Good morning!
We got off to an earlier start this morning, allowing me to put Em’s hair up in four braids as she requested. On the way to school, the sun was just rising as it began to sprinkle, and a beautiful vivid rainbow arced all the way across the sky. One end looked like it touched down about where my father lives (that’s him with me and the squirrel in the previous post) and the other landed right behind Em’s school. It was gorgeous, and all the teachers were excited.
Hopefully it’s a good omen of a great day.
ETA: Now it’s stopped raining and is still cool enough to run. I feel like if I talk more about how great this day is going then something ironic will have to happen, like me getting hit by a bus. Watch this space for me in traction!
I love rainbows! They’re always so pretty!
OT: Do you know of any easy baby sweater patterns? I think the BF’s nephew is due, since I still haven’t finished that blanket. it’s just so.. repetitive!
I also want to learn how to do like.. pattern work, like images and that sort of thing. Do you have any tutorials handy for that? I don’t even know what to call it, or where to look!
Baby blankets always seem like they’d be so easy, but they’re the worst. I made a couple and was, like, “will this EVER be over?”
For an easy baby sweater, I like going top down, in the round. It moves very quickly and you don’t have to seam anything up.
Are you on Ravelry? It’s a really great site with tons of patterns and yarns that are easy to search through, and the forums are often helpful.
You’re talking about colorwork? There are two kinds, Fair Isle and intarsia. Fair Isle is for little bits on each row, and intarsia is for larger blocks. You’ll actually find some good examples on YouTube, which has a lot more knitting videos than you might think!
Yeah, I’m on Ravelry (as shadowfox). I’ve been digging through there, but I’m not sure what’s -easy- as I’ve never made sweaters before. Just hats and smaller blankets.
If I ever finish this blanket I don’t think I’ll ever make another one, unless it’s for myself, and with more pattern than what this one has to give me something else to do.
As for colorwork, I was just thinking of putting a few small images, or initials, name, something like that. Not so much a full pattern.
A lot of these sweaters seem kinda girly too. I’m not sure what’s too appropriate for a little boy other than something more plain in pattern.
I think I might do a sweater vest first, before I break out into sleeves! Though, I tend to go all out and get in over my head, so expect something cabled, with colorwork, and the whole nine yards!
Sarcasm aside, I figured doing a baby sweater before doing an adult-sized sweater would be a good thing.
Oh, did you see knit picks has acrylic options now? I wonder how they are. Definitely more affordable!
The Options I’ve used have been high quality, but I haven’t used the acrylics. I’d bet they’d be just fine, though.
I guess I can always return them if I hate them. I’ll prolly put in an order when I get my return from school.
I agree, a baby sweater is a good idea. Not much shaping there – babies are basically little oblong blobs with longish protrusions.
I’m Tvini on Ravelry. It is tough to find non-girly patterns sometimes, but remember that yarn choice makes a big difference. A super-girly sweater sometimes looks completely different if you just make it in a solid or lightly variegated blue.
The best one I’ve found is from Knitting Pure and Simple, their baby pullover. Down side: it’s not free. Ditto with the baby placket pullover in Last Minute Knitted Gifts (although your library may have one).
You might try looking at the pdf of Five Fruits or Striped Outfit but obviously you want the English translation, not the Finnish.
Lastly, consider just a cute hat and some booties. Saartjes booties seem to be the most popular bootie pattern in the world right now. Or even just one or the other. They’ll think whatever you make is cute, I promise. 🙂