Tag: kid knits

Serendipitous Garter Ear Flap Hat

On By iswimlikeafishIn knittingLeave a comment

One of the silliest children’s movies I’ve seen, and therefore one of my favorites, is Gnomeo and Juliet. I cannot actually articulate specific pieces I enjoy about this movie beyond the fact that it constantly makes fun of itself and doesn’t take itself seriously (which is exactly why critics hated it). Everyone I’ve shown the movie to finds joy in it too, although that may be because I offer companionship and commentary rather than letting them watch it alone on their own time. This isn’t a guilty pleasure, this is a sorry not sorry.

It should not be surprising to anyone when I say one of my favorite houses to run by was covered in garden gnomes. They were everywhere and on everything, it always made me smile to run by and a little sad when winter rolled around because they had to be put away. Despite many best intentions, I myself do not own any garden gnomes and there are limited gnome things around our home. I prefer them out in the wild, or at least I do for now. Perhaps I haven’t discovered the gnome yet.

I have, however, discovered the cutest gnome hat (Garter Ear Flap Hat by Purl Soho) and am in love. I’m not saying all babies will now be gifted this hat from yours truly, I’m just saying maybe they should be. For starters, instead of a classic brim, it has ear flaps. Not big floppy ones that can get stuck in various positions not covering the ears but small ones that should cover just enough to keep things warm. Next, it’s worked up in a squishy garter stitch which is warmer than stockinette because there is more room for air the be trapped. Finally, it works up to a neat little point — like a gnome hat — that is the perfect size for a well-placed pom pom.

For this specific hat, I did not use the suggested smaller needled and opted to work the entire hat using the larger one. It also took me about a day to work it up and required a mere 95 yards, aka perfect for a quick-knit gift. Check, check, check.

Finally, I caved and purchase Marshmallow by tincanknits so that I could make matching fingerless mitts (they’re not done). The set won’t be used until this fall, however, I’m super excited to see my little gnome wandering the forest still having use of her hands to pick up rocks and sticks.

Want to make one of your own? Use the discount YARNVIP for 15% off your total purchase from Wonderland Yarns (discount not eligible on sale items, with other discounts, or on yarn clubs). For this pattern, I used a single skein of Mad Hatter in Serendipitous and worked up the toddler size. A single skein should also be enough for me to work up the mitts.

Bright Red Hyphen Sweater

On By iswimlikeafishIn knitting, patterns, ravelryLeave a comment
Red short sleeved handknit cardigan with a hyphen pattern across the yolk. Coordinating multicolored pom pom hat and cabled leg warmers are laid on top of it.

No matter how you swing it, patroning yarn shops with my husband is different from patroning yarn shops by myself. He forces me to slow down and reminds me to take a look at the gorgeous samples that the shop owner/employees have taken the time to knit up, otherwise, I’m often someone who runs in and out to pick up yarn for a specific project (a habit developed out of necessity when working for Webs Yarn Store). In fact, if he hadn’t been there when I impulsively decided to pop into Norwich Knits I probably would have walked out empty-handed instead of with the two coordinating skeins of Malabrigo that I left with.

The initial plan was to make two short sleeved Hyphen sweaters and while it’s true that I loved working the pattern (the yoke stitches were the perfect pop of interesting), my second plan was to work up a coordinating pair of pants. Then I decided to knit the sweater in a size larger and realized that I hadn’t purchased enough yarn for the pants!

With a quick pivot, I worked up a pair of coordinating leg warmers (I’ll do a separate post on that because I translated a pattern from German and it’s worth sharing!) and a hat. So happy with the end result, right down to the red flower buttons I found.

Speaking of buttons, I used my sewing machine’s button stitch to attach the red flower buttons and I’m sold. Despite the knit fabric, they are firmly attached it took a quarter of the time. 100% recommend this technique :]

Baby Messenger Henley

On By iswimlikeafishIn knitting, patterns, ravelry, yarnLeave a comment
Teal baby sweater with yellow stripes across the yoke and sleeves. Three purl snaps are used to keep the henley neckline closed.

Let me start by saying a few things:

1) I probably should have done a gauge swatch because I would have learned the correct needle size to use. Using a size 5 instead of a size 4 has left me with a size ~12 months instead of ~6 months.

2) You can’t tell, but I put the outie of the snaps on the wrong part (I prefer the outie to attach to the pearl snap side). That being said, this was my first time attaching snaps to a handknit and I have to say I’m a fan.

3) I cannot get enough of this blue yarn, seriously it’s gorgeous and reminds me of jumping in a cool brook on a hot summer day.

4) Where is this sweater in my size? Do I dare seek out a sweater’s quantity of Mad Hatter in Glow Worm for myself?

When thinking about baby sweaters, blue and yellow are such a classic combination. That being said, I love the depth that Glow Worm adds to the sweater — in fact, it was very difficult to choose which color to make the contrast color and which to make the main color. If one had a really hard time choosing or second-guesses the choice they made, there should be just enough yardage to make two inverse sweaters.

The other thing that I’ve learned to like about any baby top is the ability to create a large opening at the neckline. Pre-baby, this was because babies have large heads. Post-baby, this is because it takes a while for babies to be ok having garments go over their heads and a large head hole makes it quick and easy (and you can take it off by sliding it along their body if you’re not brave enough to go back over their head.

I’m tempted to knit this sweater again using the leftover yarn (this would mean a yellow sweater with blue stripes) for my new nephew, but there’s a crochet baby sweater I’m tempted to try. After all, why not keep working on my crochet skills this summer?

Want to make a Baby Messenger Henley of your own? Use the discount YARNVIP for 15% off your total purchase from Wonderland Yarns (discount not eligible on sale items, with other discounts, or on yarn clubs) :]

Tic Tac Toe Baby Sweater Pattern

On By iswimlikeafishIn knitting, patterns, ravelryLeave a comment
Close up of the two colored tic tac toe sweater laying on a table.

Tic Tac Toe sweater is knit bottom up with the sleeves being joined before the yoke is worked. Though designed with positive ease in mind, it’s recommended that you knit one size up.

I’m going to be hosting a KAL in honor of our newborn! Use code three in a row (case sensitive!) from April 13th 2022 until May 13th 2022 to download the pattern for free.

Use #tictactoesweater on Instagram so I can see and appreciate your Tic Tac Toe Sweaters.

You can purchase the Tic Tac Toe Sweater from my store on Ravelry.

Yarn

Blue Sky Fibers Sweater (55% Superwash Wool / 45% Certified Organic Cotton; 100g/160yrds)

2 (2, 2, 3, 3) skeins

Gauge

20 sts & 26 rounds / 4” in stockinette using larger needles

Suggested Needles and Notions

  • US #6 (16 in circular & DPN or 40 in for magic loop)
  • US #5 (16 in circular & DPN or 40 in for magic loop)
  • Stitch markers
  • Cable needle
  • Stitch holders or waste yarn
  • Tapestry needle

Sizing

 3-6 months9 months12 months12-18 months18-24 months
Yardage Required240270320350380
Chest18 ¾ in19 ½ in20 ½ in22 ¼ in23 in
Body Length6 in6 ½ in7 ½ in8 in8 ½ in
Sleeve Length6 ½ in7 in8 in8 ½ in9 in
Upper Arm Circumference7 in7 ½ in8 in8 in8 ½ in
Neck Circumference11 ½ in12 ½ in13 ¼ in14 ¼ in15 in
Front Yoke Depth4 ½ in4 ¾ in5 in5 in5 in
Back Yoke Depth5 in5 ¼ in5 ½ in5 ½ in5 ½ in
Close up of the tic tac toe sweater laying on a table.

Madonna Sorrel Mini

On By iswimlikeafishIn knitting, patterns, ravelry, yarn2 Comments
Red Sorrel Mini in progress photo with the yoke and half the body completed.

Wool and Pine has been on my radar since the beginning, I love the way their patterns use color and texture to create beautiful knitwear pieces. It’s also hard not to love their body positivity and inclusivity model of designing. Despite my enthusiasm and owning one of their patterns, I had yet to sit down and actually create one of their designs. Some of this was knowing that we were trying for a baby and I didn’t want to make a garment that would never fit and some of this was having a queue of knits already in the works. Either way, I quickly added their Minis Collection to my queue and have loosely decided to work my way through the book.

The first pattern I started with was Sorrel Mini. I thought it would look super cute in a skein of madelinetosh TML + TWEED in Madonna from my stash (I was right!) and I have almost enough of a sweater quantity to make myself a larger DK version if I liked working the pattern. After finding gauge with a US size 2, I enthusiastically cast on size 6-12 months and worked my way through the yoke and down to the body of the sweater.

This is a very silly observation to bring to the table because it should have been obvious to me just by looking at the sweater, but Sorrel is a lot of purling. In fact, the entire sweater minus the yoke and ribbing is worked in reverse stockinette. While it looks gorgeous, I had to pay a bit more attention to my stitches and the little sweater seemed to take longer due to my speed when purling vs knitting. That’s really my only complaint about the little sweater, and it’s not really a fair complaint to make because I should have noticed it going in!

To compensate or rather to take a break from purling, I ended up knitting the sleeves inside out. While this mentally solved the problem, it did change my gauge a little bit. The sleeve stitches are a little bit looser than the body stitches (baby doesn’t care!), so if I do end up making a DK version for myself that’s something I’ll need to keep in mind. The other modification that I made to the pattern was to knit the sleeves 6 inches with 1 inch of ribbing instead of 5 inches with two inches of ribbing. I have a feeling the longer cuff was used with the idea that it could be folded over, but my preference is to fold the ribbing over onto stockinette on little sweaters.

Since I don’t usually work with single ply yarn, I wanted to take a minute to note that I enjoyed working with the skein of TML + Tweed that I picked up from my local yarn store. It was a little bit of an impulse buy, but seeing as I was eyeing the skeins during our craft night it’s safe to say that there are more skeins in my future.

Sorrel Mini knit in madelinetosh TML + Tweed in the colorway Mondona.