Faster than a speeding DPN...able to cover a small baby in a single piece...

On Saturday, I mentioned that I'd cast on for the Baby Surprise Jacket and was about two inches in. Well...

Front view


Back view

On Tuesday I finished weaving in all the ends. The only reason it's not officially "finished" is that I don't have buttons for it. (I have depleted my not-reserved-for-other-projects button stash to the point where it can no longer cope with garments requiring more than one or two buttons.)

This pattern is really awesome. I can't believe how quickly it knits up; the shaping of how it all goes together is really cool; it is tremendously sweet when done; and there are almost infinite striping and colour possibilities. I like it so much that...I decided to do it again! Yes, it's another stashbusting project - I'm full of 'em these days. I had a little more than one skein of Plymouth Dreambaby DK in the stash - it's a very sweet variegated baby pink/baby blue/mint green. I'm hoping I can get away with finishing the project with the amount of yarn I have, but I may be out of luck. However, there's only one way to find out!

This will be put on hold, of course, once the opening ceremonies start tomorrow and I can cast on for the Paisley Long Shawl (which I'm doing for not only the Ravelympics but the 2010 Knitting Olympics). I'm still not sure whether I've actually challenged myself with trying to complete this during the Olympics, or whether I've given myself an easy cakewalk, but, again, I guess there's only one way to find out. I'll be using three different colours of Fiddlesticks Zephyr Laceweight Wool-Silk - violet, ruby and mahogany, I believe the names are. I think it's going to look awesome. I've got the needles, yarn and pattern all bagged up and ready to go!

Finally, there's one more project to talk about...the "toy hammock" I've been making for my older daughter's bedroom, to hold her Webkinz toys. I finished off the knitting a few weeks ago, but last night finally got around to sewing in the ends. I haven't mounted it yet, so it's very unexciting at the moment:

However, I'm hoping that DH will find where he put the picture hanging hooks pretty soon so I can get this sucker mounted on the wall. Once that's done, I'll take pictures of the hammock on the wall, filled with Webkinz. If it all works the way I think it will, I'll finish writing up the pattern and make it available!

What can I say

When your knitting blog is pretty much all about your knitting projects; and when your knitting projects are all baby shower items to be gifted to someone who might just read your blog...it's hard to find anything to say!

Shower was today, though, and I was very happy to give the following items to a lady who's waited a very long time to become a mum. I'm so happy for her.

Pinwheel cardigan

This is a really fun pattern. It's free, from elann.com, and it's very cool because it can be worn upside-down or right-side up. When a baby is small, it can be worn with sleeves rolled and the long end up so that there can be a hood; and when the baby grows into a child, it can be worn with the sleeves unrolled and the long end down so that the top is just a turned-over collar. Awesome stuff.


Back view


Front view, baby size


Front view, child size

I did a lot of stash busting, mostly doubling up sportweight yarn since the pattern calls for worsted. I used eight different yarns: vibrant turquoise, royal blue, royal purple, lavender, pale lavender, baby pink, white, and - for the edging - white with metallic sparkliness in it.

I had it all finished well in advance of the shower, but then last week, my six-year-old decided to try it on my will-be-three-years-old-in-April, and the sleeves were the right size when rolled up. (And we're talking really, really rolled up.) So I ripped back about two and a half inches off the sleeves.

The mom seemed to think it was pretty cool, so I'm very happy.

Winnie-the-Pooh snuggle blanket

The mum is a massive Winnie-the-Pooh fan and the nursery colour scheme is - according to her registry - pink. So I thought this would be perfect:



I used two free patterns for the motifs: Happy Hunny Bear, by Amy-lynne Mitchell; and rumbly tummy bear, by Sharman Cherry. I separated them out with seed stitch and put seed stitch around the borders, too. I'm super-happy with how it turned out. It was even a stashbuster! I've had a huge whack of soft pink Softball Cotton for about five and a half years, and it was PERFECT for this. So very cuddly.

I then came home and cast on for the Baby Surprise Jacket. I bought the pattern from my LYS quite some time ago and have been itching to make it. I'm about two inches in - can't wait to see how it shapes up.

In other news, I'm going to give the 2010 Ravelympics a shot. D'you think I can pull off the Paisley Long Shawl in a little over two weeks? I guess we'll find out!