Finally finished!

Baby opening buttoned up

Months of delay coincided with a serendipitous prolonging of fall, as the winter temperatures now ascend upon us, my baby wearing sweater Baby and Me Poncho is complete.
 




opening for hand

By no means is this a perfect piece. stitch errors are quite visible to the naked eye. Were I to make another one I would consider stopping the stitch increases a little sooner, but on the whole I'm pretty pleased with how the shape of this turned out and isn't as wonky as I began to fear it had become. For the last half of this poncho I was working two long circular needles to accomplish this seamless work of persistence. This took me quite a long time to complete, so please do not ask me to make you one... at least not till I no longer have a houseful of little people of my own. I would have to charge about $1k to make this worth my while. The thought had crossed my mind many times that perhaps sewing a poncho with felted wool with an organic cotton lining might have been a heck of a lot faster. Or even a polyester fleece shell with a cotton lining... This poncho's baby opening closes with large wooden (firmly sewn on) buttons, but a sewn poncho might do much better to have KAM snaps. Now that's something I "could" probably whip up in a weekend! .... but I'm on to the next project box... another felted Christmas Stocking! My second one will be the Deer Family.

knitting right along

I wasn't sure if this would be a sweater or more of a poncho... from the top down you can go either way. Now though, the decision has been made and it will be more of a sweater with traditional sleeves. Sleeves are now on holders (stitches are just looped onto a piece of yarn and tied in a circle). The circulars are proceeding with working down the length of the body.

Room for two heads

Baby opening tucked in
closed position

Right because two are better than one.

Baby opening
open

It's my hope that when I don't need an opening for baby the button panel will tuck under discretely and not be too noticeable.

I'll have to sew on buttons, but the button holes are ready on the flip side of the baby collar/ opening ribbing.

Weird, uh?

Baby and Me Sweater

Here's the beginning
of the baby opening.

While it's spring, I'm still keenly aware of how awkward staying warm while baby wearing was this past winter. Waiting till next winter to come up with a solution seems silly, and now's the time to solve this problem. There are a few baby wearing coats being made which retail for anywhere from $100 to $200, but most need to be imported from overseas. I might still opt for a shelled baby wearing jacket eventually. However, for the moment I'm working on something which I hope will work for most winter days, save the most extremely cold ones, as our Virginia winters aren't too terrible. Often a heavy sweater or fleece coat is sufficient given you're properly layered underneath.

Baptism Gown in a new medium

Usually I knit these with my yummy stretchy cotton, but alas, I couldn't find any in white. Instead I decided upon a 50/50 Merino/ Bamboo sport weight blend called Galileo by Knit Picks. Both being very fine and silky straight fibers, there's not much crimp, and the only elasticity is created by the ribbing effect of the cable patterns. Befitting a spring time baby, this is short sleeved, and hopefully won't be too hot or heavy. It's no lace knit, but it's certainly not worsted either. I purchased 6 skeins for this project, but only used four. I could make booties or a hat, but neither would be worn. My last Baptismal gown had a matching hat, but it was worn for like a minute and was practically a waste of time and energy.

Preteen Wool turtle neck dress

This one took about a month to complete. I'm mighty proud of the fact that I only had to tuck in three yarn tails. I hate seams, and there's not a single one in this dress. My next project will have at least two, :(  as I've not come up with a way to avoid them with the method I'll be using. There's got to be a way, I've just not figured it out yet. ;)  
While this may look a little "huggy" my experience with this yarn is has been that it will relax some after the first hand wash and might not continue to hug quite so snuggly.... at least that's my modesty seeking mama hope. It's a natural wool color, but it may return as a dye project in the future, as I've told my girls they can dye them if they so choose with any Kool-Aid they prefer.

Woolie Sweater Dress

 We're all really happy with how this dress turned out. With no seams, knit entirely in the round, from top to bottom using circulars from the turtle-neck collar, down in a yolk sweater method, and finally the sleeves were completed using double points, leaving only three yarn tails to tuck.

So I just cast another turtle neck collar onto the small circulars and will try again for the pre-teen version of this dress up next.

All that's left now is the sleeves

Casting off the hemline last night, I hope to finish the sleeves by the end of this week.

Knitting compulsion

This is more of a compulsive creation stemming from my desire for winter time sweater dresses for my girls. My rough guestimate on my gage was off, so instead of being a dress for my oldest, in all likelihood, this will be for my middle daughter. Sleeves will be last, and thus far I'm about waist deep, the intent to knit all the way down to below knee length.

I'm making it up as I go along... as usual, top to bottom, no seams, knitting in the round with circulars. The yarn is fisherman's wool worsted weight, natural.

Grooming Angora Dog

We adopted a two year old Bichon Poodle (Poochon) mix a few weeks ago. Her winter coat was long and matted in many places (sides, legs, belly, and around the neck and ears). Initially I tried to comb it out since it's still winter and a long coat would be nice for the cold temperatures. However, she wouldn't let me do enough to remedy the matting, and it only seemed to get worse.

First hair cut;
cleared the matting
 

 This dog will require frequent grooming, an expense we going to minimize by doing the work ourselves. Perfection and mastery are fully expected to require lots of practice. Having about five years of angora rabbit grooming under my belt gives me some experience to spring from. Between cutting the boys hair (which I'm still working to improve) and now clipping the dog's hair there will be plenty of opportunities for practice this spring and summer. While a fluffy coat is lovely, it requires constant combing, and so it will be partly up to the dog as to how long we'll keep it. Now that we're starting off with a clean slate, perhaps she'll be better about allowing us to brush her feet. However, if she persist in being super sensitive about it, we'll just keep her clipped short at all times.

Scouring the reviews on amazon for advice specific to poodle type coats, I settled upon the Andis two speed clippers, which were well rated. Since I was trying to removed matting between clipper swipes, I turned them off and on frequently to prevent them from heating up. I used grooming scissors to cut out really bad matting, a steal comb to smooth out the coat, and clipper guards in an attempt to salvage some length of the coat along the back and head. However, I had to take it down much further than I'd hoped when the guards wouldn't allow for cutting through any matted parts. Since my clippers were not running non-stop, and the dog is petite, over heating didn't seem to be too much of a problem. Just in case I had picked up some Cool Care spray after reading reviews that strongly recommended it. While the Andis clippers didn't specify this, it did come with a large bottle of clipper oil, which keeps the clipper blades lubricated and running smoothly.  It was nice not to have to purchase that separately, as I did the guards and will need to do if I want different blade sizes. The clipper comes with a standard size 10 blades attached. I felt this was short enough for my purposes. Larger numbers cut even shorter, and smaller numbers cut to yield a longer length. My desired look is the teddy bear cut I've seen on Pinterest.

I never clipped any of my former angora rabbits, which could cause even more matting. I'd read the best wool care was combing it out and plucking away molting wool. Plucking was the only way to completely remove all the molted wool, as shearing left short molted pieces. While unbelievably time consuming (time I no longer have in my life...maybe one day, but not now) that was how I always took care of my rabbits. However, most angora folks, especially folks with many rabbits, sheared their rabbits, because it was simply faster. Indeed, after clipping the dog this weekend I wonder how I managed to never clip the rabbits. How much easier this will be then combing, brushing, combing, painstakingly separating matting.... what a relief to just buzz it all away. Now I feel like Scarlett O'Hare, "I will never go clipper-less again!"

From Our Closet: Infant Wool Sleep Sack

I made this last winter for the baby due in February, who decided he would wait till March. Then spring arrived early and it was too warm for a wool sleep sack. Now that it's getting cold again, my 20lb spring chick is too big for it, I can squeeze him in, but he can't move his legs about. He is also pulling up and I've moved him into a larger sleep sack with feet holes. So if you'd like this wool sleepy sack contact me with your best offer by leaving a comment. I won't publish any comments for this post so feel free to leave your e-mail or contact info, as it will remain private.
 It's made of 100% felted wool.

On the needles...

A request from over 6 years ago

Pumpkin socks

fun little weekend knits

Project Pumpkin Pants

It started out as a skein of plain Aryan wool. I poured a dash of vinegar into the bathroom sink, then added orange flavored kool-aid (1 packet unsweetened) and enough water to cover the whole skein. It resulted in a very pale orange yarn. Then I repeated the process using 1 packet of black cherry flavored kool-aid, and this helped to darken the orange a bit more.  After it dried I had a nice variegated peachy orange color.    And now we have a new pair of longies for the baby.   The longies are knit in the round from the top down. The body of the pants were knit on circular needles, and then the legs were knit on double point needles.

Baby's Alpaca Sweater

I started this about 20 days ago...that's a long time for me...and long time in the life of a quickly growing baby. But it's still big enough for my little one.

The yarn came from an impulsive purchase at a local shop. It's 100% alpaca wool, and just looked so chocolate and pinkilicious! I had to make my princess something girly with this.

Old project, new model

This sweater finally has a model to fit it. The wool longies I made four years ago for her sister and I'm glad I hung onto them. Not terribly girly, but it's warm and cozy!

Merino Angora Sweater

This sweater is hand knit from yarn I spun myself. It's the first fruits of my first fleece purchase...which I bought, washed, carded, and processed almost a year ago. I've not finished the spinning of the entire fleece, but I'm very tempted to drag out the wool box today and do a bit of spinning so I can work with more yarn. Then again, I'm a realist and I don't think I quite have time for spinning right now. So just admiring the fruits of my hard work might have to suffice for today.

This little girls is getting this sweater for her birthday in a couple weeks. It's not a surprise, but she's very happy with the turn out non-the-less.

Most importantly, "it's not an itchy sweater...it's a soft sweater." Praise the Lord!

Baby Sweater

I took a break from knitting longies to make a sweater for the new baby. My child will not be cold this winter...if anything overheated is more likely the scenario with all my fervent knitting. Well...socks, I've not been much for knitting those. Perhaps I should consider some socks now.

Red Longies

And another pair done...

On the needles

I'm working on...bet you can't guess????

Yes, another pair of longies! This pair is red. I like red.