Zeitel's New Dress

Last month, when my daughter, Colleen, came to visit, along with her husband and 4 children, she brought me a doll that she knitted for me. She stuffed it so that the dimensions would be the same as an average sized newborn. This way I can use it as a model for my baby knitting designs. The doll is well made and is absolutely adorable. Colleen finished stuffing it while she was still on the plane on the way here.

She carried the doll in a tote bag which of course had to be put on the conveyor belt to go through security at the airports. At one of them, her husband (I think it was Abe who said it) said "Zeitel, don't forget the baby". For those who don't know, that's a line from the movie Fiddler on the Roof. So now, the doll has a name - Zeitel!

Colleen ran out of time so Zeitel was bald when I received her. A good friend of mine, Jennifer, gave me lovely yarn a week ago and I finally put hair on Zeitel's head.

I also have finally finished my latest knitting pattern - Zeitel's New Dress. The pattern is for sale on Ravelry and also on Craftsy.

Isn't Zeitel cute?

Esther's Choice

My friend, Esther, told me she was planning on knitting a sweater for someone who was expecting a first baby so I told Esther she could have any (or all) of my baby sweater patterns, if she liked. Her response was that she wanted the one I was currently creating. Of course. Well, at least that gave me an added incentive to finish the pattern. :)

The whole time I was knitting that design I had struggled with trying to decide on a name for the pattern. Now I had no further questions about it's name. It became Esther's Choice! Thanks, Es!

This sweater is knit top-down and has cable panels on either side of the front bands, down the center of each sleeve and on the sides of the body, under each arm. It also has a 2 stitch cable on each of the 4 raglan seams.

The sweater body is knit flat and the sleeves are knit in the round.

MY SEASCAPE SHAWL

I purchased the pattern, Seascape Shawl, and Peruvian baby lace merino yarn (50% baby alpaca, 50% fine merino) to make it, in May 2010, from elann.com and began knitting it in June 2010 and knit about 4” before I got side-tracked with designing baby sweaters. I put the shawl aside and didn't start knitting it again until the first week of December 2012.

This yarn is VERY fine - looks like cobweb lace yarn to me. I’m hoping that when the shawl is finished, I can block it to the length I want. The pattern calls for 1180 yds of lace weight with a gauge of 16 sts = 4”. My yarn ball band doesn't have any gauge stated, nor does elann.com for this yarn. I didn't do a gauge swatch before knitting - my bad! So far I still have plenty of yarn left from the first skein so I have plenty of yarn to make it bigger. The border is feather and fan stitch so if need be, I’ll just knit more rows until the shawl is the length I want.

I’m at the border now so it shouldn't take too much longer to finish.

Bob's Socks

I've been knitting socks for years and whenever I've asked my husband if he'd like a pair, he's always said no. Until a few weeks ago. When I told Esther, one of my knitting friends that I was going to make Bob a pair of socks, his first ever hand-knit socks, she insisted that I accept 2 skeins of sock yarn from her stash. She said I'd be doing her a favor!  How could I refuse? Thank you for the yarn, Esther. Bob was happy with the colors in it.

I fiddled with the numbers of stitches until I finally came up with the correct cast on and a stretchy rib/seed stitch. He has a very high instep and I wanted to be sure he could get the socks on easily as I know he’d never wear them otherwise. I’m so happy they came out well and they FIT him!

Now, we’ll see if he ever wears them. His usual sock of choice is the nylon men’s dress socks.

SANTA HAT

I am a member of Bundles of Joy group on ravelry.com. BoJ is a charity group dedicated to helping needy babies and children of Pine Ridge Reservation in SD. The group decided it would be nice if all the newborns in the OB Ward on Pine Ridge had Santa hats. So I knitted a hat and have offered my pattern, "Newborn Santa Hat", for free on Ravelry. Knitted as directed, the hat will fit a newborn, but it can be made to fit a larger baby or child if you increase the cast on number of stitches by increments of 3 stitches to your required size, then follow the rest of the directions as written.

If you'd like the free Newborn Santa Hat pattern, click on the link that says "My designs on ravelry.com" at the far right top of the page, and it will take you to my patterns. 

Merry Christmas!

Baby Rugby Pullover

I finally finished my latest baby sweater pattern - Baby Rugby Pullover. I created it to resemble the rugby shirts my son used to wear. The one I created is knit top-down and seamless with raglan sleeves and a buttoned front placket that opens wide enough to allow the sweater to go easily over the head of a squirming baby.

Knitted Smocked Baby Dress

I've been working on a new knitted baby dress pattern for the past few months. I ended up knitting 6 dresses because I just couldn't seem to get the dress to look the way I could see it in my mind. I finally determined that the problem was the neck band - it was way too big. It's fixed now and the pattern is complete and is finally available for sale on Craftsy http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/knitting/clothing/knitted-smocked-baby-dress/30960 and on Ravelry http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/knitted-smocked-baby-dress

I created this design to resemble the Bishop hand smocked baby dresses my Mom used to sew. My dress has long sleeves and is made from sport weight yarn. A heavier yarn wouldn't drape so well. I can just picture one of these on a baby during the winter holidays. :)