Brown Bag Exchange (finally!)

I've been needing to show you for over a week and a half what I made for the Madison Knitters' Guild Brown Bag Exchange.

I finally got the pictures onto my computer. So...I can show you what I made. Unfortunately, I haven't photographed the blanket I received so you can't see that, yet.

But, on to the photos.

First up...

The Maile Sweater
Yarn: Zen Garden (the variegated pink/orange) and Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino (white)
Needles: #5 - 24" circular
Size: the pattern says it will fit a 3 month old...but I used larger needles and my gauge was bigger and I made it longer so mine would probably fit a 6 month old.

This is the sweater after it was washed and blocked. I didn't have enough pins so it looks a little funny in certain places (sleeves, specifically). I also did a stupid and forgot to add button holes so I only had two buttons. But, really, for a child's cardigan, you're not going to need a bunch of buttons unless it's for serious outer wear (like a sweatercoat).

Here's what it looked like before I blocked it (and before the buttons)...

Aside from the fact that I thought I was going to break my Addi Turbos when I was attaching the sleeves to the body, it was a fairly easy pattern to follow...except for the part where I was stupid and forgot to add button holes where I was supposed to. Oh well. It's still cute, right?

Anyway, I had yarn left over...so I made a matching hat based on the lace pattern at the bottom of the sweater and my own little head.

Again, I used the same yarn and needle size.

My gauge was the same.

So, how this hat would fit anything other than a newborn is beyond me...seriously, my gauge was the same. I have no idea why this hat didn't come out to be 16" instead of 14". I actually went to make another hat and CO more stitches (only 10 more - which should have equated to about 2")...and that hat would have fit me. So, I think gauge was just eluding me for this.

Anyway, this hat would fit a newborn. Eventually, there will be a pattern to go with it...I just haven't done it yet. I have to take a look at my notes first.

That's what they looked like together after blocking and such. I'm actually really proud of myself for this because it came out so cute :)

Speaking of cute......

 

This last picture is from Sunday, May 15th at the hospital......again. He was pretty happy considering. We brought him in on Saturday because he wasn't eating well, he was teething, he had his six month shots on Friday, he had a cold...and we found out when we were there that he had an ear infection. Poor kid. So that metabolic disorder reared it's head again. Luckily, it was only an overnight stay instead of a half-week. We were only there for a total of 23 hours.

Anyway, perhaps in my next post, I'll have something to show you...like progress on my giraffe or the blanket Little Man got from Brown Bag Exchange (he loves it - it's squisy).