Mason Dixon KAL

If you are looking for an alternative to
felting your Mason Dixon Felted Boxes in your front loading machine or even your
top loading machine, try the Wonder
Washer

It works wonders! 
CatKnitz

 

 

Labels: wonder washer felted boxes

Hi, all

Since a couple of people commented on my last post that they liked the idea of having wider sleeves/cuffs on the baby kimonos, I thought I'd share two different ways I've achieved that.

1) I knit the "straight" part of the sleeves (where you've finished increasing out to the length of the cuff and are working on the part that will actually become the cuff width) to 6" wide instead of 4". This means the cuff ends will be 3" wide when finished instead of only 2", which seems to me to give the baby a lot more room to grow. It also means the v-neck is less deep and the overlap is a lot wider than with the narrower cuffs, so again the baby can get chubbier without suddenly finding the v-neck at its navel and nothing covering its little chest.

However, if you haven't planned in advance (one comment on my prior post mentioned a grandbaby due in a week), here's another way around the problem:

2) Don't seam up the underarms of the kimono all the way down to the ends of the cuffs. Leave about the last inch or two unseamed, so the cuff can "expand" as necessary for the little hand. It looks cute folded back this way, too. If you're concerned that the cuff might be too short to be folded back, you can always add a knitted or crocheted border.

I hope those suggestions help anyone else who feels, as I do, that a 2" cuff is just too tiny, even for a newborn. :)

Here's my completed baby kimono in two heathered shades of Knitpicks Swish superwash: Indigo (body) and Lemongrass (trim). I widened the sleeves a couple of inches so the cuffs wouldn't be so very narrow, and overall I like the way it turned out. I think it gives the baby a little more room to grow without making it too large for a newborn. Now I need to make a pair of Baby Longhies (from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac) in matching colors....

...aka the TTC Log Cabin Update! (which may become the TTC Winter Coat update given that they are raising the Metropass charge by $9.25 and I may well have to sell my winter coat to afford going to work! grr)

Most recent future additions and square in progress respecting the future swatch-centred log cabin style blankie:



This is my favourite swatch (which I made before starting my Rainbow Dress - a panoply of Fleece Artist, Handmaiden and other silks):


... and this is probably misnamed as a swatch... but when stashhunting for the blanket this morning I came across this long-abandoned log cabin (great colours, but terrible-to-work-with vintage acrylic yarn that kept breaking). I'm going to find a way to incorporate it, maybe chopping it into pieces.


Stay tuned... this may well be the mother of all log cabins at the rate it's going!

After four months, I finally finished the Moderne Baby Blanket. The border didn't take me long to knit but sewing the ends took quite a bit of time. I used Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in Ravenswood, Violet, Douglas Fir, Cranberry and Blackberry with size 9 needles. I knew it would be a bit larger than the one in the book but I had no idea that that finished size would be 45 inches by 49 inches. No wonder those last several blocks seemed to take forever. I made a few minor adjustments to the pattern for blanket just to try to make it a bit more interesting. Overall, I'm very pleased with the blanket and can't wait to hear from the mother and baby I'm sending it to.

Details:
pattern: Moderne Baby Blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting
yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in Ravenswood, Violet, Douglas Fir, Cranberry and Blackberry
needles: size 9 Knit Picks Options
started: April 8, 2007
finished knitting blanket: August 2, 2007
knitted border: August 2-22, 2007
Finished size: 45"x49"

"Unruly"Acrobats
and Puppy Dogs from Mosaic
Knitting . I'm trying to figure out what to do with the "wavy"
sides of the bib. Any suggestions?

See my blog
post for details.

Catknitz

Labels: bibs mosaic barbara walker free pattern

These are some warshcloths I made last year. The picture in front is how they looked when I finished them. The big picture is how they look now. More about them on my blog.

I've finished five modern baby blankets and I am sure there will be more on the way.

My friends keep having
babies and I keep looking for ways to incorporate slipped
stitches
into bib designs. Let's just face it: I love creating geometric designs with
solid colors!

A quick photo of Aili's
bib before shipping. Garter ribs, stockinette, slipped stitches and garter
mosaic, all with a garter rib edge to keep it flat.

(Photo would have
looked a little better if I had washed the bib before shooting, but I was out of
time...)

Details for the
straps and garter mosaic here.
CatKnitz

Labels: bibs mosaic barbara walker free pattern