Elephants on Parade

Michele brought these in last week to share with us!

What a perfect gift set for a new baby!

This is Elijah the Elephant, and the Roo Designs Elephant Pullover (pdf pattern) knit to match using sport/dk weight yarns. She used Sublime Extrafine Merino Wool DK. It comes in a great selection of colors and is machine washable for friendly projects for little ones.

Elephants on Parade!

contributed by Shawn

The NEW issue of Interweave Knits arrived recently and it has the most amazing and whimsical child's pattern in it! The Baby Elephant Vest by Melanie Rice has elephants on parade! The design is SO simple using yarnovers to pick out the stylized elephant motif that is repeated across the vest. I love the look of this and the idea of creating custom lace charts to make your own motifs. (I love the simple motifs on the Roo Designs sweaters for children, but yarnovers are faster than intarsia color work for me!)

There is a very detailed article that describes how the charts for this pattern were created. Melanie not only points out how she created this motif for her design but gives great tips about how to start making your own lace motifs. There are tips concerning yarn choice, information regarding knitter's graph paper - a must for developing your own motifs - and plenty of encouraging words to take you step by step through the process.

Even if you are not interested in creating your own lace motifs there are plenty of sage words in this article for any knitter. It's always good to remember that a break from your project can often lead to an "aha" moment when previously faced with only frustration!

While I find the Baby Elephant Vest enchanting, I can't wait to read through the Swirl Skirt pattern to check out the knit-on-a-bias fabric that claims to prevent knitted skirt sag. There is also a great pattern for the Nantucket Vest: This is knit in the Tahki Ripple yarn which knits up into the most amazing textural fabric: This is a very popular yarn for summer and we featured it on the Manikin recently in the Myrtle Pullover.

Roo Designs... and instant gratification!

So Roo Designs patterns always make me smile... but my smile is now bigger! Because all Roo Designs patterns are going to be available (possibly by the end of today!) as PDF downloads. So it's click to order - double click to open - and cast on. Enjoy!We're also adding her newest patterns too.

Crappers!

I've been working on my Roo Designs Sheep Roll Neck Sweater over the last week. I am using the Jil Eaton CottonTail. It's really turning out nicely, and I had high hopes that I'd be finished by Sunday. But I'm not.

I made some changes. Remember, you CAN make changes to a pattern! I didn't make any BIG changes, but I did do things differently than how the pattern was written.

1. For small areas on the sheep (the eyes) I elected to do the duplicate stitch instead of intarsia.
2. I was supposed to bind off both shoulder seams and then seam them together. Instead, I left the stitches on a holder, and worked a three needle bindoff on each side.
3. The pattern called for seaming one shoulder seam, then picking up and doing the neck, and then seaming the neck edge along with the second shoulder seam. I don't like to do that - I'm not a fan of any type of seam on a neck edge. So I closed both shoulder seams, and plan to work the neck on double pointed needles. (I'm not quite there yet!)
4. The sleeve decreases called for a k2tog on both sides of the sleeves. I changed it and worked a k1,ssk at the beginning of the row, and a k2tog,k1 at the end of the row. These slanted decreases line up better.
5. The sleeve decreases were supposed to be worked every 3 rows. I prefer (and always recommend) to work the decreases on right side rows. I am anal about keeping those slants going the right way, and it's just easier to always do it on the right side rows. Plus, I calculated my row gauge, and there were plenty of rows to make this change from every 3rd row to every 4th row.

I was nearing the home stretch last night, and was working the seams. Look what I found when I got to the bottom!

OOPS! I can now add a final change to this pattern:

6. Cutting the bottom edge off, and re-knitting the bottom back ribbing, cuz, well... clearly I can't count.

Hey, we all screw up!

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.

From Vermont to Tokyo

Polly just shared this wonderful photo of her adorable grandson, Jack... Look how cute he is! Jack lives in Tokyo, and he is wearing the sweater Polly knit for his birthday. What a great photo of a sweet little boy!

(Pattern: Roo Designs Truck Sweater, Yarn: Spud & Chloe Sweater)

Here, kitty kitty!

I just finished a baby sweater for a friend's baby. It’s their first baby so I really wanted to knit something for them. They decided not to find out the gender of the baby, so I had to choose colors that would work well for either a boy or girl.

I have always loved the Roo Designs Cat Pullover pattern that we sell. It's so cute! It calls for a worsted weight yarn so I picked out several great colors of Jil Eaton Minnow Merino. What a super color selection - it was difficult to pick.

I also thought it would be fun to make a matching hat and socks. I used my Ann Norling Kid's Fruit Cap pattern for the hat, and just followed the stitch count and shaping - but striped the hat. Then for the socks I used my Yankee Knitter Classic Socks for the Family pattern.

And here is the result - I love it!