KCWC Days 3 and 4

Kaufman 21 wale corduroy

Day 3

Moda:  Bluebell Mushrooms

Things went pretty well after I posted last night.  My printer finally deigned to print the rest of the BBB Pants pattern and I got it taped together and I cut it out from scraps leftover from my Meringue skirt (I feel so terribly proud of using very nearly all of that fabric in these two projects--very little waste!).

Baby blues

I found  fabric for Cate's cape/Halloween costume at Purl Soho.  I ordered a beautiful fire engine red 21 wale corduroy for the cape and a sweet mushroom print on a blue background for the lining.  I love putting blue on Cate, it really makes her eyes stand out!  However, baby clothes have become so gendered that 1) it's hard to find anything blue that doesn't have a truck on it and 2) if I do, if she wears it in public people assume she's a boy.  Even if it's a blue dress.  With ruffles.  And lace.  It's gotten to the point that if she's not actually wearing pink, I put a bow in her hair before we go out in public.


Day 4
I didn't actually get any sewing time on Wed. for various reasons, but mostly because by the time I was able to sew my husband wanted to go to bed and my sewing machine and accoutrements are in the bedroom.  Instead, I worked on the sweater I've been knitting forever and a day.  I have finished the collar and woven in most of the ends.  All that remains is to sew the button bands (this sweater has a sort of odd construction which requires sewing on the button bands at the end; I'll be changing that if I ever knit this sweater again), weave in the last few ends and sew on buttons.  Excuse me, I have to choose buttons, then sew them on.  The choosing could take some time, unfortunately.

Goals for Day 5

• Sew blue BBB pants
• Assemble cape pattern and cut it out so it's ready when the corduroy arrives
• Sew on the button bands, finish weaving in ends, and sew on buttons for sweater
• Figure out what to make next!

Kids Clothes Week Challenge

So, I've been wanting to make Cate some clothes for, oh, ever since I knew I was going to have a baby.  In my vision, half of the clothes Cate wore were cute little dresses and rompers and overalls that I made for her with handknit sweaters for every outfit.  The reality has been somewhat less than that.  I have managed to make two dresses, a sweater, a bonnet for her baptism, and some booties for her baptism.   Oh, and some newborn hats.

Me:  15 months

Me:  15 months

It turns out that making clothes for your baby is significantly hampered by, well, having a baby.  My mom made half my clothes when I was a baby/toddler and now I'm wondering exactly how the hell she did it.  I know she made a bunch while she was pregnant, but surely she wasn't able to make all of them prior to giving birth.

In any case, it's been on my List to make Cate clothes since she was the size of a grape, but so far I haven't done much in that vein until now.  I have signed up for the Kids Clothes Week Challenge at elsie marley. The challenge is to spend one hour a day from Oct. 8-14 working on making kid's clothes.

Me: at 2 yrs

Here's my queue for Cate:

1. Red, hooded cape:  This year, Cate will be Little Red Riding Hood for Halloween.  This decision is pretty much purely practical.  It's simple, involves no makeup, and she can wear the cape after Halloween, too.  I'm envisioning a red corduroy with a sweet, fairytale lining and maybe cute trim.
2. Purple sweater:  If I haven't finished the purple sweater I've been working on for the last several months by Oct. 8, I'll include it in this challenge.
3. Big Butt Baby Pants:  I cloth diaper.  I'm not fanatical or militant or evangelical about it, but I do feel pretty good about not having all of the diapers Cate's worn for the last 10 months sitting in a landfill for all eternity.  The key is that it isn't much more difficult than disposable diapering because we have a diaper service.  If we didn't have a diaper service, we would be adding to the landfill.  In any case, a cloth diaper + cover is bulkier than a disposable diaper and so there is some difficulty getting pants to fit.  Generally, I manage by going one size up, but then the legs are far, far too long.  Made By Rae has a pattern that is specifically designed for cloth diapered babies called Big Butt Baby Pants.  I need to make several for her for the winter, but I'll settle for one pair made out of denim for now.
4. Coat:  I'm actually not sure about this one.  She does need a heavy coat because we are visiting relatives in Boston mid-Nov.  Seeing as how we live in the Bay area, she's not likely to need it much after that.  I was looking for a coat with a removable lining because I thought that might be more useful, but haven't found one yet.  That might be a little more than what I want to take on, but I'm thinking about making some sort of cute, wool swing coat.  I know that I would like to tackle making myself a wool frock coat one of these years and this would allow me to work with the same sort of materials on a smaller scale without having to worry too much about fit issues (since children are pretty much rectangles with arms).

There's tons more stuff I'd love to make Cate, but I'm going to stick to those four things for now.  I think that's ambitious enough for one week!  I suspect I won't get the coat done (maybe not even started), but I'm really hoping to get the cape, the sweater, and a pair of pants done by the end of the week.

Making some progress

Well, since I last posted, I made substantial progress on my sweater for Cate, having knit the better part of both sleeves.  Unfortunately, I had to rip them out due to stitch insufficiency.  That is to say, I was supposed to knit the sleeves, increasing every 5 rows, until I had 47 stitches and then knit even until the sleeves were 8 inches long and then decrease.  Well, I got to 8 inches and I still hadn't made it to 47 stitches.  I drove myself crazy trying to figure out how it happened.  The easiest explanation would have been that my row gauge was off, and it may well have been a little bit off.  However, I did the calculations and found that you actually can't increase that many stitches in 8 inches at the row gauge stated in the pattern if you follow the pattern and increase every 5 rows.  However, there are no errata for this pattern and nobody on Ravelry who has knit this pattern has mentioned this issue.  There are lots of complaints about how the designer didn't tell you to handle knitting in pattern when you get to the sleeve cap decreases, but nothing about problems increasing to the right number of stitches.  I checked and rechecked the math, though, and I stand by what I say.

So, I ripped back to the ribbing (*sob*) and started knitting the sleeves again, now increasing every 3 rows.  So far, I have made little progress (I've knit exactly one row) but hopefully that will change once I get over being annoyed at the pattern.