FO: Waterloo and Ottawa Baby Sweaters

As I mentioned a while back I have two cousins both expecting babies last month.  Back in February, over Family Day Weekend, my Aunt hosted a joint baby shower for Heather and Lara at my mom's house in Parry Sound. There were about 40 family members and it was a great chance to see some of my cousins I hadn't seen in a couple of years.

The shower had a book theme and I gave both copies of Brambly Hedge, one of my favorite books as a kid.  However, as a knitter I couldn't resist adding some handknit woolies to the parcel.  I pulled out the Puerperium Cardigan pattern which is quickly becoming my go-to baby knit.  It is quick, can be done from a single skein of DK weight yarn and gets good reviews from moms.  I've been considering getting more of Kelly Bookers patterns for kids, because these babies are going to grow up (rumor has it) and I really like the way she writes and formats her patterns.

Neither of these babies has made their arrivals yet, but I'm looking forward to meeting these new additions to my already large extended family (I'm 7th of 14 grandchildren).  I'm glad to know that they will have wooly goodness and that I have a go-to pattern for the babies that will continue to show up in the years to come.

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Projects: Waterloo Puerperium and Ottawa Puerperium

Pattern: Puerperium Cardigan by Kelly Brooker

Yarn: Tanis Fiber Arts, Yellow Label in Spearmint and Pink Grapefruit

FO: Forest Baby Blue Duckie Sweater

The real success of this knit is thanks to Carla, who helped pick the yarn color and also helped with button selection, and for me the sweater is cute but the duckies make something really fun and special.

However it is thanks to the Yarn Harlot that I know about this great little sweater, she knit it for a baby last fall and I just fell in love with the shape.  And when the arrival of the Forest Baby was announced I figured it was a good a time as any to try out the pattern.  It is a keeper, a quick knit and a great finished object that is totally gender neutral (depending on color and buttons) so it is a good one to keep in the file for friends future babies.

- Details -

Project Name: Forest Baby Blue Duckie Sweater

Pattern: Puerperium Cardigan by Kelly Brooker of knit.so.quaint

Recipient: Forest Baby

Yarn: SweetGeorgia Superwash DK in Tourmaline

Modifications:

• None - Except I opted for the short-sleeves because I am sick of knitting sleeves

New Skills:

• Attaching Buttons - The last thing I made with buttons my mom ended up putting them on for me, but these ones becasue of the style I found that yarn worked better than thread for attaching.

Feedback:

• Yarn - This stuff is AWESOME.  The yarn base was nice enough but the yarn color has nearly send me into a tailspin of figuring what I can make out of it for ME!  I took some of it to a Guild meeting and someone asked me what color I called it, and really it is impossible to determine whether it is green or blue.  It is just totally made of awesome.  I am looking forward to using more of SweetGeorgia's yarns in a balanced diet with Tanis and indigodragonfly.
• Pattern - Much like the Baby Vertabrae, (which is by the same designer) I found this pattern clear, however as it was free there was only 1 size.  In future I may decide to upgrade to the paid version as I find the shape appealing and I know that the paid pattern will give me a huge range of sizes and yarn weights.

Re-Knit?: Quite possibly, this size used just over half a skein and left enough yarn to knit a baby hat and some mitties, which makes $20 for the DK and $5 for some buttons makes a pretty affordable knitted baby set as a gift.