Friday, November 21, 2008

Res Completae et Originales: Baby Warmies

Thank you all so much for the comments on my Deep-V Argyle! (And also for not pointing out what a dork I am for mistakenly referring to it as a sweater when it is, in fact, a vest. No sleeves = vest. Missing that point = dork.) I actually have a bunch of photos of other projects to share and was expecting to post them all this week, but have had no time. Please remind me again why I am taking these accounting classes??

Anyway, below are some baby knits made for my two extremely cute first cousins once removed. Their mother (my first cousin zero times removed) has been having a hard time getting them dressed in warm enough garb for the cold climate in which they live (they're currently on another continent), so she enlisted my help.

Before reading the upcoming v. boring writeup of the exact technicalities of knitting legwarmers, please go view the much more adorable modeled shots on my cousin's blog. I'll wait here.

...

Aren't they cuties?? Their little Dutch-and-Swedish-ness just kills me!

And on to the technicalities...



Pattern: Legwarmies, by Alana Dakos
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, 1 skein each of Putty and Truffle
Needles: US 6 dpns



Mods: Instead of the sport weight yarn called for, I used a worsted, for thicker legwarmies and more warmth. To adjust for the difference in gauge, I cast on 34 stitches. Then I knit around and around for 11 inches.

Notes: Because of the kiddos' sensitive skin, my cousin asked for a wool blend yarn, instead of straight up wool. I was worried about using a 100% cotton for tension reasons (I knit quite loose so need something with some sproing) and also so the warmies would have a little bit of stretch -- nothing's worse than baggy legwarmers that won't stay up! I found the cotton fleece to be an excellent compromise. Boy is that stuff soft, and it was great to work with. I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the yarn, though, when I attempted to combine the two colors with the leftovers from the first two pairs...


(The athletic stripe)


(The girly heart)

See all that pink where the brown dye bled into the off-white?! So bummed. In addition, I had to rinse the 100% brown warmies about 50 bazillion times before the water ran clear. I felt really, really bad about sending these off to my cousin in such a state, so I'm hoping to make it up to her soon.

Next up, some little glovies:



Pattern: My own
Yarn: RYC Cashsoft 4-ply, just a little bit of Weather
Needles: US 3 (I think?) dpns

Notes: I originally wanted to modify the Knucks pattern to fit a 3 year old and 20 month old, but making the half-fingers that small proved to be a difficult challenge. After a few attempts that produced gloves that looked absolutely nothing like the human hand, I gave up and made fingerless mitts instead. I was surprised to find an utter dearth of baby fingerless mitt patterns out there, so I wrote my own. If you'd like to make your own pair, the pattern will be posted here shortly...

Jo, it was so fun to knit these for CB and W - I hope they're able to get a lot of use out of them this winter!

11 comments:

Ashley said...

Love them! I've been wanting to make some leg warmers for my little guy.

Kitten said...

These are so incredibly adorable. If you make a pattern for those mitts, I might have to make them for my son for next year. SO CUTE!

Anonymous said...

hilary these are adorable!@ ^_^

a friend to knit with said...

oh my gosh!!! so adorable!!!
the photos of them wearing them are SO stinkin cute.
and little hands in little mitts! ahhhh!

jennifer said...

So so so SO cute!!!

Mr Puffy's Knitting Blog: said...

Utterly adorable! So sweet to see them all cozy in their handknits.

I think leg warmers are a cute look - on young people. You included! You ought to make yourself a pair - it's cold enough in San Fran after all :)

Marie Adeline said...

adorable, absolutely adorable

Teresa said...

So cute - I can't see any dye-running issues in the photos, and I'm sure the little legs which now sport those cute warmers are quite grateful for the warmth!

countrychicken said...

I have been looking for fingerless mitts for the 5-10 year old group and have come up with 1 pattern in my search. I would be interested to see your pattern - don't have any little babies at the moments but do have 5 and 9 year old grandchildren.

Joanna said...

Yay! Thank you again so much! We wore them today when we went boot shopping (first snow of the year for the past 2 days so I figure it is about time) and the sales girls were gushing over the leg warmers like crazy. They work so well!

Philigry said...

oh, i love all of your beautiful knits!