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...

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

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!!!

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.

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...)

Pink Parade!

I went a little crazy with the pink this Christmas season and decided to shower my little girl with pink knitted things:

First the Upside-Down Daisy hat from Susan B. Anderson Itty-Bitty Hats. It's a very popular pattern and I can see why! The knitting was easy but I didn't enjoy all the sewing on of the petals. Oh well, I cannot wait to see it my little pumpkin's head. So cute! And it's all wrapped up and under the tree. Shhh!

Then I decided that she'd have fun with a little scarf and I had just enough Baby Britches yarn to make a hat and scarf set. I figured, hey, it's cheap yarn, she can wear it on the playground and I won't stress out about it, whatever. But it ended up being one of the cutest things I've made yet, I think! The little white pom just slays me. (I didn't have enough of the pink yarn for the fringe, so I decided to use a white accent color. I think it was a great choice.) Once I wash it, it will be under the tree too!

And though it won't be in time for Christmas, but I'm getting some good work done on the Samantha Sweater by Kate Gilbert. It's a precious little things and I hope I can finish it before the pumpkin outgrows it. ;) These pics are from the back, which I recently finished. It's my very first sweater project and I'm nervous about doing seaming and hemming which will be new skills for me. But as the Yarn Harlot says, it's just knitting and there's none of it I can't do. OK!

Are You Sleeping?

Needless to say, I haven't updated in ages... I hit something of a Knitter's Block for a good while there. It all started with a friend's suggestion to read the Twilight books and I got so sucked into them that I left my knitting aside completely while I plowed through those blasted books. :) That really resurrected my love of reading and I've been trying to figure out how to read and knit at the same time. (Solution: I found a lovely little book holder that I used to use in grad school to hold open a book and keep my hands free to knit. I prop the book on a squishy pillow so I don't strain my neck. Voila!)


I've also decided that knitting with a deadline is Not Cool. In pushing myself to get four pairs of socks done in time for Christmas, I drained my enjoyment right out of those projects. Solution: start spending more time on the couch at the yarn store while The Pumpkin is at preschool (the environment is so inspiring!) and change out one sock project for something completely different because I am tired of socks for now. (I'm sure it's just a phase) I have succeeded in finally getting three pairs of socks ready for Santa to drop under the tree:

and MIL is going to get some cute little snowmen ornaments and her socks will just have to wait.

OK, so maybe I have been productive!