bunnies, sweaters, and hats oh my!

Easter is on its way, and when your only child is living in another country you have to think early about what to do.  My most recent experience dealing with international mail (and customs, duty & vat taxes) has not been too happy. I digress.

So thinking ahead and now ready to mail are these adorable bunny slippers.  They are made with a pink pacific yarn by cascade yarns and Alpaca Lace in peony pink also by cascade.  Before washing I was able to brush them with a scrubber lift the fluff, and throw them in the washer/dryer to finish it.  then embroidered the eyes and nose.  The bottom has 2 layers so they are quite squishy and come up the back of your heel like a scuff.  She's a dancer, and their house is quite cold so I'm sure that they will get lots of wear.  I considered putting on a bunny cottontail, but decided that it might be a nuisance. 

Here is a quick pick of the sweater I made her for Christmas.  Unfortunately it wasn't quite finished because I ran out of yarn just before she returned to England, so I had to mail it after it was completed.  The pattern was from the Contemporary Crochet 37 European designs  book, and I used  Sublime -Cashmere merino silk dk. It's a beautiful yarn to work with and has such a lovely hand.  The color is kind of a dark  taupe or clay color.  the sweater on the cover is the picture of the sweater I made her.




So I decided to try and knit again.  Having  a strong crochet background, does seem to really help.

I tried many times  years before and never could get the hang of it, the gauge, and the giant spaces on the first row were badddddddddddd.  This time, I decided to make a hat, using circular needles and then having to transfer to the double pointed needles to finish.  It was a bit frustrating- especially those double pointed needles, I would like to know who thought those up. But i did manage to make and adorable pink hat and then crocheted a big loopy flower for the top. I'm pretty impressed with myself.

so much so I thought what the heck lets make a baby sweater.  so I've been working on that now. Its in several pieces and needs to be finished.  Soon, you will see it.  I want to put a crochet edging on it, after its all sewn together.

so this is just a bit of what I've been working on.

The sweater is FINISHED!

Finally finished and blocked the sweater I've been working on for my daughter.  The pattern is a Doris Chan's September Morn Jacket/vest.  She designed it using a Tahki cotton classic lite mercerized cotton.  I used  Panama which is a cotton, linen, viscose blend, by Rowan yarns.  The button is  made by crocheting over a plastic circle.

Since my flat pictures weren't showing much detail I threw it on the mannequin I use for tutu's.  I didn't get it on perfectly which shows more in these type of photos.  This is the first time I've made an adult size sweater.  I love the weight of this garment.

Again, it would have been so much nice to have pics of her in it, instead of the mannequin where it hangs up on every little thing being the lacy nature of it.

sweater is moving along



Fsc on left edge of photo

so here are some pics of  the yoke on the sweater I'm working on for my daughter.  I was having such a time doing the starting stitch foundation single crochet ( where you make the foundation row of chains and the first row of single chains together )and still really have to pay attention to the pattern.  you can start to see the lacy pineapples in the top of it. 

The pattern for the sweater is called September Morn jacket/vest

by Doris Chan.  I purchased this as a e pattern download.  I wish it had better pics for picking out detail.  Even on my computer, I can't get a clear enlargement, but hopefully when its all done and been blocked it will be perfect.  I've never followed a Doris Chan pattern before so it takes a bit to get used to the way a person describes the pattern.  It's going a little slower than I planned but its always better to have something that challenges rather than have everything be too easy.