Owen's Nursery Has a Forest Friends Theme

When I saw a picture of the set that Allison and Mike are buying for Owen's room, I immediately thought of one of the blankets made for one of the Rocksusto girls.   In one of my many, many boxes of yarn there was, waiting, just the right yarn to make another Leafy Baby Blanket. 

The yarn was originally purchased to do an afghan for me.   After a time, I decided that I did not want to do that afghan and allowed the yarn to languish in the stash waiting for the right time to do something with it.

Owen's blanket....begun and growing......

The time is now.   Saturday, after finishing the Elf Sweater late Friday, I cast on for the Leafy Baby Blanket using my stash of soft mossy green Willow Burrow Bulky.    I will admit I did not do a swatch.   This is a sin.   Swatches are important.   In my defense, I had just done another blanket (for Owen) using the same yarn in a different color.

The blanket is moving along.  As the yarn is bulky weight this round, it is moving quickly.  While I think I really like the pattern better in a smaller weight yarn, this is looking nice and will be cuddly for the baby.

The "holes" in the pattern may not be the greatest for little fingers and toes....but it is pretty and fits with the theme.  

Next in queue for Owen is a short series of stuffed animals.  Three are (more or less) forest creatures for his themed room.   One is just because I think it will be funny.

Baby Bredeson will arrive next month.  Until I know who this baby is, I am not planning the project(s) to greet the new family member.  Henry, who will be an excellent big brother, will be getting mittens and a hat at the same time.   The mittens will be the vintage Safety Mittens pattern which his cousin Mike loved when he was a little older than Henry.  The hat will be a coordinating pattern that I need to design.

The Elf Set

The Elf Hat with the Elf Sweater

The Elf Set is done.   One thing I would change is to have the stripes match.   In the long run, it does not matter.

The buttons have deer on them and are perfect for this project.   As JoAnn's does not do a good job with buttons anymore and I did not want to expose myself to the temptation of a brick and mortar yarn store, I shopped for these buttons at Knitpicks.   What a find!

The yarn is Willow Burrow worsted.  Plymouth Encore and Willow Burrow are very similar.  I love them both for projects that need to go through the washer and the dryer safely.   The hat and the sweater went through the washer and dryer last weekend and emerged must softer.

On to the next project!

Still knitting...knitting...knitting

The needles have been working too much to slow down and take pictures.   

This weekend I hope to finish the Elf Sweater that matches the Elf Hat that is done.   Baby knitting has been a really fun adventure.

After the Elf Sweater, I will be doing more stuffed animals and a baby blanket.  Pictures will come.

My travel project is Raggi socks for Christmas.  Raggi, I am deeply sad to hear, is not going to be available as the distributors in this country are retiring.   I bought some up for me.  I have no Raggi socks out of the many pair I have knit.

In my quest to knit more interesting socks, I have decided to take on the pair of Raggi socks that were just published in Interweave Knits.   Those will be for me so they will be knit....later....sometime later.

September is nearly done.....knit faster!  Knit faster!!!!

Knitting through the Madness

The past month has been crazy.   Fortunately, I had my knitting.   Knitting, even troublesome knitting, is calming.

I just finished leg warmers for Piper.  Sharon, a.k.a. Grandma, knew exactly what Piper needed.  She and I conferred on the patterns and choose the best one.   The color had to be black for Piper's skating costume.  The result looks narrow but it is a one by one rib.  VEEEEEEEEEERY stretchy.

Piper's Legwarmers

Ravelry makes choosing projects so much simpler than that process used to be.  Seeing a lot of patterns quickly gives a good idea of what can and can't be done easily.   This gives me a better shot at knowing the project will work for the person the project is for....

Sometimes, I just take an idea and run with it.  I think I have previously talked about my love of seed stitch.  As this is not the most exciting stitch in the world to do a lot of, even I find this puzzling.   Some skeins of True Blue burrow bulky wanted to be knit into seed stitch.  Really.  They told me.   That is how Owen's baby blanket came to be.  It is nice and squishy..and launders well.

The Garden Bunny has overalls that match the blanket.   This bunny was a weird pattern in many ways.   While I learned a lot, I am not sure I would do this again.  The head is oddly small.   I accidentally sewed the head on as a foot.  Cursing ensued.   A lot of cursing.

The bunny is cute.  Not what I had hoped.....but cute.   The picture has the second attempt at a face.  The first go made the bunny look a bit psycho.  That had to change.  

More knitting for Owen is in the works.  Hope life calms down.