Tag: knitting for baby

Knitting for baby

~ Maggie ~ 2 Comments

My knitting mojo (and thus my blogging mojo) were gone for quite a while. If you’ve been reading here a longer time, you probably know the drill. It’s all connected. But here we are.

I have been knitting.

I had to. One cannot gift the first grandbaby lots and lots of handknits, and then go ahead and ignore the second one.

Yes, that’s right. My youngest daughter is expecting a little one in December. Or maybe a little bit earlier, since both mother and baby are not the healthiest they can be. But we’re not talking about that right now. There will be a little babe that needs handknits and that’s great.

And of course that made me think about this sadly neglected little blog. Because knitting has been the core of it since the start of it, even though I do post about other things. So I should at least post a few pictures to keep my knitting history up to date, shouldn’t I? (there are a few projects missing, but most of them are in the archives somewhere)

And okay, I really, really want to blog again. I missed it so much, but I couldn’t work up the energy or headspace to actually sit down at the computer and write.

Anyway. We were in the Netherlands shortly after we got the news, so I found myself in the textile shop to buy yarn for this baby the day after we arrived. And it didn’t take me too much time to crank out a cute little hat and some booties. I didn’t use a pattern; just winged it and somehow the construction of the booties worked out right (this is the second time I knit them, first time was three years ago for the grandson).

(I’ve been trying to tweak the color of the picture to get it closer to the real color, but I can’t get it right. Also, my big screen and my laptopscreen have completely different colors, so I don’t even know which way to tweak it. The real color is a happy, sunny sky blue with a hint of green. At least that’s how I remember it)

I made a matching little sweater too, but I forgot to take pictures of it and we’re in Curaçao right now. I’ll try to remember to take one when we’re back in the Netherlands in a month or so (we’re traveling a lot this year).

I also knit a blanket and a baby surprise jacket, and those are here, but I’m going to spread things out a bit. Stay tuned for more baby knit posts (and maybe a little update about the cute little ruin? I’ll try…)

Anyway… How cute are those tiny booties?

A balaclava for my grandson

~ Maggie ~ 7 Comments

I finished it yesterday, after redoing the ribbing around the face. The first try was way too tight, I picked up too little stitches. The instructions were a bit vague and warned about not making it to wide, but the second time I ended up picking up one stitch for every row at the sides, and all ten stitches that I had to cast off under the chin and that looks perfect.

After folding the ribbing inwards and sewing it down, I was done!

It looks (too?) small to me, but I don’t really have a clue about baby heads anymore. Normal hats are much more flexible than this, so it worries me a bit. But then again, I did the math.

Well, I sort of did. For the height I followed what the pattern adviced for two year olds. They don’t really give measurements other than stitches for the width and I used thinner yarn, so I had to do a bit of guesswork*, but I think it will be okay. Unstretched the hat covers 32 cm (12″) and I guestimated that the face is about 1/3 of the total head circumference, so that would make 48 (18″) cm, which is what they state as the right size for a two year old.

R. is only one year old, but Dutch babys tend to be a little bit bigger than American babys. Oh wait, this is a British pattern… Gosh, so confusing.

But Dutch people are among the tallest people of the world, so I think our 1 year old Dutch boy should fit perfectly in this size. And if it’s too big, they can always save it for next year.

I will be demanding a try-on the moment I gifted this though. I usually don’t, but the suspense is killing me! (only one month before we go)

p.s. I will also try to take pictures of him wearing it and post some on the blog.

*Yes, I know: gauge! But somehow guessing works better for me. I’ve never gotten things right with gauging.

Halfway through

~ Maggie ~ 3 Comments

Over the weekend I cast on for that balaclava and slowly made my way through the neck piece. Slowly, because I was doubting the size with every stitch I made. I had to tweak the pattern a bit because my yarn is thinner than the yarn they worked with (I cast on stitches for a bigger size and use measurements for the smaller size). I’ve done that before and it usually works out, but I found myself wondering how big our grandson actually is right now. I don’t have a clue… So weird. We’ve seen him two months ago, but that’s a long time for a baby.

Anyway, I kept going. The shaping was interesting and even kind of fun once I worked out what they meant (the pattern is not written row by row). I messed up a little bit (I was two stitches short), but fixed it without unraveling the whole thing. Now I need to knit a few more centimeters straight up and then there’s another lengthy explanation on how to work the top, but I think I understand what they want me to do, so it should go smoothly from here (famous last words?).