CogKnition » Baby Items

Cobijita Floresita Baby Blanket

CogKnition — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:54:43 +0000

Pattern: Cobijita Floresita by Mia Zamora Johnson
Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted, #180, 5 skeins, and #215, 1 skein
Hook: H 5.0mm

All the blanket needs now is a baby to sit in the middle and coo.

I have to say, I officially love crocheting blankets. It is SO FAST. This blanket is about 44″ across and I finished it in about two and a half weeks (including ripping and re-crocheting 1/3 of the petals).

This is a very nice beginning crochet pattern and a very portable project. The instructions are clear and there are lots of photographs to help you figure out how to assemble the blanket.

Although Encore is my favorite yarn for baby gifts because it is machine washable and dryable and comes in so many wonderful colors, I think this pattern would work best with a yarn that has more natural fiber.

The petals are a little cupped when they first come off the hook and need to be blocked flat. The edging around the center also wants to point towards the middle and it needs to be blocked to point towards the outside of the flower. I think I could have managed to block them entirely flat with a natural fiber yarn, but Encore doesn’t block that well and my edging is standing up like a tart crust.

Mmmm tarts.

The “wrong side” of the blanket is neat and tidy, which I appreciate a lot.

Now to wrap it up and give it away!

Other entries about Cobijita Floresita:

Sleepy Snake & Mischievous Mice

CogKnition — Fri, 22 May 2009 01:07:07 +0000

Pattern: Sleepy Snake & Mischievous Mouse, by Mochimochi Land
Yarn: Plymouth Encore, #450, #451, #515, #1202, and #599
Needles: US 5 (3.75mm) Addi Turbos

A tragedy in four acts.

Act I—Mice Gather ‘Round

Act II—Friend? Or Intruder?

Act III—INTRUDER! RUN AWAAYYYYYYY!

Act IV—Goodbye, Cruel World

The end.

Other entries about Sleepy Snake & Mischievous Mice

Stripy Throw

CogKnition — Sat, 09 May 2009 21:56:47 +0000

Pattern: Simple Crochet by Erika Knight
Yarn: Cascade 220, #8555 black, #4192 pastel pink, 2 skeins each; #7822 dark chocolate brown, #2413 burgundy, #8834 medium rose, 1 skein each
Hook: J 6.0mm

The yarn, she is no longer cursed. It loves being a baby blanket that is about to be shipped off to Afghans for Afghans.

The finished blanket is baby-sized, about 34″ x 46″. I used a different stripe sequence than what’s in the pattern to accommodate the amounts of yarn I had. Stripe sequence after the jump.

Continue reading Stripy Throw (70 words) »

| Permalink | No Comments | Leave a Comment |

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Pieced Throw

CogKnition — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:04:26 +0000

Pattern: Pieced Throw, from Simple Crochet by Erika Knight
Hook: G 4.0mm
Yarn: Lion Brand Baby Soft Solid in Bluebell, 2 skeins, and Pastel Blue, Pistachio, and Lemon Drop, 1 skein each

The finished measurements are about 42″ square.

I had misgivings about using a Lion Brand yarn (let’s just say it was a lot easier to find a Big Box Craft Store than a good LYS during my Thanksgiving trip), but I’m actually pretty happy with it. It doesn’t replace my most favoritest of wash-and-dry, baby-friendly acrylic blends, Plymouth Encore, but it will definitely do in a pinch.

I made two changes to the pattern that really made the project for me. First, I adapted the colorblock sequence for four colors. This wasn’t totally intentional—I had meant to use a different four-color pattern and bought yarn accordingly but then changed my mind at the last minute. But in retrospect, breaking up one of the 16-row color blocks into a 4-, 8-, 4-row sequence of two colors really adds a lot of visual pop to the project.

The second change was to make a three-row edging instead of the one written into the pattern. A one-row edging just looked and felt dinky and I thought three rows would look more proportional to the rest of the blanket and help stabilize the edge better.

Not to mention this project photo from the book:

That didn’t look like a one-row edging to me.

This project also re-affirmed my belief in blocking. I usually wet-block everything, finding that it makes a huge difference in the finished project while also giving the yarn a much-needed wash. But conventional wisdom says that acrylic doesn’t really block so I wasn’t sure if it would really matter in this case.

It mattered.

I threw the whole thing into a big lingerie bag and then into the wash. When I took it out, I did my usual, somewhat painstaking process of hands-and-knees, pins into the floor, yardsticks and tape measures to square corners. The blanket had been a bit misshapen due to wonky tension when it first came off the hook. But a good blocking evened everything up nicely.

I worship at the altar of blocking and will never doubt again.

P.S. Remember when I said I would be releasing a new pattern this weekend? Not so much! Get this…I lost the pattern notes, which means I have to reconstruct the whole thing from memory. I can do it, but well…maybe next weekend.

Other entries about the Pieced Throw:

Wave of Babies Booties, Knitting Pattern Posted

CogKnition — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 05:43:01 +0000

Pattern: My own, download it here!
Yarn: Plymouth Encore, #1203, #599, #208, #515, #9621, #9401, #1202
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 7 (4.5mm)

These are my sanity-restoring baby booties. I’ve had the pattern written up for forever, I just needed to knit more samples. And then I knit the samples, but just needed to take pictures. And then I let the pictures sit, even though all I had to do was plop them into the pattern, convert to pdf, and upload.

Oh, and update the web site. Which is done now, so I’m going to bed. While I sleep, you can download the pattern and knit some booties.

Wave of Babies Booties

CogKnition — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 07:01:42 +0000

Pattern: My own
Yarn: Plymouth Encore, #598, #208, #217, scraps
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 7 (4.5mm)

Yay, cute!

I’m exhausted (not from making the booties) and that’s all I have to say. I plan to make another pair in a slightly larger size and then post the pattern.

Other entries about the Wave of Babies Booties:

A Bit of Instant Gratification

Cable and Seed Stitch Jacket

CogKnition — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 21:49:14 +0000

Pattern: Cable and Seed Stitch Jacket, by Debbie Bliss, Debbie Bliss: The Baby Knits Book, 6-12 month size
Yarn: Plymouth Encore, #9621, 2 skeins
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 8 (5mm)

Yay, baby sweaters!

This is a super fast and super easy knit and the finished sweater is super cute. I just hope the baby actually turns out to be a girl. The parents couldn’t tell from the ultrasound if the baby is a girl or a boy who is really, really, really shy about flashing the world his private parts.

(Accidental) Modifications
The pattern only calls for 7 buttons. Frankly, you could probably get away with having only five. But thanks to my Amazing Math Prowess, I put in 8 buttonholes, so 8 buttons it was.

Also, the pattern calls for over 600 yards of a worsted weight yarn to finish this size; I needed less than 400.

See the pretty ribbon reinforcing the button band?

Yeah, I didn’t do any of that. I didn’t sew the buttons on either. My grandma was visiting, so I approached her with my arms full of sweater, ribbon, thread, and buttons, and a hopeless puppy look on my face, and she installed all that for me. And she taught me how to attach buttons securely. Hooray for grandmas!

Other entries about the Cable and Seed Stitch Jacket:

Sweater Life Cycle

One More for the Road

CogKnition — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 17:25:12 +0000

Pattern: Original
Yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Wool, #3103 Allspice, skein
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 7 (4.5mm)

I still had one more skein of the Elann Peruvian Highland Wool, even after the slew of hats and a pair of mittens. My original calculations had the mittens requiring 160 yards. They took 60. Oops.

So I set about making a one-skein hat. I cast on 96 stitches, knit some 2×2 ribbing until I got tired of it, and then made 24 increases in preparation for the cable pattern. I knit alternating panels of the XOXO cable pattern until the hat measured around 5 inches deep, and then started the decreases for the crown.

I mostly winged the crown decreases, ripping once after I decided it was ugly and starting over. I’ve unvented this combination cable-cross/decrease move that helps maintain some cable-y goodness as you start to the narrow the panels. The remaining yarn went into the pom-pom.

The finished hat is about 16″ around.

I rather like the finished product. If I had to do it again, I’d do a couple fewer rows of ribbing at the bottom so I could finish the second repeat of the cable pattern before starting the crown decreases. I think that proportion would look a little nicer as well.

Total Afghans for Afghans item count: 7

Now that that’s done, time to revisit that lace!

Cabled Child Mittens

CogKnition — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 18:55:14 +0000

Pattern: Original
Yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Wool, #3103 Allspice, oddballs
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 7 (4.5mm)

Here’s another FO in my quest to outfit the children of Afghanistan with my wool oddball stash. These should fit a child aged 2-4 years and used about 60 yards of worsted-weight yarn.

These are my first mittens using standard mitten construction. The Target Wave Mittens were my first mittens ever, but they’re built in a non-standard way.

I mashed the cable pattern from the cable and rib hoodie and the cabled pom-pom hat in with the mitten pattern from Ann Budd’s Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns and wound up with these.

I made a few modifications to the standard pattern. First, I added increases along the back of the mitt to adjust for cables’ tendency to pull in. Second, I moved the decreases for the top of the mitt and the thumb to the sides, opting for a flat top instead of the spiral decrease pattern in the book.

Total item count: 6

I’ve just cast on for one more child hat, and then hopefully my oddball stash of Elann Peruvian Highland Wool will be gone. Then we’ll see about depleting my Cascade 220 stash.

Baby Hat Trick (Plus One)

CogKnition — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 05:21:22 +0000

Pattern: Original
Yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Wool, oddballs

Cabled pompom hat: #3103 Allspice
Purple and yellow ribbed hat: #2713 Aubergine and #7725 Freesia
Orange and red striped hat: #1004 Pumpkin and #2055 Ruby
Striped pompom hat: #7725 Freesia, #100 Natural, and #1004 Pumpkin

Needles: Addi Turbos, US 5 (3.75mm) and US 7 (4.5mm)

Here’s what became of the oddballs. Total oddball use: 186 grams, or about 370 yards. There was some referring to the Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns for measurements, but otherwise I mostly just winged it, weighing the yarn as I went to make sure I had enough to finish each hat.

The cabled hat is designed to go with the cable and rib hoodie. The purple and yellow hat is evidence that I am a bad Wisconsinite, otherwise I would have noticed much, much earlier that I was committing the cardinal sin of making an item in Minnesota Vikings colors.

Both the striped hats are hemmed hats. The orange and red one is about 16″ around, as are the two hats above. According to Ann Budd, that makes them fit for infants 0-6 months. The other one is about 18″ around and should fit babies 6-18 months.

I thought I had been knitting toddler-sized hats the whole time and it came as a great shock to me that these are infant…infant…sizes. It made me cross my legs and marvel that anybody actually tries to give birth. Anyways…

Continue reading Baby Hat Trick (Plus One) (162 words) »

| Permalink | 4 Comments | Leave a Comment |

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Harvard Square Cardigan

CogKnition — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 15:49:44 +0000

Pattern: Harvard Square Cardigan, from Knitting for Baby, 9-month size
Yarn: MC—Baby Pure DK (#502), CC1—Sirdar Snuggly DK (#0377), CC2—Plymouth Dreambaby DK (#201), 1 skein each
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 6 (4mm)

Aww, another itty bitty sweater! Baby sweaters are so quick, yet so gratifying.

This project represents a few firsts for me

first time doing a lot of itty bitty stripes, and
first time doing a button band and buttons.

The stripes are skinny enough that I just carried the colors up the sides, rather than cutting and having to weave in eleventy billion ends.

The buttons are knit on like beads, and then reinforced with thread.

Continue reading Harvard Square Cardigan (255 words) »

| Permalink | 2 Comments | Leave a Comment |

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Cable and Rib Sweater w/Hood

CogKnition — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 16:45:44 +0000

Pattern: From Debbie Bliss: The Baby Knits Book
Yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Wool, #3103, 7 skeins
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 7 (4.5mm)

Itty bitty clothes! I love it! I unfortunately don’t have an appropriately-sized model for the sweater, so you’ll just have to imagine some cooing baby wearing it in Mongolia.

Continue reading Cable and Rib Sweater w/Hood (171 words) »

| Permalink | 3 Comments | Leave a Comment |

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Target Wave Mittens

CogKnition — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 20:54:53 +0000

Pattern: Target Wave Mittens, from Knitting Nature and reprinted in Interweave Knits Fall 2006
Yarn: Plymouth Encore, #848 (navy) and #208 (white), oddballs
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 6 and US 8

Started last, finished first!

These are a very quick knit. I made the Child’s Small size and I’d guess each mitten took a couple of hours to make, including the seaming.

Continue reading Target Wave Mittens (132 words) »

| Permalink | 4 Comments | Leave a Comment |

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

CogKnition » Baby Items

Cobijita Floresita Baby Blanket

Similar Posts:

Sleepy Snake & Mischievous Mice

Similar Posts:

Stripy Throw

Pieced Throw

Similar Posts:

Wave of Babies Booties, Knitting Pattern Posted

Similar Posts:

Wave of Babies Booties

Similar Posts:

Cable and Seed Stitch Jacket

Similar Posts:

One More for the Road

Similar Posts:

Cabled Child Mittens

Similar Posts:

Baby Hat Trick (Plus One)

Harvard Square Cardigan

Cable and Rib Sweater w/Hood

Target Wave Mittens