Vivien lace baby cardigan

Vivien, my youngest niece's name, means alive or lively. I thought that was perfect for this sweater I designed for her that features leaf lace motifs (leaves are alive!).

My adorable niece wearing her cardigan!

I fell in love with the lace yoke of this Prinsessa Estellen nuttu cardigan, which was inspired by one worn by Princess Estelle of Sweden. (You knew there were other royal families of Europe, right? Princess Estelle is second in line for the crown after her mom, Crown Princess Victoria!)

I would have just used that pattern, but there were two problems: it was only available in the 0-3 months size, and . . . it was in Finnish.

Strangely enough, our (the Wayward Girls') dad is fluent in Finnish (he was a missionary there in the 1970s), but I didn't figure he'd have knitting terminology on the tip of his tongue. However, because of Dad's Finnish connection, I remembered that another friend, writer and knitter Annette Lyon, also speaks Finnish. In fact, she learned to knit in grade school in Finland (while her father was in charge of the missionaries there).

The lace pattern had a chart, which makes it almost universal, but I wanted to make sure I'd read it right, and Annette was kind enough to check my translation. With a whole bunch of math and some trial-and-error, I knit up a six month cardigan with the lace patterned yoke.

I wanted to make it even more unique, so instead of a seed stitch border as on the cuffs, button band and neckband, I used a provisional cast on and designed an original leaf lace border. It's a bit bigger than the sweater, though, so the leaf pattern is more obscured, and it looks more like a ruffle, which is also cute!

I'm planning to write up the pattern to share--anybody interested? I'll get around to it much quicker that way!

View the project on Ravelry

Calli-Cardi! Sweater with a caterpillar

Last year I made sweaters for everyone in my family (except me...). My four-year-old's lovey is a multicolored caterpillar we call Cally. I wanted to incorporate it into her sweater to make it personal and unique for her: a Calli-Cardi!

I looked for a cardigan with an off-center opening to maximize the room for the caterpillar on the front. As with my six-year-old's sweater, I knew I didn't want to buy five colors of yarn to only use a little of most of them so I dyed the caterpillar colors:

Each hank was about 14 yards; the eight of them together weighed about 36g.To dye them, I used food safe colors in Mason jars on the microwave (but that's another post!).

Red: one packet of cherry Kool-aid
Yellow: about five drops of yellow McCormick's food coloring (and white vinegar)
Green: about five drops of green McCormick's food coloring (and white vinegar)
Blue: one packet of mixed berry blue Kool-aid.

Originally I planned to work the caterpillar design as part of the sweater itself using the intarsia method of colorwork, but I realized that would be a big challenge, especially with two different weights (thicknesses) of yarn. So I made the cardigan normally and then knit hexagons to appliqué the caterpillar on.

I left an extra long tail on the end of each hexagon and used the tails to sew the caterpillar onto the sweater. I used backstitch in black yarn to make the caterpillar's face and short i-cords to make his antennae.

As you can see, she loves it!

For pattern notes, modifications and in-progress photos, see this project on Ravelry!
Cardigan Pattern: Peach Blossom Child Jacket by Jennifer Little
Cardigan Yarn: Cleckheaton Country Kids 8-ply (superwash wool in DK/8-ply weight) in purple
Caterpillar Pattern: Merit badge by Amanda Ochocki
Caterpillar Yarn: Knit Go Craft Super Soft Cashmere Wool in white (cream), hand dyed (claims to be DK weight but knit up more like fingering weight)

Another sweater!

Since I was on a finishing kick, I decided to finish a sweater I've been working on for my son for a long time. Fortunately, I made it a couple sizes to big for him when I started, anticipating spending too long to finish. Two and a half years, in case you're wondering—and yes, it fits him! I went ahead and made the button bands pretty wide just in case, and it seems to fit him pretty well.

In addition to recently finishing my husband's sweater, I wanted to get this done because the weather is still cool in the morning, but my son doesn't have a lightweight jacket to wear in the mornings and take off in the afternoons. So two weeks ago, I finally finished!

The buttons look a little off-center here. I wonder if you have to make buttonholes off-center for them to look centered.

The pattern: Hallows Cardigan by Melissa Metzbower. I knit the actual pieces of the sweater probably two years ago, but as I recall, it was pretty easy! One thing I found interesting about the pattern was that there's no armhole shaping, they're just square. However, the fit seems fine.

The yarn: Joann Sensations Kashmira I have to confess, I picked this yarn because the yarn name is similar to a Led Zeppelin song ("Kashmir") It wasn't anything remarkable to work with, but nothing to complain about.

My project on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/MamaBlogga/hallows-cardigan

The recipient: He loves it! The week after I gave it to him, his class watched a segment from the TV show Arthur where they talked about knitting (it was supposed to be about perspective & point-of-view). He became the class sensation and asked me to teach him to knit. Apparently the fact that it took me 2.5 years to finish this didn't set in.

Daisy cardigan with patch pocket pattern

This weekend, we'll be hosting our own Wayward Weekend Link Party! Be sure to come ready to share your favorite crafts and comment on others'!

I started knitting . . . oh my goodness, it was 15 years ago! But I didn't start trying to really improve my skills until the last few years.

When my oldest (who'll be 6 in a few weeks) was a baby, I made my first sweater using the Daisy pattern from the summer 2003 issue of Knitty (a free online knitting magazine!). It's a raglan-sleeve cardigan in stockinette stitch, with seed stitch ribbing. I made it using Sonata, a yarn Elann.com has now discontinued. It's a double-knit weight mercerized cotton, so it's shiny and strong, with well-defined stitches. And I love the color!

And here's my son modeling it, in washed-out-ghost mode:

This took me almost exactly six days, which I think is pretty quick for any project. I was pretty pleased--and that was enough to convince me that baby sweaters are the BEST for quick projects!

Now, for the confession. This craft was, of course, a little wayward: I added the patch pocket to cover up a particularly ugly failed graft between two balls of yarn. I think the result is really cute though, so if you want to replicate it, here's what you have to do:

Patch pocket pattern (standard abbreviations used—hover over the first mention of a term for an explanation)
CO 8 sts.
Row 1: Knit.
Row 2: p1, m1, p to last st, m1, p1.
Work 8 more rows in stockinette stitch, knitting the right side, purling the wrong side.

Seed stitch edging:
Row 11: * k1, p1, rep from * to end.
Row 12: * p1, k1, rep from * to end.
Row 13: as Row 11.
BO all sts.

Sew onto sweater, seed stitch edge on top.

What's your favorite way to hide a mistake?

Originally blogged at MamaBlogga