Sweet Pink Shrug is Finished!

Here is the completed shrug, worn by my daughter, sweet as cotton candy:

I used the blue straight loom to make the body, and the blue round loom for the sleeves, with Bernat Baby Coordinates yarn. I knit 1 over 1 on 48 pegs (using the anchor peg and a loom clip). At the bottom of the shrug, I alternated knit and purl stitches for 8 rows, then completed the body using stockinette stitches.

For the arm holes, I simply removed the yarn from the corner pegs and put it on the peg next to it, and knit off. Then separately I knit each "panel" between the arm holes, cutting the working yarn when I knit off 60 rows. After 60 rows I e-wrapped all the pegs with the working yarn and knit off 6 rows, alternating knit and purl stitches to make the neckline.

I made the arm holes too big, so I am going to make the shrug again to get more exact directions before I post detailed directions on how to make it. Also, I ran out of the yarn after completing one of the sleeves. When I bought another skein, I noticed that the gauge was slightly thinner than the shein I had used to knit the shrug with, but I didn't realize this until after I had completed most of the second sleeve and had to frog it. To make the sleeves fit better, I simply "turned" the top rows of the sleeve, as if I were knitting the heel of a sock. At first I wasn't sure if this would work; I thought it might not fit my daughter very well. But when she tried it on it fit perfectly.

The finished body of the shrug measures 10.5x11; the sleeves are 16" each. Naturally, since I used the stockinette stitch, the cuffs on the sleeves curl, and the chest panels curl also; but I don't mind that. That isn't a dropped stitch on her shoulder; that's where I made a knot in the yarn when I joined the sleeve to the body. I need to tuck that on the inside to hide it better.

I decided to knit the entire piece 1 over 1 because she would be wearing it to keep the chill off during dance class. My wife thinks it will go well with her Sunday dress on Easter. I agree.

Special Olympics Poster & Shrug Progress

Here is a nice "thank you" poster I recently received via e-mail from the NJ office of the Special Olympics:







The thank you was in appreciation for the scarf I had knit for them (see http://loomdude.blogspot.com/2011/01/special-olympics-scarf-done.html). It was a great project to work on, and I will probably do it again next year. Congrats to all the Special Olympians!



The shrug is 95% done. I just need to fit it on my daughter to see how it looks, and check the shaping around the neck. It only took a few days to make, and the results will be well worth it. The only problem I had with it was when I made the second sleeve, I wrapped the loom with yarn too many times and had to frog it to get the sleeve the correct length. You know how it is when you get into your knitting zone!

A New Shrug!

For some time I have been working on this shrug.





I actually started it last year in November, just after I had finished the one I made for her to wear while trick-or-treating. But then I started getting requests for loom knit items and I had to complete my Christmas projects, so I put the shrug aside. Now that my loom requests have quieted down a bit, I am almost done with knitting this shrug. It fits my daughter well, but I haven't decided if I want to add a button to the front if it or not. I also want to knit some matching leg warmers to go with it, to complete the outfit. I did a little knitting and purling details on the bottom of the shrug. Next time I will also do that on the sleeve cuffs. I'm still working on perfecting m finishing techniques as well as getting the neckline right. I am determined to keep practicing until I am fully satisfied with the results. Though I have improved a lot since the first time I made my daughter a sweater. The sleeves are an equal length, though the photo doesn't make it appear so. I took the picture at an angle to avoid the flash reflecting on the floor.

Trick or Treat

It was my daughter's first year officially trick or treating, and she was going to be dressed as Princess Tiana from Disney's The Princess and the Frog. I have to say that the Tiana costunes we saw at our local stores were very cheap looking and certainly not durable. The first one we looked at would have left our daughter's back almost fully exposed. Just what we needed, a princess with a cold because of a skimpy costume. The second version of the costume we saw had more covering, but there were no sleeves on the dress. After much debate we finally bought it.

Naturally, we stopped by the Dismey store at the mall and saw the perfect Tiana dress, nicely made and much prettier, of course for $20 more. We decided to stick with the dress we already bought.

As a result, I decided to quickly make a shrug to help keep my daughter warm as she went from door to door. I used Baby Bernat green, yellow, and white to give it a soft tone to match the dress, and some Lion Brand Fun Fur for the cuffs.

After a few measurements, the shrug came together nicely. Whipping it up on such short notice didn't give me much time to check if it fit her properly and it wound up being a little tight around the armpits. But now that I have the pattern down I will make a nicer more durable one for her to wear at other times. I'll just make it a sweater instead of a shrug. Next time I will add Fun Fur to the bottom hem and maybe the neckline, though it might be too tempting for her to nibble on it around her neck. She loved it just the same.