Hardy Miss Babs Yummy

tealeaves_front

This is my first time using Miss Babs. It is Yummy, a sportweight,100% merino 3-ply. And this is Melissa LaBarre’s very popular pattern, “BABY Tea Leaves.” It’s an excellent pattern. I intend to knit it again. But the star of this post is the yarn.

OK, the colorway is a little garish. It’s very garish. But I like it anyway. First off, knitting with it was wonderful. I finished the sweater. I was recuperating from surgery at the time and had to limit my trips up and down the stairs. I asked Steve if he would take the sweater down to the dining room and put it on the table so I could steam it later. He was carrying a load of laundry downstairs at the same time and I placed the sweater on the top of the laundry heap.

Ok. That was a pretty big mistake on my part. Steve took the laundry down to the laundry room and proceeded to accidentally wash the sweater in the washing machine along with whatever else was in the basket. And then he tossed BABY Tea Leaves in the dryer. This is truly the test of a superwash. All I can say is that it’s not as bad as I would have imagined. It felted only very lightly. The photo is post-laundry disaster. I think it’s still wearable by the newborn I planned it for.

Here’s how the back looks.

tealeaves_back

A little more of a ruffled look than the designer planned. But not at all a disaster.

This is how Miss Babs Yummy looks before it gets beat up in a top-loading washer and buffeted in a dryer:

falberry

The colors are a tad brighter and more distinct. This is Anne Hanson’s Fallberry Mitts, a free pattern available on Ravelry. I should have knit these in a nice, calm color that would show off the cabling. But I had just the right amount of Miss Babs left. And the colors are my friend’s three favorite: orange, purple and green. I have to admit I’ve not seen here wear all three at the same time, though.

Fallberry is an excellent pattern that passes my major test for a fingerless mitt. It has a good thumb with a nice thumb gusset.

falberry