Sesame Street!

Loved the longies, love the shorties... gonna have to make some for Jonah :).  Made with Berroco Ultra Alpaca.

New Stuff in my Etsy Shop

It's very strange for me to have no custom orders floating around.  I've been working on some really cute stuff for friends and family that I'll be posting shortly, but until then, enjoy the few things I've made and put in my shop!  I've changed the eyes on the owlie skirty.  I like these better.  I also like the way I did the eyelashes, and may change the way I do them on monster bums too.  Also, I really like the dark sock monkeys.  I'm tempted to keep the shorties for my little guy.  If they don't sell before the weather starts to cool down, I think I'll take them down and keep them for myself.  Yes, I do smile at my baby's bum wandering around my house decorated by the monsters and monkeys I've made for him and for my nephews who've lent them back to me.  Enjoy!  All of these are made with 100% wool except for the owlie skirty which is alpaca wool blend, and all are size medium large fitting from about 12-24 months.

 

 

  

 

 

 

Skullies and Caterpillars

 This mama is going to be sending the caterpillar shorties back to get them lengthened into longies. That is a service I offer for the price of shipping on any longies or shorties as long as the rise still fits.

I lost my skullie pattern and had to re-draw it.  I think it came out pretty good, if just a little big.  The bow tie was a suggestion from my knitting group.  I think they were right :).

I used two different yarns to get the green for the caterpillar.  One was a Cascade 220 wool, the other I can't remember, but it's a baby alpaca lace weight.  I really love how it came out.  And fortunately, I have enough to make a pair for my little guy!

Here's the boy I made the for modeling them.  What a CUTIE!!! I'm jealous of those curls... kinda regretting cutting Jonah's off.

Pink Monkey

NY Shorties

Owen in Monster shorties

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.

And the shorties turned out pretty cute too :)

Hello Kitty Shorties

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....

Monster Shorties

Tee hee hee!!! Another pair of monsters! I LOVE doing monsters! And I totally love how these turned out. I dyed the darker color myself. It was supposed to be magenta... but somehow it didn't turn out that way. I had some dye that said "grape red" on the label, which I was hoping would turn out wine colored... kinda like the color I ended up with here. What did I get? PURPLE. SCREAMING PURPLE. Which is what I wanted for these shorties. But I lost it. When I went to the shop where I usually buy my dyes, they were out, so I bought one labeled "magenta" thinking it would come out, well, magenta. Nope. Instead I got the wine color I'd wanted before. Go figure. I'm totally in love with this color though, and I think I'm going to have to make Addy some skullies or monsters with it.

Octopus Shorties

I'm totally in love with this little octopus. I've found my new calling in life, and it is to design Intarsia patterns for knit soakers. In case you don't know, Intarsia is a technique of using different colored yarns to create a picture. I've seen some pretty amazing work. I even found a knit picture of President Obama not too long ago. If I could remember where it was I would put a link. Maybe I'll add it later. I was so excited to find an easier way to make patterns than I did with the bumblebee bum soaker. I found a graph paper generator that I can put my guage into and then trace a picture onto. Very cool. The design for this one was inspired by a pic that the mom who bought it sent to me.

I also tried a new yarn with this one; Cascade 220, which is 100% Peruvian Highland wool. I love it. I love the way the stitches are so well defined. It knits very smoothly and is much softer than I would have expected. I believe this is going to be my new yarn of choice folks. I may even switch what I'm using for the sock monkey skirty!

Sock Monkey Shorts

These two pics of the shorties on the cute little guy are of my perfected shorties design. They look SOOO much better than before! They have a wide leg now instead of ribbing, they're a little longer, the face is much better. It's more well placed and much more well constructed than before. Plus the eyes are way cuter now than they were before. I've got to say I'm really glad that these have been popular enough for me to make the necessary changes to make them REALLY cute!

The little guy modeling belongs to a girl who won a giveaway on another blog. Isn't he a doll? I'm totally partial to my own boys of course, but this kid has some of the dreamiest eyes I've seen in a long time!

Pink Heart Shorties