Friday, June 29, 2007

My feet are fat

I finished the first of the spa socks mentioned somewhere a few posts below.......they seem to fit funny.....I refuse to rip them out yet, I am blaming them on my poor swollen sausage feet and will not do anything more until they return to normal size......so for now I am also not working on my Horcrux and not feeling guilty about having so many unfinished socks lying about. I love guilt free casting on, no deadline knitting! I think in addition to the Tulips baby cardi mentioned below I am going to start on Sheldon for my soon to be 3 year old.

I'm such a follower.....


So, if you read the Yarn Harlot's blog you know she has knitted a few of these cute sweaters, the Tulips baby cardigan using Dream in Color worsted. Of course I read it and I love anything rainbow. Rainbow patterned/colored things just call out to me, I don't know why since really I am not a girly rainbow kinda gal usually. Anyway, I have been seriously pondering contacting the Canadian LYS she got her kits from to order one for myself but put it off because I really don't know anything about things being shipped from Canada to the States in terms of customs, costs, length of time, etc......yep, I am ignorant about these things and too lazy to do anything about it right now, like look it up online......
Anyway, on Wednesday night I go to my LYS, Knitting Bee, for social knitting time and as soon as I walked in I saw she had kits put together for sale. So I was good and knit for an hour then walked around the store for an hour convincing myself why I didn't really need another pattern when I have so much on my to-do list. Then decided that this is better than all that other stuff on my list because it is rainbow colored and bought it anyway. Also, convinced myself it was really ok to spend the money on the kit because it is much better to get the kit, which comes with the right amount of each yarn and the pattern, than to give in one day when no kits are to be found and spend money on whole skeins of each color when so little of each is needed. How's that for justification? I am very excited to cast on but don't think I'll get to before tomorrow or Sunday night.

Simple Bib


Ok, I don't know exactly where a pattern can be found for this bib, I have gathered from reading other blogs that there may be one like it in the Mason Dixon Knitting book, but I don't have that book so not sure. Anyway, what I did was just cast on 8 stitches of Sugar 'n' Cream cotton, made a buttonhole on the third or fourth row and kept doing garter stitch until I thought the strip would be a good length to go around a baby/toddler's neck. Then I used the knit-on method to add 30 more stitches, knit in a button on the 6th or 7th row using Lily Chin's method that I saw on an episode of Knitty Gritty and continued the garter for another 60 rows or so. Then I folded up the bottom a couple inches to create a pocket for fallen bits of food and seamed the sides. I basically just kept knitting until there was very little of my skein left. I haven't blocked it or anything cause, well, it's a bib, and it'll get washed and shrink a bit, etc so it looks messy in the picture but I think it will work very well in its intended use.....p.s....Heather if you're reading this.....Miranda may get a little summer bib set...how's that for a surprise?

Purple is my fave

This is a very simple baby cardigan from the Vogue: On the Go series, Baby Knits. It is knit all in one piece with just the sides and underarms seamed up at the end. I made the 6 month size and I think it came out a bit more on the 6 to 9 month scale which is perfect come fall and winter for the new one. I used LB Microspun as called for in the pattern and a size 7 circular needle. I definitely like it better in the purple than in the red shown in the book. I also love the buttons. They were a pack of 8 in the dollar bin at Michael's and the perfect combo of colors if I do say so myself. My seaming skills still need (a lot of) work but nothing like practice to make them better.

Fun little knit...


This is a quick little knit I did to dress up a bear for the Camp Erin bears that are given out to the campers. I used a pattern supplied by my LYS, the Knitting Bee. The grey and red yarn is some Encore and the blue is LB Worsted Wool-Ease. The button I found at Jo-anne's. I really enjoyed making something so small and fast and may have time to do another before the deadline, maybe something in orange with fun fur.......hmmm, now the ideas are churning.....first I need to finish updating the blog though.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Photo and Finish Free

Well this is just a WIP post, no photos and no FO's. We are getting ready to have our second little one and I think the hormones have turned me into a "starter" because I keep casting on without finishing things and usually i have only 2, maybe 3, things going and get one or two finished before starting others, but right now, well lets see.....

1. Pedicure/Spa socks found in SpunMag
I am using Cascade fixation in a lime green color and just a regular 2 x 2 ribbing for the top, no the cable cast on. I have 2/3 of the first one done.

2. Widdershins: I have one completed and haven't started the next. Somehow they ended up way too big for my size 8 feet so I will gift them to my sister, maybe for Christmas, so no rush on them. I am using Brown Sheep's Wildefoot in Vinca Minor, a very pretty pure purple color on size 2 dpns

3. Another pair of Horcrux in Sockotta, a blue/gray/purple colorway, for myself. Boy am I being selfish with the socks for myself lately, huh? They are only 1/3 of the way done on first sock, again on #2 dpns.

4. A set of baby bibs using Sugar and Cream cotton for my cousin's little girl, very cute, simple construction, will post pic when they are done.

5. The Zodiac sleepsack that is in the current edition of Knitty. I am doing this without the zodiac symbol though so just plain sugarplum lavendar Cotton-ease. I am all done except for applying the I-cord trim and attaching a zipper. I keep putting it off because it looks like I should have made the next size up based on baby's current inutero size. Oh well, someone I know will have a normal size baby someday

As always, I also have a dishcloth on the needles, so easy to do especially when tired in front of TV and I fall asleep with the needles and yarn in hand (yep, it happens ALL the time lately). Just finished the mid-June KAL from MonthlyDishclothKAL yahoo group. I also joined Dish Rag Tag. It seems like it's going to be a fun race/swap thing.

that's about it for now.....as soon as I download more photos, I will post a couple finished objects.

Backwards Bag















This is a string/mesh bag that I knit while the yahoo Knittingparents group was doing a KAL...the pattern I used can be found here. I say it is backwards because I didn't realize until after I gave it to my MIL for mother's day that I had seamed it together with the wrong sides facing, not that the seams are that noticeable due to the mesh pattern, so she just kept the right side out anyway, but I think this picture is of the wrong side out....oh well...I used Peaches and Cream cotton yarn in a country blue color and kept the original cast on number of 45 stitches instead of 35 like she suggests. It was a fairly quick knit even for me and I will probably do at least onee other for myself soon.

My first swap

Even though I knit all the time and read tons of blogs and belong to a few yahoo KAL groups, I had never done a swap until this spring. It was the quarterly swap for the Monthly Dishcloth KAL group and it was so much fun....I will definitely do it again. Anyway, my very generous package came from Barbara in Tennessee. She included two soft dishcloths with a matching kitchen hand towel and som extra "twist" S&P yarn for me to use along with a sample of teas and little lotion for my knitting notions bag. I really like the colors (coral and cream) and they are nice large cloths for dishes.

More socks....


These are from a Fiber Trends pattern, Butterflies and Blossoms, using Louet Gems fingering weight in a pretty aqua color. I used about 1 and 2/3 skeins on size 2 and 1/2 crystal palace dpns for size 8 women's feet. I liked doing these because it was really easy to make them the same size just by making sure I had the same number of repeats of the butterflies. I have decided though that lace socks don't look fabulous on my wide feet.
These are a pair of socks for my hubby done in LB's Magic Stripe yarn in the Lumberjack colorway. They actually have a cool pattern in them, the Horcrux pattern from the SixSoxKAL group, but you can't see it at all in the picture. This took a full skein plus a bit extra from a second skein to make for his size 12 feet. Very warm socks.

A whole lotta stuff


So I kind of dissappeared from this blog shortly after creating it but want to try and be much better at updating it. That being said, I have a whole bunch of photos of stuff I've knit in the last few months and now I am going to thrust it all into blog land. Here goes......

This is a set of felted pot holders I made for my MIL's birthday last november. They are from a pattern found in an issue of the UK mag Simply Knitting-September issue maybe? I used the Rowan Big Wool on size 17 needles. My front loader took a few extra cycles to get the felting but they seem to work wonderfully to protect her hands in the kitchen.