Work from the past year

This past Fall I spent a great deal of time on trains.  No not antique trains (I wish), but Amtrak's  finest!  I never liked flying to start with - always got air sick.  So with that problem, along with the hassles of security, long waits, and delays, I tried the train.  And, I loved it!

I took along my sewing & needlework, a few hundred books on my tablet, and my smart phone.  I had intentions of getting work done, and I did.  Traveling on the train is slow, relaxing and  for the most part peaceful.  I love the little rooms that turn into your bedroom at night.  The attendant comes in  and makes up the bed at night, and makes sure all is well.  The food is pretty good, almost too much for passengers sitting all day.  There is even a little shop that sells papers, soda, coffee, etc...  I absolutely loved riding the train.

While traveling I worked on perfecting a pattern I worked on all of last year in my spare time.  It started out

 as a little sweater for a baby with a hood (see photo below).  When I got to the waist of the sweater, I had an idea to add a skirt.  That one idea turned into a very long obsession with knitting this pattern, making tiny changes with each new sweater.

I've always loved top down sweaters, as there are usually no seams to sew when finished.  And I love knitting patterns that don't require reading the pattern after every row.  This pattern  is like that.  You can literally try the sweater on your child as you knit!  I'm still tweaking the instructions and layout, but hope to have it ready soon.  Until then, I thought I'd show you the sweaters I've made so far.

This is everyone's favorite version.  Hoodies are popular now!

This is the last sweater made.  It's shorter and sized for a 4 or 5.  The collar is knitted, has a folded picot edge.  I like the cuff edged sleeves too.  I may try  a lower edged that matches in my next version.

I tried to get my 2 year old grandson to be my model because he's so pretty he could be a girl,  but that didn't work out so well.  The 6 year old grandson began saying, "it's for a girl gramma," and the 2 year old totally understood that.... so my idea was shut down quickly!

You would  think one of my 4 kids would know how badly I need a granddaughter and get busy on it!  :)

A crocheted beret to match!

Peter Pan Collar

My new model!

Berets have flowers on top!

Well, it's back to the sewing machine for me today.  Trying to get a few more baby quilts finished.
Oh...  all of the items above are listed in my Esty shop, just click button at top of page to visit.
Until tomorrow......