grandmas make the best knitted gifts, don't they?

 

lacy layette sweater from Columbia Minerva Beehive book #738 in Sirdar Snuggly DK
and Marshmallow Bonnet from Itty Bitty Hats in leftover Sirdar Snuggly

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Don't they just?

I've got two new baby knits planned for wee one on the way, both inspired by knits from grandmas. The first is a copy of a baby sweater that fellow Knitsmith and baby bumper, Johanna, wore as a baby that was knit for her by her great grandmother.

click for larger pic

Isn't it just lovely? The lace pattern is the same as the one from the lace baby sweater in Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac, but I really like the raglan yoke in stockinette and the hemmed edges on this one better than EZ's more rounded garter stitch version. Ooooh, I love this sweater! And best of all, Johanna had the old vintage knitting book that her Großmutter used to knit the pattern!

Isn't Johanna the sweetest to loan me pattern and sweater so I can make one for wee one?!

I picked up some Snuggly DK in "cream" (although it's looking kinda pale yellow to me now), because washable acrylic seemed so right for this sort of grandma sweater. The pattern, which is very well written by the way, calls for sleeves to be knitted first, then the body in one piece up to the armholes and finally the yoke. The sleeves have made for really nice knitting. The lace pattern is simple but oh so pretty and the pieces are so tiny they're going super fast.

While I was getting started on this grandma knit, a package came from my mother-in-law in Germany. She included some new German knitting mags and a pair of tiny baby socks knitted once upon a time by hubby's Oma. She used to knit socks for the whole family (even using that old knitting machine I found one year in the attic!).

These socks have so much charm - the garter stitch flap and green crochet edging are really special. Don't you think I have to make a little sweater and bonnet to match these adorable little socks?

And speaking of grandma knitting and Elizabeth Zimmerman, checking out MamaK's posts over on the baby bumpers blog have got me wanting to make some EZ baby items. Have you seen the adorable Tomten she made for her little one? I dare you to check that out and not start knitting one right away!

Großmutter's sweater is almost done! All I want to do is knit this sweater. It got slower when I hit all those body stitches and then joined in the sleeves for the yoke, but I can't stop.

I just can't help it, I've gotta have a close up of this one

And as I knit I keep planning more little sweaters for wee one. Like this one or this one. or maybe another one of these Großmutter sweaters.

as always, check the project archive for pattern info

The vintage Großmutter sweater is all done! I simply adore it - it's just so sweet. I had the ribbon in my stash for some knitting project I wanted to make for myself a couple of years ago. It's much better put to use here in wee one's coming-home-from-hospital sweater.

click for the close-up view

When I was taking the picture, S first wanted to clarify that he wasn't going to try this knit on. "No, no, honey, I won't make you try this one on." Then he asked if the baby was going to have pants. I told him not to worry, we'd go buy some pants, and B jumped in to remind us that "girls like pants that are big and open on the bottom - like a skirt." Then B went to make a hat for the baby.

Doesn't it look just like a hat that Lola (from Charlie and Lola) would wear?! I love it! I think I'm going to have to knit one like this for wee one. From her big brother B.

Starting the new year off with another fun baby hat. (I am just in love with this Itty Bitty Hats book!)

This is a variation of the Marshmallow Bonnet from said Itty-Bitty Hats book. (It's actually on the page right before the Cherry-O hat that I made last week, so you can tell I've barely begun to knit my way through this book!) The original pattern is adorable, in moss stitch with little curly squiggles in pink at the top corners of the bonnet, but I wanted to make this one match wee one's großmutter sweater and bee's knees sweater, so I changed it to stockinette stitch, put a stockinette hem on the front (like the edges of the großmutter sweater) and kept the reverse stockinette roll in back (to match the edgings on the bee's knees sweater). I used leftover Sirdar Snuggly from the großmutter sweater and the leftover ribbon to close it, so the colors are a perfect match.

I really like the look of bonnets (check out this pattern I got at Purl and plan to make for wee one for the summer!) and am very pleased with how this came out. Still, I'm thinking two little curly squiggles in leftover pink from the bee's knees sweater would make it just perfect! And then all I'll need are some white stockinette booties and baby could have a whole matching outfit to wear home from the hospital.

This was the subject line in some junk mail I got this morning. I like to read them out loud (they always sound better out loud) and then say "Yes!" "Absolutely!" "Just what I wanted!" right before I delete them.

But this marshmallow bonnet with the pink squiggles is the real deal. "Yes, absolutely, just what I wanted!" Why didn't I put the squiggles on in the first place??

The pink is left over from the bee's knees sweater (I'm making use of all those color sequence repeats I had to wind off to get the pieces to match). I'm so excited about how good it looks with the peachy/pink ribbon from the großmutter sweater. I really think this hat will work well with both sweaters. Which means that I can move on to the next page in the book and make a different hat.

"Yes!" "Absolutely!" "Just what I wanted!"

Or at least a knitwear model.

wee one in her grossmutter sweater

in her baby shrug from Shannon

in her LMKG bonnet from Shannon

in a sweater Oma crocheted for daddy 35 years ago