressing him up right away. How cute is he? I’m sure he’ll outgrow it quickly, but for now he’s got one cozy little cardigan to keep him warm.
And five seconds later, there I was in a chair with a baby in my arms. He really didn’t like being woken up though, and he really didn’t like being that far away from his Mama. Poor little thing started to buck and cry, so here I’m like, “Hurry up Snookums and TAKE THE DAMN PICTURE ALREADY!” As soon as I handed him over to his dad Daniel, he turned into a little angel again.
Tia and Daniel are doing great, by the way, and it’s wonderful to see them so happy with their new little family. It blows my mind to think back to a year ago when Tia confessed they were trying for a baby, and all the complications and problems that arose. But there in that little hospital room, I got to see the happy ending to the story. Welcome, Rohan Porter.
Tag: knitting
Long-Sleeved Cotton Polo
Long-Sleeved Cotton Polo
At last, a Finished Object to report! I’ve been working on this jumper for the Snook for well over six months. It’s based on a Wendy pattern (#5101) which I converted to be knit in the round. To tell you the truth, it was pretty boring through most of the body and the sleeves and only really got exciting once I finally got everything together on one needle. The raglan shaping and vee neck took a little brainpower; I ended up using an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of all the decreases. The collar was supposed to be knitted separately and sewn on. As if. I just picked up around the neck and knitted it on. I have to say, I’m really, really pleased with how this turned out. The yarn (Jo Sharp’s Soho Summer DK Cotton) was an absolute beeyotch to knit with, but the finished garment is so soft and warm that I’m already planning one for myself. All that’s left is to get some appropriate buttons for the placket neck and she’s finished!
Marianne’s Cardy
Marianne’s cardigan is finished!
And it only took me two months longer than I expected. *sigh* Of course, that’s to be expected when you completely change patterns halfway through. After struggling through a fairisle cardy of my own design, I shelved that WIP in favor of something I could actually finish in time for Marianne to get some use out of it. This little hooded, cabled cardigan is my second project from Sirdar’s Denim Book of Aran Knits, and it’s knitted out of Denim Sport Aran (in “Purple Heather,” which has since been discontinued, I think). For once I didn’t bother with altering the pattern to knit it in the round, or make it longer, or switch anything around. Instead I just cast on and did exactly what the damn thing said. I was a little worried about the sad state of my mattress stitch, but luckily since I was mostly sewing moss stitch to moss stitch, you can’t even tell where it’s wonky. I made an excursion to All Buttons Great and Small yesterday for the buttons. Isn’t it cute? This was my first experience with both pockets and a hood, and I’m really proud of how well it turned out. I hope Marianne’s Mom and Dad like it! (Note: I deliberately knitted it two sizes too big. I figured she’d grown a bit since the last measurements I had – which were six months old by now – and this way she’ll hopefully get to wear it next year too.)
Straight-Laced Socks
Straight-Laced Socks
Remember the wool I won in the Give a Little Raffle? Here it is! These are the Straight-Laced Socks from Knitty. As usual, I had to adjust the heck out of the pattern to make it work. I increased the number of stitches to 76 (38 on each needle) and thus had to change the maths of turning the heel. I think I’ve finally got my head around it, but I made this heel a little narrow. (Technically it’s perfect though, so I couldn’t bear to frog it back.) The toe was also turning out a little long so I started doing the decreases every row instead of every other. Still, they’re really pretty, aren’t they?
Knitty Pattern Round-Up
Knitty Pattern Round-Up
Finally I’ve got another Finished Object to share with you, along with two knitted Gifts. First is my take on the ubiquitous Clapotis. I never planned to knit one of these wraps (which have gotten ridiculously popular in the last year), but I just happened to be listening to the KnitCast interview with the designer on the same day that we got this luscious new shade of Noro in… and I was powerless to resist. I worked out that I needed six balls of Kureyon to do the pattern as written, but after I’d casted it off I realized I wanted it longer and frogged it back to include a seventh ball. As it is, I can wear it as either a really big scarf or a smallish wrap. I like it. (I blocked mine out into a rectangle and I prefer it knit-side out, both of which are different from the model photos.) Next is Shimmer, a glamorous little lacy shrug that was knitted by my friend Miss Fee. She made it for herself to wear for a wedding but afterwards decided it was too big to wear again (and too nice to consider unraveling). She persuaded me to try it on and pronounced it a perfect fit, and then she gave it to me! How nice is that? It’s knitted out of Filatura di Crosa’s Zara mixed with Night to give it a bit of glitz. I know I was anti-shrug before, but this one is just so pretty and girly! I need to get some nice tops to wear with it. And last is the long-awaited picture of baby Ruth Cunningham wearing the Norgi jumper I knitted her. I have no idea how Nat and Staci managed to get it over her head, but doesn’t it look adorable anyway? I love it with her little jeans!
Bruce’s Gloves
Bruce’s Gloves
A few weeks ago I was teaching a private lesson after hours in the shop when a nice old guy knocked at the door. He asked if we repaired things for people, and I said we did, but that we were closed and he’d have to come back the next morning. Twelve hours later, there he stood. His name was Bruce and he had a much loved pair of fingerless gloves… but he’d lost one of them recently. He wanted a new pair to replace them. None of our usual contract knitters wanted to do it so I volunteered. This is what I ended up with. The wool is Sirdar’s Town and Country sock wool, chosen because his originals were knitted in a variegated brown-and-white. They were a weird thickness of cotton though, so I had a hell of a time approximating the shape in a completely different guage wool. I also messed up the reverse shaping on the second glove and spent two nights repeatedly frogging it back to the thumb. I got there in the end though. I was worried he wouldn’t like them but he was totally happy, which was a major relief. No more commission jobs for a while, I think. Knitting for other people is too stressful.
Looking Glass Jumper
Looking Glass Jumper
At last, the Snook’s new cabled jumper is complete. It’s pattern C from Sirdar’s Denim Book of Aran Knits and it was knitted in the Denim Sport Aran. (The Snook was the third size; I bought the required seven balls but even though I lengthened the body and sleeves, I only used five-and-a-half.) This was my first attempt at converting a pattern written for flat knitting into circular, and I’m about 90% happy with the result. There is a rather glaring error on the front of the jumper – clearly visible at right – but we’ll just call it my Amish mistake. (It was too far to frog down and too complicated a spot to correct with a dropped stitch. I thought about swapping the front for the back, but that felt like I was trying to hide it too much. I like that it has a real human error in it. Can you spot it?) The jumper was so named because every other row of the pattern had to be inverted and read backwards to be knit in the round. It only really got fiddly once I started doing the neck shaping; I was juggling five sets of decreases at once (left front, right front, two sleeves, and the back). I just sorta winged it. Pretty nice huh?
Incidentally, it’s really hard to take a decent photograph of cables. I took both the ones below before I figured out that I had to do it without the flash. But isn’t the Snook with his Puss-Puss sooooo cuuuuuute?
Finished Objects
Finished Baby Objects!
Nat’s baby package is nearly ready to go out. On the left is the completed Baby Norgi sweater, which I finished up today. I pretty much followed the pattern exactly for once. The wool is Bambi by Grignasco, which is an extrafine 4-ply 100% Italian merino. (And it’s nicer than anything I’ve ever knit for myself!) My only reservation with this project is the fear that the baby’s head won’t fit through. Babies have big heads. I tried to make the neckline as loose as possible, but who knows. Nat and Staci might have to save this one for their next kid and hope for a smaller noggin. 🙂
The second item is a secret one that I finished a couple of weeks ago: the Sirdar Sleeping Bag. Isn’t it the cutest thing ever? It even has little teddy bear ears! The cuteness of it almost makes up for the fact that Snowflake Chunky is the worst, most godawful thing in the world to knit. It’s as if someone took a nice terrycloth towel and cut it into a long, very fine strip. You can’t see any of your stitches amidst all that fleeciness, which kinda defeats the purpose of hand-knitting something in the first place. I mean, if you saw that in a shop, would you think it was hand-knitted? (Slight wonkiness aside?) Nope. So while it’s definitely a cute project, I don’t think it’s quite heirloom quality. At least I know that one will fit though.
Now all I’ve got to do is give them a final wash to get all the cat hair off…
Colourways Wrap II
Colourways Wrap II
Man, I feel like it’s been ages since I had a Finished Object to report! This is a sample I designed and knit for the shop. We had an original “Colourways Wrap” from a few years ago, but this one uses slightly different yarns (and an extra ball) so the pattern needed to be rewritten. They’re all Anny Blatt yarns, which means this is one of the most expensive items I’ve ever knitted. All seven yarns are carried the full length of the wrap, which means I had to resort to putting the balls in sandwich bags to avoid creating the World’s Biggest Knot. But at last, it’s done! We’ve got the range of yarns in several different colors and we plan on selling them as a kit. So anyway, yeah, from tomorrow my first official pattern will go on sale in the shop! Pretty neat, huh?
Cheesylove is Finished!
At long last, Cheesylove is finished! This is the Knitty pattern I started well over a year ago. At one point, I completely frogged it back to the beginning and started over (which meant re-casting on A THOUSAND stitches for the ruffle. Do you know how long it takes to do ANYTHING a thousand times? I do.). I was toying with the idea of putting short sleeves on it but in the end I decided I liked it better as a vest. Pattern notes follow.For the body of the vest, I used Heirloom EasyCare 8-ply. I can’t even remember why; it was that long ago. But it gave me the right gauge and it’s not too scratchy. The hearts are done in Heirloom Aristocrat 12-ply mohair/wool, which makes them stand out nicely. As usual, the Knitty pattern had several problems wrong with it. The biggest was that it told you to mark the side seams and then do your shaping on either side of it, without any indication which increases/decreases to use nor where to place them to ensure the ribbing didn’t get buggered. (This is part of the reason I frogged it back. My initial seamlines looked crap and it bothered me.) In the end, instead of merely marking the seam, I actually used two markers to isolate the actual side rib. Then I made paired increases/decreases in the ribs on either side of it so that they grew or shrank organically while the center rib remained whole. (Yeah, yeah, I know. It was a lot of thinking and planning for what basically amounts to the armpit of a garment. But I’m really happy with how I did it, and quite frankly I get a little thrill out of knowing that I did it the best way possible.) For the armbands, I simply picked up around the holes with the smaller sized needle and knitted 5 rows of K1P1 rib before casting off. (That way it matches the neckband.) It’s not the most stylish garment in the world, but I think I executed the design better than any other pattern I’ve tried before.