Flint Knits

First, thanks for all the support during The Crushinator’s recovery! Willie pattern sales paid for all of her vet bills, and she’s nearly back to normal now. The surgery was a success and, after several weeks of keeping her virtually immobile, she’s free of the cast and back to her old self again. Hooray!

Let’s celebrate with a new pattern for sale, yes?

Ella Funt is a cardigan for babies, named in honor of Ramona Quimby’s stuffed elephant in Beverly Cleary’s beloved Ramona books.

The body and sleeves are knit separately from the bottom up, then joined in one piece for the yoke. If elephants aren’t your cup of tea, the pattern also includes blank yoke charts that can be customized with the creature or motif of your choice.

SIZES: Finished chest circumference = 19 (21.75, 24, 26.75) inches
to fit ages 3–6 (6–12, 12–18, 18–24) months

GAUGE: 25 sts and 34 rows per 4 inches in stockinette stitch

MATERIALS:

• 300 (400, 525, 625) yards of sport or heavy fingering-weight yarn in main color (MC)
• small amounts of coordinating yarn in 3 other colors (colors B, C, and D)
• US 4 (3.5mm) circular & double-pointed needles, or size to get gauge
• 6 (6, 7, 7) buttons, 3/8 inch in diameter
• 2 stitch markers
• scrap yarn

Big thanks to Minty, Ashley, Carrie, Julia, Kelly, and Sarah for test knitting and editing help!

Cost: $6 US

ETA: Shepherd Susie of Juniper Moon Farm has started an incredibly generous contest. If you buy the Willie pattern and comment on her blog, you’ll be entered to win a 2011 share in the farm’s yarn CSA.

Remember Crush? Also known as The Crushinator? My badass puppy and the muse who inspired the wurstwärmer pattern?

Well, on Thursday night, Crush’s favorite puppy sitter took her to the store and had her chillin in a shopping cart when, like a puppy, she jumped out.

And broke her leg.

Badly.

Today, Crush had some pretty complicated surgery to stabilize a pretty complicated fracture (it went through the growth plate, which on a 9 month old puppy, is still all squishy and vulnerable). Did I say the surgery was complicated? I meant to say it was EXPENSIVE.

And so while Crusher was grogged out on morphine waiting for her moment on the operating table, I spent the weekend working like a dog to whip up a wiener-themed pattern to put a drop in the Puppy Surgery Fund bucket.

I give you … Willie!

Willie is a round-yoked cardigan for babies and kids, with a lovable wiener dog that wraps around the lower body. The body and sleeves are knit separately, then joined in one piece for the yoke. If you don’t love dogs, Willie also looks fetching in stripes and solids. Worked up quickly in chunky yarn, this cardigan makes a handy last-minute gift, and a fun introduction to intarsia knitting.

SIZES:
Chest circumference 20 (21.5, 23, 24, 26, 28) inches, to fit ages 6m (12m, 18m, 2y, 4y, 6y)

MATERIALS:

• YARN: Louet Riverstone Chunky (100% wool, 165 yds) or other chunky weight yarn 1 (2, 2, 2, 3, 3) skeins main color (MC); 1 skein contrast color (CC); 1 skein Willie color (WC)
• US 9 (5.5mm) circular & double-pointed needles, or size to get gauge
• 6 (6, 6, 6, 7, 7) buttons, 1/2 inch in diameter
• 2 stitch markers
• scrap yarn for holding stitches and embroidering dog collar
• tapestry needle

The pattern includes instructions and charts for sizes from 6 months to 6 years. If you haven’t tried intarsia knitting before (that’s the kind of colorwork where you have large chunks of color — like argyle! or a wiener dog!), this is a great first intarsia project. KnittingHelp.com has an excellent video explaining the technique.

Cost: $6 US

Hey, you know what babies love? Garter stitch, that’s what.

Now, you might be thinking, “Oh, Pam. Why would I listen to someone like yourself, a childless maiden aunt who doesn’t know crap about babies?” But take a moment to consider: garter stitch is squishy (like babies are); it’s simple (like babies are); and it stretches like mad as the baby grows bigger (as I’m told babies often do).

Plus, my opinion is backed up by a wealth of evidence, in the form of manymany patterns–most of which were designed by people who DO know crap about babies–for knitted babies’ things done up in garter stitch.

See, for instance:

pattern: Magic Slippers by Caroline Dlugy-Hegwer
yarn: Socks that Rock mediumweight, in Farmhouse
[raveled]

Or…

pattern: Mary Jane Booties by Lucie Sinkler
yarn: Hello Yarn Fat Sock, in Lorikeet
[raveled]

Or, my personal favorite:

pattern: Snug, by Hinke
yarn: Berroco Comfort chunky
[raveled]

This Snug? A vast improvement over the Snuggie (which my BFF tested and reviewed last year, with sexy/hilarious/gravy-stained results). Also, it occurs to me that the Adult Tomten might be a grown-up cousin to this garment. Also, the Berroco Comfort chunky is incredibly cozy. I’ve knit with the worsted-weight version before, and wasn’t impressed, but the chunky is totally snugglable. Would definitely not mind a Pam-sized Tomten in this yarn.

To sum up: You should probably knit some babies’ things in garter stitch. I did, and it’s pretty sweet.

Thanks to all the folks who offered to test-knit. I’ve now got about a dozen people working hard, out of the goodness of their hearts, to make sure I get to start selling that mitten pattern at the beginning of the new year. People are so freaking nice.

In the meantime, I finally wrote up a tutorial for that little baby hat+mittens set I made earlier this year. Check it out on Ravelry, and on my Free Patterns page.

[wee leafy baby set]

Oh, and I made a hat! With a giant pom pom! Woo!

(Seriously, check out that pom. It is massive.)

pattern: Snowball Hat, by Kate Himmelberg
yarn: Lion wool ease thick + quick
[raveled]

… they become children.

And all that baby knitting I did last year, for all those friends’ babies? Outgrown long ago, as those babies become kiddos. And while those kiddos won’t all be getting handknit gifts on a regular basis, I’ve happily discovered that knitting for my toddler niece is a lot like knitting for an adult. BUT FASTER.

pattern: Milan Jacket, by Louisa Harding, from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms
yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease, with Patons Grace for trim
needles: 4.5mm vintage
[raveled]

Once I put the red buttons on, they seemed to come screaming out of nowhere.
So I added the red trim to match –just a single crochet stitch around all the edges.

Thanks for all the links to great patterns! I’ll close comments on that post on Thursday, and pick a random winner.

I’m sorry I haven’t responded to all your contest entries and comments. I spent the weekend recording new songs with this band I’m in, and was rewarded with a wretched cold. The only good part of being this sick is that I have less guilt about shirking all that work I should be doing, and wasting the day on the sofa knitting and watching MSNBC election coverage in hopes that Rachel Maddow will appear and save us all from the Crazy (which she does just often enough to keep me watching).

Before you go, you should check out some of my current favorite things:

• Denyse Schmidt’s Obama quilt fundraiser [via doggedknits]
• the new shop from 100% Philistine-Made — I just bought a bitchin pincushion
• my new camera strap from Split Yarn