Scarf and Mittens

I am way behind on posting the things I made last fall!  When we moved to what Robert affectionately calls "the frozen North" last summer, I promised to make Robert a scarf and mittens.  He previously owned a pair of leather gloves and a fleece hat, but not a scarf or mittens, and we knew he would need them for the winter.

The scarf is a ribble pattern.  I had Robert page through my stitch dictionary to see what he liked, and then I suggested the reversible cables as something that would be thick and warm, and not too much of a pain to knit.  I cast on 86 stitches, knit a few rows of garter stitch, then switched to ribbles with a 3-stitch garter border on each side, knit until it was as long as he is tall, and finished with a few more rows of garter.  I was somewhat reluctant to knit a scarf because I remember them taking forever and being pretty boring, but I was pleasantly surprised that this came together quickly - and he loves that I made it for him.

The mittens have a ribble cuff to match the scarf.  I spent a lot of time browsing Ravelry for free mitten patterns.  Although I have a really fun mitten book (Knit Mittens!), all of the patterns in it are pretty fancy, and I wanted something plain.  I eventually settled on this vintage pattern.  I also came across this stranded pattern on the same site - I'd love to make those in the future!

I originally wanted to make a matching hat to go with the scarf and mittens, but I didn't have enough yarn.  I only bought 3 skeins of yarn, and only have about 75 yards left.  Maybe next year I'll get another skein, hope the dye lots are close enough, and make the matching hat.


Pattern: My own brain for the scarf, vintage pattern for the mittens
Size: N/A
Yarn: Valley Yarns Northampton in Denim Heather (100% wool); 2.7 skeins = 270 grams = ~675 yds total
Needles:  US size 9 for the scarf, US size 5 for the mittens
Started/Completed: I don't remember - Fall 2016
Modifications: Ribble cuff instead of plain cuff for the mittens

 

A Yellow Hippopotamus Birthday Dress

I made this dress at the beginning of September, as a 3rd birthday present for my niece.  She loves yellow and animals and buttons, and I had half a yard of this yellow, pink, and green hippopotamus print that I got in a scrap pack a couple of years ago.  The dress has six buttons - three different kinds!

With only half a yard of fabric, I wasn't going to be able to make any of the dress styles I'd made for my niece in the past, so I chose the Oliver + S Ice Cream Dress.  I had to cut the pieces in one layer, but I managed to squeak out the main panels of the size 2T with a few inches of added length.

It was lucky this fabric didn't have a clear up and down, or it wouldn't have worked!

I think the dress came out cute, even if it isn't the twirly kind of style my niece usually likes.  I hope she will be able to wear it as a dress, and then as a tunic as she gets taller.  I'm glad I was able to use this little piece of cute fabric that I'd been saving for her!

Grey Cardigan

I finished this cardigan at the end of October. This is the only picture I have of me wearing it, and I already don't remember many of the details of making it.  It's a perfectly good sweater - not quite as dressy as I imagined, but definitely work-appropriate.  Since I finished it, I've been wearing it about twice a week.  After washing it several times, it's a bit shorter and wider than I would ideally like, I think the sleeve caps are not quite tall enough, and it biases a bit toward my left as I'm wearing it.  I'm machine washing and drying it, even though the yarn ball band says to hand wash and dry flat, and so far it's holding up well except for the fact that it shrank quite a bit length-wise.  I was pretty disappointed with the way it shrank, since I had intentionally made the sleeves long so they would cover my wrists, and now they're just a bit shorter than the sleeves on my long-sleeved button-down shirts.  I guess it's a good thing I didn't knit them to the length specified in the pattern!  The next time I wash this sweater, I'm going to try hanging it to dry, to see if I can get some length back.

I like the pattern, but I was pretty frustrated with the pattern instructions.  I'm pretty sure there was an error in the pattern instructions for when to start the lace bib chart for size L.  I emailed the designer to ask for clarification, asked a question in the "Need Help" thread of her ravelry group, and sent her a ravelry private message - and I never received any kind of response.  Obviously I figured it out and knit a sweater I'm satisfied with, but I really think that a paid pattern should have better support.

Pattern: Trellis
Size: L
Yarn: KnitPicks Lindy Chain in Ash (70% linen, 30% pima cotton)
Needles:  I don't remember.
Started/Completed: February 2016/October 2016
Modifications: I don't remember any, except that I fixed what I think was an error in the pattern instructions for when to start the lace bib chart for size L

Quilt basting party

Back in September, my mom came to visit and we basted a quilt!  I started this quilt back in June, although apparently this is the first time I've blogged about it.  It's a wedding gift (now very belated) for a very dear friend and her husband.  They had a beautiful and fun outdoor wedding in the mountains at the end of June.

I knocked this pattern off from a picture I saw on Pinterest over a year ago.  If I remember right, the quilt I saw was intended to be a fancy Irish chain, but I thought it looked more like a modernized, embellished Double Wedding Ring.

I was not up for making a queen-sized bed quilt, so this quilt is a twin size.  The top finished at about 62" by 92".  I figure it will be perfect for the newlyweds to cuddle under on the couch, or they can use it as a guest bed quilt.

My mom helped me spray-baste the quilt.  It turns out our empty spare bedroom is perfect for quilt-basting.  Since then I've been slowly chipping away at the quilting.  I can't wait to get it done so I can finally send it to our friends (maybe it'll be a combined Christmas and belated wedding gift!).

Bucket hats!

When I started making the Paddington Bear shirt for my nephew, I very quickly decided that he needed a red bucket hat to go with it - just like Paddington wears.  I had already downloaded the free Oliver + S bucket hat pattern, and it was perfect!

Of course I had to make one for my niece, too.  Hers is a yellow floral with brown floral lining.

Both hats are size Medium (3-5 years), even though my niece is almost 3 and my nephew is 15 months - the internet says the hats run small.  From pictures, it looks like the hats fit well and are adorable.

They are fully reversible, and I used this tutorial to finish them without any hand sewing. I hear that the kids like the hats.  Which is good, because the dog didn't like it at all.

Paddington Bear

Early this summer, my sister-in-law and I went and shopped the Hancock's Fabrics closing sale.  She found an adorable Paddington Bear print and asked me to sew another button-up shirt for my nephew, like the one I made for his birthday.  I asked about sizing, and she suggested that a little more room in the shoulders would be nice, so I got to try my first attempt at altering a pattern!  I added a quarter inch to each shoulder seam, as you can see in the picture above, for a total of half an inch of extra width across the shoulders.

Then I sewed up the shirt, just like the last one - except this time I remembered to use Nicole's trick of cutting the collar interfacing into two pieces to make the collar fold extra nicely.

I put the shirt in the mail last weekend, and this morning my sister-in-law sent me a picture of my nephew looking very handsome in his new shirt!

Knitting this Summer

I didn't post much this summer, but I did knit!  I've been working intermittently on my navy shawl, and I knit almost a whole sweater:

I'm excited to have another (hopefully) presentable sweater to wear to work and church.  And I'm worried about running out of yarn.  I started with eight balls of yarn, and I have just under two left.  All I have left to do is the second sleeve and the i-cord edging around the front edges and neckline.  I'm steeling myself for the possibility that I may need to unravel my (machine washed and dried) swatch to finish.  We'll see how it goes.