Two Cute

They took much longer than they really should have, but both baby sweaters are now done!

Pattern: Helena by Alison Green from Knitty, summer 2008
Size: 6 months
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Worsted (100% superwash merino) in White, 3.46 skeins
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) and US 2 (2.75 mm)
Started/Completed: July 1/July 25
Mods: worked three buttonholes instead of doing the ties

Although there are plenty of baby patterns out there that I haven't knit, I decided to knit this one again because I have fond memories of Rainbow wearing the one I made for her. She was wearing it when we had pictures taken for her first birthday, so I see a picture of her in it every day. It's a relatively easy knit, and I really did think it would go a lot faster than it did -- perhaps it would have had I actually knit on it instead of spinning for most of the month!

The only modification I made was, as I did the last time, to eliminate the recommended tie closures in favor of buttons and buttonholes. I found the sweetest flower-shaped buttons at my LYS, and I think they add just the right amount of color to the sweater.

This sweater is a gift for the daughter of our next-door neighbors, who was born about three weeks ago. I'm hoping to give it to them (along with the little bonnet I'm nearly finished with) sometime this weekend.

And now the next FO:

Pattern: Boy Sweater by Lisa Chemery
Size:  6 months
Yarn: Malabrigo Rios (100% superwash merino) in Lettuce, 1.25 skeins
Needles: US 6 (4.0 mm) and US 8 (5.0 mm)
Started/Completed: June 28/July 29
Mods: none, other than winging the collar a bit because I screwed up the short rows somewhere along the way

I love this sweater. Despite what you might think from the dates, this was actually the faster knit of the two. And it was a relatively easy knit, too. This one is intended for my best friend's second baby, who was born on July 17. Her first son got a cardigan, so I figured this baby should get a pullover. I generally don't knit pullovers for babies because they can be harder to get on, but the neckline on this sweet little sweater seems like it would help a lot in getting it on easily. I even found the perfect button in my giant bag of mixed random buttons!

I had no problems with the pattern and would happily knit it again. And there was enough yarn leftover that I'm attempting to eke out a hat to go with it (using the same twisted ribbing and textured stitch pattern from the sweater).

Now that these two are done, I suppose my next task should be finishing the sweater for myself. But it is to tempting to cast on some new things!