good gifts

Two weeks ago, I finally got to give the EZ baby sweater and the felted fox to the new baby and new big brother. I'm assuming that most knitters get at least a little excited about giving a knitted gift that they put much time and love into, so I was so happy to hear that my gifts did more good than I had imagined. I hear there was much oohing and ahhing over the sweater, but apparently, the fox really eased the transition for new big brother. At two and a half years old, his parents were more than a little nervous about how he'd handle meeting his new baby sister. He was a bit freaked out by being in the hospital, but as soon as his parents gave him the gift, it took his mind off of it right away. Not only did he relax, but he immediately wanted to go share his fox with his new sister. They have some wonderful photos of the new family in the hospital and that fox is in every single one. Who knew?

Anyway. My hot pot kiln arrived this week and I finally tried out the precious metal clay. It was actually a little harder than I thought it would be. I think the difficulty resulted from trying to work on such a small scale, combined with my paralyzing fear of wasting this expensive material. Consequently, I made some junk. But firing them in the kiln was VERY fun, and I did get one successful piece out of it:

These earrings will be a birthday gift for my sister this weekend. The disks are made from precious metal clay, and so are 100% silver. I stamped a flowered pattern into them and gave them a patina to bring out the texture. They were a little boring until I added the freshwater pearls, but now I really kind of like them.

I made another pair at the same time, which I will add to a my Etsy shop, eventually. They still need finishing touches and I also need a scale to weigh them and figure out how to price them properly. I'm looking forward to experimenting more with precious metal clay. It's so satisfying (and unexpected) to be able to make a high quality piece of jewelry on your front steps!

kids' stuff

I finished the Child's Placket Neck Pullover this weekend. I completed the majority of it while otherwise doing jack squat on Sunday. I knit the 6-12 month size and used a little more than one skein of Reynolds Signature on size 6 needles. This will be gifted to a friend who will be having her first baby in April. They don't know whether it will be a boy or a girl so, of course, I went with what I thought was a neutral pattern and color. But no pastels, here. I like my babies in bright colors! (And when I say "my" babies, I mean "your" babies.) The sweater is knit bottom-up, so I grafted stitches for the first time, under the arms. I had heard horror stories about grafting, but it wasn't too bad. Although I had my nose in the Vogue Knitting reference book for every stitch. I've always thought this was a cute pattern, and I was happy to get the chance to finally try it. Not that I'm lacking in the Pregnant Friends Department...

I also began working on the baby sweater from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac. I'm using Karabella Aurora 8 in a deep magenta, since this sweater will be for a baby girl. I re-started a couple times because I was indecisive about my needle size, but I'm definitely ahead of schedule on this project, too. The baby girl isn't due until May.

And as every older sibling knows, when you get saddled with a little brother or sister, you totally deserve a present. So I ordered the felted fox kit from Crafty Alien. I never had the urge to knit a toy until I saw her "Backyard Critters" on Craftster. They are unreasonably cute. And felted! It's been quite a while since I felted something. I can't wait to start on the fox for the big brother of the new baby sister!

i am a stone cold...

Knit and felted using the fox kit from Crafty Alien. He's only about 3.5 inches high.

But he's really cute.

EZ baby sweater

I gave myself plenty of time to finish the EZ baby sweater, but it's still a bit of a relief to finally be done with it. Especially since the mom-to-be recently remarked that she feels like the baby might "fall out" at any time. (Yipe.)

This is the well-known, much-knitted February Baby Sweater from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac. I thought the construction was a bit wacky, but it all worked out in the end. It's a pattern I would knit again, but next time I would use my own top-down know-how rather than following EZ's "pithy" instructions so closely. I used 3 balls of Karabella Aurora 8 and I can NOT seem to capture the color on my camera. The true color is a deeper, darker raspberry, rather than the bright fuchsia that appears here. I usually steer clear of pastels for baby knits--just a personal preference---so I hope mom and baby both like the color. The felted fox will be given to the new big brother. I'm excited to give both gifts, so Baby Girl can go ahead and fall out any time now!

The "lemonade" Rowan Cotton Rope I ordered for the Ruffled Surplice Sweater arrived the other day and the color is just what I was hoping for! I would describe it as...hmmm...lemonade! Go figure.