Vintage Baby Knits

I got this book Vintage Baby Knits by Kristen Rengren for Christmas and I LOVE it!  I love it for so many reasons.  Of course, I love the style of the reworked vintage patterns.  But most of all, I love it because it has fabulous and cute patterns for boys.  Not just passably cute -- fabulously cute.  And lots of them.

Here is the Stella Pixie Hat that I just finished.  I changed the pattern somewhat because I wanted to use leftover yarn from this project.  I used a size 6 needle and cast on about 68 stitches for a newborn size.  I wasn't very scientific or mathmatical about it, I just kind of guessed about how big it should be.

Then I couldn't help but start this Otto Short-Sleeved Pullover which is just so cute I can't stand it.  You can see that I sort of reversed the colors from the book.  I am using Dalegarn Baby Ull yarn and knitting the body in one piece instead of two as the instructions call for.  This is my first project ever using color work of any kind (well, not counting stripes).  I am so pleasantly surprised with how uncomplicated it is (I chose a good first project, I think).  I wish I hadn't been so intimidated by it in the past.

Here is another great pattern I can't wait to start:

And trust me there are so many more.

Dress Shirt Baby Quilt

I had been coveting several of Ed's dress shirts for quite some time.  Luckily (from a crafting standpoint anyway) Ed is very hard on his clothes, often coming home with rips and tears in things that are otherwise perfectly wearable.  Sometimes I can fix it, sometimes not -- things wear out, too. Anyway, after gathering several of his cast-away shirts, I had a vision for this quilt in the middle of the night.

The first step was cutting up the shirts I was hoarding and dividing the parts into piles.  It always amazes me the amount of fabric one can get from a man's size large or XL dress shirt, not to mention all the buttons.  It is kind of a therapeutic activity for me all of that cutting up and stitch-ripping of the shirts.

Once I started, it didn't take me much sewing to remember that I had once sworn I would never quilt with triangles again.  It requires off-setting the triangles just so in order for them to all line up perfectly. Otherwise the tips of the triangles are either cut off or left "floating".  While I had to rip out the first 5 rows I had completed and a few other things before the whole thing was finished, it was well worth the effort.  The end result is just as I had envisioned. The whole quilt is made up almost entirely of the dress shirts, plus two extra patterned fabrics to soften the look of all the geometric patterns, and an old skirt of mine for the back.

I decided to hand quilt it despite that being sort of illogical -- it will have to withstand lots of washing and wear.  But I love the process of quilting by hand and I don't know when and if I will be able to make another really nice quilt for the baby again, although one never knows.

Snowflakes using Marion Nichols' Designs

One of our stops during our winter trek was to the City Museum in Saint Louis.  Don't think museum.  Think super-amazing kids' fun-house -- a little bit Willy Wonka's chocolate factory a little bit HR Puffinstuff fantasy world.  There is an artist-in-residence of sorts there named Marion Nichols -  she is a great storyteller, too -- who gives lessons on making these intricate snowflakes.  She has designs for any animal, insect, holiday, or special interest one might have.  In fact, she will even do your portrait in snowflake for an additional fee and sitting session!  My time with her was one of the most memorable highlights of our trip.  I couldn't resist buying a few of her books.

As far as I could gather, she sells her books only through the City Museum gift shop and through direct contact with her.  Her email address is in her books, so I am sure she doesn't mind my putting it here: artcity@citymuseum.org.

The designs are preprinted on the paper, so it doesn't require any special artistic ability.  The most difficult part is cutting through the 12 layers of folded paper.  She suggests using toe-nail scissors and a few sizes of hole punchers.  If you plan to make these a lot, investment in sizes 1/16", 1/8" and 1/4" hole punchers would be adequate for all the designs I have come across in these books.

Rudy loves the end result, but because of the cutting, it isn't really something he can do himself yet.  It would make a great activity for kids ages about 10 and up to adults!

Shalom Cardigan

I took a little break from the blog to go on vacation.  It was a real planes, trains, and automobiles journey.  I put my foot down when Ed tried to include a cruise at the end.  I put my foot down again when a 5-hour bus ride was going to be part of the trip.  I continued to craft with a frenzy while away bringing small projects to keep me busy that didn't take up much space. I left this nearly-complete Shalom cardigan at home because it was too bulky for the journey. You can see, I just finished it.

I first saw this sweater here at Soulemama -- that gal really has a way of finding great free patterns online.  You can find the pattern here.  You can see that the original pattern is for a sleeveless sweater.  After searching on Ravelry, I found some modifications that might work for a sweater with sleeves.  I liked the idea of a sweater with short sleeves for the spring -- post-baby.  After much trial and error, these are the changes I made (at least I think I remember correctly):  I got about 13 1/2 stitches per 4" on my swatch.  I casted on the same number of stitches as the pattern calls for.  At row 45, I knit 31, put 24 on a waste yarn, casted on 10 for the underarm, knit 39 for the back, casted on another 10, 24 on waste yarn, and knit 31 for the other side.  When I picked up for the sleeves, in addition to the 24 from the yoke and the 10 cast on for the underarm, I also cast on an additional 4 from EACH corner made by the underarm/yoke intersection.  This was critical to making the arm fit right.

Like I said, this sweater came about through much trial and error.  "Shalom" is pretty fitting, but I could as easily call it my "zen" sweater.  It was a surprising illustration to myself of how I have changed over the last year or so.  "Got to rip it out again?  Okay, no problem" -- as if all there is to do in life is rip out and start again.  I've never been a type A personality.  I don't think I'm even type B anymore.  I'll call myself type Z from now on.  So little phases me anymore.

I was able to complete this project without buying anything.  The yarn was from my stash, the needle I already had, and the buttons were from an old JCrew sweater I've had since highschool -- I knew there was a reason I was saving that.

Paper Garland

These were the product of a desperate mom moment.  I needed a few minutes to get something done.  I gave Rudy some scissors, paper, and a hole punch not realizing that he would cut and punch with complete delight until his hands hurt.  The result is these cute paper garlands  -- so sweet and simple.