someone's expecting a baby (kimono)!



koko kimono from Jil Eaton's Minnies in Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille
hat from a free pattern at Will Knit for Food

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I think this is the most pleased I've ever been with a sweater I knitted. I'm just so proud of myself for successfully adjusting the pattern for the yarn I had and after so many mistakes and outright failures on other sweaters, finally producing a sweater that fits me exactly as I wanted. All in all, this project was a real joy. I fell in love with the both the yarn and the pattern immediately and knew I had to put them together. The yarn was easy to work with - those 5mm needles were a welcome relief from my usual size 3's! - and moss stitch makes weaving in ends a lot less painful. If only it could be like this everytime!

Inspired by greensleeves and St. Patrick's Day, I started swatching some light green cotton chenille which I'm thinking about using to make a baby sweater for a friend who is expecting. No matter what my favorite color is on other days (I've got two boxes of blue yarn under the bed and purple and more purple on the way to me right now), today it is green.

Here's my swatch for the little baby sweater that I'm planning to make for my friend who's expecting. I'm using Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille, which I really, really wanted to use because it is so soft and totally says cuddly baby clothes. I was disappointed to see that the ball band says 'hand wash', but I'm still holding out hope that it's actually machine washable. I've already run this swatch through the machine once with hot water and poopy baby clothes and it survived quite well. It grew a little bit widthwise, but is still the same length. I plan to throw it in another time and may even try putting it in the dryer. That's what swatches are for, right?! Anyone else out there have any success washing/drying this yarn?

Started the green baby sweater while watching the Oscars and managed to finish the back. I'm using the koko kimono pattern from Jil Eaton's Minnies. The patterns in there are so cute! I'd love to make the cabled overalls for my boys, but I think they're too old to wear adorably silly pants like that. In fact, they have officially started to take notice of the clothes they have on. One day, I pointed out that their shirts had trucks on them and they pointed at them all day long, especially while they were playing with their toy trucks. Sometimes when we see a truck on the street now, they'll take a little peek at their shirts to see if they're wearing the same ones!

And for those of you keeping score at home, here's the chenille swatch after another wash in hot and a trip through the dryer. Still the same size, but a little smooshed and crumpled. I don't think I'd purposely machine dry this yarn, but it's nice to know that just in case, it shouldn't fall completely apart.

At least the baby sweater is progressing nicely. I've finished the front panels now and attached them to the back at the shoulders (three needle bind off, my favorite!). The pattern calls for the sleeves to be knitted down from the shoulder, so I'll have the joy of picking up stitches out of tightly-knit chenille. Woo hoo. I've already developed a serious callus on my right index finger from trying to get the stitches off the needle. The yarn may be soft, but working with it is a bit tough. I'm really liking the result though! Only, now that I see it here, I'm thinking that the decreases on the left front didn't quite come out looking like the original. Maybe I'll try undoing the seam and redoing the top quarter of that panel again over the weekend.

Got one of the sleeves done and (don't be mad, Peter) I redid the decreases on the front of the baby kimono so it lays smoother and looks a bit more like the picture in the book. This kimono is progressing so quickly that I'm thinking I should knit something else for my friend's baby. It does seem sort of strange to knit just one baby sweater! I'll have to come up with some coordinating something to go with the kimono. Hmmmm....

And speaking of green sleeves, we're back to cold weather here, so I got the chance to wear my greensleeves to Knitsmiths yesterday. Yeah! We had a small group, but a few really nice finished projects to share. Check out Dana's first socks, Claire's beaded bag, and May's new cardigan. I love show and tell days at the knitting group!

After all the stress of working on bugly, I went back to the relative ease of the minimono for a bit. I finished the second sleeve and seamed up the side and arm seams. Now I only have to make little I-cords for ties and do some sort of neck edging (forgotten what the pattern calls for).

I'm pretty sure that I want to make matching booties. And I can't get Sarah's idea about a coordinating diaper cover out of my head. Anyone know a good pattern for such a thing? I think this could be such a cute item of clothing for a baby born in the summer. But maybe not in chenille. Suggestions?

Here's the minimono just as cute and snuggly as can be. I'm pleased with how it came out, although I think I'll probably adjust those ties a bit so they're all the same length. I had a hard time with the ties actually. The instructions call for a garter stitch i-cord. Well, I couldn't get any kind of i-cord to look okay in the chenille. It was too bulky and because I couldn't really pull the chenille too tight without breaking it, I couldn't get a nice round cord to develop. I tried crocheting a small chain, but that just looked pathetic, rather like the regular yarn but more limp. So I did a twisted cord. It was actually kind of fun tying the yarn to the doorknob, twisting it around and watching it kink up. I made an extra one and ran it through the wash just to be sure that it would stay twisty.

Now the only problem is that my little kimono is all alone-o. (Sorry, couldn't help myself there.) It needs accessories so it can be part of a fabulous matchy-matchy set. I've started Kate's happy baby hat, which I'll modify to have the same edging as the kimono, and am also planning some matching booties. I have a few patterns sent to me by Kerrie, queen of the booties, which I should be able to adapt.

Twenty-four hours until we hit the road for Columbus and the stress level is rising. There's just so much to plan and get done before tomorrow. I'd hoped to finish the minimono-matching happy baby hat before we left, but that was a bit unrealistic. It's my own fault though, because I stopped working on it here, at the point of picking up stitches to make the ear flaps, and decided to cast on the front of my husband's brown vest.

Casting on is, after seaming, often the hardest part of a project for me. It seems as if I'm always counting wrong and having to rip and cast on again. And I prefer the look of the knit-on cast-on, which is unfortunately way slower to do than the basic two tail method. So my brilliant plan was to cast on and do the ribbing at knitting group on Sunday and then I'd have the simple stockinette to do in the car. I cast on, counted, recounted, did the ribbing and was the whole time slightly concerned that it wasn't cinching in as much as the ribbing on the back. Hmmmm.... Finished the ribbing at home, went to switch to larger needles, and -- you guessed it -- I was using the larger needles already. Doooh!

In order to recouperate, I started reknitting the Rebecca tank. Despite having knit almost the entire first skein for a size too large, I am really loving this project. The actual knitting is a dream! I cast on correctly (both times now!) and was able to knit away happily. I credit the yarn for making this project so enjoyable regardless of whether I'm really progressing or not. (I think I'm becoming addicted to it -- I've got several more happy all season's cotton tanks planned already!) Last night, I only indulged in a couple of inches of happy, because I'm saving the rest for the twelve-hour car ride.

Now back to the packing. A bag of happy for mommy, and a case of happy for the boys and we're all set! I'll probably be able to update once or twice while we're away, but I'll miss being able to surf through all my daily reads. Please keep stopping by and sharing your comments. I'll catch up with you all when I get back. Until then, happy knitting!

Without any further ado (what ado? I forgot about this project for three months!), here's the co. of minimono & co. One earflap to go and I put the thing down. What was I thinking?! Luckily, it usually takes nine months for babies to be born and another two or three before they're really going outside and wearing anything more than a onesie. Despite the delay, this set should make it in time for the baby's arrival. Just in time.

I received a picture of my friend's son wearing the minimono jacket and hat set that I made in the spring. Awwww. It's so nice to see someone looking so cute and snuggly in something I made. Almost makes me want to knit more holiday gifts. Almost.