Cotton Pullover

After a few days of post-holiday fatigue, I resumed work on the cotton pullover that I was knitting for my son. Finally finished it today. As the body and sleeves were knit in rounds, there were only raglan seams to sew but quite a few ends to weave in and then of course the pocket seam and band. This project used up less than two balls each of Cotton Ease Violet and Lime and I used 4 mm and 5mm needles.

I am pleased to see that it fits rather well and my son also seems to like it. His indifference turned to warmth and eagerness when I reminded him of his favorite cartoon hero who wears somewhat similar looking jacket :D

Sunburst Coat Is Up

After being test knitted, Sunburst Coat finally goes up for sale at my ravelry store. Non-ravelry people can find the purchase link on blog's side bar.
This is a top-down seamless coat for sizes 2- 12 years.

Yarn weight: Aran / 10 ply (8 wpi)

Gauge: 15.5 stitches and 22 rows = 4 inches in st st on 5mm needles

Needle size: US 6 - 4.0 mm, US 8 - 5.0 mm

Yardage: 550 - 1300 yards (503 - 1189 m)

Sizes available:  2 (4, 6, 8, 10, 12) years

Finished measurements:
Chest: 24 (26, 28, 30, 32,34) inches
Length: 16 (18.5, 21, 23.5, 26, 28.5) inches
Armhole depth: 5 (5.5, 6, 6.5, 7, 7.5) inches
Sleeve length (to underarm): 8.5 (10.5, 11.5, 12.5, 13.5,15) inches

Eid Mubarak

Eid as always started with chand raat (the eve of Eid). Moon was sighted early in the evening so we could get busy with our henna and bangles.

For once the kids were excited about their bedtime as it mean time for henna, LOL. As you can see, car was a popular theme with them.

My henna design flopped this year as I was unoriginal and tried to copy a pattern out of our living room rug onto my hand.

The Eid day started bright and early with the father-son duo going for Eid prayers.

And after that we were ready to receive and visit family and friends.

The kids had a happy and fun-filled Eid, going to bed exhausted around midnight. And we still have two more days of the same! Hope everyone had a wonderful time!

Baby Pants

Here is the pair of baby pant to go with the BSJ I knit earlier. Though a very simple pattern to knit, I managed to fumble up the directions and had to frog almost half of it.

With this, my Eid knitting for this year comes to an end. Now on to Eid cooking and cleaning.

Baby Surprise Jacket II : Pastels

Eid is just round the corner and I decided to knit some baby stuff as an Eid gift for BIL's baby boy. Baby Surprise Jacket (ravelry link) seemed to be the most ideal choice. I had knit one last year so it went faster and smoother this time. I decided to use all subdued tones. I used DK baby soft Bambino (a local acrylic brand) leftovers and 4mm needles.

The modifications I did were to turn the jacket inside out, so that instead of distinct stripes , I got blended colors. Secondly, I added a I-cord edging ( I just love the I-cord edging) to the jacket. All in all it turned out really well and it is better sized than my first BSJ.
I am a little rushed for time here, but if possible, I will try to knit white trousers to go with it, inshaAllah!

A Knit Full of Adventure

Some might remember the shawl I was knitting last month, for which I ran out of yarn. A couple of my friends from Sporum Forum (ravelry)helped me find a matching skein and sent it to me. Only, when it arrived, we discovered it was a lot lighter than the original yarn. That's when I got the sound advice of dyeing the whole shawl with tea. You can see the finished shawl here, with the ugly color difference:

So, I brewed up about eight cups of really strong tea and soaked the shawl in it. You can see how early on during the soak, the color difference is still discernible:

I let the shawl soak for several hours, though I was too impatient for an overnight soak. Then I took the shawl out, rinsed it twice and the then gave it a gentle wash. Some color did ran out initially but it was negligible by the time of final rinse.
Next came the blocking, the shawl is quite large. (I was too lazy to measure it).

...And finally some glamor shots. The post tea dyeing color came out to be a nice honey color. And no discernible color difference !!I love the shine the yarn has after blocking. Also it is so light and airy, I am tempted to wear it right now!

New Things

With my latest project named and test knitting underway, I moved on to other things. I started a sweater for my son. I have four balls of Cotton-Ease, two violet and two lime and the trick is for me to come up with a suitable design for this yarn. I initially thought of a zippered cardigan but unsure about the availability of a suitable zipper in my local supplies shops, I settled on a pullover/sweatshirt.

As you can see, I stick to a classic style of contrasting color stripes in the ribbing and front pouch pocket. I hope I get the pocket placing right.
In another new, I practiced some continental style of knitting. I have reached the stage where it becomes smoother but not very fast, and of course it was too loose, so I had to frog all the rows later.