Bleh.

One of the pharmacists at work recently found out that her first grandbaby (a boy) is on the way. I told her long ago that I'd be happy to make her a baby sweater when the time came. So I went through my pattern books and found Debbie Bliss's Shawl Collared Jacket. I'm a sucker for shawl collars, and since this was in a book called "Baby Knits for Beginners", how hard could it possibly be? So one night while watching a movie I started on the back. I knit about 4" or so - pretty quickly, since she picked out an aran weight yarn - and started thinking "Gee, this looks kind of big."

According to garment sizing standards, an average 6-12 month baby is going to have a 17-18" chest. Now, in baby clothes even moreso than adult clothes, I understand the importance of ease. But the 12 mo. size in this pattern calls for a 25" chest. 7" of ease? Really? I guess all the extra is so you'll have to buy more Debbie Bliss yarn to make it. So I ripped it out and started over again, aiming for 9.5" for the back. (Here's the difference between the two.) But then I got frustrated because I was going to have to refigure the decreases, plus I found a frayed spot in the yarn, so I ripped it out again. So have I been rewriting the pattern to suit myself? Of course not:





Pattern: Robin's Egg Blue Hat by Rachel Iufer

Pattern mods:

- 68 sts for the band
- 56 sts for the hat itself
- Garter stitch band with no point
- Decreased 4 sts per row every row: k12, k2tog, then k11, k2tog, etc. until there were 8 sts left.

Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky, in M47 Tahiti Teal and an unknown color, about 3/4 of a skein of each that I inherited from my grandmother.

Buttons are from Joann's. These are going to go to charity - I like the style, and they fit me, but I think the spot where the band overlaps itself looks a little funny because it's so thick. Eventually I'll make myself a hat with a wide garter stitch band and just sew a button somewhere on the brim.

I really do need to get going on the baby sweater again...the baby's due in September. I know that's still a while away but, well, I have a tendency to procrastinate. :)

Quick update

Have I mentioned that I'm a flake, who finds it difficult to follow through with things? Anyway, here are a couple things I've been working on:



Yarn: Colinette Cadenza in Velvet Bilberry.

On the left, a Calorimetry that lacks only a button. It has lacked said button for about a year now. On the right, one half of a pair of fingerless gloves. I was actually within an inch of finishing the second one when they were put away to hibernate. I pulled them out last week to finish for Mom's Christmas present...and found a hole waaaaaay down practically at the beginning. I have no idea how it got there. I suppose it could have been a moth, but why would there only have been one small hole? Anyway, I had to frog the whole thing, and it makes me want to throw up when I think about it so I haven't started over just yet.




Yarn: Art Yarns Supermerino in colorway 138, varying shades of purple and a little dark grey/black thrown in too. About 2.2 skeins for a scarf that's about 3.75" x 66".

Pattern: Yarn Harlot's One Row Scarf. Love love love this pattern...I fully intend to make more.

The lovely little closure is by Romi. Great investment - it holds the scarf in place to close that little gap that always seems to be between whatever's covering your neck and whatever's covering your chest. I can't wait to get one of her shawl pins...I'm finally getting into wearing my Clapotis but find it awkward to keep throwing it over my shoulder.








Yarn: Sublime Cashmere Merino Silk DK in colorway 0055, which feels and works up very much like Debbie Bliss Rialto (which I used for PPBS #2). The color is truest in the pic of the yarn itself.

Pea Pod baby sweater #3, for a baby that's now nearly a month old. Oops. I expect to finish it this week, though, and it should still fit her just fine.




Plymouth Yarn Happy Feet in colorway 18. This is also somewhat washed out by the flash. This is intended for a pair of fingertip-less gloves for Mr. Nekkid as soon as the baby sweater is finished. I'll be winging the pattern, because he has crazy skinny wrists but an otherwise normal-sized hand. I want them to fit him really well, so I may even do a wide rib on the hands...something to make them rather form-fitting. I don't expect to need both skeins; in fact, I'm hoping to have enough leftover to make myself a pair too.


Bigger, longer term goals that will require much more concentration and attention to detail:

- make Twist + Shout in that lavender Tesoro I've had forever. I have 22 balls, but would need about 3 more to make the size I need...well, a very kind Raveler is sharing hers with me. It's even the same dyelot! I'm expecting it to take a good long while.

- make Leo for Mr. Nekkid out of my Paton's Classic Merino in Chestnut Brown. I haven't decided yet...I may add a cream stripe across the chest.

- perhaps make Retrofit for Mr. Nekkid as well, although I'd do black and grey. This style would look great on him, but I'm quite intimidated by the prospect of installing a zipper. Seems like Grumperina had a really good zipper-installing blog post a while back...I'll have to see if I bookmarked it.

Oh yes, non-knitting-related update:



Meet Felipe (left) and Andi (right), our ferrets. Felipe is an adolescent male (about 6 months), and Andi is an adult female (about 2). The cat still doesn't know what to make of them.

Adventures in Kool-Aid dyeing

This started out as Cascade 220 in a pale pink color. I used some black cherry koolaid. It didn't turn out quite like I wanted - I was aiming for a striping effect by dyeing two wedges with the KA and leaving the rest intact - but I think it's still pretty. It'll probably end up being a charity hat. I just wanted to try it more than anything, and I learned some lessons. Like, I don't care how many people recommend Saran Wrap...next time, I'm using a cookie sheet. I had to use more than one strip of Saran and even though I overlapped them, the dye still seeped between the strips and stained my countertop a little bit. I'm also probably going to go to the beauty supply store and get a few hair dye-esque squeeze bottles.

Next up, Dream Swatch.



This is Tahki Yarns "cotton classic color" in colour 104. This is going pretty quick, and I started it mostly because I needed something non-black and non-wool to work on. Why, you ask? Because of this:



Sweater for Mr. Nekkid, very near completion (at least, compared to the last time I photographed it). It's been disgustingly hot, and naturally this is like a small double-thick wool blanket in my lap. Ugh. I hope this proves that I love him, because if knitting half a pound of wool sweater in the summertime in Oklahoma isn't love, I don't know what is.

Oh yes, one more thing. Belated b-day present from Mr. Nekkid:



hee hee :)

WIPs

I'm trying this crazy thing. I'm finishing old projects before starting new ones. Weird, huh? I went through my stash and frogged a few things, and picked up others that have been in progress for a while. Project 1: Clapotis.



This is what it looked like when I picked it back up about a week ago. I was somewhere in the middle of the fourth straight row repeat.



This is what it looked like this morning. And I've done a few more rows...in fact, I just finished the tenth straight row repeat. Three more, and I get to start decreasing! WOOOO!!

Meanwhile, Friday night is sweater night at the LYS, so I finally got back to Mr. Nekkid's sweater last night. It looks incredibly similar to the last pic I took...just a few more rows of grey. I think the stripe is just about wide enough, and then soon I'll have to figure out just exactly how long the sleeves need to be. Eek.

Finally, a little yarn pr0n. I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with this, but it's MINE.



Six balls of Jo Sharp Silk Road Aran Tweed, from LYS sale wall (50% off!). I hope I have enough to make myself a nice cozy wrap or something.

Almost done!

Now it just needs blocking and buttons. I'll be blocking it as soon as Mr. Nekkid is done with the ironing board, and I ordered some buttons from Etsy last night. I hope they work, because I haven't found any others that seemed right.

Success!

Pea Pod Sweater update

In my ever-present effort to avoid seaming, I grafted the shoulders on the PPBS. Next time, though, I think I will do a three-needle bind off...my grafting wasn't horrible, but neither was it flawless, and I think the bindoff would have looked nicer. Anyway, I then took the quest one step further. Instead of knitting the sleeves separately and paying the girl at the LYS to sew them on, I picked up stitches around the sleeve and am knitting it outward. It required a little pattern modification, but I think it's turning out very nicely. Here's where I was mid-evening last night:



And now, the sleeve is only about 8 rows away from completion. I'm really very pleased with it, and I may never make sleeves any other way again. :)

Catching up

This is nowhere near all the washcloths I've made in the last three months, but several were made just in time for baby showers. Since the beginning of the year, ten women I know have either announced a pregnancy or given birth. Actually, only two are still pregnant. Girls mostly, so there has been much pink in my life, and there is more to come, as one of the remaining expectant mums just found out she's having a girl. This is for her:



Pea Pod Sweater #2, in Debbie Bliss Rialto (a springy, luscious, superwash DK weight merino). I started it Friday evening, and I'm 32 rows in. This amounts to about 5", which means I'm just over an inch away from the armholes. Learning from past mistakes, I will not be attempting to sew the sleeves on myself. I found out that a girl at my LYS will sew seams for $10/hour, and I'm SO going that route this time. After all, I paid ~$35 just for the yarn, so why would I settle for mediocre seaming? I'm excited, though...I really enjoyed this pattern last time and it's just as fun this time. Then I'll be making a hat and little booties, eeee!

I'm also still working on Mr. Nekkid's sweater, though it's on hold while I work on the baby sweater. I'm just a few inches away from attaching the sleeves, which terrifies me...but I guess I'll figure it out.



Last but not least, my new toy!



Yes, it's the cheapy model, but with the 50% off coupon from Joann's, it was only about $25 shipped. This is about what they're going for USED on eBay. I think Mr. Nekkid is getting me a swift for my birthday, but that's not stopping me from winding everything that isn't nailed down. :D I just love the little cakes of yarn that a winder makes...they're so cute!

Oh well, laundry calls.

Progress

The increases are done on sleeve #1. I tried it on him last night - it fits perfectly!! I originally intended to make one sleeve at a time, but I decided that won't do. I want them to be exactly the same. So I bought another #8 circ today...I'll work sleeve #2 to the same point I'm at on sleeve #1, and then probably alternate 5 rows at a time or something.



The sweater is about 8" long, and the sleeve is 12.5". Incidentally, this is just below the bend of his elbow. I increased 2 stitches every 5 rows, and the increases were done on row 65 (not counting the 10 rows of ribbing for the cuff). It's hard to capture in black yarn, but I love the way the increases look...



There's a strip of 3 stitches that remain constant, and you increase one before and one after. It almost looks sort of like a seam or something. Anyway. I'm going to go cast on for the other sleeve now, and watch some more Northern Exposure Season 1.

Sweater, day 2

It's about 5" from the cast-on edge so far, and I started the sleeve last night. I only got about 5 rows done. (It looks really tiny, but it's ribbed and stretches a LOT.) Although I obviously started a new skein of yarn for the sleeve, I have yet to use up a whole skein on the body. That makes me feel good - I think 7 skeins will be plenty. And if I have to...the collar can always be in the grey used for the stripe. :) But considering that I originally bought the yarn at Michael's and then found an extra skein in the same dyelot at Joann's, I don't think I have much to worry about. Although I'm still tempted to go buy just one more skein...especially since it's on sale this week!

A new project

Mr. Nekkid has been asking for a sweater for a while. I bought the yarn a few months ago, and it has been in dustproof, mothproof, catproof storage (aka the kind of plastic bag a set of sheets comes in) ever since. I'm not sure what came over me Friday night, but I suddenly HAD to swatch for it. And now, with some help from Elizabeth Zimmermann's book Knitting Without Tears, I am attempting to make a patternless, seamless sweater.

Here's what I'm working with:
- 7 skeins Patons Classic Wool in black
- 1 skein Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Oxford Grey (for a stripe across the chest)
- US #8 circular needles
- 5 stitches to the inch in stockinette
- 200 stitches cast on

I started off with 10 rows of 2x2 ribbing. Well, I intended to, anyway, but I forgot until I had a good 40-50 knit stitches on the first row...so the first row is knit, then the next 9 are in 2x2 ribbing. Thankfully, I don't think this is noticeable.

Once past the ribbing, the stockinette began. This picture shows where I stopped last night:



Sadly, black knitting doesn't photograph all that well, but you get the idea. That's probably a good 3,000 stitches right there...and I think I've nearly done that much again today. If I can keep this momentum going, maybe, just maybe, I'll have it done in time for our anniversary, which is in four weeks.

Oh yes, I also came up with a variation on my baby bib (pattern here). Instead of incorporating buttonholes into the strap, just knit it straight until it's long enough. Sew the button onto the strap, then use the eyelets on the body of the bib as buttonholes.