WIP Wednesday - Project Sweater Chest

I completely forgot to take photos of my works in progress last week, and a WIP post without photos is kinda dull, so this week you get twice the amount of progress! :-)

I've gone kinda nuts with knitting baby/toddler sweaters. Some of these will go to Nora, others will just go in my gift pile for when somebody has a baby next.

First of all, I finished the Raindrops sweater by tincanknits :)
Not quite as crazy with this pattern as some of the others - the neckline and sleeves seemed quite tight - but I hope it'll fit Nora well regardless. I knit the size 2-4yr size, so it may be awhile yet before she can wear it.

Next I cast on the Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann. I've wanted to knit this in ages to see just how the magic worked and finally got my hands on the pattern. I wasn't disappointed - it was a fun and quick knit and pure brilliance in how it all came together as it went from this...
... to this...
I had gotten hold of the original newsletter version which is just the general gist rather than row-by-row instructions, which meant I did have to make certain assumptions along the way, but I think it turned out lovely regardless. I can definitely see myself knitting more of these. I do understand why other knitters mention the sleeves being short, though. I'll probably use some of the suggested modifications to lengthen the sleeves a bit next time. I knit the 1-year size, and it took me about 3 days from start to (almost) finished (still haven't sewn in the buttons).

And since by this time I'd accepted that I was firmly on a toddler-sweater-knitting kick, I immediately turned around and cast on the Striped Beach Sweater by Nikki van der Car. This is the 5th sweater I've knit by her, and I've loved them all :) I'm knitting the 2T size so it'll hopefully fit Nora come winter.

But since July is drawing to an end I've also focused on (finally) getting my July socks done for the "Just One More Row 12 in 16" challenge. Toe-up, no-purl monkey socks for a friend of mine. I didn't have quite enough yarn, so ended up making the cuff ribbing black instead. I hope she'll like them.

WIP Wednesday on a Thursday

I completely forgot to post this yesterday!

Since I obviously didn't have enough socks on the needles, I've cast on a new pair! I needed a new pair for my July socks anyway, and I've wanted to knit another pair of Monkey Socks for awhile, so it all worked out :) I'm knitting the no-purl version, toe-up. Only just started, but am already reminded why I enjoyed the pattern so much the first time around :)

That said, my other socks (the ones on the 9" circs) are slowly coming along. I've passed the heel and am half-way through the foot. I'm getting the hang of the small circ, but I'll never be a huge fan... in fact, I may knit the second sock magic loop instead (or I may get stubborn and keep going as I started... we'll see).

I've been knitting quite a bit on my "Symmetry in Motion" pullover, but am still just 1/3 of the way through the body. Not entirely sure what I was thinking - knitting a lace-weight pullover for Stashdash! It is taking forever... but will give my meterage a huge bump if I actually do finish. We'll see... I haven't given up yet - there's still more than a month left of Stashdash.
I think I'll like the end result though :) The shoulders are a bit bulky, but that can hopefully be fixed during blocking.

But since I got a bit frustrated by how S-L-O-W the progress was, I decided to ask Mixi if she wanted me to knit something for Nora for the winter. Fortunately she did, so over the weekend I got to cast on for Tincanknit's "Raindrops" sweater and am enjoying the knit so much! This shouldn't take me long at all :-D
The sizing is 2-4yrs which seems like a bit of a large gap to me, but I figure that if Nora can't fit it this winter, it'll come in handy for next year... and I can always knit her another sweater for this year ;)