Hand Knit Pumpkin Hat

Finished a second pumpkin hat today.  This one should fit my 8 month old grandson, as the first one I made was too small.  The free pattern is on www.simplejill.com.  Very easy and quick to make.  I want to make a bunch of them, but I'm already moving on to another pattern.  LOL

Beautiful Knitted Newborn Dress

Now that I've given this dress to the mommy-to-be I can post about it.  I didn't want to risk ruining the surprise.  Her baby shower was yesterday and I'm proud to say that this dress was a big hit with everyone.  

This is from a paid pattern on Ravelry called Bloom.  The yarn I used is the color Real Red by Caron Simply Soft Light.  This particular pattern covers sizes newborn through size 8, just by changing yarn and needle sizes.  For this one I used fingering yarn with sizes 2 and 3 needles.

I'm hypercritical of my work and can see all the errors I made, but I'm still very happy with how it turned out.  

You can find the pattern here:  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bloom-9

My First Knitted Garment - A Preemie Sweater

 After wanting to learn how to knit for years, and after a poor attempt at teaching myself, you can imagine how excited to find out my local library was going to start at knitting group.  We met in October, 2013, to establish interest and monthly after that to share knowledge, share company, and show our projects.  It's a wonderful, helpful group, and I credit the librarian that established it with teaching me to knit.  We only meet once a month, so when I have questions in between meetings I turn to Youtube.  

When we found out that some very dear friends of ours was having a girl I got excited and started looking for patterns on Ravelry.  When the baby came early, I refined my search for something for a preemie.  This pattern was labeled as easy and even though it took me FIVE videos to understand each technique, in the end it actually was pretty easy for a beginner.

 

This pattern called for buttonholes but I decided to not add them.

 

I learned how to use double point needles, always labeled as dpn on patterns.  I went to buy all the items I'd need to make this pattern and I had no idea what dpn stood for and wound up buying circular needles instead.  Needless to say, I figured it out and after another trip back I purchased what I needed.

This sweater is designed to fit a 5 pound preemie and it did perfectly.  It doesn't say so on the pattern, but I would imagine if you used a larger sized needle then it would fit a large baby.  I haven't tried out that theory, but it sounds like a good one to me.

It was my very first project other than the dishcloths I learned on.  I can see all the little flaws that I made and was actually very reluctant to send it as a gift but I'm so glad I did.  The parents loved it and the baby was only able to wear it for a short time.

My two favorite Youtube channels are Very Pink Knits and New Stitch A Day, and these are where I learn every technique that I'm unfamiliar with are is causing me some struggle.

I'll be making a few more posts of some of my other knitting projects soon, so keep checking back.