Baby Sweater Coat.

I made a sweater coat for my son a while back.

I kinda liked the outcome and wanted to make another one with the same recipe... Today was the day.

I was itching to make something that will be quick and give me instant gratification, since I have been working on this A-Line baby coat for a while and it almost seems never ending... why?... it's in garter stitch. I don't know what I was thinking. Anyhow... I think once its done... i.e. when its done... its going to look great. And that is another day. :)

The design is from Drops online and I really love the looks of the finished piece in the picture. The only difference between that and my version is that I am not making full sleeves. I am making this for my niece in India and since it does not get too cold there, I figured a short sleeve would be just fine.

Coming back to the second version of my sweater coat recipe. It is made of Vanna's Choice solids in yummy pea green and scarlet red colorways. I just need to add a button and it's done. All so quick.

So, I thought it is worth it to share the recipe on the blog.

I used a J hook with Vanna's choice solids. Construction is a top down raglan.

Idea was to have four segments when starting the garment. Two for the left and right arms, and the other two for the back and front. Depending on the guage, make a foundation of a no. of stitches that is a multiple of four, plus minus a couple of stitches to get a good distribution. I made a double foundation chain of 38 stitches. Just to make the distribution even. Since this is a cardigan, the front stitches need to be halved into left and right fronts. My second project on this has short sleeves, but they can be easily extended to become full sleeves.

dc= double crochet

shell = three dc in the same stitch OR 1dc, 1 chain, 1dc in the same stitch (used to make raglan increases.

* To begin, make a double foundation of 38, chain 2, turn.

* dc in the same stitch as the chain 2 and in each stitch across.

* repeat above

* Now to start the raglan increases I divided the 38 stitches like below:

- 4 dc (left front) + 1 increase stitch + 8 dc (left sleeve) + 1 increase stitch + 10 dc (back) + 1 increase stitch + 8 dc (right sleeve) + 1 increase stitch + 4 dc (right front)

* The next few rows I made 1 dc in each segment stitch(front/ back/ sleeves) and 1 shell in each increase stitch, until the depth of the raglan increases is as desired.

* Next I joined the sleeve beginning and end to close the sleeve openings.... so 1dc in the first dc of the beginning shell and in the last dc of the end shell either side of the sleeve stitches. From there on just 1 dc in each stitch across for the desired length of the coat.

For finishing I just single crocheted all round.

All Done !

Possibilities for variations are endless. I just made two of them :)

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© DesiLoop

More Random Gifts

The camera cozy that I posted last, was made for Stephanie and she has received it now. She told me it is just perfect - just what she wanted. :) Well, that was just a part of what I sent over to our NY office.

There was this for my boss.

She loves red. And the moment I saw this pouch in China Town, I had to pick it up for her.

I had already made this little guy ( a small pouch to keep your change in) for her.

And this I had to pick up for her. Its a cellphone pouch.

This for one director, it was his birthday in 3 days and I like him a lot, so I thought this should be a good cozy for his IPOD.

and this for another director's daughter. So many random gifts were already in my mind. This also came up.

Also, this for my colleague's baby to be. She is due in September if I remember right.

Finally this for another colleague. One triangle and two square coasters.

And all of this was triggered by Stephanie's promised camera cozy.

Oh and I just forgot... here is a cozy I made for our GPS.

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© YARNSIDE (More details at end of page.)

Stash Buster Camera Cozy

I remember when I had made my Thrifty Camera Cozy and taken it to office, one of my colleagues Stephanie had asked me to make one for her too. I promised to make her one instantly and even started one in pink. However, I did not like how it turned out so I frogged it. Later on with the turn of events, it so happened that now its been a year, I have moved to California from New York and Stephanie still doesn't have what was promised. Finally, now, after a year, I realized her birthday is coming up, so I am going to gift her a cozy.

I just randomly came up with this design while playing with some stash cotton ease. Love how it turned out so I went ahead a wrote a pattern for the same. It can be found here on Ravelry. Direct Download Here

In other new it feels great and encouraging to see more projects of my designs.

Crocheted Headband

Garnet

Hoping to see more soon.

Plus I have added two more crochet tutorial videos to my Youtube Channel. I hope you find these useful.

I went to Maker Faire

Warning: Photo heavy post.

All the while we were in NY/ NJ I used to read blogs about the fun people had at the Maker Faire and wondered if I would get a chance to see it.

Well this weekend was my chance and I made sure I used it. I dragged everyone at home along with me... MIL, FIL, Hubby and Baby :D and we all had great fun.

Happy New Year and More Baby Stuff !!!

A Very Happy New Year to all who read this post. Wish you and family a prosperous year ahead.

Also, many thanks to you guys to leave your thoughts on my last post. The moving company has not found my stuff yet so we are gonna have to claim insurance and settle for peanuts in reimbursement for all my stuff, since we decided not to take special insurance before moving. Lesson learnt there !

My Baby almost came last to last week when I started having premature pain. We went to the hospital and I was there 4 hrs after which I was told to go back home and take bed rest for the rest of the term.
I have been doing just that. Well, alongwith working from home on my laptop. And ofcourse I have been doing some more knitting for my dear baby.

I finally made a BSJ for my own baby and I am quite proud of how neat this one has turned out. Not to mention the color combination with my favorite shade of red. The pictures above and below show the front and back when I had finished knitting it. I have since added an I-cord border all around the neck, front and bottom of the jacket. I still have to sew on buttons, I chose some transparent ones in medium size. Will try and post some more pictures with my baby coming soon now. In fact, any day !

It's the same combination as the vest I showed in the last post.

That got me thinking that since I have more of this yarn, why not make a whole set for the baby. Maybe a home-coming set.

So I made this

Elfin Booties

and this

Little Baby Socks

and this

Baby Cap (my own pattern)

and this

Baby Leggings by Elizabeth Zimmerman

So that's the whole baby set.

I still didn't have enough, so I made this.

Sunshine Round Ripple Baby Afghan

Then I wanted to crochet something out of thread, so I made this...

Spiderweb Doily in Colorful Doilies to Crochet from Annie's Attic

It's still unblocked, I will get around to it I guess soon.

More to come... stay tuned.

Old and New... Lost and Bought !!!

A lot has happened this past month.

I lost my precious treasures... all my knitting notions and accessories and everything else. That's right... :"(

The movers lost a carton which had all my knitting goodies. Everything that I had got from my grandmother, everything that my mother gave me, everything that I bought myself in India and everything else that I had bought after coming to USA. All of it !!!

Although its been like 4 weeks that I have been following up with the movers, they have no news on where the carton vanished. Some of the stuff in it was brand new. I had never even used it once :( Moreover, I discovered yesterday that one of Elizabeth's DVDs was also in it...

I just cannot get over it.

How can I ever get even near to owning everything I had :(

I guess that teaches me a lesson. Never put everything you love together... Scatter it !!!

Anyways, since I had so much to knit for my baby to be and so much more I had to buy at least enough to get me started.

So I ordered some a straight and a circular knitting needles set from knit picks together with a set of double pointed needles.

I was so disappointed that I had to work on something simple, something that did not require me using my brain... so what better than working on a "Baby Kick Sack". I found this pattern on Ravelry, looked fairly simple, so I thought, why not !

I was not thinking while making it initially... I was so preoccupied with the thoughts of my loss, I was not seeing what an awful job I was doing while changing the stripes. The lower end of the following picture shows how I was not thinking, even though I knew better. I know how to make lovely jogless joins and also doing beautiful stripes in the round, but I was not thinking.

But I did regain my consciousness towards the end of it. Here is the finished object.

While I still cannot get over the loss, I knew better. I had to move on and concentrate on the projects I have in mind for my baby and me. So I made this.

I still have to embroider the facial details, but apart from that it is done. This pattern is from LionBrand Yarn and is also on available on Ravelry.

Next I made this little cutie.

I found this pattern on Ravelry as well ! (Yes, I needed a pattern since I had no clue about size and other dimensional details for baby knits.) However as you can see where the original pattern ended below, it was definitely too small.

So I improvised. I frogged back to just where the crown decreases had to be started and knit in stockinette till I thought the size was fine. Turned out so great after adding that cutie pom-pom on the top, which is btw my first attempt at making one (yeah first pom pom I made).

Next I made this. This is a vest pattern from Drops with button closures on one shoulder. Here it is on Ravelry.


Next in line was this baby. I tried to make this on my own since now I had an idea of the size. Absolutely love it !

All this while, I have also been working on this for me... but I am prioritizing my baby stuff over it. Currently it is only 60 % complete. The entire top is done. More details on this in my ravelry project page.

I found pictures of lovely tops made by some Russian girls on Ravelry and wanted to make one of my own. So I asked around and I started. The initial motif I worked on (see below) for the yoke, had too many big gaps which I didnt like. So I changed.

Will keep posting on the progress in future posts.
Meanwhile, I am also working on making Yeti from Berroco. Here it is on Ravelry. Its an adorable hoodie pattern and I have some homespun in my stash which I am using for it. Currently I am done with the back and front. I hope to finish the sleeves and hood today.