Tag Archives: Martha Stewart Extra Soft Wool Blend

Grabbit

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This is a Grabbit. It’s another interesting Cottage Creations pattern by Carol A. Anderson. Cottage Creations pattern booklets are available in local yarn shops, many on-line retailers, and via Carol’s website. The booklets aren’t (yet) downloadable, but they’re so worth the effort to find them.

A few more views of Grabbit show what makes it a tad idiosyncratic (if knitting can be called that).

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It’s a carry-all. To create a neat bundle of belongings, you just thread the knitted loop through the gigantic buttonholes rimming the edge. But it’s also a nice playmat. It even works as a small blanket.

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Grabbit_blocked5This Grabbit is knit in my seemingly endless supply of Martha Stewart Lion Brand Extra Soft Wool Blend. I believe I purchased a tad more than I needed for LeCirque Baby Playmat, even if the  bunny, the lamb, the lion, the bear, the vest and the Grabbit had all been planned from the outset. Let’s just say, the layette is shaping up. And Grabbit is going to be the packaging for the stuffed buddies.

 

You Are My Sunshine

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This is a quick knit vest, designed by Beatrice Perron Dahlen. Her “You Are My Sunshine Baby Vest,” sized for a 6 month old, is available free on her website. I was very much drawn to the open, fairly simple (I thought) lace work.

It is simple. But that didn’t stop me from being flummoxed by what to do in the row after the double yarn overs in row 4 of the 4 row pattern. When you come to those stitches in the first round after the double yarn over, knit 4 just wasn’t doing it for me.  I knit 2 together, knit one, purl one, knit one. If I knit this again, I might try knit 2 together, knit one, knit one through the back loop, knit one.

The underarm decreases are a tad ragged–which doesn’t matter since babies are pretty forgiving of such stuff. It works. Arms will be able to poke through the armholes quite nicely. Some Ravelers have tabbed the shoulder straps and added a buttonhole and button to each strap. That’s a nice look, but I decided to keep it buttonless.

This little vest hardly takes any yarn at all to knit up. I used only 2.8 ounces from one skein of Lion Brand Martha Stewart Extra Soft Wool Blend. Thanks Beatrice!

And when the baby spits up and messes on the vest, in a pinch (if you weave the yarn ends in carefully) you can just turn the vest inside out. Because it’s basically reversible. Oh, but moms would never do that. Never. And babies don’t spit up anymore, do they?

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Camelot Best Friend Bear

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This is Best Friend Bear, another Lion Brand pattern available free, after you sign on to their site. This is an easy, very cute pattern. My only modification was to gather the neck in a bit. It’s shown here in Martha Stewart Crafts Extra Soft Wool Blend. Quite a nice yarn, especially for baby and kid stuff that is going to lead a hopefully hard life. Some day, after this bear is gifted, I hope to encounter Best Friend Bear worn to a frazzle because some special child has adopted this bear as a favorite stuffed buddy.

But, the bear did look very bare.

I got to thinking about a particularly disappointing knit 3-4 years ago. I started working on a Lucy Neatby sock kit, with wonderful Koigu KPM sock yarn. The pattern is Neatby’s Camelot Socks. In fact, the featured sock is exactly the colorway I was working with, but at the time it was kitted with Koigu. I got all the way through the cuff and just beyond turning the heel when I realized I’d goofed up on the instep pattern on one side. I was at a loss to figure what I’d done wrong. I planned to let it rest for a few days and return to it later. It is rare that I put a project into hibernation. This one was too beautiful to abandon. But I did.

So, I slid the bear into my half-a-Camelot sock and realized that I might be able to modify the sock to fit the bear as a hooded dress. The garter stitch cuff could be hemmed to the correct length. I could add sleeves and then, gulp, steek on the inside. The heel could be the hood. I’d just need to do some finishing work to frame the face better.

So, this is my Camelot hooded dress:

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OK, I know I’m tooting my own horn here, but this “save” has me totally pleased with myself. The knitting has not gone to waste. Neither has the yarn. And I don’t have to feel the least bit guilty for not finishing a project. In fact, it takes a trained knitting eye to even notice my patterning mistake.

Here’s the whole Lion Brand set, Long-Eared Bunny, Knitted Lion, Cute Cabled Lamb and Best Friend Bear:

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Lion Brand lion

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This is my version of Lion Brand’s Knitted Lion, a free pattern available on their website once you provide them with login info. Once again, I knit this with Martha Stewart Crafts Extra Soft Wool Blend left over from LeCirque.

My modifications were to embroider a face (rather than sew on felt features), add a mouth, and gather in the neck stitches. I also knit my own version of a mane, not of the Martha Stewart Crafts Glitter Eyelash that the pattern calls for. I just used the same yarn I used for the body. Glitter Eyelash is a “fun fur” type yarn and I thought the mane would be more to my liking without quite so much, well, so much.

Here’s how I knit the mane, which is also my modification: cast on 4, knit one row. Cast on 4 stitches  and bind them off on the way back and continue to complete that row and then knit the row back. Next row, cast on again, and just keep doing that until you have enough knitted to ring the face. Between the ears, I alternated between casting on 4 and and casting on 6 (and always immediately binding off that same number). Then, for the sides and bottom of the mane, I alternated between 6 and 8 on the cast on (and the bind off).

These small stuffed buddies have been a fun project. They all knit up quickly. In addition to the lion, there’s a rabbit and a lamb.  I’ve also knit a bear that I’ll post soon.

Here’s the lion’s back side. Excuse me, the from-the-back view.

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Cabled lamb

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This is “Cute Cabled Lamb,” another in a Lion Brand series of free animal patterns that knit up to about 10.5 inches. The pattern is available here. You will need to join the Lion Brand site to download it, though. As with Long Eared Bunny, my only modifications were to gather in the neck, add a seam at the top of the legs, and embroider the face with yarn.

The lamb is shown here in Martha Stewart Crafts Extra Soft Wool Blend, a Lion Brand pattern in colors that tend to the pastels. It’s a comfy 35% wool, 65% acrylic.

The cabled sweater is the inspired touch in this critter, for sure. Lamb likes it so much she’s decided she’ll never take it off.

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