baby sweaters past

The babies are on the way!  This summer will yield two little nieces or nephews as well as a new little boy babe of our own.  As my belly grows rounder by the day, my knitting fingers are itchy to get to work.  This little work-in-progress may or may not produce a masterpiece (I’ve already had to rip it twice and now it’s politely on hold while I work another sweater in the meantime).

I was recently browsing through some images of baby sweaters past and was tickled all over again by the sweetness of those sweaters and the babes they went to- some who are almost five now!  I do so love the felt applique, don’t I?  I’m excited to see what little felt delights await my current projects…

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skully hat gets some friends

Over the last year or two, skully hat has served multiple purposes.  He keeps my boy’s head warm.  Quite obviously the main role of a hat.  He keeps Eli’s hair out of his face.  Helpful for a boy who refuses to have his hair cut short and yet won’t be caught dead in a ponytail.  And he looks cute.  Critical, but maybe only from a mama’s perspective.   It’s quite possible that I just knitted skully up real quick without a pattern since I have no recollection of one and I believe it took a year for Eli to grow into.  Yeah, I’m not so good at the measuring thing.   

Well, skully hat got some friends today.  A pair of toasty skully mittens that don’t require a year for Eli to grow into.  I confess, I measured.  I used a vintage pattern that my Nana had passed on to me many years ago.  With Nana gone now, it was especially sweet to be working on a pattern that had her little notes and stitch counters scratched in the margins.

Skully hat’s skull and crossbones was embroidered on with yarn, but I decided on felt for the mittens.  I’m not particularly brilliant at embroidery and I’m madly in love with felt so it was an easy decision.

With frosty mornings for the past few days, my timing (for once) is spot on.  I think skully and friends are going to have some fun this season.

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feeling felty

I love working with felt.  It’s so warm and so easy.  None of those  fraying edges to worry about.  Usually I simply cut it into various shapes and sew them onto garments that I’ve knit. However, I just happened to glance at this book in the craft store and it inspired me to embroider the felt a bit for some added texture and interest.  For someone who’s not exceptionally brilliant with a sewing machine, I found this a remarkably lovely activity.  Although it should be said that the way to enjoy this activity is to sew your shapes before cutting them out.  It is considerably less fun to be worried about your fingers as you feed an itty bitty scrap of felt into the machine and try to actually see what you’re doing at the same time.

After  cutting out the petals, I layered them onto one another and sewed them together.  Then it was easy as pie to sew the whole thing right onto the sweater itself.  It came out pretty cute, I think.

This ballerina-wrap sweater is a gift for a new little niece of mine.  The pattern is from Zoe Mellor’s Adorable Knits for Tots.  It was a fun little sweater to knit up, a nice deviation from the usual roll-neck crew sweaters that are  my old standby for the new little ones.  The amount of time I spent making this; however,  is completely disproportionate to the amount of time she will actually be able to wear this sweater.  But it’s always a bit more for the love of the project than it is for their practical purposes, isn’t it?

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