Koolaid yarn and more knitting adventures

Did you see the orange hat in the last post? That's one of H's favorites right now, and I made it up on my knitting machine.

I can't believe it's been two years since I dyed that wool. I found the post about it here.

I had stated some hand knitting with the orange one, and decided to pull it out for a hat. The knitting machine has it's own table now, which is awesome. I put the stone gargoyles to work holding my yarn in place :)



I managed to make a sweater for our little guy. It's all blocky and such, but I think it's cute, and I learned a lot while making it. Unfortunately it's a little scratchy and he doesn't want to wear it anymore. Good thing it's roomy, and maybe I can convince him to wear it over a long sleeve shirt again sometime.

I got a little creative trying to pin up the weighted hem. See the loopy blue stitches in the first pic? I've since figured out how to clip it correctly. The second pic is stitching the sleeves together, and the last one is before it was blocked and sewn together. It looks pretty silly there.






Soon I'll make myself a sweater, but for now I've been making more hats.



I made these for the lady that watches H when I'm at work- one for one for each of the kids there.



Self striping yarn is so fun, and I love seeing how the colors come out!

Toddler Rain Jacket

I've been looking for a rain jacket for H. We're in the middle of the biggest storm in many many months. See, the last time we had any kind of rain, (sprinkling for a day and a half) I made him a lovely little flannel-lined laminated cotton jacket. I stayed up late finishing it, but I should have checked the weather report - no more rain!

Fast forward to now, and of course it doesn't fit anymore! D'oh. I knew I didn't want a repeat, but he needed something to put over his clothes for puddle stomping.

I found this adult vinyl slicker at the thrift store for $2. It has a logo of something sporty, which got mostly cut off (you can see it under his left arm in the lower right "after" pic.)

We tested it out as-is and it was quite hilarious. The hem touched the ground and he got his boot stuck in the elastic.



Here are the steps I took to reconstruct it, and it went pretty fast as it's a pattern and shape I've sewn before. I knew it wasn't going to be 100% waterproof, but I kept the hood intact, and the back is one piece, so it should do a pretty good job.

First I cut the elastic hem off so I could see the shape. Then I cut the hood off and estimated the height (removed pull cord.) I measured his arms and I was going to use the original gathered cuffs, but decided to re-sew them without elastic, so I traced a pattern piece and made them a bit roomier. The goal was to have it go over clothes, including a warm jacket if needed. Then I cut the front, including removing the zipper and the front pouch. I traced the arm holes from a pattern, and sewed it all up with a long stitch.

Someday I'll make him a nicer one that's lined and waterproof, but this is pretty good for a quick project.



We also got our Christmas tree this last weekend, and H got to help pick it out.



And he enjoyed the spiced cider.