BSJ hybrid

BSJ with Mods complete!


Back View:
The story is: I had 2 skeins of L.L.'s Worsted that looked completey different despite being from the same dye lot. I made one "standard" BSJ with one of the skeins a few weeks ago for my B.F.'s niece. I showed it to my friend "L" who has a daughter the same age, just to double check with her that it looked the right size. She loved it so much, she asked me to knit her daughter one too. I hate knitting the same thing twice; I get really bored, so we decided to tweak it a bit.

This BSJ has:
1. The Tomten Hood, a BSJ addition recommended by Meg Swansen in The Opinionated Knitter (both the BSJ and Tomten patterns are in this book) The hood opening was finished with a sc edge.
2. Longer sleeves following the instructions at this website except, I still used a crochetted chain provisional cast on, and I knit extra garter rows onto the sleeves at the end.
3. Longer body: where it says to work on the middle section only for 10 garter ridges, I knit until there were 19 (would've done 20 if the yarn didn't run out)
4. No button at the bottom; it's longer after all, and the baby is starting to walk.

Measurements:
Cuff to cuff: 23"
Arm length (neck to cuff): 9.5"
Shoulder to bottom: 13.5"
Underarm to bottom: 9"
Across chest: 9"
Across bottom: 10"
(I wanted it to fit loose so she can wear it through the winter)

Materials used: Addi turbo #6 24" (my gauge was about 5sts=1"), 1 skein Lorna's Laces "Embers", 4 skeins doubled Dale Baby Ull (burgundy), 1 skein Jaeger Matchmaker Merino DK (grey). All Machine Washable.

The Mittens:
Those super-cute mittens are the result of leftover yarn. The pattern is from Robin Hansen's book, Favorite Mittens. I'm loving this book; it has great mitten patterns based on traditional mittens found in Maine (not as fancy as the lovely mitts in Selbuvotter, but still nice). It also includes a pattern for beautiful gloves, thrummed mittens, shrunken mittens, some baby/children's mittens and several matching hats.

I got some presents...
My B.F. recently returned from a trip abroad, and look what he brought me: 2 Avi Wasserman Spindles! The one on the left is made of Carob wood, and the one on the right is Olive wood with turquoise inlay. What's really cool is that my B.F. went to Mr. Wasserman's home/studio to pick these beautiful spindles for me! Of course I had to go get some yummy Fleece Artist BFL roving to spin with for these special spindles.