Can we get there from here?

I have a problem.  I've been commissioned to do a baby project for a brand new person that's scheduled to join humanity sometimes this summer... in southern California.  Knitting doesn't quite lend itself to crafting summer things as well as it does to warm winter snugglies.  Added to that is my personal inexperience with infants.  Booties are adorable, but really impractical, causing most mommies to forgo those little accessories.  Oh, and the parents are choosing to wait until the birth to find out the gender.

So, let me ask the question to any readers willing to comment; any suggestions for cool (denotative cool... not cool as in "cool beans") knit/crochet baby items? 

Well, that was quick!

So, my face is nearly as red (or maroon) as this plum colored hat!  In my last post, I mentioned ever so briefly how my brother's friend Andrew and his wife were expecting a baby girl?  Well, things were certainly moving along quite a bit quicker than I had known.  Turns out expecting was the wrong word, it's more like she's here! In fact we nearly shared a birthday.  Joanna was born on November 8th, only three days before I turned thirty.

Despite having a baby that's younger than all of the condiments in our refrigerator; as well as an actively and well entertained toddler to look after, second time mom Becky Shattuck still found time to find me on facebook to send a thank you message.  If you're impressed about her juggling skills on that alone, you should check out her blog, where you'll find that Becky posts more days than not.

Just as I didn't know that Joanna had entered this world, I wasn't aware of the amazing blog that Becky has.  I find myself returning to it and getting a vicarious thrill of exploring the world for the first time through the observations of a toddler, and "100 ways to entertain" one.

So I'm really enjoying the warm fuzzy feeling that's coming from reading her post about the plum colored hat that went along with the first sweater I made.  I've purloined a few pictures of Joanna modeling the hat from Becky's blog (though since it's with permission, it's more like I just snagged 'em instead of stole them).  This hat was made using the wonderful pattern Baby Berry Hat by Michele Sabatier, available for free on her blog.

Sweaters to some, Jumpers to others

While I've been knitting obsessively for a number of years, up until recently I'd never tackled one of the most basic of projects, the sweater.  Why did it take me this long?  Well, considering that this is my first winter away from Southern California, up until recently, there hadn't been much need to knit myself one.  Besides, my UCLA sweatshirts are basically the only way I show school spirit aside from hissing and grumbling whenever the crosstown rival, USC is mentioned.

Knit one for a boyfriend?  Again, up until relatively recently, there hadn't been a boyfriend to knit for.  Besides, I'd hate to tempt fate with the boyfriend sweater curse.  Never heard of it?  Well, it's basically the well acknowledged idea that as soon as a knitter has begun knitting her boyfriend a sweater, the relationship is doomed to failure.  Personally I can see that one being a self fulfilling prophesy... think of how long it'd take to lovingly stitch together an adult sweater, and compare that to how much the typical guy cares about and for his clothes.

Finally I accepted the challenge when my mother asked me to knit a baby sweater for her to give as a gift.  The active lady that my mother is, she has met a number of people through jazzercise and yoga that have become friends.  One of her classmates had a lovely baby girl around six months ago, named the brand new person Julia.  Here I have a great picture of the active Julia modeling the sweater I knitted.

Of course she's got on the SECOND sweater I knitted... not the first.  The first one turned out to be nearly infant sized due to a simple and silly mistake I made.  Knitting needles come in different sizes; and just like how Americans use the word "sweater" while British use the word "jumper" to mean the same thing, there are US standard sizes and the metric equivalent.  I should have been knitting on US size 10 needles, which are 6mm.  Instead I briefly glanced at the pattern and used US size 6 needles, which are actually only 4mm in diameter.

After yoke and first sleeve of the sweater had been finished I realized my mistake.  Though rather than rip it out and restart, I figured I'd chalk it up to a learning experience and finish it up.  The good news is that my first sweater may still get some use.  My brother's friend Andrew and his wife are expecting a little girl... and while she'll be able to cry, she probably won't be able to tell anyone that it's because of the sweater.  Oh, and if you're  interested in the pattern, it's called "Pretty Baby Sweater" by Lisa Vienneau.  Not only is this gem available for free, it also doesn't require any sewing of seams, just a wee bit of crocheting!

Knitting for good

The Mossy Jacket pattern included in the book.

A few weeks ago I picked up a book from the local library.  It was buried in the 746's (Dewey decimal system baby... hey I worked at a library for a few months), with all of the other nonfiction books on the subject of knitting.  Amid all of the stitch-ionaries, teach yourself to knits, baby pattern books, vogue knits, and stitch n' bitches, was this little paperback called "Knitting for Good!: A Guide to Creating Personal, Social, and Political Change, Stitch by Stitch" authored by Betsy Greer.  So I tucked it into the pile of books I'd be keeping on the nightstand for the next few weeks.  

One of the main reasons I decided to look at this book is due to something my mother pointed out to me. She said that one of the best ways to feel better in your own life is to help someone else.  If anyone would know, it's her.  I swear, there will be an effort to canonize her even though she's not Catholic.  Not surprisingly that's one of the main messages in "Knitting for Good".

There's something kind of wonderful about putting purpose and meaning into the little things you do and the things we take for granted.  Most of us are wearing clothes where we have no idea where it came from.  Sadly, most of the time it's from a sweat shop in an impoverished nation.  Just a second... yeah, the t-shirt I'm wearing?  It was made in Haiti... (bought pre-earthquake) which according to wikipedia "is the poorest country in the Americas as per the Human Development Index."  Probably would have been a better idea to go get something through American Apparel.  The author of "Knitting for Good", Betsy Greer, encourages us to make more of an effort to look at our consumerism and the effects it has.

Along with these messages, the book also has a number of patterns of things that can be used as donation items, from pet blankets to hats for the homeless. Though I must say that my favorite feature of the book was the small vignettes from numerous contributors on their experiences with donation knits.

What? Were you expecting?

 As so many things happen, it all started innocently enough.  My mother expressed some casual interest in my knitting as we chatted over the phone one morning.  A mistake on her part, but hopefully she won't learn from it.  With no further encouragement required I started yammering on about a few sets of Converse style baby booties I've been knitting up for Kelli to give to her friends.  All too soon for me (coffee makes me chatty), my mother had to return to her work duties.  Fortunately, due to the wonders of the internet I was able to continue trumpeting my knitting accomplishments by sending her pictures of the booties.

Apparently she was taken with them as well, and forwarded the links of the pictures to my Aunt Jan along with my verbose description of the booties as "what I've been up to".  Not surprisingly, Jan quickly responded with her usual warmth and encouragement as well as piqued curiosity:

Wow, Dania, those long fingerless gloves are beaut-i-ful!  And the booties, so little and perfect - - - any announcements forthcoming?

Oops.  Perhaps in the future I should put a better description for baby items that I've knitted.  Anyway, I did write back immediately with the following:

Ummm... announcements forthcoming?
Well actually yes!  I'm kind of expecting at the moment.  I plan to give birth to another hat pattern within the next few weeks.  Oh!  And I'm gonna be home to visit my folks in about two weeks.  And that's about it on the forthcoming announcements.  Just recently however, the boyfriend and I both survived yet another bout of my PMS.

In the meantime, for those with the inclination, with or without kiddos of your own or on the way, I highly recommend getting out those straight needles and knitting up some of these Baby Chucks.  Click here for my post on the first time I made 'em.

Groovy Chucks Kid!

Big boy converse...

I love converse sneakers.  In fact, I'm not even sure how many pairs of low top chucks I've gone through since I acquired my first pair.  Easy, comfortable, and appropriate for occasions ranging from taking out the trash to black tie affairs; what is not to love about this classic of footwear?

Not one to shy away from the opportunity to inflict knitted creations on others; I realized that the new baby would be in dire need of hip and stylin' kicks.  In fact, here's another one of the pictures from the proud poppa-to-be's blog at http://brandxsketch.blogspot.com where he's rocking the same flavor of shoes.

Rock them shoes too Mr. Laundrie!

As always, Ravelry comes to my rescue.  I used the pattern here that had been modified by xalleykatx on livejournal.  After knitting up the booties and laces, I did go all in and got some white felt, sharpie'd a star and stitched them to the outside with matching embroidery floss. 

Not-so-big boy's chucks

One of the things I liked most about this project was the reaction of the adults that saw them.  While I was blocking them with little paper towels inside, my boyfriend came home to find them on the counter.  Even though I was in the bedroom, I still heard his 'that's so cute' voice/squeal saying, "OOOO!  WEE LITTLE BOOOOTIES!".  I'm not sure if I smiled wider at that or the postal clerk who thought they were darling and couldn't resist commenting as I mailed them off.  There is something about a stranger commenting on something I've made that makes me feel like I did as a kid when my artwork secured a coveted spot on the refrigerator gallery.

Imagine a Green Lantern crocheted baby blanket

BrandXsketch

A friend of mine is expecting a son sometime in the VERY near future.  His love of comics, and is astonishing ability to create them (just check out some of the things he does on his blog:  Brand X Blog, where he is a smokin' pencil for hire).  Not only is he exceptionally talented in creating images with pencil, ink and paper; he also delves into the digital arts.  Here's sort of a self portrait he created (I love it):

This seemed like the perfect opportunity to create a project for one of my favorite audiences:  BABIES!  They can't tell you they don't want to wear it, they are at the mercy of their parents sense of style.  If an infant doesn't like wearing something you've knitted, the crying exhibited can be easily blamed on 1) gas, 2) dirty diapers -perhaps an active display of displeasure towards a project that no sane person would considering wearing- 3) general fussiness.  In short, you can torture small humans with knitted and crocheted gifts and there is nearly nothing they can do about it.  Meanwhile, if they happen to smile while wearing or touching one of these handcrafted disasters, it is clearly as sign that they adore what you made for them... nevermind the dancing stuffed animal that they're looking at.



Considering the source of the new bundle, I started to look for something with the Green Lantern logo.  I found a chart for a tunisian crochet (and interesting technique that I have yet to try) by Maria Merleno on Ravelry.  It cited that the pattern was available on associated content website, but I couldn't find it.  After some tedious counting on the image they provided I duplicated it and have posted it here (with some graph lines).  Still, I wanted to do single stitches, but my gauge wasn't exactly 1:1.   I decided to double all of the numbers, so that it was twice as high and twice as wide.  I had to tweak the rows between for a smoother transistion on the curves, and it seems to have come out pretty decently. The finished project, complete with scalloped edging, and slip stitch finishing where color changes take place has already been shipped!  I'm such a procrastinator, it is astonishing to think that this blanket will be delivered before the little man is!

Click here for link to google doc graph

Little cutie "Ugg" booties!

Here are pictures of some fake "Ugg" booties I made for my assistant manager's baby (Gigi's brandy-new kid). They're intended for a child of 9-12 months.


I found the pattern originally at knitting pattern central (a favorite of mine). Apparently this is from the DIY network's show "Knitty Gritty". If you want the pattern it's here: "Suede" booties. Damn it. This might actually push me to get cable. Then again, you could always watch the little instructional video online here.