Ravelry details for Lucille are here. I think this will fit Caroline late this summer, it’s pretty big for a 0-3 size. It’s more like a 6 months size.

Presenting: Noopy’s Lovey! (pics by Brandy fortune)

Favorite/Queue it on Ravelry: Noopy’s Lovey

I submitted the idea for this pattern early last fall, while my little Noopy was really still a baby (about 8 months). It’s so funny how time flies, and he is now a grown man at 17 months. Ok, maybe not a grown man, but compared to tiny Caroline, John is enormous. ANYWAY!

The summer edition of Petite Purls is all about TOYS – and take a look at the other designs in there. What cuteness! There are some big names in knitting alongside my little one! I am so excited to have been included. Start to finish, it was a great experience. The editors are really great to work with and I hope that I can do this again some day soon. Kind of hard with a toddler tornado and a 3 week old, but I will do what I can. I love writing knitting patterns, it brings me almost as much happiness as being a Mom.

My sweet baby girl Caroline was born May 20th, at 12:07pm. I am so in love and so tired.

(Please excuse his hair… omg. I forgot to check it before the photo was snapped!).

First, a little about Stefanie: I first learned about her when I was learning to knit back in 2002. She had a free pattern in one of the very early issues of Knitty.com called Bad Penny, and it was a cute little sweater that required pretty much no finishing. I looked her up, and found her whole philosophy at the time was to design knitting patterns that were really easy to knit, but super cute to wear. I have personally made the “Minisweater”, the “One Skein Wonder”, and the “Bulky Cable Cardigan”, so I can attest that Stefanie knows what she’s doing when it comes to designing and writing patterns. Since those early days, she has gone on to write a few books, win a few awards, have a few cute kids, and now, make classes available online so people can learn to knit.

I have to say that the idea of a 24-hour access online class should have happened a long time ago, right? I think Stefanie’s is pretty much the first I’ve ever heard of. There are millions of YouTube tutorials, but nothing really start-to-finish like Knit Lab is. And, being that she is a former college professor, she knows how to organize materials and break confusing things down into very manageable chunks. The entire class is broken into 17 lessons that range from a few minutes to a little over a half hour. Starting out in Lesson 1, Stefanie outlines the entire course and explains how to use the Sympoz.com site. That itself is very helpful, she mentions you can type a question to her as you’re watching the video, as well as search of others’ questions as you’re watching. In Lesson 2, she goes over materials (yarn, needles, etc…) in a really detailed manner that took me a few years of knitting on my own to know about. Lesson 3 is learning how to cast on, and 4 is knitting and purling, which Stefanie teaches in the continental style (that is just a way to knit, I personally knit in the English style, but it looks the same in the end. Her way is MUCH FASTER!).

The really cool thing about the class is that as the lessons go on, you can actually use all the techniques in each lesson to work on a project, which Stefanie also provides a written pattern for. Also, the camera work for the actual knitting instruction is great – very close up, and Stefanie goes slow and shows you many, many times how a stitch is made (and the videos are all in HD). Lessons after the basics of knitting and purling include learning how these two stitches function together in a few different combinations, utilizing increases and decreases to make your knitting look more fancy (lace!), seaming, buttonholes, learning why it is important to make a gauge swatch, learning about tension and how that can affect your knitting, and on and on and on. Seriously, this class isn’t just for beginners – I am actually learning a lot about things that had always kind of confused me (seaming), and also understanding concepts better because Stefanie really knows how to explain things well. And I have been knitting for nine years!

Among the 17 lessons Stefanie has made, she also includes three .pdf patterns that go a long with the class and use techniques she teaches (a cute keyhole scarf, a seed stitch scarf, and a pattern/tutorial on how to use tulle to make a bath scrub). Also included are two separate .pdfs for use in reading patterns – a knitting term glossary and a list of knitting abbreviations, as well as overviews for the separate lessons and information that is really helpful when you feel like you’re ready to let go and just knit all the time.

So seriously, if you’ve never even picked up needles, this class will teach you so much. If you’ve never taken a real class, you will also learn a lot. If you’re a teacher like me and want to get an idea of how someone really established teaches, it’s amazing. The class is a bargain for the $59 price, but there is a special deal where every third person gets their money refunded and the class is FREE. Click here to register – you won’t regret it!

Anyway, I have tagged over 100 patterns as “baby” something… baby dress… baby girl cardigan… baby booties… Here is a top eight list of my favorites, in no particular order.

1:

Winter Baby Boots, by Julia Noskova
These are very sweet, and look like they would actually stay on active little feet. Having had my first baby only 14 months ago, I am pretty good at determining which styles of footwear will actually stay on. I can’t tell you how annoying it is to keep putting socks on, etc… Haha.

2:

Lazy Daisy Dress-Up Kit, by Anna and Heidi Pickles
I just love, love, love the turban. It’s so funny. You could reenact Grey Gardens with this outfit! And the colors chosen for the daisy stitch cardi are so current, don’t you think? Perfect for spring babies.

3:

Clara Dress, by Karin Vestergaard Mathiesen
Oh this dress!! It is so sweet – take a look at all the projects people have made on Ravelry. Alicia Paulson’s (pictured) is STUNNING, and I have some stash Madelinetosh to make an exact copy. Seriously, it’s so gorgeous in silver gray.

4:

Fiona’s Top, by Sanne Bjerregaard
This is soooo cute, perfect for twirling and would be so cute with leggings, or if long enough, fun colored tights and cute Mary Janes.

5:

Tiny Tea Leaves Cardi, by Melissa LeBarre
This is a super cute pint-sized version of the adult Tea Leaves pattern written for Madelinetosh, by Melissa LeBarre. If you’re into matchy-matchy, you could make Mommy and Me sweaters, but honestly, I like it better on a tiny human.

6:

Lucille, by Courtney Kelley
Oh my gosh, just click on the link – how completely PRECIOUS is that baby? I am dying.

7:

Lovebug Booties, by Carrie Bostick-Hoge
I like how cool and simplistic these look, but they’re anything but simple.

8:

Concentric Stripes Cardigan, by Melissa Mall.
I saw this on Facebook (when I was still on Facebook!), and one person commented how positively stupid it was to make a sweater for a baby in anything but machine washable yarn. Oh, please. Speaking again from recent experience, it is not difficult to hand wash a tiny sweater, spit-up and all! But this is so cute, and it looks like good mindless car knitting.

When I am done knitting this super secret project, I will make at least ONE of these, and I am hoping to start a blanket for the Lady. I am currently at 29 weeks, so I hope I will have some time to complete both!

(And how weird is my style? I either like really lacy, old fashioned stuff, or super simple looking knits that have complex techniques hidden in them).

Here is a video from last Sunday morning:

I DIE.

Yesterday it hit 50 degrees, but there is still a bunch of snow on the ground. Friday it should be 60, so I am putting on my rainboots and we are heading to the park, mud be damned. Poor Noopy needs fresh air, regardless of mud.

I’m working on a pattern right now for an online magazine, and it’s proving to be a lot more involved that I had thought. Let’s just say that I’m okay with redoing things more than once, and thank goodness I actually like what I’m doing, or I’d quit. Ha! I guess that’s a sign that I’ve found my niche outside all this Mom stuff? One day Noopy and Lady GooGoo will go to school and I will be a lot more productive, but this time now is ok for just getting started. I really only have two hours after Noopy goes to bed to do anything, and usually I’m so tired, I don’t want to do anything. But productivity will come, in time.

(Noopy with the winter sun over his shoulder).

First up is Veera Valimaki’s Fisherman’s Pullover.

(this is Noopy’s “Noopy! Say CHEESE!!!” face… he is so funny).

Details on Ravelry HERE. I made this for my little guy, who isn’t a 2T, but is tall. I didn’t make any modifications, but although it’s supposed to be close-fitting, it obviously isn’t. Room to grow. And, if he’s too long next fall for this, I can just reknit the bottom of the sleeves and body. No big deal. And being that I knit this on sz 10.5 needles it took me no time at all to make the entire sweater (maybe 2 weeks?).

Next up is the Abagail Sweater, by Kay Squared.

Details HERE on Ravelry.
This pic was taken before I put in the button band and the buttons, which I got from Purl Jam. They’re really pretty turquoise and white glass buttons from Moving Mud. The yarn is gorgeous, more so in person. It’s Madelinetosh’s Tosh DK in “burnished”. I think it’s like a 3-6 months size. Obviously I don’t have a model for this one yet! But it was another fast knit, it took me maybe a week and a half.

The weather this month has been so awful, and I live in a lightless house (or so it seems). Being stuck inside has been good for knitting, but bad for photos and basically anything else. My poor kiddo. I took him to the library for Mother Goose time yesterday, and he was SO happy to see other children – I think he thought they only existed in books and on tv for a little bit!

I have a busy month ahead, in addition to getting my kiddo out of the house more, I’m taking Tot Topper’s Math for Hats class online and I am also designing/writing a pattern for this summer’s Petite Purls. Holla! Also I am teaching another beginner class at Purl Jam. I guess my classes are really good, we now have a waiting list. How awesome is that?

I knit this shawl-collared, seed stitch cowl in one day while I was waiting for my 20 week ultrasound for my second child. It was the perfect project to take my mind off everything. It turns out there was nothing to be nervous about, SHE is perfect! This yarn is gorgeous. It’s butter-soft, and the colors really begged to be knit in seed stitch to show off their true depth. I think if you need a last minute gift, this would be perfect to make, or if you’re having a crappy day, this is almost instant gratification and will definitely cheer you up.

Yarn: Malabrigo Rasta in Indiecita (1 skein, 92 yds), purchased from Pins n’ Needles (Princeton, NJ).
Needles: sz 17
Length of time to complete: mere hours!
Measurements (unblocked): 8″ x 32″
Other materials needed: tapestry needle, sewing needle, buttons (1.5″ diameter would work best), sewing thread.

Cast on 16 stitches.
Row 1: knit
Row 2: (yo, k2tog)*; rep from * until end.
Row 3 and every subsequent row: (k1, p1)*; rep from * until end.
When you have just enough to bind off, do so.
Weave in ends. Block or not, it’s up to you. I didn’t.

I PROMISE I will have better photos tomorrow or whatever. The yarn is truly gorgeous.