A Poncho for Roo

Growing up as the middle daughter of three girls, I have many memories of my sisters and I dressed in matching, handmade items crafted by my mother's hands. One piece in particular stands out as a favorite: the crocheted ponchos she made us, in shades of brown and orange. A child of the 70's, a girly girl, and the perfect garment for skipping, dancing and twirling. I might have to sift thru boxes of photos to see if there are any of us in the ponchos.

When I started knitting, one of the first patterns I looked for was a poncho for Eleanor Ruby. I found the Knitting Pure and Simple Children's Poncho over a year ago, but wasn't sure if my skill was ready yet. Then I found a beautiful yarn that I had to have to make into something lasting for Eleanor to enjoy. Two skeins of Mosaic Moon Mountain Meadow Worsted yarn in the Selah colorway arrived with it's coordinating aqua trim back in October. I had to sit it aside for months while I worked on Christmas and birthday gifts.

I decided that my first garment of the new year would be Ella Roo's poncho. I was pleasantly surprised by what an easy garment it was to knit! I made the 2-4 year old size and didn't make any major changes to the pattern. Only thing I think I did was purl the first row of the hood so I had an easy marker for measuring the length of the hood as well as adding a design element to the neckline. I also picked up four extra stitches on the hood because I thought it spaced the stitches out better than the recommended amount.

I worked on it a few hours a day for 11 days until I had it completely finished. It's beautiful, a perfect fit, soft, warm, and just what I hoped for. It warmed up to 22 degrees today, so Ella and I took a short walk in the sun with her favorite baby and her sparkly new shopping cart from Nana. I hope this is the first of many fun memories for her and her poncho.

Finished piece



Finished piece in action

Last Doll Dress: The Poppy Dress

I was able to pick up some buttons to finish off the last baby doll dress last night. I love how these buttons pop against the purple dress! So cute.

This was originally a pattern for a doll cardigan to fit Waldorf dolls, called the Poppy Cardigan. I made a few alterations to change it into a dress because, at her age, I figured Ella would get frustrated with putting a cardi on a doll.

I used Cascade 220 Superwash wool to make the dress. It's a soft, machine-washable wool that drapes really nice.


I knit the pattern as directed until after the split for sleeves. At that point, I joined the sides and knit it in the round for an inch. Then I did one row of increasing every stitch (kfab) to double my stitches for the skirt. I knit until it was about 6" long, then knit the garter stitch hem. The total length is 6 1/2" from center neckline to hem edge.


I'm pleased with the look and fit of the finished piece. Ella loves it, too!

Stripey Doll Dress

A fun, simple, summery dress for baby dolls. This stretchy knit dress is easy for little ones to put on their babies and a quick knit. It was designed to fit a chubby 15" doll, but you can continue in pattern to make the length longer for larger dolls or reduce the length for shorter dolls. Finished garment is 6" long from center of neckline to edge of hem.




Materials: 1 skein Patons Kory Stripe Sock Yarn, set of US3 double-pointed needles, US3 16" circular needle (optional), US6 DPN, stitch marker, tapestry needle for weaving in ends.

Abbreviations:
k: knit
p: purl
sts: stitches
kfab: increase by knitting into the front and back of the stitch
m1: increase by taking the left-hand needle and pick up the bar between the stitches from front to back. Use the right needle to knit this bar through the back loop.
bo: bind off

Gauge: 6 stitches/inch and 8 rows/inch.

Cast on 72 sts onto 3 of your DPNs, place marker and join in the round, careful not to twist sts.

Rows 1-6: Knit in 2 x 2 ribbing

Row 7: Knit all sts

Row 8: *k1 m1* all the way around

Rows 9-15: knit all (you can switch over to the circular needle for this part if you want.)

Row 16: BO 36 sts, k 36 sts, bo 36 sts, k 36. I used my US6 dpn to bind off so it is a nice loose arm opening.

Row 17: place maker, rejoin, k 36, rejoin, k 36.

Rows 18-23 k all (will need DPNs as it is too snug for the circ now.)

Row 24: *k4, kfab* all the way around

Rows 25-31: k all

Row 32: *k5, kfab* all the way around. You can fit this on circ's again.

Rows 33-39: k all

Row 40: *k6, kfab* all the way around

Rows 41-46: k all

Row 47: *k7, kfab* all the way around

Rows 48-54: k all

Row 55-61: work in garter stitch by alternating between first row purled, next row knit.

Row 62: bo all sts, weave in end.

Finished! This yarn can be machine-washed in cold, lay flat to dry. It is a self-striping yarn, so it's fun to see how the colors work out as you knit it. Any self-striping, fingering weight yarn can be used to produce similar results.

ETA: This pattern is in the library on ravelry: Stripey Doll Dress. Add it to your queue!


Note: This is a free pattern, please give credit to Deborah Minner for the design by linking to this page if posted online. Thank you!

December Recap 1: Finished Christmas Knits

A Drop-Stitch Scarf for my sister, Ann, knit in Nurturing Threads Wicked Rainbow yarn.



A swing top dress I designed & named The Violet-Elizabeth Dress, based on two other patterns. This was made for my friend's daughter, Alena. She just turned two, so I had Ella try it on for size. I used Classic Elite organic cotton & merino wool blend yarn for it.



I also made Hudson Hats for each of my kids.
Aidan's is made out of Mosaic Moon cestari wool in the Woodland in Spring colorway.

Sean's is made out of Retro Baby gaia organic bulky wool in the Rumple colorway.

Eleanor's is made out of Nurturing Threads aria organic merino wool in the Enchanted Lotus colorway.



I made a manly waffle-knit hat for Doug with inexpensive acrylic-wool blend Plymouth Encore yarn.


And, lastly, I made two more doll dresses for Ella's babies. I need to sew buttons on one and the other one I designed the pattern for so I will list that separately. Phew! My needles were hot in December! :)

2 More Dolls Dressed!

Finished up another knit doll outfit last night, so I thought I'd update progress again.

This outfit was made using the yarn leftover from my Hudson Hat giveaway. I barely had enough to get it done! The pattern I had for this set was terrible, in fact is was missing directions for the sleeves and pants. Plus the calculations were off in several places, requiring me to rip out (aka "frog") sections a few times until I reworked the pattern. Backtracking caused me to take a week to finish it, but the end result works out. Now Dolly has a cashmere sweater set. :)


Speaking of that yarn, Cindy posted really fun photos of Johnny in his hat on her blog. What a sweetie!

I also knit a dress for Ella's Cabbage Patch doll. This was another pattern that I had to make some changes to in order for it to turn out right. Plus I had to learn how to crochet a hem, so it was neat to learn a new skill.


One more doll outfit left to make, but first I need to finish up a scarf I am working on for another person. I also hope to get Hudson Hats made for my three kids by Christmas. I think it might be a close call this year.

The Buddy Walk-inspired Hudson Hat

I finished this up last week for Cindy at Life with Five Leggs and got it in the mail to her Monday. I'm really happy with how it turned out, this yarn is so incredibly soft! The Hudson Hat pattern was easy to follow and worked up pretty quickly. I'm motivated to make three more before Christmas for my kiddos!



I took a few photos of Sean wearing it before I washed it to get an idea of the fit. I used the child-size pattern and am wondering if the toddler size would fit too. It's very stretchy.




This week I've been knitting a dress for my friend's daughter and trying to pull together plans for Aidan's 8th birthday party this weekend. The kids have Friday off of school due to the end of the trimester. We have family coming in that evening and big plans for the party on Saturday. Lots of photos to come of that!

Are you ready to see the winner???!!!!

My yarn is ready, my needles are set...



so who's the winner of my Something Snuggy for your Buddy contest to celebrate 31 for 21? Well, I posted 36 blog updates this month and, minus the replies I made, I had 87 comments to choose from. Awesome!

I used random.org to select a winner and number chosen was: Comment 44 (sorry, I couldn't figure out how to make a screen shot to post)

Cindy said...

Hurray for Grandparents!!! I love that picture of her hugging!! :)
October 24, 2010 6:50 PM

Congratulations to Cindy from Life with Five Leggs!!!! Let's figure out what size you want and I will get started on your custom Hudson Hat! Thank you to everyone that left comments this month. I loved the feedback and I loved meeting new readers. I added several new blogs to my blog roll and that is always a great part of the 31 for 21 Challenge- meeting new families.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Down Syndrome Awareness month! I promise to keep blogging as we go into the busy holiday season. November has a lot of the calendar for us: we are hosting a church family super club, we have Aidan's 8th birthday party coming up, Doug is playing guitar at a rock show in Lawrence KS, then there's Thanksgiving. Plenty of photo/blog ops ahead. :)

Editing to add: Tiffany made a huge effort to keep me motivated this month- she left a whopping 19 comments here and daily comments on facebook. I'd like to offer a runner-up prize of a gnome hat to you, if you'd like one. I will link to some colors to choose from. They are less expensive to buy yarn for and quicker to make, but still very cute! :)

Wordless Wednesday: Sean's Gnome Out-takes

From our Gnome to Johnny's

Last night, I posted a link on facebook to a hat pattern that cracked me up. During the course of talking about it there, a new friend mentioned that she'd love a gnome hat for her kids. I did a search for a free pattern, that happened to use yarn I have and had no plans for, and ta-da! A fun gnome hat was quickly knit up today while I waited in the dentist office, enjoyed toddler naptime, and watched the kiddos play after school. Renee, I hope your little gnomes enjoy it as much as my models did:

Gnome Sweet Gnome


"Always" Happy Gnome


and Full of Angst Gnome


I will wash it up tonight and mail it out as soon as you send me your addie. Happy Halloween!

Less than a week till we pick a winner!

Don't forget that your comments put your name in the hat to get a custom-knit Hudson Hat! :)Something Snuggy for your Buddy!

Two Dolls Done, Three to Go!

I decided to squeeze in some of my Christmas knitting projects this past week. I tried out a few patterns and came up with outfits for two of Ella's five "dressable" dolls. Here's what I have finished so far.

First, Ella wearing the gorgeous longies I bought knit by another knitter. She wouldn't hold still for a good photo today, so this is about the best I could get.

The knitter sent the remaining yarn to me and I had enough to make this cute set. (Laid my phone there so you can see the scale.)

And the dolly that it fits.

Next, you remember the Elizabeth Tunic dress I made for Ella in the spring.

I had enough yarn leftover from it to make a matching dress for her Cabbage Patch doll. I have more of it still, so I might making something else with it for the dolls.


Making doll clothes is so fun and instantly gratifying. It's going to make it hard for me to go back to knitting full-scale. Ha ha ha

How I Spent My Summer Vacation: Lots o' Knitting

I kept my hands busy this summer! I found myself staying up late knitting and watching reruns on tv after the kids went to bed most nights. Plus, the drives back & forth to visit my family or going to Wichita gave me nice knitting time, too. Here's my finished pile for the summer.

First up was an Elizabeth Tunic and matching shorties set for a church friend's new daughter. What fun it is to knit tiny pieces! I used cotton yarn for the first time, Bernat CottonTots Solid. The trim is Country Red and the body is Dollhouse Ombre.

I gathered up scrap yarn in boyish colors and knit a pair of wool Sheepy Pants shorties for a cloth-diapering friend's one year old. Here's why we like wool with cloth diapers.

A pretty Oriental Lily dress was next for my friend's daughter's first birthday. I used a superwash wool, Cascade 220 Paints, for it. I LOVE this pattern! I've got to make another one and this yarn was so nice to work with, too. I didn't take very good photos of it before I mailed it, but luckily my friend sent beautiful action shots! I also whipped up a little toy fishie out of the leftover yarn.


I started an Elvira dress for Eleanor, using fingering weight hand-dyed wool by a local dyer. I lost my steam on it, though. and set it aside for a bit. It's a pretty start, though.

I made a Ruffled Summer sweater for Eleanor as a quick break project in between working on the Elvira dress. I knit it a size up to last till next year. This is made with Plymouyh Yarn Encore Worsted.

And, lastly, I made a pair of Sheepy Pants longies for Eleanor to wear this fall. These were knit in the Baba Sienna colorway on wool Peace Fleece yarn.


I feel pretty good about what I got accomplished over the summer, especially since I didn't expect to get more than a one dress for Ella done. I was able to start going to Knit Nite at my local yarn store on most Tuesday evenings while Doug stayed home with the kids and I think that really helped keep me motivated. It was so nice to get out and hang out with other women in a relaxing atmosphere.

For this fall/winter, I have a few things I hope to make (roughly in this order):

1. Children's poncho #243 for Ella with this fabulous yarn from Mosiac Moon. Have the yarn and the pattern is in route to me.
2. Make the Hudson Hat for my 31 for 21 comments winner. :)
3. Possibly finish the Elvira dress.
4. Knit a dress for a friend's daughter's 2nd birthday. Already have the yarn and pattern, but it's a surprise. Birthday is in December.
5. Newborn or small dress or longies for a friend's baby. Have the yarn, haven't decided on a pattern yet.
5. Knit the boys something for Christmas. Either a Hudson Hat or this vest #256.
6. Knit some doll clothes for Ella's dolls as her Christmas gift. I'll use up yarn I have for that.
7. Not likely to happen, but would like to try knitting socks after I get thru this list. :)