HUGE HOLIDAY SALE at Dutch Baby Dudz

Get your woolies now!

All Dutch Baby Dudz inventory will be 25 percent off through Christmas.

www.dutchbabydudz.etsy.com

Etsy Buy Handmade dutchbabydudz

I will be adding lots more inventory soon!

A Passel of Woolies for our Little Peanut

I've been working away on some woolies for the new baby. Here's what I've got so far (none of these have been washed or blocked yet--I was too eager to share):

Pattern: Ladybugz Morning Glory Longies, size small

Yarn: 100Purewool 3 ply, Warm Ice colorway

Hook: G
Mods: Made straight leg instead of flared. Worked a few extra stitches at the crotch join to form a small gusset.

Pattern: Ladybugz Morning Glory Longies, size small
Yarn: 100Purewool 3 ply, Festival colorway (this colorway looked gorgeous on the hank, but it pooled really weird in crochet--very long color repeat); I'm not sure like this pair that much, but they'll be warm and soft and water resistant. :-)
Hook: G

Mods: Made straight leg instead of flared. Worked a few extra stitches at the crotch join to form a small gusset.

Pattern: Sheepy Sack (pdf)

Yarn: Patons merino, denim colorway

Needles: US size 3 and 6

Mods: none

Pattern: Sheepy Sack (pdf)
Yarn: 100Purewool 1 ply, Colibri II colorway
Needles: US size 3 and 6
Mods: none

Pattern: Punk Knitter's soaker, size small
Yarn: Fisherman's wool, Kool Aid dyed by me

Needles: US size 3 and 5
Mods: none

We're not finding out the sex again, since it was so much fun to be surprised the first time, so I'm sticking with yarns that I would happily put on either a boy or a girl. However . . . I have a funny feeling that this peanut may be a girl, so I think I might work up a few girly things too just in case. Lots more knitting and crocheting to do . . . And I need to buy more wool!

I also recently tried out a new pattern to make a soaker for T. I like it!

Pattern: Adirondack Babie soaker, size large

Yarn: Fisherman's wool
Hooks: E and F

Mods: None (but smaller hooks to get gauge)

Curly Purly Longies

After ages of sitting in my UFO pile, T's nighttime longies are finally finished. This is his final pair of woolies for this winter.

The lighting really stinks today, so the color looks all washed out. The second picture is a little more true to the color IRL.

Pattern: Curly Purly soaker, size large, morphed into longies
Yarn: Peace Fleece, Patience Blue
Needles: 16" circs in sizes 3, 5, 7

I am again just so enamored of the way PF blooms and softens after washing and lanolizing. I love this yarn!

More Crochet Woolies

Somebody stop me! I can't seem to stop crocheting woolies! This pair is for T, and they will round out his daytime longies stash for this winter.




Pattern: Ladybugz Honeysuckle shorties
Yarn: Patons Classic Merino, denim and gray (not sure what gray colorway is called--the ballband was gone)
Hook: F
Gauge: 4spi
Mods: smaller gauge, wider crotch gusset, longies instead of shorties

I need to get making some more longies or my Etsy shop. I just got some great yarn from The Shearer's Yarn to make some longies for sale. Can't wait to dig into it!

Never fear, I have a long knitting to-do list now too, and I'm starting to get back into the swing of things:

1. Chemo caps for my dear friend who is fighting breast cancer
2. A shawl/wrap for said friend
3. DH's stocking cap and gaiter (belated Christmas present)
4. T's 2nd birthday sweater
5. (but they probably shouldn't be last in line . . .) T's nighttime longies, which I already have a good start on

So I hope to have some knitted FOs to share soon!

Dutch Baby Dudz Gallery

Tomorrow I will be bringing my first batch of wool soakers to the Hop Scotch Store, a children's shop that specializes in locally handcrafted items. The proprietor tells me that they are working on building up their base of cloth diaper customers and that the items they have in stock are selling very well. I'm so excited! Here are some of the items I'll be stocking at Hop Scotch. (Please pardon the poor lighting in some of the photos. I've noted where color is not accurate.)


(accurate color in last photo above)


(color is actually the same as the navy stripe in the red, navy, and white striped shorties below)


(accurate color in last photo above)

I'm also getting ready to launch my Etsy shop, Dutch Baby Dudz. I have lots more to do before that happens, since I've been focusing on getting items done for the Hopscotch Store. I'm shooting for early September for my first stocking on Etsy. I can't wait! You can check me out here!

This has been taking up nearly all my knitting/crocheting time lately (this and Sockapalooza), so knitting content on the blog has been pretty scarce. Thus, I thought it was high time to share what I've been up to. Wish me luck!

New Doodlepants for My Little Shortypants

Pattern: Aubrey Doodlepants
Yarn: Peace Fleece, Zarya Fog colorway (Love this yarn!)
Needles: US size 5 and 7 16" circs, US size 7 40" circ (magic loop on the legs)
Modifications: added an eyelet row to the ribbing for the drawstring; added a batch of graduated short rows right after the waistband (a la Elizabeth Zimmermann); added crotch gusset (increased from four stitches to 14 stitches)

Roll Call

T's longies. Not far to go now.


My first sock. I can't decide if this yarn is fun or ugly, but I'm having a blast knitting it!


The plans for T's new sweater. It will be an Elizabeth Zimmerman seamless pullover. I haven't decided yet if it will be yoke or raglan, but I've got a good amount of knitting to do before I need to make that decision. You can kind of see what I'm planning from my (very poorly rendered) pencil sketch. I'm no artist (Do you like the different length arms? LOL), but it helps me visualize where I'm going.

I've decided I need to finish these three projects before I start anything new. Think I can stick to that? I've already got a scarf idea that I'm eager to get started on. (I'm pretty unhappy with the scarf I made earlier this winter--see here and here--so I'd like to replace it with something better.) Plus, I have more sock yarn coming in the mail. Oh boy . . .

Doodlepants Action Shot

Here's an updated picture of the Aubrey Doodlepants, lanolized and blocked and in action on my little man. They fit perfectly over a big bedtime diaper.

The Finish Line

My Doodlepants are finally done! Turned out pretty well, I think. (They're unblocked in this photo, so they still look kind of stiff and "bumpy." I'll try to post another pic after they dry--they're currently hanging out on the drying rack after a nice lanolin bath.)

Pattern: Aubrey Doodlepants
Needles: US size 5 and 7 circs (magic loop on 40" cable)
Yarn: Peace Fleece in Kamchatka Seamoss
Modifications: added crotch gusset; added ribbed cuffs to legs

Back At It Again

I'm back to my Doodlepants now. I successfully got past the short rows, and they look pretty good. I'm nearly done with the body. I decided to try to add a gusset (why can't I ever just follow the pattern?), and I screwed that up. So I ended up frogging again, but only a handful of rows this time. I know what I did wrong, so now I just have to redo and it's on to the legs! I'm getting somewhere . . .

So here's what they look like now. (Except that the color is way off in this picture. The lighting in the living room is really bad right now. I'm actually using a really yummy Peace Fleece color called Kamchatka Seamoss. I posted a pic earlier that shows the color better, even though it doesn't do justice to all the little subtleties. At first glance it looks just green, but if you look closer, it has a wonderful blue mixed in. Anyway, I digress! LOL.) I can't wait 'til they start looking like pants!

Progress!

As you can see, I got some work done on my Doodlepants today. I'm finished with the short rows, and they were much easier than I thought thanks to the fabulous step-by-step breakdown by a woman on wool_soaker_group. I may still frog them and redo them though. For some reason, on one side the turns are neat and tidy but on the other side they're sort of gappy. Yuck! I hate frogging knitted work and picking up stitches. I'm always afraid I'll drop stitches (it's happen too many times to count . . .), but I'm not sure I'm satisfied with my first attempt at short rows either.

The Great Doodlepants Knit Along Begins . . . Sort Of

After watching the mail for a few days, I received my first skeins of Peace Fleece today. I love it! I sat down and wound one of the hanks into a ball, and I could feel that it still has some lanolin in it. Until now, I've only used Patons Classic Merino (which I do really like, but it's nothing "special"), so this is a treat for me. I got Kamchatka Seamoss (above left) and Zarya Fog (above right). It doesn't show up very well in the photo, but both have really cool flecks and details of color. I plan to use the Kamchatka for Aubrey Doodlepants and the Zarya Fog for Cargo.

The Doodlepants knit along with my wool soaker group on Yahoo starts today, but I'll have to join in later. I knitted up my swatch, and I got only 4 stitches to the inch with the suggested needles instead of the 5 stitches the pattern calls for. So I need to go out and buy some smaller circular needles. Bummer! I was aching to get started.

My Freecycle Find

I scored a wool sweater from my local freecycle group. Here are the soakers I made from it. Not bad for a first attempt, though I think I'll get better with practice. It's not as easy as it looks in the tutorials. Yes, those are flowers on the longies--I'll have to stash those away for someday in the future if I have a daughter. I won't be putting them on my little man!

My Most Recent Knit and Crochet Projects

These are my first wool soakers. They're made from Patons Classic Merino, which is available at my local Meijer. It's nice and soft, but after seeing some of the yummy colors available in other yarns, I'm looking forward to beefing up my stash with some more interesting yarns! I just ordered some Peace Fleece in Kamchatka Seamoss and Zarya Fog. Can't wait!