A Book Report Dress: The Perfect School Dress

Let's be honest, folks:  I could have written this post MONTHS ago, when I sewed the Book Report dress, but it sat in my sewing room alllll through the summer, as it was originally a bit big-looking on Camden.  I don't know if growing a whole inch helps, but it totally fits her great now, and she wore it to her one-day-a-week charter school a few weeks ago.  I will always love this pattern so much!  (On a side note, same with the Apple Picking Dress and Jump Rope Dress and Seashore Sundress....well, and the Class Picnic Set, aha!)

This is a pretty straight-forward sew, designed by Oliver and S.  The pockets are crazy easy to do, and it goes together relatively fast.  I think I lengthened the skirt portion - not sure if I did the same with the top or the sleeves, though one would THINK this is something I did, LOL.  You can see my first three versions HERE (which, on another note, I notice I did NOT include photos of the polka dot version in the post, which is why I'd maybe never originally published it - see the note at the top of the post.  I am so wack, and it turns out I had no real photos of it....just one sad photo I just now uploaded).

Because the dress is super roomy, I feel it fits great for a while, as it can always be paired with leggings, and this particular fabric was something I'd been holding onto, NEVER sure which project was worthy of it, aha!  I guess this was it ;)  And I chose the perfect buttons from my stash, but I'm not sure if you can see them super well in the photo below:

That's all she wrote, folks....days in the life of below!

LOLOL at ME!!!!

Her Little Honey gets a LOT of wear!

Tricked into a Vest, Via Harry Potter: Thanks, Oh Loops!

This vest!!!!

I have been wanting to knit Tiberius a Benedick and Beatrice vest for MONTHS, y'all.....But tragedy of tragedies:  Tiberius was adamant that he did NOT want a vest.

WHAT????

We all have that kid...the kid who has an opinion.  WHY?  I think a big part of it, honestly, is that he knows things like Batman and Darth Vader and owns clothing from Hannah Andersson that features those characters, as I maybe mentioned in my last post.  Camden wasn't exposed to these sorts of things at such a young age, and I always knew my reasons for that were sound, because, well, case in point.  But he's also quite specific about his outfits, so, he'd likely be this way, no matter what.

As his knitting mother, though, I have an opinion, too, aha!  I insisted he needed a vest, and I knew I had yarn for such a thing:  Oh! Loops yarn!  I purchased the yarn back when Lydia and Sarah were still dyeing together, and I NEEDED the Harry Potter colorway on the merino worsted base.  I'm not sure which lovely lady dyed this colorway, so, you'd want to check with both Oh! Loops and Gracelynn Wool, Sarah's new dyeing shop.  Anyway!

LOVE it!

My friend, Laura, designed this pattern back when Camden was but a wee thing, and a knitting friend had knit up the lovely Mosaic Moon version below for Camden, but I myself had never actually knit the pattern, because there are SO MANY things to knit!  I clearly plan to knit another quite soon, as it is only sized up through a 23-inch chest size, and it used almost all of the one skein of main colorway I had.  AND.  You need to knit her Rhino Romper if you have a baby - OR the Toasty Sleeper!!!  The patterns are crazy easy and super cute!!

Camden was SO LITTLE!!!

But I digress....go knit this pattern!  It's super easy, clearly, and way cute.  It's weird, as I had searched for vests for Camden, because she'll need something larger, and I honestly couldn't find anything that was simple and plain-ish that I liked, so, this totally fits the bill if you are looking for something to feature the yarn, especially those fun single skeins you want to use up!  Laura spells out all the directions nicely, and even the size 4 knits up lickety-split!  I ended up using a size 4 needle on the main body and on the neckband, but I did size down for the armholes and the hem....just for funsies!  I do wish I'd knit the ribbing as long as the pattern said, but I was worried I wouldn't have enough contrasting yarn...why, I don't know.

You can clearly tell my photo quality still isn't great, but this vest was slightly easier to photograph than the last few makes for Tiberius.  I had decent lighting, which helped.  And it happily matches well enough with a pair of Treasure Pocket Pants (Pattern found in the Sewing for Boys book!!!) I made Camden years ago, so, double score!!  Watch the blog for the next wee vest....coming soon!

Well, let's be honest...coming soon-ISH.

An afternoon in the life....

Featuring her Little Honey sweater!

Also featuring the Owlet sweater!!

A Little Honey...For a NOT-So-Little Kid!

So....some firsts!  My first time using Hedgehog Fibers (FB page), first time knitting a fingering weight sweater for Camden and possibly my first time knitting an Amy Miller pattern!

Basically, I'm saying this sweater is awesome!

Seriously, I WISH y'all could see this sweater in person!  It's not my first time using either Voolenvine Yarn (FB page) or Gnome Acres (FB page), but those are naturally also still glorious.  The Little Honey is glorious and soft - and I would love to steal it for my very own :O  The Voolenvine was in the Nevermore colorway, and I actually used some of the Violet from my Bon Bon Bunny Gnome Acres Doppelganger set.

This sweater was NOT a planned knitting project for the new year...yet here we all are.  I decided I wanted to take some chances - and throw a wrench into my planning for the winter - by joining the Honey KAL in the This Old Knit and Yarngasm Ravelry groups.  I figured I HAD to have two skeins of fingering weight yarn that would go well together...and I did!  Yay for me!  I was doubly excited because I hadn't yet knit with one of my several skeins of Hedgehog Fibres, so, it all worked out well.

I naturally encountered some problems when starting out...why wouldn't I???  I thought I totally had gauge on one needle size, but it turned out, a few good inches in that it was all a LIE and that I was knitting too tightly...which was fine, so, I bumped up what I THOUGHT was a needle size or two - but what was REALLY a size 4.  I have no idea how that happened, but I kept questioning why my fabric was so loose, LOL.  It turned out there was a reason.  Ugh.  So, I moved back down a needle size, but then I also remembered that I'd planned on casting on for the size 4/5, rather than the 6/7, because of the positive ease...and apparently, I forgot.  So, I knit along on the size 6/7, thinking it'd be way too large...and it actually fits super well - yay once again!  She definitely has some room to grow, length-wise, so, I hope it continues to fit well in the shoulders when it fits better in length.  My project page is here.

I was worried, too, that I'd run out of yarn, which is why I used the Gnome Acres in the collar and cuffs.  I partly did the cuffs, too, when I realized it'd look cooler if I knit them in purple...as it turned out I had enough yarn, after all, between the other two skeins.

Awww, she came in at the camera, and I liked the result, LOL

The pattern is well-written and simple, though I do wish it had short row shaping at the neck.  I clearly could have tried to work that in, but eh....effort.  You can see I totally skipped out on knitting the pockets, because I knew they wouldn't be used, per se, and I didn't want any heavy things inside the pockets, weighing the sweater down.  And, well...yarn worries, aha!

A pose she needed to do, apparently ;)

Anyway, snafus aside, it's lovely, and I'm glad I'm DONE.  I put pressure on myself to knit this semi-quickly, and my hands are broken souls.  Camden loves, it, though, which is awesome!

And....days in the life.....

As a homeschooling mom, I have NO idea what I'm doing

Their little role-playing people

I spend $6 at Joann Fabrics for quickie activities!

Aww, a Berenice and Camden's old Owlet, passed on!

Mad skillzzz with Valentines!

This kid NEEDED a cut!

Adding embroidery to his sword jacket