Tiny green sweater

green! and tiny! (try to ignore the dog hair. thanks.) 

My best friend is having a baby. Soon!

artsy close up of ribbing and buttons.

So I knit her a tiny green sweater. I mean, the sweater is for the baby. But you get the idea.

See that ribbing? That's called mistake rib. I didn't know that it existed until I found this pattern: Offset Raglan by Sara Morris, of Rose City Knits. You can't get the pattern on her website that I can see. But you can get it for free on Ravelry. So there's that.

bird's eye view

Also, see those buttons? They're hilarious seventies winter coat buttons, right? Using them on a baby sweater really cracked me up. Because it doesn't take much.

hat. green. tiny.

And then there was more tiny green yarn left over, so I had to make a matching tiny green hat with matching mistake rib! (In fact, the pattern is called "Mistake Rib Baby Hat." Let there be no mistake.)

again. try to pretend it's not covered in dog hair.

The hat pattern is from CompileYarn, and you can get it free here. Aren't the internets wonderful? They are very good at sharing.

Congratulations, Miss P! You're going to be the best mom ever (I mean, next to me, of course) and your little one is going to rock this sweater. Even if it doesn't fit until summer, and then it's too hot and sweaty and you only every get to put it on the baby for a photo...

Darn babies. They come when they come. And it's hard to know exactly how big they'll be at which time. Maybe my friends will take the baby to the museum or the movie theater--some place super air conditioned, and the sweater and hat will be perfect. PERFECT.

She's Three!

note: there are two cameras being used here, which is why the colors are different in the photos. THIS photo accurately reflects how. darn. pink. this sweater really is.

My favorite niece turned the big THREE recently, and to celebrate, her mom made her a Minnie Mouse cake. (Pink.) This was the big request.

She's into pink right now, which is also why the sweater I made her is...wait for it...pink. SO pink, might I add.

The news is this: I haven't seen this favorite niece since she turned one (one! remember?) and that just stinks. SO. In about a month Joe and I are flying to our homeland to attend numerous baby showers/festivities/proclivities with our families, and in attendance will be my awesome sister and her super awesome (two years older) daughter. Huzzah! Family fun time win.

pink sweater

But back to the sweater. This sweater is called the "Baby + Toddler Tiered Coat and Jacket" and is a pattern of the lovely lady Frogginette, who apparently speaks a lot more French than I do. You can buy this pattern online for $5, but the way to get to it is through ravelry, which you need an account to access, but it's free, and trust me, if you are a yarn person you should already be a member. But I digress.  (In totally unrelated news, I just realized that the lovely Frogginette also designed the sweater pattern (the Baltic Baby Sweater) with which I will be knitting my two unborn children their first sweaters. Apparently this woman has great style and taste. As do I.) Okay. Enough with the obscure linking.

The sweater is fun and simple to make. I mean, simple in the sense that if you are me you will still have to frog large sections of it more than once, but that is just par for the (perfectionist's) course. Finish the thing off with butterfly buttons, and you're golden.

back of said pink sweater

Note to the reader (who probably doesn't even care): I actually blocked this sweater. This is new for me. I am usually too busy/lazy to bother. But the collar is supposed to fold over, and it just wasn't going to do that without some assistance. So there. I can block. I can be patient. (sort of. the truth is that the blocking set me back two days in drying time, even with the big fan pointed at it--why does it take so long to dry?!?!--and now the present is late for the birthday. bah.)

wet sweater blocking

Hopefully it will arrive in Alaska soon, and hopefully it will fit, and hopefully the pink will not be too pink but will be the right amount of pink.

And hopefully miss Anika, now three, will make the sweater that much more adorable, and hopefully she will forgive me for making her clothes every year. (I promise that I bought her toys for Christmas.)

Happy birthday, sweet Anika! I hope your Minnie cake was everything you dreamed of, and I hope this year treats you well.

xoxoxo

While I was away...

I was building two humans. (I guess I still am.)

That's right! I'm pregnant. With twins. (I put party hats on them so you could tell what you're looking at. Ultrasounds are hard. It's much easier to photograph babies when they're out of the womb.)

They are currently 18 weeks and two days old, and my belly has started protruding, lest I wished to keep this news to myself. You can't see my belly from where you sit, so you'll have to trust me.

In the meantime, I've been throwing up and knitting and sleeping and attending multifaceted doctors' appointments. Lots of them.

Comes with a free wish.

I also made this cake again for Thanksgiving. But really, that's all I've done.

Actually, now that I look back, I've done a number of crafty things.

silk fibers + something I wrote down = fabric

crafty

Thing one: I flew to Minneapolis (before I was pregnant...) and took a two day be so crafty with fabric class with my mother and sister.

this cake gets around.

Thing two: While in MSP, we made this cake again. (It's a theme.)

Thing three: I crafted a felt belt and hat and was a garden gnome for Halloween.

Thing four: the knitting. (It's a surprise for one of my favorite small people who is about to turn three!)

Okay, that's really all. I swear.

Over and out.