Looking Ahead to a Petite Polished

Y'all are in store for a cozy twosome in this post!  Camden gets to show off a new hat AND a new sweater!

For such a lovely sweater, I took so long to write the blog post that the Petite Polished shows wear. I would say it honestly started pilling pretty soon after finishing it, too.  I wanted to hold out on allowing Camden to wear this design by Alicia Plummer, but since I finished it in October and she needed a pull-over, well, that was that.  Originally, I'd wanted to sew her new jeans first for a nice photo combo, but I have yet to get around to sewing those.  Maybe next week, aha.

There was some silliness in knitting this pattern, though the pattern itself was lovely.  Because of my gauge, I added extra yoke rounds, but in doing THAT, I also added extra increases, which wasn't great for the sleeves, and when I started the first sleeve, I realized my mistake and had to rip back and decrease differently.  I wasn't sure that it'd work, considering I couldn't just get rid of the original sleeve stitch count, but it ended up being okay.    I alternated skeins, and while the gauge called for is looser than I like to knit a DK weight yarn, it does look nice.  In saying that, I wonder if it'd be AS pilled as it is if I knit at a tighter gauge.  I knit with Tanis Fiber Arts PureWash DK in the Luna Gray colorway.  I was glad for Camden to have a somewhat neutral-toned sweater, which it is, but she really still needs another pull-over - and a cardigan, while we're at it.  I had been desperate to try the PureWash base for some time (because of its more eco-friendly "super-washing" process, and it is nice to knit with, but I'm not sure I'll knit with it again, unless I do try some time, at a tighter gauge.  Overall, the sweater is quite lovely, and Camden loves to wear it!

As for Camden's hat, this is another moment where I feel cool that I knit with deep stash yarn!!!  The yarn was purchased way back in 2012, and I had paid an Etsy seller to knit a sweater for Camden, because I didn't trust my abilities or something and figured another person would knit it faster, LOL.  Anyway, the remnants have been in my stash every since, some lovely Madelinetosh colorway - I think it was Truly, Madly, Deeply.

A tiny July 2012 Camden!

Looking Ahead, designed by Veera Valimaki, is a simple-enough pattern, thought I botched up the decreases a bit; it was hard to know how to stay in pattern, or I'd get off track.  Either way, it is cute, and I also had a feeling it'd be super cute with a faux fur pom pom, and I was RIGHT!  I am so glad I ordered from Thread Head Knits.  She has tons of choices, and I bought my poms as a bulk order, but keep in mind that some colors can't be ordered in bulk buys.  I was winging it on color choices, but I figured something I ordered would work, and the light pink is so pretty with the hat.

Even here, you can see the pilling.  I really should get a Gleener!

I am pretty happy that I have been working through stash yarns - for the kids or for others.  I am knitting two wee sweaters for twins right now - one down, one to go!  And I have recently knit another pair of mittens each for the kids, both from scrap yarns.

Lastly, so much has happened since the last post, but here are some snippets from some days!!

She worked on this longhouse with her dad.  She presented very well!

Their monsters are afraid of faeries!

But their monsters love to eat!

This and the next shot are the same beach, same five minutes, LOL

A gift her grandma made!!!

Gift for baby cousin Helen!

They are now obsessed with The Lion King!

Socks for Everyone (except Dad) - Yay!!!

This will be known as the sock post!  I knit up three lovely pairs of socks recently, and for some reason, hand-knit socks make me so happy - especially when the socks are for Camden and Tiberius.  Something about wee hand-knit socks on little kids....

My fancy socks are the Kai Mei pattern by Cookie A.  (She is well-known for her awesome patterns, but maybe most famous (aha!) for the Monkey Sock, which is a free pattern - and which I have yet to knit.)  Kai Mei can be found in her book, Sock Innovation.  (THIS link on Amazon shows that you may have to buy it used, though I'm sure it can be found new SOMEwhere, LOL.....It is also available on Kindle).  I have knit one of her patterns before, but I can't, for the life of me, find a picture...and the socks were a gift for a friend.  There is errata for this pattern.  You can find a link on the pattern page on Ravelry and go from there.  In this case, where the pattern comes from a book, I just pen the correct information directly onto the page in the book.

The pattern is very easy, and with this particular pair of socks, I wanted to do them concurrently, sort of - LOL....I did the leg portion of each one first, before going back to the first sock to finish it.  I never cut the yarn, nor did I have to balls with which to work, so, I just knit from either end of the cake.

The yarn is Black Trillium Fibers, though I am only sort of sure the base is Pebble Sock, and I can't recall the colorway name at all, though surely the tag is somewhere in this house....It is a gorgeous blue with purple sort of peeking through.  I purchased it years ago, and I'm glad I finally used it!  The socks did take forever, though, in terms of the fact that I knit the legs months ago and only just got back to finishing them...like I seem to do with adult socks.  I stuck with the original cast-on amount, as that is a good number for me, and I did add a repeat at the end - and added a few stitches for my bunion on the right sock.  Of course.

Awesome!

As for Tiberius's sock, I can't remember the name of this yarn, either, as it seems it was an "extra" with something...I think it came with one of my Knit Purl sock club installments back in the day.  I do know I purchased the orange at a local yarn store...why I purchased one 50 gram skein, I have no idea, but it works for heels and toes, eh?  For his socks - and Camden's - I used Knitting Pure and Simple Easy Children's Lightweight Sock pattern, which is a paper pattern I'd picked up at a LYS back in the day.  I love that I can use this pattern for them through part of elementary school!  Camden's sock was knit using the orange and the Madelinetosh sock yarn used in socks I knit for Tiberius before he was born.  I will totally be able to get one more pair out of this yarn, I am hoping....we will see!  Even if it's just heels and toes for a sock for ME, LOL.

Tiberius's socks took six whole days, but Camden's seemed to drag on a bit...apparently, 52 stitches, as opposed to 44, is a difference of a MILLION :O  They took almost a month, but they ARE pretty stinkin' cute.  I'm noticing, though, especially with her socks, that my row gauge, as is always the case, seems especially tight when my STITCH gauge is on.  It isn't a big deal, normally - except that we have a whole instep to consider.  I really think I need to start lengthening the heel flap because of this.  I did lengthen it a row or two on Camden's socks, but it probably needs to be more like four rows longer.  The socks fit great around her foot and around her ankle/leg, but getting them up and over is a pain.  I'm sure a soaking will loosen them up a bit, but something I need to remember, anyway.

Chubbs!

I LOVE these!

On another note....poor Matt needs hand-knit socks.  I started some for him years ago....and have basically ripped them out and need to start over.  Sad times.  Soon enough!!!

And more family shenanigans....

Rock piles....good times

Seriously

For real....

His sister has a bike.  The end.

Good 'ole family reading time

Poor kitty...

Matchy Matchy!? Owlet Sweaters for Two!

Presenting the Owlet Sweater by Kate Davies!

About to be sick???  Aha! 

(FYI - the post below was written MONTHS ago, aha!  I am just now posting this, and I'll try and insert pictures from when I first knit it until more recent times to see if there's a difference in growth!)

I am insanely excited about these sweaters - for a few reasons.  They're clearly super cute.  They were knit out of Madelinetosh, which I love.  Lastly, they fit as well as can be expected, when I'm always lengthening/hoping for the best (as in, I gotta make these sweaters last through the winter!).

The pattern itself, found on Ravelry, of course, is super easy.  You knit in ribbing, then in stockinette, from the bottom to the armpits.  This was my first bottom-up sweater, though it was Karly's third or so. The stockinette portion goes quickly enough, and I actually had Tiberius's sweater done months ago, but I didn't like how long it was, so, I ripped out a portion of it, which meant re-doing the cables, etc....which also meant waiting until late July to get back to the sweater, LOL.

I did fret quite a bit about the sizing on Tiberius's, as it's tricky to plan ahead for length on the torso and arms for a wee baby.  I originally wasn't going to get action shots on him, but as it turns out, the sweater isn't too shabby on him at this point - clearly a bit long and wide around, but it seems porportioned correctly, which makes me happy.  Camden's is just a bit long in the arms and torso, which is what I wanted - for that extra inch or two she could grow by next February.

LOL!!

As I said, the pattern is written well, though I did change things up on the neck ribbing - I'm not used to needing a stretchy bind-off, as I am a top-down sock knitter, and I've only ever done top-down sweaters.  I believe I added extra stitches to the neck ribbing on both sweaters, and I maybe went up a needle size on the last two rows of ribbing, plus the bind-off.  This worked out well, and the neck ribbing on both sweaters sits well, so, I'm happy.  Other than that, the only thing I have to say is that it DID make me a bit crazy to have all that weirdly tight knitting when the sleeves were joined to the body - which I know is normal but still isn't a good time, aha.

For Camden's Owlet, I used Madelinetosh Chunky in Citrus, and for Tiberius's, I used Madelinetosh Vintage in Log Cabin.  Now here is the BONUS:  I knit Camden's with Tiberius in mind - my plan is for this sweater to double as a sweater for him, too, down the road.  I have a few sweaters in mind that I plan to do that with, like the Carabe sweater by Justyna Lorkowska.

A week hike we were on

Also note her Cabernet cowl and hat! 

Just today at the park!  Look at those chompers!

Naturally, some random photos to end the post!