tomten...

my newest inspiration from elliphantom!! Is this not the cutest toddler sweater you have ever seen?? Its an EZ pattern though which I adore, but honestly have not had the best luck with in the past. (see posts about Feb. sweater below!). But even with continuing wrist problems, this one is tempting, possibly to save for the onslaught of nieces, nephews, and friend's beautiful babies that I know is coming in the next few years.

Testing the waters using my new shozu app... But I do want to make this bitty jacket

baby D's placket neck sweater...

Okay, so I think that this is the last placket neck children's sweater I am going to attempt for a little while. I adore the pattern and it comes out so cute every time, but I'm getting a little bored with it, especially since the majority of the sweater is simply stockingnette stitch done in the round. But I thought that this was a hilarious picture of my little newphew wearing his army green version while his daddy held him up to the dinosaur at the museum last week... too cute. I'll try to post some close ups soon, but its pretty similar to little sam's sweater, just green with red buttons.

If anyone has any good suggestions for baby/children's sweater patterns I'd love to hear them, I have a few ideas on the back burner that I'm wanting to try, but I'd love some new ideas. amb

SAM...

In honor of baby Sam born July 2.... here is a picture of his gray sweater including the name tag (bob and mel, check your doorstep) .... much love amb

new finished projects...

here are a few pictures of a few tiny sweaters that I've finished lately. I really thought that I would get even more knitting done over my six week vacation from graduate school, but alas, vacation time soon fills up with many other things. I was happy to finally finish the EZ feb. sweater after the third attempt. It does have its share of visible bumps and bruises in the pattern (including an extra buttonhole I made by mistake... whoops), but it is made with love and i may just save it for one of my own babies in the future. The second sweater was made from a pattern in Joelle Hoverson's book "Last Minute Kitted Gifts" and its one of my favorites. I made one last year for my little neice M and it was a hit, so I made this little stone version in 6-12 mon. size for baby S who is due to arrive any day now. I made a cute nametag for the inside, but will reveal pics of this later because I'm not actually supposed to know his name yet... (shhhh, don't tell mom). Happy knitting... much love, amb

Bitty D

I totally forgot that I had this picture... remember the BBBB? Here's the itty bitty owner all snuggled up! I think he had just come home from the hospital in this one. I was with him the other day and he's much bigger and rolypolyish now... so cute. I'll have to post a movie of him soon. Being an aunt is absolutely fabulous! In other project news, the EZ February sweater is complete as of this morning, all ends are weaved, its just lacking six perfect buttons (I still haven't located these...) It is definitely more narrow than intended, but I picked up fewer stitches for the sleeves also, so its just a tiny sweater. I'm just praying that someone will have a little girl around October, that would be about perfect. But I did really enjoy the pattern once i got the hang of it, and I'm confident that the next try will be much quicker and without so many little "goof ups." So here's to Elizabeth Zimmerman... cool lady!

EZ sweater continued...

So I've made some good progress on the EZ feb. sweater that I started many weeks ago. After literally pulling the thing out four times, I finally finished the body and I'm working on the sleeves.  I definitely have made my fair share of mistakes, some of which are fairly obvious, but after the previously unsuccessful attempts, I was determined to create some sort of final product regardless of the condition.  I don't think that the recipient will notice the difference, and it is a tiny baby sweater after all... surely to see its share of drool and other spills, so I'm not so worried about it being perfect.  I do think that my next version will be much easier and closer to the original measurements (I ended up with too few stitches on the body making a pretty narrow little sweater), but it was a great learning experience and very challenging which made it pretty fun.  I highly recommend reading some blogs about this pattern before beginning.  If I had done this beforehand, I would have had a much more pleasant experience.  Pictures of the finished product to come! amb