Baby Gift

Here is the completed Baby Aran sweater all ready for the recipient with a few other goodies for the babe. The pattern is the Aran Pullover from Knitting for Baby by Melanie Falick and Kristin Nicholas. The yarn is Mission Falls 1824 Wool. I used pink shell buttons for the shoulders from JoAnn. The shoes are Robeez-so cute!-purchased at Patina. The soft lamb is from Pottery Barn. The sweater will probably fit the little darling next fall.

Perfect Weekend for Fetching

After a week-plus of extremely cold weather (highs around 10 degrees fahrenheit), this weekend we finally had a bit of a warm-up, 20 on Saturday, 39 on Sunday- nice! It worked out perfectly because I finished my Fetching wristwarmers on Friday and was able to wear them all weekend. I really loved this project- it was fun and quick and the resulting garment is lovely. They were perfect for ice skating this weekend and will be great for watching soccer games on cool fall days. Oh, and I knit these without a cable needle, my first time with that particular technique. Once I got into the rhythm of it, it went pretty quickly.

The yarn is already looking a bit worse for wear, however, and they feel pretty stretched out. I think if I were to make these again, I might go down a needle size to a 5. I'll try throwing them in the washer to see if that helps. Both J and the little guy really liked these and have asked for a pair of their own (all black for J, red and black striped for the child, both without the cables).

Meanwhile, I finally got started on the Urban Aran Cardigan for J with the Elann Peruvian Highland Chunky. I changed the original Patons pattern to a cardigan, and have altered the pattern so that rather than the back and fronts being knit separately and seamed together, I'm knitting the fronts and back all at once on one long circular needle. It took some time to reconfigure the pattern, but I know that I'll be happy when I don't have to sew those long seams down the sides. It was a bit daunting to have 234 stitches on the needle and carefully setting up the pattern, but once that was done, things were going along pretty easily. Although its a men's sweater (translation- lots of knitting), I'm hoping it will go quickly due to the chunkiness of the yarn and the relatively large needle size.

The Opinionated Knitter

I had been curious about Elizabeth Zimmermann since reading about her on several other blogs and knitting sites, but had never actually had my hands on one of her books. I was finally able to get The Opinionated Knitter through my library at work- and wow! Her writing style is funny, informal, welcoming, and warm and the way she discusses gauge, patterns, sizing, etc. is incredibly intriguing. I'm not sure when I'll get to using one of her methods, but I'd really like to, and I can definitely see how you could take her concepts and then just go with it to work up a unique creation of one's own. This might be a good way for me to work on becoming a fearless knitter. She really is an inspiration. I can see why Zimmermania exists!

Quick project- so Fetching!

So yesterday the massive quantity of yarn that I bought for J's Urban Aran Cardigan arrived from Herrschner's. Unfortunately the Patons Shetland Chunky in Oxford Gray has quite the shine to it. I really don't think he would dig a shiny sweater, so I'm packing it all back up and shipping it back. Instead I ordered some Highland Peruvian Chunky from Elann. Last I checked they had very low supplies and hardly any colors available, but it looks like their stock was upped and so I was able to order 24(!) skeins of Light Gray Heather. I'm hoping that will be a better fit for the project. This is the yarn (in a different color) that Brooklyn Tweed used for his gorgeous version, so I'm feeling optimistic.

In the meantime I wanted something quick I could work on until the new yarn arrives, plus I was going to book club and wanted something to work on while we discussed. I had some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in my stash in a nice blue green. I popped on to Ravelry (love that site!) to look for patterns using that yarn and I happily found that Fetching, which was in my queue anyway, uses it- happy happenstance! I've been wanting some fingerless gloves to wear at home while knitting, working on the computer, etc. These look fun to knit.
Speaking of book club, our discussion was on Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan- a fascinating look at our food production systems, organic, industrial, local, imported, etc. I definitely looked at things and shopped differently when I did my supermarket shopping this weekend. For example, visit the Cedar Summit Farms website to read why its not only organic that's important, but also why its important to buy dairy from ruminants (cows) that eat grass- not corn! Plus Cedar Summit is local to Minnesota, so their food doesn't need to be shipped cross country using up valuable energy. Read Pollan's twelve commandments for serious eaters to get a sense of where he's coming from. Definitely food for thought!

Too small!

I finished the baby socks. Alas, he's busting out of them already.

Boy's Baby Socks

After making these socks for my niece, I thought it would be a fun (and quick) project to knit up some baby ones for my littlest guy (5 months) in a similar yarn. I've finished one sock and I need to try and hurry up and finish the other before the yarn arrives in the mail for J's manly cardigan. I like these socks but the only socks I've made are pretty basic, ribbed all the way down the top of the foot with varigated sock yarn. This time I tried to incorporate an eyelet row in order add a tie at the ankle, since baby socks frequently fall off. Unfortunately I had alot of difficulty with this and had to frog quite a few rows. I did wind up with some mistakes in this sock, but I'm chalking it up to a learning experience! I also tried kitchener for the first time. It was a learning experience, let's leave it at that.

After these I think I'd like to try a different sock pattern, especially in the baby size since they knit up so quick. Anny Purls had some really cute ones on her blog as part of the baby sock advent calendar project.

This weekend the high temp is 5 degrees so I think we'll pretty much stay huddled inside. Its a good chance to get some knitting done, and maybe try to work on some needle organization (which clearly needs to be done).

Knitting Gifts

One of my Christmas gifts was a Boye Needlemaster, which I am very excited about (thanks Vivien!). I love the idea of having one set of interchangeable circular needles, rather than the incredibly messy jumble of all different sizes currently in my incredibly disorganized needle box. So far I've liked using the Needlemaster. I knit this boy's hat with it and had no problems at all with the cord being too stiff. The needles do tend to unscrew after knitting with it for a while, but I just got into the habit of tightening it every so often and that seemed to be a good, not too inconvenient, solution. Next on the to do list: organize the knitting supplies!


Another fun gift: last night hubby surprised me with this mug. Cool- just need to keep out away from the youngster's inquisitive eyes!

More Single Skein Action

For a Christmas gift my sister made me this cute felted clutch from the book One Skein by Leigh Radford. For herself she made these awesome sleeves using Rowan Kidsilk Haze in Glacier. Stylin'!

A Weekend of Hats

This weekend I knit up two quick hats for the boys- a striped baby hat in reverse stockinette stitch with a rolled brim (that was a fun way to use at least a bit of stash yarn), and a striped stocking cap for the "big boy". That was done in Patons Shetland Chunky on size 10s- nice and quick.

I also tried to buy yarn for my next "large" project- hubby's sweater. I'm planning on doing the Urban Aran from the Patons Street Smart booklet, but with the modifications ala Jared over at Brooklyn Tweed. Unfortunately I need 13 skeins of the yarn (more Patons Shetland Chunky) and wasn't able to find enough at any one store. I ordered it online this morning.

First FO of 2008

I finished the Lace Leaf Scarf from Vogue Knitting, Spring/Summer 2005. This is a birthday gift for my mom. I used Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. I love the softness of the yarn, although it probably doesn't show the yarn overs of the lace pattern as well as a more delicate yarn.

This was a fun pattern, and once a few repeats were done, pretty easy to master.

Blocking really made a difference in this scarf. The edges were really curly prior to blocking. They aren't completely flat, but loads better.

A Very Crafty Christmas

As I mentioned in my last post, we celebrated our immediate family Christmas on January 5. In addition to the knitted socks I gave to my 3-year old niece, there were a few other creative and crafty gifts exchanged.

My mom let the grandkids pick out a flannel of their choice and she made them all p.j.s My niece chose a lavender floral, my 4-year old nephew a black fleece with motorcycles, and my little guy a black fleece with flaming guitars-rad! The kids loved their jammies and changed into them right away.

Hubby made my mom a great purse made out of Duct Tape. He had first made our little guy a cool duct tape wallet and she mentioned that she'd love a purse. He found a handy tutorial for making the purse here. She was tickled!

Finally, from my sis I received a cute little felted handbag. The pattern for the felted clutch was from One Skein by Leigh Radford and she knitted it up in a gray wool with black crytal beads decorating the outside. Darling!

What a very crafty Christmas!

Baby Aran & Christmas Socks

I've finished putting together the Aran sweater from Knitting for Baby. I just need to get buttons for the shoulders. The people to whom I'm gifting this sweater (dear friends who are expecting in January) don't know if they're having a boy or a girl. I'll wait until they deliver to get buttons- could be "masculine" leather type buttons for a boy, or perhaps a flower button in pewter for a girl.



We had our immediate family Christmas on January 5, since various parts of the family were travelling over actual Christmas. We called it Janimus. I gave my niece the socks I knit for her- she loved them- she's very into socks right now. We also gave her a pair of cute pink Keens- I think they look fabulous with the socks! I think she did too!

There were also some other very nice crafty gifts exchanged. More tomorrow!

All things organic

I'm on a little bit of an organic trip at the moment, or at least things seem to be following the law of "threes". Yesterday I received my egg delivery from Cornercopia- the student run organic farm at the University of Minnesota. This is a great benefit of working at a University, in the summer the students deliver organic produce to the offices, in the winter, organic eggs from their chickens. Aren't the colors gorgeous?

They also distribute a nice pamphlet explaining which eggs come from which chickens, for example, the Delaware Blue (I love seeing the fabulous chickens at the Minnesota State Fair every year!). My book club is also investigating food origins through reading the book The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. I haven't started it yet, but its been on my list for a while so I'm looking forward to it.

Finally, to round things out, I'm posting this picture of a baby beanie and mittens based on patterns from Louisa Harding's Natural Knits for Babies and Moms: Beautiful Designs Using Organic Yarns. For this project I used Organic Merino Wool from Tiny Birds Organics. Aren't they cute?

The year begins

Alas, its back to reality as a 12 day break over the holidays ends. Its back to work and getting up at 6 AM to go out and start the car in the freezing cold (4 degrees today) and darkness. Since I took a lengthy break from blogging, I thought I might do a few postings about projects I completed in the meantime. This, for example, is a lovely little sweater I made for my littlest guy while I was pregnant. He's been wearing it alot, but its just starting to get a tad small. Its the 3-6 month size and he's 5 months (although wearing some 9 month clothes currently). The pattern was quick and enjoyable, its called "Pumpkin" from the Pipsqueaks book by Kim Hargreaves. For yarn I used Rowan's Wool Cotton in Moonstone. I was really pleased with this yarn, both in the way it looked but also in how it washed. After a machine washing the yarn took on a very nice softness with just a teeny bit of fuzziness- giving sort of an angora look to the sweater. The hood and the softness of the whole thing just make it such a nice cozy knit for baby. I'll definitely make this again.