Diaper Shower Goodies

I got to sew for another diaper shower for an online friend. Such fun! I love sewing diaps for other mamas. Here's what she'll be receiving:

Small/medium Ladybugz shorties in a soft acrylic (her little ones can't tolerate wool)



A small and a medium pocket fitted sewn from the VB AIO pattern and modified to make them snapping. Outer and inner flannel with a hidden layer of birdseye. Stuffed with trifolded inserts of terry and flannel:

Outers:


Inners:


And the whole kit and kaboodle ready for the mail:


I really like how the snaps turned out, especially the crossover settings. I'll have to make some like this for our stash now.

I hope she likes them!

Another Surprise

I'm doing another BSJ, this time for T. I adore this pattern. Such fun! Here are the fruits of two days of on and off knitting. I'm three ridges into the first set of increases:



The knitterly details:

Yarn: WOTA bulky in navy, emerald, and bare
Needles: US size 9 Knit Picks Options
Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Surprise Jacket
Mods: crochet provisional cast on for sleeves so I can make them longer. I also added 9 stitches to each end of the cast on, since I'm not doing the increase above the cuff because of how I'm doing the sleeves.

This yarn and needle choice is rumored to yield a toddler size sweater. We shall see!

Lickety Split Crocheted Newborn Hats

Here's a super fast and fun crochet project for charity. I've made ten of these little hats in the last few days. This pic if of the first two.

Materials:
Worsted weight yarn, less than 1 oz.
Size H crochet hook

Gauge:
3 dc stitches per inch
2 rows of double crochet per inch
(However, gauge really isn’t terribly important for this project, as babies come in all sizes and grow very quickly.)

Ch 4, join with slip stitch to first ch to form a ring.
Row 1: Ch 3 (counts as first dc throughout), dc 11 in the ring, ss in top of beginning ch 3.
Row 2: Ch 3, dc in same st, 2 dc in each st around, ss in top of beginning ch 3.
Row 3: Ch 3, dc in next st, 2 dc in next st, *dc in next 2 sts, 2dc in next st; repeat from * to end of round, ss in top of beginning ch 3.
Rows 4–9: Ch 3, dc in next st and in each st around.
Fasten off and weave in ends.

© 2008. Please don't sell these instructions or post them on the Internet. You may link to this blog post.

Next I plan to work up a version of this hat that uses baby yarn. Stay tuned!

EDIT 1/30/2010: Here's a version that will give you a slightly larger hat, better suited to a typical-size newborn (the original is more of a preemie size):

Ch 4, join with slip stitch to first ch to form a ring.

Row 1: Ch 3 (counts as first dc throughout), dc 11 in the ring, ss in top of beginning ch 3.

Row 2: Ch 3, dc in same st, 2 dc in each st around, ss in top of beginning ch 3. 

Row 3: Ch 3, dc in next st, 2 dc in next st, *dc in next 2 sts, 2dc in next st; repeat from * to end of round, ss in top of beginning ch 3. 

Row 4: Ch 3, dc in next 2 st, 2 dc in next st, *dc in next 3 sts, 2dc in next st; repeat from * to end of round, ss in top of beginning ch 3. 

Rows 5–10: Ch 3, dc in next st and in each st around. Fasten off and weave in ends.

(To make the hat fit an even larger range of sizes, you can add more rows before fastening off. Any excess length can be folded up as needed.)

© 2010. Please don't sell these instructions or post them on the Internet. You may link to this blog post.

Here is a comparison picture. The new larger version is on the left.

Lickety Split Loom-Knit Newborn Hats

I've been doing some charity crafting again lately, and I thought I'd share my patterns for what I've been making. This almost doesn't qualify as a pattern it's so simple, but I do have a very specific way I like to make these little rolled-brim hats, so perhaps someone else would like to make them this way too. Enjoy!



Materials:
Small amount of worsted weight yarn
Small amount of sport weight or fingering weight yarn
24 peg Knifty Knitter round loom, or similar large gauge loom

This hat is worked using one strand of worsted weight and one strand of sport or fingering weight yarn held together.

Cast on using the crochet cast-on method (this creates a firm but stretchy edge that isn’t too loopy). I also really like the double e-wrap cast on for these hats.

E-wrap and knit off 19 rows.

To decrease for the top, move the loop on every other peg to the peg to the left. You should now have 12 pegs containing 2 loops alternating with 12 empty pegs.

E-wrap only the 12 pegs containing loops. Knit off (knit 2 over 1 so you end up with 1 loop on each of the 12 pegs).

Gather off and weave in loose ends.

© 2008. Please don't sell these instructions or post them on the Internet. You may link to this blog post.

Up next: crocheted newborn hats!

My First Dye Job

Here's my very first attempt at dying wool yarn. It's Fishermen's Wool dyed with Kool Aid. I think I used too little Kool Aid. This is 3 oz. of wool, and I used just one packet each of Berry Blue and Lemon Lime. It's actually a little brighter than how it shows up in the pic, but not a ton.



Meh. I think I can do better. It'll be fun to knit or crochet it up and see what it looks like though.