I apologize to all followers who are subscribed to my posts. I had planned to schedule the post for June 26, of this year, but it accidentally was published as a 2011 post. So now it’ll go up earlier – and I’ve also added content and photographs, so I hope you’ll like this improved version.
Nephew #2 is a little munchkin, just a few months old. One of the best things about babies and toddlers are that there are so many great patterns out there for kid knits. Well, at least from a knitter’s point of view. Plus, they’re so small, it’s so easy to whip up something really fast – I mean how often can you say that you knit a sweater in a day? Instant gratification.
I’ve knit quite a few baby items, but I haven’t knit up a layette set. (A layette is a baby outfit set). I already had a baby hat that I needed to modify. When my nephew #1 was born, my sister received a lovely little hat as a gift, but it didn’t quite cover the ears. So my sister asked me to add earflaps to the hat. I never did quite manage to get around to knitting the flaps for her. Long story short, I finally managed to finish the flaps. I basically picked up stitches on both sides of the hat, knit for a few rows, and then I shaped the ear flaps with matched decreases, followed by a purl row each time. To make sure that the hat stays on the baby’s I added I-cord at the end of each flap so it can be tied. But the yarn I picked wasn’t quite exactly the same shade as the hat, so the plan was to overdye the hat. It didn’t quite fix the color difference, but it looks much better.
Monkey layette!
I had also planned to knit some kind of baby booties. The pattern I thought about was for a pair of baby mocs that should ideally be knit in two different shades, or different colors. well, I only had the one skein of basic blue. But the dying gave me a second shade of blue, and I knit up a pair of mocs using the undyed blue and the darker dyed blue, to match the hat.
I had enough dye, so I also dyed a baby onesie at the same time as dyeing the yarn. Since my older nephew really likes Paul Frank, I decorated the onesie with a blue Paul Frank napkin using decoupage. I basically peeled off the top layer of the napkin with the print on it (very carefully, to avoid tearing), and then using fabric decoupage glue, I applied the design to the onesie. After drying, it needed to be ironed, and voila! I have a baby layette for munchkin #2. I guess I could have knit a baby cardigan, too, but babies grow so quickly. I’d rather knit him a cardigan when he’s a bit older and he’ll get more use out of a it.
The entire baby layette
Decoupage is a great technique to create or redo items. It’s also a fun activity for kids – my goddaughter decorated easter eggs using napkin decoupage (hollow eggs, the egg had been used for Easter baking). You can use the decoupage technique to decorate all kinds of items – not just clothing. You can decorate everything from jewelry boxes to chairs. I saw these awesome mugs that someone very creative had decorated, using specific porcelain glue. Make sure that you use the right glue for your project. The basic glue usually works on wood and paper – for garments you need specific glue, otherwise the applied object will come off once you wash it. I let my nephew decorate coasters – for those, and anything else that’ll be exposed to moisture, you need extra lacquer to keep help keep the moisture away. Have fun creating your own items!
1. Gift bags for Easter 2. Jewelry Box 3. Tissue boxes 4. Children’s apron 5. Toy box
Monkey business keyholders available here. Photocollage made using the BigHugeLabs website and PicFrame.
Knitting, reading, photography, and maybe more 