14 May 2010

Henry's Hedgehog Bibs

We seem to be in the midst of a mini baby boom right now. Our friends are procreating left and right - which means lots of baby knitting for me! I started a sweater for baby Henry back in January, but grew bored with the project. Since he is a Spring baby, a sweater probably wouldn't be the best gift anyway, so I set out to find something new.

At Yuzawaya (only my favorite yarn store in the whole world - and I'm not exaggerating about that whole world bit), I found 100% cotton yarn on sale for 98 yen per skein. Even though my stash is taking over closets in our apartment, I knew I couldn't pass up such a great deal. I bought 10 skeins in white, grey, aqua and pink. The yarn is fine, super soft and all the colors are pastels - perfect for baby knitting.

I imagined a onesie-type knit, but for a boy decided to go for overalls. I completely improvised this project, so I just took a shot in the dark and started knitting.

Here is the final project:

The straps are 8 sts wide garter stitch, knit at the same time using two balls of yarn. I put in three button holes so that this outfit can grow with baby Henry all summer.

The bibs ended up pretty wide - I just eyeballed the whole thing size-wise, and to be honest, the number of sts cast on to connect the front and back bibs was based more on how many sts I needed to fill the needle for knitting in the round, and less on actual baby proportions.

To fix this problem I used elastic cord, threaded through the ribs at the top, to gather the top, and then tied the ends together at the back. It's not the most professional solution, but it does add a little more adjustability, for when Henry gets bigger.

I may not have any children myself, but I have watched enough nieces and nephews to know the importance of diaper access. I knit the legs flat, and then picked up sts along the inside to knit a ribbed edge, sewed on a few snaps, and - voila - it's just like a store-bought onesie.

The finishing touch was a decorative patch (found at the 100 yen store). The blue flower picks up the grey yarn nicely without being too matchy-matchy, and the hedgehog is whimsical - perfect for a little boy.

1 comment:

  1. nearly 3 years later and I still get this out for photo ops...so cute!! Thanks again!!

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