Baby sweaters

I was busy knitting baby sweaters last fall!

 

Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket

Needles: US 4

Yarn: Trekking with bamboo



Pattern: Garter Stitch baby kimono

Needles: US 4

Yarn: A Berocco nylon / acrylic blend



Pattern: Baby Sophisticate sweater, with this squirrel chart. The acorn was my own design. The sweater also has 2 squirrels across the back of the sweater.

Needles: US 8

Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease, 1skein green and 1 skein white



The first and last sweaters are for my kiddo. The middle one is for my cousin's baby, who was born last December. Isaac is still too small to fit the sweaters I made him, but I'm sure he'll grow into them by the end of the winter.

My new obsession

I've made 5 sets of pillow cases since last fall. The things are ridiculously easy to make, yet look really sharp. There's no top-stitching to worry about getting perfectly lined up with the seams, and all of the raw edges of fabric are encased. I used this tutorial from Little Birdie Secrets. The only modification I made was to use french seams on the side and bottom of the pillowcase so that no raw edges are exposed.



These are the pillowcases that I made for the bed in Isaac's room. They're a little girly, but that's because they're really for me and not for him. He won't be using the bed for quite a while. I might make him his own quilt and pillowcases when he's ready for the big-kid bed. The blocks in this quilt were hand-pieced by my grandpa's sister, the quilt top was assembled by my grandma, and my grandpa made the headboard. I come from a talented family!



A set of hedgehog pillowcases I made for my sister, as a thank-you for designing Isaac's birth announcement (with a cute cartoon hedgehog!).

Self-binding blankets

I just finished two little blankets for my kiddo to take to day care, which he starts at the end of the month:



I was able to whip these up in no time at all thanks to this awesome tutorial over @ Piece N Quilt. The self-binding edges are a really quick and clever way to finish flannel blankets. My binding is a little thinner than those in the tutorial because the flannel I used was less than 44" wide.

Fruit bowl

I want to put together a little set of knitted play food. I was inspired by all the fancy schmancy play kitchens I've seen lately and some adorable knitting patterns I found on ravelry. I've started with the fruit bowl:



Figure 1. Still life with fruit

I used this pattern from Peachcake Knits for the lemon and lime. (ravelry link) The (so simple it may not be worth writing up) orange pattern is my own, below. Yarn is Cascade 220 for all fruits.



Orange (ravelry link)

With US5 DPNs, cast on 6 stitches and join in round.

Row 1: Kfb all sts

Rows 2, 4, 6, 8, 10: knit

Row 3: K1, Kfb. Repeat 6 times

Row 5: K2, Kfb. Repeat 6 times

Row 7: K3, Kfb. Repeat 6 times

Row 9: K4, Kfb. Repeat 6 times

Row 11: K5, Kfb. Repeat 6 times

Row 12-15: knit

Row 16: K5, K2tog. Repeat 6 times

Rows 17, 19, 21, 23: knit

Row 18: K4, K2tog. Repeat 6 times

Row 20: K3, K2tog. Repeat 6 times

Row 22: K2, K2tog. Repeat 6 times. At this point, you should start stuffing your orange with fiberfill.

Row 24: K1, K2tog. Repeat 6 times

Row 25: K2tog. Repeat 6 times. Finish stuffing your orange with fiberfill.

Cut yarn, thread tail through remaining 6 stitches. Embroider a green asterisk

(*) on the top. Weave in all ends. Play with your food :P

Happy Birthday!

I made these meat-themed coasters for my sister's (who has a degree in meat science!) birthday present. I used Sublime Stitching Meaty Treats transfers, linen (for the front), red Kona cotton (for the back), quilt batting and DMC embroidery floss. I love how these turned out, I will definitely be making more sets in the future. This will probably be the first and last meat-themed set though.



I tested the set out with my morning coffee. You know, to make sure they worked. The full set of coasters, sans coffee:



I also made her a pencil case, using this tutorial from Little Big Girl Studio. If you haven't seen the tutorial yet, check it out - it shows a brilliant way of sewing a zipper in a lined pouch.

Back to work...

After 2 months of maternity leave from my day job, and almost a year after my last post, I'm getting ready to go back to work. I start my day job again at the end of the month, and I'm restarting the blog this month.

Here's what was keeping me busy the last 10-ish months:



Isaac just celebrated his 2 month birthday.