Knits are for Kids

Selfish Socks

2012-02-07T12:20:00.000-08:00

I have put the thunderstorm sweater on hold since it was misbehaving and decided that I needed to do some selfish knitting. I'm making some cozy, hand knit socks and LOVING every minute of them. I can't get enough. There is absolutely no worry of second sock syndrome here.

The pattern is Monkey, by Cookie A. It is a bit on the expensive side at $6, but I can see myself making this sock several times (which is unheard of in knitting, it takes a special pattern to want to make it more than once).

I tried to analyze just why this is so addictive and I think it comes down to the following:

The pattern is bite sized, meaning there are just enough rows in the pattern to make you want to finish the repeat and when you do it's a decent amount of progress, so you want to do *just one more repeat*
It is fairly easy to memorize the pattern if you think of it in pairs of rows
The yarn and needles I'm using are delightful

I've also had to spend an inordinate amout of time waiting in the doctor's office and pharmacy (which means knitting time) because my 5 year old has pneumonia :( My poor little man, he's on the mend, but I'm thinking of extra ways to spoil him and make him feel better.

Spinning Memories into Yarn

2012-01-29T17:34:00.000-08:00

My dad passed away unexpectedly a few days before this Christmas. I'm grief stricken. I am relieved that he is no longer in pain though and am trying to work through all of the memories that I want to keep. Working with yarn is proving to be very comforting and theraputic. I got a Golding Drop Spindle from my husband this year, the day after I learned the news. Fittingly, it is butterfly.

I'm hoping to capture the best parts of him in this spinning process. Really, I'm hoping to spin the memories like threads into this yarn waiting to be knit up into something special to keep me warm, keep the good memories alive, and help resolve the loss that I feel.

I'll put captions on the pictures for those who want to see the spinning process, you can skip through the long post and just read the captions.

The colors in this yarn are green and blue with purple and brown and gold mixed in. As I spun the single ply, I thought of my dad's eyes, which he passed on to me. The colors remind me of the ocean, which he always loved and so did I. I remember him taking me way out in the ocean past the breaking waves when I was in grade school. I was scared, but felt so safe in his arms. He taught me how to dive down deep to the ocean floor when a big wave was coming so that I could come up safely behind it and avoid it crashing over me. I loved that feeling.

Fiber: Pigeon Roof Studios Fiber, Super Wash Merino

He passed on the gift of working with his hands... a true handy man. He worked construction and could do some really great work back before his disease really set in. I have his hands. I'm sure that's why I love to work with yarn. As I plied this yarn I thought of him teaching me to change a tire, set up the home audio/video equipment (which I am in charge of at home to this day), Tinkering with his Apple I computer. He actually drilled holes in the side of it and jerry-rigged an external fan. When he turned it on the image on the screen would wave like a flag... but it stopped overheating! I learned to play piano on that thing, with his keyboard that he had hooked up for his music studio and some apple software. He was part of the reason I was exposed to computers early on, and probably why I'm in the tech field today.

This is an andean bracelet, a
technique used for plying

After plying, I loaded the yarn onto the niddy noddy (for those non-spinners, a niddy noddy measures out your yarn yardage and allows the twist energy to settle in). I let it sit for a day and then set the twist with a good soak in tepid water with a little lavendar scented wool-friendly soap. I thought about him teaching me to shoot a basket ball, play tennis, play softball, love bowling (I have my own ball and shoes!) and teach me the rules to football. He loved sports. We had so much fun.

On the niddy noddy, I have spun 175 yards, almost 2 football fields
I have about 3 oz left to spin (out of 8oz)

Soaking to set the twist, tepid water for 15 minutes

and adding a nice lavendar scent

After soaking I pressed the water out with a towel as best I could and hung it by the window to dry over night. I thought about how we loved to play music together. He is the reason I played flute for so many years.

I love you dad. I will keep the good memories alive and feel a hug from you each time I wear the cowl that I made with this yarn.

When Knitting Attacks (warning long post)

2011-12-16T16:11:00.000-08:00

To steal a bite from the Knitmore Girls, this is a "when knitting attacks" story.

This is my first no-pattern sweater. I have taken sweater classes from Ysolda Teague and Jared Flood on knitting and designing sweaters. I've been wanting to make my own design for a long time and this thunderstorm swater is the perfect project because it's small, so if I make mistakes I won't mind too much ripping out. And my son had specific wishes that required a custom design. See this post for his drawing. I spent a long time drawing, measuring, swatching, calculating. I bought the yarn I would need. I had a new set of needles and finally the moment came where I felt confident enough to cast on. The amount of love that has gone into this sweater before even one stitch has been cast on is immense. I gave myself two months before my son's 5th birthday, PLENTY of time to finish a child's sweater on size 10 needles, or so I thought.

I got an inch into it and felt so delighted. The Malabrigo feels great, I love the new needles I'm working with , and most of all I'm finally making progress on the most special knitting project I've ever done because my son designed it. I figure this will be my on-the-go knitting until I get to the bottom of the cloud. So, I take it everywhere, but never really have a chance to work on it until a week later. Finally, some free time. I go to grab my project bag. But, wait... where's my project bag? In the car? No. Under the bed hanging out with dust bunnies? No. At the grandma's? No! My anxiety levels are rising. In any of the stores I have been to in the last WEEK?? NO!! The UNTHINKABLE has happened.

Denial sets in. It will surely turn up somewhere. I will sick "the finder" (aka my husband) on it and I'm sure he will find it in under two minutes. That's his specialty. He is confident too which eases my fear. Until, even he can't find it anywhere. I have lost my project bag, but I will not admit this to myself for another month. Each week I report to my knit night group, I still haven't found my bag secretly waiting for it to present itself in one of those right-under-my-nose kinds of ways.

I slowly moved through the stages of loss. My mourning comes finally comes to an end and I accept the fact that I will have to start over. At least I didn't lose my notes and calculations. Black Friday sales help ease the purchase of new yarn and needles, and we have a long road trip which makes for the perfect knitting storm (pun intended). Soon my mojo is BACK! The project flew off of my needles and I naievly though, "I can do this! He WILL have his sweater on his birthday! I'm not sure exactly how I am going to do the cloud and I still have to knit the sleeves, but I'll figure it out... right?"

WRONG.

The cloud, I realize, has to be done in intarsia. Fine, I've done intarsia once before, no biggie. Note to self, intasia can't be done in the round! The yarn ends up on the wrong side when you complete the circle. I knit and tinked a bunch of times until I come up with a work around. I figured I will just purl back for the length of the cloud and put in a small side seem in this section. I consult ravelry foums and this seems to be an acceptible solution. I made it work and finished the cloud (painfully, intarisa is not one of my favorite knitting techniques, but the yarn behaved itself for the most part). I held up the sweater to view my work and.... the cloud is disproportionally small and it looks more like a bat than a cloud. My son promptly proclaimed, "It IS a bat Mommy!" This would be all find and dandy if I was designing a batman sweater, but this is a thundercloud sweater, it should look like a cloud!

It is now 2 days away from his birthday, no sleeves done, no yoke done, the tiny bat/cloud looks silly... it is over. I will not be able to finish this in time for his birthday. It's ok though. I am still going to finish this labor of love... probably not in time for Christmas, but it will happen soon. The knitting itself is delicious and fast. I have decided to just do the entire sweater in black and do duplicate stitch for the rest. I have some practice with duplicate stitch, hopefully that won't attack me as well. I just hope he still fits in it when I finish!

In the meantime, maybe I should try to finish his crochet Sonic that is only missing one leg and is in complete pieces... more to come on that.

Spinning!

2011-12-14T01:00:00.000-08:00

I am spinning again! I can't believe I only got about 33 yards of usable yarn from my first real spinning project. The "second half" that I mentioned in that post went really poorly and I will probably have to scrap it. Hopefully I will get better this time around since I have officially decided that this is something that I want to get into. I purchased 8 oz of fiber from Pigeonroof studios, in the Lydia colorway that I found at Purlescence. The colors are outstanding, however I'm concerned that they will get muddy when I ply them together, which made think that perhaps I should do a 3 ply navajo ply rather than a 2 ply. It might help the color changes not be verrigated so randomly. Navajo ply uses one single ply and folds onto itself, like a crochet chain. So you can imagine the colors changing along with the single ply color changes, as opposed to taking the two opposite ends of my single ply and twisting them together. Does that make sense?

Per my nature, I promptly searched youtube for navajo ply on a drop spindle and I found a ton of interesting videos, but had to share this one from Rosemary Knits showing how she does the navajo ply on the fly. It was truly amazing. She is so comfortable with her dop spindle. She spins a little and then stops and plys what she just spun, then repeats.
I also subscribed to the FiberBeat podcast from WonderMike. I haven't listened to any of them yet, but it comes highly recommended by QuiltOtaku and Rosemary Knits, so this is a must if I am to become a spinner.

The next thing I need to do is sign up for a class!! I should really be working on my son's birthday thunderstorm sweater!! At this rate, it will have to be a christmas sweater!

Happy 1 Year Birthday Sophia!

2011-12-07T10:30:00.000-08:00

The year has flown by so fast. I swear time goes faster every year. My precious daughter turned 1 this November. I just had to knit her something special... and there's nothing more special than 100% cashmere, right?

This quick little knit is called the Langston by Teresa Cole. It is a top down raglan. I made size 18 months, so it is actually a little big on her still, but since it's a shrug-like cardi, I thought it would be great for the spring when she'll be a little bigger and it's a little warmer out.

The yarn is Jade Sapphire, 100% Mongolian Cashmere, always a dream to work with. I always keep an eye out for PurlSoho's sale yarns. About twice a year they add cashmere to their 40% off sale yarn bin. This project took two skeins and I had a little bit extra.

The butterfly buttons were found at Yarn Dogs. They have a great selection of buttons. It's amazing how buttons can change the whole look of a sweater. The addition of butterflies on this sweater make me think of a woodland sprite. They added just a touch of magic.

I didn't do any modifications. If I do it again, I would add more of a ruffle on the bottom and make the edging a little longer. It curls up so easily and the ruffle was just so subtle on the soft cashmere. I might enjoy making a longer one as well, but for two small skeins of yarn, this length was just right.

My dear friend over at Quilt Otaku inspired me to do this project. She made one for her niece with some handspun and it is gorgeous. I highly recommend this project for that special little girl in your life, and for that special little bit of luxury yarn in your stash :)

Bath Gift Sets

2011-12-05T13:51:00.000-08:00

My sis-in-law sold her knits at a little arts and crafts fair last week! I'm so proud of her! She had an awesome booth filled with all kinds of hats, scarves, fingerless mits, snowflakes, pumpkins, hot pads, washclothes, etc. She worked so hard on it, and her booth was amazing, check out her blog! What went first?? The Malabrigo items, of course!

There was also a ton of hand crafted jewelry, woodwork, and the PERFECT handmade soaps to go with the knitted faceclothes that I had in mind for christmas presents this year! They smell so good, they look amazing, so I couldn't resist. I got 8 soaps!! I have to get some coordinating cotton yarn now.

Here's a pic of the washcloth opened up. I made up this pattern as I went along.

Here's the one I made for my mom last year...

I have so much knitting to do though! I want to finish the thunderstorm sweater... I'll be lucky if I get one or two more waschlothes made before christmas.

Thunderstorm Sweater Update

2011-12-04T14:13:00.001-08:00

Here's a quick update on the thunderstorm swater: I'm almost to the cloud!! Lots of car knitting this weekend. It's knitting up quick too since it's Malabrigo Twist on size 10 needles! I'm having a blast knitting it. I have all of the measurements written out... but I'm going to be winging it a bit as I get to the yoke! This will be my first no-pattern sweater. Let's hope I learned something from the sweater classes that I took from Jared Flood and Ysolda Teague!!

Knits are for kids!

2011-12-02T19:08:00.001-08:00

My son designed his first sweater (pictured above)! He has recently taken a big interest in my knitting. He wants me to knit everything for everyone. It is the cutest thing ever. He drew this sweater, and I'm going to do my best to bring it to life... with a few modifications.

The thunder cloud and rain is going to stay, but the green stripes are going to go. It's going to be made out of black malabrigo... so, super soft, but it's not a superwash. The cloud will be a bright turquoise, lined with silver blue with golden lightening and blue water drops.

I'm sure I will come to regret this decision to do this in handwash only, but I tried my hardest to find the right colors in a superwash and I just couldn't find it! So, I'll just HAVE to work with malabrigo twist and kick myself later when he wipes his nose on the sleeve :)

I am trying to finish it before his birthday... that gives me 18 days. Will I make it? Who's taking bets?? I think the key is to take really long car rides on the weekends with my husband driving. He's turning 5, such a big boy.

In other news, my daughter just turned 1 a few weeks ago! I have been so behind in posting. I made her a little green cashmere sweater with butterfly buttons. Pictures and post to come!

Hand Spun!

2011-10-07T10:19:00.000-07:00

I am not doing much these days, but when I get a few minutes I'm actually grabbing the drop spindle! It's relaxing, no worrying about what row I'm on or about if it will fit it's intended recipient. It's the perfect quick fiber fix that I need to keep my sanity in the daily grind.

This is fiber from Verb that my dear friend from the Quilt Otaku blog grabbed for me. She is becoming a permanent fixture there on the weekends with her hand quilting classes, paper piecing, and machine quilting. All of her work is AMAZING! But my favorite is definitely her hand quilting architecture blocks.

Fiber details:
AVFKW Blue-Faced Leicester Top
2oz.

I have two plies, 33 yards according to the knitty notty (sp?) and I still have half of the fiber to spin.

Here's a close up pic

So pretty :)

Gardengin and Organizing

2011-08-28T11:14:00.000-07:00

I miss you blog! I have taken a little hiatus from blogging due to life getting a little out of control. But, I'm back, for now at least, and have a nice organized stash to show off. Isn't it pretty? It really helps me to not buy new yarn because I'd have to find a new place to put it!

I love books. I've started a collection of knitting books:

And, in other news, my tomatos are starting to come in! I'm such a tomato snob now. I seriously can't stand store bought tomatos, they just taste horrible compared to fresh grown tomatos.

My apple tree is producing too!

I have some green bell peppers, watermelon, strawberries and basil too. No time to take all the pics!!

Hopefully soon, I'll get time to blog about the progress I've been making on Vivian, with the green lorna's laces. I've also started a shawl with gorgeous madeline tosh yarn... but that's a post for another day :)

Beads!

2011-06-18T10:03:00.000-07:00

I finally found the perfect project for this handspun that I got for my birthday. It's published in Knitty, Fall 2009, issue 29 called: Kernel. It's a lace scarf with beads and some grafting. I've always wanted to do a beading project. I bought the supplies, just need to find some time to actually get started. I also decided to get some straight needles for this project ince my size 4 addi's are tied up in another project right now.

There are so many projects I want to do and so little time! I couldn't help but pick up a few balls of madeline tosh DK. They are sooooo gorgeous. I might use one to make the little sweater that French Press Knits just made. She has a very popular blog and patterns and a baby about the same age as mine. I'll definitely be getting pattern ideas from her! You have to check out her blog if you don't know her.

Brayden Beanie

2011-05-28T12:55:00.000-07:00

Here's a funky little newborn hat I made for a new little baby boy. It is completely flat, no decreases or anything. So, it was super easy. There is just a touch of a cable that I made up, it didn't really look the way I had imagined it would, but I think it still works. The square shape looks like little ears when on a baby. Just a funky little detail.

This was my first ever project with pom poms! If you have the strange pom pom maker contraption, this how-to make pom pom's video was so helpful!

Combination Knitting

2011-05-24T23:49:00.000-07:00

I've become a little neurotic with my knitting lately. Just ask my knit night girls, they will confirm. I keep doing the same swatches over and over again...

It really all started when I decided that it would be fun to get really technical with my knitting and take the Knitting Guild Masters correspondence course. Around the same time, I decided to learn continental knitting. Anyone who has tried to cross over to continental knows that purling can be a challenge. Which brings me back to TKGA and why I have become a little obsessed. TKGA has made me analyze each of my stitches and I found that my purl stitches are slightly looser than my knit stitches. What was once a perfectly fine stockinette swatch is now stripped with rows of slightly loose stitches that pop out ever so slightly. Um, seriously, did I mention the neurosis? That's all I can see now! I've tried modifying my hold to get a better tension on my purl stitches, but I finally gave up and went back to throwing my yarn (English style) for flat knits that require a lot of purling simply because I am obsessed with perfect purls now. Thanks a lot TKGA!

I have one more thing to try that just might save continental knitting for me, combination knitting. Have you heard of this? The purl stitch is done as an exact opposite of a knit stitch, and it results in the stitch switching orientation (instead of the right leg in front, the right leg is in back). I can totally live with that if it makes purling as easy as it looks in the videos. And it will make the tension much more even because it so much like the knit stitch. Just what the doctor ordered! I will let you know how it goes.

Spoiled Continued

2011-04-22T22:06:00.000-07:00

I wasn't joking when I said I was spoiled for my birthday this year. This is a cowl that my sister-in-law, Dorothee, knit for me for my birthday! Isn't it stunning?? She's an amazing crocheter who just started to knit recently and she's picking it up like a pro! Check out her blog. The yarn was hand spun by Quilt Otaku and was the star of the white elephant gift exchange at our knit night. I'm so glad I didn't win it now because I don't know if I would have knit something up as lovely as this.

Dorothee also crocheted this baby blanket that features the same stitch that was in a blanket my grandmother made for me when I was a baby. So sweet!! My daughter loves it.

I also received some gift certificates to Green Planet Yarn. And they just had their "make your own sale" sale. I pulled a 20% off chip this time, but have pulled a 40% off chip twice before. And this is what I got... Malabrigo, Madeline Tosh Lace, Lorna's Laces Greenline Oh MY!

And I grabbed this cute pattern book by Debbie Bliss and started a little cardi for Sophia to wear at easter. I don't think I'm goign to finish in time though. I got all this yarn and only paid $7 bucks after my gift certificates!

So... yeah, I'm spoiled!! Thanks everyone!! I better get started on Dorothee's cowl now!!

Spoiled

2011-04-10T09:09:00.000-07:00

Did you know that I have the best friends in the whole wide world? My dear friend from Quilt Otaku hand spun this for me for my birthday!! I know, amazing right?? She is multi-talented, you have to check out her blog if you haven't arleady. I need an extra special project to show off this amazing yarn.

The fiber is from a Verb for Keeping Warm.
Content: 50% silk, 50% merino
Name: Hyacinth
Weight: 4 oz.
Length: 520 yards!!!

Now for some pattern shopping on ravlery :)

Happy Birthday to Me!

2011-03-12T23:07:00.000-08:00

It's my birthday month! That means I get to reach into the jar of poker chips at Green Planet Yarn and see what discount I get. I know I will at least get 20%, but the chance at getting 40, 80 or 100% is so exciting. I pulled a 20% this time, but I've pulled 40% twice before. Anyway, I decided to redo my Vivian because the knitpicks yarn I used is pilling like CRAZY. I've tried to trim it, but it is really bad. And it was such a fun knit - I just hope I can do it twice!

I bought Lorna's Laces Shepherd Bulky, a 100% Superwash Merino Wool in the Cedar colorway. I'm not 100% confident of my color choice now. What do you think? The yearn is beautiful, especially outside in natural light. But in the house, the colors are reading a lot more yellow which is pushing it very camouflage army green. I hope will like it, 9 skeins is no small investment and I had the shop wind all the balls! No going back now... no starting tonight for me either :( I ran into a little snag after finally getting to sit down and play with my new yarn. I can't find the pattern!

This just happened to me two weeks ago. I was back from stitches, so happy with my Tosh DK purchase. I had Jared Flood's Koolhaas hat in mind to make fo me. (Out of all the hat's I've made, I never made myself one.) I go to the computer to print out a fresh new copy and can't find it anywhere! I'm so bummed. I'll just have to re-buy I guess.

Speaking of Jared have to check out Jared Flood's blog right now, especially if you are interested in spinning and yarn production and photography (his photos are stunning). He's giving a "tour" if you will through the yarn production mill of his new line. Fascinating and beautiful! The green yarn in part 3 of 5 is gorgeous. I wish they had that in bulky weight at my LYS!!

(ps. thanks for the yarn photo shoot Paul)

Doctors and Kids

2011-03-09T09:23:00.000-08:00

My little man has been getting sick a lot this year. This is his first year going to pre-school and before that he was watched at home. It seems like everytime he goes to school he picks up something new. Thank goodness we have a lovely doctor. She is so good with him. These two puppets are made from the toungue depressor that she didn't need to use since my boy has become proficient at opening his mouth wide enough for her to check his throat. We're going to give them to her as a present today when I take my little girl in to get checked up. If she doesn't have anything contageous, then I get to go to knit night tonight!

Stitches West - I met Alana!

2011-02-28T18:50:00.000-08:00

I didn't have much time to be at Stitches West this year, just ran over during my lunch hour. But for that 1 hour I had so much fun! I got some buttons for my owlet sweater, some Tosh DK (georgeous!) in "oxblood" and the highlight of the show was running into Alana Dakis, designer, blogger and podcaster, from http://www.nevernotknitting.com/. She's one of my favorite designers and her blog definitely keeps me up to date on the new yarns and patterns that I must have! Now I just need to track down Ysolda Teague and I'll have met all of my favorite designers :) Also, she interviewed one of my dear friends from the Quilt Otaku blog, check out the podcast!!

The Man Scarf

2011-02-27T18:36:00.000-08:00

I'm back to work and getting used to leaving my heart at home everyday. It's hard. I physically need to hear my little baby cry and feel the weight of her body pressed against my heart when I get home. I don't remember going through that as much when I went back to work after having my son. Then again, I was able to spend one extra month at home with him than I had with my daughter.

I'm knitting and blogging less these days due to being much busier, but I wanted to show you the "man scarf" that I've been working on. It's a nice squishy feeling alpaca yarn. And the pattern is from the "6 simple scarves" pattern. It's a nice alternative to a simple rib, and gives an extra level of texture. It's also a perfect on-the-go project since the pattern is simple to memorize and it's so small. I was going to make it for my hubby, but he's not that into the color. So, we'll see who this ends up going to. Not having a clear recipient in mind makes the motivation a little less then normal... usually I'm knitting for someone in particular.

Don't miss Twist Collective Winter 2010

2011-01-27T16:19:00.000-08:00

I LOVE Twist Collective. It's what introduced me to my favorite designer, Ysolda Teague, and lead me to create the Vivian sweater. The Twist Collective Winter 2010 issue is out. Here are a few of my favorite things from this issue:

1. They have cute little viking toys that remind me of the How to TrainYour Dragon movie that came out recently. I love knitting toys and these are super cute and original.
2. The history on my favorite color, purple, is explored in an article called the Purple Prose. The dye was increadibly expensive to make at first which was why it became associated with royalty!
3. They also have some great tips on How to make a sweater fit. Along with a measurement worksheet that is so important!! They suggested to crack a bottle of wine at knit night and take each others measurements. I'd be up for that - how about it knit nighters???
4. And the winner for the most orignal design is this neat cabled hat that is knit so that the cable goes around the head, rather than from the bottom of the hat to the top. Pretty cute!

There is a ton of other really cute designs out that I didn't mention and I always love their Swatch It article.

Crochet!

2011-01-22T12:57:00.000-08:00

First of all, check out this cute bag that my best friend gave me! What better to put in it than a big afghan project?? But, did you notice what is sticking out the top?? Is that a hook????

I actually started my yarn addiction by crocheting. I made a baby blanket for a friend with the bubble stitch while pregnant with my son, nothing for my own baby! Then I moved on to knitting and don't often think about crochet... that is, until I think about doing a blanket. I have a hard time doing the same thing over and over again. That's why I prefer socks, or sweaters to scarves and blankets. But, lately I've been craving crochet. I think it's being a mom to two kids - there's something comforting about being able to pick up a project and just not think too hard about it. And being able to put it down at any moment is a big plus.

So, I picked up this project that I had put down two years ago and find that I'm loving to crochet :)

Yoyo Cozy #2

2011-01-17T12:47:00.000-08:00

My husband has a thing for yo-yo's. Not just your run of the mil local hobby shop yo-yo, no, these are nice fancy ones that musn't get scratched at all cost. I made the Magical Pouch for his first one and here is another, more manly designed, one to keep his yo-yo in perfect condition. They are pretty fun to make. This one took about an hour and a half. It's made out of Plymouth Wool with size 8 needles. This also happens to be the yarn that I have stashed to make him a sweater out of some day. If I start now, maybe I will have it done by next christmas!

Quietly Knitting

2011-01-13T12:04:00.000-08:00

I've had my hands full with the two kids, but still finding time to do some small projects... less time for blogging about them, sorry about that. I have quite a few things I want to share, but only a tiny bit of time for taking photos and getting on the computer. I'll try to catch up with this little xmas project that I did for my mom.

I had a knitted washcloth that I loved and wanted to copy. I thought I could reproduce it without a pattern no problem. Wrong! It ended up taking me a few days just to figure out something so simple!! It turns out I had the wascloth upside down the whole time and that simple mistake turned into a day and a half of confusion.

I was trying to re-create this:

No problem right? Just knit, yarn over, and k2tog, then garter. And do the yarn over one stitch sooner each row... seems like it would work, but it turns out, you can't do this! If you want a right leaning line of yarn overs, you HAVE to do the k2tog first... as in this picture:

After I figured this out it was a piece of cake. Very fun to make and such a delightful gift to give.

Christmas Knitting Time!

2010-12-03T16:46:00.000-08:00

Isn't this yarn perfect for christmas knitting with its reds, greens, gold and silver? It's called Zitron Opus 1, it's 100% organic wool infused with jojoba and aloe. I just love the colors, and it is SUPER soft! The best part is that I got it at 20% off at Green Planet Yarn's make-your-own-sale on black Friday. I'm not one to go fight the crowds on black Friday, but I will not miss a make-your-own-sale from GPY :) You get to pull out a poker chip at checkout with 20, 40, 80, or 100% off! I've pulled two 40% off chips over the last two years!! I can't say too much about what I'm going to do with this yarn, in case the recipient reads this blog, but jojoba and aloe infused yarn begs to be made into something to comfort feet!!

Completed Baby Sophia!

2010-11-27T17:18:00.000-08:00

This nine 1/2 month project that I've been working on is finally done. Her name is Baby Sophia Rose and she was born on 11/16. She is the sweetest little girl ever! I'm in love :) This is me and her the 2nd day after her birth.

She's wearing the baby ruffle hat that I made with knit picks sock yarn. I got the pattern from Little Sesame Knits. I improvised a little to add some color transitions and add a green stem at the top so that it looks like a flower cap. I also finished the baby cashmere blanket that I've been working on. It is to die for, soft as a cloud! It's made out of Artyarns sock yarn with size 9 needles. I cast on 100 and knit every row.

Ahhhh, maternity leave!

2010-11-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

I've been doing very little knitting and no blogging in my last few months of pregnancy. My hands have been busy either shoving food in my face (no joke!), or typing frantically on my computer trying to wrap up the last few things at work to get ready for 3 months off. PHEW, I made it, today is the first day of my maternity leave and I have 13 more days until my due date! I'm working on a little hat and a little blanket. It's slow going because I can't find the comfort or energy to go for very long, but now that I'm off of work, maybe I'll get a few days of knitting in before she arrives!

The yarn above is from ArtyYarns, called Cashmere Sock. It is soooooooo soft! I'm making a simple garter stitch blanket for the carseat. I'm nearly through the pink skein already. It's so light and soft like a cloud. I'm using size 9 needles even though it is sock weight yarn because it's a nice fluffy yarn that fills up the holes nicely. Oh - and it's supposedly superwash! Will I wash it?? Ummm, no :) Only the gentleness of hand washing care for this little blanket.

Finished Sophie!

2010-09-19T08:37:00.000-07:00

Sophie Bunny's ears are done. I may do a few more embelishments with the brown yarn, but I don't want to over do it. I also want to add a puffy tail at some point. I need to go out and get a pompom maker. Here's a link to the original pattern by Ysolda Teage.

The whole inspiration for the brown stripes came from this little matching mommy/baby nursing outfit that I got from Old Navy. Having a girl is really bringing out the girly-ness in me :)

I found this Sophie Bunny that another knitter did and it is gorgeous, check it out! She sewed a really cute flowered pattern in the ears and a patch on the bum. I was going to try to sew cloth in the ears too, but I didn't have enough and the colors were a little off, but I love how it turned out in her Sophie Bunny. I may do a heart on the front similar to hers.

In other news I fisnished knitting the Owlet sweater by Kate Davies. Can you see the owls in the yoke?

I have to block it and find the perfect buttons for eyes. But here's a preview before the final product is finished. As I was binding off the neckline, I realized that I forgot to bind off in the ribbed pattern, oops, oh well it doesn't bother me. It was such a fun and quick knit. I can't wait to see how it blocks up and how the buttons finish it off.

I made it in fall colors for little Sophia. It's another neat pattern especially for her since owls are a symbol of wisdom and Sophia's name means wisdom. I hope she likes it and I hope she get big enough to wear it before the weather warms up!!

Ugly Tutle

2010-09-05T20:30:00.000-07:00

This is the ugly turtle which is apparently my son's favorite stuffed animal, aptley named Turtly-Turtle. I came across the finished pieces for this little guy as a seasoned garage sale'r was digging through my bin of acrylic yarn that I had bought 4 years ago before I knew any better. I pulled out 4 legs, a body with a head already attached (no face yet), and a finished shell. It dawned on me that I had started this turtle project while I was pregnant with my son about 4 years ago and had never finished it because I was super new to crochet (hadn't even attempted to knit yet) and didn't know how to attach the pieces! (I picked up crochet and knitting to pass the time during that pregnancy which lead me to my current knitting addiction.) I quickly sewed the pieces together and embroidered the face and, voila - the ugliest stuffed animal ever to exist ;)

I'm glad he loves it. I'm not sure why he likes this one over the mommy-baby monster or the Elijah elephant, but hey - at least he doesn't want to give this one away! Maybe he senses the love that went into it when he was still in the womb.... or maybe he just likes turtles.

On another note. I am making some progress on the Sophie bunny, but have slowed down a bit because I was trying to do some tricky striping with the ears which I'm not really liking so much. And I did a swatch for the owlet sweater and my gauge is off, so I'm swatching some more. I'm tired and achey all the time now due to being 30 weeks pregnant, so I'm not in to doing much of anything these days. Thank goodness for knit nights to keep me going!!

Oh - and Twist Collective Fall 2010 Edition is out already! I LOVE that online magazine. Great articles and beautiful patterns. It is my all time favorite knitting media.

Peak-a-boo Sophie!

2010-08-19T19:37:00.000-07:00

I started my first baby item for my little Sophia due this November. I think it's perfect that the name of this pattern is Sophie! It is the cutest little bunny pattern by Ysolda Teague.

It's knitting up very quickly which is always nice. I'm really enjoying working with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino so far. And the color is gorgeous. I'm not a huge fan of pink, but this is a really lovely and subtle, dusty pink.

I'm using bamboo DPNs which I don't normally like because they are too grippy, but they are actually helping me keep my tension now that I've switched to continental knitting.

The pattern has a nice picture of what the finish product will, hopefully, turn out to be.

On another note, my son's new zebra backpack showed up in the mail today. It is the cutest little backpack from http://www.skiphop.com/ and reasonably priced too! His first day of preschool is quickly approaching, yikes!

Finished the Hap Blanket!

2010-08-16T08:24:00.000-07:00

Having a yard sale this weekend was just what I needed to finish this project. Weaving in the ends and getting it blocked was the perfect time filler for sitting and waiting while random strangers went through my junk :) Now to package it up and send it home to the newly married couple.

This pattern had the most interesting bind off. It was a purl 2 together, then put the resulting stitch back on the left needle to be worked in the next purl 2 togethter, and repeat. It resulted in a very nice braided look.

And time to start on baby girl projects :) I also did some swatching for baby sweaters in my time... I haven't gotten the exact look that I'm going for yet. I'll just have to start on some patterned projects if I'm going to get anything done in time!

The Hap Blanket

2010-07-22T17:03:00.000-07:00

I'm finally making the Hap Blanket, by Ysolda Teague. It's knitting up super quick, which is good because I need to finish it and gift wrap it by this Saturday. I hope they like it!! I find it difficult to pick out colors for other people and, so far the center square is reading a little... mexican poncho-ish. Not quite what I was going for. What the photo doesn't show is that I've started the edges and it's looking much more worthy of a gift now. I can't wait to see it all unfolded. This is one of those projects that stays in a blobby mess until it's all bound off and allowed to spread out.

I am very pleased with the Lion Brand Wool-Ease Chunky yarn so far. It's very soft, and will hopefully be very durable too. If you read my blog, you'll know that I'm, admittedly, a bit of a yarn snob. So, I was a bit skeptical about the acrylic blend of Lion Brand. But, I figure it will be machine washable which is always a nice feature for a hand-knit gift, just in case the recipient isn't familiar with the delicate nature of wool and alpaca. I suppose this would make a nice felted discloth if it was 100% wool and thrown in the washer and dryer though!

After this, I vow to start something for the little girl I'm expecting in November. I've been compiling various patterns... these are on my list of todo's (ravelry links):

Tiny Tea-Leave's Cardi
Owlet by Kate Davies
Playful Stripes by Never Not Knitting - she has so many cute little girl clothes I want to do eventually. Check out her most recent blog post with a baby shoot, how cute, right?!

I also really want to design something... but alas, there is so little time in the day. Hopefully I'll get around to it very very soon!

Happy 4th of July!

2010-07-04T15:25:00.000-07:00

This is my attempt at a waving flag cake. I saw this on a parenting.com newsletter and had to try it. I only get this crafty when I'm pregnant. This cake project was kid friendly and much less involved than the sugar cookie phase I went through with my son.

When I was pregnant with him 4 years ago I ended up making these elaborate sugar cookies for Thanksgiving in all kinds of different leaf shapes with gorgeous autumn colors, puprle, forest green, gold, yellow etc. The funny part is that I bought all these cookie shapes and have yet to make sugar cookies since that first pregnancy!

I'm hoping to get some more work done on the Grammy Monster (picture below). Happy 4th of July everyone!

Mommy and Baby Monsters :)

2010-06-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

Here's how the Mommy and Baby Monster turned out. I really ended up loving the Zombie BBQ colorway from Lorna's Laces.
The baby monster is done in Ty-Dy Wool, by Knit One Crochet too. I love how it turned out too. Here's a full body shot of the baby monster. I LOVE these colors! And they have many other amazing colors too.

I also picked up a skein that is pale greens and creams, called medow, incase I had to make a boy baby. But, you might have already deduced, I'm having a GIRL! So I got to use the cute purples and greens, called blue pansy, for the baby girl monster :) I think I'm going to have to use these skeins for some actual baby clothes now because they are gorgeous - and helllloooooo, they can be machine washed on delicate!

My son loves these monsters. I started another one that was supposed to be him, but it is turning out too big, so he said it has to be his Grammy. How cute is that?!

Haruni in action

2010-06-22T22:10:00.000-07:00

Here's one pic of my latest lace creation, the Haruni, being worn. Click the picture to see more images on my flickr account. My hubby snapped a few shots for me :) Can you tell that I'm about half way in to baking a bun in my oven?? It is going by so fast this time!

Stay tuned for upcoming picks of the monster family. I finished the mommy and baby monster and started the kid monster, but it is turning out a little too big. So, my son told me to turn it into a Grammy monster... So that's what I'm going to do. A little extra knitting is no problem right? It will actually complete our household if I make a Grammy one too. I figure these monsters will be good role playing toys for him to prep him for a sibling.

Anyhow, off to bed for me. I'm writing this blog with my hubby's shiny new iPad that I got him for fathers day. It's a fun toy, but I don't think I will use it for future posts... Too hard to get all the links I want and I also can't use all of bloggers compose features and a little hard to type with. Good nite all & happy dads day!

Learn how to speed knit

2010-06-12T11:39:00.000-07:00

Wow, just wow. I think my knitting buddy Sue might be faster though ;)

Finished my first lace shawl!

2010-06-11T12:35:00.000-07:00

I finally finished my first lace shawl! This is the Haruni pattern. See this post for more details on the pattern and yarn used. It was a fun project. I've done one or two lace projects before and expected that this would be very difficult, but it actaully not bad at all as long as I had stitch markers, highlighter tape, and the pattern that had both charts and written out instructions!

Here are some more pics...

I'll have to get my hubby to take some better photos, but that's all for now. I'm sick with a bad cold and despite my throbbing headache last night I had to weave in the ends and block it. It was dry by this morning and I really love how it turned out.

Zombie BBQ!

2010-06-09T10:08:00.000-07:00

I'm itching to start knitting for this little baby that I am growing, but I don't find out the gender until next week! So, until then, I will work on a little monster for my little 3 1/2 year old monster. I found this perfect colorway by Lorna's Laces called Zombie BBQ - how appropriate! AND it's superwash which is a great feature to have for a stuffed animal. I am a big fan of Loran's Laces. I used their Greenline yarn for my Vine Yoke Cardigan and it was dreamy to work with... the only down side is that it's a tad expensive at ~$20 a skein. What can I say? I'm a yarn snob.

I'm going to make a mommy, daddy, baby and kid monster - and I won't be using Lorna's Laces for all of those... we'd be looking at a $100 set of monster toys here!

Here's the picture of the mommy and baby pattern by Rebecca Danger. How freaking cute is that!! She has a really cute funky style to her stuffed animals, I really love them. I hope he likes them too.

Pirate Elijah Elephant

2010-05-17T12:46:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, sorry for my lack of posting lately. It directly correlates to a lack of knitting, unfortunately. But, it's all for a good cause - you see... I'm pregnant! Yep, I'm working on creating baby #2 and let me tell you, those first three months have been all consuming. I have had no energy or drive to do much besides sleep and eat. I just started my second trimester and I'm starting to have some good days where I feel "normal"!

I finished my Elijah elephant designed my my favorite designer, Ysolda Teague! This is the first project that I've finished in 3 months! I'm putting a pirate spin on it though, maybe you can tell by the stripes. I'm working on an eye patch and a little tattered vest in black as well. The stripes were a little hard to work with but I really like the effect. This toy is for my 3 year old, so while I love the pattern as written, I felt like it needed a little more edge to it for my toddler going on 6 year old son. I gave it to him already, he seemed to like it... at first. Is it a bad sign if he tries to give it away to each person he runs into... including the dog??

I used shepherd's wool with size 4 needles - this proved to be very difficult. Ysolda says to use smaller needles than the yarn calls for so that the stuffing doesn't peek through, but this was a little overkill. It made it very hard to pick up stitches for the appendages and overall just added to the difficulty level and my happiness - or unhappiness - level with the project.

What's next? I'm making a mother bear project bear right now and I bought Ysolda's Sophie pattern too (a very sweet little bunny). With all these toys it's apparent that my little family addition project is influencing my knitting projects :) I can't wait to find out if I'm going to have a boy or girl next month!!

A Lace Shawl

2010-04-20T17:33:00.000-07:00

First of all I never thought I would make a lace shawl. It's just not my style, until I laid my eyes on the the Haruni pattern and it is free! It is just too beautiful not to make, even though I can't picture myself wearing it ever. And I thought that I would never pick up another lace project after the lace scarf that I made, and re-made, and re-made for my dear friend. But, I decided to do the unthinkable and try lace again. I found this irrisistable colorway in Malabrigo yarn.

It is slow going for me, but I'm making progress. I'm almost to chart B. So far it has been smooth sailing. The only problem is that, as beautiful as the yarn is, I probably shouldn't have chosen a verigated colorway. The changing colors are competing with the lace pattern. I'm not turning back now, but if I ever do lace again, I will keep this in mind when choosing my yarn.

One last thing, sorry for the lack of blogs. I've been out of sorts lately... should be getting back to myself in a few weeks I hope!

I met Jared Flood!

2010-03-08T08:27:00.000-08:00

I was so thrilled when I heard that Jared Flood was going to be teaching classs at Nine Rubies in San Mateo! I really wanted to take all of the classes he offers because he is not only one of my favorite designers, but also an immaculate knitter. I settled on the Seemless Sweater Class. He hit the ground running with information. It was litterally three hours of intense instruction and note takeing, while trying to swatch a piece of fabric that had 4 different options for raglan decreases. Not to mention I was a little late because I took Hwy 92 in the opposite direction and went all the way over the bridge and back! Good thing I left 20 minutes early and the parking gods smiled on me because there was a spot right in front of the shop. And thank goodness that Sue saved me a spot - thanks Sue!!

Jared designed a few patterns that I have already done (see the hemlock and turn a square hat). And a few projects that I want to do like the Koolhas hat, a baby blanket, and the adult tomten jacket. Aren't his knits and designs gorgeous?? It was money well spent. I feel like I could go off and make a sweater based on a swatch that I like... now I better go do that quick before all the great instruction disappears from my head!

Vine Yoke Cardigan Stretched like Magic!!

2010-02-27T10:56:00.000-08:00

I stayed up utnil 1:30am this morning weaving in the ends and blocking this sweater. Before it was blocked it looked like it would fit an 8 year old, I was very nervous to see if it would really stretch enough for me to wear. But it suprised me! It did as promised and stretched. It grew by 3.5" in length and the sleeves grew by half an inch as well. I'll post measurements in Ravelry, but for now I have to do some party preperations for the hubby. Happy Birthday Paul!!

Oh - I'm going to take this sweater to StitchesWest and see if I can pick up some nice buttons to complete the sweater :)

Thank you Green Planet Yarn!

2010-02-23T19:00:00.000-08:00

First of all you have to listen to this knitting song from NeverNotKnitting, this great blog/podcast I just discovered, with wonderful pictures and lovely patterns. I made the show & tell group at Green Planet Yarn in Campbell listen to it and we were rolling with laughter as one of the knitter's husbands was completely identifying with the song :) The event was very fun, it is inspiring to see what everyone is making! To top it off you get a raffle ticket for each item that was made from yarn from their shop and there are door prizes! I won the yarn pictured above!! It's a scarf kit from ravelry with their little boston terrier mascot on it.

I won't be making the scarf, although it is very cute. I'll probably end up making a little baby girl cardi out of it with all those variations of pinks and greens and white. If you are local to Campbell, CA you should definitely go to the next one, it's planned for May 8th at 3:30pm.

I completed the back, and started the left sleeve on the vine yoke cardigan! I'm trying to get done in time for stitches west this Sunday :) I'm still very worried about how it will turn out because it looks so so tiny, but blocking is magical, so we'll see! I'm getting a lot of practice with wraps and turns (w&t). The pattern says that you don't need to pick up the wrapped yarn and work it along with the stitch, but I found that it looks a lot better if you do pick up the wraps in the raglan shaping for the sleeves.

Here's what the raglan shaping looks like without picking up the wraps (see the stretched stitches in the armpit?):

Here's a what the raglan shaping looks like with picking up the wraps (no streched stitches):

I'm not picking up the wraps in the yoke shaping though. I felt that it could use a bit of stretch in the yoke because the curve is so sharp already. Here's how that is turning out, without picking up the wrap:

This pattern also calls for the provisional cast on which was a first for me... hope I'm doing it right. It leaves a row of live stiches on the bottom with scrap yarn to holding them in place, to be picked up later:

Fun stuff! I'm looking foward to Stiches West in Santa Clara, CA on Sunday. My knit nighters (or crochet soiree'ers as has been renamed recently) are going to meet up. I'll have to bring a fixed amount of cash so as not to get too crazy :)

Koigu Painter's Palette

2010-02-17T20:58:00.000-08:00

I have obstained buying new yarn since our budget is tight these days, but I couldn't help myself when I came across Koigu at 40% off! I bought 2 of each color pictured above. Now I have some projects in mind for these, but dreaming about what they could be and who they could be for is so much of the fun of knitting. Colors and patterns swirl around in my head until the magic "aha" moment happens and I just know I have to create that thing for that person. Right now, I'm thinking one more chevron scarf and maybe a few skeins towards this blanket inspired by stained glass windows that I want to make for my mom, but HELLO, a blanket made out of sock yarn is going to take me FOREVER. I am still determined to do it though, piece by piece.

Sweater mojo is back!

2010-02-15T10:15:00.000-08:00

Here's my new sweater project. It is coming along quickly after a few re-do's and slowness in with the initial vine pattern. I have a solid understanding of the pattern now and it is knitting up quickly! The only problem now is that it looks so short. I am considering ripping out and adding some length. As it stands it will need to stretch by 4 inches to match the pattern. No sense in making a super short sweater right?

How was your valentine's day? I follow this blog by Amigurple who had the most amazing gift from her boyfriend that she blogged about. Check it out, so so so awesome. She is a knitting maniac too, FO's fly off her needles daily it seems. And they are super cute too. Oh and she made a really cool little cozy calculator for anything rectangle that you don't want to do the math for :)

Hats!

2010-02-06T14:59:00.000-08:00

I have been busy making hats lately. Above is a hat that I made for Katy, my best friend of 20 years! Wow, it's been a long time. I got a random text message saying, "I need a beanie, can you make me one?" I was delighted to oblidge, but she had no colors in mind, and no idea what she wanted. It took me nearly 2 weeks to finally decide out what to make for her. Fair isle would look nice but take too long, blue would look good with her eyes, a simple ribbed hat is cute... I want to make them all!! I finally settled on something that was quick and in her favorite color, red. That way she would get it while it was still winter :)

Here's the final product:

I improvised on the top decreases. They are not ideal, I will try a lot of things differently next time... like making sure I have an even amount of ribs so that the decreases match. Here's how it turned out:

I also finished a hat for my hubby. I used a free pattern called "Turn A Square" from one of my favorite designers, Jared Flood. I used Noro yarn for the first time and liked it better than I thought I would. I really love the colors, but it's not very soft to work with, so I wasn't sure how it was going to feel close the the skin. It's actually ok... certainly not the softest hat, but not itchy or rough like had feared.

You can clearly see the square pattern in the top. Such a neat and clean closure. Jared's knitting is impeccable, if you have a minute, do check out his flickr images if you want to be inspired. I'm signed up for his sweater class in March. Here's his touring schedule. I'm so thrilled to learn from him!!

And last but not least, I cranked out a ribbed hat for my dad with a free pattern called "Just a Beanie". I used Cascade Yarns Lana Bambu. The yearn is super soft, I really enjoyed working with it. I was worried that it wouldn't have enough spring in it for the ribbed pattern, but it turned out really nice. The cool thing about this pattern is that the flipped up ribs match the ribs on your head. The only thing I didn't like was how visible the decreases at the top (not that my own attempt turned out any better). It just looked kind of sloppy, but since it was a speckled yarn, it wasn't very noticable - especially to a nonknitter. I need to do some research though, because I really want to find out good decrease method for a ribbed hat. What's your favorite ribbed hat pattern?

A Magical Pouch

2010-01-07T16:47:00.000-08:00

I have this thing for slowly fading yarn. It all started about three months ago when I found this beautiful crochet scarf that one of my favorite bloggers, Moonstitches, made. I tried to recreate that scarf with some very nice sock yarn, but quickly realized that it wasn't producing the same effect (see my old post for a pic). Upon further investigation I realized that I need yarn that has very slow transitions from one color to the next. I'm still hunting the exact yarn that she used in that scarf (just need the light green Diakeito Diamusse Fine in 120 - anyone??).

Fast forward to today - whenever I find a yarn that has the slow fade I scoop up a few skeins. The magical pouch above has that slow fade effect... the rest of this Mini Mochi yarn ball has the whole jewel toned rainbow in it! Pretty crazy, but perfect for this little project. I'm working on a Noro project now too, another slow fade yarn (but not very soft).

Incase you were wondering, this is actaully a yoyo cozy for my husbands fancy new yoyo. The next thing planned for this yarn is some kind of chevron scarf or striped scarf for my 3 year old.

Hemlock is Finished!

2010-01-01T13:38:00.000-08:00

This knit scored high on the satisfaction scale. It was easy, quick and looks increadibly more complicated than it actually was. And it was a blast to see it transform from a blobby mess into the delicate fan and feather pattern you see above. I need to take some more photos of what it looks like in the "wild". The picture above was taken during the actual blocking process. It was pinned to my ottoman and, thanks to my ceiling fan, it dried in one night! To my amazement it held it's shape after taking the pins out :)

Here's what it looked like before blocking

Here's a close up of the little details on the edge

Next time I will add the extra length. I just ran out of time on this one. But, I think my mother-in-law likes it, so that's all that matters. It turned out much more like a doily than a lap blanket though. I think that is how she intends to use it. See my previous post for the yarn and pattern details.

Christmas was good to me. I got a bunch of new yarn and a slew of new knitting books to drool over and inspire. I'll be posting more about those goodies soon!

Oh Christmas Knits, will you be finished in time?

2009-12-15T18:00:00.000-08:00

This is my first Christmas that I would officially call myself a knitter. Which means, of course, that I have some knitting projects for the special people out there who would appreciate hand-knit items (one such item elusively pictured above). Unfortunately I have made a rookie mistake in my project planning. The projects I chose were too complicated. As a working mother of a 3-year-old son (as well as a wife and daughter), there are just not that many hours in the day where I have free time AND the energy to do something useful with it. I started the above gift in October thinking I had plenty of time, but I fear the worst for this complicated Christmas knit.

Notes to self for next year:
a) start in January on any complicated projects (ok, that's a little extreme, but at least by summer)
b) work on projects that are in DK weights or higher (they go faster)
c) make sure I enjoy the pattern, or else, let's face it, it will be a chore to get done!

Ok, heading home now after work. Perhaps tonight I'll get a little time and still be alert - we shall see.

The Hemlock Ring Throw

2009-12-05T21:23:00.000-08:00

Hello knitting blog. How are you? I've missed you so. I went on a business trip the week before Thanksgiving and haven't been in my regular knit & blog routine. But, I have not been idley sitting by... I've been dutifully chugging away on my Christmas knits. And, I HAD to start the Hemlock blanket. It's a vintage doily pattern that Jared Flood, knitting designer / photographer, modified to turn into an eloquent lap blanket. The Rainey Sisters took Jared's modification and the original pattern and put it into a handy PDF file. From what I've seen on ravelry, the blanket looks like a blobby mess until blocked... I'm hoping I'm doing everything right! It's been a very satisfying and quick knit so far. The Casscade Eco +, 100% Peruvian Highland wool, has been great to work with as well and I'm thoroughly enjoying this burnt umber color.

Discovered the Godmother of Modern Knitting

2009-11-06T16:53:00.000-08:00

I finished the Playdate Hoodie a week or two ago. I ended up giving it to a friend's son because it was too small for Chris, but it turned out to be a perfect fit for her little one. I used Recycled Cotton from LionBrand in Pebble Beach color on size 5 circular needles. I used the hood to get comfortable with continental knitting. Thanks Susan for all the encouragement! I couldn't have done it without you!!

I ran into three references of Elizabeth Zimmerman all in one day (which happened to be the day I finally became comfortable with continental knitting) and decided I had to do some research on this “godmother of modern knitting”. It turns out that she was the one who made circular knitting so popular and was incredibly clever about avoiding seaming and knitting flat pieces. She also promoted continental knitting. She passed away in 1999, but her influence lives on. “Knitting without tears” was one of her motto’s, and I think it’s even a book. She taught knitting on PBS tv, wrote several books and held knitting workshops. You can find DVD’s of her instructions at the Knitters Bookshelf. Twist Collective (one of my absolute favorite knitting pattern sources) has a wonderful article about a Zimmermann garment that resurfaced and recreated recently. I even ran across this blog by accident today, by a designer that is newly on my radar, Jared Flood, who appears to have taken the photo’s for the Zimmermann article in the Twist Collective!

So, for the record my absolute favorite designers so far are Ysolda Teague, Jared Flood and now Elizabeth Zimmermann (check out the Zimmermaniacs)! Their patterns make up nearly 100% of my queue.

Happy Halloween - Take 2!

2009-10-31T08:48:00.000-07:00

I finished the second hat last night. The double yarn worked perfectly, the hat fits over his ears and just right. Now I have to pump out one more today for little Addi :)

(like his christmas pj's on halloween?)

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-30T10:39:00.000-07:00

I finished the skull cap just in time for Halloween! But - there's one problem... it's too small :( I mean it fits, if I force it over my nearly-3-year-old's head AND if I make him stay completely still. HAH, not very practical. Oh well, it's going to look completely adorable on my dear friend Marisa's (from QuiltOtaku) little baby boy and I have plenty of yarn to make more. It's such a quick knit. I just might be able to make a new one for my son by tomorrow. I'm going to double the yarn so that it's slightly larger and add in a few rows for some extra length so that it keeps his ears toasty warm.

I finished it just in time to show it off at Green Planet Yarn's Show & Tell night. I'm crossing my fingers that I win a luscious yarny door prize!! I could really use a luxurious yarn fix :)

Yarn: Shephard's Wool - very soft and stretchy
Pattern: Skull hat, picked up at Stitches West earlier this year. It runs small, I'll be adding rows, stitches and doubling up my yarn to make this a roomier hat.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!

Dyslexic Mitt

2009-10-26T09:10:00.000-07:00

This weekend I got 90% done with one dainty fingerless mitt, designed by my favorite, Ysolda Teague. She named it Veyla. A beautifully romantic name to fit this delicate and romantic, fairytale of a glove. My mitt wasn't exactly turning out like the one on the picture, but I continued along any, completely enamoured in the rapid pace of the project. It was a nice change of pace from the sweater I just completed (also designed by Ysolda). I was about to start on the thumb when I realized my mistake... I had been following the directions for the Left mitt when this had started out the RIGHT mitt! What does it matter, you might ask? they are fingerless, you can indeed where them on either hand, but the details tell all. The cuff buttons will be folded over the wrong way, the leaf detail on the knuckle is pull in the wrong direction, so it doesn't much look like a leaf anymore. *sigh* I will likely rip out up to the cuff and start over. In the meantime, here are some pictures to give you a preview of this quick and gorgeous little knit.

Yarn Fiber: Alpaca and Silk from Blue Sky Alpacas
Needle size: 3, circular
Pluses: Gorgous color, steely, shiny gray and very soft
Minuses: Snags quite easily, I have to watch my wedding ring and any dry skin on my hands very closely

Vivian is DONE!

2009-10-23T13:37:00.000-07:00

If you wagered a bet that Vivian would be finished before the playdate hoodie then, you win! Sorry Kathleen! I sewed in the loose ends and stitched up the hood yesterday. Here are some iphone pics - will post some better model shots this weekend. :)

This sweater is dedicated to Fin, my dear old cat who passed away August 21st. Thanks for being there with me through the toughest time in my life.

The Circle of Life

2009-10-21T11:45:00.000-07:00

Two of my most cherished projects are soon coming to an end and I'm finding myself thinking about what new projects I will fill my time with first.

Here's an update:

1. Vivian - still working on the hood. I added a full 30 rows of the pattern to make the hood larger and need to finish the rest of the rows according to the pattern. Somehow the last few rows always take the longest! There's a part of me that doesn't want to finish since I've enjoyed it so much. But, I am excited to finally wear it someday! Speaking of finishing - I picked up some of the finishing details at the fabric store the other day. Zipper, thread and ribbon to line the zipper pictured below:

2. Playdate Hoodie - I got over my mental block that was keeping me from seeming the sleeves and sides. And I found the perfect buttons. I have to work on the hood now too.... it's a race, who will finish first? Playdate Hoodie or Vivian? I'm taking bets. It's pretty snug on my son. It maybe a perfect fit for my dear friend, Marisa's, baby though :)

Here are two of the newest projects that I started that will stretch my crafty skills a bit.

1. Ghost costume! I got some white flowy material to make Christopher (my nearly 3 year old) a ghost costume for halloween. I have little to no experience sewing, so this should be interesting. It's basic shapes though, so it shouldn't be too hard right? I'm taking bets again... will I butcher this and have to go buy a costume last minute, or will it turn out ok?

2. Crochet Scarf - I came across this gorgeous scarf on moonstitches blog and just had to go out and get yarn to start it immediately. My sister-in-law tracked down a version of the pattern made by someone else trying to recreate this scarf. You can find it on Ravelry, just look up "rhubarb scarf". She started one too and hers is GORGEOUS! I'm not 100% thrilled with the colors though. I will probably put this project on hold until I find the perfect yarn.

Can't wait until knit night tonight :)

Vivian - Hood is in progress!

2009-10-12T12:54:00.000-07:00

I completed the shoulders and started on the hood this weekend. The picture above shows my progress thus far. I'm 25 rows into it. The shoulders were by far the trickiest part. Somehow I was off by a few stitches here and there. I improvised to keep the decreases in a place that looked logical. I really didn't want to have to rip out, but was prepared to do so since I don't consider myself good enough to improvise and have it work. But to my surprise, it seems to have turned out ok. I had the right number of stitches when I finished the shoulders, PHEW! If you are working on the shoulders of this sweater and you come to the part that says "work in pattern as set" then make sure to do sssk's and p3tog's instead of just k's and p's. I consider myself leveled up after this shoulder experience :) That means the Vivian has leveled my knitting skills up twice now! Talk about diving into the deep end of the pool!

Cool Moon Yoga Knits had a post today with a poem about knitting and how it heals which reminded me what propelled me start this project I thought was impossible. I started this sweater the day I had to put my dear old cat down after 15 long years of being there for me. I just wanted to knit to help me through mourning, it's such a healing process. There's something about the repetative motions, that lead to a creation of fabric, that is really grounding and statisfying. Now I will always remember him when I wear this sweater .

Fall is here!

2009-10-03T10:49:00.000-07:00

It's starting to get cold in the morning and nights - well, as cold as it gets for California ;) My boys love to decorate for Halloween. We go a little overboard during this holiday, by putting up lights and decorations every weekend night. I saw the immediate need to knit up this skull cap pattern that I've been hanging on to since the spring so that I can keep them nice and warm while they toil with spooky decorations.

This was my first fair isle project and I actually really love it! I've had minimal continental knitting experience, but it just felt much more natural to hold on color in the left hand (continental style) and one color in the right hand (english style). The work really flew off the needles. Check the "Stranding Method" on the KnittingHelp.com sight for a nice video demonstration of two handed fair isle knitting.

I was too eager to knit it up so I didn't do a proper swatch to check my gauge, but it looked like it was going to fit. I tried it on my son before I sewed up the top - and surprise surprise, it didn't fit. It was way too small. I ripped out to just above the skull pattern and I'm adding a few extra rows and will modify the pattern to add and extra row inbetween decrease rows as well. On the next hat I'm going to try to double up the yarn and I thinkt hat will fix my gauge. On a funny note, when I tried the hat on Chris and I was talking about it being too small he says to me, "No, mom, I looks good. It looks good. You don't need to knit anymore." Ok, ok, message received loud and clear - no more knitting around the kid-o.

And if you are wondering about the Harmonica in the picture - it used to be Paul's when he was a kid. Now Chris has been playing it everyday and just loves it!

Veyla - Cuff Done

2009-09-27T15:01:00.000-07:00

So, I started some fingerless mittens that I will make for xmas presents for my girly-girl friends & family. Here's a picture of the first cuff. It took me about 6 tries to get the flow of the leaf pattern, but once I got it, it was a breeze. And the progress went so fast. I've been too afraid to pick up the sweater again until I have a chance to be fully awake, without any distractions so that I can avoid making mistakes again.

Also, if any of you are into quilting, my friend Marisa at QuiltOkatu is giving away a free spot in an online quilting class that her friend puts together. If you leave a comment on her blog, you might win!

An Exercise in Futility

2009-09-23T14:13:00.000-07:00

I worked from home today and took my lunch hour to work on my sweater. I found a mistake, well, two to be exact, and decided it would be a good idea to try to fix them today at home with no one around to distract me.

Here's the mistake - the decreases are about 3 off.

I dropped a few stitches all the way down to where the sleeve joins the body:

Messy, but I'm gonna give it a shot... here's the first row, looks good so far!

then I found this giant hole - not so good:

If I just pull this loop, the whole thing tightens up and looks great, but there's all this extra yarn...

I decided to keep going in hopes that it would just work itself out.

It was looking great, but that extra yarn was bugging me, plus there were other areas that were getting way to tight... so I decided to drop a few other stitches on the sleeve and see if I could rework those to make them more even.

No luck, it looked worse than if I had left it. I decided to rip the whole yoke out and start over from the point of attaching the sleeves to the body. So, I basically wasted my whole lunch hour which was such a bummer.

But, just as I had decided that I had to pull everything out the doorbell rang. Surprise! It was a new knitting bag that Paul bought for me for our anniversary. It's a Tom Bihn bag that he designed especially for knitters. He worked with folks from knitty.com to find out what they needed. It's super awesome.

So, I put everything neatly away and will start fresh another time with lessons learned. I also found out from the ravelry forums why I had made the mistakes I made. I was an error in the pattern. Now I know and I can do it right this time :)

Here's the bag:

It's Yoke Time!

2009-09-21T22:17:00.000-07:00

I finished the right sleeve this weekend, realized I had one extra cable in the left sleeve and ripped that out and fixed it too. I followed the directions and carefully attached the sleeves. On to the yoke and then the hood, the trickiest parts. I hope I'm doing it right. I can't believe how fast this project has gone thus far. It's been fairly straight forward until now. Can I finish it before I start the Mystery Bag KAL #2 on Oct 1st? Yikes!

Yarn was in the mail!

2009-09-17T19:52:00.000-07:00

So, my next big project after Vivian is going to be this She-Knits Mystery Bag Knit-a-Long (KAL). I got my yarn in the mail today and I'm thrilled, it's going to be gorgeous! It's a mystery because we don't know what the pattern is going to be. We get our first few instructions on October 1st. The only thing I know is that the design was nature inpsired - oh and it will be felted. This will be my first felted project. Can't wait! That means I have to put the gas on to finish Vivian if possible before the 1st - probably won't happen, but I'll have fun trying :)

Yarn Details -
Cascade Yarns 128 Bulky, 100% Peruvian Highland Wool:
2 - Gray 8401

2 Tan 8012

2 Dark Green with flecks of brown 9338

Cascade Yarns Eco Alpaca, 100% Undyed Baby Alpaca:

1 Brown, Cream, Gray intertwined 1528

Finished the Left Sleeve!

2009-09-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

I finished the left sleeve already - YAY :) I stayed up late last night knitting it while watching the Biggest Loser. Oh man, the stories of these contestants are SO sad this year. Tears were streaming down my face as I watched. Very motivating though. I'm not overweight, but I am complete mush right now, no muscle tone to speak of. I used to be pretty active, hiking, and playing volleyball a few times a week, but ever since I dislocated my knee for the second time I've been a lump, spending all my free time sitting and knitting. I sit all day at work too. The only actively moving time I have is when I'm chasing my 2 year old around the house. I wonder if I could knit while riding a stationary bike... I'm so addicted to knitting that the thought of taking 30m to 1h of free time away from knitting is really difficult. I downloaded iFitness for my iPod touch last night after the show in hopes that it will helpe me start working out again (sans my knitting needles). I REALLY need to gain strength in my left quad and gluts so that I can play volleyball again and not hurt my knee again!!

I am excited that the good TV shows are starting up again. This week I'll be tuning in to So You Think You Can Dance, The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Project Runway (or I'll be recording them at least so that I can watch after my little one goes to sleep). That's a heck of a lot of TV time... I'll definitely be knitting or working out while watching. Somehow knitting justifies the mindless time sync of watching TV.

Started the Vivian sleeves

2009-09-11T17:29:00.001-07:00

front

back

I'm in love with this sweater. So far it's been my absolute favorite project. I bought a bunch of new patterns from Ysolda Teague that I can't wait to knit as well. She just came out with the Vine Yoke sweater which is beautiful and very interesting because it's knit up sideways. She put together a package called "Whimsical Little Knits 2" that are quick to knit and gorgeous - and whimsical of course. They will make beautiful Christmas presents!!

The sleeves are extra long with room for the palm of the hand.

I also bought a very cute little print that I found on Etsy because I couldn't help it. Check out Laura Gregg's work. I ordered the Knitting Nerd. It's a purple, girl bat, knitting... what more could I want.

I just might have to change my Ravelry name to something like Knitting Nerd... maybe I'll steal an idea from my friend Marisa (QuiltOkatu) and call myself KnitOkatu (I'm probably spelling that wrong)! HAHA. Ok, I wouldn't really do that... but, maybe nerd in another language. How do you say nerd in Italian?

Knitting Therapy

2009-08-23T17:04:00.000-07:00

My 15 year old cat had to be put down on Friday. I loved him dearly as he was a constant in my life for so long. But, it was his time. I've used knitting as my therapy. I'm finished with the second blue lacey sock... just need to stitch up the toe and sew in the loose yarn at the top

I also sewed a little pouch liner for the watch bag that I'm making for Paul.

And I'm diving into the Vivian by Ysolda Teague. I got my yarn from knitpicks on Friday. I'm not that thrilled with the yarn. It was pretty cheap and it feels it. But, it does have a nice shine to it and it was affordable. I made a ton of rookie mistakes right up front, but after some major surgery I have it corrected and I am finally comfortable with fixing stitches within the pattern without having to rip back to where those stitches are! I did about 4 rows the wrong way... It was meant to be seed stitched but I did rib... so one by one, I dropped the stitch down to the cast on row and re-looped it alternating front ant back to make the seed stitch. And it worked out :) I also had forgotten to do the cable row and realized it later, so when I was doing the next row, I just stopped where the cable was supposed to go and dropped those stitches and reworked them and voila! cabled stitches appeared!! AWESOME! I think I leveled :)

Blocking Playdate Hoodie

2009-07-23T22:26:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the horrendous photo... it's late and there's no pretty way to show off blocking. At least not with my kitchen table/thomas the train towel set up. Gosh it looks like the photo is even fish eyed a bit, but enough obsessing over the crappy photo. What is this? A photo blog? No. It's about knitting, so here goes... this is my first attempt at blocking! So far so good, at least I hope. Tomorrow will tell (or when ever it is fully dry).

Here's a good video on blocking. I finished the last side panel tonight, and went to do the sleeves and realized that I should block it before attempting to pick up stitches from each of the panels. I'm a little concerned about the shape because I don't have a place to pin it down properly. I have a fan on it to help it dry out faster, but hopefully it doesn't move a whole heck of a lot as it dries.

I'll have to work on one of my several other projects in flight while this is drying. I have one zillion projects going in various states of completion. I'm beginning to wonder if I have ADHD or something. Seriously, is this normal? I eventually do finish my projects, but I would probably finish things a lot faster if I just focused on one or two at at time... oh well, I'll add that to next years resolutions or something.

Super Secret Project (Teaser)

2009-07-14T10:42:00.000-07:00

I might have mentioned that this project for my sister-in-law is quite difficult, for me anyway largely because it's my first attempt at a real lace pattern. The stitches aren't complicated at all, but the pattern is a 2o row repeat with 58 sts across. Every other row is the same which is nice, but it's those pesky even numbered rows that give me trouble. I inevitably lose track of where I'm at in the row, or forget a yarn over which results in the wrong number of stitches for the to work the next row. After trying to muscle through this, I finally decided to ask for help. I got a lot of great advice from the knitters at ravelry. Here is some of the recommendations I got for working with lace:

Learn how to read a pattern chart. This makes it easier to see how the stitches you are working on actually fit into the overall pattern. This is fabulous! I converted my 20 line written instructions to chart form yesterday and it's like a veil of darkness has been lifted! It's so much easier to keep track of where I am, and what should come next. (Picture above)
Use lots of ring markers (or contrasting yarn markers)! Ring markers help by making it easy to check to see if I did each stitch required for the repeating pattern, but they are sort of a hassle. They fall off all the time, and I feel like they make the loop bigger in the stitches they are in between. I've tried yarn markers in another project and that turned out ok, I'm going to try it with this too, but haven't done so yet.
Add life-lines at a regular interval in the project, so that if you realize a mistake was done several rows deep, you can frog to the closest life-line without worrying about dropping stitches.

The chart doesn't do the pattern justice, it's an exquisit looking project, I just love it. I wish it was easier, but I'm learning a lot. And, the fact that I put it down and worked on some new more difficult socks and then picked it back up has helped a lot. Can't wait to finish it and block it though!!!

Real Men Knit

2009-07-13T16:31:00.000-07:00

So, I've been very quite on here because of my camera being broken... but I have been making a lot of progress. I'm just about ready to do the toe of the blue lacey socks I'm working on and the dark cable socks I'm working on. I also picked up my super secret present for my sister-in-law and decided that I don't need to pull it out and start over after all! Can't wait to make more progress on that.

I'm continually impressed with how many knitters are technosavy. There are a ton of really valuable videos on youtube that I use often when I need to learn something new, here are some of my favs:

The Knit Witch - she has great up close videos and clear explanations on just about everything, including the beautiful twisted German cast on that I love for socks. Excellent for any beginner wanting to learn different stitches.
Knitting Tips by Judy - she has a lot of different techniques and patterns. I discovered her when I wanted to learn how to do a picot hem. Thanks Judy!
Paula J Ward - she does a lot of videos on how to design! Since my ultimate dream is to be good enough to design my own patterns, these are fabulous! I can't find anyone else doing videos on how to design, so thanks much Paula!!

And some just for fun:

When Knitting Becomes an Addiction - an animated film about a woman who's whole world is knitting and takes her to the very edge of sanity
Real Men Knit - a great documentary-style trailer on real men who knit!

I met one man who knits before - he worked in the Campbell yarn shop - way to go guy! And low and behold, my dad said that he used to knit when he was young! I knew it must have been in the family. Real men DO knit ;)

Playdate Hoodie

2009-06-27T11:45:00.000-07:00

My camera is on the fritz, that's mainly why I haven't been posting any blogs lately. I used my flip video camera which I highly recommend to anyone with children!! The only problem is that it's not so good close up. Anyhow, I got the playdate hoodie kit (from Lionbrand) in the mail a few days ago, so that's pulled me off of the socks right now because I'm so eager to do my first garment in prep for my holy grail project!!

I'm starting on the back panel first. I was good and did a swatch to measure my gauge and I even washed and dried it as specified on the yarn so that I make sure it fits. The Knit Witch on YouTube has great instructions on creating swatches and measuring gauge. I figure I should practice patience as well ;)

My dark cable socks and blue lacey socks are coming along nicely. I'm very close to being able to do the toe on the blue socks, but those have been shelved for now since I'm so excited about creating this new little sweater.

What I really need to do is finish up the booties, crochet a flower for the matching hat, and find some really cute little buttons because my BFF's sister had her baby a month early (good thing I made the hat so small)! My goal is to finish that by the end of this week and ship it off to her :)

Dark Cable Socks

2009-06-13T13:17:00.000-07:00

In addition to the blue lace sock, I started a cable sock. I was so excited to start my first cable project that I didn't bother thinking about the size I was making. I just made small by default. I tried it on after I had completed a significant portion of the sock and it is super tight on me, so it's not really going to fit anyone. I've put it on the back burner for the moment, but this is just one warm up for the holey grail of knitting projects that I am going to attempt.

Ysolda designs absolutely beautiful knitted clothes. She designed this zip up hoodie that is loaded with cables. It is exquisite. Here's a link to a picture of her wearing her own design http://ysolda.com/wordpress/readerknits/groups/tags/twist/photo/3027681767/vivian.html.

I figure I need to do a few things before I even think about attempting this:

Practice cables - these socks will help with that
Practice the cables in this pattern, with yarn and needles similar to what the pattern calls for (I bought the materials to do this already, including the pattern)
Make a few toddler sweaters so that I can practice garment construction (I also bought the materials to do this already - check out the playdate hoodie from lionbrand)
Once I'm comfortable with cables and sweater construction - I will order the yarn specified in the pattern and work on the perfect gauge
And finally, go for it and be prepared to exercise immense patience!

Wish me luck :)

Girlie-girl socks

2009-06-08T22:26:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since my last post, but I haven't been idly standing by. Oh no, I've been busily knitting and learning new and cool techniques and stitches. This picture above is the top of a new lacy sock I'm working on. This edge is called a Picot Edge and is basically made up of 5 rows of stockinette then *K2Tog, YO, repeat from *, then 5 more rows of stockinette. Then the magic happens... you fold it over and pick up the back stitch from the cast on row and knit it together with the stitches on the needle and ~TA DA~ you have this dainty little finished Picot Edge. Very feminine. I had to do this twice to get it right and there is still room for improvement.

This sock also has a mock-cable twist that adds a nice detail without needing to use a cable needle. It's a very girlie-girl sock for sure. As you can see clearly, I had a lot of trouble with this pattern for the first 20 rows or so, but I'm finally starting to get the hang of it and can knit it without needing to reference the pattern. It's slow going, but a turning into a really pretty sock. I wasn't sharing it with the work because I was going to give it to my sister-in-law, but it's too messy to give away. I'll have to keep it and do another set once I've really mastered it.

The pattern is in the 2-at-a-time Socks book by Melissa Morgan-Oaks. I am obviously not doing it on a circular needle, 2 at-a-time. I tried... it's just too much of a pain to constantly be pushing the stitches onto the proper needle while keeping the 2nd sock on the wire. Maybe when I get super good I'll try it again, but so far I really enjoy working with the double point needles 1 at a time. I really love Melissa's patterns though!!

Just Monkeying Around

2009-05-25T19:01:00.000-07:00

I have been unlucky in my knitting adventures lately. I jumped into lace and cable projects that require way too much attention than is allowed for any mother with children under the age of 5. More on that later when it's finished and given to the birthday girl.

In the meantime, Chris and I found a bag of felt that I had purchased a few months ago when I got the wild idea to make us some puppets to play with. The Land of Nod has the cutest kid stuff at outrageous prices, so I decided to try to make the puppets that I saw in their catalogue. Mine turned out not nearly as cute, but what can I say? It's my first sewing project... ever, and Chris seems to like it just fine!

I had to break out the sewing machine manual and figure out how to wind the thread onto a bobbin and that I actually need to lower the foot plate (is that what it's even called?) completely otherwise I will create quite a mess of knotted thread. It was definitely a learning experience. I don't think I'll be venturing down the sewing path on a regular basis, but I have to admit, it was fun and I have enough felt left to make the puppy.

This three day weekend is over (sigh) - back to the real world too soon. Thanks so much Paul, for the awesome picture :)

Baby Booties Coming Right Up!

2009-05-21T07:59:00.000-07:00

These booties are coming along very quickly. The pattern is available for free from Howstuffworks.com. They are relatively simple, but I learned a few new stitches:

Make: Basically you add a backwards loop and "make" a new stitch. This helped shape the toe to give that rounded appearance. Thank you knittinghelp.com for the excellent video!
Cable Cast On: This allowed me to make the strap by casting on using only one piece of yarn. It was tricky to figure out. I kept trying to do it on the wrong side of the needle, after I figured that out, it went pretty smoothly. I ended up using a crochet hook as noted on the side of the knittinghelp.com website which made the cast on much easier.
Joining Yarn: I haven't had a lot of practice joining yarn, but again, knittinghelp.com came to the rescue.

Now to find some really cute little buttons.... any suggestions?

Toddler Socks Complete!

2009-05-20T10:20:00.000-07:00

Tada! My toddler socks are complete... well, I guess I should rename them to baby socks since I made them so short. Hopefully little Daxy-poo will get some good use out of them. Although I have to warn his mommy that they are super slippery when on hardwood.

I'm psyched at how well the stripes match up. I took a mental note of where I started with the first sock, and tried to start in the same place. I never expected them to be an exact match right down to the toe! Oh yeah - I'm a pro ;) (except for the holes near the gusset, and the extra ribbing, and the list could go on...)

I used Picnik to edit the photo which turned out pretty cool. Check it out if you want an easy online photo editing tool.

What's next? Well, I'm trying to plug away on the super secret project for my sister-in-law, however it requires my full concentration. That kind of time is severly limited these days, so it's slow going. I'm gonna fill in the rest of my knitting time with the baby booties to match the baby hat for my BFFs sisters little one who is due at the end of June.

Toddler Sock 50%done

2009-05-06T07:57:00.001-07:00

The first sock is done! Unfortunately it is too short :( I tried it on him and the heel kept slipping down. I measured, but I must have pulled too much. I may go ahead and just make two more or see if I can stretch it out a bit with blocking. It still turned out beautiful and looks great on him. I can't wait to do the hat!

For the next sock I'm going to change the cast on to 50 sts rather than 52 so that I have an even number of ribbing... I ended up just decreasing by two in the first sock and make sure I have enough length in the instep!!

I'm most excited about a new project that I'm starting. It's a birthday gift, so I'm resisting posting a picture or anything. The yarn is a fabulous blend of baby alpaca, silk and bamboo in a deep mulberry red. It's a lace pattern too which has been challenging, but so far so good.

Toddler Socks

2009-05-01T21:57:00.000-07:00

I finally started some socks for Chris. The yarn is turning out to be really beautiful. I love the combo of gold, dark teal and gray. I would never have put those colors together, but they are pleasing to work with. That's what I love so much about knitting really, it's the yarn colors and the surprising way they blend together to bring the fabric to life. I can't wait to make a hat out of it! The socks are coming together quick, so a hat is not far off.

I'm not working from a pattern this time. I'm just using my gauge to figure out how many to cast on based on the circumference of his ankle. I plan to go with these guidelines from the 2-at-a-time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes:

- If cast on = 100%, then the instep and heel stitches are each generally 50%
- When you add the gussets and then decrease them, return to the number of cast on

I'll also reference Silver's Sock Class to remind me how to do the reinforced heel and gussets and toe decreases. I'm keeping it very simple since this is my first time knitting w/out a pattern. Not to mention they are for a boy, so no frilly cable knits or anything like that. However, maybe I will get a little creative with the hat :)

I still have to make the flowers for the baby ruffle hat :( I tried once, half distracted, and didn't quite get it. Plus I don't have the yarn that I really want yet... so I'm not sure what to do about that. I may see if anyone on Ravelry has any scraps they want to donate. Oh! And I found the cutest little mary janes that I want to try to knit with the left over cashmere.

Ruffle is done - ready to decrease

2009-04-25T18:18:00.001-07:00

This newborn baby girl ruffle hat is coming along nicely. The ruffle is finished and I've sockitnette stitched about 3.5". I'm ready to begin decreasing. The ruffle wasn't nearly as complicated as I thought it would be. It's just two rounds of knit two together (k2tog). Knitwtich has a very clear video demonstrating k2tog in addition to just about any stitch you would want to learn.

When casting this on, I thought I had miscalculated for sure. I used 288 stitches! But, after the first row of k2tog the number of stitches was halved and then halved again on the second row to a much more manageable 72 stitches. Good thing I powered through it even though I had my doubts and recalculated the number at least 3 times, just to make sure.

My current dilemma is what yarn and color to use for the crochet flower. Right now I am going back and forth between a neutral medium brown, or a creamy soft white ivory. There is a subtle variation in the pink color where it fades to very pale pink, it almost turns ivory, which is why I'm drawn to that. But, I also think it would be very sophisticated for little one to have the chic brown and pink color palette. Some times I also think a little pop of green would look nice too. I don't have any cashmere yarn left either (boo hoo), so I'll have to make due with what I have. I'm sure I'll be making several flowers to test them out... maybe that can be a feature... pin on your own bow ;)

Oh decisions, decisions... what color for the flower detail? Brown, Ivory, Green, Black - help!

Fun Fact #3: The average sheep yields its entire coat in one piece with very little protest. And there are about 8 to 10 lbs of wool that comes off each sheep. A good shearer can shear from 175 yo 200 sheep in one day and the method has not advanced with technology. That's nearly 1 ton on average!

New yarn YAY!

2009-04-22T16:44:00.000-07:00

A new Purlsoho box at my doorstep means new baby pink 100% Cashmere yarn! New baby pink 100% Cashmere yarn means new little baby girl on the way!! Not for me of course, but for my best friend's sister. She is due in July. I decided to make her a little hat... it might be too hot to wear at first, but in a couple months when the weather cools down a bit, it will be perfect!! I found a very sweet little hat pattern for free at Little Sesame Knits. You must check her blog out, she's very talented!

I started making a swatch to measure my gauge last night and OH MY GOSH, working with cashmere is like working with angles hugging each finger gently and signing on high a sweet sweet melody. Really, I am not exaggerating. If you have never spent the money to buy cashmere, I highly recommend you do it at least once. Keep an eye out for sales. This yarn was originally about $50 and I got it for $25. About the price I would spend on a non-personal baby shower gift - and I get the pleasure of working with this exquisit yarn.

I joked about getting a goat in my previous blog post... I may really consider it now. The yarn is that good.

What's next?

2009-04-18T22:03:00.000-07:00

I went ahead and scrapped my toddler socks for now. I definitely need a longer circular needle than I have. So, rather than start a new project, I'm working on an old scarf that I started over a year ago. I'm so bummed though! I only bought 2 skeins of yarn because they were kind of expensive at $12.50 each, but this scarf takes 4 skeins. I received the two additional skeins needed, and the die lots are obviously way different since it's been a year later. The bigger yarn ball in the back of this picture is the new one... and it is much darker and greener than the original bright orange (in the front). To attempt to hide this color difference, I switched the yarn balls, and will use the remains of the bright original color to finish the last 25% of the scarf. At least the ends will match... and, like the socks, this one is for me because I figured it would have lots of mistakes considering it is my first knitted scarf!

This weekend I'm working on a non-knitting mothers day project. It's silhouette pendants of my son for the grandmas. I'm making myself a key chain too :) Should be fun, I'm lucky to have a very crafty friend (check out her blog at Quilt Otaku) that comes up with cool ideas like this - or I should say the Grandmas are lucky because this looks like it will turn out very cool!!

Finished my first pair of socks!

2009-04-10T14:35:00.000-07:00

I'm so happy!! I finished my first pair of socks. What do you think? I lucked out and almost matched the stripes.

On to new projects... I started the 2-at-a-time socks on the plane, but the circular needles I have are too short for it to be convenient. I think I'm going to pull it out and and start over. So, I'm relegated to working on my scarf which seems much easier to work on now that I've finished with these socks.

I'm enjoying the rain and thunderstorms here in North Carolina with Katy. We had a whirlwind shopping and eating day, it was wonderful. I'm going to introduce her to the Flight of the Conchords tonight - YAY!

North Carolina here I come!

2009-04-07T08:26:00.000-07:00

I fell short of my lofty goal to complete this entire sock by today. It's ok though. I'm going to bring it on the plane as back up... I have a feeling they are not going to let me get on the plane with my metal circular needles anyway. I have to bring my self addressed envelope just in case!!!

The lego creation was by my son and my mom. He says it's WallE :) And behind that are some seedlings that we are growing for our garden this year. Hopefully I will have time to drop some off at Marisa's before my flight. We have a ton of pumpkins, cucumbers, green beans, egg plants, carrots, basil and peppers!

Gusset Done!

2009-04-05T22:05:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to finish this sock by tuesday, but I made some really good progess. I'm now on the tedious part of knitting the knit stitch over and over again until I reach 7 inches. Hopefully I can avoid laddering this time.

I ran across this beautiful lace scarf that claims to be easy and made up of all of the same stitches that I've used in these purple striped socks so far. It's called the Checkerboard Lace Scarf and is available at Purl Bee's Blog. Perfect for my first attempt at lace. I'm adding it to the next-on-my-list of projects - after the toddler socks of course. Christopher, my darling son, has been wearing around my one purple striped sock and was very excited when I told him I was making him a pair of his very own socks next. I will miss him so much on my trip to NC!!

I just checked to see if I will be able to bring my circular knitting needles on the flight and it's really going to be up to the security officer checking me in. The Transportation Security Administration recommends that circular needles be bamboo or plastic (not metal like mine) and no longer than 31". I'll have to bring a self addressed envelope just in case!!

Heel flap done and turned!! I'm a knitting machine!

2009-04-04T14:00:00.000-07:00

That's right folks, I knitted the heel flap and turned it in one night. I have no life. It was Friday night for goodness sake. Technically I watched Twilight at the same time, but watching a movie and knitting is more like listening to a movie and not watching it at all.

Anyhow, I am so proud of the heel colors lining up nearly perfect. That was a sheer (no pun intended) accident. I had fully intended to check the beginning yarn and start at as close to the color I started with on the first sock (that's important if you are using striped thread and want to stripes to match the other sock) - but I completely forgot to do that. Luckily it turned out damn near close. I don't think I could have planned that if I tried. I'll have to call these my lucky purple striped socks from now on. All those mistakes in the first one really did pay off!!

Maybe I'll get a chance to start the gusset while my 2yr old is sleeping. I am really trying to finish this by Tuesday, and if I do, I will be seriously amazed with myself.

Fun Fact #3: Wool fibers have scales on the outside called serrations, they may overlap at the edges or entirely encircle the fiber. They cause the felting quality in wool which doesn't exist in any other fabric.

Purple Stripe Tube #2 Done

2009-04-03T17:40:00.000-07:00

Wow, the curse really has been lifted. I worked on the tube of this sock during lunch yesterday and at night, and again during lunch today and a maybe an hour after work today and I'm all ready to start the heel flap tonight... I haven't had to pull any rows out yet! (knocking on wood right now). I really want to finish this by tuesday so that I can focus on my toddler socks during my trip to NC. Fun fun!

Finished my first sock!

2009-04-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

I'm doing the happy dance right now in my first ever knitted sock. There's only one problem, my other foot is very cold and jealous. Oh it is bittersweet to be "finished" but really only be 50% done with a pair of socks. I'm incredibly temped to jump to my toddler sock project... but I haven't done it yet. I found some nice yarn at Beverly's and at 30% off which is perfect for first-time projects. I'm on yarn buying lock down until I use all the Beverly's yarn up. Then I can go nuts at Purlsoho on more expensive, but immensely beautiful yarn.

I've learned a great deal doing this sock that I will take with me on the, bound-to-be superior, companion purple striped sock. Here are some of the things I learned:

Knit slip vs Purl slip and why it matters. See comments in my "Heel Flap.... Check" blog post. Thanks again Paula and Marisa for helping me solve that little mystery... which leads me to #2.

How to do a correct knit stitch :) My V's were upside down prior to this unbeknownst to me and my previous projects.

I have to make a conscious effort to pull tighter between the needles to avoid laddering. This sock has a long ladder in the sole. Theresa from Knitty gives some great tips on how to avoid the dreaded ladder that I'll be using on my future DP work.

Count early and often! I didn't realize I was two stitches shy on my tube until I was down to the bottom... the two stitches would have made the tube just right, it's a little stretched as it is (I did not pull it out and restart).

Knitting anywhere and everywhere (including during the stoplights in my car - I swear I put the needles down when the car is moving!) makes progress quick which is great for a busy mom, as long as you can live with a few mistakes.

Sewing the toe is difficult. I got the hang of it after I botched the first half of the toe, but I'll remind myself next time with this... Front: knit, slip then purl & pull... Back: purl slip, then knit & pull.

This was the first time I did an SSK (slip, slip, knit) stitch. I was wondering what the difference was and found this great explanation with pictures and videos of decreases and how they are different from each other... she also shows an "improved" SSK that lays flatter!

I'm going farther into the knitting rabbit hole with every project and it has been very delightful so far. I look forward to stoplights and waiting in line now. I am looking forward to sitting on a plane for hours - I might just be able to complete a pair of toddler socks in that time... assuming they let me on the plane with two pointy metal sticks connected by a wire, great for stabbing and strangling. Hmmm... I better check American Airlines website before I pack my carry on bag. We'll see how far this rabbit hole goes. There is some beautiful $50 a skein cashmere yarn that I can't afford, but if I buy a goat and make my own... ok ok, I'm not going that far... yet. ;)

Fun Fact #2: The first sheep arrived in this country were brought to Jamestown in 1609. George Washington imported the best grade of sheep and experienced spinners and weavers in 1776 in order to encourage the woolen industry and in 1800 the first Merino sheep were smuggled in from Spain! (and 209 years later, here I am using beautifully died Merino yarn for my chevron scarf!)

side note - Yes, I did paint my toenails a coordinating color specifically for this photo.

Getting Closer!

2009-03-31T08:15:00.000-07:00

The sole and instep are coming along nicely. Only about an inch to go before I start working on the toe - Yay! This part is getting a little tedious because it's just knit, knit, knit, knit... Then I will have to start all over again to match the pair. On the next one I may make the ribbing a little bigger in the tube... we'll see how this one comes out.

My dear friend Marisa over at Quilt Okatu gave me an awesome book for my birthday called 2-at-a-time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. I'm so excited to learn to do 2 socks at once on circular needles!! They have some really cute patterns in there as well. The first example is a pair of toddler socks, perfect for my little 2 year old! I am resisting jumping to that project rather than finishing out the pair of purple socks. My sister-in-law and I are going over to Beverly's today to shop their 30% off all yarn sale... hopefully I don't find anything too great because I don't know if I can resist jumping projects :)

I have this old book called The Complete Book of Progressive Knitting by Ida Riley Duncan, copyright, 1940. My mom got it for me from a yard sale a long time ago... well, it turns out that it's a collectible! I looked it up on amazon and it's selling for $30-$40. I'm sure she paid about 25 cents or so. Not a bad investment. It's a pretty cool book with lots of illustrations and basics of garment construction and measurements as well as a history of yarn and knitting. I'll sprinkle in some fun knitting facts from her book.

Fun Fact #1: There is NO country in the world that does not have knitting as part of their textural work! The earlest knitting example she sites is a Peruvian band of humming birds belonging to the Prato-Nasca Culture dating before 200 A.D.

Heel is turned & Gusset is taking shape

2009-03-27T08:51:00.001-07:00

purple socks 012
Originally uploaded by SharonTroia

I am thoroughly entertained with this yarn. The stripes are very fun to work with and change their thickness with each different knit pattern. I've successfully turned the heel and began working on the gusset.

Since my last post, I discovered that I have been doing the knit stitch the wrong way this entire time. I know, it's completely nuts! I wasn't doing it wrong enough to tell the difference, but basically I was inserting my needle in the back instead of in the front... so that's why it didn't matter which way I slipped my stitch. You can kind of tell if you look closely at the first couple of rows on the gusset part of the sock. The v's are slightly twisted. I learned the right way to do it a few rows in and you can see that the the v's are nice and flat. And it turns out that knitting the right way is a lot easier and faster :P

The destiny of these socks has been fulfilled... I now know the proper way to knit a stitch. The curse has been lifted! (at least that's what I'm telling myslef - we shall see!)

Heel Flap.... Check

2009-03-25T08:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, I completed the heel flap last night... phew! Slip 1, Knit 1, repeat (right side) and Slip 1, purl the rest (wrong side). It looks really cool. I actually like the way this turned out better than the striped ribbing on the tube. By the way, the curse of the purple socks reared its ugly head for his portion of the project... I dropped a stitch and made several other mistakes along the way, but every mistake is a learning opportunity right? I'm finding comfort in one of the posts on ravelry about mistakes being good luck... and if there were no mistakes it would look machine made. Trust me, this sock DEFINITELY looks home made and is probably increadibly lucky by now ;)

Here's a question that maybe Quilt Otaku or some of her knitting buddies can help me figure out... why is it so important to which way you slip a stitch? I'm following Silver's Sock Class and she spells it out in capitol letters to slip AS IF TO PURL. Why does it matter? Doesn't it slip the same either way you do it? I find it easier to slip as if to purl, but does it really make a difference on the stitch? I don't see that it does, which leads me to wonder if I'm doing it wrong.

Making Progress

2009-03-23T17:09:00.001-07:00

IMG_0001
Originally uploaded by SharonTroia

The tube of the sock is really starting to take shape! Pretty soon I'll be ready to make my first turned heel... so exciting :)

My cursed socks

2009-03-20T10:17:00.000-07:00

I hate to say it, but I think my stripped socks are cursed. I've had to cast on several different times, completely unravel several different times and just when I thought I was making good progress (had an inch or so done) I realized I was making a fundamental mistake in my pattern. I pulled everything out last night and completely restarted only to get a few rows in and realize that I had yet another huge mistake. Rather than pull it out and start over, I made a sloppy work around and kept going. These are my first socks and they are for me, for the very fact that they will most likely contain many mistakes. Now that I moved past that major error, the sock is actually starting to look like a real sock! I'm excited!! Now, I'm just crossing my fingers that I won't find another fundamental mistake and have to pull the whole thing out again half way through.