This is my all-time favorite gift to knit for a baby girl:
Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Practically Seamless Baby Sweater from Knitter’s Almanac. I’ve knit this pattern so many times, my copy of this book automatically falls open to it. It’s a classic that’s easy to knit with great results. I have notes written all over the page. I’ve also replaced the Gull Pattern with a Little Shells pattern. For the Little Shells, you knit the 1st row, purl the 2nd and 4th rows and here’s Row 3: K2 * yo, p1, p3tog, p1, yo, k2 – repeat from * across.
I knit this one up for Elann friend, Libby, who’s baby girl was born just last week. You can see a photo of her on the Elann chat page (scroll down and look on the left side). Karolyn Ann is a beautiful for a beautiful girl!
It never ceases to amaze me how much joy I can get out of a little fleece, a drop spindle and a pair of knitting needles. Fellow Army wife and knitting blogger, Erica, could be in the hospital as I type having her baby boy. Happy Labor Day, Erica! Hopefully her hubster made it back from Iraq in time for the blessed event. I met her a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to make something special for her (it’s always nice knitting for another knitter). I had some scrumpdilicous Shetland fleece in my stash from Judy Colvin’s ranchin Montana. I spun it up and knit a little pair of oh-so-soft booties. Not a moment too soon because the wind is howling outside right now. They’ll go in the mail today.
My sock-knitting friend, Lynn, made a pair of these with her handspun when I was pregnant for Joseph six years ago. They were a gorgeous shade of hand-dyed deep maroon with jewel-tone fair isle knit into the leg. I remember how touched I was that she did that for me. I’ve been making them ever since. I must have left them in storage in the States because I searched and can’t find them. Lynn is known to many as “The Sock Lady”. You can check out some of her beautiful work here. I won’t forget you, Lynn, when I get to the Opal Factory!
Those booties and a baby quilt and sweater (also in storage) knit by my friend, Jessica (I met Jessica on the knitlist about seven or eight years ago), are my most prized items of Joe’s baby gifts. I thought of how kind Lynn was every time I put those booties on him when he was a baby and I think of Jessica every night when I tuck Joe in with his quilt that he still drags around as his comfort when he’s sick or wants to snuggle. One day his children will be kept warm with them all and that just give me the warm fuzzies.
You’ll find many renditions of this pattern as it’s been out there for eons. With Lynn’s permission, here is my version of her version of the bootie pattern (when you knit something this many times, the pattern is bound to change here and there). As EZ would say, these are “pithy” directions. If you are a beginner knitter or something doesn’t make sense, just holler:
You can use any yarn from fingering to worsted. Worsted makes a pretty big bootie. The handspun I used for Erica’s is about fingering weight and they should fit the baby till he’s about four months (I hope). I usually use DK weight.
Cast on ten sts. Garter for 18 ridges. Knit up 18 sts down next side, 10 across cast-on edge, 18 up other side. Knit in the round now. **Four rounds purl, four rounds knit (x2) and then knit four more rounds. Now you’re ready to do the top of the foot. In the booties Lynn did for Joe she did a 4×4 garter sts up the foot. I like that better, but I forgot about it and just did st st on these. You can do about anything you want to here. A small lace pattern would be cute. You’ll be knitting back and forth across the ten end sts. As you come to the last st of each row, knit it tog with one st from the 18 st side until you have 10 sts on each needle. Knitting in the round again, knit 3-5 rounds and then do an eyelet round for the ties (k2, yo, k2tog). Now you are at the leg and can do whatever you want. Add some lace or fair isle here. I just did a plain 2×2 ribbing. Garter st would be cute here too. For the ties you can do I-cord (I tried but it was too big for these booties), twisted cord (which is what I used for these) or crochet a chain. Have fun. They make great gifts.
I’m trying to update my knitting journal this weekend. Thought I’d share some photos of a couple of recently finished items.
Booga Bags! Pattern courtesy of Julie at Booga J. Need a quick gift? These are da bomb. Knit in Noro Kureyon they are quick and easy. A lot of bang for your knitting buck. I blocked them on two different sized boxes to get the slightly different shapes. The one on the left is in color #116 and the one on the right is #51. They’re a little more muted in person.
Next up is the Fiber Trends Field of Flowers Shawl. Designed by Evelyn Clark. It’s a beauty and a pretty simple knit for lace. I gave this one up to my Gram. She and my Grandfather sit outside early in the morning in the White Mountain area of New Hampshire. I knit this one from a cone of weaving yarn I scored on Ebay a few years back. It fulled perfectly when I blocked the oils out of it.
I got an email from my Jeremy yesterday. Things have picked up quite a bit in Mosul and he knew I’d be worried. I’ve spent a good portion of the last few days surfing all the news sites trying to keep an eye on what’s going on. Can’t really watch it all on TV with the little guys running around. Please keep Jeremy and all our troops in your thoughts and prayers.
Who are we really if we cannot laugh at ourselves. I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Brace yourselves, I know it’s hard to accept, but I can be a dork at times. I know…. it’s hard to believe. My friends all know it but are kind and let it slide. I have good friends.
One of the benefits of being in the military is the opportunities that we’ve had to travel to places we might never have gotten to see otherwise. This summer we wanted to do something different. We’ve seen pretty much all of Europe. We decided on Egypt. It was Dan’s idea, not mine. I was skeptical at first, but after contacting the State Department and being told it was safe I thought it’d be a terrific experience for Daniel and Joe. Let me add a tourism note here…. NEVER go to Egypt in July!!! It was 120 degrees and the only AC was in our room at the resort and on the bus we took to Cairo and Giza. We couldn’t even go through the museum in Cairo because Joe was passing out from the heat. We ended up sitting outside for two hours talking to some Egyptian students while waiting for our tour group.
In my rush to pack, I grabbed my “Knitters” magazine thinking what a great shot I could get to send in. After coming out of one of the Pyramids we got the boys back on the bus and then we went out to take the “Knitters” photo. The tour guide had warned us not to accept anything anyone was selling or to let them take our photo until we were clear on a price. As soon as we got off the bus there were two men there asking us to get on their camel for a photo. As I was saying no one of them lifted me onto the camel as the other one wrapped a towel around my head. I was telling them to let me off and Dan yelled, “Just go with it! It’s a great shot” Yea.. he wasn’t the one six feet off the ground against his will. I played the trooper, held up the magazine and smiled. Here’s the photo Dan took:
Great photo, huh? Look a little closer:
Yes, my name is Jean and I’m a complete dork.
What’s sadder is that I didn’t realize what I’d done until I went looking in the magazine for the address to Knitters to send in the photo. At least I realized it before I actually sent it in.
In my defense, the knitters that did see the photo didn’t pick up on it. Either that or they were just being kind. So there, I’ve outed myself. Now you know, I’m a dork.
When I posted the photo yesterday of the snow I know there were those saying, “Heck, that ain’t snow!” Well, take a gander at what we woke up to this morning:
