Fancy Pants

I am the first one to admit that I am a "fair weather" knitter.  I like quick projects.  Not necessarily "easy" projects, but quick.  I like to start and finish them in 3 days at the most.  I hate weaving in ends, I don't like color changes, and I want things to be mostly useful.  That being said.  I have completed one afghan for myself (it was crochet, and technically the first thing I ever made... hey, go big or go home) have done a few baby blankets which have taken longer than a few days, and have started (and failed to finish) three sweaters and two other afghans.  Yep.  I stick to hats, mittens, scarves, bags, and doo dads.

But, I bought this really beautiful cotton yarn and knew I wanted to make something really special with it.  It was so soft, and the colors were so rich and pretty.  I bought 2 skeins on sale, about 360 yards all together, so that meant my project had to fit those yardage guidelines.  I went on Ravelry (my obsession) and entered my criteria (I love an easily searchable pattern site!) and came up with a few options.  But, seeing as how everything I'm wanting to craft right now is for Baby Boo, I decided on the cutest pair of knitted bell bottom baby pants.  I went with the newborn size, hoping that these will be the perfect size for bringing the little one home from the hospital.  They turned out way better than I could imagine, even with all the seaming I had to do on the waistband and around the inseam.  Here they are, in all their adorable glory:

Seriously, are they not the cutest!?  I wish I had a baby to model them in, but you'll have to wait 5 more months for that.  They're the perfect colors for a fall/winter babe, and because they're done on smaller needles than recommended for the yarn, they're a tight weave and should be really warm and soft.  I need to do a round of onesie dying so that I can get a little brown top to go with them.  I'm so excited with how they turned out.  No pastels for this baby!  Added bonus... they only took me 4 days to complete!  Apparently I'm not inept at making articles of clothing, just large articles of clothing.

Give a Hoot Mug Cozy

After doing the Hootie Booties a while ago, I've eased my fears about an owl cable.  It's pretty much the easiest cable there is, and looks adorable.  So, I found a rad pattern for a mug cozy... I'm totally obsessed with making and using them, though I'm not sure anyone else shares my weird obsession.  Anyway, I grabbed a spare half-skein that I've used for two other cozies (told you I had an obsession), and knit it up in an evening.  I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, too, though next time, I'll be going down a needle size, and also doing 2 fewer ribbing rows at the bottom, so it's not so tall.  

And here's a close up of the owl cable.  I don't really have any buttons that fit for the eyes, and I haven't yet raided the bead stash, but I sort of like it without the creepy eyes added.

Laying up the Layette

So, as I mentioned in the earlier Bassinet post, I'm making all the sheets for said awesome vintage bassinet.  I lucked out today and found some really adorable flannel fabrics at the fabric store.  So, I set to work and cut out all the sheet templates, and sewed one up.  Here's the result:

I really like this pretty lime green fabric with the white ferns.  It's cute enough to be for baby, but not so "cutesy" as a lot of the infant fabrics, and avoids the horrid pastels that I hate so much. I love how it looks with the white wicker, too.

Knitting to Amuse the Masses

I had some left over soft cotton yarn from a failed project.  Let's just say the newborn size hat fit my big ol' head.  So, I decided I'd use it up and make a washcloth, since I wasn't sure how much yarn was left in the skein.  So, after some extensive (by that I mean about 2 minutes worth) research, I found THE pattern.

Come on, it has a goat on it!  

It's done in Cottontots yarn and is super soft.  I pretty much love it.  And it only took me about 2 hours to complete.  Yay!