librarysarie

There are some things you just can't say no to.

It's a long time since I've shared any finished knitting...amazingly enough, I kind of have a backlog now!

Back in the fall when we went to Ugly Duckling Yarn, almost as soon as we walked into the store Ian beelined over to the display of Ella Rae Seasons and grabbed a ball in a blue-and-gray colorway. "Mommy, I want a sweater of THIS yarn."

There are a few rules in life, and one of them is this: When the preschooler asks you to knit him a sweater, you knit that kid a sweater.

Pattern: Set-in-sleeve sweater - Child, from Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns
Yarn: Ella Rae Seasons, colorway 17
Needles: US9/5.5mm
Time: October 30 - November 23, 2013
Ravelry project page

I don't really like seaming (and did a terrible job attaching the sleeves here), but I opted to knit this sweater in pieces because I knew that the striping pattern would annoy me otherwise -- somehow, stripes not lining up doesn't bother me, visually, like stripes of unequal width would -- and I chose a "figure out your gauge and plug the numbers into a template" sort of pattern. I had a really hard time figuring out what size to make -- I wanted the sweater to not be ridiculously huge on Ian now, but I didn't want him to outgrow it immediately either -- so I went for something that seemed a size or so too big, and lengthened it somewhat since he usually outgrows things in height well before he outgrows them in width. In the end, the sweater is NOT as big as I was expecting, so it looks very tunic-like on him. Then again, I've not yet wet-blocked it, so chances are I will be able to ease it into a wider shape.

The best part of knitting this sweater was just how excited Ian was by the process. I was afraid that, despite having watched me knit for his entire life, he'd think it was a lot more instant-gratification than it really is, but that wasn't a problem at all. He'd watch me knit -- encourage me to do so, really -- and the best was one day when my mother-in-law came over and Ian excitedly showed her the back and one sleeve I'd finished. "I LOVE how this is coming out, House!" he gushed. And when I did finish it, after about a month (which must have seemed an eternity to him), he was so excited he could not stop giggling. Just couldn't contain his glee.

Seriously, how could you NOT knit for this kid?

In other news, my son may have a future as a model. He posed himself for these shots. What a ham.

The winter that wasn't

It's been difficult to remind myself over these last few days that it's really only March!  Sometimes we'll get one randomly warm day in the very early spring, but a week of 80-degree temperatures?  Unheard of!  I wore sleeveless dresses to work these last two days....something I usually only do during July and August.  Crazy.

We didn't have much of a winter, truly.  I mean, yes, there was the giant storm at the end of October, but that was pretty much it.  We only had one real snowfall to speak of, in mid-January -- the day my grandmother came home from the hospital for the last time.  The good thing was that since we were all gathered for that, our nephew Thomas was here -- which meant that he got to introduce Ian to playing in the snow.  Who better to do it?

Ian LOVED the snow.  He seems to enjoy the cold -- even last winter when we went to Vermont when he was about nine months old, we noticed that he was all smiles whenever we went outside into the frigid temperatures.  Jim is beside himself with anticipation for next winter (or maybe the winter after that, if I get my way) -- he's been looking forward to teaching Ian to ski since, well, since before I even was pregnant with him.  :-)  I, however, am less thrilled about the prospect.  I'm no fun.

Sadly, this was pretty much it for snow play this year.  We had a couple of other light dustings which he got to toddle around in, but there wasn't really another snowfall that lent itself to playing.

While we didn't get much snow, it was just chilly enough for a nice warm hat -- and luckily, Ian loved the one I knit for him.

Pattern: Child's Hat with Pompom, from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders
Yarn: Malabrigo Seleccion Privada 
Needles: US7, I think? I didn't write it down!
Time: December 26, 2011 - January 5, 2012
Ravelry project page

(These pictures were taken outside in early January.  You can see how not-wintry it was!  Note that Ian's only wearing a fleece, not even a real winter coat.)

This was a quick knit, obviously, being a tiny little hat.  It only took me so long because I ripped it out and restarted it at least three or four times -- it took quite a while to find a combination of size, fabric, and pooling that I found satisfactory.  I'd like the pooling, but the hat would be way too big.  I'd like the size, but the pooling was funny.  Different needle size led to a good size, but the fabric was way too stiff....you get the idea.  I finally found a combination I was happy with, though.  I neglected to mark down which needle size finally worked, but I wound up casting on 84 stitches and working the pattern in multiples of 6 stitches instead of 8.  And, obviously, I left off the pompom.  Other than that, though, I followed the pattern.  Ian LOVED this hat, insisted on wearing it everywhere, and I think it will still fit him next year, too.  Hopefully he'll still like it!

I didn't really set out to knit my one-year-old a hat out of a $25 skein of Malabrigo (I'm generally all about the easy-care yarn for kid knits), but when I saw these colors I just couldn't resist.  What a perfect, bright, happy colorway for a little kid....and, of course, it's super-soft for his noggin.

I had woolly things I kind of wanted to get to this winter, but now it's time to think ahead to spring and summer knits.  Of course, I'm certain we'll get one more snowstorm before we're truly 100% into spring.  Maybe over Easter -- it would be an appropriate counterpoint to the Halloween storm!

Sleepyhead

Back in the fall, I did some test knitting for Juniper Moon Farm -- they have three new yarn lines coming out for spring/summer, and solicited test knitters on their Ravelry group.  I was excited to be chosen to knit one of the new patterns!  

I'd never done any test knitting before, and it was a fun process -- I got to try out a not-yet-on-the-market yarn, knit a brand-new pattern, and make comments on the pattern.  It was like copyediting in knitting form: how could I NOT enjoy that?!  It's also not very often that I get to participate in something so top-secret...I felt like a knitting 007 for a while there.  (Well, maybe not quite.)

The yarn and the accompanying booklets have hit the shelves (I went to Webs last weekend and saw them with my very own eyes!) so I am finally free to share my test project!

All photos in this post copyright Joel Eagle, and used with permission of the photographer and Juniper Moon Farm.

Pattern: Sleepyhead, designed by Pam Wynne, from the Juniper Moon Farm Yearling booklet
Yarn: Juniper Moon Farm Yearling, about 3 skeins 
Needles: US10.5/6.5mm
Time: November 16-21, 2011
Ravelry project page

This is such a cute little pattern; it's a good thing Ian has long outgrown baby bags, otherwise I might have had a hard time sending this back to the farm for its photoshoot and its future life as a trunk show model!  It's knitted in the round from the bottom up; you separate front and back once you get to the bodice and the top is knitted like a pair of overalls.  The bodice is knitted in a stretchy ribbing and there are three sets of buttonholes on the straps, so it will grow with baby.

I have to be honest: I didn't expect to like working with this yarn.  I don't use bulky yarns often (and when I do, it's only for small projects), and I also don't particularly like cottons or cotton blends as a general rule (Yearling is 60% merino/40% cotton).  Cotton tends to hurt my wrists, and the combination of cotton + bulky seemed like it would be particularly unpleasant.  BUT.  I LOVED it!  It "read" much more like a wool than a cotton to me, and it has gorgeous drape -- it's not at all stiff like I was expecting.  

The next time I have cause to use a bulky yarn, I will definitely turn to Yearling...I wish I could have kept the leftovers from this project!  

One caveat: if you wet-block with Yearling, make sure you leave PLENTY of time for it to dry.  A LOT of time.  This took nearly three days to dry completely -- now, granted, it was November and we keep our house quite cool, but still.  I knitted it in plenty of time, but the drying took so long I was afraid I wouldn't make the deadline for mailing the garment back to the farm!  In the end, Jim and I wound up rigging a contraption with a drying rack and a fan.  Who knows how long it would have taken to dry without that...!

Maybe this is what he's waiting for?

No baby yet -- he's now officially two days late.  We know, of course, that most first babies arrive late, but still, that's not stopping us from trying to think of things he might be waiting for.  Jim put batteries in the crib mobile, we installed the carseat base in my car (Jim's had the seat/base in his car for some time now, since that's the one we'll be taking to the hospital), and I finished the baby blankie, with hours to spare before his due date arrived. 

Pattern: Moderne Log Cabin, from Mason-Dixon Knitting
Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Cotton
Size: 30"x36"
Needles: US7/4.5mm
Time: February 7 - April 21, 2010

I didn't really follow the pattern per se -- I kind of read through it and then just made it up as I went along.  The technique lends itself very well to this: you just knit squares/rectangles, bind them off, and then pick up stitches for another square.  Easy peasy. 

Considering this is all garter stitch, I'm kind of impressed I finished it.  It got pretty tedious towards the end.  I think having the different colors to look forward to helped, though.

I use this yarn a lot, and I continue to like it.  Cotton isn't really my favorite fiber to knit with -- it hurts my wrists -- but I like the finished product.  After knitting, in lieu of a real "blocking" I just ran this through the washer and dryer, and it softened up and will be, I think, quite cozy.

Now I'm kind of at a loss for what to knit!  I did start Lavalette recently, but it's not what I feel like working on right now.  Maybe it's time to cast on for the hippo from Itty Bitty Toys.

I did cast on for a Multnomah shawl, using this lovely Madelinetosh Tosh Sock (colorway "shoreline").

I don't know whether or not I'll actually want to knit while in labor (or, indeed, in the hospital at all), but I wanted to be prepared in case I do feel like it!  A simple shawl in a really lovely yarn seemed like the ticket.  I cast on for the project during a non-stress test yesterday.

Ready, set.....wait

Jim and I are world-class procrastinators.  We're the people who pull all-nighters to write papers just before they're due, pack in a harried frenzy just before leaving for the airport, and end up paying bills by phone because the due date has suddenly snuck up on us.  (We are, admittedly, not as bad as we used to be -- being Grown-Ups has had at least a little bit of an effect on us -- but we're still not the sort to do things in advance.)

Until now, that is.  Baby's due date is two days away, and we have never been as ready for ANYTHING as we are for this baby.  The carseat has been installed in the car for the last month.  Our hospital bag is packed and also in the car.  We have diapers and bath stuff.  All of the baby clothes we have are washed, sorted by size, and put away (smallest sizes are in the closet; larger sizes are sorted into readily-accessible bins).  The cosleeper is in our bedroom, just waiting to be hooked up to our bed when we get home from the hospital.  We've read up on breastfeeding and baby care.  The nursery is clean, organized, decorated, and stocked (and, if I may toot our own horns a little bit, pretty good-looking too). 

We even have something for the baby to wear when he comes home from the hospital!  From the vast pile of clothes we received, we picked out a little Peter Rabbit onesie (well, and also a tiny backup plain blue onesie, in case he's really little), and I knitted a little sweater too (a big surprise, I'm sure).

Pattern: Garter Stitch Baby Kimono by Jojo Locatelli (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM, 2 skeins (with about 3 yards left over!)
Size: newborn-ish
Needles: US3/3.25mm
Time: March 15 - April 18, 2010

I modified this a little -- first of all, needless to say, I didn't do a gauge swatch (this is me we're talking about, after all).  The lack of swatching means that this is bigger than I expected it to be (though that is not, of course, an entirely bad thing), and it also meant that I had to sort of wing the sleeves, since my different row gauge meant that I picked up a LOT more stitches for the sleeves than were called for in the pattern, and I had to adjust accordingly.  Consequently, the sleeves don't really match each other -- I didn't do the decreases at exactly the same rate on each of them, and one is a little longer than the other since I very nearly ran out of yarn.  Still, though, babies are weirdly-shaped, right?  No one will be able to tell when he's actually wearing it.

The other main modification I made was to knit this in stockinette rather than in garter.  I do prefer the look of stockinette in this case, but it still may not have been the wisest decision: despite the garter edging, and despite a good wet-blocking followed by some steaming and some ironing, the bottom edges and the back neckline desperately want to roll up.  Oh well.

All in all, though, considering all the wonky things I did to this sweater, I'm pleased with how it came out.  And check out the super-adorable buttons:

Yes.  PETER RABBIT BUTTONS.  The perfect accompaniment to the Peter Rabbit onesie!

Now, all we need is a baby.  But surely, thanks to the unprecedented degree of preparation, he'll decide to arrive as late as possible.  He's probably a procrastinator too, just like his mama and daddy.

Just a little knitting

Not much to say, but here's a little glimpse at what I'm working on...

First, the Moderne Baby Blanket.  It's going!  It felt like I was stalled for a long time, but then suddenly it got bigger all of a sudden.  I'm somewhere in the vicinity of two-thirds of the way through it right now, depending on what exactly the final size ends up being.

That beige block on the left blends in quite nicely with the carpet...heh.  This is currently measuring about 23"x29", so I've got about seven inches left to go in either dimension to hit my target size of 30"x36".  I'm not married to that exact size, though -- we'll see how it's looking as I add more blocks.  I've just started another block in that maize/gold color across the bottom (as this picture is oriented) and after that will come another dark blue block on the right side, I think.

I'm debating what I'm going to want to do for an edging -- applied i-cord?  Single crochet?  Just pick up and knit a garter stitch border in one color?  I do like how the garter edge looks on this, honestly, and think that that may be the way to go.  That's a lot of picking up and binding off, though...

I needed something else to work on -- the blanket is monotonous and getting pretty heavy to boot -- so I cast on a Lavalette shawl in this lovely yarn that I got from Kris in her recent destash.  It's Fiesta Yarns Ballet, it's alpaca and tencel, and it's soft and lovely.

This is a pretty basic pattern -- just stockinette sections interspersed with openwork mesh -- but the yarn is so nice that it's really soothing to knit, especially after the nubbly cotton I'm using for the blanket.

I have other things I want to cast on for RIGHT NOW -- another baby sweater (I've gotten it in my head that I want to bring the baby home in something I made for him, so I want to make a teeny-tiny sweater), and the hippo from Itty Bitty Toys!  I've got yarn lined up for both projects -- must get started!

I don't even know who I am anymore.

Whew.  Busy week!  I didn't have time to blog at all...

I'm sure you've all been DYING to know, but yes, I DID manage to finish my Olympic project! It still needs buttons (I'd decided that blocking -- since I prefer wet-blocking -- and button selection/sewing wouldn't count towards being done) so I'll save the "official" FO post till I get them, but here's a teaser:

Pre-blocking:

Blocking (Color is most accurate in this picture):

Lace close-up:

I was binding off the second buttonband JUST as they were extinguishing the flame during the closing ceremonies.  So it was close, but I DID IT!

More later on that. But for now, I have another FO.  (Yes, TWO finished objects in one post.  What happened to Sarah-who-starts-things-but-never-finishes-them?  I don't know where she's gone!)

Pattern: Fred Textured Sweater from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms
Yarn: Green Mountain Spinnery "Sylvan Spirit," in the "Luminosity" colorway (I don't know, it looks natural/undyed to me...)
Size: 12mo
Needles: US5/3.75mm and US6/4.0mm
Time: December 28, 2009 - February 16, 2010

I actually finished this while the Olympics were going on -- took a break from the Olympic knitting to do the seaming.  Seaming always takes me much MUCH longer than I think it will, even on a tiny little sweater like this.

The left shoulder has little buttons so that baby's head will fit through the neck opening.  Even if they weren't functional, I like them as a design detail.

And I really like the texture of the pattern.  It might have shown up better in a different yarn (or even a different color) but I like how subtle it is.

This was an enjoyable project -- the pattern was simple enough that I was able to memorize it and tell where I was on the chart just by looking at the previous row.  It only took me as long as it did because I interspersed it a little with other projects as I was going along.  Still, though, it was a pretty fast knit, like most baby things.

Finishing and starting

As promised, I bring you socks.  My Las Vegas socks, to be exact.

Pattern: Basic top-down stockinette socks, knitted over 48 stitches
Yarn: Mirasol Hacho, in the creatively-named colorway 302
Needles: US3/3.25mm
Time: January 13 - February 7, 2010

These were mostly knitted on the plane to and from Las Vegas last month (which reminds me, I STILL haven't uploaded photos from the trip - must do so!).  I cast on the first sock just after takeoff from Hartford and got through all but the toe on the flight out -- I could have finished, except that I always try on socks before knitting the toe and I didn't really want to be removing my socks on the plane!  I finished that first sock while in Las Vegas, and knitted most of the second sock on the way home.  Then the last little bit sat for a couple of weeks while I finished a scarf (hmm, still haven't blogged that, either!) and worked on baby knits.

And speaking of baby knits, I started the Moderne Baby Blanket.  So far, so good.

I'm pretty sure I've decided not to use the black yarn, or the three oddball one-off skeins.  I think it'll look more coherent that way. 

I was looking through my Ravelry projects the other day, and I realized that lately I have been really, really good about finishing projects.  I still have about a billion WIPs and UFOs, but they're all things I started some time ago.  For the most part, I've finished everything I've started in the last six months or so.  Weird!  Here's hoping I can keep that up...I like finishing things!

Teeny Tiny

One of my coworkers had a baby recently -- a little girl, after two boys.  I decided that, what with having two older brothers, baby girl E needed a little something pink.  So I whipped up a hat.

And it was so quick, and it turned out so gosh-darned cute despite its simplicity, I decided my little guy needed one too.  After all, babies' heads get chilly on spring evenings, right?

Pattern: Umbilical Cord Hat from Stitch n' Bitch
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy -- Cool Fire (pink) and Blue Lagoon (blue)
Needles: US6/4.0mm
Time: January 25-26, 2010 (pink) and January 30-31, 2010 (blue)

Not much to say here -- a very quick, very easy little basic hat pattern.  And you all know already that I love DIC Classy.  I did shorten the cord -- the pattern called for 6" before the knot, and I knitted more like 3.  I didn't really like the look of a big huge tail on the top.  This length kind of reminds me of the little doodad on top of lots of berets.

Fred is nearly done, so expect another FO post soon.  And there's more knitting to come after that, but I'm going to attempt to turn my attention to sewing for a little while...

Baby knits, take one

Needless to say, I've been knitting for the baby.  I haven't been going really crazy with it, though -- first I wanted to wait to find out the sex, and then there was holiday busyness, and besides, he's going to be born in late April -- I don't think he'll have much use for handknits until he's a good six months old, so I've got some time.  (And yes, I know I may be deluding myself into thinking that I'll actually knit at all once he's here, but I do know from past experience that I can knit while holding a sleeping baby, even without benefit of a sling, so here's hoping!)

So here's baby's first handknit, which is also my last FO of 2009.

Pattern: Rocketry, by Lindsay Pekny/Dream in Color Designs
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy -- see below for details
Needles: US7/4.5mm and US5/3.75mm (for edging)
Time: December 10 - December 27, 2009

Usually I don't call a project really done, either here or on Ravelry, until I've got all the finishing completed, but I'm making an exception in this case because if I don't, it'll be too long till it gets blogged.  ;-)  All that's missing here is the buttons.  I have some plain plastic buttons that look just fine on the sweater, but haven't had a chance to go out to see if I can find anything more interesting.  I'm calling it done anyway, though.

I loved knitting this.  You may remember that I made the girl version, Tulip, for a friend's baby, and I just think that these are great little patterns, and I LOVE the colors.  My only complaint, such as it is, is that Rocketry is only written for one size (I don't recall if that's also the case for Tulip).  Given that my little guy won't be wearing this till he's several months old, I wanted to upsize it.  So I did so, kind of blindly...since it's knitted top-down it's not hard to scale, but I wasn't sure exactly how large it would end up being.  I increased the width of the stripes (from ten rows to twelve), and I figured out where the sleeve division would have been (in relation to the stripe sequence) in the original size and moved it accordingly.  Then it was just a matter of knitting the stripe sequence as written.  The only thing I forgot to adjust was the v-neck -- as a result, it seems incredibly shallow.  No matter, though -- we just won't button the top button or two! 

As far as sizing works out, we tried the finished sweater on my friend's 18-month-old daughter, and it just barely fits her. I was aiming for something our baby could wear during his first winter, so I think it worked out!

Other modifications: if you're familiar with the pattern, you'll notice I didn't do the edging as written.  I did a normal band of ribbing on the bottom, and then picked up for the buttonbands and collar as one long strip (the original pattern calls for doing the entire edging, including the bottom band, in one piece, but I didn't like how that looked in the bottom front edges).

The colors I used (which were the ones called for in the pattern) and the amounts used:
Beach Fog 13g
Blue Lagoon 19g
Happy Forest 25g
Strange Harvest 66g (the edging ate up a lot!)
Lipstick Lava 22g
Visual Purple 25g

I'm planning another sweater based on this pattern, all in blues and greens.  And this time, I'll adjust the v-neck too.  ;-)

These are the buttons I have on hand -- boring, but they do match (better than they seem to in this picture)...

And what I'm working on now: this is the "Fred" sweater, from Louisa Harding's book Natural Knits for Babies and Moms.

It's a basic pullover, with a simple chevron texture formed just from knits and purls.  Nothing exciting, but I'm enjoying it.  I've been working on it off and on since the end of December.  The back is finished; the front nearly so.  Then I plan to work both sleeves at once.

A closeup of the pattern:

I'm using Green Mountain Spinnery "Sylvan Spirit" (purchased at Rhinebeck this past October) and I'm really enjoying knitting with it.  It's wool and tencel, so it feels sturdy and soft at the same time, and while I'm a bad knitter and didn't swatch (let alone block a swatch) I think it will bloom nicely when it's washed.