Friday, October 16, 2009

smokin'!

Things have been busy in Knitting Land.


I finally got a picture of the Noro wristwarmers I made for my mom:


Aren't they pretty? She loves purple and I think this colorway was perfect for this. I used two skeins to get the stripes to match... but now I have tons of leftover Noro. Maybe she'll get a matching hat someday.



And I had two matching pumpkin hats for the trip to the pumpkin patch today! Have you ever seen anything so cute?


OK, maybe this will compete (especially when big sister's hat is one and we have a matching set of these, too):


I am going to WIN at Christmas card cute this year. Oh yeah.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

After a not-so-brief delay...

I've been a bad blogger, haven't I? Well, I suppose I have a (very cute) excuse. But I have been getting back into my knitting because it's finally started to cool down here (at least on some days--the rainy ones) and I'm starting to envision my little man's noggin covered in handknits. *grin* My copy of Itty Bitty Hats will be smoking!

But he hasn't gone without any handknits:

"Polar Bear Hat" made from the "Bunny Tail" hat in Itty Bitty Hats with shortened ears. Made from a bunch of Baby Bee Pitter Patter that I'd bought ages ago and then didn't use for the original project. I also made a cute little bunny--and it is very little. Palm-of-your-hand little. It's a clever little pattern that has you knitting a square then folding it up to create the little bunny shape.











And he has a sweater that might still fit him once it's cold enough to wear it... It has little bear buttons so it goes with the hat (which is already too small for him, so he'll never wear them at the same time. ) Bunny and sweater also made out of Pitter Patter. And I still have plenty left... I hate the yarn. It has to be knit on size 2 or 3 to get a good dense fabric (but it calls for something more like size 8 or 10.) It also leaves fuzz all over the place.






And I have finally finished up the Samantha sweater just in time for my daughter to outgrow it!
I love the cotton yarn I used, but it made for a very heavy garment. But the detail along the button placket came out so nice. I shortened the sleeves a bit so that as she grows, it won't look like the sleeves are too short, it will look like they're meant to be whatever length they are on her. I just hope she can still wear it. Being on bedrest and having a new baby threw a big kink in all my knitting plans. But I still love this and hope it will be an heirloom. I'm proud of making such an ambitious project and I have high hopes that I will be able to make sweaters for myself.
But for now, I think I will stick to hats for the kids because that was so much work for something that won't hget worn much, if at all.


I've also knit:
a football hat for a friend's baby
A pair of socks
re-did the shoulder on the Anouk dress from a long time ago. Now it looks nice (again, just in time for my daughter to not be able to wear it...)
and a few other things I can't remember off the top of my head.


Now, hopefully I can get my act together and knit some things for this fall/winter!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Rumpelknitskin

Knitting has been slow for me lately.  But that's just because I have a handsome new son!  He does keep me very busy, hence the slowness of the blog action here.  Really, there's nothing to have missed!  

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Who knew?

Who knew pastries could be so dangerous?

Yup, that cute knitted cupcake snapped my size 4 needle tip. *Crack!*

No matter that I was using much too small a needle to knit up two strands of yarn held together...

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Coming up roses

It seems online knitting magazines are popping up everywhere! That's fine; it's free information and patterns. This artice was one I want to keep handy for future reference for advice on yarn substitutions:

http://www.knotions.com/techniques/pattern_mods/ready_set_sub.aspx

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Sitting on my tuffet...

...mesmerized by Noro. I'm sure you know how it goes.

I'm on total bedrest, so while I have a slew of projects that are done or near-done (two baby sweaters are just missing buttons), I can't get pictures taken or uploaded. Once I'm up though, expect to be inundated with FOs! Unless this baby doesn't give me any time after I go off bedrest...

Good thing I'm having a baby, because I received Itty Bitty Hats by Susan B. Anderson today in the mail. I can't believe it's taken me so long to order it, considering I've already made two hats out of it when I borrowed it from my SIL. But I have it now and this poor baby better get used to wearing hats!!!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Purls of Wisdom

I'm taking a sweater construction class at my LYS right now. Even though I am growing to epic proportions right now (or perhaps because I am and I'm dreaming of being skinny again,) I have such an itch to start tackling sweaters for myself. I learned from Pumpkin's dress a while back, though, that it really is worth one's while not to barrel through a project, but instead take the time to get the details and finishing right. So, I'm learning some of those details in my class right now. I already know a lot of the basics, but I want a little help finessing what I do know and making sure I learn the right way to do new things I didn't already know. I should have a cute sweater for one of Pumpkin's dolls once it's all said and done.

So, on to the Purls of Wisdom. The teacher of my class is a walking encyclopedia of knitting knowledge. Just a little time with her has taught me some lovely little helpful things that I would like to list here so that I can keep track of them somewhere (that doesn't involve more paper piling up in my closet)


  • I have trouble with ribbing and SSKs being a bit messy looking. She told me simply to yank my yarn tighter, because all the extra wrapping around of yarn is giving me extra slack that loosens my stitches.
  • If I'm knitting a sweater using bulky yarn, do the seaming with a yarn (in similar color & content of course) that's a smaller weight to avoid bulk along the seams.
  • Block pieces before seaming. This should be intuitive, but I'd never thought of it and it really would make seaming easier, wouldn't it?
  • She likes to block by pinning out the pieces on the ironing board then spritzing them lightly. Easier than handling heavy pieces of just-washed wool.
  • Don't block out the ribbing; smoosh it up.
  • Don't make buttonholes too big; err on the side of small. They'll stretch.
  • Pick up stitches below knots (or anything else you don't want to see); they'll get pushed to the back.
  • weave in ends along a seam, not straight across (they'l come out too easy straight across), switch direction every few stitches.
  • If weaving bulky yarn, you can split it to avoid making more bulk.

Unrelated to sweater class, but still wonderfully useful:

  • If carrying yarn for stripes while working in the round, at the end of a round, wrap yarn around, new color under old.
  • Picot edging: On CO edge, for example, CO 5, BO2, CO 5, BO 2, etc (vary the BO numbers for more or less pronounced bumps, CO for different spacing.) Use knitted cast on (like cable cast on, but kint into previous stitch, ot between.) At the BO edge, BO 5, CO 2, BO 5, CO 2, etc. (again, varying #s as desired to reverse CO edge.)

Good Stuff.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Happy New Year

The Pumpkin's Christmas gifts were well-received! She has so little hair still that she's never worn bows, but I'm especialy fortunate (as a knitter) that she enjoys hats so well. I would like to have pictures, but I can't upload pictures to my computer just now.

My knitting resolution for 2009? To plan less. Last year, I had so many projects with deadlines on my queue that at times it started to feel like a chore, which is the last thing knitting should be! I got loads accomplished, but I think that 2008 will have been the only year that I tried to knit gifts for everyone for Christmas. (And I think the baby boom will slow down a bit.)

Unfortunately, my pregnancy isn't going as well as hoped and I'm sort of laid up for a while. It makes it hard to knit because I'm not supposed to be upright for long. And I imagine after Little Roo is born that I won't have as much time on my hands to knit (ha, you think? Thank you Captain Obvious...) So my slowdown on projects is partly practical.

But also, I want to have the freedom to pick up whatever strikes my fancy whenever it does. Last year, I had so many things planned that I had no room to grab a project or class that just struck me and I don't want that to happen this year!

Still, I did tons in 2008:
2 Big people scarves
1 Little person scarf
1 baby blanket
1 toddler dress
1 set snowman ornaments
1 set dishcloths
1 pair booties
9 baby/toddler hats
5 pairs socks

I completed a stuffed bear started in 2007 and
I started a toddler sweater for Pumpkin.

This year I will knit a hat for my new baby and a hat for a friend's baby. I want to also do the socks for my Mother-in-Law that I put off last year when I ran out of time, and I want to get started on an afghan I planned for our living room. That's all I have planned... for now! Everything else is just icing on the cake. (mmm... cake...)
 
Designed by Lena