Two Baby Sweaters

There have been thoughts of babies.

I have done in the past some knitting for Afghans for Afghans. This group has not been as active for several years. I cannot keep up well with what's going on in Afghanistan and the pullout, the not pullout, the NGO's etc etc,  but if I'm reading Ravelry right, they are now taking baby socks, mittens, and hats.   That said, I had a never worn wool baby sweater. As they are not taking sweaters, I sent this one to "Hats and More for War Torn Syria." 

It is done from Carol Bareny's classic baby sweater pattern, free online. I have done this sweater many times. And so has everyone else...there are 3100 versions out there! The wool is Jamieson and Smith, leftover from a long ago Sasha Kagan pattern.

and in the meantime, someone in my family had a baby, her name is Sophie. Here is EZ's Baby Surprise Classic. I apparently clipped the pattern from Knitter's Magazine from 1989...rather wise on my part, if I may say so... I have also done this one as a gift many times. It's from sock yarn...I keep all my ball bands but of course can't find this one...I do love it though and Sophie's Mom thinks it will fit in the autumn when she is 6 months old...

Free Knitting Pattern: Square Hat

I had some lovely pinky handspun yarn hanging around for a long time. I purchased it at the Montpelier Farmer's market a way long time ago. Janice and I uncovered it when she helped me organize my stash this year. It was the late summer and we were working toward completing some projects for Afghans for Afghans.  So I came up with this, perhaps a girl's hat. The white is my churro handspun in 2 ply.

Here is the pattern, for free


https://www.scribd.com/doc/247056478/Square-Hat

I love that 2 x 2 thing.  It may have started with my love of the Amish square  patch quilt.  Here is one that I asked a friend to do,  a number of years ago. I knit her son a sweater (blue, raglan pullover) to swap.  I bought the Amish inspired fabric long long ago in New York...Kind of a circular thing as that friend grew up in Vermont....!

Afghans for Afghans or…nothing like a deadline...

You may recall that there was a dyeing effort earlier this year to dye some fiber for Afghans for Afghans knitting so that there would be no white yarn with which to knit. 

In late summer, I somehow recalled that S, J and I had been working on Mary's yarn for Afghans for Afghans, and I decided to check the DEADLINE!  Why yes…September 8th (I think I figured this out around or about Aug 31st.

So  I had completed some items but not yet sewn them up…on the 31st J kept me company while I wielded the sewing machine to sturdily do my finishing.  Socks and mittens were favored over hats...Here are results

Two needle socks with seam on top

Two Needle Cable Mittens  (quite love this pattern, wish I lived somewhere cold so I could knit them for myself!)

And here is the poignant part…Mary had started to knit an Irish sweater (source of the rest of the yarn) before she became ill. I stitched up the 14" of the bottom of the sweater (all that she had knit) into a hat sort of shape. Later that week I used some commercial dye on it, so that it would not be "white." It definitely lost some of it's creamy white Irish yarn loveliness, but it will be used by someone who needs it this winter!

 

Below is a pattern that I "unvented" (thanks, Elizabeth Z) using not Mary's yarn, but some lovely handspun pink stuff that I bought at the Saturday farmer's market in Montpelier Vermont, long before all the other states including mine were doing it, plus some churro handspun. For a little girl, perhaps...

Here is someone (J?) being a bit silly

Sent off in the nick of time…but there is  more  yarn for next year!