Grandmother, will you make me .....

Two weeks ago, I got knitting requests from both of my 4-year-old great-grandchildren. On Saturday, Lily asked for a dark pink scarf, and on Sunday, Brady asked for a sweater to replace one he has outgrown. 

I found a lovely medium dark pink yarn in my stash, but it is a wool/microfiber blend that needs to be hand washed. I don't think Sara would appreciate my using that, so when I was at the yarn shop for knitting on Wednesday afternoon, I bought a ball of machine-washable acrylic. The shade is not exactly like the one in my stash, but close. I plan to knit the scarf lengthwise, with a row of reverse stockinette stitch cats down the middle and garter stitch borders. I have a chart for the cats, I just need to figure out how many stitches to use.

The sweater Brady has been wearing is one I made nine or ten years ago for his big sister Lexi. Brady called it his white sweater, although I always considered it blue. It has sort of a terrycloth appearance, with the top stuff white and blue underneath. I found some yarn in my stash that I think will be great for his new sweater, and have started working on it. The yarn for the new one is an ivory tweed (with bits of black and brown). I'm doing a simple, top-down, raglan sweater, with a 3 x 3 cable down each sleeve, I will also add pockets, and put cables on them, as well.

When I mentioned this on Knitter's Paradise, I questioned whether I should finish the three shawls I was working on first. Several dozen people replied that I should drop the shawls and jump right on the things for the kids. Only one person said to finish the shawls; the kids need to learn patience. Actually, the shawls are sort of for the kids - to give to their teachers at the end of the school year. I finished two of the shawls.

The other one can wait. I don't think it will be as nice as these anyway.

Other shawls I have finished in the past month or so follow. Since each pre-school classroom has two teachers, I need to have more than half a dozen shawls for the kids to select from.

I'm please with the way all of these turned out. I used someone else's pattern for numbers 1 and 5, but 2, 3, and 4 are my own designs. The yarns in numbers 1, 2, and 5 are some with long color runs, so the stripes happen naturally, without changing yarns.