Michael's granddaughter Solis is going to be one next month, so I knit her this baby Swing Jacket, pattern designed by Erika Flory, which is available free on Ravelry. For size 18 months, I used 2 and a half balls of Vanna's Choice yarn, my machine wash and dry able workhorse yarn of choice.
With the other half ball of Vanna's Choice I knit Solis this matching hat, using a a free Sun Hat pattern from Red Heart Yarn company. The pattern was a bit more involved than I expected, but it came out exactly as I had hoped.
The hat is being modeled by a doll I made for Allie when she was Solis's age. It looks pretty good on her, and she may need one of her own.
I also finished knitting myself this shawl, loosely based on a Cheryl Oberle's pattern Wool Peddler's Shawl, from her book Folk Shawls. The main yarn is a blend of wool, nylon, viscose, angora and cashmere from a recycled Gap sweater. For the bottom of my shawl, I added some stripes in Trendsetter Yarns Soleil, a cotton yarn that comes with beads and fabric leaf embellishments sewn in.
I had a heck of a time trying to get the embellishments to not line up the way they insisted on doing. After two foiled attempts to break up the separation of leaves on one side of the shawl and beads on the other, I threw in a few short rows to at least bring a leaf down to the shawl point.
In the end I decided that it's a design feature. Works for me.
I also ran across a wonderful knitting resource: Laylock's Free Shawl Knitting Cheat Sheet, with formulas for knitting 5 basic shawl shapes, which can be customized in multiple ways. This could keep me busy for awhile.
I'm intrigued to see that the cape/ capelet, and yes, gasp, poncho seem to be making a come-back this season. Check out Vogue Knitting's "Into the Woods" pattern group. So what do you think? Can you see yourself wearing one of these yet again?
5 comments:
I'll pass on the ponchos but I would certainly wear Solis's little swing sweater in a larger size! Love that pink!
I'm going to check out the shawl sheet as soon as I post this comment.
I'm with Debra on the subject of ponchos... been there, done that in 1970! The sweater is adorable, though.
Hmm. I might wear the last one pictured, the one with a sort of cowl neck and looks to be a pullover (is that the one you consider a poncho?). I have to say that I'm getting kind of tired of fashions geared strictly for young slender people. What about all of us older, plumper, baby boomers?!
I still have (and wear, occasionally) a coat-sweater my mother knitted for me in the 1970's. Looks like it may not be so out of date as I would have thought!
Isn't that Soleil yarn fun? They have a newish one called something like Boheme that's all beads. It's fun, too, although I know what you mean about getting the stuff to land where you want it! Love your shawl, BTW. The baby sweater and hat, too!
The little sweater is wonderful--sweet and stylish at the same time.
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