the birthday dress

It's done!  Happy birthday to my sweet baby.  

the little blue dress

Lucy turns one year old next Tuesday and I've gotten this far on her dress.   What's left is sewing the sides together and knitting the arm bands and neck band.  I'm hoping to get this finished by then, but it's hard (as everyone knows....) when you have a curious little girl who wants to get into everything!

I've also finished a couple small projects for friends that need to be blocked, and I haven't been able to take pictures.  Soon!

Birthday Dress Progress

I've been working on the dress from the "pretty pink baby set" in "Knitting Year Round" by Better Homes and Gardens.  I bought the book when I started knitting, back about ten years, and this pattern was my holy grail - a lacy little baby dress marked "advanced".  I thought it was so far out of reach, but I decided to try to make it for Lucy's first birthday and, what do you know, it's actually quite easy compared to some other things I've done.  A happy surprise.  Here are some (sideways..) photos that I took on a bad day for photos - the color is a bit off - it looks gray when it is really a light blue.  (Yes, I'm making it in blue.  Brings out her incredibly big blue eyes.)


This is a little half of the front part of the skirt.  The bobbles are quite tedious!

Close-up of the lace and bobbles.

Almost finished

(Sorry for the sideways photos.  Blogging with a baby means lots of important and no-so-important details get left by the wayside.)

Here is the cardigan with buttons and flower positioned.  Perfect for cool summer mornings, evenings, and air-conditioned grocery stores.

After spending several months without doing much (read: baby problems), I've discovered what, no doubt, many people have discovered; that small bits of handiwork are the way to go when you have a baby.  Thus the steady flow of small knitting projects.  I have also managed to complete the sock project I started one year ago (hooray!) and made steady progress on the purple magic circle blanket (from A Gathering of Lace).  I attempted to sew a few things, got as far as cutting the patterns out, but stopped short of actual sewing.  Part of the reason is that we're moving across town in a couple weeks; part of the reason is that setting up the sewing machine and coordinating thread, etc. is as far as I got before the little miss needed me.  

Currently on my needles, little miss's birthday dress.  I've ripped out and re-started twice, so here's hoping the third time's the charm!

little red sweater

This is the "Little Audrey Cardi" from Sublime's pattern book no. 648.  (The light green sweater in the previous post was the "vintage Alice coat" from the same book.)  I made it up in red sublime yarn, so soft and pretty!  It just needs the right buttons.

In action:

Sideways shot with view of scallops on neckline and button bands:

 Button Bands closed:

And in pieces before seaming and knitting the neckband:

Lucy's first sweater

I knit this wrap-around sweater for my little girl while she slept under the bili lights in the NICU nursery. She was a tiny girl, only four pounds ten ounces at birth. She was swimming in the hospital sweaters and needed something preemie-sized for her week-and-a-half stay in the nursery.

Here is the preemie sweater compared to the one I worked on next (that she has long since outgrown.) I also knit her a hat to keep the chills at bay in the hospital.

Purple Magic Circle Blanket

I started this yesterday during nap time. Who cares that it's on needles other than the pattern calls for - I'm knitting again! Eventually this will be about 7 feet across, as long as my cat doesn't decide it's her new toy, like she does with everything else.