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My friend over at Ninja Kitten Knits asked me on Ravelry what I thought of the Yarn Girls’ Guide to Kid Knits. Since my answer was a little long-winded, I thought I’d share…

It’s okay, I guess. I have issues with it.. or maybe I just have issues. :-)

Many of the patterns are for chunky yarn. The colors selections are, IMHO, atrocious. The yarns choices are mostly non-machine-washable. The patterns are simplicity at it’s best (or worse, take your pick): knit, purl, inc, dec, maybe a garter ridge or seed stitch at most for entertainment.

For new (or impatient) knitters, I can imagine it’s great to see so many garments that can be done simply and quickly. For me, it just didn’t work out that way. The first thing I tried was the simple v-neck, stockinette rolled-edge sweater for my nephew. I wanted plain, but elegant, so I substituted Blue Sky Alpacas Bulky for their “hold two strands together” yarn. Perhaps that was a mistake – the back alone was so heavy, I gave up. That back piece is still lying in my yarn closet, since the yarn is so precious.

Take two was with some cheap acrylic yarn from Joann’s in some blue/brown colorway. I held two strands together, and got as far as seaming the sleeves on when I learned that acrylic melts. Suddenly plagued by nightmares of my nephew suffering third-degree burns from my hideously-patterned acrylic sweater that melted on him, I put it into a bag and stuffed it back in the yarn closet.

I gave up and moved on. The massively-chunky baby blankets in the back were my inspiration for my crocheted version, in machine-washable-but-fancy acrylic. I made one for Spice and one to give away, but ended up keeping them both. It’s still one of my favorite blankets to roll up Spice in.

The A-line dress was surprisingly good. I opted out of the crazy eyelash, as I wanted more utilitarian and easy-to-wash dresses, which is why I went with the *sigh* cheap acrylic from Joann’s again. The colors are just awful. Thank god, 7-month-olds have little fashion sense. Take two is in nicer varigated merino from 100purewool.com, amazingly in colors very similar to what was shown on their site. (If you haven’t ordered from them before, this is an extremely rare occurrence. The lovely gold and cream you see online arrives as barf brown and puke green.) The wide, 2-inch border hem in seed stitch is pretty elegant, and I might pick up and knit a similar border for the arms/neck, instead of the single crochet in the pattern. Still, I longingly wish it was either purple or grey, as the pooling and patterning is giving me a headache.

Other than that, Spice is a fast-growing one; she’s already comfortably in 12-18mo clothing. The book is sized up to 3-year olds, but since it’s mostly sweaters and we live in Southern California, I’m a bit weary of it. The second A-line dress I sized up to 2 years, thinking she could wear it next fall/winter. I might try one more in cotton/acrylic, one color and add some cables…

Lorna’s Laces “Simply The Blues” Feb ‘09

“I know, I know… we were supposed to have an inspiring red or pink color for this month since February is all about Valentine’s Day, American Heart Month, and other “red” themed events. Well, we’re not going to. And here’s why: One of the girls here has recently broken up with her boyfriend – and has NOT been looking forward to spending V-Day all by her lonesome. She says she has the blues, so we decided to swim upstream this month by offering “Simply the Blues”… In honor of all of those women that are single during February and are sick and tired of being inundated with images of red, wine, chocolate, and endless love – we’ve all been there! This color is a few of the blue colors blended together: denim, pond blue, china blue… call it the “Purple Club” or “Red Rover” of the blues…(Editor’s note: I hope everyone realizes the lighthearted tone of the above story – we aren’t trying to rebel against the establishment or anything… just thought that we’d have a little fun with Blue this month!)”

via www.jimmybeanswool.com

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