FMM - Sweet Baby Knitwear

As with just about everything, knitted items are even cuter in tiny sizes.  Sure, I can knit a hat, but shrink it down to baby size?  Instantly adorable.  So of course I love to have a reason to knit a baby hat, and when CC announced her pregnancy several months ago, my brain went into overdrive while trying to decide what to knit for her.  I ended up going with a sock monkey-inspired hat, because she likes sock monkeys, and for good measure, I decided to knit a tiny cardigan - after all, a winter baby needs to be warm!

I had the patterns all picked out before I went to California, with the intention of shopping for the yarn while I was there - I wanted to be able to see it in person and make sure it was soft enough for a new baby's skin.  Debby and I went to Monarch Knitting in Pacific Grove, and I squeezed many skeins of yarn before choosing everything for the hat and cardigan.  I knew I wanted a blue for the sweater, as CC had mentioned she loved blue (but not a pastel blue), and Debby ended up finding the perfect color...we bought the last three skeins of it, and while I was pretty confident I could knit the sweater with only one skein, she promised to send me some extra yarn if I ran out.  Luckily, I didn't need that, mostly because I knitted the 0 - 3 month size.

Here's the sweater:

Blue yarn is Madelinetosh Sport in Artic colorway, red yarn is Madelinetosh Pashmina in Tart colorway (I had this in my stash already).  Pattern is Noah Baby Cardigan.

I learned a lot by knitting this cardigan - it was knit in pieces and seamed together, so that was a new experience for me.  I usually weave in my ends as I knit, but life would have been easier had I not done that with this sweater, as it made seaming a bit more challenging.  Rookie mistake - didn't hurt the sweater; just made me work harder when I seamed it together.

I also learned how to do a crocheted edge - I really wanted the deep red edging to make the sweater pop (and I loved how it looked with the deep red buttons), and while the designer recommended doing a knitted edge, I couldn't make that work, so I watched a couple of You Tube tutorials on crocheting an edge, and got the hang of it pretty quickly.  I loved the v-neck of the sweater for a baby boy, and while I didn't plan on having it match the sock monkey hat, I think it goes together really well.

Speaking of the hat - oh man, it was just so darn cute!  I found the pattern and fell in love.  Couldn't wait to get started with knitting it, and once I did, I finished it in just a few hours - it took me longer to get to the store to buy the buttons for the eyes than it did to knit the hat!  Every time I finished a step, I couldn't resist taking a photo:

After I sewed on the button eyes, I decided they were a little too close together, so I removed them and spaced them out a little bit more.

And here's the finished product:

Yarn is Ewe Ewe Yarns Wooly Worsted in Brushed Silver, Red Poppy, and Vanilla colorways; pattern is Knitted Sock Monkey Hat.

I'm surprised I'm still alive, because this hat killed.me.dead. with its cuteness.  Have you ever made something and been so amazed at how well it turned out?  Well, this was like that for me.  I just love this hat so much!

Knitting for babies is so fun.  It goes fairly fast just because the items are so small, but boy howdy do they pack a big punch in cuteness.  I really enjoyed knitting these items, and I can't wait to see baby Mason wearing them soon!

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Have a great weekend - we have 10 miles on tap for tomorrow!