Baby Knits

I figured out how to make large strides in quality improvement in my knitting: make gifts for someone else! Learning that one of my childhood friends and her husband are going to have their first child this fall gave me a great opportunity to knit for someone else. This little baby has an Irish and Swedish heritage. Naturally, a knitted gift was in order!

My lighting was terrible. Some photos may show better if you click on them to enlarge them.

The idea started with infant booties, on the left in the photos. The patterns were found via web searches. These are Tangle Knits baby booties. They knitted up so quickly and looked so nice, I wanted to keep going. Next I made the hat designed by Abigail Cross of Crotiques. And I finished with the mitts from Knitting-Crochet dot com. The are to the right of the hat in the photos. This set is all Lion Brand Wool Ease in Natural Heather and Forest Green Heather. Next I fell in love with a cardigan, Trellis, from Knitty dot com. This was my first time making a cardigan and I will definitely be trying it again. The quality of this garment is so far above anything I have previously made. I have set a new standard for myself. This is also made entirely of Wool Ease, using the Fisherman color.
I tried to fiddle with my lighting to get a good photo. In place of one I was satisfied with I have posted several that are merely fair. Here are some back views. Front button detail. I need to find a better supply store -- I could not find any leather buttons! Sleeve detail.
Finally, to honor baby's Swedish heritage, I searched for a Scandinavian circular yoke sweater pattern. The search was over when I found Thumb Knitting's Sky and Leaves predominantly using the colors of the Swedish flag.
Darn lighting. The blue in the sweater is Wool Ease's Blue Heather. It is much brighter than my photos show. The yellow is Butterscotch and the green is Forest Green Heather (both Wool Ease) again. Making this sweater gave me experience with another style and some more new knitting skills. Here is the yoke in detail.
With each gift I was more pleased than the last. It is my intention to carry my new strides in quality knitting through the items I make for myself and my family too.