More Baby Sweaters

This little Wonderful Wallaby has been around for about 10 years or so.  I originally made it for a girl at the office but forgot to send it off.  It languished in the sewing room for years before it turned up again.  Now it is in the Baby Gift Box.

I have been tinkering with this pattern to make it doable on the knitting machine since knitting this one by hand.  The dark red sweater in the last post is the pattern I came up with.

This next sweater is also an old old sweater.  I made it back when I was knitting items for a Christmas boutique, and it was supposed to have a zipper up the front.  The front edges had been crocheted to get them ready for sewing the zipper, but I never got around to putting the zipper in.  It seemed to me that the zippers now have a section of plastic with sometimes sharp edges at the corners on the top area of the zipper, and I didn't want that anywhere near a baby's face.  Finally, I ripped out the crochet, which was a finicky and lengthy job, and added a regular button band.

A sweater like this is a good way to use up scraps of yarn when there is not enough of one color for the whole sweater.

More Items For The Baby Stash

There has been a little clean up in the sewing room, and I unearthed about five unsewn baby bibs that can be finished off and added to the baby gift stash.  In addition to that, a few sweaters have been finished up.

This was a first design version of a pullover hoodie.  My goal is to use up a lot of leftover yarn scraps.  This version is usable, but the slope of the raglan is too steep and the hood is not tall enough.  The front opening depth is good though.  This was knit entirely on the machine except for the garter stitch border and the ribbing.

 

 

Here's version two, a success except that the front opening needs to be deeper.   I miscalculated the row count for the opening but it still works.  It just made it impossible to hang the whole hood on the machine at the same time, so there is a seam up the back.  The seed stitch was also done on the machine which is possible but finicky though it didn't take as long as I expected.  I always test the baby sweaters (these are all Size 2) by pulling them over my own head.  If the sweater neck opening is big enough for me, it will certainly work for a toddler.

Baby Gift Box

I've always thought it would be a great idea to have a box of completed baby gifts ready to go for showers or new baby gifts instead of rushing around at the last minute.  I've thought about this idea for at least 20 years and am finally doing something about it.  My daughters are at the age when lots of friends or co-workers are having babies, and it can be expensive to buy all those gifts.  I have lots of leftover yarn, lots of patterns, and a current baby item mojo, so I have started making items for the gift box.  First thing completed was a sweater from the book Kids Kids Kids:

This makes a cute sweater and an interesting knit.  The shape of the sweater is very different before it is assembled, but it all works out in the end.  Next I tried out some baby booties patterns and ended up crocheting some accidentally large footwear:

These were from a pamphlet I have had for years, but ended up big enough for a really large toddler.  I tried another pattern and produced a short, fat bootie that was a frogged failure.  After that, I decided on baby socks and had success:

 

This pattern is available free online at http://www.cu-needleworks.com/patterns/kids/baby_socks_1/baby_socks_turned.pdf 

 There are still three pullovers in the sewing room that need to be sewn together and a cardigan waiting for its buttons.