soft grey cotton

I used to prefer harder wools, because they are elastic, don't split and don't pill — they're easier to work with. But they are also itchy. Besides, it's only cold enough for wool for a few weeks where we live. I've  started really liking cotton and linen yarns.

I've found two cottons that I really like. One is blue sky cotton which is fluffy and thick and the other is Rowan pima cotton, which is smooth and comes in a beautiful palette. This hat is pima cotton in millet. I used one and a half skeins.

cabled owl gloves

This was a satisfying project — quick little fingerless gloves with a cabled owl pattern. Auggie has never been too crazy about having his hands in mittens, but he is fine with these since his fingers are free. (Top image is from my friend Lori Kiessling). My pattern notes and source below.

bat | cat hat

It's not too late to make this for Hallowe'en. Original zsa mask pattern via smaller and pinterest. My pattern notes below. Pattern was created by Mme ZsaZsa.

sunshine

Update: the shower is past and the baby is here — look at this little one.

I've been going through online knitting patterns for babies for a bunch of baby showers this year. This it the third post. The first one is here and the second one is here.

pickles

I tried out a pattern via pinterest from pickles — small and clever baby set (free pattern). The bonnet is very sweet and a pleasure to knit. It fits a little small, so I added in a few extra rows. 

But midway through the booties from the set I ran out of yarn, and I couldn't find any more from the original dye lot (which was mission falls superwash merino). 

Little pierrot slippers

These little baby slippers — december booties — are from a pattern by maddermade for lark yarn from quince. They are quite sweet without the pom poms, too, I think. This is a very good pattern and worth the $3.50. It's a continuous knit with no seaming and it was very straightforward to make. These are in a washable merino in a dk weight from mission falls. These are for a little boy who is a few weeks old, now.  If you would like help to make pom poms, our pdf instructions are here).

(ps. hopefully the music from Sunny, Snowy & Chinook and Foggy will be  is available here soon. I'm working on updating the blog to hundreds & thousands, as I'm almost finished with Windy-related material.)

Vintage Baby Knits

We tracked down a copy of Vintage Baby Knits: More Than 40 Heirloom Patterns from the 1920s to the 1950s and it was fantastic. Our little ones are getting to be too big for the patterns (the patterns are for 1-24 months). However, our Henry has just grown into this sweater, started last summer — lucky thing, too.

He wasn't happy that I stopped to take a picture (although, even though it's not such a good picture I am terribly fond of him in it), so I had to put the camera down and try again a few months later when he was distracted. It still fits.

The Jasper hoodie is a seamed, hooded sweater. It is knit in Rowan Purelife organic cotton (DK). It is a bit nerve-wracking doing a seamed sweater, since you can't tell how it will fit until you've finished knitting. However, it came together very easily and the diamond pattern is easy and handsome.

Here's a tip: use the Zimmerman trick where you make a buttonhole on each side instead of just one side. At the end you have 2 matching rows of buttonholes along both button bands. Then you use the buttonholes on one side to place the buttons, so they match up perfectly with the holes along the other band.



While searching for the book title online, we came across a site with free vintage baby patterns, like this little pony vest. Looks nice!

Brown Owls

We've been taking a bit of a break due to summer colds, but we'll be back soon with a book review and some snow globes.

In the meantime, here are some owls we've come across recently in our travels:

Owls and nests by the K 1/2 class at Charles Dicken Elementary and a brown owl cardigan adapted from the Owlet pattern by Kate Davies.

Edited to add one more owl, this time one for Auggie, with button eyes: