Toddler Sweaters

Last week, before I went to Stitches West (more on that in a later post), I sent a small cardboard box off to our 3-year-old niece. I initially was going to send only the sweater but decided to put Gwendolyn in there as well. Remember Gwendolyn?

Here she is, waving good-bye:

She apparently transformed during her travels and is now Mr. Hippopotamus Guy. I heard from our niece’s mother Tuesday who said our niece loved the hippo but did immediately take off the tutu and say it’s a boy. Darn, and I thought I had that one right. How embarrassing, both for me and for the now male hippo. The sofa is lonely without its purple adornment (s/he has been watching TV with me for months).

Same niece also finally got her sweater. This should have been her birthday sweater, and I was right on track with getting it done by the end of October… or maybe a week later. Then I watched as I came close to running out of yarn. True to form, I slowed down; my brain always thinks knitting more slowly will make the problem not happen. What happens is it’s a problem less quickly. How that’s supposed to be better, I don’t know. There really is nothing like delaying the inevitable, right? In December, I admitted defeat. Here’s what I had right before frogging:

So I went yarn shopping: found lots of not-quite-right colors and one fantastic Baby Ull match that was about half the thickness I needed. I left the sleeves as they were, unraveled the body back down to the hem, changed my body pattern to plain stockinette, and knitted 4 rounds with the Tess’ yarn and 1 round with the Baby Ull held doubled for the body and the yoke. It blended well.

Pattern: own
Yarn: Tess’ Designer Yarns Superwash Merino, 100% superwash wool; Dale of Norway Baby Ull, 100% superwash wool, color 4536 (fuchsia), held doubled
Needles: US size 3 and 4
Size: made for a 4-year-old; currently fits a 3-year-old
Started 10/12/2009 and finished 2/20/2010

Her mom posted modeled photos to Flickr on Thursday and I’m so happy to say the sweater fits her. In my opinion, the neckline is a little too high in the photos so next time I’ll make it lower. No need to give a kid what’s practically a stand-up Victorian collar. However, she looks good in it with the placket buttons opened.

Today was all about errands and dough. Besides the usual weekend errands I ran an extra one to pick up buttons for the fuchsia sweater that I finally, finally did the finishing work on this morning and heel reinforcement thread for my socks in progress. Here’s the sweater, unblocked, with buttons not yet sewn on:

The pink and purple buttons ImagiKnit had didn’t quite work so I went with yellow ones that pop nicely. And even though Stitches West is next week and I’m saving my money for that, I ended up not leaving the shop without a bit of yarn. It went with me to the bank and the library, then posed for this photo:

That’s Malabrigo Lace for those of you who were wondering.

I realize you’ve been seeing a lot of green, blue, and brown projects here lately. I didn’t even notice I was doing this until I saw all my projects lined up in Ravelry. So for a change of color, I’ll show you the little socks that also got done this week:

Pattern: own (I cast on 28 for the smaller sock and 36 for the larger one, then made a sock)
Yarn: Zitron Trekking XXL Sport, 75% wool, 25% nylon, color 1454
Needles: US size 1
Size: infant and bigger infant
Started 1/29 and finished 2/11/2010

There rest of today was devoted to dough. I turned out a loaf of shredded wheat whole wheat bread and made dough logs for chocolate cookies rolled in pistachios and rum spice cookies:

I plan to bake them tomorrow. I have no idea what possessed me to make so many cookies this weekend but they freeze and keep well so it’s not a problem. The chocolate ones are supposed to be sandwich cookies with a chocolate frosting between them but for the sake of my girlish figure I think I’ll stick with plain cookies. Plus I’ll have twice as many that way.

Tonight I have to work on my Stitches West homework. It won’t take very long.

That’s close to what I’d imagine Gollum saying in the Italian translation of The Lord of the Rings (probably more along the lines of “mio prezioso”), but in this case it is the name of the yarn:

Pattern: own
Yarn: 3 skeins Allesandra Filati Prezioso; 40% wool, 36% nylon, 24% cashmilon (whatever that is); color 844
Needles: US size 4 for body, 2 for ribbing
Size: for a 2-year-old
Started 7/28 and finished 12/30/2008

I’m not sure about the neckline. I made a split v-neck but it seems a little tight. Not having a little person around to try it out on, though, I can’t confirm. I could always make it bigger, if once whoever ends up with it has too big a head. This was a very quick knit. I think I finished it in about 2 weeks, mostly made on the bus, but then it languished in my bag as soon as I memorized the lace pattern for the Apres Surf Hoodie and I focused on the big sweater instead. I made the neckline maybe a month ago and this morning realized 9 yarn tails weren’t really that bad, bucked up and wove those in. This makes two sweaters in two days! If I keep this up, I’ll have no stash left by the end of 2009. Ha! Yeah, right.

Apres Surf is indeed done and nearly dry. If the weather cooperates, I might ask Mr. MmmYarn to do photos tomorrow.

Christmas kept right on going in our household; today I received a package from Mr. MmmYarn’s uncle, filled with wooly goodies: