Dog Beds for Cats and Baby Sweaters

My Archangel shawl is fixed!!  Last week, I shared that I picked a super stretchy bind off which ruined the structural integrity of my shawl.  It wasn’t pretty.  A crochet hook and a quick crochet chain down the bind off took care of the too-stretchy edge that I made.  The little extra heft at the edge doesn’t detract from the beauty of the design at all.

Next, I cast on for a Sproutlette baby dress.  If you’re confused by the picture below, I totally cannot follow directions and ended up with a shirt instead of a dress.  The [k3, Kf&b until 3 sts remain, K3] turned into [k3, kf&b]* *repeat in my mind.  Needless to say, I didn’t have enough stitches for a flowy skirt so I salvaged the project and turned it into a shirt.  I also omitted the front lacy leaf panel because I thought it would fight with the variegated yarn. I grabbed some polymer clay to create a tiny little button.  Supposedly, polymer clay holds up well in the wash.  I really hope so!  I’ve ordered some adorable hand-made polymer clay buttons from Etsy.  If you want to see ridiculous cuteness in the form of buttons, check out digitsdesigns and TessaAnn on Etsy!

This little dress is intended for my soon-to-be-born niece.  I’m hoping to have it in the mail sometime this week.

A week or so ago, my friend, Becky, informed me of a mega sale on New Zealand wool yarns and I couldn’t resist and bought 7 huge 250g hanks of super bulk yarn.  I’ve been really wanting to make a cat bed for the 2 animals that stalk my wet knitting.  Extra anti-cat pins are about the only thing that will keep them off of blocking wet wool.  So, this super-discounted yarn was the perfect opportunity to provide my felines with wool specifically intended for their use!

I’ve cast on a pattern called Dog Basket.  It requires you to hold 2 bulky yarns at once.  The picture below is deceiving… this thing is HUGE.  I’m hoping that it will shrink a bit when I felt it so it doesn’t cover the ENTIRE living room floor when it’s finished.  🙂

And, I’ve dyed many new yarns for my Etsy shop.  I show a couple in the video above… but here’s a sneak peak at another one…