This went to the same mama that ordered the scuba longies. I actually think I like this one better. It was simple to do, and turned out so cute! I wish I could get a model for every soaker I make, but when I can get pics of the actual baby it was made for wearing it, well, that's even better than having a model. Look at the cute tushie on this girl! I gotta stop making baby stuff... it's making me really baby hungry.
Lovely lovely lovely baby alpaca... sigh :). Fortunately I have enough to make another one, so I can keep on with the lovely lovely yarn :). In fact, I feel like I over-charged this mom. Maybe I'll make her a pair of shorties to compensate. I mean really, I don't know how I dare charge extra for the privilege of working with such a wonderful material.
I LOVE these longies. My sister says they're not longies, they're wearable art and I almost have to agree with her :). They took a long time to create, and the thing that took the longest was drawing Horton out on graph paper so I could knit him. It took the better part of an entire day to get it down, and then lots of tweeking to make it right. I'm not entirely happy with how Mayzie Bird turned out (if you haven't, please read Horton Hatches the Egg... it's one of Dr. Seuss's finest!) but I had to content myself in the knowledge that drawing with yarn just isn't the same as drawing with pencil and there are limitations. At least for me. Maybe when I learn a little more about embroidery I'll do better. Check out Horton's ears though! I'm very proud that they actually look like I shaded them in with pencil and not just like I went crazy with yarn and needle.
My sister has ONE CUTE KID!! How could anyone not love those curls. He was bound to have 'em. His mommy sure does! He's probably one of the most photogenic kids I've seen in a long long time. She should probably get him into modeling.
I don't think this one could have turned out any cuter than it did. The mom sent me a pic of some fabric she was having made into a shirt, and I did my best, and you know, I think it was good enough this time :) I can't wait to see pics of it on the little girlie!
I think these turned out really cute. The colors are beautiful, there's very little pooling, and the design was easy and very cute, if I do say so myself :). However, I have decided that although I see the merits of Cestari Superfine as a soaker yarn, I don't like knitting with it. It's very soft and squishy and thick, which makes for a very good soaker, but instead of being springy and slightly stretchy like most wool yarn, it's very stiff like cotton and very tiring to knit with. Plus, it has LOTS of little twigs and grass and (shudder) brown bits that could only be leftover bits of dingleberries! This is no reflection at all on the dyer, Lollytree Yarns, which are beautifully dyed, and I wouldn't have been able to finish this one without some extra help from the dyer (she sent me some white cestari superfine to make the Hello Kitty face) and I LOVE HER!, but I do not like this yarn. This is the second one I've made and I had my doubts with the first one, but it turned out so cute and I figured the twigs had to be an aberration. Why would people be so crazy about such a poor quality item? But it was not an aberration, and yeah... I would recommend something else. My new mission (or maybe just my continued mission) is to convert the world to alpaca. I love alpaca. Especially when it's blended with wool. Then it has the luxury of super soft, lustrous alpaca, and springy, stretchy, lovely wool. Maybe I can get the Lollytree Yarn girl to dye me some alpaca and convert her! Maybe that's what I'll have to do :).
I finally managed to get pictures of some new monkey shorties before I sent them out! This really is an amazing feat. I've sent out probably 6 or 7 pairs of monkey shorties without ever getting a good pic before sending it. And they're really cute! Just like the monsters, I love making the sock monkey things. Love them. Love it even more when the mom agrees that a wool/alpaca blend yarn is the only thing that's good enough for her little one! :). Yes, it's made of my very favorite yarn. I made a pair of longies to match... gotta get that pic up here too....
YAY!!! Someone who wanted something other than black! Now I've got to post this on Etsy so people can see that it's just as cute in something other than black, and MUCH easier for me to knit.
This skirty was a lot more work than I thought it was going to be, and believe me, I thought it was going to be a lot of work. Surprisingly, the difficult part was NOT the music around the skirt. I know, right? Totally looks like that took me many many hours to do. In fact, I think it only took 2, maybe 3 to embroider all of it. No, the thing that gave me a massive headache was the cute design on the bum. First I tried to embroider it on, but that was just... not pretty. I really don't understand how people get away with duplicate stitches for large patterns. I can't do it. There must be something I don't know that they do. I'm going to have to consult a master knitter and see if I can learn. It would make my life considerably easier if I could easily duplicate stitch some patterns, like this one. I got it all but finished and decided I needed to redo it, so I had to actually cut off the top part, pull it out, re-knit it with an intarsia pattern, and then sew it back onto the skirt. And that whole process, especially
the sewing back on bit (you have to mark REALLY CAREFULLY where center front is on both pieces!) had to be repeated at least twice to get it right. I'm still not completely satisfied, but it's much better than it was before. I think it's acceptable. There's still so much I need to learn about knitting. I learn something new with almost every soaker I make. I wonder if I'll ever get beyond soakers or if this is just what I'm going to knit from here on out? I think I need to make a point of doing something else, just to keep me limber. Maybe I'll start on that vintage crocheted christening dress pattern I got off of ebay a while ago? Who knows, maybe someone I know, (maybe even me!) will have a girl who'll want to use it someday soon.
I'm thinking maybe I should add these to my repertoire on Etsy? I could get rid of some of my stash that way, and they're fun to make since I'm changing yarns and stitch patterns every few rows. Much more interesting than something that goes on and on in the same color forever. 
Although, I really haven't made anything like that except the tops I made to go along with some monkey skirties I made for a photographer around Christmas time. My sister has asked whether I get sick of doing stripes. Not really. At least there's some change and it's easy to keep track of progress. You only have to measure one stripe to know how far you've gone, so if you misplace your tape-measure (or your 3 year old absconds with it) halfway into the legs of your latest soaker, you know exactly how long it is, and that's very convenient :)
The scrappies in the next post go with this skirty too. Or at least I hope they do. The mom said she loved them, but I haven't actually seen how they look together. I'll have to see if maybe she'll send me a pic.
But seriously! The woman asked for a fairy and some butterflies and dragonflies. I couldn't for the life of me come up with a not cutesy fairy for a pair of soakers. You wouldn't think it would be that difficult! I scoured the internet and found lots of good inspiration pics for fairies, and then I dug in. I tried intarsia and fair isle. I tried embroidery. I even tried tracing a pattern on with fabric stabilizer and then embroidering over it. I think I spent quite a bit more money
than I made on this one just trying to get the design right. In the end, the fairy proved to be completely elusive and I was left with butterflies and dragonflies, and even though they turned out really cute, they aren't what I'd envisioned, and even though (as I said at first) I totally love the way these turned out, I'm disappointed. I feel like I failed. Maybe I'll do it again in fingering weight yarn and see if I can get that darn fairy to cooperate. With a fine enough guage I could probably find a cross-stitch pattern that would work beautifully. I wonder if I have to go all the way down to fingering weight or if Dk would work? Hmm... sounds like I've got some work to do.... after the 10 orders I have on my waiting list. And the several soakers I owe my sister. And the blanket I owe my other sister. And the pants I promised my 4 year old....
