Ruby Bear

Need a quick, simple to knit bear pattern? Here is Ruby Bear by Premier yarns. I used James C. Brett Chunky Marble, available colors shown here. I believe I used MC28 but I no longer have the label.

 

I would make this bear again, but rather than using a needle size to obtain the suggested gauge, I would knit it on smaller needles to make a denser fabric so that the batting isn't visible through the knitting. 

 

Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry...er....knitting bones!

The Prince of Sweetness, aka my grandson, is going to be Batman for Halloween so this sweater has nothing to do with that specific evening. I hope he will enjoy it while playing outside regardless of the date.

The pattern was once a free download from Bernat but doesn't appear to be available now. If you are interested in it, please contact me (leave a comment) and I will get back to you if you provide an email address.

The sweater pattern is for sizes 2, 4, 6 or 8.  I used inexpensive acrylic yarn as I don't intend for this to be an heirloom garment. My grandson is warm much of the time anyway (unlike me!) so I don't know how much wear this will get before he outgrows it.

Clara dress

The card that I posted yesterday accompanied this dress as a gift to our godson and his wife who are expecting their first child soon.

And the back, closed with one pearl button

 

These photos show the dress immediately after weaving in loose ends and adding the button. I didn't think to photograph again before packaging it for gift giving.

 

The dress pattern is called Clara dress and is only available from the designer as a kit. Here is that link.  Many of us in a knitting group have made it from other yarns purchased locally that do not require hand washing or are more hypoallergenic than alpaca yarn.

 

The yarn I used is Pediboo by Frog Tree. It is 80% washable Merino, 20% bamboo. This is a sock weight yarn. The color number is 1123. I will definitely make this again, and I am not one who often wants to knit the same item with the same type of yarn. Pediboo is great to work with and I love the way the yarn looks and feels.

Architectural Vest

I made a vest for my dear daughter-in-law. The name of the pattern is Architectural Vest, designed by Lisa Hoffman and available at the Tahki Stacy Charles website on in the pattern book Intermix by Thaki Yarns.

This is the vest as shown in the pattern

The yarn is Cotton Classic Lite, a 100% cotton yarn by Tahki.

These two photos were rushed and not taken in good light conditions, but they show the front and back of the finished vest.

 This photo was taken in natural daylight and shows the color more accurately.

The pattern was not difficult and my only complaint was the size of the printed chart in the pattern book. Knitters younger than I am in my knitting group also thought the chart was minuscule and difficult to read. Normally I would have scanned it, enlarged and printed it here at home, but my printer/scanner and computer had a spat and weren't communicating. Ok, that isn't exactly true...I had a new router from Uverse and didn't know how to readdress the printer until a few hours after making my own charts using Excel spreadsheets. A blog buddy asked why I didn't go to an office supply store and have the charts copied there. I don't know if reason number one was that I was tackling this at odd hours while still in my nightgown or if reason number two was more accurate, that being that I just plain didn't think of going there. I knew from past experience that FedEx/Kinko's sometimes gives you grief over copying printed material even if it is only for personal use.