Knits for baby

Yes, another knit post!  I promise I will post something about sewing in the upcoming weeks.   I hope to do a quilt update/post after next weekend. I should have some time to work on it.  So its knits for now!  With all the sinus headaches I have been having this week, I took a break from my sweater and decided to do some quick knits for the baby.  I found an adorable frog hat with mitts on ravelry and decided I would give it a try!   I am pretty happy with the results and we plan on bringing baby home in the hat and mitts.  I still have socks I want to make to go along with the ensemble.

The one thing I have to state , as others have stated on this site, there are no instructions for the eyes which makes it difficult. I will tell you how I sewed my eyes on and you can see if its helpful or not. For me I found the whip stitch took me a try or two to get it down.  I found a very helpful video which shows the best way to do it.  This stitch is used to sew the white of the eye to the green of the eye.  Here is the link to the Whip stitch   http://www.ehow.com/video_4940669_sew-whip-stitch.html

So once I sewed the white of the eye to the green of they eye, I then made a seem from the white of the eye to the bind off stitches. This made a tube.  At this point I stuffed the eye. I placed the open end of the tube 8-10 rows down from the top and began sewing.  I tied a knot in the end of my yarn and went up through the hat to the bind off stitches  I did this 2-3 times just to get the eye attached. I will tell you, starting the eye is really hard and a third hand could have helped.  Once I got some of the eye attached I used the mattress stitch to go around the out line of the eye all except the front.  Once I got to the front I then pushed the white of the eye back to where I liked the look best.  This makes the eye more round.  Once I found the desired location of the eye, I then attached the front by sewing from inside the hat through the green line at the bottom of the eye. Just sewing up an down to attach.  Keep sewing the mattress stitch on the other side and your eye is attached. Just push the rest of the yarn inside and weave in ends.  I didn't think to take any pictures, but I will try to make some time with leftover yarn to post pictures so you can see what I did.  I hope many of you found this helpful!!!

WIP and finished projects

Well, I know its been a while since I have posted on here.  I got really busy with my grandfather and then he passed away. After that I found no motivation and there were lots of  doctor visits, procedures, and so forth. However,  I have been some what busy knitting.  As for sewing and quilting, look for future projects.  I haven't worked on my quilt since February but plan on finishing it , in the upcoming posts. So for now, its just knitting updates.  Well, my grandfather fell ill and I was traveling back and forth a lot so I decided to start a new project.  I knitted a baby sweater for a friend of mine that  I met on baby center.  She had her baby in April. So I made her a baby sweater one like I had made Jack at Christmas.  Here is the picture below.

 I am pretty happy with it, but  will not use bernat baby again for baby sweaters.  I had to redo the neck on this sweater 3 time just to make sure the baby could get its head through.  Its a very tight yarn.    After this I took a long break from crafts and did some reading.  Then in June, I picked up the sweater I was knitting ( pictured in the previous post) for a friend at work. If you don't remember, I was making this pattern up as I went a long.  I have to say I like it but  I have a few  adjustments to the pattern before I love it.

 

Since then I decided to try something for the house. I bought yarn back in February for this project but never motivated to actually do it. I wanted a bathroom mat for our guest bathroom on our main floor. Its a half bath and I felt it needed a little touch!  I couldn't find any knitting patterns that  I loved, however fell in love with crochet patterns. Yes,  I do plan or learning to crochet some day, but in the mean time I just wanted to knit a bath mat. So after finding one particular crochet rug , which inspired me, I did some research. I went through my knitter's bible and looked at different types of stitches to find one that matched.  and then I did some math and gauging,  to figure out what size I would need.  Once I had the figured out I created the pattern in my head and this is what I ended up with.

For the most part I am happy with this bath mat. I could have done without so many stitches on the sides. If I do another one I have written some notes to myself so  I know how to adjust. Well as some of you know, I found out in June I am pregnant!! I am so excited!! So my focus switched to baby stuff.  Thus far I have only one complete project for the baby and I am currently working on a maternity top for myself.  I have knitted a pumpkin hat for the baby, which  I am in love with.

For myself  I am using a drops pattern to knit the top with a few alterations. I have added to the length so it will cover my bump for the most part.  I also decided on extra large in hopes it would fit me for a while. I am 18 weeks now and hope to finish this weekend, so I can actually wear it.

I really like how it is turning out so far.  It does have a few small mistakes, but since its for me and you have to have a good eye I decided not to worry about it and continue.  I will update you with a pic of me wearing it shortly!!  My next project is a baby item which I should be starting next week. I will update this at least once a week.  Maybe 2 times until  I get multiple projects going.  I will also get to that organizing your knitting post  I promised ages ago. Until next time!!!