Friday, June 18, 2010

The Baby Trilogy

While entertaining out-of-province guests, co-hosting a 90th birthday party, jaunting off to yarn luncheons, knitting time was severely reduced here at the Harris house these past couple of weeks. What I learned from all that is when time is short, knit short items.

My Elizabeth Zimmermann 'baby trilogy' is finished. The hat pattern is from The Opinionated Knitter, slippers from Knitting Without Tears and the sweater - the of-late, loudly- bally-hooed, February Sweater - from The Knitters Almanac.

Everything is so darling that I find myself transformed. Me - a largely 'knit-only-for-me' knitter, now in love with these tiny, precious garments and in search of little people to dress.

The February Baby Sweater pattern was everything knitters have said it was. An easily memorized, easy to do lace pattern. Lace is not my forte, but this is a 4 row repeat, with 2 of the 4 being simply purl rows. "Lace For Dummies" this might be called.
You will note that there are no button holes in the upper portion. Elizabeth doesn't mention button holes until the lace pattern begins. Being a 'jump-in-and-start' knitter, I failed to notice that. Now I need to figure out a way to create fake button holes in the upper portion. My rambunctious nature means my creative side is well developed. :)

Sleeves too are missing, but that is a case of running out of yarn. I had 2 balls of Patons Astra in my stash and knit these 3 pieces with a few yards to spare. I like the 'vest' look - yet another new take on the February Sweater - and think Elizabeth would be proud of my ingenuity. (If one can call running out of yarn ingenious)

Over the years, I have commonly used hats as my small, resting-between-big-projects, knitting. But I might travel down a different street now that I've been introduced to these baby things.

Have a great weekend everyone and thanks for reading.

5 comments:

Vera said...

That outfit is too cute! Makes me want to have a baby... NOT ☺

Sel and Poivre said...

Using the yellow to rim the sleeves really makes it look planned rather than necessary...I love all three pieces together!

Needles said...

How about adding loops instead of button holes. Should work fine. I think EZ would have loved your approach to running out of yarn, and besides, why shouldn't babies wear vests too?

Sandra said...

love the vest idea - it does look planned with the yellow trim.
Are your kids worried that you're knitting for babies?

Laurie said...

Very cute! I never do button/buttonholes on baby clothes. I put in snaps, then sew the buttons on where they're supposed to be. I've had a lot of recipients of my baby knits thank me for making things that were easy to get on and off.