One exciting thing to witness during this time of being stuck at home together has been my kid’s burgeoning interest in knitting. She’s discovered that she can knit while listening to podcasts, just like mama!
And all of that knitting has had some pretty big results – she finished her first project!
She turned the “scarf” she started knitting at age 4 into a cowl! There are some…unintended holes and stitch-count changes, but I still think it looks fantastic, and she’s so proud!
For her next project, she decided to cast on for a blanket for her doll, and I taught her how to do 1-ridge stripes in garter stitch.
I really like the design she’s creating, with a big band of the lighter green on either end, and the skinny stripes in the middle:
M’s also gotten me to knit for her doll (whose name is “Sparkles”). She’s been begging for me to knit her doll a hat to match the one I made for her, and the other day while cleaning with her, I found the ball of leftovers from her hat. My child is not known for her patience, so within a few minutes, I’d cast on for a top-down, 1×1 rib hat:
And since it was such a tiny project, within an hour or so, I was able to bind off with i-cord (because I thought that would keep the bottom hem from getting stretched out with repeated wear) and then I was finished!
Sparkles looks great with their hat whether paired with short hair or long hair!
M said I made her dream come true :)
I haven’t just been knitting for M’s doll – I’ve also been knitting for M! She “inherited” my old desk when we moved into our new house, and in one of the drawers was some Rowan Soft Lux in a sparkly green color. This is DEEP stash – I think I got it something like a dozen years ago? When she saw it, she asked if could use it to make her another one of the garter-yoked, kangaroo-pocketed vests I’ve been making for her, so of course I said YES! I was excited to try out my “knit the i-cord first, then pick up stitches” approach for the neckline cast-on again with a different yarn, and I’m happy to say it worked out great!
(I had a little too much fun taking pictures of the yoke before I joined everything together for the body!)
It’s fitting really well so far!
I’ve got a little ways to go before I create the line of purled stitches for the top of the pocket, but I’m really excited to test out the new approach to knitting the bottom hem & pocket that I figured out for my own grown-up, long-sleeve version of this design! She wants to keep hers sleeveless, so we’ll be able to show off both variations.
I love my little knitter!!
whit::knits 
Your daughter is so lovely! It was a joy to read your blog today and view such happy photos of you both. ❤️🙏🏼❤️
That’s wonderful! I hope she continues to love knitting!
I’m actually working on something now that called for knitting an icord neckline and picking up the stitches from there, but that sounded so annoying and fiddly that I just cast on the required stitches and I’ll do the icord at the end. Since you’ve now done it more than once, I assume that means you like it as a technique — do you find it less annoying than doing the applied icord edging later? Might have to reconsider strategy next time I encounter that instruction.
Yes, I do prefer doing it this way! I feel like the i-cord and the stitches end up less…distorted? And I also like that because you’re starting with an i-cord, you can easy “try it on” as a sanity check, to make sure that the neckline isn’t going to be too tight or too loose.