As you can see, it's quite large on her.  The sleeves are much too long, and the shoulders are quite broad.  But loose is good when you're a toddler on the move.  And large means that it could possibly last beyond this season.  Which would make this momma knitter very happy indeed.

Of course, during our "photoshoot" the one place she wanted to be was the dirtiest place in the park -- the baseball diamond.  She's fascinated with dirt right now, and drawing in it.  I guess it's a good think that Baby Ull is superwash wool.


One thing that makes me quite pleased, is that you would be hard pressed from a distance to tell that the sweater is handmade.  I think I did a bang up job with neat seaming and weaving in ends.  About the only thing that would make you notice (if you got up close) is that the motifs aren't quite centered on the front.  This was one of those "read the instructions" bits that I didn't do as well as I should have (because they were in the front of the pattern section, not with the pattern), but, in the end, marks the sweater as something made by a loving person and not a machine.

I don't have a lot more to say about this little sweater than I already have in the series of construction posts.  I'm very happy with the black buttons.  This was a fabulous introduction to both colorwork and steeking.  In fact, steeking was in no way as scary as I thought it was going to be and I can't wait to try it out on a larger sweater project.

As far as this pattern is concerned, I found it quite easy to follow.  I think the instructions are clear, but sometimes you need to read very carefully to make sure that you follow the whole train of thought.  I did have to refer to some internet tutorials to help with the steeking process -- mostly I wanted a few more visuals to make sure that I was handling the machine stitching the right way.  While it can get a bit tedious knitting a sweater on tiny needles with tiny yarn, if you want to try out colorwork and/or steeking, this is the perfect sort of project to get your feet wet on.  The amount of colorwork is actually quite small relative to the rest of the sweater and, since it is a small project, I think there's a little less fear when it comes to the "cutting your knitting" part.

Before I had children, I could never understand the point of knitting them anything complicated. What was the point when the recipient wouldn't really understand the work that went into it and would grow out of it so quickly.  When I see Ms. Z in this sweater, it makes me so happy inside, I forget all about how much time it took me and the fact that there will be a time that this little sweater will be relegated to the "outgrown" pile -- and then I start trying to figure out what I am going to make for her next.

Marking Button Hole Locations

At long last both Zebra Striper sweater sleeves are complete.  For most projects, this would feel like getting close to the finish line, but with this project, there are still three steeks, two shoulders to sew, two sleeves to set in and sew down facings for, the facing around the bottom to sew down, creating the neck band and sewing down it's facing, creating the button bands and, finally, buttons to sew on.

Clearly, if a sweater project is a journey over a mountain, I feel like I've reached the summit after a long climb, but I still have to turn around and head back to the bottom over complicated terrain.  Seeing these pieces is a bit like looking out over the landscape, imagining all the possibility, being amazed by how far I've come.  This project has definitely gotten me excited about two-color knitting.

I thought I would be nervous about the thought of impending steeks, but actually I'm kind of excited to try my hand at this time-honored kitting technique.  I've been looking over Wendy Johnson's tutorial on Norwegian Steeking -- and I can't wait to get my sewing machine ready and get going!

A front, side and back shot to demonstrate how long and voluminous this dress is on Ms. Z - and she's tall for her age group.

She was a real sweetie about getting into the dress and wearing it all about.  Lately she's been asking me to make her socks and to wear her hand knit sweaters and telling me that she wants to knit something.  It's nice to be in that phase where Momma's hand knits are appreciated and desired.  She was also quite careful with the dress.  We went out to Sunday brunch in it and she didn't get an iota of jelly, butter or bacon on it. 

What's nice about this garment, though, is that it's not the sort of garment that has to be treated like it's made out of glass.  It went to the park after breakfast and performed admirably.

Need to stop and check out something close to the ground?  No problem!

Want to take a trip down the slide?  No problem!

John and I both figure that this dress is going to last her well past her third birthday, as a dress and then, probably, as a tunic.  I love the color on her (yellow almost never looks good on me!) and love that it provides an extra layer of warmth without restricting her mobility. 

And, apropos of nothing, I just have to tell you all how much I love her shoes.  I almost wish See Kai Run made them in adult sizes. 

The second sleeve is never interesting to talk about -- unless you can talk about trying something different with it.

I'm a real newbie when it comes to two-color knitting.  It was while working on the Zebra Striper dress that I finally managed to get both hands in on the action.  My normal "mode" of knitting is Continental style, and I have to admit, it was a real mental hurdle for me to get over to get my right hand pulling it's weight. 

I'd always read that which hand you carry the yarn in has an impact on the final fabric.  On the first sleeve (the one on the right), I knit with the main color in my left hand (my dominant knitting hand) and the secondary colors in my right.  You can see that the secondary color stitches (i.e. the non-red stitches) almost fade back into the fabric, while the red controls the show.  On the second sleeve (the one on the left) i knit with the main color in my right hand and the secondary color in my left.  In this, the secondary color stitches are much more prominent.  The main color stitches are also a bit looser (I know it doesn't look that way... I accidentally neglected to do some increase stitches because I am not good at reading instructions and decided not to rip back and just make it up as I moved along the sleeve since it doesn't really make much difference) and the color stitches come to the foreground much better.  Unfortunately, this meant that the knitting went slower, because my speed with my right hand is not all that good.  But I like the general effect.  So I'll have to file this information for future reference.

Now all that remains is to do the alternating color rows.  I'm about 1/3 of the way through the sleeve.

My other project is to figure out what I'm going to take with me to knit in Austin (we're looking forward to a little burst of warm weather and getting to see my adorable nephew for the first time).  I figure with two small children and no grandparents for miles, there's not going to be a lot of free time, so it's likely going to be a sock project and my next baby toy project.  But just which sock project should I take... or should I start another one, just to be sure that I don't "run out" of sock knitting?

Yesterday I decided that I absolutely had to start the second sleeve for Z's Zebra Striper Sweater.  October and cooler weather is fast approaching, and since even after I finish knitting this sleeve, there are still ends to be woven in, a sweater to be steeked, sleeves to be sewn in and the neckline and fronts to be edged -- clearly I need to get going or plan this sweater to be for another child other than my own. 

So, after knitting the two rows on the Dragon Shawl that I do ever day that I have free time in the daylight (I'm now up to 80 rows completed and have just started on the head of the dragon), I cast on for the second sleeve.  The picture was meant to show an unconventional angle on the sleeve -- after all, if I showed the same things as I did for the first one, the second sleeve would be just as boring to read about as it is to knit (after the brief two color motif at the wrist, it's pretty much just plain stockinette until the bind off).  I sort of like how the purl bars line up and alternate on the inside.   The good thing about it being simple after the cuff, though, is that it will be easy to take with me to Austin next week when we head down south for a long weekend. 

This weekend I hit another milestone on Ms. Z's next sweater and completed the first Zebra Striper sweater sleeve.  Like the rest of this sweater, persistence is what gets you through. And you have to be a little extra persistent with the color work since two color knitting on double points is a little more fiddly than when just using a circular needle.

Really, though, once the cuff is complete, the rest is simple and it doesn't take too long to finish if you actually dedicate some time to it. 

In the background, you can see the body of the sweater -- I realize now that I don't think I made a point of mentioning that I had completed all of it.  Frankly, it was hard to get a good photograph of it since it is in that kind of awkward stringy phase before the steeking begins. 

And one more sleeve... and then some steeking will begin.  I am equal parts excited and anxious about that!

This weekend was one of crafty fits and starts.  I started a new pair of "TV socks", tinked back three rows on the Dragon shawl and re-knit two of those rows (I know that doesn't sound like much, but the rows are 230 stitches each and there is lace knitting on both the right and wrong side of the fabric) and sat myself down and started up on the first of two sleeves I need for Z's Zebra Striper Sweater.  I'm beginning to enjoy stranded color work more and more, but I don't think I'm ever going to like it much on double pointed needles.  Just two much shifting of yarn and needles and so forth.  But I'm well past the colorwork now, and just have to alternate colors until all the increasing is complete and I've reached the needed length.

I really want to get this little sweater finished by the time it starts to get cold -- since she's already put in her request for socks (she keeps picking up my Wee Skein Socks and asking to try them on!) and I feel like I've got to take advantage of her requests for knitwear before she gets old enough not to want anything to do with what Momma knits.

Well!  This project has been a long time in coming.  At least, the pictures have.  It's actually been finished for over a month or so now and has mostly been awaiting a nice day for photographs.  So here it finally is: the Zebra Striper Dress from Dale of Norway, enjoying it's time in the fall sun.

This is one of those projects where you had better love the little details because the rest of it is just a slow slog through a lot of stockinette in the round in one color of yarn at roughly the same gauge that you would knit socks.  Since the base of this project starts at about 350 stitches around, that's a lot of knitting after the fun two color part.  That said, I loved trying out the duplicate stitch (which I had never done before).  It's so sweet and so perfect on the little dress.
The edging for the neck and armscyes is also sweet and delicate and perfect for the design. 

Of course, it's really the bottom edging that this project is all about.  It starts with a little lacy scalloped bottom and works its way into the two color stranded work.  It's all easy, but the zebra striping is slow going because the repeat is hard to memorize.  The final result is quite worth it, though.  And having a lot of knitting to do helped me perfect my two handed two color knitting.  If I were to do it again, I would switch hands and hold the white in my left hand and the black in my right so that the black wouldn't look quite as overwhelming.  For my first time out, I feel really good about how the color work worked out.  After blocking, it doesn't pull in hardly at all.

No project like this would be complete without a look on the inside.  See?  Not so bad. 

You might be wondering where my final shot of the recipient wearing the garment is.  Well, apparently 2 year olds in Norway are absolutely gigantic, because my 16 month old baby positively swims in this thing, which is unfortunate, because I think she would really like to wear it.  I can only hope that when she does grow into it a bit more, it will be cold enough for her to wear it without melting.  Then I promise as many cute pictures of her as I can take!

Project Details:
Pattern: Zebra Striper Dress from Dale of Norway, Favorite Baby Designs Nr. 8101
Size: 24 months
Yarn: Dale of Norway, Baby Ull (Superwash Merino Wool)
Needles: KnitPicks Harmony Circulars

Project Notes:
This is an easy introduction to colorwork.  There's no steeking and all the finishing is relatively simple.  The miles and miles of yellow knitting in the main body of the dress become a little tiresome -- until you have the finished dress, and then it's all worth while.

The only element of the project that I changed was to sew the seams on the top of the straps.  The pattern has you put on buttons and loops to hold them closed, but that seemed like a lot of work for something that could just get caught on things and certainly wouldn't be needed for dressing and undressing a two year old (perhaps it would be helpful for a younger baby, but the neckline is pretty wide, so even then I don't think it's necessary).  The other reason I seamed the tops of the straps together was that I thought it gave the garment a more finished look -- otherwise the cast off edge would have been visible and I didn't like that at all. 

Would I do this project again?  Yes, but definitely only for my own kid.  There's just too much time in this thing to make it as a gift if you're making it for a larger child.  Even the smallest size is quite large, so it definitely falls into one of those "labor of love" project categories. But it is clever and sweet and I really just can't wait to see Zosia wear it -- and fit into it -- for the first time!

Holy moly!  A million miles of yellow stitches finished and blocked. Blocking color work is almost as much fun as blocking lace.  It's nice to see it relax into a smooth form and have all the stitches even out. 

You might wonder how cleaning up the join area worked out.

Unfortunately it looks a little strange  because of the crease in the fabric from flattening the dress for blocking, but, all in all, I think it's a decent first effort.  It took some patience on my part to get it to be relatively neat looking, but I think it was well worth the time.

There's not much more to work on now.  I've got to duplicate stitch the motif on the front and knit on the neck and armhole edgings. With any luck, Ms. Z could be having a photo shoot with this little dress before the month is out.

Or at least that's what it feels like!  With a healthy boost from the Olympics (and a few MythBusters for good measure) all the big knitting for the Zebra Striper dress is complete.  In all honesty, I really felt that something that too so many tiny stitches should look more impressive at this point.  This is one project that clearly will need a good bit of blocking to make look the way it should. 

But before blocking can commence, I've got one last daunting task to complete. 

That's the jog in the circle where the new colors were joined in.  Since there's no steek in this dress (which is where I think this kind of thing would normally be hidden), I need to go in and tighten things up and sew in ends so that that area looks as neat and tidy as the rest of it.  And I've found the end weaving-in process to be a little more challenging for colorwork than for normal knitting -- those floats across the back mean that I have to work a little harder to see where I'm weaving.

I think there might be a reasonable hope of Ms. Z wearing this little jumper this winter since all that remains after the blocking is some duplicate stitch on the front, knitting on the edging to the armscyes and neck edges, and attaching some buttons and small loops to hold the straps together over her shoulders. 

Well, that's it.  At this point I have pretty much done most of the interesting knitting on the Zebra Striper jumper project (except for a bit of duplicate stitch and some detailing around the arms and neck.  Now that the colorwork is done I have an ocean of yellow stockinette to knit through, punctuated by the occasional decrease row as the dress slims from bottom to top.  Believe it or not, I am happy about this.  I enjoyed the color work a great deal, but I wanted to have at least one project that required no thinking in my current batch.  This one has now become perfect for apres-nursing TV watching and for any other time I need something to just relax with.  Lace knitting may provide me with a mantra to meditate on, but simple stockinette lets my hands stay busy while my is free to wander.

But I couldn't let this post go by with just a small picture of the overall project.  After all, this is the project that helped me get my two handed two color knitting mojo going.  With simple motifs and a long long way around, it was perfect for that task.  My stitches are hardly perfect, but I suspect with a little blocking most of the most egregious problems will be eased away.  Though the fabric puckers now, it's easily pulled into a better shape. 

The zebra stripes are an excellent demonstration of the importance of choosing carefully which hand you carry your yarn in.  Since I am still only moderately proficient carrying the yarn in my right hand, I always carried the yarn that was going to get used the most in my left hand.  In the case of the zebra stripes, this was the black yarn.  However, I think it would have been better if I had been more patient and carried the black in my right hand since the white seems to get lost under some of the black stitches and the black is a little more dominant than I think it should be in the design.  A good lesson for the future, I think.

I'm enjoying knitting with the Baby Ull.  Even though the gauge is tiny, it moves easily through my fingers and isn't as splitty as I might have expected a superwash yarn to be -- something that makes knitting in the dark more do-able since I don't have to stop all the time and be worried about whether I missed a ply or whether I'll have little slubby areas in the fabric that I don't want to have there. 

It's a long haul project -- but when Ms. Z comes up to touch it and then gives me one of her megawatt smiles I know it's going to be more than worth the effort.

Doesn't look like much, does it?  But it's actually the sum total of all my knitting time over the past week and a half.  I have discovered that 336 stitches around is a lot of stitches.  It seems like even more stitches when you are knitting them on 2.5 mm needles.  But, finally, the Zebra Striper dress for Ms. Z has started.  I'm making the 24 month size figuring that that will give me plenty of time to get it done.  After seeing how long it takes me to get around once (even with just basic stockinette) I think giving myself plenty of time was the best choice I could make for the project. 

This pattern starts out with a simple lace motif to make the bottom edge scalloped.  After that, it launches you into the two color work. 

The positive side of having so many stitches in a round is that it gives you plenty of time to memorize stitch motifs and to try out different ways to handle the two color knitting. I spent a lot of time doing things with both yarns in my left hand.  But things just kept getting tangled and it was hard to keep my tension good when I used a lot more of one color on a row than the other color.  Then, suddenly, on the row where there are three green stitches followed by one red stitch repeated throughout the row, something clicked in my brain and I figured out how to knit two color with one color in my left hand and one in my right. Don't ask me what happened or how it happened, but it did (I had a similar experience learning how to use the drop spindle).   I am far from speedy and my technique could still use a lot of work but the breakthrough has been made.  Whatever barrier I had in my brain that was preventing me from doing this has been broken.  Now it's just a matter of continuing on this way and re-enforcing the neural connections involved with letting me knit with both hands at once -- which shouldn't be a problem since I still have quite a few more rounds of 336 stitches with which to practice ahead of me.

Now, hopefully I can apply this two handed stuff to the second Fiesta Foot!  That would make the instep part of the project a whole lot easier!.