One baby item is going to a family member. Churchable’s cousin’s wife is having a baby. So after contemplating a pattern in my mind, searching Ravelry for what I was thinking about, I cast on for the EZ February Baby Sweater. It is too cute and I just barely ran out of yarn.

Little Marshall girl
Pattern: Baby Sweater on Two Needles (February) from Knitter’s Almanac
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece color CW-380 Dusty Sage and some Knit One Crochet Too Wick color 120 – Natural
Needles: Crystal Palace US 6 Circular
Thoughts: I actually talked about this last Friday, but ended up changing the closure because the method I planned on doing was not going to work. I was going to use snaps that you pound into each other but the knitted material was too thick. Instead I used snap tape on the instead and four decorative buttons. I washed the sweater in the machine and air drier it. I have had good results with this method of care. When you put Cotton Fleece in the dry it pills alot.

The other baby that was expected and she came on time, but you have to know her mother to not be shocked by this. One of my friends from college that lives in the NW had a baby girl.

Pattern: Saartje’s Bootees (PDF)
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts STR Mediumweight Colorway: Autumn (not currently on the site) about 18 grams of yarn (use your sock leftovers for these cuties)
Needles: Crystal Palace US 1 (2.25mm) DPNs
Thoughts: Cute, Quick, Easy. What more could you want in a pattern.

Pattern: Fifi from French Girl knits
Yarn: 4 1/2 balls Rowan Calmer color Khaki
Needles: Crystal Palace US 1 DPNs
Thoughts: Finally she is finished. I like the look but I have issues with the pattern, the length, my bind off on the arms. The pattern was not very clear which I think is weird for such a more upscale pattern company. I cast on 3 times for this pattern and I still am not happy with the neck line. It needs to be bigger (next time I will cast on 140 on smaller needles and then switch to larger ones after rnd 6). Because this yarn stretches, I thought I had the right length, but once I put the BO garment on it seemed a little shorter than my desire. I tried a new stretchy BO which works for the bottom, but not the sleeves. The sleeves probably need to be knit on a needle one size down with a basic BO.
Mods: I got to the BO for the S, but it did not meet at the underarms. (now it seems, It might have fit if I had split there and had increased in the side seam.) So I did the full increases for the L/XL on the bust but not the sleeves. I put in bust darts – 2 on each side ( I had holes were I wrapped and turned so I duplicate stitched that area so you could not see the holes.) It seems to me that you might have been able to do a regular short row bust dart. I did 7 decreases on each side starting 2 inches before my waist (in this I did not follow directions but rather turned the side areas into k1p1 areas). I also did the same number of increases for my hips as soon as I completed the decreases. My BO was a K2tog pass st back to LFT needle and k2tog. It worked really great.

Churchable’s 4th socks
Pattern: Basketcase Socks
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Mediumweight Colorway Minestone
Needles: Crystal Palace US 2 Circular
Thoughts: He loves these socks. They fit great on him. I have learned that 60st with this yarn works great for him. He likes snug socks.

Pattern: Sweater with Cables from Rebecca #30

Yarn: Laine de Schaffhouse Livia color 32 (held double)
Needles: Crystal Palace US 8 Circular and US 6 Circular
Thoughts: I am not so fond of this pattern. I looked good on the model, but I made a mistake and made the wrong size (36/38). I know better but oh well. I also don’t like the two cables going over my breasts. They are too wide for me. I might wear this with a button down shirt, but I don’t know.