Knitting for the New Baby - Page 4 « Back to Group Discussions

[phatchristy]

Originally Posted by kel 

Not a knitter, but I finally got a baby gown sewn yesterday!  I didn't use the pattern previously posted, because I don't have a printer right now - I just took apart an old one and copied it the best I could.

That is super cute!  Love it, and you did an excellent job!

I think I'm going to start some sort of baby project/booties/hat thingie this weekend.

I learned how to cast-on and knit last night with the continental method.  I will say purling has been sort of a 'wtf' experience.  I'm not happy with the regular continental purling.  It's just an awkward movement for me alltogether.  Strangely enough I found the norweigen purling method and as complicated as that looks I think that one will be easier for me!    Yep, I'm crazy adding something else to my plate.  I just love working with yarn and taking 10-15 minutes a day to learn knitting is probably a good relaxer at least! I don't feel anywhere close to a project though.  But, hey, I always have crocheting to fall back on! :)

[AlaskAnne]

Kel - I LOVE the gown, it is so cute!

Christy - I have been meaning to write something to you about continental knitting.  I am a continental knitter and I feel like it is SO much easier that the regular way.  And faster.  Also, I'm left handed and I think it is generally an easier method for lefties.  Luckily for me, I had a great teacher (my mom). It can be tricky to learn without a teacher (which is hard to find because most people knit the other way).  My mom purls the norwegian way which is how I learned also.  However, last year I hadn't been knitting for a while and I had to relearn the purl stitch without her which caused many WTF moments.  I eventually found this video that I think does a really great job of explaining it.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DkwcejowiI

She does the knit stitch first then goes into the purl around 1:15.  It looks complicated at first but once you get the hang of it you can go pretty fast. 

Let me know if you need help and I can try to give advice!

[phatchristy]

Originally Posted by AlaskAnne 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DkwcejowiI

She does the knit stitch first then goes into the purl around 1:15.  It looks complicated at first but once you get the hang of it you can go pretty fast. 

Let me know if you need help and I can try to give advice!

Thanks for the encouragement!  I've been watching the norweigan videos and so far I've had success maybe 1/3 of the time.  However, I'm clearly doing something wrong some of the time as somehow I'm getting an extra loop of yarn on my needle?!?!  Sigh.  I think my stitches are too tight and causing problems.  But, I'm going to plug and chug away and try to figure this one out!

All of this has me thinking I'm fine to do some of this, but I should consider getting some crochet started again to save my sanity.  I'm thinking of some soakers right now.  I haven't made any before, but I do have extra wool in the house and I'm pretty sure I donated/got rid of all my diaper covers about two months before I got pregnant.  I do think I have some prefolds left though.  So, thinking maybe snappis or pins and wool soakers for this babe!

[purposefuldoula]

Kel, that gown is adorable!

And Christy- go mama! I taught myself how to knit when I was pregnant with DD2, and haven't looked back since. The stitchnbitch book is what got me through the initial learning part. Three years later, I'm addicted.  

I actually decided to slow down on the rate of baby things I've been making since I was just gifted two full garbage bags of newborn-6 month essentials. He's pretty stocked now, so I'm making for my girls right now. Here are some of the latest finished projects:

[phatchristy]

Originally Posted by purposefuldoula 

Kel, that gown is adorable!

And Christy- go mama! I taught myself how to knit when I was pregnant with DD2, and haven't looked back since. The stitchnbitch book is what got me through the initial learning part. Three years later, I'm addicted.  

That is awesome! You must knit really quickly to do so many great projects right away!  Everything looks wonderful.  I've heard a couple of people talk about the stitchnbitch book.  Will this work for me if I'm doing continental?

I came back to announce...YIPPIE...I figured it out!  I can now quite efficiently Norwegian Purl!  I can't say how thrilled I am.  I'm knitting surprisingly quickly.  I switched to a thicker yarn, and somehow that corrected my tension issues so I was able to figure it out last night in about 10 minutes.  I did another 10 minutes or so this morning and plan on doing some every day so it 'sticks' so to speak!  

I still don't know how to cast off, finish the edges or fix dropped stitches or anything....but I'm going to have to look into those.  My daughter already wants me to make something for her of course.   Thank God for continental knitting.  Someone had taught me the other 'throwing' method a while back, and that was so so slow I couldn't take it.  After crocheting forever (and I'm crazy fast at that) I decided not to knit because it was so much slow.  But, I found out about continental, and it just flies in comparison...OMG!  

Now I just have to figure out to do with all of this new knowledge LOL.

[AlaskAnne]

Yay Christy!!  Isn't it awesome?

Purposeful, you are a knitting goddess.  Those outfits are SO adorable!   What pattern do you use for the knitted pants?  Do you have to adjust the size to account for shrinking/felting?

[purposefuldoula]

Originally Posted by phatchristy 

That is awesome! You must knit really quickly to do so many great projects right away!  Everything looks wonderful.  I've heard a couple of people talk about the stitchnbitch book.  Will this work for me if I'm doing continental?

Now I just have to figure out to do with all of this new knowledge LOL.

Christy- yes, the book has both styles shown in there. I knit continental, too, as I was crocheter first. It is SO much faster than English knitting!  As for what to do now- just keep making things! 

Anne- thank you! I've always been creative and needed to switch mediums after going to art school and getting pregnant that first semester- so that's when a knitter was born :) 

I've been using the evie pants all in one pattern and I love it! The black and blue pants were the 4th pair I've done and I pretty much did it without the pattern because it's so simple to remember. It's really super simple. The one thing that has taken my knitting to where it is now is that early this summer I purchased a 12 inch circular Addi click needle. I bought a size 8, since most of the patterns I knit are in worsted weight. So far, I've used that tiny circular needle for 9 of my summer projects. It makes knitting sleeves and legs a breeze! The best $15 I've spent in a long time! 

If you two are on Ravelry- my username is gentlemamadoula. we should be friends on there! 

[phatchristy]

Originally Posted by purposefuldoula 

Christy- yes, the book has both styles shown in there. I knit continental, too, as I was crocheter first. It is SO much faster than English knitting!  As for what to do now- just keep making things! 

If you two are on Ravelry- my username is gentlemamadoula. we should be friends on there! 

Yep, I'm on ravelry, but haven't really posted much or put projects up there yet.  

I'll look for you!  

I'll tell you my quick story.  

Yesterday I went to Goodwill looking for knitting needles since I was coming back from a prenatal and there was one on the way.  Well, I stopped by and asked one of the workers there, she said she'd been there for over 10 years and 'Nobody ever donates that stuff."

Sigh, OK...guess where I donated my $200+ worth of knitting supplies 6 years ago.  Goodwill!  Ack.

Looks like it's going to be hard to replace that stuff cheaply.  Not only do I not have a lot of time now with a bigger family, but it took me years to accumulate all of that stuff from church sales and thrift stores.  I think I have a very slim amount of hope that if I go through some of my crochet/yarn supplies I may have forgotten a pair of needles and such.  Just maybe something suitable enough for actually starting some sort of project.

I really sent that stuff out into the universe not knowing that there was another knitting method (someone taught me the other one that took forever and I hated).  I really hoped that somehow I would be blessing someone by doing so.  Now I'm hoping somehow the blessings come back to me in another form.  Sigh.

I've donated a ton of stuff over the years, never feeling anything but wonderful about it, now this one stings a little.  Sigh.

[purposefuldoula]

Christy- sucky! I was going to suggest finding church thrift stores- they seem to have the best selection of used knitting stuff. I have some extra needles I could mail to you, though! The last time I visited IL, I scored something like 15 pairs of knitting needles for a few dollars. I know I have doubles of more than a few sizes. PM me if you would like them. 

[phatchristy]

Originally Posted by purposefuldoula 

Christy- sucky! I was going to suggest finding church thrift stores- they seem to have the best selection of used knitting stuff. I have some extra needles I could mail to you, though! The last time I visited IL, I scored something like 15 pairs of knitting needles for a few dollars. I know I have doubles of more than a few sizes. PM me if you would like them. 

Aww...that's extra sweet of you, I'll see if I can find some here first.  The church sales and thrift stores have always been my best too for locating crocheting & knitting supplies.  Unfortunately I don't live by any of them anymore LOL.  I'm going to "try" to use my chopsticks for this simple looking pattern here:

Looks simple enough!  Easy Newborn Hat

Would you consider using a wool blend for it?  I always wonder what would be best for a newborn....a wool blend, or should I consider cotton even?  I have 100% wool, but figured I'd keep that for the soakers.  Have some nice neutral colored (kind of cream with little grey strands) worsted wool blend.  

[phatchristy]

I made my own 'stupid' knitting mistake.  Working on the newborn hat, I'm probably 'half done'.  However, my chopsticks are totally NOT the right size needle to do this it appears.  So, of course, I basically am facing ripping the whole thing out as it's not going to fit over a newborn's head!

[kel]

My quickie for the day...

super soft cotton / somewhat silly, baby bunny hat

[purposefuldoula]

Kel- LOVE! So great!! 

[purposefuldoula]

Ladies, I've just opened a co-op with pure wool for my local knitting group. I just thought I'd share, and if you would like to order any yarn, pm me. Here's the storefront website: http://www.100purewool.com/servlet/StoreFront

[Anyitara]

Originally Posted by purposefuldoula 

Ladies, I've just opened a co-op with pure wool for my local knitting group. I just thought I'd share, and if you would like to order any yarn, pm me. Here's the storefront website: http://www.100purewool.com/servlet/StoreFront

Pretty yarn!!!

I'm loving the projects so far! My 'to want' is working on this crochet layette: http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/newborn-layette It looks fairly simple, but I just haven't been able to get started!! With a lot of soft dark teal yarn, I'm not sure yet what I'm going to trim it with, either. Decisions, decisions!

[phatchristy]

Not that much happening on the knitting front right now, I worked on that other project, realized it was too small and unwound it.

But, we got stuck in a major traffic jam and DH decided to exit the expressway and drive home in a way that passed Goodwill.  I convinced him to let me stop to see what they had.  No needles, but found a bag of yarn.  Four skeins of burgundy/red variegated wool, three skeins of green variegated wool, three skeins of cream colored wool, two skeins of chenille (what is that, some sort of synthetic--super soft), a couple of skeins of green Christmas (has some sort of metallic thread running through it) acrylic.  I decided since it was mostly wool it was a good deal at $4.27.

As a side note, I was looking for the needles, didn't find any and asked someone who worked there about them.  It turns out she was management and she said that 'for safety reasons they aren't allowed to sell them, that they are disposed of when the receive them.'  Yikes...I really hope this means they did not throw out everything I donated.  And, apparently the workers don't all know that either because they said they 'never get that stuff'...which isn't true.  They get it all the time according to the manager, they just can't sell them.  

[kel]

These are so cute...

http://involvingthesenses.blogspot.com/2008/08/more-bobbles.html

and these:

http://www.sweetwilliamltd.com/index.php/mushroom-rattle.html

(I'm sure you gals could knit these up yourselves)  I'll probably make a stitched/felted sweater version!

[kel]

Okay, this is also awesome!

pattern/tutorial here: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/mycupcake/skoodlet-2

[purposefuldoula]

Originally Posted by kel 

Okay, this is also awesome!

pattern/tutorial here: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/mycupcake/skoodlet-2

Kel! Thank you so much for posting that! It's getting bumped right up in my rav que! Awesomeness <3

[michellerivera]

I made her a sweater and I'm currently working on a scalloped hat! Anyone on Ravelry? My Ravelry profile is: http://www.ravelry.com/people/mishycakes - I strongly suggest this easy baby sweater pattern. You need to know how to knit, pearl, cast on & knit two together. It's from the book http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/more-last-minute-knitted-gifts - I LOVE TO KNIT! Add me on Ravelry! XOXO