Art Smock

I made an art smock for a friend's son. I love the robot print on the sleeves. I should have taken a better picture of the print on the sleeves.

I hope he likes robots!

2011 Thing a Week - Week 38 - Another Turtle

Another turtle!

A friend's daughter has been sick and I wanted to make her something to cheer her up! I hope she likes it!

I love the little tail!!

Rainbow Blanket

I knit up this blanket for my friend's baby shower. I had less yarn than the pattern calls for, so I didn't do the i-cord edging but it still looks nice. It gave me enough time to also make a cashmere bunny to give so it all worked out.

Birthday Dress

Today Minnie and I went to the birthday party of one of her friends. I sewed her this dress last week and I love how it turned out. The grey was a scrap from the simple quilt and wasn't sure it would go but I think it works. I used the same pattern as for the Jacks Dress.

Front!

Back!

2011 - Thing a Week - Week 37 - Cashmere Bunny

I knit a blanket to give to my friend at her baby shower, but on the day of the party, while Minnie was sleeping, I decided to make something else.

I've had this pattern for a while, and had even bought some cashmere sweaters last year, but hadn't made one yet.  I pulled out the sweaters and remembered they were all the same color. I had found a twinset and a v-neck at the thrift store in the exact same shade of green. Instead of making a solid green bunny I decided to mix it with some quilting cotton. My mom had picked a floral fat quarter at a quilt shop in Charleston that looked great with the cashmere. A sweet present for a baby girl.

I hope the baby likes it!

Jacks Dress

It's not a dress for Jack, but a dress of jacks.

The fabric is printed with jacks.

I love love love how this turned out. It's definitely big; those Simplicity patterns sure are huge! But it looks okay now and will last a long time. I need to make more. I totally want to make one out of corduroy!

I added buttons to the back instead of a zipper. It was way easier than I thought. I sewed on the buttons with the machine too, which was fabulous. You just put the stitch length to 0, and slowly hand crank the needle to figure out how much it should zig zag. For these little buttons a 4 worked out. This page has a ton of great button/buttonhole information.

Oh yeah, the pattern is Simplicity 4243 Babies. This is the 12 month size and she's about 19 pounds here. It's roomy in the chest and arms and will fit her for a while.

Minnie's Purse

Lately Minnie has been stashing things inside containers. She'll pack things in a brown paper grocery bag and carry it around (yes, it's almost the same size as she is), and she'll pile things inside a tupperware dish, so I decided to make her a little bag to carry things around in.

I had some fabric and some cotton batting, so I decided to quilt the batting to the fabric to make a sturdier bag. I wanted the side to stay upright so she would be able to put in and take out things from the bag. Holy goodness that took a long time! It looks nice, but I think next time I will try some fusible fleece to make it about five times as fast. Of course I'm planning on making more!

She packed her phone and snacks.

I sewed it during her nap, which is when I do most of my sewing, and left it on the coffee table for her to find when she woke up. She ran right over to it and put it over her wrist. I'd say it's a success.

2011 - Thing a Week - Week 36 - More Socks!

I love these! I knit them at a much denser gauge than the last pair and they are wonderful. I just walked around on the tile in the kitchen and I couldn't feel the stitches like with the last pair. I'm glad I like them since I bought a bunch of sock yarn at the store closing sale. Hopefully I'll finish the others sooner.

My Ravelry project page is here. I started these back in June! Really I worked on the first one for most of that time (knit half and realized it was too loose; knit 3/4 and realized it was too small) in between other projects, and knit the second sock in less than a week. Knitters know of Second Sock Syndrome, where you knit the first sock quickly and the second languishes, but apparently I work oppositely. (Oppositely's a word? I thought I was making that up!)

Cozy toes.

2011 Thing a Week - Week 35 - Turtle

So I don't actually love it as much as I wanted to. I think it's the fabric? I guess I will need to make more to see!

I do love that this took like an hour to make. I think it helps that the pieces are so small. I didn't spend a bunch of time agonizing over how to law out the pattern or waste time trying to change a part of the pattern. Oh, that hour does not include picking out the fabric pieces. If I include that it was a bit longer...