The Littlest Redhead

3-1/2 yrs old

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Sirdar Vest

My latest project is Sirdar Pattern 3155. Suggested yarn is Snuggly DK, but since this will be a summer vest for my baby, I have chosen a cool cotton by Elsebeth Lavold - Cotton Patine 100% cotton in the Honey colorway. It's knitting about 22 stitches over 4 inches on 4.0 mm needles. I really like the way this cotton knits up. I love the earth-tone color instead of cutesy light-blue.

I noticed when shopping for infant boy clothes that 90% of the clothes are in light blue color scheme. How predictable and boring is that when there are so many other colors from which to choose?

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Four babies later . . .

I knit this sweater for our 3rd baby when I was pregnant 12 years ago. The sweater is still in great shape. Unfortunately, this baby is tooooooo big. This is the first time I've put him in it and it is too short. It could use an extra 2 inches in the torso, although the sleeves are fine. I loved this yarn - it's a 3-ply with purple/navy/teal.

Oh, and see that dimple in his cheek? I put my order in early for that!

Here's the breakdown:
Mama's eyes
Papa's nose
Mama's mouth
Papa's hair
Mama's chin
Papa's dimples
Mama's forehead
Papa's legs
Mama's hands

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Squeeze Your Tushy

Mama trying to lose the baby flab and boys joining me as I do Winsor Pilates. They love to mimic the phrases they hear: "squeeze your tushy", etc. Doing the "roll-up" is dangerous as we roll over each other. The 8-yr old never fails to bark like a seal when we clap our heels together at the end. I'm lucky if I can finish the program from laughing so hard! (Can you see baby on the couch?)

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My Baby's Daddy

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What is going on with Blogger?!

What is with Blogger? Has anyone had a picture that refused to go the right direction? In my files, this picture is a horizontal picture. Why is Blogger making it vertical? WEIRD!!!

Anyway, there's Pollywog wearing booties and hat. I actually have some unfinished booties that match the hat that need to be finished. Trying to get the stripes to match on the booties was too difficult and I gave up. I'm just going to finish them and be done with it.

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Learning Experience

Today I think I would rather focus on successful accomplishments, like these cute little booties. I'm pretty sure these were made 3 babies ago. They are 100% cotton and the pattern is the infamous Stay-On Baby booties pattern that has been around since at least the Civil War era.

What I don't want to talk about is the little yellow sweater, but I will. Turns out when calculating the number of buttonholes, I forgot to account for the buttonhole in the neckline ribbing. I bought 6 yellow buttons, but need 7 - there were no more on the shelf. So do I rip out the buttonhole band and reknit for 6 buttons or go to the store and get 7 new buttons? There's no real rush since it doesn't fit my big baby. It will be a gift for another lucky baby (a "normal-sized" baby). So, in the meantime, I will reflect on this as a learning experience and will try to remember to account for ALL buttonholes next time. ho hum

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Nothing Sweeter Than This

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Stumbling Block

I hit a stumbling block with the little yellow sweater. First of all, it may not fit my little guy very well around the chest because he is so big!! That's not the pattern's problem. Dh says it's okay if the stitches stretch a little. I wish it had an inch of give, but oh well. Secondly, I am not pleased by the looks of the buttonband and buttonholes. The white yarn appears to be bigger than the yellow overall, so I think I am going to rip out the buttonbands and re-knit using smaller needles. I will also try to make the buttonholes a bit tighter (notice how the buttonhole side is bigger than the other side). This was the first time making one-row buttonholes from Nancy Wiseman's book, The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques. It took a few minutes of uninterrupted time to figure it out, but now it makes sense. What I don't understand is why the ribbing on the bottom looks fine, but the ribbing on the buttonbands seem to be bigger. Oh well. It shouldn't take too long since this is such a small sweater.

This project is good for me, though. I now know how to pick up stitches evenly for buttonbands. Before, I would just pick up stitches wherever it looked good, but Nancy's book makes it very clear and easy. It looks so much more professional when doing things the right way! I did not understand the formula she used for buttonhole placement. I need my engineer husband to walk with me through the steps. This is not the first time I have struggled with directions. Usually when I read them aloud to him, I end up figuring it out without his input. Is anyone else like this? LOL

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On the Floor Beside Me

The house is fairly quiet. Dh has taken two children to AWANA games, two older kids are in Central America on missions trip, baby is making little noises from his bassinet, and I am taking a break from sorting through boxes and boxes of clothes. After reading a couple message boards and checking e-mail, I looked down on the floor beside me to see this:Two brothers with two puppy dogs snuggling together

Well, by the time I uploaded this photo, they were already running back and forth down the hallway upstairs above me. So much for peace. I don't think boys understand the concept of peace and quiet.

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You Make Me Smile

First captured smile.

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Food Not Meant for Consumption?

I was posting about the waste in our country on another message board and mentioned my previous dumpster-diving escapades. All of this food - actually, this is only a small portion, was dumped because their fridge went out (picture was taken 5-1/2 yrs ago). The food was all very cold when we came upon it. I was able to stock my freezer along with freezers of at least 5 other friends. (My cheese lasted over 2 yrs!)

They couldn't give it away to food shelters because the fridge had gone out. It would have filled the landfills had we not "rescued it". This goes on all the time around our country!

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Just Ducky

Here's the back of the new baby sweater using the RAK yarn mentioned in the previous post. The back and sleeves are done. I had both front pieces finished, but then realized I did not add the correct amount of stitches. Not sure how the cardigan will look with dropped shoulder seams, but I'm still going to go for it. Making this into a cardigan also means I have to figure out how to space the buttonholes - oh boy.

And to top that off, there is a baby shower for my little guy on Sunday and I'd love for him to be able to wear it with this little outfit, so the race is on. I also have little ducky slipper/shoes that someone gave me 3 yrs ago with my then newborn that match this outfit. How ducky can you get?

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On the Needles

Despite the lack of knitting posts, I have actually been knitting since the birth of PJ. I am using this Sirdar 3180 pattern, but will revise it to make a cardigan with contrasting ribbing instead. A fellow knitter gave me a RAK of this yarn (handpainted yarn Colonia 140, colorway Polen, but I wasn't sure if it would be enough for an infant sweater, so I added Koala in white for the ribbing and it looks great together so far (back and one front piece is done). I will post pictures of the work in progress soon.

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Toothless Grin

There is something precious about children when they lose their first teeth and right before the new permanent teeth come in all the way. It's almost as if you are getting one last chance to savor the idea of having a young child before they take on the new mature look when their new big teeth fully arrive. This little guy is growing up - it's bittersweet. But at least I have captured this moment because tomorrow it will be gone!

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