Our Yummy, Delicious Cupcake

The flavor of our Cupcake is a Girl! We are so excited to introduce her to you. Thank you for all the support and wishes over the past months...and for the "how are you" emails in the last couple of weeks. More pictures and baby updates soon!

Anya G Patel-Aranha was born on October 21, 2009; 7 pounds 2 ounces, 19.9 inches.

Anya is Sanskrit for inexhaustible; forever. G is the English Alphabet "G" for Gravity (for detailed explanation, see here). And of course, Patel-Aranha is a little bit of Dad, a little bit of Mom.

Color Mania

Thanks for checking up on me. For those who asked when I was due--well, in two weeks. Gee.

See what my friend, Nadine, made for Cupcake! Isn't our bear super cute! She used the Bobbi Bear pattern (Rav link). A long time ago, I had mentioned to Nadine of Suketu's love for a handknit, striped baby shirt at a yarn store. So she made one for Bear! Thank you, Nadine! We love our yet to be named Bear.

One more. Over the years, I have tried to get out of the traditional color schemes and experiment with unusual color possibilities. Fellow bloggers and Ravelry friends ask me from where and how I come up with my color combinations. Here is my limited, amateur two cents. And my two cents worth is just this--work with the colors you would never put together. Strange but true. It works. And if you think you are messing up, keep going. You are on the right track.

So I put three colors together. Reddish-maroon, Bright Blue, and Orange. The pattern is filled with mindless garter stitch--bliss. With the remaining yarn, I made a little beanie. I must have used this beanie pattern a zillion times. A well-written, basic pattern that one can work with in many ways. Buttons from Vardhman.

For Cardigan:
Pattern: Garter Stitch Raglan Baby Cardi (free download via Ravelry)
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece: 0.3 skeins in Blue, 0.9 skeins in Red-Maroon
Needle: US 4
Size: 6 months
Major modification: Button holes made every 11th row

For Hat:
Pattern: Single Crochet Beanie (free)
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (Blue and Red); Knit One Crochet Too 2nd Time Cotton in Orange
Hook: 4mm
Size: 0 - 6 months

Pebbled Vested Interest

HOLY COW! Is it really October 14th? I hope this kid knows all the "how tos."

Some of you, my great blog friends, say that most of my Cupcake projects have a "reason." That is true. However, this vest has no reason. Just vested interest. For its pure cuteness. I cannot get over how grown up the outcome of this pattern looks!

I think this is the only project for which I hunted and special ordered the yarn. It definitely had to be tweed. And machine washable. Plymouth Encore Worsted Tweed turned out perfect at all levels.

And finally. A project with zero modifications. The only modification is that I used worsted weight rather than DK--to up the size. I think the vest was done in two days--it is a perfectly written pattern. And oh, do you know by now how much I love buttons? Thanks to a wonderful button hunting trip with knitting friends, we landed up at Vardhman. It is my new to-go place in NYC for great, and yet very affordable, notions. Special thanks to Penelope and Angela for procurement support.

Pattern: Pebble (Henry's Manly Cobblestone-Inspired Baby Vest) (free)
Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted Tweed; 0.75 skeins
Needle: US 7
Size: 6 months
Gauge: 4 stitches per inch

When I grow up...

Sorry for the posting delay. The weather here has been rainy and cloudy, making it difficult to photograph. The sun finally came out today (Hello Sun!) and here I am. Let me begin by congratulating Kathy (bigblueice on Ravelry) for winning the Giveaway! I will be sending you an email this evening for your postal info. Thank you to everyone who participated!

From the time I started making stuff for Cupcake, I have been itching to use this particular yarn. I think in my crazy excitement of finally working with it, I somehow managed to make it real big. (How does one goof up top down measurements. Duh.). So big, it is going to fit Cupcake at age one. Biggie Kimono. Anyway, people grow, and the kid will wear this then.

Another no-brainer pattern. I made some modifications so that the stockinette does not roll (see below) and worked the sleeves short. The yarn says it is worsted, but it seemed DK to me. I dont know how some people on Ravelry used larger sized needles for projects with this yarn. Well, I suppose one person's worsted is another's DK.

Pattern: Seamless Baby Kimono (Free)
Yarn: Knit One Crochet Too 2nd Time Cotton; 1.75 skeins
Needle: US 5
Size: 12 months (chest size 22 inches)
Gauge: 5 stitches per inch
Modifications:
1. 5 rows of garter stitch for a collar. Saw that some complained of stockinette rolling.
2. Sleeves: 3 rounds stockinette, 8 rounds garter stitch.
3. Didn't do the ties. Created button holes on either edge at the garter border, and added buttons in such a way so as to expose one button.

Its Yarny Days' Second Birthday! And there is a Giveaway!

Yarny Days turned two yesterday! Has it grown big or what--seen so many places, made so many friends, and housed so much craftiness. I am amazed that there has been so much commitment to this blog project on my part. In true Grammy style, I must say that I could not do it without all of you. Thank you for being around!

And of course, to celebrate this wonderful time, there is got to be a giveaway. It is going to be a surprise crafty package for the winner--containing yarn, crafty books, and goodies! To take part, just leave a comment for the blog post by Sept 29 (please see that your comment links up to your blog/website or leave an email address). And oh yes, this is an equal opportunity-destination giveaway--you could be living in any part of the world.

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Here is what I call "One Chubby for the Road." I never planned to make a bulky vest for Cupcake, and this was very spontaneous. The other weird thing is that this is not my kind of color--too baby for my liking. But the whole thing just grew on me--the weight of the yarn, the color, the buttons.

I was inspired by the Felix's Cardigan pattern (link below), especially the V-neck shaping. It is a fast, easy knit anyway, and with heavy worsted yarn, it was under-one-day knitting. If I had the buttons on hand, it would have officially been done in a day.

Pattern: Vest inspired by Felix's Cardigan
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Encore...Hmmm. The label said Chunky, but it was between worsted and chunky (something was off with my skein); one skein
Needle: US 8
Size: 6 - 12 months
Modifications:
1. Slip 1 stitch every row (for a neat garter stitch band)
2. 5 stitches for garter stitch band (instead of 4 stitches)
3. Bound off sleeves when separating sleeves and body. This was done purlwise.
5. Button hole: K2, yo, k2g, k1
6. Button hole made every 11th row
7. While during the garter stitch band at the bottom of the body, I missed a knit row (I purled instead). Well.

Prof. Cupcake

The latest finished object for Cupcake. Though I like the way this sweater is designed, I decided to knit it for a totally different reason. In her description, the designer says "I think the shawl collar adds an air of sophistication - like this baby belongs in a library, sipping tea and reading Shakespeare!" Suketu and I are both academic researchers by day, and...well, the same by night--usually living in our own heads and striving to understand the "beyond" of our societies. The look of this sweater just called out to me--it fits all the essentialist stereotypes of people from our side of the world. (Remember the stereotype of professors in jackets/ suits, with their heads buried in some book in the library?)

The sweater is knit in bulky cotton, and in a super tight gauge, so that it has the look and feel of a jacket. The yarn I used is Schulana Supercotton Solid--I now regret not buying more when it was on sale at a yarn store. It feels soft and wonderful in your hands, without the usual tackiness of 100% cotton (maybe the nylon in it helps?).

Again, super fast because it is top down (could it be any other way?). Buttons from stash. Suketu liked my idea of putting leather/suede patches at the elbows, but I was unsuccessful in finding small pieces for the patches. I am thinking my mom-in-law will come up with something on her sewing machine.

Pattern: Baby Sophisticate (free download link on Ravelry)
Yarn: Schulana Supercotton Solid; four skeins
Needles: US 8 for body. US 9 for sleeves (I really tightened up in magic loop)
Size: 6-12 months
Modifications:
1. I knit the body plus sleeves until I reached desired chest size.
2. This pattern did not have any sleeve decreases. I used suggested sleeve decreases from the Baby Pullover #214 pattern.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

I have been having some not so good postal mail karma. Remember this? Anyway, I sent a replacement package to Josie and finally, she now has her swap package! (Dont get me started of how this package sat at New Delhi customs clearance for days. A totally different postal karma story).

This is a great, super easy, super quick, market bag pattern (see info below). Since these bags really stretch out, I crocheted in a very tight gauge and made shorter handles. The yarn fiber also helped--it is very closely plied and holds up very well for projects like bags, coasters, mats.

Pattern: String Bag from Lesley Stanfield's book First Crochet
Yarn: J&P Coats Royale - Lovebeads Crochet, 1.6 skeins
Hook: 3.5mm