Baby Romper for JR Blue with Fair Isle Design

Here is the finished romper, finally....!! It is a size 12-18 months for my g'son. All it needs are the buttons. I used Millor Andino for it. Andino is a light weight summer yarn great for t-tops & other summer wear.

My pattern for this said to decrease 16 stitches across the leg openings. My g'son has chubby little thighs so I didn't do the decreases. Now I am rethinking that, as the leg opening seems a bit too large. I am wondering if maybe some elastic run through the leg might be a good idea rather than to decrease... & take the risk of the leg opening being too tight.  It would be a simple alteration to make. 

It takes about 5-6 hours to make this romper. There is a lot of binding off & shaping, but worth the effort I think. I am going to make several more of them for this summer. I am sending this one to my daughter-in-law so she can check the fit before I make any more. I am hoping that she will send me a picture of him in it so I can see for myself how it looks. 

This pattern is available online. 'Oh What a Beautiful Baby' by Ricki Mundstock.

Baby Romper #2

This is the top to my baby romper that I am making for my g'son. I have been trying for 2 weeks to get to work on it, but my store has been so busy I just didn't have the time. Today I had some time to myself & managed to finish the front of the romper. I choose a small fair isle design for the top & knitted it with DAK, using the interactive knitting option. I am not that great with DAK but interactive knitting is one of it's wonderful options that I have learned how to use. In the photo it looks like white & blue, but is actually a pale yellow & blue.

The Romper is another one of the Ricki Mundstock rompers made on my SR 840 with Millor Andino. Andino is a wonderful yarn for summer time as it is light weight & wears like iron. I imagine that this romper will go through several more babies before it loses it's wear ability. I am going to put snaps on the crotch & 2 buttons on the back of the top. It is going to be a cut & sew neckline.

This pattern is very versatile & with minor alterations can be made with cap sleeves for a girl. Her book "Oh What a Beautiful Baby" is available online. I am planning on making several of these. I have a large bin of Andino that is hopefully going to get knitted up. Also, we have another baby due in August of this year. I'm hoping girl but a boy will be fine too!!  

Baby Legs

These are Baby Legs. They are leg warmers that mom's put on baby to keep his or her legs warm during cooler weather. I make them in 12 month - 24 month sizes. They have become very popular in the last few years, & I have sold a lot of them every winter. They take very little yarn, & are quick to make.  These are made out of wool but they are also made out of cotton.  

My Hello Kitty Humidifier has been a huge success!! I turn it on about 10 minutes before starting to knit. I don't want my knitting room covered in moisture so I set it to the lightest setting. Then I can start knitting. Yesterday I knitted some Red Heart SuperSaver on my SR 860. The Red Heart yarns were giving me the worst problems trying to knit. I had to spray & spray. Now they knit without any drag at all. I was 

wearing my self out just pushing the carriage back & forth. The yarn was hanging up on the needles instead of knitting off like it should, but now all is well & I am back to knitting without all the problems. I would definitely recommend a Humidifier to use when the air is so dry. 

I am working on orders right now, but I have a baby romper that has been hanging on my standard gauge machine for a week. I am working on it whenever I get a free moment. It is a size 12-18 months & want to get it finished before my g'son out grows it. LOL

Static Eledtricity & Hello Kitty

This is my new Hello Kitty Humidifier. I am going to see what it will do for the Static Electricity in my knitting room. Of course it is for a congested child but it was so cute I could not resist it. I am tired of all the little rituals that we use to fight the dreaded Static!! Dryer sheets, copper chore boys, yarn spray, boiling water etc. 

On another note, I have been told that Lori Lin yarn spray has been discontinued. There is nothing to take the place of it.  Maybe someone will come along & take up the job of manufacturing something similar.

For all the Bond Knitters out there. Bond America has a new 'Easy Knitting Spray' available, but contrary to what I was told, you cannot use it on the metal bed machines.  It is only for the plastic Bond machines. 

Knit & Sew World has some machine cleaning products available but they are not for the yarn. They are for cleaning & maintaining your metal bed machines.  Click here to visit the page.  

Short Rowed Neck with Grafted Neckband

When I knit sweaters for charity I like to be able to knit them quickly. They are either a striped raglan sleeve pullover or a drop shoulder pullover both with a crew neck. I always do a short rowed neck with the grafted neckband. You can also use the grafting method on cut & sew necklines. To do a short rowed neck, rather than bind off stitches we are going to place them in hold. We have knit up to the neckline & are going to be doing our shaping.

1. My pattern says 'bind off the center 18 stitches' so instead, we are going to set the carriage to hold & place those needles in holding position. Since we are working the neckline on the right hand side first we will put all left hand needles in hold too.

2. Next, my pattern says to 'bind off 1 stitch every row 9 times' on the right hand side. To do that we will pull needle 10 into hold position & knit to the left. Then we will pull needle 11 to hold & knit to the right(automatic wrap). Then pull needle number 12 into hold & knit to the left continuing until all 9 needles are in hold for 9 rows. Wrap the last stitch if it isn't automatically wrapped.

3. My pattern says 'knit 14 rows even' so I will put a small weight by the last stitch in hold & knit 14 rows moving up the weight when needed. Take that shoulder off on waste yarn.

4.  Now, we move over to the other side of the machine & knit it the same way, putting all needles back in work on the left side except for the 9 center needles. Then we bring one needle out to hold every row 9 times. Knit 14 rows even hanging your small weight. Take that shoulder off on waste yarn.

5. Now, we have our short rowed neck hanging on the machine by the center 36 stitches. We will take the edge of the neck that was created by the 14 rows we knit even & hang it on the machine, not stretching them or bunching them up but just a nice even row. We will do that with both sides of the knit on the same number of needles.

6. Pull all the needles to holding position, take the carriage off hold, close all the latches & knit 1 row across all the needles in hold carefully checking to make sure all the needles knitted. Your short rowed neckline is completed & you can take it off on waste yarn.

7. Join one shoulder of the front & the back. Bind off & remove from the machine. Rehang your neck stitches from the short rowed neck in the front & the back neckline stitches too, with the purl side towards you. Knit one row of the yarn that you are using for the neckband & transfer stitches for the rib you have chosen. Hang comb & weights & knit the appropriate number of rows for your neckband. Remove comb & weights & transfer stitches to the main bed.

8. Take the first row that you knit for the band & hang it on the needles making sure that you get the stitches spaced evenly, from the purl side. You will have 2 stitches on each needle. Pull needles to hold, & bind off over 2 gate pegs. Finish assembling your sweater.

I really thought I could explain this without pictures but if it isn't that clear let me know & I will take some photos of the process. If you want to copy & paste these directions into notepad or some other program, that is fine. Thx all!!

Treadle Sewing Machine

While browsing the web I found this sewing machine. I didn't know that treadle machines were still being manufactured. This machine is for the Amish & promises to last for years. I remember that my G'mother had a treadle machine that she had converted to electric when I was a child. She let me sew on it & I promptly sewed the needle through my finger. My G'father pulled it out with a pair of pliers & I was none the worse for it, other than a sore finger.  I might have been 6-8 at the time. I remember seeing that machine stored in the basement years later when I was an adult. Having sewed my finger didn't discourage me though & I went on to sew clothes for myself & my family, although not on a treadle machine. Sewing doesn't seem to be one of the things that today's mom's want to do. Most of them work & it is hard to make time for crafting of any kind because of that. My daughter inherited my old machine when I bought a new one & has made some pillows & pajama's for the family. She enjoys sewing but is pressed to find time for it.  

I am continuing to work on orders. I am going to put the sweater for my daughter together in a few days & hope to have that finally finished.  

More of my Stash

More of my Stash that I am knitting up for my New Year's Resolution. This is all skein yarns. Some of it has been wound on cones for knitting. I have a 'Silver Needles Cone Winder' for that job & it is getting a workout!!

My cone winder allows me to wind the skein yarn on the cones for easier machine knitting. These are available from various site. You can google 'silver needles cone winder' to find them for sale. They are a bit on the spendy side but well worth the money. If you don't have one, I would recommend making it your next big purchase. You can also buy the plastic cones for them for $.35 cents each. If you use any of the Millor yarns you probably have a bunch of the cardboard ones already. 

 

I am continuing to work on my charity sweaters. I did manage to get a couple more of them knitted, but now, my house is complaining that I am neglecting her!! So will do house work instead of knitting for the next few days. 

Both of these sweater are drop shoulder, grafted sleeves with the loop thru loop bind off, hip length & short rowed neck/grafted neckband. The Red is a size 6 made from several partial skeins of Red Heart SuperSaver in red & one partial skein in the red/white/blue variegated yarn. The blue one is a size 2 & will fit a toddler. It takes me about an hour & 1/2 to knit one of these children's sweaters. There is no shaping except for the short rowed neck. Then maybe half an hour to sew them up. I use the mattress stitch for them. I do have a linker but have not made 'good' friends with it yet. I do use it to sew up fingering weight garments but I don't like the way it sews up worsted or sport weight yarns so do them by hand.