knitted: baby stuff

Our beautiful niece, who got married last fall, gave birth last Tuesday to a big (9 lbs. 9.5 oz.!) beautiful baby boy! I took the opportunity to knit a couple of favorite stand-bys.

Baby Surprise Jacket, with collar, and Oscar Booties

patterns: Baby Surprise Jacket, with collar, by Elizabeth Zimmermann from Knitting Workshop, and Oscar Booties, by Angela Muhlpfordt (free pattern)
yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sport, in Franklin’s Panopticon
needles: size 3 for BSJ, size 0 for booties
dates: August 16-30 for BSJ, August 30-September 1 for booties

You would think that, having finished these knits several weeks ago, I might’ve gotten them sent to my niece well before her son’s birth – especially given that he was 2 weeks overdue. But no. I was not pleased with the collar, which flapped open a bit because I started the top button a bit further down than I should’ve. So I had decided to add a little snap at the top. I hate sewing snaps onto knits. So I dragged my feet, for well over a month. Finally, last Saturday, I determined to add the snap.

And it sucked. It felt very fragile, since there was nothing to stabilize it, and I sewed the two pieces of the snap opposite of how they should’ve been put on. Next time, I taking the advice of noirbettie, and getting a snap press! The BSJ looked all right:

BSJ, with snap, sans collar

But all that fiddling with the snap made me realize that the collar, even before my crap sewing job, didn’t look so great. The edge needed a better finish. I thought about my options for a bit, looked at several of the thousands of BSJs online, and finally decided to take off the snap and add a collar. Problem solved:

BSJ collar

BSJ with collar

Now the first button is in exactly the right place. And I’ve decided that the little collar – which I had been iffy about before adding one myself (because I really associate the BSJ with that cute little square neckline) – is a pretty adorable addition.

Something else I learned from this knit is that I really need to make a more stable buttonhole. The simple yarnover version just isn’t quite enough for the type of buttons I sometimes choose.

square buttons

I know it looks like I didn’t block this, but I really did. I am not sure why it looks wonky like that. But aren’t the buttons cute? Next time, I may skip buttonholes altogether, use a snap press to add snaps, and then put whatever buttons I want on top decoratively (like I did for my February Baby Sweater). That will negate the need for more stable buttonholes as well as the possibility of this kind of wonkiness in the edge. Also, I always found snaps to be the easiest closure for clothes when my boys were babies.

For the booties, this time I made a little i-cord for the tie, rather than the ribbon I used last time. I liked the result.

Oscar booties

I continue to love this little pattern – so quick and easy, with a completely precious result. I use the same yarn as for the BSJ, but with a much smaller needle for a denser fabric and very small bootie.

Oscar

I’m putting all of this in the mail today, along with a cute little brown onesie with blue trim and some blue pants. And a few other baby clothes that might’ve ended up in my shopping basket. I love little stuff!

In other news, you guys were SO great with all the button input, and I’m sorry I haven’t responded to your comments. I had decided to go with the shell button I mentioned and that most of you agreed with, only to discover I was wrong about still having it in my stash (I had shell buttons but darker ones that didn’t show up as well). So I went to Joann’s to buy more, and I may have ended up with a few too many options:

buttons!

After way too much agonizing, I finally made my choice and got them sewn on. The sweater is beautiful. I’ll be showing it to you soon!