Little Milo Blue

Taaa-daaaa! An actual finished project, how about that? It's a pretty rare occasion around here.

Pattern: Milo by Georgie Hallam (Ravelry Link)
Yarn: Moda Dea Wool Bamboo
Needles: US 7, 16"

This was a pretty fast knit for me - only a few weeks, once I actually got going. I know, I know, some people can make five of these in that time, but I am a super-slow knitter. I started it and frogged it at least four times, and somewhere during the cast-offs for the shoulder straps I messed up and had to take it off the needles entirely to rip a huge section out. Then I put it back on, but didn't notice it was backwards. Fortunately the yarn is nice and squishy and the garter stitch hid the one row of stockinette I'd just created.

I made the body plain stockinette, so it would be the same front and back, and also because I've never done cables and I knew if I tried I would probably take so long to finish this she'd be wearing it to middle school. I could not, however, seem to do the m1 increases called for without making little holes where the body branches out into stockinette. I couldn't figure out any increase that would add stitches without making it really noticeable, actually. I'm sure this is something to do with my poor knitting skills.

The yarn was really, really nice to work with. I got it in a clearance bin for something like $3 a skein, and it took two skeins to make this, which is a good price for an item that will have macaroni and cheese or yogurt smeared all over it every day it gets worn. I thought I read somewhere on the Coats & Clark website that they were discontinuing the entire Moda Dea line of yarns, and although most of them were godawful technicolor acrylic fun-fur craziness, I will be sad to lose the Wool-Bamboo. It looks like they are, however, introducing Stitch Nation Yarns, which has a wool-bamboo blend, so hopefully it will be similar.

These pictures were taken before it was blocked, because she insisted on wearing it as soon as it came off the needles. No kidding - I bound off, held it up and said, "hey, this is for you!" and she grabbed it and started pulling it on. She slept in it and wore it the next day, too, and was very upset when she had to take it off for brief periods while changing into or out of pajamas.

While sometimes I look at things I've made and see only the mistakes and flaws, having her love this so much made my crafty-mama heart swell with love and, for once, a sense of pride in my work.