All behold the return of Nocturnal Knits! It’s been a while since I’ve posted any new creations. The simple explanation for this is because I haven’t done much knitting in the past few months, shame on me. I was going through a bit of a dry spell. After graduating from my Master’s program in May, I immediately jumped into a full-time job that, sadly, wouldn’t allow me to knit at work. (I only broke that rule once so that I could knit my coworker some fingerless gloves to combat the overactive air conditioner in our office.)

But then, a few months ago, a good friend of mine asked if she could commission me to make her a baby gift. She didn’t have any requests, other than it be awesome so that she could be the baby’s favorite aunt, so I was able to create something brand new.

I decided I wanted to make a baby dress with a knit bodice and a sewn-on eyelet skirt. I would use a similar method as the previous baby dress I made for my niece a few years ago. However, I wanted to spice this one up a bit. Here’s what I came up with:

I started by making the waistband with the intarsia hearts. I then made the two top pieces and sewed them on to the waistband. The top straps go all the way down to the back of the band, so it’s kind of like a tank top. I got the eyelet fabric at Michael Levine’s in downtown L.A. Even though you cant really see it, there’s a pink cotton lining underneath the skirt. So that it would be really gathered, I used a whole yard of fabric (though not the whole width) to make the skirt.

After I finished the dress, I decided I needed to make somthing for myself. I’m going to be going to the Sundance Film Festival in January, so I wanted a nice scarf I would wear while waiting in line for movies in the snow. I had seen on Craftster a lot of the Lady Eleanor entrelac stoles and they were very intriguing. However, I didn’t want to spend a million dollars on Noro yarn, so I decided just to make a thinner and shorter version. Here’s what happened:

I used three balls of Noro Kureyon that I got on eBay, so I wasn’t quite sure how long it would be or how the colors would look. In the end, I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. Here are my foster kittens modeling the scarf:

And all on its own:

I’m really into the self-striping and self-patterning yarns right now, so expect a few more entries on this theme.