Projects Round-Up

Oh hello!
It's been a while, so let's do a projects post!

When I'd last posted about finished projects it was Brad's blanket, and before that the January-to-April stretch. I had a bunch of to-do's... and I'm happy to say that I got to some of those.

1. Baby Knitting
Baby J is due any day now, and we gave the parents-to-be their presents recently. I got them a child-carrier for a good deal from work, the kind you can use to go hiking. On top of that, knitting! Winter babies are lucky.

Brain Slug toque, which can easily be turned into a stuffed toy when baby grows out of it!

Green and black set. I wanted to make the booties with some yarn I had in the stash... and there was still some left, so I made a toque, and there was still some left, so I made mittens, and there is STILL some left, but I left it at that.

The booties are SO TINY. They'll probably only fit for a week. But super cute!

A Cunning Hat- baby crawls down the hall in a that hat, people know he's not afraid of anything.

Velveteen Rabbit-style bunny. I used a rough undyed wool for the body but a really soft one for the belly and ears. Baby can explore texture!

Baby Blankie! A simple leafy pattern using bulky wool, it went quickly. I made it big enough to be a grown-up lap blanket too, so I hope it'll last a long time.

2. Mittens
I quit my retail job recently, after getting a waaaay better job at the public library. Just before I left, my co-worker's wife had a baby. I wanted to make some mittens for the baby, then thought I'd better make some for his big brother too in case he was jealous, then felt badly because the mom never gets things, then felt badly because the DAD never gets things... so I made a family of mittens.

Mitts for dad, gloves for mom, fishies for big brother, and little bitty beehives for baby.

The fishies were definitely the cutest.

Other friends are also having a baby this winter, so made a few things for them. I made a baby Jayne hat identical to the one for Baby J. Then I made a grown-up Jayne hat, and thought I'd better throw something else in, or the parents-to-be would be fighting over who got to wear a hat that sits so cunningly.
What started as a last-minute "maybe I'll make some mittens" idea turned into pretty much an entire pattern. I wanted to make mittens with a Direwolf on them (sigil of House Stark from George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, AKA HBO's Game of Thrones). There wasn't a good chart for mittens, so I made my own. It took some work, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

The palm has snowflakes and swords.  It took a few iterations to prevent the swords from looking like hypodermic needles.

They're slightly roomy on me, so dad-to-be should fit them, or mom-to-be could wear them with liners inside.

These last ones are just for me. Couldn't resist the tiny yarn store we found on our way out of Sequoia National Park when we were in California. Whipped them up fairly quickly, but didn't have a chance to wear them until recently.

 

We found a bear tree! Gloves are good for hikes.

3. Scarves
I made a few scarves for mama (one was too scratchy) and a scarf for me.

The scratchy scarf. The grey is a nice fuzzy alpaca.

Mum's scarf, round two. This time I used a merino sock wool, which is just right.

Forty-two little points. It got wider with every row.

And this is my pretty but not too pretty scarf/shawl. It's soft and warm and I wear it all the time.

Like so.

And I think that's it.

At the moment I'm working on a few things for Christmas... mittens and slippers, mostly. For the new year, I have a few sweaters in mind (for me, for boyfriend, and for some babies I will soon know). Ever onward and upward!

Oh yeah, here's the links to all the patterns: 
Baby J's stuff:
Brain Slug Baby Hat
Antennae (I liked them standing up and with the knobs worked in rather than knotted)  
Newborn Slip-Stitch Hat 
Saartje's Booties
Two Colour Baby Mittens
Sweet Baby Jayne (cunning toque)
Vintage Rabbit.
Wool Leaves (blankie)

Gloves:
Shelburne Mittens (for co-worker)
Classic Gloves (for co-worker's wife)
Goldfish Mittens
Beehive Baby Mittens (no pattern, improvised)
 Hedgerow Mitts (my fingerless gloves)
 Stark Mittens (no pattern yet, improvised)


Scarves:
When Susanna met Jared (mum's scratchy scarf)
Hitchhiker (mum's successful scarf)
Cladonia (my scarf)