Nightgowns and Sweaters

 Remember back in June when I took a trip to Shipshewana with DD2, DD1, K3 and Faline?  When I posted about that, I mentioned that Faline had requested a new flannel nightgown because she had outgrown the one I made her a couple years ago, so while on that trip I had Faline and K3 pick out fabric from Lolly's for new nightgowns.

My intention had been to sew them over the summer, or early fall, and have them ready for the girls to wear when the weather turned cold.  Intention did not equal reality, and I did many other things this summer and fall while the fabric sat, washed and waiting for me to work with it.  I would forget about it for weeks, then see it sitting in the sewing area and feelings of guilt for not doing anything with it would nag at me for a few more weeks.  More things would come up and the cycle would repeat.

Finally, in December, I decided I was going to sew those nightgowns, and they would be Christmas presents.  I figured the granddaughters had forgotten about the fabric (and my good intentions) by now, and would be surprised to unwrap a custom made nightgown in their chosen fabric. Plus, DH and I had absolutely zero Christmas presents made/purchased.  So this would kill two birds with one stone (or, on my mental list, turn two failures into achievements.)

Really, once I blocked out time to make the nightgowns, they didn't take long at all.  Why had I let so many other things delay working on them this summer?  I sorta know, but that's a topic for another post in the future, maybe (as in, maybe I'll share, maybe I won't; still thinking on that as I don't have answers to the issues).

Anyway, here is the nightgown made with Faline's fabric, in a child size 8 (according to her measurements and the sizing on a 20+ year old pattern from when my own kids were little).  She's stocky and tall for her age (5), but not as tall as an 8 year old yet, so I whacked about 2" off the bottom of the nightgown to make it ankle length but left the sleeve length the same.  The sleeves are a tad long for her now but we all know she'll grow a bunch and I'm wanting her to get two winters out of this nightgown,

And this is K3's, made in an adult small from another 20+ year old pattern for unisex nightshirts.

In late November, when I finished knitting my 2025 socks (so named because they were the only pair of socks I knit last year), I decided to cast on a new Sunday Sweater for Faline.  I had made her one for her birthday the year before (can see photo of it in progress in this post), but she'd pretty much grown out of it all ready.  Which meant that by this coming Spring she would be asking me for a new, bigger one, because she loves that her Amma makes her stuff (even if she doesn't yet understand how time consuming those handmades are).  So, why not knit a new one and use it as a Christmas gift?

This time I used a pale pink yarn, (Brava worsted in Blush from KnitPicks).  That sweater knit up pretty quickly in the evenings, and it was off the needles on December 14th.   Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture before wrapping and gifting it. 

Being that our family Christmas with kids and grandkids was scheduled for the 27th, and I was feeling my knitting mojo running high on the 14th, after casting off Faline's sweater I immediately grabbed yarn (Brava sport in Cotton Candy) and cast on a size 6-12 month Viola sweater for Octavia. I figured I could get such a small baby-sized sweater knit in 12 days and would use that as a Christmas gift also.

And then, of course, lots of things came up to keep me from having as much knitting time as I had thought I would have.  Which made me stress out and worry that maybe I was going to have to run to the store last minute and buy another gift for Octavia (DH wanted each grandkid to open 3 gifts from us.  3 X 10 grandkids. . .  I think the man is delusional. . . )

I did it! I was able to get Octavia's sweater finished, but just barely. This photo was taken early on the morning of the 27th, when I unpinned it from being blocked and then quickly boxed and wrapped it for our family gift giving later that day.

Phew!

You'd think after stressing about that little sweater--and spending hours knitting on Christmas Day (which was just DH and I) to get most of it finished--that I would be burned out on knitting for a while.

I'm not.  Winter means long hours of being in the house in the dark of the evening.  Hours where DH sits in front of the TV and we don't work on projects together.  I find it impossible to sit for long if I'm not either reading (which is increasingly difficult to concentrate on with the volume DH has the TV at) or doing something--such as knitting--with my hands.  So I have been working on a new sweater, a Little Hipster Cardigan in size 18 months, for Lucky. I am using Brava worsted in Fig.  It will be a present for his first birthday at the end of this month.