baby gifts – Yards of Happiness

FO: Fiona’s Finest

One of my coworkers had her third child last week after having two boys, a baby girl she named Fiona. And if you knew how girly and feminine she was you’d know how exciting it was for her to have a little girl. A few coworkers wanted to send a gift and I decided why not knit up a baby hat that was pink and sparkly? And then I got the even brighter idea to try to add Fiona’s name to her hat! It’s all about practicing my skills, folks.
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So on Friday I opened up my laptop and make a basic chart in Excel to spell out her name.
fiona chart
And with any basic hat, I pretty much use this chart I’ve had bookmarked forever to get the sizes right if I don’t have a pattern in mind and just build my own. I figure out the yarn I want to use, then my gauge and I get to knitting. For this I cast on 66 stitches and did about an inch of ribbing in the Tempting Ewe, Ewe So Sparkly DK I had leftover from this cardigan and paired it with the Lemonade Shop’s Sparkle DK in Girls Gone Wild (it’s pink with flecks of grey/black) that I had in my stash. I knit a few rows in pink and then started to spell out the name. I repeated it four times around the hat. Thinking about it now I could’ve done a heart in between her name twice but hey, I was just winging it.
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I finished it off the following morning and blocked it and decided to add a button on the inside so I could put a huge pink pompom on the top because why not?! It just looked like it needed a little something extra to add to the sparkly yarn.

And there you have it, a personalized little hat for a newborn baby girl. I hope it fits her during this little cold spell and is just as cute as she is.

FO: A Pink Dress for Paige

And just like that…a dress is knit!
Paige's pink dress
I’m so glad I frogged the dress I was initially going to make my goddaughter Paige. Instead of being mad and constantly putting that dress down I changed over to the Summer into Fall dress pattern and this baby flew off my needles. It was so fast and cute I want to make more of them for the other little girls in my life.
Paige's pink dress
For Paige I made the 2T size so that it will grow with her for the next year. She’s 1 but has a few little bits of adorable baby chub so this size actually fits her but she’s still got room to grow. I may add another layer of buttons on the back just to tighten up the fit until she gets a bit taller. I knit this up in Knit Picks Shine Worsted, a pima cotton and modal blend that is so soft to the touch and has a great drape to it. Plus the yarn was affordable, 4 skeins costs about $10 before shipping. Not bad at all for a baby garment. It can also easily go into the washer and dryer so Paige’s mom doesn’t have to think twice when she’s doing the laundry.
Paige's pink dress
My favorite detail is the little flutter to the straps at the top, it’s such an adorable little added touch to a sweet little dress. I can even see doing the flutter and the tabs on the side in a contrasting color.
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And what’s even sweeter? Seeing that it fits my goddaughter. YAY!!

June 28, 2017June 28, 2017 by IamDWJ Categories: Baby Knits, Color, FO: Finished Object, Knit Picks, Knitting, pink, YarnTags: #yardsofhappiness, baby gifts, baby knits, Froginette, Knit PIcks, knitting, pink, Yarn 4 Comments

FO: Wasabi the Whale and the Sea of Chevrons

Remember the baby blanket I was talking about last week for the baby we thought would get here this week? He arrived Friday night. Clearly he was too excited to join us out here in the real world and Matzah Ball (as he was known in utero) is now Eli! I like to think as I was finishing his blanket on Friday night he was so excited about it he decided to be born but clearly I had nothing to do with it…or did I? So before he was born my girlfriend sent this picture of his room.
Matzah' room
I actually had a bedroom floor to ceiling in that shade of green and it was my absolute favorite. So clearly since she was going with a favorite color palette of mine I was happy to knit him something. So I went with a trusted pattern and did the Chevron Baby Blanket (a free pattern from Purl Soho) but decided to make the green the accent color on the ends and have two row wide stripes in alternating grey and navy blue.
Matzah Ball's blanket
The end results I love, it’s a great blanket knit in Knit Picks Mighty Stitch Bulky on size 13 needles so it went super fast. But she also told me she was ordering navy blue curtains with whales on them for the window and the next day I was scrolling through Instagram and saw this post from @NoKnitSherlock of Wasabi the Whale.

I had to make a whale for the baby, right? It was fate!
Matzah Ball's blanket and whale
Of course I had to make one! I whipped this up in a couple of hours on Saturday after walking in a 5k for Pancreatic Research. I was tired, it was hot and I figured I could knock this pattern out that afternoon while I rested. I started around 3pm and by 7:30 I was sewing on the last fin. I think since I used child safe doll eyes I already had he looks a bit more like a manatee than a whale but either way he’s still a cutie.
Matzah Ball's blanket and whale
And he looks like he’s swimming in a sea of chevrons! I’ve said I want to make more knit toys for the little kids in my life but just hadn’t gotten around to it yet. This might be the motivation I need to pull out my fun colors in my yarn stash and make a few toys for the kids I love so much. Oh and in case you were wondering, I knit Wasabi out of the Caron Simply Soft that I knit Eli’s matching hat with last week. And in these photos he has already had a run through the washing machine and dryer and looks marvelous. He should hold up to years of hugs and kisses.