wee denim knits

  

denim pinafore from simple knits for little cherubs and
boy's jacket from Phildar #381 Layette Automne/Hiver 02/03
both in Rowan Denim

---

1. The denim pinafore I finished in May was well received. After visiting the little girl it was intended for, I suddenly got nervous about the size and so sent it off a month before her birthday, just in case it was on the small side. It fits!

2. Amy Lu asked to see some close-ups of katy's neckline. Okey dokey.

left side and right side

And look, no droopy shoulders, no flashdance neck!

3. We've had yet another blankie crisis. Last week, S is cuddling with his blankie while watching Miss Spider and then just holds it up a little and quietly states, " I think this has a hole in it." Funny, this announcement has become so commonplace that it no longer results in the same sort of rush of activity and anxiety as it used to, either in them or in me.

before

I did some duplicate stitching that night and brought the blankie to S while he was sleeping.

after

4. I stopped by my LYS yesterday with the boys in tow and S immediately recognized the big long scarf in the new Harry Potter window. "That's the thing you make and you bring it and it hang there." When we got in the store, he went right over to the window to see the things from the inside. I found him stroking the Nimbus 2000 and then suddenly he looked up and said in a voice of slow realization, "hey, that's my...." I'd totally forgotten that he'd recognize his weasley sweater! He was actually very excited to see it there. (So was B: "look, an H sweater!") I explained that once it was done hanging in the window, we'd be bringing it back home. But then he grabbed hold of the bottom of the scarf and said "can we take this?"

And that's what little boys are made of.

wanna see the big picture?

Baby denim jacket all done! Soon this cute little guy will be on his way to the cute little guy he was made for. But wait, hold your "awwww's" until the end, please.

Look, it's twin booboos. Double awwwww.....

(As always, for pattern info, you can check the project's page in the "finished projects" gallery or the project archive page.)

Denim baby sweater knitted, washed, and ready for seaming.

before washing

after washing

And that sleeve cap? Well, the whole sleeve shrunk from 25cm to 23cm in length and from 25cm to a smidge more than 24cm in width. Not so much shrinkage as I'd like to have seen widthwise, but I'm thinking I can get it in the armhole. I think I can. I think I can....

It seems that Phoebe has been as obsessed with Rowan denim as I have, since she was thinking of an NBaT in denim. Wouldn't that be cool?! Oooh, I think it would look so great as a pocket tee, with a little denim pocket on one side.

So here are my thoughts on a denim tee: You can lengthen the t-shirt by adding a few more straight rows before the waist shaping - maybe four to six rows, depending on the size you're making - and a few between the decreases and increases - another four to six more - and then begin the armholes about two and a half inches later than called for in the pattern (that's almost two inches added in the extra rows mentioned above and another half inch to an inch added after all the increasing is finished). Then I'd add about an inch to an inch and a half (again, depending on the size you're making) to the armhole height. On the sleeves, I'd do the increases every fourth row - that'll give you four extra rows in the sleeve - and keep the sleeve cap the same - no need to make that part any more complicated than it already is.

Of course, there's not much yarn in those cute little balls of denim, so I'm going to guesstimate that you'll need about 10 to make the smaller sizes. Lastly, I'm pretty sure that the denim won't have anywhere near the stretch that the Calmer does, at least until it's been worn for a while like your favorite jeans, so if you find yourself between two sizes, I'd suggest considering knitting the larger of the two sizes. You don't want to have to get help squeezing yourself into your denim tee!

Phoebe, you better make one of these, otherwise I'm gonna have to!

Peter Rabbit is out.

click for a close-up

Cool baby blue is in.

click for a close-up

Although I love those little Peter Rabbits, I just thought that the white was too much against all the blue. I like the smart, clean look of the blue buttons much better on this jacket. Hey, did you notice that I added the collar? Now I get to wash the thing again. And get to see how much that sleeve shrinks up.

One wee denim sleeve.

Well not wee enough perhaps. The sleeve cap has ended up wider than the armhole opening.

love that before after washing comparison, huh?

I'm kinda winging this one since the original pattern isn't written for the denim and therefore doesn't take into account the fact that it shrinks. Because the denim shrinks mostly lengthwise, I've been knitting everything a centimeter or two longer than the pattern calls for to insure that the finished sweater isn't way too small. But things are a little trickier around the armhole, where the vertical armhole has shrunk, but the horizontal sleeve cap that was written to fit it won't shrink as much. Fingers crossed that this puppy shrinks just enough so I can fit it into that armhole!

Denim back and fronts finished and ready for washing!

Before...

(yes, there's this shot too!)

... after.

Again, the denim has shrunk mostly vertically, with all the stitches settling in next to each other making a denser fabric. And the pure blue color has been knocked down as single plies in each stitch fade more than others. It's neat!

I've finally made a start on the second denim baby knit. The denim is not the same gauge as the yarn called for in the original Phildar pattern, so I had to run some numbers before I could get started.

look, set in sleeves on a baby sweater

And now I discover that the baby this is for already arrived last week - doh, I thought he was due in August! No chance I can turn this into a quick knit though. With set in sleeves to sew in, extra ends from the color changes, prewashing, and adding buttons, it's going to take some time. Still, for a Phildar pattern it has mercifully little finishing. There aren't even buttonbands. The buttonholes are simply knitted in to the main piece. Imagine that! The Phildar folks must have cut out early that day.

The finished denim pinafore. After what seemed like hours - well, I guess it was literally hours, but somehow that seemed like too long - I finished sewing down all those teeny tiny picot edgings. Although they do soften the armholes and neckline, I'm thinking they really aren't that visible. If I were to do this pattern again, I might make them one row longer, so that they have more effect. Nevertheless, I am very pleased with how this little dress came out. My first time knitting a dress! To celebrate the girly nature of the whole thing, I added a pink flower applique (iron-on: "works on jeans"!) to the front.

Oh, why do I have so few friends with little girls?

...and you gotta expect to come home with yarn.

Shireen is to blame. I am totally hooked on Rowan denim! My second denim baby knit (after the pinafore) will be this little Phildar baby sweater (from Phildar #381), which I'm gonna do in dark blue denim with light blue denim stripes. And I couldn't help myself when I saw the Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit buttons. So cute!

Next, I've got Lisa to blame, um, thank for renewing my love affair with Rowan all seasons cotton. Lisa gifted me with this bag of beautiful orange/gold asc. I've got plans to do something cable-y with it (like this maybe), because asc looks so damn good in cables! Afterall, it was Amber's incredible cabled sweater that sparked my last asc crush.

But best of all, waiting for me at the store, was this yarn and these truly beautiful stitchmarkers from Amy C. Amy recognized me and the boys (I think most people actually recognize the boys first) at my local Finagle-a-Bagel and remembered that I had posted about searching the Boston-area yarn stores for more yarn to fix B's blankie. Well, she just happened to have two balls of it that she couldn't really find the perfect project for. She wrote me a sweet email saying that she'd like to donate it to the keeping-the-blankie-alive cause. Isn't that wonderful?! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Amy!

By the way, if you happen to go to the store these days, this is what you're going to see:

nothing but a t-shirt goes big time! (click for a close up)

Prewashed pinafore parts.

I finished the second side of the pinafore, sewed the shoulders together, did the edgings, and washed all the pieces without further seaming, as instructed by the pattern. The denim fabric has definitely changed after washing. The stitches are tighter and the color has faded ever so slightly. It's not really become lighter, but it's like the edge has been taken off of that perfectly deep blue. It's a really cool effect.

Now to sew down those picot edgings...

The first half of the pinafore is done!

you gotta see the BIG picture!

This is knitting up so quickly! And I'm really enjoying the denim. Just look at that blue! The blue, by the way, isn't coming off on my fingers dramatically. My hands are definitely less pink and more pallid after I've been knitting with the denim for a while, but I wouldn't call them blue. The Erika Knight pattern is so simple, but the little picot and decreasing details really make it. I can't wait to see how it will all look when it comes out of the wash!

And I am now obsessed with the idea of making a denim pinafore for myself.

Say that ten times fast.

Oh, I love me a good hem. And I love me this denim yarn! I originally bought the denim to make a Tasha bag for me, but then I found an awesome blue jean bag in a vintage store and the yarn decided that it had to become this denim pinafore (from Erika Knight's simple knits for little cherubs) for my friends' little girl whose first birthday is coming up. I've had a bit of trouble getting the right gauge and sizing down the pattern (my first, failed start is on the right in the above picture), but the little dress is so sweet, I've been able to battle through the difficulties rather easily. The simple stockinette has actually made for very good playground, car, and talking-to-the-in-laws knitting.

Plus I get to do hems. Picot hems!