Dresses for the little girls in your life

It's always fun to knit little dresses. I know I've made many in my knitting career, and by looking at our sales reports for dress patterns, it's clear to me that you all have made many as well! Some of the best selling dress patterns for babies/little girls are by Minnowknits. The Brittany Jumper # 130 has always been one of my favorites. I made two of these - one for Helen and one for Sophie - when they were about a year old.

The Sunflower Dress #186 is adorable too. It has a little more coverage above from the waist up, and the fun buttons on the front, as well as the stitch patterning, give it that little something special.

The Cotton Candy Dress #218 is precious. It has sweet little sleeves and a lovely diamond pattern on the skirt and bodice.

The Pinafore Dress #230 was the hit of the year last spring. It was featured in several ad campaigns in knitting magazines, and is probably one of our top selling patterns, ever. It's actually one of Minnowknits' most simple dresses, and works well in both solid and variegated yarns.

And the most recent Minnowknits Dress, the Daisy Dress #238 is what I took to Florida last week for my vacation knitting. It is a simple hemmed dress with gorgeous I-cord flowers attached at the bottom of the skirt. I used Berroco Weekend and made several modifications to this pattern (see my changes in tomorrow's post). I'm thrilled, as it came out beautifully!
All of these patterns can be made in Jil Eaton Minnow Merino and Jil Eaton CottonTail yarns. Of course Berroco Comfort and Berroco Weekend are also wonderful options!

Polly's Summer Project is Finished. Is Yours?

Here's a great post about sticking to a project... written by Polly:

Here's a note of encouragement to all of us knitters who take on a project saying "This is what I'll make this summer (or fall or whenever)" and then wonder as the time goes by whether it will really happen or not.

Well, I'm here to say that it's possible, but only just! Last April I purchased the yarn and the pattern to make the Una sweater by Berroco. It's in the Berroco Weekend Book #296. I had been eyeing the Jil Eaton CottonTail yarn ever since it came into the shop - in particular, a color called Fresia which is a very soft peach tone. Well, now I had the perfect yarn to go with this adorable sweater. Because the CottonTail knits up to the same gauge as Berroco Weekend yarn, it could easily be substituted. With yarn, pattern and needles in hand I was off and running with the WHOLE summer ahead of me.

But, life intervened and it was sometime in mid August that I realized that, although the back and front were nicely finished and waiting in a drawer, the sleeves were not going to knit themselves in the next two weeks! Thankfully they are fairly short sleeves. It also helped that I knit them simultaneously so that the end was always in sight.

What didn't help at all is that when I got to the absolute last row of the sleeves (the Pleating Row), there was a major glitch. After repeating the directions exactly as written about four times and having the stitch count and placement of pleats absolutely not work out, a lightening bolt went off (why did it take so long?) saying that just maybe it was the pattern and not me that was cuckoo.

Sure enough, when I went to the Berroco website and searched for a pattern correction (errata), there was my Una sweater with revised directions for my sleeve Pleating Row in bold print! Note to self: ALWAYS check for erratas BEFORE beginning a project!Not to be undone by the glitch with my silly sleeves, with about five days to go before the unofficial end of summer (Labor Day) I set about sewing the sweater pieces together. With my trusty copy of The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques open to the chapter on Seams, I was off and running.Would you believe that the last stitch was in place and the sweater was washed and blocked a whole two days before Labor Day! My reward for the stress of the big rush is that I absolutely love everything about it: the fit is perfect, the color is gorgeous and the pattern detail is lovely.Now the big question is what's my fall project going to be??

Customer Favorites

Over the past couple of weeks there have been some outstanding patterns and yarns that have been selling like crazy. Here are a few of the latest things that you may want to take a look at if you haven't already!

High Line Cardigan: This is a cute knit cardigan for layering over summery tops.

The pattern book is great and has a variety of other summertime knits in it including the White Rock Lake Pullover that was featured on our mannequin two weeks ago. Folks really like the feel and look of the subtle hues of Tahki's organic Good Earth Cotton yarn but I think this would knit up as a wonderfully bright summer splash of color using Classic Elite Katydid yarn too.

Minnow Knits #230 Pinafore Dress pattern and Jil Eaton Cottontail yarn: The combination of lovely colors in a machine washable cotton yarn and this adorable pattern have both of these items flying out of our shop. Maybe it's the butterfly sleeves on this little dress that's got everyone smiling? The pattern spans sizes 6 months to 4 years making it fairly versatile in the world of little people knits. We've sold this pattern to people who plan to use different yarns, too. Hey, substitutions are part of our job! We knit this up as a sample in the Mission Falls 1824 cotton because we wanted to see what the dress would look like using one of the Cotton Whirls (variegated). It's really cute!

Berroco Book #294 Origami and Berroco Origami yarn: This yarn is a great choice for the spring and summer. This blend of 58% acrylic, 16% linen, 15% nylon and 11% cotton has multicolored strands that knit into a remarkably light and crisp finished fabric. Color names like Sunset Rendezvous, Cucumber Water, and Party by the Shore definitely fit this summertime yarn well, and complement the designs you'll find in the pattern booklet.

The Pinafore Dress

I can't tell you how many of these patterns we've sold! All because of a cute little ad in a magazine for the Minnowknits Pinafore Dress pattern and the Jil Eaton Cottontail yarn. We've even sold out of the Cottontail yarn (in the same color it's pictured in) several times over.

It's a really cute pattern but I don't like always making something in the yarn it calls for. I'm on vacation now and needed a quick mindless project in a fun yarn. Because I just used Cottontail in the Sheep sweater from Roo Designs, I chose the Mission Falls 1824 Cotton in one of the "whirl" shades for the Pinafore Dress. I picked the "Bouquet" shade in tan and blues... think sand, sky and sea because after all, I was headed to Florida.
It knit up really quickly and is just adorable. The hem definitely curls a bit, but with a bit of blocking it will be perfect.

Double Ended Crochet

We had such a great response to our Crochet Series Classes that I thought I'd share a little of what we did last week in our Crochet II Class: Double Ended Crochet.
I used some of the new Jil Eaton Cottontail and hooked up a couple of dishclothes in spring-y colors. They were quick to work up and finished up soft and thick in this yarn. The double ended crochet technique is what gives them the two color look - and I love that the back is a reverse of the front.

Baa baa white sheep, have you any cotton?

When the new Roo Designs patterns arrived last week, I fell in love with several of them! Since I completed my baby block project, I was feeling ready to tackle another intartsia project.

I had a hard time choosing between the Owl Sweater and the Sheep Sweater... and I may just end up knitting both of them!

But then we got a shipment of the new Jill Eaton CottonTail yarn, and with its gauge and great selection of fun & happy colors, it was a perfect match for the Sheep Sweater, so my decision was made.

I had a busy weekend so didn't get as much done as I'd hoped, but I am well on my way. It's been fun knitting with the CottonTail. I really like it, and I'm not a huge cotton fan.

We also got some fun new Jil Eaton Minnowknits patterns which work with this yarn, too.