I have a little secret.
It all started with Rachel H. benignly pointing out the Dream in Color baby sweater kits at Lettuce Knit. I saw them, and something happened. Something snapped. I suddenly felt like there was no way that I could live without one of those kits. They were so….
Charming. The colours, the tiny sleeves, the way Megan had them all kitted up with tiny little balls of delicious little colours. I stood over the kits, helpless in the face of them, and I bent over to pick one kit up…and something happened. I’m not even sure what it was, but something just felt so right, and 5 minutes later I owned three kits and a vaguely dirty feeling. I started knitting.
I justified the three kit thing by remembering that there are three babies headed into my world soon, and besides that, even if that weren’t enough justification, there are always babies coming. Baby stuff is always worth buying. Yeah. I would knit one of the kits and I would feel better.
Done. About this time, this time when I was thinking about letting go of the baby sweaters a little bit and maybe going back to the cardigan that only needs a sleeve to be done, Ken and I went back to Lettuce Knit where Megan had kitted up a version with more boyish colours, and out of nowhere, as he walked up to those little bags filled with wee sweater glee…. I heard myself say “Buy Two.”
“Two?”
“One for me, one for you.”
Ken gave me a look. A look that said something along the lines of “Holy crap Steph, you bought three and now you want another one and that’s four and maybe you don’t need another one?”
I stared him down, and as he got two, he gently suggested (I had that look about me) that I might be approaching that crazy line again, and why didn’t he trade me one of the girly ones for one of the boyish ones, just so I wasn’t totally whacked on this little sweater thing and perhaps agreed.
Quietly though, even though I had agreed and even nodded gravely in assent when he was talking about the line and my proximity to it, while he was paying Megan for the kits I sort of told her that meant I would be needing another girly kit so I didn’t go down a kit when I traded with Ken.
Megan asked me what I needed four kits for, and I was helpless to explain. I didn’t tell her that really I wanted to buy every kit out from under her, that four was maybe the tip of the freakin’ iceberg for this thing, that I was willing to wrestle other knitters for them, that I pinned for them and thought about them…I simply told her I just….need them.
I went home and I tried to get over it.
I failed. This time though, now that I had knit two baby sweaters back to back, and now that I had knit both versions, I started to feel a little better. I started to thing I was moving on. I even looked at some other knitting, and then I blocked the boyish sweater and had a contact high or something. Right out of the blue, as I was feeling totally like I might be coping well with the lure of the attached i-cord and the seed stitch borders…right when I thought I had moved past the little ties and those Lilliputian sleeves….
Mercy. That last one happened so fast that I didn’t see it coming.
Now, there’s one kit left in my house, and technically….
I am to give it to Ken. I’ve already agreed to give it to Ken, and there are witnesses and I’m probably even going to manage to hand it over. (Not really. In a moment of brilliance that acknowledges my weakness I have told him to come and take it from my home while I am away on tour this week. All I have to do now is resist the urge to stuff it in my suitcase and it will be done.) I can’t tell you how badly I feel the pangs of longing for this thing. I don’t want to give it away, because…well. Then I will not have one.
Now, I’m usually pretty good about letting go, so good in fact that I have some, several, a lot of things that I just gave up and wandered away from, completely mid knit. There’s something about these though, something that makes me want to buy a couple of the kits and put them in the stash so that even if the yarn is discontinued or the pattern goes away or ….I don’t know what, then I will still be able to knit this again any time that I want to. (As often as that turns out to be.)
Has there ever been a pattern or yarn like this for you? One you stashed and hoarded like there was no hope for tomorrow? One that so fully met your knitting needs that you couldn’t imagine a time when you wouldn’t enjoy knitting it? I am torn between a tear to the shop to get more (before anyone else does) and pulling myself out of this rut before I am buried in wee sweaters, i-cord and scraps of rainbows while I clutch and mutter “we loves it, we knits it, we keeps it all!”
I hope it counts for something on the karmic scale if I give the sweaters away to some babies. In the meantime, if you see me at Lettuce Knit and try to get between me and those kits? Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
How beautiful! As awlays of course! 🙂
You are too funny… I want one… I really want one, maybe it is catching…
Yes the baby thing gets me too!! I have a favourite baby cardigan that I make again and again and again; often just to do it!! Love the tulip sweaters
Allison
Yes the baby thing gets me too!! I have a favourite baby cardigan that I make again and again and again; often just to do it!! Love the tulip sweaters
Allison
Yes the baby thing gets me too!! I have a favourite baby cardigan that I make again and again and again; often just to do it!! Love the tulip sweaters
Allison
Now you are making me want to knit one (or three), too!
I bet some spinning would help you let go of the kits…at least for today.
Those are just darling. You are making me want to knit one!
I was going to say that you should have just bought the skeins of yarn, so you could knit sweater after tiny rainbow sweater. But the purple and brown one took my breath away, and made me want a baby girl as soon as my husband gets home. You are obviously right buying up every little sweater kit you can get your hands on.
Felted Purses! I think I made more than 10 of them last summer! I don’t use a pattern, just put a bunch (really I am that specific) of stitches on a circ needle and go from there! Change yarn as you please, LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!
Can’t wait to see you in Petaluma on Thursday!
I’ve had this same feeling for a few patterns/yarns. I believe it is the material realization of pure therapeutic knitting. When the physical movement of hands and sticks and yarns feels soooo good and the end product is so beautiful – that is the magic of knitting!
It’s catching. I have one lone kit coming my way already, but now that I see one of the “boy” versions, I may, will (who are we kidding), have to have one of those as well.
How about making a grown-up version (you may want to fiddle the colors a bit) so you can have it forever?
Me, I can’t get enough Vesper or STR. They are bursting out of their drawer and I’m ashamed, but still I dream of these yarns.
They’re completely freaking adorable. Why on EARTH would you want to stop? If Ken suggests you’re getting close to The Line, stuff a ball of sock yarn in his mouth, and you can take his kits too.
D’ya suppose Megan would tell us how much yarn was in each stripe, yardage-wise, so those of us who are either a) not fortunate enough to have Lettuce Knit for a stomping ground or b) living in a place too hot for wool sweaters for babies we love might make our own?
you could always spin up your own kits…………precious
Good afternoon, Stephanie,
Hon, there is nothing wrong with enjoying, savoring, and wanting to make more of beautiful things. Part of the energetic joy of knitting is to see beautiful things come to life. I say “Support Your Maker of Baby Sweater Kits! Buy ‘Til It Hurts Or Friends Plan An Intervention.”
*MY* personal favorite thing to knit over and over is Robin Hansen’s Flying Geese Gloves pattern. I use Dale Baby Ull in all sorts of wild combos (well, wild for this 53-year-old, graying, beaky old lady). The gloves are wonderful, the yarn is wonderful, and it’s great to have a little stash of pairs for Christmas gifts. Every time I open the drawer and see the lines of flying geese motifs in gold on blue or silver on red, or whatever I’ve been using, it makes me want to cast on for more.
Plus, I get to give them away with this wish: that the wearer, like the flying geese depicted on the gloves, will always return home safely.
Babies need things. Knitters need to knit. You are creating a wonderful symbiosis making these kits.
(What if they DO go off the market??)
Meg C
I have not stopped obsessing about that sweater since you posted about the first one. DANG! I do not think I can resist much longer.
Well, when a baby sweater is that beautiful, you have to snatch up as many as possible. It makes perfect sense to me. 🙂
I wish I could say that the pattern I hoarded and knit over and over again was an intricate lace shawl, or a mitten that kept my family warm in the cold… but instead, last week, I gave in and knit 6 circular short-row dishclothes in about 2 days. Now I’m dreaming of hoarding dishcloth cotton. Just the good stuff, though. None of that stuff that makes my hands hurt.
that was not noice wassit?
heh
spin baby kits spin spinnnnnspinnnnnnnn
didn’t I already tell you that you had sucked me into your baby sweater vortex, so I’m dying to have one, way out here in Colorado? Please, enough already. Stop. To a person like me so in love with lots of colors, this is really too much. Can I contact Lettuce Knit and get one?
Did you realize yet that really, you’d probably have been money ahead to just spend the $160 and get complete balls of all the colors? Never mind, I’m sure you did.
That Rachel H is goooooooood.
So far, I’ve managed to talk myself out of knitting the same thing more than once or buying supplies for the same thing over and over again. That’s likely only because I a) have to pack up two kids before I can run off to the yarn shop and be impulsive b) knit slower than you and something else catches my fancy.
OK. I ordered one of both. I wonder if the Lettuce Knits people are loving you or cursing you! I want to knit these up in prep for the IVF cycle we are going through next month… positive vibes and everything.
They are so precious-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s.
Just break down and buy a skein of each color. Then you can knit all you want and no one will be the wiser! Oh, I just ordered the Lace Wings Shawl pattern by Alice Cooley (from Lettuce Knit)and have cast on with my coveted (and finally purchased) single skein of seasilk. This may turn into the “baby sweater” kind of thing for me.
Those sweaters make me want to have my first child at the age of 48.
I can *totally* hear you say the “we loves it, we knits it, we keeps it all!” muttering in the Smiegel voice…LMAO. I think the sweaters are rather adorable, and wish I lived in Canada so I could get my hands on a kit. Not that I have a baby to knit for or anything, but those are just so cute.
I love Dream In Color yarn! I just bought a skein in pink. Pink socks for moi – although I’ll proabaly end up giving it away like I always do.
Those baby sweater are precious. Make another one. Go back to Lettuce Knit, buy another kit, and get knitting. No one needs to know.
Do you think maybe toward the end of July, it will be safe? I was hoping that when I was in Toronto, I could stop in Lettuce Knit and buy one, but I’m not willing to risk my life for a baby sweater, even one as cute as that.
I want to order a kit too. Those look like so much fun to do. Maybe if we order all of the kits you won’t be able to get another one! Is that your secret plan, to get us to buy all the rest of the kits so you can’t? It’s definitely working……..
Where can I get one?
You are so wacky…I love that! Seriously, though, have you considered that your preoccupation with all things baby might be a reaction to your daughter’s 18th birthday? Not the yarn…lovely as it is…not the pattern…also cute…but just simply a gut response to losing your first baby to adulthood? Now don’t start tearing up or anything, you’ve written that you are not a “crier”…just a thought…that’s all.
I too may have one or more of these kits. It’s also possible that I ran to LK to get it/them. It’s the little balls of yarn I tell ya and maybe the charming purl ridge between colours.
LMAO indeed! No, I have not been obsessed…yet…Oh, dear. That means I know that it is coming. Sigh.
Buy the kits. Keep buying them until you feel better. Maybe just 2 or 3 for the stash. Then maybe you can let go in the fullness of time.
And now you’ll have a whole stock of baby sweaters for whenever you might need one in a hurry! Now that CAN’T be bad.
Good Luck!
I wonder how many you could knit if you bought the yarn instead of the kits…? Possibly a lifetime supply!
Self-striping sock yarn is my personal “gotta-have”, all of it, any of it, more and more of it! And it makes lovely baby stuff!
Your wee sweaters are cute and I can imagine the baby wearing them would be irresistable to the nth power!
You know, those ARE really cute little sweaters, and it never hurts to get a leg up on baby knitting. I wonder if I should start making some too. Hm.
As for yarn obsession, in my early days of knitting, I, like a lot of knitters, went through a Noro thing. I made scarves with one colour, scarves with two, scarves with solid colours and Kureyon added in. I even made microphone cosies(I was a radio broadcasting student at the time, we had mics. everywhere.) but they looked decidedly more like something you’d slap over a vibrator when company visits. After buying 12 balls of a…really weird, dark Kureyon for a cardigan (!!) I’ve sworn off of it. It is totally, totally dead to me.
Current obsessions are: anything Stefanie Japel has ever designed (I’m totally pattern-stalking her.) and spinning sock yarn. I’ll buy any fibre that tells me it makes a great sock yarn.
My obsession: sock yarn. Last month I even took the trouble to replace the head gasket in my car two weeks before the LYS Tour (20 yarn shops in three days) so that I’d be totally and desperately broke, and I still wound up with something like 10 new skeins of sock yarn.
It’s Tuesday. Go spin. Or better yet, grab a cold beer and admire your fine work. Something just as scrumptious is just around the corner.
I’m like that with shawls knit from sparkly Fiesta yarn. They had one at my knitting store, and I went home and reproduced it according to my own pattern. Then I had to make another one to iron out the kinks. If it wasn’t a little pricey for my budget, I would probably have one in every color. I almost never wear shawls.
Yes! The thing I’ve found is, if it grabs me and won’t let me go like that to make something–be it baby stuff, lace scarves, you name it–it’s because I’m going to need them for people coming right up in my life that needed me to do that for them. I didn’t see them coming, but the timing came out perfect just the same.
I made three smocked baby dresses, years ago, after it was clear I wasn’t having any more babies. And then three people I knew who hadn’t been expecting to be expecting…were expecting. Those dresses were perfect celebrations (and yes, they had girls.)
There’s a baby boy coming to Baltimore in August whose mommy is on an unshakeable sock kick and suffering from severe sweater-knitting block …
Um, didn’t you mention the first time you blogged about the sweater that you couldn’t justify spending $100 on yarn for a baby sweater? Now after purchasing 3 (three) kits, wouldn’t it have been cheaper to purchase the whole skeins, and made up the kits yourself?
Just a thought…
I have a thing for Cashmere Luxury Aran, which was a relatively inexpensive wool/microfiber blend sold at one of those big craft stores. Then they stopped selling it.
I now have a pretty good stockpile, but I don’t want to knit it up, because then I won’t have any more. I can totally relate to your obsession, uh, story.
yes, Stephanie,
There are others just like you. I am that way about several things.
1. Baby Kimonos (from Mason Dixon) made from Malabrigo worsted.
2. Tille Tomas or Art Yarns beaded yarns. They make beautiful baby bonnets(for girls-why is everyone having boys all of a sudden?).
3.Sock yarn. I have more than all of the people I know have feet. Yet, I bought some more Toofootsie sock yarn yesterday. Indie sock yarn is also a problem.
It seems, many yarns are a problem. Well, not to me or you but to some knitters with a sense of self control. I call them annoying. I refuse to sit next to a knitter without stash.
Threadbear has promised to do kits of the Dream in Color sweater. This was only after I tried to just buy the necessary skeins.They made me sit down, breathe and promise not to buy all that yarn for one baby sweater-even after I told them that no way would it stop at one. I hear there is an intervention in the works. How Rude!!!!!!!!!
I order a kit, too, and will no doubt order the boy’s version. There’s something about knitting baby clothes, especially out of wonderful yarn. I don’t have any babies coming along in my family but as you say, they come along eventually, so I can’t wait to get my kit in the mail.
The first step is admitting you have a problem. I cannot understand your obsession. . . unless you count sock yarn. But sock yarn is a project in itself, and totally doesn’t count, right?
I think we have different versions of the same disease, Steph. I have begun buying yarn for and knitting baby blankets for no particular reason at all! If I get pregnant again, I will have A LOT of explaining to do! My older boys better not make me a grandma any time soon – I have made that abundantly clear – besides, their youngest brother makes a wonderful argument for cautious and consistent birth control! – Heck! he makes a good argument for abstenance! But I still buy stuff to make baby blankets!
I guess I have been vindicated, though. No sooner had I finished my first “just-for-the-heck-of-it” baby blanket, than my oldest told me one of his bosses just had a baby son. See…..SOMEONE needed that blanket!
My must-knit is also a baby thing (since the blessed creatures keep on appearing!) It’s a baby blanket that’s really just the centre of EZ’s Stonington Shetland Shawl with the three lines of eyelet. I have found that if my “Make One” is done as an e-loop over my finger then along with the slipped stitch edge it ends up looking like i-cord, giving a nice tailored look without the lace border that’s appropriate to most people’s standards for both girls and boys. The pattern is in Gathering of Lace. Just knit the centre square until it’s ‘big enough’.
I have a baby coming in September… If you really want to keep knitting them (they are adorable!) I know where you can send one… *wink, wink* I know- you don’t know me from Adam, but I couldn’t resist. 🙂
I used to buy too much bulky wool (like Lopi) and then wear the giant oversized sweaters that came of it. Luckily, that style was in then…
Well, your disease has migrated down to me in Maine! I called Lettuce Knits and ordered a double kit so I can make one for my year-old niece! It’s not here yet and I just can’t wait to see it and touch it. No other tiny babies on the horizon in my life, else I’d get another.
I am powerless before yarn.
Ummm, I think my new favourite thing to knit is Dream in Colour baby sweaters…
and my ONLY (repeat ONLY) child is now 8. Although, there are babies do make me want to try again. Then I remember I’m heading towards 45 and I start looking around for pregnant friends…
I have a yarn that I obsess over. It is Paton’s Country Garden DK merino wool. Just as I discovered the yarn it was discontinued. Every yarn shop I visit I dig through the discount bin searching for that elusive ball left in the wild. I bid on every batch posted on e-bay. I have rubbermaid tubs in my basement now full of this wonderful yarn. I carefully choose the garment I will knit from it. I don’t want to run out before my life is over. The recipient of the knitted item also has to be special as each parting of the way for me is traumatic.
While I love the wee baby sweater, I would love an adult sized version…so happy.
Too funny! Those sweaters are awfully cute and yes, the ‘crazy slate’ is totally wiped clean by giving the sweaters to little babies to wear and enjoy. Knitting for babies – my all time favorite, over-the edge, wonderful, crazy, love it type of knitting!
OMG, the mental image of you buried in rainbow baby cardigans muttering gollum-like made me laugh so hard I startled my toddler!
I went through a felted bag obsession. I knit 9 or 10 of them, and found myself stock-piling yarns that would make pretty bags. I did get sick of them though, you’ll get through this.
And, uh, if any of them need a home……I have brand spanking new baby boy. I’m just saying.
I feel that way about the felted clogs pattern. I went through a mad spree of buying up Patons wool in many solid and variegated colors then knit 3 pairs of clogs in 3 days. I couldn’t stop. Ony the heat of a early Washington summer has caused me to pause.
Oh, Stephanie. Oh my dear. I have just finished the tulip sweater that I ordered (after you so kindly told me that Megan had them in kits) and I love it so much I don’t think I can give it away. I have been carrying it around like a security blanket. Not having thought about the option of buying another kit worth $40.00, I decided to go with a variation on the theme. Went into my LYS and bought some pale greens to knit an all green one, and some blues and purples to knit one in those tones. (Cheaper yarn, not as nice, but is ok in a pinch.) I am going to try a variation by working a row of eyelets across the yarn changeover.
I also saw the boy colours version on the Dream in Color website last night – we must be on the same wavelength – and coveted it, too. On their website, they showed a button up version with slightly different finish. Looked good – but love yours, too.
My nephew and his girlfriend are going to be presenting the family with a new baby to love in December – maybe I will be able to bear to give up my Tulip by then. Hopefully it will be a girl… (At least it can be a family heirloom and I will still get to see it…)
Sure do have those crazy urges. The ones where you don’t want anybody to even know the yarn exists except for you and your yarn pusher.
Yes. They are called hats. Especially charming with a picot edge.
Just remember, Stephanie–you can substitue different yarns and different colors. The knitting possibilities are endless. And you don’t have to spend $40 on a kit.
Maybe there’s some addictive substance spun into
the last 20 yards of little balls of yarn?
And you don’t notice, when you start knitting,
that you’re affected, but when it’s over,
you must, must, must have another.
It’s like that with me and chocolate covered
cherries. I’m okay on the 1st one…
I need one. Is Megan selling them online? Maybe I need two.
mmmm~they remind me of ice cream cones. think i’ll go have a scoop, or 2, or 3… P=]
Help me! I just MUST knit this sweater!I’ve searched the Lettuce Knit site and can’t see where to order the kit. Help me, Obi Wan Kanobi! You’re my only hope! I don’t know how much longer I can wait!
OK…so it is catching! Really like sweater the first time you showed it…but resisted. No longer! Just got off the phone ordering on of each color! Of course I’m on a waiting list since you’ve bought them all!
Those sweaters are adorable! She should sell them online, if she can hold onto them long enough… I feel this way about my entire stash… and it keeps growing! Now, if only I had more than 5 minutes a day lately to knit!!
I’ve been reading your blog for a while, but i’ve never commented before. I had to leave a comment after your last post though, because it just sounded so like me!
I have that impulse to buy more of what I like just in case I run out becase I can’t bare the thought of being without any. I have this compulsion with some yarns, with embroidery threads, with beads… Even if I already have the exact same thing in the same colour I will still want to buy it and I can’t explain why. If I see a copy of my favourite book in a store I will want to buy that too. I saw a copy of “Knitting Vintage Socks” the other day in Foyles and I had to work hard to resist buying it since I already own a copy.
Perhaps I am a selfish knitter, because if I see someone else buying a yarn I especially like I get a little jealous, (even if I wasn’t planning on buying it) because each time someone else buys that yarn there is a little less available for me to buy! Maybe i’m just strange…
Loved your post though, and so nice to know i’m not the only one who does things like this!
Mithranstar x
ok, now you sold me, I totally want to start doing sweaters now. I’ll take 4, too.
No,no — I totally get the munchie-covets. I could even imagine wanting it in the kits instead of the economically prudent full skeins if the wee balls all bundled together melt your consonants. What I don’t get is telling the world about them, thereby increasing the chance that there won’t be any for you to buy.
But then I’m a bad person.
Still, the best way to get rid of an obsession is immersion — burn it out. Go,go — hut-hut-hut!
Yes, I have a “thing” like that. It’s for a baby blanket pattern. Actually one of the very first things I ever knitted.
My trouble is that my passion for wanting to knit these in cotton has veered toward the perverse. I spent *gulp* >$100 US on some lovely Patagonia hand dyed stuff. For a baby. Who will regurgitate baby vitamins and all manner of carrots onto it and love it until it’s shreds of threads.
I have not confessed that to anyone – not even the mother-to-be. And now it’s “whapped up all over the internet”.
I can stop any time I want.
No,no — I totally get the munchie-covets. I could even imagine wanting it in the kits instead of the economically prudent full skeins if the wee balls all bundled together melt your consonants. What I don’t get is telling the world about them, thereby increasing the chance that there won’t be any for you to buy.
But then I’m a bad person.
Still, the best way to get rid of an obsession is immersion — burn it out. Go,go — hut-hut-hut!
Damn. And I’d been so careful not to do that. My third and fourth tries respectively, mind.
Is it the yarn? Is it the pattern? Or is it the head-rush from knitting something cute and colourful and quick? After all, knitting a shawl gives you a high but this is ringing your bell after a couple of days – so of course you are hooked, this sweater is yarn crack!
You know, you have the pattern now (3 copies no less!) and this strikes me as an awfully good leftover-stash-busting project – all those teeny balls of colour. What about making one in your 70’s applicance colours in case you have more than one baby boy in your future?
If you use up the bits and pieces you can feel virtuous about it, instead of crazy. And of course, that would make some achingly empty space in your stash for some more yarn…
And you know how nature abhors a vacuum…
Lovely sweaters Stephanie.
I can totally understand being addicted to them. I had a time a couple years ago I couldn’t stop making hats. Made about 10 in a couple months. Finally just made enough to work it out of my system.
So ya, make some more. It will finally work its way through your system.
Or make it more fun by spinning your own yarn to make them! That would be a lot of fun! Have a dye day, invite friends over, make tons of colours then spin and make baby sweaters!
I am *so* with you on this. I *love* baby stuff. When you showed the first one and said they had kitted it up for you so you didn’t have to spend $160 for a baby sweater, I barely contained the urge to order one up.
I promise to look the other way as you buy more, and I will try not to hurt you as I race you to the kits!
I was in Lettuce Knit this morning and it looked like Meagan had some kits with some different colours in than what you have.. can’t say for sure. (bwahhahahahaha, I’m evil)
You are channeling Cara. You have two choices: 1) seek help immediately, or 2) give in and die obsessed and happy. I would go for 2) myself.
(Does Lettuce Knit do mail order?)
Now I want to make one of those cute sweaters too! My obsession is self-patterning sock yarn. I’m totally addicted to seeing the design appear. And the yarn I covet the most is Austermann Step. Can’t get enough of that soft yummy stuff. I’m off to start another sock now for my d.h. for Father’s day.
They are cute. How many does Megan have left? You’re gone for how long?
Perhaps you will have to trade Ken’s kit to ransom your poor sock, the one that Ann has hostage?
For me it was Rowan’s Chunky Wool. I loved making stuff out of it. I wanted all the colors in large, large bags. I bought several colors by the bag when it was discontinued. There was something that made me happy about knitting pretty wool on big needles. Plus, I’m a sucker for anything varigated.
I am remined strongly of the Fiesta Shawl incident. And they did leave the world didn’t they? Hoard away dear Harlot!
OMG, Steph. They ARE beautiful, but what I am struggling to understand is why on earth don’t you just buy the yarn in skeins instead of persisting in buying kit after kit. Didn’t you say that it would be $160 if you bought the skeins, but that Megan had made kits that cost $40? If you’ve purchased 4 kits, you’ve spent the $160. I wonder how many sweaters you would have gotten if you just bought all the skeins? (Sorry Megan, I hope I haven’t blown your profit margin or screwed up your secret plan or anything!)
Okay, you are torturing me! I’m a recent grandmother and want one for my grand daughter! But, I live across the big pond and doubt that I will ever get to Toronto (We were nearby in Hamilton in the summer of 2000). *sigh
OMG, Steph. They ARE beautiful, but what I am struggling to understand is why on earth don’t you just buy the yarn in skeins instead of persisting in buying kit after kit. Didn’t you say that it would be $160 if you bought the skeins, but that Megan had made kits that cost $40? If you’ve purchased 4 kits, you’ve spent the $160. I wonder how many sweaters you would have gotten if you just bought all the skeins? (Sorry Megan, I hope I haven’t blown your profit margin or screwed up your secret plan or anything!)
now, by ‘give to baby’ you do mean let the baby wear it other places than with you, right? the babe gets to wear it AWAY FROM YOU?!?!?!?
I completely believe that you can stop anytime you want…You just don’t want to right now! 😉
Yeppers I was hooked on making slippers many the year ago–Thank God it passed after over 100pairs of the crazy things. Now its ANYTHING to knit with Manos yarn. It is totally addictive. Gotta go my LYS is having a 20% sale on Manos today. Keep making them Stephanie till you O.D. on them . They are absolutely precious
just when i think you’ve said everything i think or feel about knitting and yarn, and i’m lying on the floor trying to breathe through my laughter…you say more and it is funnier than anything you’ve said before.
I emailed Lettuce Knit as soon as I saw yours the other day–and I don’t have any friends with babies coming. I loved the colors and had to have one!
I think it might be the Dream in Color yarn (don’t you wish it was Dream in Colour?!), I’m addicted to it… but I keep making socks.
OMG! I so want one of the kit!!!!!!!
They really are just too sweet to ignore! In fact, if it will make you feel better, you can buy me one (I’ll send you the money first, of course) and happen to drop an extra one into your shopping basket… by accident. Oops! I love the colorways – they are so beautiful. And I’ve never made anything for babies. I know – shameless, aren’t I? Well, I’ve been thinking about it a lot since DH and I are planning on having our own babies sometime in the next year or two. So we will see. Hmmmm… do you suppose that they will still carry this kit then? Uh-oh! I better get one soon!
I think you need at least three kits (maybe six if you really give these three sweaters away) more. You have three gorgeous daughters who will probably one day present you with grandchildren. If you have a stash of three girly and three boy kits, you’ll not only get the joy of knitting them again, you can see them on your (future) grandkids. Just pack them well away from any possible m**h or squirrel invasions.
Yup–I’ve had compulsions, too. First it was sleeveless boleros. I gave one to each of my co-workers.
Then it was afghans. I gave them to the local Community Resource Center.
Now it’s baby bonnets and booties (totally mindless knitting). I give them to the local hospital for the clinic babies.
What’s next??
Abby
Well, it could be worse. You could feel this way about actually producing the babies to clothe in the sweaters. Wouldn’t that be somethin.
I have just that same problem with the log cabin Mason-Dixon baby blankets. Cotton, of course. On size 3 needles. All my knitting friends think I’m nuts, but I’ve generated 6 already, another on the needles and I’m generating my own blanket patterns now even.
If I see those durn sweaters again, though, I might have to buy one. And it’ll be all your fault!
Hey, you have daughters. And that means that you will most likely have grandchildren someday. Now, you wouldn’t want YOUR OWN GRANDCHILDREN to go without, would you?!?! Better start stockpiling!
(my enabling skills are well honed)
😉
There is a hard to get yarn which I absolutely adore, Libella by Wollservice. A strand of silk, a strand of mohair and a metallic thread. Hard and soft at the same time, very heavy and pretty bulky and I made the mistake of buying only half a kilo so I had to add something to the sweater (to be published on my blog in an hour or so) to make it large enough for me.
The second best is a green wool/polysomething blend/ I have a heap of it and all of it is green which I do not really like but it was a bargain to buy and it knits wonderful and looks wonderful… featured on one of my etsy sweaters.
And the worst thing is that I got them in an internet auction and who knows where they come from…
And, there’s the third one which is available in unlimited amounts, the angora. I have a love-hate relationship with that one because it’s so soft and slippery and too laceweight to make a decent sweater but it has something… something. And can be dyed nicely, smells nicely and drapes awfully but I’ll manage a superbly cool sweater from it one day…. I’m a sweater person:D
Hi Stephanie- Has it occured to you yet that you’re hoarding these little kits so that you’ll have enough darling little balls of yarn to knit one for yourself? Maybe you DO need them… I won’t say I haven’t done it…
Steph, you could have just spent the $160 on the regular balls of yarn and knit as many sweaters as you liked. Did it ever occur to you to simply increase your stash with the yarn colors and then you can knit the sweaters whenever? I’m just sayin…
You could even justify buying full skeins of the girl colors and full skeins of the boy colors.
Addiction, you say?? I tracked down every last ball of a Paton’s natural cotton/linen/wool that existed in the world. I made a huge afghan from an Alice Staremore pattern. Now, I’m addicted to mohair–Classic Elite LeGran mohair. I will purchase any color. Especially the multicolored balls. Any amount. Especially if on sale. I’m still waiting for the perfect sweater pattern to come along–a vintage 1960’s one with big needles and big cables.
The baby sweaters are just plain cute. Darn cute. This world needs more plain cuteness. For babies and adults. So you go, Stephanie. Buy up all those little kits. Make sweaters for the whole world of babies. Maybe those babies will grow up with good taste!!
You could always justify knitting more by donating them to a hospital. They are very adorable.
So, in the end, it WOULD have been worth it to buy all $140 worth of skeins for this project…
How much does each kit cost, dear lady? Better not let Joe see the checkbook this month…
Darling. Are you smoking? No. Are you crystal mething your way to a full set of dentures? No. Are you investing your children’s education on a red ace? No. Are you eating yourself into a cadillac casket? No. Are you collecting Jimmy Choos that wreck your hips and curve your spine? No. You are making beautiful baby garments to *give away*.
Carry on.
I see no reason for a hair shirt here.
Hey, Steph? What happened to Tuesdays are for spinning? Your wheel must be beginning to feel lonely and neglected! Poor thing.
OMG…..SOCK YARN!!!!!
For some crazy reason I can’t get enough of it! I am in the middle of knitting 4 pairs of socks right now. Love indie sock yarn, and self patterning sock yarn and spinning sock yarn….I crack myself up.
Looking forward to seeing you in Petaluma. Where are we going afterwards for a glass of wine???
I laughed so hard at this that my partner made me read it out loud. 🙂 Her comment: Thank Goddess she doesn’t make babies as fast as she makes baby sweaters!!
OK, let’s stick to the point of this post and the guidance you clearly require on this matter:
#1: you don’t owe KEN anything! sure, he’s your best friend, and a rare gem of a human being. but he doesn’t NEED that sweater the way you do. AND – there’s no way he REALLY expects you to hand it over.
#2: go get MORE kits when you’re done with that one! life’s so short, pleasures are so fleeting!
#3: yes! “we loves it, we knits it, we keeps it all!” yes!
That will be all. Mwah hah ha!
Addiction? Obsession? Ridiculous! I just tell my husband that yarn is sold by the dozen skein bag. Life is so much simpler that way…
Sooooooo sweet sweater! I would have bought at least 2 kits for my kids. Very coooooool!
Oh yes, it has happened to me. For me, it’s a certain little baby hat. I knit it over and over again. Especially when I need a “look! I’ve finished something!” high, I’ll make one because I can complete it in an afternoon. If I see a delicious handpainted or handspun yarn and I can’t justify buying 12 skeins to roll nekkid in, I’ll buy a single, lovely skein because I know I can always use it for one of “those” baby hats.
Ummm, Steph…
Aren’t you always complaining of “second sock syndrome”? And you’ve already done three sweaters alike?
HOW ADORABLE!! I HAD to search for the pattern…found it–ordered it!! I’m going to be a step-grandma this fall…perfect for the new baby!
Thanks for sharing…You ARE a riot!
You are such the enabler. Dang Steph.. I’ve been eying flights to Toronto for the past two weeks. You’ve just about put me over the edge.
Has it occurred to you that maybe you are pregnant?
I found a close-by source and ordered the kit the moment I read about it on your blog days ago. I, too, had that ‘have to have it’ experience. It has arrived and I can’t quit looking at the kit! (Alas, I’m making myself finish the OTHER baby sweater I’m working on first.) But, my mind is already racing with ideas of making more, in colors that I have on hand – leftover yarns in similar weight, from here and there. What colors might I put together, on my own, for the second one, the third, and more?! Such fun to imagine the possibilites! THANKS!
Just for fun, I tried to search how many times the phrase “I can stop anytime I want” has been used on this blog.
Too many results came back for me to count. And the search itself nearly killed my poor laptop. Funny that, eh? Bee shoes, anyone?
Very nice little sweaters. Is it possible to get the pattern without the yarn? I really don’t like buying kits, but I think I would like to knit a few of these sweaters to have on hand.
Katherine
Very nice little sweaters. Is it possible to get the pattern without the yarn? I really don’t like buying kits, but I think I would like to knit a few of these sweaters to have on hand.
As for an obsessive pattern – can I just say “socks”? I feel that, if I don’t have a pair or six socks on needles then my life is missing something.
Katherine
That so needs to be available either as a pattern or a kit with cotton yarn for those of us so far South that wool on babies is abusive
I have EVERY color (that’s 24-wow) on order, which I guess pushes me past ‘wool pig’ to ‘yarn hog’. You keep on buying, Stephanie. Seriously, there could be a shortage with people like me out here…(insert evil laugh here) Cami
Sounds like that kidsilk haze (aka crack) faze that hit a while ago. And … crap. I found out there’s a baby coming *after* hitting Toronto with the offspring. No chance of their being a ferry any time soon is there? ‘Cuz I’m off the QEW until the end of June when, I swear upon my honor, I’m just heading through to Michigan and not stoppin’ at any crack den (aka Lettuce Knit).
Please stop showing pictures of that sweater. It is way too adorable, and I have a small-for-her-age toddler daughter, and I keep wondering how big it is, how could I size it up, and how could I get a kit here in Missouri and how could I convince the older kids to give up food for a day so I could afford it. And I like the “boy” colors even better.
It’s because those little sweaters are the cutest baby things I’ve seen in forever!
And the answer to your question? Sock yarn…All kinds of sock yarn…I have yet to complete my first pair of socks, yet I have a growing collection, and am greedily cruising the Net for more…
I coming to Toronto in July, do I get Mark to stand outside Lettuce Knits & trip you if you attempt to come in while I’m purchasing (or do you think you’ll be far enough along in the 12 step program Ken’s gonna have to set up) so that I can buy one safely. I understand the problem, I’ve got no babies to knit for and I need one.
That sweater is just too cute for words. I think you should buy an extra kit (or 7) and auction them off for Knitters Without Borders, that way those of us who don’t have access to Lettuce Knit would have a shot at getting one. 🙂
That sweater is just too cute for words. I think you should buy an extra kit (or 7) and auction them off for Knitters Without Borders, that way those of us who don’t have access to Lettuce Knit would have a shot at getting one. 🙂
Save one for me. 😉
If the surgery I hope to have scheduled after tomorrow’s appt goes well and the mass is NOT anything to worry about, there BETTER be the pitter patter of little feet (non canine or feline) in house within the next 12 months.
Sigh – it’s a gorgeous sweater.
I will not whine about winding, I will not whine about winding. I will not whine about winding…..
girl you should see my right arm it’s “powerful”. You met Crazy Aunt Purl….. how cool is that. I’m 1 degree away from her. Love ya Laurie……
I will not whind about winding.
Baby things don’t usually ring my bells, but I admit, this one does. My immediate circle is not reproducing, unless I can get my son to marry his long-time girlfriend. In which case, I will come to Toronto to talk you out of one of those kits since it sounds like you are going to have the monopoly on them. Do you think if I knit one, my son will be inspired? Actually, he really wants children, just can’t find the right one to marry.
In any case, you are beginning to sound like Gollum and his ring. When we catch you in a corner fondling a kit and hissing “My Precious”, we’ll call the guys with the butterfly nets. Or…..you’re expecting?
You are really so funny. Something towards the end of your latest book had me howling with laughter last night, while reading it in bed.
I will not whine about winding, I will not whine about winding. I will not whine about winding…..
girl you should see my right arm it’s “powerful”. You met Crazy Aunt Purl….. how cool is that. I’m 1 degree away from her. Love ya Laurie……
I will not whind about winding.
I will not whine about winding, I will not whine about winding. I will not whine about winding…..
girl you should see my right arm it’s “powerful”. You met Crazy Aunt Purl….. how cool is that. I’m 1 degree away from her. Love ya Laurie……
I will not whind about winding.
I will not whine about winding, I will not whine about winding. I will not whine about winding…..
girl you should see my right arm it’s “powerful”. You met Crazy Aunt Purl….. how cool is that. I’m 1 degree away from her. Love ya Laurie……
I will not whind about winding.
Must have sweater kit… must show restraint… Hmm – I have a new neice / nephew arriving in August – justifies two kits, non? Right now I’m on a sock jag – Can’t wait to see you next Monday up here in Anchorage! 🙂 By the way – the temps are on the rise & the sun has been coming out!
I’m always repeating a certain baby tank top and baby boat neck jumper. Except now I have lost my boat neck pattern in all but a 0-3 month old size, and am having my own darn (sorry, darling) baby in September.
I’ve also started stashing sock yarn (3 skeins this week), but of course, everyone knows that doesn’t count! And as far as good karma goes most of the socks will be given away, like your baby cardis, so it’s all good!
You are insane, but that’s why we luv ya! You help us justify our knitting obsessions to our non-knitter loved ones. My boyfriend was looking at me a bit weird when I went into my LYS in order to buy wool wash and came out with your latest book and 4 balls of sock wool (but no wool wash, they were all out). He said: “don’t you already have enough sock wool?” Bless his heart he’ll never understand; but I just tune in to your blog, let him read it and say: “It could be worse at least some of the sock wool is for you…”
I have a recent obsession with Leaf Lace Shawl patter by Fiber Trends. I knit one in Noro Silk Garden and now I’m doing it again in Noro Silver Thaw. Next I’m going to have to try it in lace weight…. =)
Then there is the secondary category of sock yarn that fills 3 baskets in my living room. I try not to buy it, but I can’t seem to stop.
reminds me or the Seinfeld episode where Elaine has hoarded all the last of the birth-control “sponges” before they were not manufactured anymore. She has to decide if a new man in her life is ‘sponge worthy”.
Are you going to decide which friends are ‘kit-worthy’ before you share??? LOL
carolyn
Ok Steph. The first step is admitting you have a problem (done). The next thing to do is to stop denying you have a problem. (wee bit harder). The third thing to do is to rid yourself of your enablers (will never happen). Professional opinion (am so not a doctor and don’t even play one on tv) is to buy all the yarn you like and knit into oblivion. Cheaper than drugs, healthier than junk food. Go for it.
Oh, I don’t blame you one bit. Those are beautiful! I would buy those in a heartbeat to make for my darling baby girl. So cute!!!!
I myself, have just stepped into the world of Dream in Colour and bought one skein even before I touched it. The colours are alive, and as I browsed through the stores other yarns I held onto it as if it was the last one on earth. I haven’t seen one of those sweater kits yet, but if you don’t buy them all then I will !! 🙂
I don’t have time to read all the comments, so excuse if this has been suggested. Why not own up and just buy the $160 worth of yarn? It would be cheaper than the kits and you’d have plenty for later.
I love those sweaters, I will have to get a kit for ME! I am the same way with Wendy’s Velvet Touch yarn. It is so soft and I love making basketweave baby blankets from it. I have 5 grandchildren under 5 who each have one along with a few nieces and nephews who also have one. I am in withdrawal now because NO ONE is having a baby in the family at the present time!
I think it’s contagious…
I want the boy sweater. Shall I send you my address? 😉
First, trust your instincts. If you want 4 kits, there must be a reason, you just don’t know it yet. Quadruplets?
Second. I love all my yarn equally. Really. I may not be monogamous, but I am passionate. I love CHerry Tree Hill and Persimmon, not to mention Brooks Farm and even Encore Chunky and King Cole from the UK. I love it all.
I am an equal opportunity knitter. If this were The Bachelor, everyone would get the rose. And I would mean it for each and every skein, too.
First, trust your instincts. If you want 4 kits, there must be a reason, you just don’t know it yet. Quadruplets?
Second. I love all my yarn equally. Really. I may not be monogamous, but I am passionate. I love CHerry Tree Hill and Persimmon, not to mention Brooks Farm and even Encore Chunky and King Cole from the UK. I love it all.
I am an equal opportunity knitter. If this were The Bachelor, everyone would get the rose. And I would mean it for each and every skein, too.
I’m sure you can stop anytime you want. The question is- why would you want to?
Dear Stephanie – You obviously just need to clarify a few things with Ken. I think there’s been a miscommunication.
You are NOT buying teeny weeny balls of yarn at a higher price than the full skeins because you are lured by the crackle of the plastic wrapping or charmed (again) by the picture on yet another copy of the same pattern. You are not caught in your own woolly Ground Hog Day and there is PERFECT sense in the repetition of the same baby pattern, even though you are the mother of teens. You just need to explain things a little more clearly.
Over the years many newborns have been featured on your blog, for whom you have knitted jumpers with love. You are a much busier woman than in the early Yarn Harlot days, often out of the country. With Ken as a role-model of organisation, you’ve seen the light and changed your ways. Forward planning is the new catch-cry (let’s not include Xmas in this – don’t want to make him incredulous). You are going to knit up half a dozen baby jumpers for when the cuties appear in the future, thus, reducing any potential stress of impossible deadlines (Hmm! We won’t mention the 9 months warning, it weakens the case). OBVIOUSLY the yarn has been purchased in kit form for handy storage, protection against moths, and a reduction in preparation time. It also means the next time you go to Lettuce Knits you have to pick up another 3 kits (2 boys, 1 girl). I think at this point you can risk a somewhat exasperated glance over your glasses and infer that, if he hadn’t interferred your last visit, your time management would have been even more impressive!
Yes, the quadruplet thing is sounding frighteningly possible . . .
Or maybe it’s something those Dream in Color folks put in the water. I dutifully clicked on the link when you first mentioned them, and printed their lovely free hat pattern. Innocent enough. I never knit hats–they interfere with sock time. (For some strange reason I am nevertheless compelled to print free hat patterns off the internet and save them in ever-more-towering piles of paper on every horizontal surface in my house, but that’s a topic for another day.) I figured I needed a hat for your Petaluma event however, so a day later I had a lovely lavender hat. Then a couple of days later a cream-colored one. Now I’m thinking of rainbow-y ones edged in i-cord. Please, make it stop! My socks miss me! (Speaking of socks, have there been ransom demands for Mega Boots yet?
Stop! I have two of those on order and I can’t wait to get them from Lettuce Knit. I love the pattern and the colors of the yarn. I could never be part of knit from your stash only and not be able to buy yarn and patterns like this.
You are such and enabler! 😉
Karin
The minute I saw the first one you did, I phoned long distance and ordered one!!! My they are lovely and I was hoping to use some handspun superwash yarn and the same pattern once I finish this one. Nice idea, Stephanie!
Dude, you are out of control…
How adorable!! I would like to state that if you do cross that line and do end up with more baby sweaters than you have babies for, my nephew will be born this fall. Yes, I’ve already got him a sweater knitted and yes I’m going to knit him more but he doesn’t have that sweater. Besides which (and I’d like to state these aren’t in the order of importance) a) I don’t live in Canada and b) even if I did I’d be too scared of getting between you and those kits to buy one 🙂
Actually, Steph, I do have that problem…and I sort of owe it to you…
Sock yarn, Steph–do you have any idea how happy I was without knowing how to knit socks…and then you didn’t just ‘wax lyerical’ or ‘wax poetic’–you weaved a Coleridge-level Xanadu spell around my brain with yarn shaped words and VOILA…I am suddenly a sock knitter–I have so much sock yarn I can’t POSSIBLY knit it up in my lifetime, and I need more…and more…and more…if I see a color in my favorite brand (Cherry Tree Hill, anyone?) that I do not have, I beg, I borrow, I steal, I CREDIT CARD, I do whatever it takes for another skein…oh the self striping, oh the merino…oh the cotton-wool… You Steph, YOU did this to me…
I can’t thank you enough.
Tell Megan to bag up another kit, darling, it’s not worth the ‘I wants it my precious’ shakes to overcome.
AND…you have another secret…you make us WANT these things too! You are evil (looking around for someone pregnant)
Stephanie, watch it with those sweaters. Who knows where it can lead? You’re still younger than I was when my kid was born. . .
hmmmmmmmm, could this inexplicable yearning for multiple baby sweaters have something to do with your sweet babe turning 18? an unacknowledged urge to have that babe back??? in that case, knit on! it’s a lot healthier outlet than starting all over again with an infant!!! 🙂
I just want *one* kit….one, little, itsy kit. *sniff* *sniff*
Oh, and a baby to give it to when I’m done, of course, since I don’t have any of my own! ;o)
I don’t think I would’ve been able to resist myself!
You did a great job, I just love the colors!
ok, and here’s the thing…would it ruin the mojo to have the boy kits and the girl kits and look at them as mega-kits that you could swap colors between? because that makes the possibilities end.less. and you’d have to buy a whole lot more to do that properly, donchathink?
Stephanie, I say this in all sincerity. Those sweaters are adorable but the fact is you knit too darn fast. You’ve got to slow down and let the rest of us catch up.
But the sweaters ARE adorable.
Problem? What problem?
must. have.
now what’s the link to Lettuce Knits, please dear?
Just one comment….my second was born when I was 42, my oldest was 10 at the time!! 😉
i love these. thanks for sharing! someone on at knittinghelp.com also found kits for these very same sweaters at a usa yarn shop… http://coldwatercollaborative.com/index.htmls
i just saw these yarns in person at my lys. O M G
the colors are gorgeous. much better in person. i can see how knitting these beautiful sweaters can be addicting. it took all i had to get just 6 hanks of cascade 220 and 3 of boku… and a noni pattern. and not grab and take all the dream in color. crack. i swear.
Lovely! 🙂 I have “the line” with my beadwork. Thankfully everyone lets me walk “the line” a lot! 😀
I’ve got a copy of Principles of Knitting!!! It’s been sitting on my shelf since I received it for my birthday from my hubbie – must be almost 20 years ago! Who’d have thought!
I’ve got a copy of Principles of Knitting!!! It’s been sitting on my shelf since I received it for my birthday from my hubbie – must be almost 20 years ago! Who’d have thought!
Wheeeeeeee! Really, WHEEEEEEE!!!!!
Hi there! First time commenter/long time reader.
I just saw this post and laughed so hard I woke up my eldest son.
I totally understand the obsessive part of our addiction. And it hits with no specificity at all. Like lightning, something will catch our eye (and our heart)and then we. simply. must. have. it….all of it!
That happened to me with sock yarn, like lots of folks and I haven’t been able to shake it yet. I view sock yarn kind of like I do tic-tacs. Sure, there ~is~ sugar in a tic-tac, but not much. And they really serve a useful purpose.. Sock yarn does cost money, but not much. And it too serves a useful purpose.
Here’s my guilty admission for the day. I am coveting those sweaters in a way that is dangerously close to OCD behavior. And here is the kicker, I don’t want to make one for a baby…. I want a grown up version that I can wear. Yes, it would be a rainbow bright kinda thing, but I ~still~ really want it. ugh…. Now I need to try to figure out how to translate it from tiny to grown up size.
Man, I don’t know about these sweaters. Are you sure the yarn isn’t laced with some sort of narcotic? I know I’ve never purchased copious amounts (sock yarn) of something I didn’t need (STR) for some strange and unknown (Sundara) purpose. Maybe you should (Opal) seek the advice (Everyone has feet) of a professional in this area (Lorna’s laces) to ascertain whether or not this condition can be treated?
Hi there! First time commenter/long time reader.
I just saw this post and laughed so hard I woke up my eldest son.
I totally understand the obsessive part of our addiction. And it hits with no specificity at all. Like lightning, something will catch our eye (and our heart)and then we. simply. must. have. it….all of it!
That happened to me with sock yarn, like lots of folks and I haven’t been able to shake it yet. I view sock yarn kind of like I do tic-tacs. Sure, there ~is~ sugar in a tic-tac, but not much. And they really serve a useful purpose.. Sock yarn does cost money, but not much. And it too serves a useful purpose.
Here’s my guilty admission for the day. I am coveting those sweaters in a way that is dangerously close to OCD behavior. And here is the kicker, I don’t want to make one for a baby…. I want a grown up version that I can wear. Yes, it would be a rainbow bright kinda thing, but I ~still~ really want it. ugh…. Now I need to try to figure out how to translate it from tiny to grown up size.
Man, I don’t know about these sweaters. Are you sure the yarn isn’t laced with some sort of narcotic? I know I’ve never purchased copious amounts (sock yarn) of something I didn’t need (STR) for some strange and unknown (Sundara) purpose. Maybe you should (Opal) seek the advice (Everyone has feet) of a professional in this area (Lorna’s laces) to ascertain whether or not this condition can be treated?
babies- shmabies, does it come in an adult kit!?
Oh no…this, my dear, is the pre-grandparent stage of life. First it’s baby things, then to your children’s dismay, it is actual babies.
I’m in a post-nap fog reading your post when I think “hmmm, yes that passion for yarn/sweater has struck me. Very recently.” and carry on with the reading and think “hmm, that turqoise in her picture looks exactly like the yarn in this can’t-stop-knitting-it-even-got-reprimanded-at-work-for-knitting-it sweater…” and more reading, more reading… I get up and look at the tag for my yarn and IT says: Dream in Colour.
Well holy shit if that’s not an omen, what is? Except I think the lesson for me to learn here is that I have a problem, and my dad’s feet are awfully cold since his socks are wayyyyy overdue and I can’t work on them because my sickness wants me to knit that damn sweater instead. It’s a disease, you know. We can’t help it. Not our fault the muggles don’t get it.
Wow. Those sweaters are sprouting like baby rabbits. 😀
The only thing that’s keeping me from ordering the sweaters are the two I’m making for my nephew and my “nephew” — two baby boys! My nieces are too old and insist upon fashionable yarn-based fashions…
Maybe I’m being a teensy bit snarky here, and I apologize if that is indeed the case… but if you’re going to do lots of these sweaters, why don’t you buy the whole skeins and leave the kits for those who they were designed for: people who are just going to knit one?
Still, if there are enough for everyone, no harm no foul!
OK, done – pattern has been ordered. Man, you have got some power!
This is a jag!!!!!
Those are the sweetest sweaters!
I have the same problem with Malabrigo…always a pleasure to hear I’m not alone!
Ok I can TOTALLY see why you got those kits. Absolutely adorable!! I LOVE the colors (I get tired of pastels after awhile). And you did a fantastic job as well.
When you find yourself burnt out on baby sweaters and surrounded by countless kits that you bought just prior to said burn-out, can I have one?
I have a favourite baby hat. I can knit it in my sleep, unless my little sister *hem* “borrows” the necessary little needles.
Funny you should ask about patterns you don’t want to quit knitting. I was just e-mailing a friend today about not wanting to rock so much on my Harlot one-row scarf because if I finish it, I won’t be able to knit on it any more. It’s only the second one I’ve done (I’m a slow knitter) but I’m sure there will be many more.
P.S. What is it with the miters this year? I’m still working on sock mojo, do I need miter mojo too?
OMG you’re a nut. I needed that. My homework is keeping me from doing ANY knitting. Someday, I’ll be a real teacher. I will bring knitting into the classroom. I promise. (chopsticks and yarn)
Okay, if we’re all confessing…
I have a thing for Colinette. Especially the mohair, but I’ve splurged on several others. I love the colors, even in the grey or black colorways, but I really can’t resist the many shades and combos of hot pink. And pale pink. And ivory. And purple. And blue.
I adore the Colinette kits, but I’m way too cheap to buy them ($185 US), so I pick up one or two skeins at a time, with the intention of combining them into glorious big sweaters and blankets. I’ve done many scarves and hats, and a handful of shawls, but I’m waiting to do anything really big until I feel worthy of all this yarn I have in plastic bins in the game room. Heaven forbid that any of my guests want to play mah jong! The game tables are covered with bins of beautiful mohair yarn.
As for “knitting from stash,” how long does it take for yarn to become “stash”? I usually take a few weeks or months before casting on a newly-acquired yarn. Have I been “knitting only from stash” all along?
Haha. I’m not really a fan of kits, I just like the pattern that they sell. I don’t really need the yarn… I think it’s fine just picking from my stash. My room is only so big you know. But yea… I want the pattern to that. XD
Ken is a lovely, lovely man that makes me wish I was born male. Almost at least. I like my boys. =P
OK – I haven’t read all the comments yet so maybe this has already been suggested.
From a purely practical, budget friendly, point of view, wouldn’t it be cheaper to just buy as many full skeins as you are likely to need to knit as many colourways as you are likely to knit rather than all these little kits?
Then, you can put the leftovers into gifts for when you do your KWB / TSF “thank you for contributing” giveaways which means that buying the yarn is really for charity not for you AT ALL.
Makes sense to me. However, I might just be TOTALLY jealous that you can get such lovely stuff over there in Canada while I would probably bankrupt myself on the postage trying to get that there kit over to me here in South Africa even though there is a little girl on the way who would look so totally gorgeous in one of those little sweaters.
Shutting up now – I think I am reaching a line of my own here.
They are absolutely precious and you crack me up!
I’m that way w/ the felted “Booga” bag pattern…I’ve probably made 30 of them and 20 of which were done in the first six months I learned to knit lol I get stuck sometimes making the same thing over and over cuz I know I can do it and love the results.
That’s so me and STR…I’ve named skeins of STR, fun little pet names. I stoke them. I go online and look at the colorways. Intellectually I know that the good ladies who make STR aren’t going to run out of my fave colours, but still…just in case… = )
Those are just TOO friggin’ cute!
You’ve gotten QUITE Gollum over those, eh? (Preciousssssss, me wants the kits, we must have them, preciousssssss….)
They’re absolutely adorable – add a small hamster & you’ve got a submission to Cute Overload!
Great. My kid was looking over my shoulder and now she wants one. For herself. Which doesn’t exist. The bigger size, that is…clearly my kid exists…
I wonder if Megan would consider…
Gah. You, my sweet, are NOT a good influence. But I still love you.
Hee! Of course those are irresistable….so colorful and bright and little and sweet. And the little mini-skeins of yarn make it all the more tempting.
I don’t have a single pattern that I come back to, but my hands get jittery if I haven’t worked on a sock for a few days. Bet you know how that goes.
Those are the cutest sweaters I have ever seen!
You see they are gorgeous and I want to make one, even though there are no babies in my life …. but there are two weddings in July, babies have gotta follow that, right?
And now I think you should go out and buy full skiens of the stuff, you don’t need those little itty bitty kits, you will be knitting these forever, clothing the world’s baby populations in gorgeous rainbow sweaters!!!
Those are truly adorable! I don’t blame you in the least. Kinda makes me wish I had a baby on the way, so that I might knit one.
Bernat Sox yarn. It’s cheap, it’s acrylic, but I love it. Maybe cuz I knit my first pair of sox with it, the first time I tried using more than one colour and I was successful. But I love the variety of colours it comes in and now it’s discontinued. If I happen upon it in a store, I’m helpless. Maybe it’s the hunt I enjoy.
See, this is the beautiful thing about having a yarn shop. I can buy all the yarn I want and never have to worry about having time to knit it! If I sell a bunch, I just get more. It is the prefect, no-guilt stash. You know I look around at all my yarn sometimes and just say to myself, “It’s all MINE! Bwahahahahah!”
See, this is the beautiful thing about having a yarn shop. I can buy all the yarn I want and never have to worry about having time to knit it! If I sell a bunch, I just get more. It is the perfect, no-guilt stash. You know I look around at all my yarn sometimes and just say to myself, “It’s all MINE! Bwahahahahah!”
I love the sweaters, they’re adorable…and I completely understand your desire to knit just based on their cuteness…but…
I wonder if there’s not a more deeply psychological issue here? Are you knitting these delightful little (quick) knits in order to atone for the abandonment of a certain sock in NYC? One you so callously said you would deny all knowledge of?
Perhaps the solution to your compulsion with the baby sweaters is to rescue/ransom the sock? Those sweaters are cute enough…you might convince “Perky Evil” to swap the sock for a baby sweater kit?
Just a suggestion…I hate it when my own guilt gets to me…
(((hugs)))
I’m ashamed to admit it but my current obsession is knitted dish cloths…out of variegated cotton yarn…yes, I know, it’s sick….24 cloths and still knitting with no end in sight!
Love the baby sweaters and I can’t believe how fast you knit!
The sweater is entirely too adorable, but I do believe the official term for what you are suffering from is a “knitting jag”, or at least that’s what I learned in somebody’s most recent book… 😉
I’m glad I don’t live in Toronto or need to make a baby sweater as I wouldn’t want to have to fight you for a kit!
The sweaters are beautiful, but baby sweaters just don’t do it for me. Malabrigo–if it’s Malabrigo get out of my way!
I need one. Really… My best friend is due in a week, and I still haven’t knit anything. Luckily, I told her I would bring it when I flew there to visit. That gives me 2 months. Can I buy it online???
Also, I read about you at Crazy Aunt Purl. I would say that she is as addicted to you as we all are. Thanks for making us not feel crazy.
felted purses
The tulips sweaters are so cute they’re giving me cavities. I am in love. I want one for me. I want some for my children and I have no children. Those sweaters are viral knitting at its most insidious.
The siren song for me is plain old dishcloths. The slip-stitch kind on the back of Elmore-Pisgah cotton. Pure therapy, and I can’t get enough…rainbows of colors and they just flow from my needles so easily, so Zen-ly (if that’s not a word, it should be). What more could a girl want (other than a tulip sweater, that is)?
Lily
I think you are having a severe allergic reaction to your own babies growing up. The first to hit 18 comes as a shock and you wonder where the time went.
This is NOT, and I repeat, NOT, the time to plan any more children just to have someone to wear the sweaters. If all else fails, start one of your daughters with a hope chest and carefully hide the sweater in there.
it is the HARLOT HILARITY.
it keeps us coming back for more.
and if the kits make you happy, then we are happy
are you really really going to be in anchorage next monday??? I cant go but I am really really hoping that my sister will go, for me and for her
give her a hug , would ya?????
and keep on loving the knitting. its amazing.
I want that kit so bad I could weep.
I want a kit! I want a kit! Your sweaters are fabulous! Lucky babies!!
well, there was this “episode” with felted fish – my family still hasn’t forgiven me after 17 and one half fishes (it stopped abrubtly.)
I have that same problem with sock yarn, I horde it, make others hold it. But I still need more, more, MORE!!!
Just like candy. Who could blame you for not knowing when to stop?? Besides, who am I to judge? I’m currently in a ‘baby sock’ phase, and not a baby in sight. They’re just so darn cute and don’t require a huge commitment. My young daughters keep stealing them for their dolls. (And I know I’m not the only one–I ran into another baby-less baby sock maker at the LYS the other day. We swapped patterns, LOL)
I am TOTALLY showing this to my husband, and kids. I am NOT the craziest knitter. although that little row of sweaters.. the sweetness is calling to me… tiny balls of rainbow… it’s pulling me in… oh NO!!!!!
I wonder how long the drive it to lettuce knit rom here?
ok- guilty confession—
I desperately needed someone to distract hubby from the FOUR balls of Opal rainforest I bought yesterday…….caterpillar, poison dart frog, butterfly AND coral snake colorways……….
I mean really… it’s summer…. you know- I too- can stop at any time…. I think.
The last time I had an extended urge to do baby stuff I was pregnant…just a thought…
Just in case you didn’t get my email I wanted to let you know that Due to the high demand for this out of print title, Simon & Schuster is planning a reproduction of THE PRINCIPLES OF KNITTING by June Hemmons Hiatt. The release of this book is tentatively scheduled for the fall of 2009. This timeframe, of course, is subject to change and/or postponement. Please refer to our website at http://www.simonsays.com periodically for updates. I really hope that the company goes through with this I am really excited about this and hope we can both get a copy when/if it ever comes out. Hope things are well also to let you know I have a little one(just born 2 months ago) and I was wondering how in the world did you fit in knitting time with your kids when they were that old??
I knit some pink suede baby uggs from the DIY pattern last week and all I want to do is buy yarn to make them in every color! They cost over $16 to make a pair, and nearly $24 if you buy the fluffy stuff (which can be used to make several pair hence why I said $16, see the justificatin happening here??) So far I made a pink pair and a tan pair which need the fluffy stuff put on. I want to make them in green now, it’s a sickness!
That are so cute! Even I, who never knits for babies, am very tempted!!
lol–i can’t stop laughing at: “we loves it, we knits it, we keeps it all!” do we not ALL feel that way!? i am on a washcloth binge at the moment that just won’t stop. at least they’re useful…
love those sweaters, too!!!
Hey, if you’re happy knitting the sweaters, then knock yourself out.
Just maybe try to prepare yourself for when Megan runs out of kits, ok?
Is there a 12-step program for yarn-aholics? I’m on an e-mailing list for a couple wonderful yarn places. All they have to do is use that 4-letter word, SALE, and my eyes zero in on their website and I buy, buy, buy. Where am I going to put it all?
The sweaters are beautiful!
The colors are wonderful! I can see how one might become ::coughaddictedcough::
Steph, do you knit in your SLEEP???
I loves it, it’s precioussss. You do realize that by putting this post out into the world you are letting all of us in on these sweet sweaters and that now…..there may be fewer kits when you go back?
just sayin’
P.S. I read At Knits End on a 2 1/2 hour car trip last weekend and my hubby and daughter both threatened to leave me on the roadside if I did the laughing/snort thing one more time. Of course, they must love me because I kept doing the laughing/snort thing at least 7 more times after their empty threat.
Hmm… that’s a mighty cute little jag…
If Lettuce Knits would sell them to all of us we’d be ever so happy! That’s the freakin’ cutest baby sweater I’ve ever seen!
So far no patterns like this at my house with the exception of soaker pants, but those are “needed” as this kid won’t stop growing!
My husband’s daughter will be having twins this fall. So if you need more babies to knit those sweaters for, you’re more than welcome to knit for them. (Not that I’m an enabler or anything)
the only problem is when you buy enough kits that you feasibly could have spent $160 on the yarn in the first place…
d’er, i mean…beautiful sweaters! ;]
As I recall, you welcomed the kits because it meant you could knit one (notice “one”) of these little darlings without having the expense of buying full skeins of all the yarns. I would suggest that it might be time to re-think this strategy?
Like, buy the full skeins, woman! You might as well – you’re going to end up spending more on these kits!
oh, and i literally have dreams about collecting/coveting STR yarn colors.
Those Sweaters have a virus attached to them that is very catchey….you set your eyes on them and you want one, you want to knit with those luscious colors…you want to be the one that makes a gift of one of these beautiful sweaters that are filled with love….to that tiny precious life that has entered our world…….
I think the only cure for this virus is to keep purchasing the kits and knitting sweaters until the virus works it’s way out of your system.
As a Registered Nurse (who practices wholisticaly) and a fellow knitter, that is my professional adivice.
2 words: sock yarn.
Oh, go ahead. Knit a whole drawerful!
The only trouble with knitting for babies that are as yet theoretical is that there’s no particular reason to finish, once the impulse (or the madness) finally ebbs. . .
But I’m a tiny bit suspicious, brilliant Yarn Harlot. Did you not post this entry on purpose to force yourself to stop, by ensuring that all the kits would instantly sell out, so you can’t get any more?
It is sick and wrong for you to post such amazing wonderful cuteness with no pattern link…
my baby needs one of these sweaters…. I have to have the pattern….
please?!?
I so get that…and living/knitting/buying yarn vicariously through you, I say KEEP THE KIT, DON’T GIVE IT TO KEN unless and until you are able to BUY MORE! (sorry, didn’t mean to shout, it’s just my enthusiasm for the sweet sweater shouting) If you need some justification: you have 3 daughters and most likely to have some grandchildren in your future. Estimate how many and buy enough kits for each one. That is the prettiest, dearest baby sweater I have ever seen!
You had me in tears with the “we loves it…” And thanks to you, I loves it too. I don’t even have any babies to knit for, but I am going to have to find a way to get one.
Some Ballybrae tweed went on sale at our LYS and I bought up all they had, of three different colors, with no pattern in mind. Thank goodness it was discontinued. It’s going to be a sweater for my husband, and hopefully one for me.
Those baby sweaters look like little Tiffany windows.
O.K. I find myself drooling over these gorgeous sweaters! I am working very hard and restraining myself from calling Lettuce Knit from California!
I must try harder:)
Any idea how many sweaters one could make from full balls of that yarn? 4 or 5, maybe?
You should definitely get more kits! Those sweaters are ADORABLE! I mean, one day you will have grandchildren – how sad will it be if they don’t have this precious cardigan? Very sad, very sad indeed. Obey your inner harlot! In fact, I would like to have a cardigan like that for myself….
Remember how Elizabeth Zimmerman was forced to figure out a pattern for an adult version of the Baby Surprise Jacket because people were knitting them obsessively and running out of babies to give them to and wouldn’t let her be until she told them how to knit a grown-up version for themselves? I’m just saying. (Megan, you might consider kitting up a grown-up package or two. At least it would slow our dear Harlot down in terms of sheer number of FOs).
Buy more..knit more, cute sleeves, sweet necklines, teeny things. The yarn is like fantasy ice cream candy colors…almost like colors in glass. I loves it
I want one.
“Has there ever been a pattern or yarn like this for you?”
Yes, but do you really think I’m going to tell you what it is just so you can start lusting after MY yarn too?
Although those sweaters are cute enough that I may have to fly to Toronto and buy a few. (Dozen) *cackles evilly*
Those are some seriously cute baby sweaters. They look like fun to knit too. I can understand the obsession.
It’s sock heels for me. Can’t stop doing them. I know I should get around to learning a short-row heel one of these days, but I just feel so smart doing that slip-stitch heel flap then the short row part. I get this thrill of triumph picking up the gusset stitches. The little twisted stitches are so carefully aligned. Ahh. Time to start another sock.
It’s Amanda’s fault. She recently had her 18th birthday and now mom is feeling the stretching loss of letting her first baby go off into the world of adulthood. OR, maybe it’s just a hunger for a bitty baby to be in the house. Ha! Whatever the reason, the sweaters are adorable and cheerful and will make some baby(s) warm and cute – someday, somewhere. It’s such a small indulgence, isn’t it?
Seriously the cutest baby sweater ever. YOu really should have just bought the entire balls of yarn (which is what you were trying to avoid right?).
I know exactly how you feel. I purchased some natural white alpaca a year ago at a festival but I got just a wee bit too little to make the appropriate garment I had in mind. I am so afraid to commit to a pattern and then run short. (Yes, I know the tricks of how to manage that issue, but what if…) I could just purchase another couple of skeins from another llama but then I would have to purchase so much that I would have to justify the expense to my husband. (I tried sneeking the initial purchase in and got caught). I don’t want to settle on just anything else because that involves my commitment issues and we just should not consider going there. I am temporarily just petting and dreaming of when/if my little alpaca may grow up to be some day.
Wow, seriously, I want all 3 jackets sent my way! How adorable and now I want one too…see what you did! LOL
You know what I’m thinking? I’m thinking that wee sweater would look beautiful on Talya… oh, if only I knew someone who liked to knit those wee sweaters and had access to wee little kits to make them from!
If only!
ps… what are nursing baby cheeks called? I was trying to explain to someone, and totally can’t remember!
For me, it’s the Pomatomus socks. I’m sure I don’t need more then 1 pair of these socks, but I just can’t seem to stop knitting them. Dude, they be my crack.
No, no you’re not obsessed *coughsockyarn* no…really *coughalreadyorderedakitfromlettuceknitsallyourfaultcough*
Ok…my confession…My sock yarn stash is so ginormous that the ONLY way I could figure out to ever come close to wading through it all in my lifetime (and I’m only 40) was to search out and buy a reconditioned antique sock knitting machine and learn to use it. So, not only do I have multiple socks on needles in various stages of completion (as well as all the other WIPs I have going on) but I try to crank at least one night a week…
My “don’t want to live without” yarn is Cascade 220. It’s so bad that because my funds are terribly limited, the skeins I do have I won’t use because I just NEED to have around. When I made a pair of mittens for one of our 5-year-old twin boys I found myself constantly (obsessively) checking his backpack daily to confirm their safe arrival home. (Yes, I know exactly where they are right now at this moment.)
Sick.
By the way, the other twin got a pair of mittens made from Patons Classic Wool. Also nice, but not the same level of love.
Is there a 12 step program for these things?
Of course I’m only asking because I’d love one of those kits for myself, but I’m afraid I’d find myself between you and the object of your desire…
i am loving those baby sweaters, i can totally see why you are addicted!
I emailed the shop to buy one of these beautiful kits and guess what??? – they sold out *VBG*. You bad bad girl LOL.
Good lord. I don’t knit sweaters or baby stuff and I want one.
See, I was fine when you showed the girl version. Yes, it’s adorable, but my sister is having a boy.
Now you show me something that is going to be pretty much unavailable since I haven’t read bloglines earlier in the day.
Sigh.
your crazy there is no way i’d hand over something that cute -I hope you changed your door locks so Ken cant get in.
we loves it, we knits it, we keeps it all!!!!
Can we get Franklin to make a cafe press delores shirt with that on the back??? cuz, like, I’d totally buy that and the tote to match.
I was laughing so hard that I was near tears when I read your post. Those baby cardigans are gorgeous! I really love the Dream in Color yarn, too. I hope all your airport travel goes smoothly!
Socks…Lornas Laces…Favorite Socks
Have you seen this storefront:
http://coldwateryarn.com/
I’ll give you a hint, the first line is:
“As seen on Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s Yarn Harlot blog”
OK, totally just stole the gollum quote for my blog subheader. Best.Thing.I’ve.Ever.Heard.
🙂
Eek! Another obsession started. And it just so happens I have a cousin spending 9 months in bed waiting for a very special boy.
Thanks so much to the person that posted the link to buy it in the states – http://coldwatercollaborative.com/index.html
I just emailed my favorite LYS in the world, Uniquities to see if they can get it. If not, it’s mail order time!
I too, have spent hours laughing my way through Knit’s End. I had a complete stranger ask me at a hospital waiting room what I couldn’t stop laughing over.
Bless you and hugs to Amanda. Having a boy of 16 going on 30, your birthday post made me cry.
Well, heck, Steph, you guaranteed that you won’t be able to buy any more by blogging about them – there was a run on them and they are All Gone. Do you realize the power you wield in the retail knitting trade? A mere mention, a witty aside, about a knitting pattern or kit and it is gone, gone, gone.
Kate, tongue only semi in cheek…..
Can’t stop buying it? Helpless in the face of it? Magnificent to knit with? Can’t imagine not having any? Two yarns: Koigu, and, more recently, the hand-dyed yarns at Knitivity (www.knitivity.com).
Can’t stop buying it? Helpless in the face of it? Magnificent to knit with? Can’t imagine not having any? Two yarns: Koigu, and, more recently, the hand-dyed yarns at Knitivity (www.knitivity.com).
Let me put it this way… you have 3 daughters. And averages are they will have at least one child each. Do you see where I am going with this?
It’s future grandma duty. Buy the kits. Future generations need you to have them in your stash.
Those sweaters are so cute! Makes me wish my kids were little enough to wear one… I still want to make one. 😀
Those are beautiful sweaters!! And I bet they knit up nice and quick! They are so sweet! Thank you much for sharing them!!
(just wish there was something like that in my neck of the country!!! LOL)
Duh! I didn’t even think of this myself! Stop buying kits! BUY SKEINS! You have the pattern! There’d be no stopping you…
I’ve been reading the comments and it looks like time for Megan to launch her kits internationally… I’d buy one (or two), even at $40US…
The pattern I can’t stop knitting is Cottage Creations “The Wonderful Wallaby”. Especially in the child size 2, they go sooooo fast!
Never mind Clapotis, you have started a “knitters all go THIS way” run on those sweaters! The lists (OK, mostly KnitTalk right now) are buzzing with which shops have the pattern, which actually have the yarns or have it kitted up, and how long the wait is everywhere else. The power of suggestion! Poor Dream in Color people, they are overwhelmed by the demand. All YOUR fault!
(Especially as my mother, who taught me to knit but now has arthritis and cannot knit, wants me to make the girl version for a gift for a special baby-to-be in her life…….)
Could you please send me that wonderful sweater of many colors if you can. Have a 8 month old grand daughter.
Could you please send me that wonderful sweater of many colors if you can. Have a 8 month old grand daughter.
Could you please send me that wonderful sweater of many colors if you can. Have a 8 month old grand daughter.
OMG!! I want some. Where can I get my hands on those adorable kits? I have another grandchild due mid August and I just know the girly ones will be perfect. Are they available online? Being in Australia I can’t just pop into your LYS.