Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Sheepish Little Sweater: Baaah-humbug, I Give Up

I think we are finally healthy and getting back on track.  I have tons to show you if only I could take a few pictures. So, if you are hanging in there with me, please keep on hanging.  And if you aren't following me on IG, you can find me there as cliophineas.

I suppose I have no one to blame but myself. Apparently, I didn't learn my lesson last spring when I knit Taco a beautiful rainbow sweater and he refused to wear it for weeks and weeks. To date, he has only worn it a handful of times.

I knit this uber adorable sheep sweater in the misplaced hopes that he would wear it as a holiday outfit. I reasoned that he is in a phase where he wants animals, dinos and other characters on his clothing.






But now that spring is here - even if the weather is not cooperating - I give up.  I think this sweater will just not be worn. Sigh.  So you will have to content yourself with photos not on Taco.

The pattern is Sheepish Little Sweater by Melissa Kemmerer.  It is knit up in Knit Pick's Mighty Stitch, which is a worsted weight, superwash acrylic/wool blend. It is a very soft yarn that feels lovely to the touch, and the colors are as bright and happy as could be. I have been using it for baby gifts recently.

This sweater was a good project for working on my stranded colorwork skills. You are never knitting with more than two colors at a time, which makes it pretty straight-forward. I'm still not 100% proficient, but I've made great strides. Look at these cute little sheep....




One of the nice little details is that the sheep pattern is continued on the sleeves. Super duper cute.





And here are my floats on the back.




The sweater is knit top down, in the round which makes it easy to knit. No seaming required.  The only change I made was to make it a bit longer than the size I picked suggested, since Taco is slim for his height. He tends to grow out of clothing length-wise before they fit width-wise.

Anyway, here are a few last shots.  I highly recommend















All that is left to say is Baaah!

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

A Little Kitchen Cuteness

Wow, I think this is the longest gap I've ever had in blogging.  It's been a brutal winter. Thank goodness spring is here or at least here-ish.

This is a little project that I did for Christmas, when I was in between bouts of kiddie germ illness and wanting a fun and easy sewing project.

If you follow me on IG (cliophineas), you will know that Taco and I like to bake together. It's a messy hobby and I haven't been able to find an apron small enough for him that I thought was also cute available commercially. So, I sewed this apron for Taco as a Christmas gift to go with a tiny chef set.





I drafted the pattern using a tutorial on Craftsy (here), but made it shorter and narrower than the instructions called for. Also, I modeled the straps after grown up aprons that we own using D-rings rather than an elasticized strap as the tutorial instructs.






Also, I disregarded the sewing instructions so that I could make the apron reversible. The side that Taco seems to favor has animals, and the opposite side is orange with a zebra pocket.





These cotton fabrics have been in my stash for so long that I really can't tell you when or where I got them.  I know that the faux-applique look animal print was purchased long before Taco was a consideration.  So, I'm happy to finally sew something with it.

Overall, this was the perfect project right when I was wanting to sew during the plague-ridden, exhausted winter holidays but didn't feel up to fitting or complicated projects. And, I was so happy with how this came out that I immediately sewed a second one for Taco's cousin who is eight months younger.

Ok, enough me. Here is Taco, helping Phin make pizza on a Friday evening.









And here are a few from Saturday, when we dyed Easter eggs.





He seems to like his new apron and insists on wearing it whenever Phin or I put on aprons, ourselves.