Sunny Lou Dress

A spinning girl!!

I did a test knit for By Annie Claire for her new dress pattern, the Sunny Lou Dress.  I've seen other people posting that they got to knit a test knit and it sounded like fun.  So when I saw the call for test knitters I jumped at the chance.  I knit the 18-24 month size (which has a finished chest size of 21", so that fits my 3 year old).  I used Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino.  My daughter picked this pale yellow colour and I love how it looks. My pattern notes

Despite the face she actually loves it! It works perfectly as a dress by itself with tank top underneath or as an overdress as intended.

I added 3 inches in length to make it long enough for my daughter but that's not unusual for anything that I knit for her.

This is a very cute knit!  Check out the pictures of it done for even younger kids.  The pattern is available on Ravelry.

Sirdar Bolero

I was asked by some ladies in Australia if I had assembled this Sirdar Bolero for my daughter and if I found it tricky.  This was about 2 months ago so it has taken me a while to finish it.  It's a funny knit . . . it could have been quite quick but I found it hard to focus on it and finish it.   The pattern is from the Jumping Jellybeans book from Sirdar.

It is knit in 2 sections. The top portion in the photo is the sleeves and upper back.  The bottom section in the photo is the lower back and collar.  If you think about this section as one long collar it is easier to see how it is put together.

The directions say to sew the sleeves first, which I did. (no photo). Then it says "attach raglan edge to straight edge of front"  What the patterns calls the front . . . I think of as the collar. This picture above shows the raglan edge pinned together ready to be sewn.

This photo shows the 2 pieces before I lined up the sleeve and raglan edge.

Once I attached the sleeve and raglan edge I just continued attaching the collar portion down around under the arm and across the back, under the right arm and then attached the second raglan portion and sleeve together.  I had my daughter try it on right now to make sure it looked right.

Front view with collar almost all attached.

The next instruction says "Join back neck border seam from markers C to C reversing sewing for turnback"    I started at the end of the sleeve/raglan join and attached the neck band.  I reversed the edge to join the 2 sections as they said but it doesn't sit flipped over on my daughter so I need to change it to right sides together.

See the stitching at the neck.  I need to reverse the stitching there.

Now that it is finished it is adorable.  It was a funny knit but I can see myself making her one of these each year as the pattern goes up to age 7.

It was tricky to envision how it was assembled but once I figured it out it went to together very quickly.  If you have any questions please contact me.   Thanks,  Christa

July - On My Needles

It looks like I have a crazy amount of projects on the go but there is a method to my craziness.  Each of these knits have long, easy knitting sections and each of them have tricky sections that I need to pay attention to so I rotate between them depending on when and where I am knitting.

My collection of knitting bags!!  All made by me.

Sweet Georgia DK yarn - Coral - swatching for a summery cardigan.

Tanis Fiber Arts Yarn - Green Label - starting with the sleeves for an I Heart Cardigan

Toe-up Two at a time socks for me

Changing these to top-down two-at-a-time socks for me.  I want to see which way I like better for knitting socks.

Striped Trap . . . adding a few rows each day

The next 3 projects are all re-knits from items I previously knit but didn't really wear.

Sweet Tee - re- knit the same pattern but I changed the band colour from pink to blue and added 3 inches of length.

Sweet tee . . . . .actually I just finished this but have to get more photos.

Top-down shrug being converted into a cardigan.  I knit this several years ago as a shrug but I just don't feel very comfortable wearing it. So I'm adding lots of length till it becomes a cardigan and I frogged a baby sweater that doesn't fit my kids any more to get enough yarn.

This used to be  tank top.  It's now going to be another summery cardigan.  The yarn is Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino .  The pattern is Zappan Tee.

I'm not taking the time to link to the individual projects but if you would like more details please check out my project page on Ravelry.   Happy summer knitting!  I'm off to a cottage for a week so lots of lake knitting happening!