All We Need is the Baby

I finally got Baby Girl's dress blocked! I figured it might be a good idea to do it now since I'm scheduled for a C-section in exactly one week! The sleeves don't curl so much now. This pattern has no gauge written for it, so size may not be accurate. It's written as newborn, but we'll see. If she's a small baby, she'll be swimming in it. Regardless of how it fits, I plan to have her wear it anyway. If it's big she will just grow into it and wear it longer. I can't wait!

Knitting at the Crack of Dawn

I've been having trouble sleeping lately, which has resulted in my waking up at 5:00 a.m. or earlier. The other day I took advantage of this time to work on the baby's dress. I've finished one sleeve and just have to finish the other sleeve, sew the Picot edges, and weave in the ends; oh, and of course blocking. The pattern calls for crocheting the sleeves, but since I don't crochet, I have modified the sleeves to match the Picot edge of the skirt.

Here (left) is a closeup of just the bodice and the sleeve that is completed. I think it will work nicely with the Picot edge instead of the crochet. Maybe one day I will master crochet, too; but that day is not today. There are too many knitting projects I want to do! I can't have a distraction like crochet to deter me from knitting all the things!
Below is the entire dress so far. I'm happy with how it is coming along.

The Traveling Scarf: Trial and Error

Well, it took me several trials (I think I started this section over at least 10 times!), but I finally finished this edition of the Traveling Scarf. The criteria were pretty basic: bold colors and lots of texture! No pastels! I chose Plymouth Yarns Encore Colorspun Color #7121. It is greens and purples. The creator of this scarf said she loves bees so I chose the bee stitch!

Try as I might, I was noticing that my pattern was looking nothing like the tutorials I was referencing. I started over so many times and mine was just looking like a weird version of stockinette stitch. There was no texture whatsoever. Each time I started over, I watched the videos over and over and still couldn't figure it out.

Then, finally, I had an epiphany! After ripping it out and starting over for about the tenth time and worrying I wasn't going to get it out in the mail when I wanted to so it wouldn't be late; I realized I had been reading the pattern wrong the entire time! I was adding an extra knit stitch at the beginning of Row 4. Once I figured this out and actually did the pattern correctly, things just fell into place. Funny how that works out!

A Homecoming Dress

In the midst of all the scarves, I have started another project. I got busy on the dress for our daughter. I figure if I start early it will be finished by September. The pattern had me a little confused at first. It doesn't specify which is the right side (RS) or wrong side (WS). The way it is written would have had it switching back and forth. I think there are some errors in the row numbers, however, the errata link no longer works. So, I decided which is RS and WS and worked it accordingly and based on the instructions, I adjusted row numbers for some of the changes because I think they are just miscalculated. This is what I ended up with for the top half of the dress (the bodice). Now I just have to pick up the stitches and start the skirt. I have another scarf to finish in the meantime. I do think the yarn I got looks very nice!

Bodice (front)

Bodice (back)

The Traveling Scarf: How Does Your Garden Grow?

The "How Does Your Garden Grow" scarf is the next scarf in the chain. I love this theme! Of course I looked for a flower knit stitch. I wanted to be different, so I also looked for a butterfly stitch. My original thought was to alternate flowers and butterflies, knitting pink flowers and purple butterflies. As it turned out, however, the butterfly stitch pattern required too many stitches and wouldn't work with the scarf width or the flower pattern. I started knitting the Flowers in a Row stitch that I found doing a Google search for "flower knit stitch patterns."

The yarn I chose to use is Plymouth Encore Colorspun worsted color #7733. It is pink with grey spun into it.  The first row of flowers looked great! It looks like little daisies in a row. So, I continued the pattern...

However, to my dismay, the subsequent rows didn't come out as flowery. They look a bit blobby. I love this yarn, though, so I don't really want to rip it all out. I think it is the texture of the grey yarn intertwined with the pink making the flowers look sloppy in the pink yarn. The purple yarn, which is also Plymouth Encore Colorspun, is a little bit softer than the pink/grey yarn. I've decided to add on three more rows of flowers in the purple and see if that helps the look of the pink flowers. One row of purple flowers already improved the look  of the pink flowers. There is hope!

I also noticed that the purple yarn is striping on its own. This is a nice look for the "flowers in a row" stitch. I decided to keep going and see how it turns out. If I go ahead and make it half pink and half purple, I think it will look alright and I will have the best of both worlds in this scarf!

Here is how it turned out with three rows each of pink and purple. I didn't get a very good picture, but it is late at night and I am finally feeling sleepy. These scarves have been great for my insomnia!
My section is a little bit longer than the 6" length preferred for these scarves, but I am okay with that. I love both of these yarn colors and really wanted to use both for this theme. It's only an inch too long. Overall, I am happy with the end result and it looks good with the rest of the scarf!

Featured Project!

Yesterday when I got home from work, I logged on to Facebook and saw that Craftsy featured my Fisherman's Sweater on their Facebook page! How flattered I am to have my work showcased like this! What's very cool to me is that I ordered the kit one year ago today! I intended it to be sort of a birthday/Father's Day/Christmas gift all rolled into one since I knew it would take quite a bit of time to complete. It was done in time for Valentine's Day, and I can live with that, given the curve balls we were thrown last fall. I am grateful to Craftsy!

The Traveling Scarf: Double Duty

Today the mail came very late (after 4:00!) and it was a little like Christmas! I received not one, but two traveling scarves! I think both a pretty. One has a flower garden theme and the other has a textured theme. I'm already looking for flowery knit stitch patterns!