Professional Voice Talent, Amateur Actor and Knitter

Tag: sweaterpalooza2015

Sweaterpalooza is over!

I’ve finished the last of the baby sweaters for friends who’ve been having babies this year! I have this half feeling that I should make one more, so it’ll be an even dozen, but there’s no way I’d get it done before the end of the year. 🙂

This pattern calls itself “Easy Aran”, but the only cabling is in the top section just below the collar. The rest of it is more of a guernsey (also known as gansey). For those who aren’t familiar, traditional Aran patterns (the knitting style that originated in the Aran Islands, which are part of Ireland), tend to incorporate lots of texture in the form of cables, where the stitches are worked out of order, in order to pull them in one direction or another, and form what look like plaits, or sometimes, diagonal lines of stitches. Guernsey patterns originated on the Channel island of Guernsey, and also incorporate texture, but tend to knit/purl patterns instead of cables. In both cases, these started as fisherman sweaters, and needed to be thick and warm. The texturing traps air, and depending on the stitch, can double the thickness of the fabric, making it warmer.

Twin Sweaters

Two more sweaters (nearly) in the bag! These two needed to be the same size as the previous three, since the two sets of babies were born around the same time, but I hadn’t marked down the size I used for the first three (6-9 month), and chose the wrong one (3-6 month) and ended up with a too-small sweater. So, technically, I have three more sweaters (nearly) in the bag, because I went ahead and finished the too-small one for the next person on the list.

For my second attempt at the first twin sweater, and before I realized that the error I had made was choosing the wrong size, I decided to use the Tulip sweater from the last set as my base again, and just add the colourwork from the other sweater. I chose to put the colourwork on the yoke, however. I ended up liking this shade of blue better than the original too.

The second twin sweater also has the Tulip sweater as a base, and colourwork from a different pattern. This time, the original pattern had the colourwork on the yoke, and I decided to put it at the bottom of the body instead, because my brain is weird and doesn’t like doing things the easy way. This one still needs the ends woven in and the buttons sewn on (sheep buttons!).

I have one more baby sweater on my list, but I’m taking a break from baby clothes for a little while to knit a blouse for a co-worker. I’m uncertain who it’s for. Our first conversation led me to believe it was for her; the second that it was for her sister. They picked out the yarn and pattern together, but my co-worker never even started it. I get the sense that, when it came down to it, she was out of her depth, and so kept putting it off, to the point where her sister has stopped asking about it.

Triplet sweaters

I’ve nearly finished the trio of sweaters for a set of triplets. They’re two boys and a girl, so I decided not to make identical sweaters. I started with the tulip yoke sweater in my previous post, and then used the same basic pattern but with different colourwork for the two boys’ sweaters.

Three baby sweaters

The paw print sweater has a bear on the back. I was able to find flower and bear buttons for the tulip and bear sweaters, but couldn’t find any buffalo buttons at the store, so I was making do with some random cute sheep buttons, until one of the ladies at the knitting circle mentioned that she had once used some buttons made from old buffalo nickels. The woman is brilliant. Look at these. Aren’t they just perfect?!?

Buffalo nickel buttons

I’m just waiting for them to arrive, and then this set will be completely done!

Next up, identical sweaters for identical twins.

Baby Bonanza

They must have put something in the water around here recently, because I’ve got eleven (yes, 11!) baby sweaters in the works! Granted, two of them are for older siblings of new babies, but that still means nine new babies among my friends. Yikes!

I started with the two paired sweaters; the same two patterns in two different sizes. Hopefully, come winter, they’ll both be able to fit in their sweater at the same time, so they’ll match and be adorable.

First pair.

Second pair (the second sweater in this pair still needs the ends woven in and the buttons added).

And now I’m working on the first of three sweaters for a set of triplets.

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