Elmo

Aiden loves Elmo, so I decided to make a little Elmo doll for him. Before I even had it fully put together he was standing by the bookcase where it was sitting and saying "Elmo Elmo!" I had no choice but to stitch it all together really quickly so I could give it to him. He took to it immediately and started carrying it around like a prized possession :-)

The pattern uses the double knitting technique. This is the first time I had ever heard of that, but it's a really cool way to knit a 3-d creation using 2 straight needles, and I'm hooked on it.

Aiden's latest soaker

We recently moved, so between all the packing and unpacking my needles have been still for awhile, but I finally got another soaker done. I tried to do a little lightening bolt pattern on the leg with knits and purls for our ever-running boy, but it's hard to see.

Aiden's kippah

Using the left over yarn from Aiden's deep sea soaker, I made Aiden a kippah. He keeps pointing to it and asking for it (calling it a hat), but we're still working on getting him to leave it on his head (even with clips).

Deep sea soakers

I really love this yarn (Lion Brand Wool). As you can see, it made some really neat patterns, a new one after each short row. I used the Sheepy Pants soaker pattern again, which I'm becoming quite attached to. This time I made the legs shorter - 2 inches - but they still ended up a little longer than I wanted. I'm hoping to make enough soakers to have Aiden in all wool this summer.

Swiffer cover

My first attempt at making a reusable swiffer cover. This was a fairly simple pattern that creates a color and texture effect that looks really complicated (until you know the secret). I think I should have repeated a row or two again since it looks a little small on my swiffer. I definitely plan on making more of these (ideally using a hot water wash yarn next time).

Kippah for Ryan

I had a lot of trouble with this pattern at first and held off telling my brother I was making him a kippah for his wedding until I was sure it would turn out decent (and be finished in time). In the end it turned out really well and I'll be sending it to my brother in a few days. I'm itching to make a couple more (one for myself and one for Aiden), but I've got a list of other projects that the yarn is piling up for, so that will have to wait at least until I complete another project or two.

Pirate shorties

Another Sheepy Pants soaker. These did not turn out at all how I envisioned them, but I think they ended up pretty cute. My wife has started calling them the pirate shorties. My soaker arsenal is growing!

Bumblebee booties

Another baby gift. I decided to try something a little creative. This is sort of a hybrid pattern, combining two patterns from Easy Knitted Socks with some added modifications that I came up with. The basic pattern is the textured baby bootees pattern (smallest size), adding stripes following the technique described in the stripy toddler toasties pattern (doubling the width of the stripes). I also added wings with the following pattern:

CO7
Rows 1-4: K1, m1, k until last stitch, m1, K
Rows 5-12: K
Rows 13-16: K1, k2tog, k until two stitches left, k2tog, k
BO knitwise

I made the antennas by picking up a stitch making a couple of rows and binding off. It was a nightmare (particularly trying to get them in the right place, which I was clearly only moderately successful with) and I will never use that technique again if I make another pair of these booties!

Longies for Aiden

My previous soakers were not particularly functional (legs either too tight or way to loose to be used) and have sat in a drawer basically since they were made, so I was reluctant to try another one. After taking a long break to make some other projects, I finally returned to soakers with Mandie's Sheepy Pants pattern. I am very happy with the results, and my wife loves them (I waited until we had used them for awhile before posting this, to make sure this wasn't a repeat of the last two soakers). The pattern was really good and I'll definitely use it again.

Christy's hat

After months of promising Christy that I would knit her something, I made her a hat from a pattern in this book. This was my first attempt at cables. I made a few modifications to lengthen it, remove the ribbing between the cables, and change to ribbing at the bottom of the hat to k2p2 so that the cables look like they start in the ribbing (a modification I saw on knittingelephant's version of this hat on ravelry).

Aiden's new booties

Aiden has finally outgrown the first pair of booties I made him, so I made a bigger pair from another pattern in the same book. I’m getting better at modifying patterns to add holes for a tie. I used the same technique as in the tight knitted boxy mittens pattern, binding off two stitches in one row and then m2k stitches I the same place on the next row. It makes for good, sturdy holes that don’t disappear as the pattern is stretched and pulled. I’m still looking for a good alternative to an i-cord (I made a double-stranded one this time to match the two colors in the booties).