Ballerina Sweater
It seems as if everyone who works with Jeff is expecting a baby this summer. What a great excuse to knit!
The first baby to arrive was Katelynn, Travis' baby, who was born to him and his wife Tracie on July 20th. I heard ahead of time that she was going to be a girl. Since I had never knitted for a girl, I had to pick the girliest article to knit, naturally.
Bear with me, I took a lot of pictures of these.
These patterns are from Erika Knight's Simple Knits for Cherished Babies, which was consulted for other items that I have knitted. At first I figured I would make both the sweater and the slippers for her, but after I started knitting the sweater, I realized it would take longer than I bargained for. This is due to the fact that the yarn has such a small gauge (7 sts/in on US 2/3 needles). I recommend it, though; it is easy to work with, especially if you knit tightly like I do, and it is very soft and luxurious. Be prepared to spend money, though... it's Jaeger 4-ply silk, and the color is called... you guessed it... Ballerina.
The pattern is very simple and easy to follow. Every row is knit, which, if you don't know, is called garter stitch. I knitted it in Newborn size. It reminds me of a sweater I used to wear in ballet class, in the way it wraps around the back. The ribbon is a satin ribbon I picked up from Hancock Fabrics. Because the yarn isn't cheap, I was afraid to make a gauge swatch, so I didn't. Whoops. This resulted in a very small sweater, even for a newborn. As you can see, it loosely fits Feel Better Bunny. Fortunately, silk is known for being stretchy, so I'm sure it can easily be made bigger if need be... all one would have to do is wash it and hang it up to dry (usually a no-no). The best part of the pattern is that there is very little finishing...just sew bottoms of sleeves and the sides together, no stitches to pick up! Unfortunately I was but a novice at the invisible seams that can be done with garter stitch, so the seams are somewhat visible. D'oh.
In case you're confused, the ribbons attach to the sides of the front layers. The layer that goes underneath has a ribbon that passes through a small hole in the seam on the other side so that both sides of the ribbon can come around to the back and make a bow. You can see the back on Feel Better Bunny, to the right.
My neighbors must think I'm cracked, taking outdoor photos of a sweater-clad puppet.
Ballerina Slippers
My friend Carrie's sister-in-law was to have a baby girl, Victoria Ann, in June. In the same book as the sweater, there is a pattern for little silk slippers. The suggested yarn is the same yarn I had for Katelynn's sweater, which worked out since I had plenty left.I knitted the first pair of slippers at a Richmond Braves game (making sure to look up every time someone hit the ball so as to not get a concussion). Again, I didn't make a gauge swatch. When will I ever learn? Anyway, I finished them and measured them. They were about an inch smaller than the pattern indicated, and the pattern was for newborns to begin with. Crap. I tried blocking them, which only lengthened them by a half inch. I asked Carrie how big the baby was supposed to be... her answer: Ten pounds or so. Double crap.
So I gave the first set to Katelynn, to go with her sweater, in hopes that she would be smaller than ten pounds. I hope they fit her; I haven't heard otherwise. I then increased the needles by one size, and knit the 3-6 month size the second time around. These slippers are significantly bigger than the first pair, as you can see by the picture. I also shaped them a little bit differently; the toes are slightly less pointy and are more rounded. I personally like this pair better.
The slippers are shown in the book as having ribbons trailing off the back, to wrap around the feet like a ballerina does. The book also suggests alternate ways of decorating them, such as with a silk rosebud trim, or rick-rack. I wanted to be original, so I haunted Hancock Fabrics and JoAnn Fabrics looking for trimmings that matched the pale pink yarn. I came up with nothing. I used the same ribbon from the sweater, and simply sewed it to the back. To the right is a picture of what the slippers (the first, smaller pair) looked like without the ribbons.
By the time I finished all these little pink silk projects, I was pretty tired of the tiny delicate yarn. Fortunately, this pink is pale and soft, because if it had been a more sickening shade, I think I would have thrown up on it.
Here is Victoria Ann, modeling her slippers. --->
