raglan sleeve baby cardigan pattern - EU size 56-62

What I like about this pattern I made up is that you can add any pattern, from fair isle to combination of stitches or just simple stripes. You can use the moss-stitch border, a garter stitch border or just ribbing.
It fits sizes 56-62 (tested!) The cardigan is knitted from the bottom up, front, back and sleeves separately, then all the pieces are joined to knit the raglan yoke all in one piece again. You only need to seam the sleeves and sides at the end.

material & sizing:
I used a baby-weight yarn, drops baby merino which I knit with metric size 3 needles. The tension is 26 sts to 10 cm.
Finished measurements (European size 62)

• width measured between underarms: 23 cm (=9 in)
• length from the shoulder down: 24 cm (=9.5 in)
• underarm length: 14 cm (=5.5 in)

You can adjust the size by casting on more rows and adding length before starting the raglan yoke. In that case you need to widen the neck as well.
Of course, using a heavier wool and larger needles is the easiest way to size up!

my basic raglan pattern:

front (make 2):

- cast on for cardigan 37 sts (each half front includes a border of 4 sts!)
- Row 1-6: Work in the border stitch of your choice for 6 rows (ribbing, moss-stitch or garter-stitch) adding the first buttonhole in the 3rd row.
- buttonhole: knit 2, cast off 2. In next row in border cast on 2 stitches and knit 2.
- Row 7-57: continue in stocking-stitch (alternating 1 row knit and 1 row purl) while keeping the first 4 sts (right front) an last 4 stitches (left front) of each row in moss-stitch or garter-stitch.
- add buttonholes in 23-43-53th row as desired (left front border for boys or right front border for girls )
- Row 58: cast off 2 sts opposite to borders for underarms
- Put stitches on holder

back:
- cast on 68 sts
- Row 1-6: Work in the border stitch of your choice for 6 rows (ribbing, moss-stitch or garter-stitch)
- Row 7-56: continue in stocking-stitch (alternating 1 row knit and 1 row purl)
- row 57 + 58: cast off 2 sts at beginning of row for underarms
- Put stitches on holder

sleeves:

- cast on 37 sts in main color
- Row 1-6: Work in the border stitch of your choice for 6 rows (ribbing, moss-stitch or garter-stitch)
- Row 7-50: continue in stocking stitch (alternating 1 row knit and 1 row purl)
- increase 1 st on both ends in row 16 (=39 sts)
- inc. 1 st at both ends of 22nd row (=41 sts)
- inc. 1 st at both ends of 28th row (=43 sts)
- inc. 1 st at both ends of 44th row (=45 sts),
- inc. 1 st at both ends of 46th row  (=47 sts)
- 51 + 52th row cast off 2 sts at begin of row. (fronts: 35 sts, back 64 sts remain)

yoke:

- Continue front and back with sleeves altogether, place stitchmarkers. For each stitch marker on the right side of work:
- last 3 sts before stitchmarker: slip one, knit one, pass slipped stitch over and knit one.
- first 3 stitches after stitch markers: knit one, knit 2 together
- Purl alternating rows.
Continue until the 84th row (before the 5th buttonhole is made)
shape neck: 
- knit 4 sts of border and put these stitches on holder for neckband
- continue in stocking stitch, decrease at raglan every alternate row as before, at the same time decrease 1 st at neck edge every row until 9 sts remain after knitting right side row.
- put stitches on holder, break wool.

Pick up 3 sts, transfer another stitches on needle, pick up 3 sts in front and transfer the last 6 stitches.

neck band:
- Knit 6 rows in the border stitch of your choice
- in first row (wrong side) decrease once more at stitch markers as described above
- 7th row: cast off

easy baby hat (fits newborn to 2 months old) - free knitting pattern

Are you tired of all baby things yet?
This is a basic baby hat pattern I knitted a few months ago. It took me one evening. I didn't use a particular pattern and just a sewn, knit fabric baby hat to measure against. I think the most important thing is the right shape of the crown. Often patterns end up with too pointy crowns which don't look very flattering. This pattern has a nicely rounded crown and a double brim for softness. It has stocking stitch on the inside of the brim and K2, P2 border on the outside. The stocking stitch edge is folded back and secured with catch stitch to provide elasticity. You could add colorwork to it if you wished or use different stitches for the stocking stitch part.

material & sizing:
I used my favorite, fingering weight drops baby merino yarn and metric size 3 needles (size 2.5 for the brim)
gauge: 26 sts per 10 cm (approx.4 in)
Finished size will fit approx. 36-38 cm head circumference, height measured from brim to top approx. 12 cm.


measurements:
Not all baby-heads are the same! To make sure your hat fits well you need the following measurements:
1. head circumference, right above the ears
2. to calculate the height you need measure from ear to ear (imagine an old fashioned headphone) and divide by two

For a larger size you could add a multiple of 10 to the amount of stitches (for larger circumference) an add extra rows to the brim and to the first, straight part before starting to decrease (for more height)
Using sport weight yarn with larger needles is another option.

the pattern:


abbrevations: 
K = knit
P = purl
K2TOG = knit two together

- Cast on 80 sts
- Knit 10 rows in stocking stitch (K on right side and P on wrong side)
- knit 10 rows K2 P2

start row counting after knitting the brim:
- row 1-10 continue in stocking stitch (you can add a colorwork pattern here or for a larger size you can add extra rows here!)
- row 11 *K8, K2TOG* repeat between ** (72 sts)
- row 19 *K7, K2TOG* repeat between ** (64 sts)
- row 23 *K6, K2TOG* repeat between ** (56 sts)
- row 27 *K5, K2TOG* repeat between ** (48 sts)
- row 29 *K4, K2TOG* repeat between ** (40 sts)
- row 31 *K3, K2TOG* repeat between ** (32 sts)
- row 33 *K2, K2TOG* repeat between ** (24 sts)
- row 35 *K2TOG* repeat between ** (12 sts)
- row 36 *K2TOG* repeat between ** (6 sts)

- Cut yarn leaving about 30 cm in length.
- Pull yarn through final 6 stitches and make a knot to pull together the top of the hat. Pull the yarn to the inside and use it to sew up the sides.
take a look here for the flat seam method
- Fold brim lining (stocking stitch part) towards inside and secure with catch stitch.

Inspiration: 4 decorative diy pillow ideas from the internet

these pics are courtesy of the owners - see links below

Though I have a zillion baby-related projects to finish from playpen-mat to bathcape, changing cushion covers and mobiles I still love to think about new projects and browse the internet for new ideas. Sometimes, something simple can turn out great, like my most recent creation, a faux fur footstool, which took only 1/2 day to make and I use it every day!
Now, that the Holiday season is approaching I'd like to make a few new, fluffy, modern and cozy pillows for the sofa. These would make great gift-items too!
Here is my top-4 list for the best ideas. Are you inspired?

1. I know, I know, it's a bag. But: imagine turning this pattern into a pillow!
I love the felt look. This bag is actually knitted with a chunky wool yarn with an easy bobble pattern and then washed in the washing machine to turn the yarn into felt. I can think of hundreds of design variations for the placement of the bobbles: using only two rows on one side, in a rectangular shape in the middle or both at left and right, just like on the flap of this bag...
As for the color: I'm currently in love with everything white, off-white and shades of grey, but pastel colors could work beautifully as well.
Because chunky yarn tends to be expensive I'd use plain fabric for the back. The only thing you need to keep in mind is to allow about 30% extra in size when knitting, since felting makes the work shrink.
original pattern here: drops felted knit bag

2. the second one is a rather simple recycle project: an old jeans transformed into a modern looking pillow. The site is Norwegian, but I guess the fabric stripes must be about a cm wide. I think the best is to use a thinner jeans fabric, which is less stiff than the classic workers pants. This would make the cutting and knitting easier. The pattern they used is a simple garter stitch.
Again, the back of the pillow is made from a piece of matching fabric.

pattern here: recycled jeans pillow

3. If you are not keen on knitting you can use a better quality ready-made felt for this modern circle pillow. The coffee-brown circles are placed in a geometric pattern and simply sewn in one vertical line through the middle. A combination of off-white and grey or off-white and mustard would make a sophisticated version too, just like a subtle white and beige version. You can go for more fun with a lot of different colors too!

pattern here: modern circle pillow cover

4. Another knitted one: simply beautiful, but with lots of structure. They use more strands of thinner yarn for the black embroidery on a chunky knitted base which is made in an easy stocking stitch. You could change the color combinations.
pattern here: monochrome knit pillow

Simple blocks baby blanket finished + pattern!

Here it is! Finally finished this knitted blanket. Though it took me 2 weeks I am very pleased with the results.

material & sizing:
The yarn I used is the drops 'Karisma'. It is a 4-strands, sport weight, superwash-treated, 100% wool yarn. It comes in a lot of different colors. I choose a light blue-grey hue (nr.70)
I used just a little short of 9 skeins of 50g (approx. 440 g)
Using metric size 4 needles my gauge is 21 sts per 10 cm.


simple blocks baby blanket pattern:


material: about 9 skeins of 'drops Karisma'
gauge: 21 sts to 10 cm (approx. 22 sts to 4 inches)
abbrevations:
K=knit    P=purl

Cast on a multiple of 8, + 4 stitches
(I started out with 156 stitches, this makes approx. 75 cm in width)

Border: Knit for 11 rows
Next row: continue in square pattern, from here on this is going to be the right side of the work. (This way the border has a nice ridge at the bottom)
You have now 6 'ridges'.

Main part:
The main part of the blanket alters the square pattern with garter stitch rows.

• Block pattern:

Every uneven row (=right side): Knit
Every other row (=wrong side): K8, P8 * K4, P8 * K8
Repeat these two rows 5 times (you count now 5 ridges along the squares on the right side)

• Garter stitch rows:

Knit for 6 rows (this will form 3 ridges on the right side)

Border at top:
Continue to the desired length and finish with the garter stitch rows.
Continue in garter stitch for 6 more rows, ending on wrong side.
(You have now 6 ridges on the right side)

Cast off loosely in the next, right side row.
To prevent a tight cast-off I used this method which I learned from my grandma many years ago:
Knit two together through back loops and place the stitch back onto the left needle.

1966 baby cardigan finished + the pattern!

So here it is, a baby cardigan worked from a vintage pattern. It's not quite finished yet, still have to block it and find the right buttons.
The patten is very straight forward and haven't find any errors. It is also a fast knit, when knitting in the evenings you should be ready in just one week.

I love the raglan sleeves! Although there are not many patterns using raglan sleeves, the fit seems to me always better. Maybe, because there is no well-defined shoulder line, which makes the sizing forgiving. I think it is a great basic pattern which you can adjust - knitting plain or adding stripes, motifs, or a cable pattern if you like.

main pattern:

Hard to spot if you look at the original picture, but here you can see the moss-stitch border along the yoke which is knitted in stocking stitch:


close-up of the raglan yoke, this could be knitted in one piece as well:


The pattern instructs to knit the K stitches of the ribbing t.b.l., which means through the back loop. This makes decorative turned stitches, and also a tighter finish which I only used on the neck ribbing:


material & sizing:
I used my trusted Drops baby merino yarn in the color light beige. I used 130 gramms of wool, which is just a bit more than 2.5 skeins. My tension was 28 sts to 10 cm,which is approximately the same as the suggested tension of 8 sts to 1 inch.
The finished measurements came out just a tad larger than the original:
chest (underarm circumference): 56 cm (=22 in)
length: 28 cm (=11 in)

changes I made:

• ribbing:

I used 12 rows for the ribbing at front and back and just 10 rows at the sleeves.

• buttonholes:

I found the buttonhole with just 1 sts too small so used 2 sts (3 sts at edge, cast off 2, remains 1, and in the next row knit 1 st, cast on 2 sts and knit the remaining 3 sts (all in moss stitch)

pattern notes & tips:

• place remaining sts of back on holder

I didn't cast off after the last row of the back but have put sts on a stitch-holder instead. Why should you cast off only to pick up the same stitches later?

• placing buttonholes:

Rows 6 - 25 - 44 - 63 - 82 and the last one as instructed at neckband

• sleeves:

You need to increase 5 sts in the first row after the ribbing. Here is how I did it:
K4, inc, *K7, inc* repeat ** 3 more times, K3

the pattern:
You find the pattern HERE

vintage newborn baby bootie pattern from 1966

This weeks baby bootie is a 'newborn bootie' pattern from 1966. The 'fancy stitch' is easy to knit and it can be made both for baby boys and girls. Interesting detail is the picot edge which is occasionally appears on knitted tops or sweaters. Always wondered how it's done? Scroll down to read!

"A quick-and-easy gift, you can knit these bootees in a night. Make them in white or lemon and they will suit either a boy or a girl."

   

material & sizing:
The suggested tension is 8 sts to an inch. I used the same gauge as always, used fingering weight yarn, metric size 3 needles and a tension of approx. 28 sts to 10cm (7sts=1in) The finished size is 9 cm (=3,5 in) from heel to toe, which should indeed fit newborn to 3 month old babies.br />
construction:
The bootie is knitted top-down. You start with making the picot edge.
the finished bootie before sewing:

I made 2 repeats of the 'fancy stitch' after the picot edge. The instructions tell to continue until the work measures 1 1/2 in. Instead of measuring the length I repeated the pattern twice, for the same look as in the original picture (making 4 rows of small holes). Close-up of the fancy stitch with the tiny holes:

The instep is shaped by knitting the instep and picking up stitches along the edges. A common problem can be holes in the inner corner.

trick: how to avoid holes?
If you have ever tried to knit socks you might be familiar with the holes in the inner corners when knitting a sock with a heel flap. There are a few sock-knitting tricks to avoid those holes. These holes are actually created by the stretched-out strands of the previous row, between the last stitch before starting to knit the instep and the first stitch of the instep. Here we are knitting tiny booties, so there is just one trick you need to apply: when you pick up stitches along the edges, pick up an extra stitch next to the inner corner. Then you knit this stitch together with the stitch next to it in the next row.

the toe-shaping:
   



trick: seaming along the sole
If you don't do this in the right way you'll end up with vertical lines along the seam on the right side or a very thick seamline. Here you can see how I pick up the middle loop of the chains along the edges (seaming on wrong side). This way it looks good from the right side and the seam won't be thick!


picot edge:
The picot edge in knitting is actually created by making a row of holes (K2TOG, YARN OVER) Then the work is folded along the row-lines and sewn or knitted in place. This creates the scalloped edge. These row of small scallops are called picot.
In this pattern you make the picot edge like this:

• you knit 3 rows in stocking-stitch
• knit a row with holes
• knit 3 rows of stocking-stitch again
• fold and knit together the loops on the needle one by one with the loops of the cast on edge

did you know...
...that a picot is a loop of thread created along the edge of lace, ribbon, crocheted, knitted or tatted material. The word picot is pronounced [pē' kō]. It is a diminutive derived from the French verb piquer, meaning 'to prick'.

   

the pattern:

week 19 update knitting, running, clothing...

knitting for baby
Actually, I've made these little baby cardis when I found out I was pregnant. The pattern, Carole Barney's seamless yoked baby sweater and eyelet yoke baby cardigan are both great and free! It is basically the same pattern with different yokes and I liked it so much that I made 3 of them straight away. It only took a day or 3 to finish one and I practiced the stranded knitting method I wrote about. As you can see they are still 'gender neutral' type garments because we still don't know the baby's gender. (Hope to find it out later this week during the 20-weeks ultrasound) So no buttons yet...


I only changed minor things, like the underarm increases, which look prettier this way. I also collected a ton of cute animal patterns from the internet, like these elephants, to use on baby knitwear.

running

It seems like my baby-bump appeared overnight! Now, over 19 weeks it is obvious that I'm expecting. Still manage to run my 10 km every 5-6 days, an average of 70 km's a month. It takes me about an hour every time, since my pace is slower, though I'm able to keep the distance the same. I don't experience any discomfort whatsoever and (strangely) even manage to finish my rounds without any toilet stops...
Finally I'm at the bump-stage that I look like a pregnant woman running instead of a fat looking one!

nursery progress


Although I collected about 200 images for inspiration on Pinterest the nursery progress (up until today) is nothing more than this second hand IKEA Hemnes dresser, which has the perfect width and height (want to replace the knobs though). The room is definitely going to be bright and colorful! I love the navy-mustard-orange combo, with a green wall color like below in my little collage of inspiration (love the little crochet owls and already ordered the pattern!)


new maternity items
I still have a few pairs of jeans which I can wear with the rubber band adjustment, but this won't last long...

• maternity jeans - on sale! 

I picked this pair of 'Mama-licious' jeans up during the last week of the sales for 28 €. (original price 56 €!) While I don't need it yet because of the lightly stretchy fabric I bought a size larger which still fits great.

• H&M cotton blouse

Great for layering and another sale-item for 5 euro's! It has a few rows of shirring in the back which I don't like and want to take out to replace with two simple darts:

• 'Love2wait' maternity shirt - internet buy, 2nd hand 

A great internet buy. It is crazy how many women splurge on expensive maternity items and end up not wearing them because of being too small, or they had too many choices... The original price of this shirt was 36 € and I've got it for just 10 €.
I love the photo-print on the bump! It is a bit large on my belly right now and it is too long for my taste, but it seems that all maternity shirts are this long here in the Netherlands. The planned solution is adding two short pieces of elastics at the sides:


Still 5 months to go and it seems like I've only bought garments which I can't wear yet (because lacking a sizeable bump) but almost half of this amount was spent on a maternity bra which was the best investment up until now because I do wear it on a daily base!

Vintage 1966 embroidered baby bootie for cool summer days

I don't know how the weather is anywhere else, here it has turned into a rainy summer right now. When the weather is rainy I tend to turn to knitting, rather than sewing. How about you?
I thought it would be nice to continue the Big Baby Bootie project with a light, summery pair of booties, this time from the 60's. These booties have an unusual shape and are very easy to make. Left the original, right my version.
How cute is this?!

As you can see you can use any color, you could even add a pretty figure-button instead of the embroidery.


material & sizing:

The original pattern uses 4-ply yarn, the tension is not specified.
As usual, I made mine with a fingering weight yarn, metric size 3 needles and a tension of approx. 28 sts to 10cm (7sts=1in)
The finished size is 8,5 cm (3,3 in) from heel to toe, which should fit newborn to 3 month old babies.

construction:
The construction is quite interesting again. It is a top-down knit.
After knitting the short cuff you continue with a row of holes for the ribbon. Then you divide the knit in 3 and continue separately with the sides and the front part. After knitting through the remaining stitches continue with the toe-shaping.


toe-shaping:


the side openings sewn together:



After assembling and adding a ribbon in a contrasting color it looks already pretty:

my tip:
if you plan to add embroidery or other decoration, the best time to do this before assembling the booties!

flower embroidery step-by-step:
The little flower is a simple embroidery work. There are no instructions in the original pattern, I assume in the 60's just everybody knew how tho embroider these simple little flowers (just like I learned from my grandma). Here is a step-by-step guide. I used the same yarn in a different color.

1. Start by pulling up the thread in the center of the flower. Put the needle through the center again and up at the outer point of the petal. This way you actually make a loop:


2. As you pull your thread up you are now in the middle of your loop:


3. Now secure your loop by putting the needle down right outside your loop. Finally pull the thread up in the center.


4. Continue making the other petals, starting across the first one.
I usually do 6 of them.


Here is how the finished flower looks:

abbreviations for beginners:

k = knit

p = purl

st-st. = stocking stitch

inc = increase or make one by knitting twice in one stitch

w.fwd = wool forward (or yarn over)

k 2 tog = knit two stitches together

sl1 = slip one stitch over from left needle to right needle without knitting

p.s.s.o. = pass slipped stitch over the loop of the k stitch

the original pattern: