Earthtones Girl

Since I’ve been “gone” for a little while I wanted to fill you all in as to my “where abouts” but I thought, do you really want to hear about that?  Probably not…so why don’t I show you my first finished project of 2010.  I couldn’t be more excited with how well it turned out.   No I haven’t forgotten about my socks but I saw this on Ravelry and thought Kira needs these overalls.  Actually they are called On the Go-Veralls.

Pattern: On The Go-Veralls (a free pattern on Ravelry)

Yarn: Mt. Colors, Weavers Wool Quarters, 100% wool, (2 strands held tog)

Colorway: Indian Corn, 2 skeins, 350 yards each

Needles: #8 for the body, #6 for the shoulder straps

Modifications: see below.  Overall, no pun intended, it’s a great, quick little pattern, super warm and highly functional. 

Great shaping.

I found those buttons in my Mum’s button bag.  I love rummaging through that old thing, but beware the straight pins (that she refuses to remove).

Here’s my first one row-button hole.  Why in all my years knitting hadn’t I every done one of those.  It’s a thing of beauty.  Neat, tidy, firm and functional.  Love it.  No more YO button holes for me.  I found the link above after a very quick google search and per the suggestion of the pattern.   One more simple reason to love knitting.

This is my favorite part, the crotch gusset.  Doesn’t sound very  nice but soooo necessary in a garment like this.  The original pattern just said “cinch up the hole in the crotch” but you could see it was going to be a big ugly hole and I thought there has to be a “cleaner” way.  After reading the comments by people on Rav who’d knit this pattern they all complained about the same thing. The big hole.  So I pulled out Knitting Ganseys by Beth Brown-Reinsel looked up the instructions for the underarm gusset and there you go.  I then did a little Kitchener-ing and ta da!!

So I couldn’t post this without the required action shots…Here’s my girl.

The other mod, I worked in was making the legs a bit long.  When I carry her in the sling or Ergo, the pant legs always creep up and in cold weather that is not good.  So the  longer pant legs keep her warm and I just fold them up so she can move around and not trip.  I also added 3 sets of short rows across the “butt”.  Not in the original pattern but again so necessary.  I tried it with out and the fit was awful.  Too much pulling and stitch distortion.

That’s my foot, and no I didn’t knit those socks, but I needed something super bright and colorful to get her to sit still for a moment.  3 days shy of 9 months…there is no sitting still for this girl.

Ok, off the write a post about my 2nd finished project.