Fun Firsts!

Finally, a recap of everything (well, most everything) that I've been working on over the past few weeks. I finally got around to taking pictures, and I'm happier than ever with the way everything turned out! I made my first knitted sweater and my first vest in the same week. Well, I should tell you that they are baby items, but I'm still pretty impressed with myself. My resolution for 2009 is to be FEARLESS. But that's a whole blog post of its own; more on that later.

This is Li'l Presto, made from the Presto Chango pattern designed by Valerie Wallis (aka Shoeless). You can find her pattern on her blog, here. I think it's ingenious and way toooo cute not to knit for your next baby shower. It's definitely a showstopper, and a fast and easy knit. I finished it in one evening and a morning. The only modification I made was to add crocheted edging around the panel and the bottom edge of the sweater for stability. And also because I can't bear to finish a project without a crochet stitch on it somewhere.

Close-up of my favorite wooden buttons. I used every last one on this sweater, which grieved me a little, but they were exactlywhat the khaki-tan-taupe-whatever yarn needed. I knitted this out of Simply Soft, by the way, which would cause a lot of knitters (read: yarn snobs) out there to wince, but this had to be super-washable and, almost as importantly, affordable for me to make. It took less than one skein. And, I must admit, I sort of like Simply Soft.

And then, there's Little Vest. I love this guy! I can't believe more people haven't made him, it's such a great pattern, but mine was only the second project on Ravelry. The pattern is Vested Interest from Candi Jensen's book, Total Baby Knits. Great book with great patterns and even cuter pictures. Little Vest was knitted with Simply Soft, as well. The slip stitch pattern made the colorwork turn out incredibly well - no effort - and not too many ends to weave, because I carried the unused yarn along the sides of each row. There's a bit of finishing on this baby - seaming, and picking up stitches for the neck and armholes - but I don't mind the extra work for such a cute finished object. Both Li'l Presto and Little Vest were made for my coworker, Natalie, who is expecting her first baby in February. Her shower is on Jan. 10th, so we'll see how she likes them. I can't wait! And here's the two together. Don't they make a cute pair?

Here's a couple of the baby hats I worked up for charity - I'll photograph the others later when I have more.

A pair of handwarmers - Emerald Mitts on Ravelry. This is an RAK for a lady in the Handmade Random Acts of Kindness group. I finished these an embarassingly long time ago and haven't gotten to mail them yet. And - for the finale -

This picture really doesn't do them justice, because I had to photograph them at night under the glow of my living room floor lamp, and it didn't go too well. But these are the completed Groovy Socks - my second ever pair of knitted socks, but these are much closer to matching than the Jaywalkers I made. I gave them to my swap partner - in person! - a couple of weeks ago, and she loved them. Ahhhh, sweet success. I'm now hooked on knitting socks. I have two more skeins of sock yarn (thanks to ever-so-generous Ravelry RAK'ers!) that will be come two pairs of socks sometime in the near future.