Teddy's Baby Pullover

About 2 years ago I made a pullover for my teen aged grandson, Teddy, and had yarn left over. When I saw the yarn in my stash one day, I decided to use it to make a baby pullover, using the same stitch I had used on the sleeves of Teddy’s sweater. That is how Teddy’s Baby Pullover came into being.

I ended up knitting 4 of them in different yarns and I love them all. The stitch used is very stretchy and my grandson was able to wear his sweater for far longer than I had expected it to fit him. Hopefully this will hold true for the babies who receive my sample sweaters. All my samples go to Pine Ridge Reservation in SD.

New Baby

I went baby shopping - baby doll that is. :) I already had 3 dolls. One is named Mini Purl because she’s preemie sized. If you’re old like me you’ll remember Minnie Pearl so you can see I took her name and changed it some. :)

The other 2 dolls are between 3 mos and 6 mos sized so I really “needed” a newborn sized doll. I found one at Toys R Us for about $22 and she’s just the right size. I took a measuring tape with me and measured her head, chest and length to be sure. I think the clerk thought I was a crazy old lady. LOL

After Toys R Us, Bob (yes he was with me when I measured the doll, but he already knew that I’m a crazy old lady) and I went to the mall to get his watch battery put in. While we were waiting for that, we sat in the chairs in the middle of the Mall and a new Mom and her 3 week old baby sat near us. My new doll was in the car so I couldn’t hold it beside the baby, but I’m pretty sure they are both the same size! The new Mom said her baby is already sleeping all night - lucky Mom!

I decided that since the doll was bought/born on the 4th of July, her name will be Julie. :) Bob says the house is getting crowded with dolls. They’re all on the sofa. LOL

I had to interrupt her TV watching to take this picture. She was watching the news with Bob. :)

My sweater

My sweater is finished. When I went to buy buttons, I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to use blue ones that were the same color as the sweater or silver antique looking buttons, so I bought both. After I got them home, I decided on the silver ones. I like the looks of the  finished sweater, but the fat old lady wearing it - not so much. :)

My Tote Bag is done, done, done!

Way back in the middle of January I started to knit the Tote kit that my daughter Colleen gave me for Christmas. The pattern was driving me crazy (see my blog posts dated February 17 and February 29) so I decided to forget it and just go ahead and knit a bag of my own design instead. After several attempts, I finally came up with a simple design, but using all 12 of the yarn colors in the kit. At first glance you don't realize how many colors are really in the finished bag.

I actually completed the knitting several months ago but kept putting off sewing the lining. Although I know how, sewing isn't my favorite craft but I'm very good at procrastinating.

I bought the lining fabric shortly after the knitting was done. While in the fabric store I spent at least 5 minutes in front of the thread display deciding on the exact right shade of thread to match the lining and bought the perfect green thread.

Yesterday I decided I'd put off lining the bag long enough, so I went to the closet to get the bag containing the lining material, thread and interfacing. When I opened the bag there was NO THREAD! Now I know I brought that thread home because I showed it to my husband, Bob, and he even remembers it! I searched the entire house yesterday, looking for that darn thread, but couldn't find it. Now, I admit, my house is not the cleanest in the world but I'm a fairly organized person, especially when it comes to my sewing and knitting supplies. I have a drawer full of thread with a variety of different shades of green but NOT the thread intended for this bag. I finally gave up the hunt and used one of the spools of green thread from the drawer. It is okay but NOT the one I wanted. I was afraid that if I put off sewing the lining until I got back to the fabric store for the right shade of green thread, I'd never sew the lining at all.

So, I cut out the lining, sewed 2 pockets on the inside and put the whole bag together. Here it is - finally!

I'm on a roll.

Since I frogged the sweater I was designing, I've been busy knitting someone else's pattern, as I said in my May 31st blog. You can see it here:  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/career-check

Last night I finished knitting the back and today I've done about 3 rows of the left front. So long as I can keep my stubborn old brain focused to remember to reverse the direction of the slanted portion of the pattern when I work on the wrong side, I'll be fine. sigh  

My preferred method of knitting sweaters is top-down and seamless but this one is knit bottom-up with the back, two fronts and sleeves each worked separately, then seamed.  The neck band and front bands are worked after all the pieces are complete. I've done any number of sweaters using this method in the past so I don't foresee any difficulties with that.

It's really not a difficult pattern, that is, when you pay attention to what you're doing. Here's a look at what is complete so far.

If at first you don't succeed...

Well, I frogged the sweater and started all over again using a pattern from Knitter's Magazine 2008 called Career Check. You can see the pattern here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/career-check

I'm using the same blue yarn from the sweater I frogged and here's what the pattern looks like so far:

I've actually completed about 11" of the back. This sweater is worked from the bottom up with the back, two fronts and sleeves each knitted separately, then sewn together. I knit most sweaters top down and seamless. I know many people avoid seams like the plague but I don't really mind sewing seams. Hopefully this sweater will fit me when it's finished. :)

Frogging - again!

Well, after starting my sweater, frogging it and starting again - 5 TIMES, I worked it, starting at the neck, down to about 5" below the underarm. I tried it on and decided that I'd been knitting along in denial for a week because the darned thing is way too big for me!!! Now, I'm no tiny little person, but this thing could fit Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum together! sigh

So, yup, I frogged the whole thing - all 3 1/2 skeins of yarn, but at least I wound it all into cakes as I frogged it. I think a big part of the problem was that the pattern was rather stretchy and I could never decide which gauge was accurate.

Now I need to do some searching through my stitch dictionary books and come up with a new design and start again. Wish me luck. :)