novamade

and there was also the knitting

 
I wouldn't want you to think that I finished last year only with quilting (though, that is probably truer than me saying that I finished the year with knitting).  I did manage to finish some projects in the realm of knitting last year (which, I guess, should come as no surprise).

 
My knitting group at work did two projects this year.  The big one was a Christmas tree with knit beaded ornaments.  We used the patterns from a Leisure Arts book called Beaded Ornaments to Knit, but the leader of this project, Susan, designed the pattern above. I referred to our ornaments as "ornament hugs" because we knit the ornament cover that went over a glass ball.  There were twelve of us and we knit 150 beaded ornaments, most of us did 10 each.  Our tree was really elegant and got quite a bit of local media covereage.

 
The other thing we did was charitable knitting, this year we focused on hats.  I think the Hill Country Hat is the quickest hat pattern out there, and it's free on the web.  It's a nice little teaser for the Book of Wool.

And then I did some baby knitting. While I am not a lover of pullover sweaters for babies, I couldn't resist an opportunity to use some of my Koigu in a baby sweater.   
Hannah Fettig's Sock Yarn Baby Sweater is sized for wee ones, to the not so wee.  But if I tried to make a sweater for anyone besides a baby in sock yarn, I would probably have to gouge out my own eyeballs.

 
My intent was to give this to a friend who had a little boy, but the final look (to me at least) was, decidedly, feminine--it made have been the neckline that made me think this.  So there were baby socks.

 
Of course there were baby socks.  I am now 100% certain that I need to find another baby sock pattern because I have knit the Mim's baby sock pattern too many times to be enjoyable now.  But there are new babies I need to make something for soon-ish, so I am sure this pattern will be trotted out again.

So that's it.  That was the knitting of 2010.  Tomorrow I will tell you about my plans for this year, I know you are on the edge of your seat.

something in the water

I am not sure about the timing of things; but, it seems like a significant number of my friends (the female ones, obviously) are in the family way, as it were.  The power of craft compels me to make things for all of these people who find themselves ready to propogate the species (or really, their offsping, but you know what I mean), especially when one of them is having twins.

 
My friend Stacey (who is a twin) is going to have twins soon-ish. Despite what I have said in the past about sweaters for babies, I couldn't resist (I mean, twin baby sweaters, cutest thing ever, right?).  Stacey  lives in Colorado, it gets cold there, and she knows how to take care of wool, so I made two striped placket neck pullovers.  It's a cute sweater and I have never made one before.
 

So here is what I am wondering: is this the fastest baby sweater pattern available?  I feel like it must be (unless you are somewhat mascohistic and decide to stripe it like I did, but there you are--use variegated or self-striping yarn and save yourself the headache, trust me on this).  It's knit in the round and you seam under the arms.  That's it.  Because I striped it, I employed the Jogless Jog method to make the stripes pretty and had some interesting adventures when I got to the raglans; but, that's what makes knitting fun, I guess.  And I also left the beads/buttons off because, well, choking hazard.

 
I also knit a pair of baby booties for my friend Heather's third baby due sooner rather than later.  My favorite go-to baby bootie pattern from Mim Knits.  Very quick and easy, made with yarn leftover from my Ishbel shawl.  I love this pattern; but, I am thinking that I need to branch out some more in the baby bootie department.  But why mess with a good thing?

end of year knits

Now that January is half done, it only seems sensible to talk about the knits that I finished last month in December, you know in 2008.  I finished two knits that I am really happy with.  The first knit was another Baby Surprise Jacket.     

I wasn't too impressed with the first one  that I knit, but the second one is great.  I think I just needed to put my kid in a bigger BSJ, as he is a big kid. 

The sleeves were the right length--they were not too short-- and the yarn was pure joy to knit and the end result is a really cute sweater for a pretty cute boy (there is obvious bias here, of course).

The other knit was a pair of socks.  For whatever reason, I don't do so great with the sock knitting, I get bored with it for some reason (second sock syndrome, anyone?).  But I managed to get a pair of Nutkins knit for myself.  The yarn was a birthday gift last year from a knitblogging birthday twin (thank you Rangsiwan!). 

 

I really like the way the socks turned out, the pattern was well written and you can't go wrong with Koigu.  I did a knit/purl cuff instead of the cuff prescribed and I mirrored the pattern for the second sock, an idea I totally stole from Maritza.  I am really happy with the socks, mostly because of the modification I made to the heels--eye of partridge heels, what is not to love?

So that is it for the 2008 crafting.  I am not going to do a summary of the year, if you want to see the past knits (and other projects), feel free to look in the gallery of 2008 projects ortake a look over in flickr.  I haven't the energy to be redundant today.  I do however have the energy to start plotting some 2009 crafts, I am pretty excited, because, as you all know, I have copious amounts of free time now.  Heh.  With some of that copious free time, I will update the gallery and include the specs for these last two projects (socks and bsj), I will also post the info in Ravelry, of course.

And there is still time to toss your name in the hat for the "it's not a resolution" contest, just leave a comment onthis post (the post below).

cuteness for christmas

 

I am aware that you do not all celebrate Christmas; but I do, and I am thinking that Little Mister (hi, Elinor!) is probably the best Christmas present ever. 

It took some work getting him here (there was a problem with lost records at the hospital's records storage facility--all of my archivist friends totally recognize the irony of this happening to me, I am sure), there were no allergic reactions on my part this time around--because they actually did find my records (there was with Little Sir, but, moving on); but, I think I was entirely too cavalier about the second c-section delivery and my ability to recover from it.  The good news: I am no longer swollen to an unfortunate degree; the bad news: the swelling has caused constant numbness in my right hand.  The worst news: I am right handed, of course. Apparently, cuteness comes at a price...

 

Fortunately for me (and, really, all parties involved) I knit Little Mister's Christmas sweater prior to his arrival.  I opted not to go too matchy-matchy with the Christmas sweaters (I am thinking that the boys--I am thinking I will never tire of saying, writing and thinking this phrase-- will thank me for this in the future) and knit LM a dark brown BSJ with white stripes.  Julie gave me the the brown Koigu earlier in the year and suggested that I use it to knit a Baby Surprise Jacket or BSJ, so that is what I did.

I know that there are people who think this is the cutest sweater ever, and I may be a heretic for saying so, but I don't really think it's any great shakes, to be honest.  I recognize that the engineering of the sweater is genius and everything; but, seriously, what is with the sleeves?  Sure, my kid has long arms, but, come on!  When the sleeves on wool sweater are this short, what purpose do they serve?  Um, that would be none.

But I still got a Christmas picture out of the deal, so I am not really going to complain too much about it (not now anyways, I knit another BSJ, yet to be modeled, and reserve the right to kvetch in a later post).  So yes, if you are a celebrater of Christmas, I hope yours is merry and that you and yours find ways to bring about the jolly. Ho ho ho. 

i know what boys like*

Well, as long as they are babies or toddlers.  I am still nervous about the whole dealing with the boy teenager thing; but, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

It just occurred to me that I never shared the gender of baby Disco.  From the title and the pictures, I am sure you have figured it out.  Baby Disco is a boy.   Elinor is advocating for the name "Little Mister," which I find all kinds of scary because I was considering this for the blog name "if the baby was a boy."

Little Sir is VERY excited about this, a brother means he will have someone to "play trains" with.  Considering that he was introduced to the great world of trains and train-obsession by his friend Caroline, his logic doesn't make any sense, but he is two.  He is excited about having someone to "roll balls" with as well.  After about 10 minutes, the parental units are no fun with the ball rolling.

 

I have to be honest, I was looking forward to the possibility of making dresses and knitting a pink wardrobe for a little mini-me (I even bought a crapload of pink yarn, because I "had a feeling").  But after finding out that Disco has boy parts, I calmed down and remembered that: 1) I don't like the color pink, it makes me want to vomit, 2) I would have no idea what to do with a girl, really (despite the fact that I am one...),  3) Little Sir was hoping for a baby brother (after he accepted that a baby was going to be part of the picture whether he wanted one or not); and, 4) logistically, we are already prepared for a boy (you know, having one in the form of Little Sir, already)--or rather, I know what boys like.

I figure you can't go wrong with things like: planes (or helicopters--"we" have a thing for aircrafts with propellers at the moment),

trains (all makes and models),

and automobiles (these little cars are Little Sir's new thing--it's kind of driving-heh- me crazy).

 

They are just a pair of booties.  But if you want the good word on them, I will put the info in the gallery and ravelry for your perusal.

*And, should you want to relive a piece of your youth...

new adventures in scarf production

I like scarves.  I think they are very useful, and sometimes they are even pretty.  And while I like the idea of making my own scarves, my laziness usually got the better of me in the endeavor of actually making them, particularly because I thought I was limited to knitting scarves.  I don't really enjoy knitting scarves, I have said it before.  But weaving a scarf?  Well, this is an entirely different matter.

   

I won't wax poetic about the process of weaving, other knitters have done so much better than I could hope to.  I will simply say that weaving a scarf takes much less time (at least in plain weave/tabby) than knitting a scarf would (unless that scarf was knitted in bulky yarn on size 17 needles, of course...well, no, probably not even then).

This scarf was simple to weave, I alternated colors in the warp (the vertical part of the weave structure) and then alternated the weft (the horizontal part).  I will put more details in the gallery of goods.

I could have just woven a test piece, but I don't like to waste  energy (some would call this efficiency--I will call it what it is, it's laziness).  Also, I figured I would either get it or I wouldn't, I think I got it.  And now Little Sir has a scarf (it's not without its imperfections; but, he is 2, he doesn't really care about the flaws, or rather, the design features).  So yes, now I am a weaver.  Much to Little Sir's chagrin.

Clearly, he is very excited about my new weaving skills. 

If you haven't figured it out yet, I tend to be the sort of person who goes "all in" on something.  I don't like to do things half way (because really, if I am going to exert the energy, I might as well make it count for something).  But with the weaving, I did test the waters with a used loom from ebay first...before I bought a Kromski Harp (Special K and I will be putting it together this weekend, one of us is very excited about it). I wanted a little more width for weaving (I am thinking wrap as opposed to blankets).  If you are interested in weaving and would like to "test the waters" on my Spear's Size 4 Rigid Heddle loom (16" width), e-mail me, we can discuss a trade of some sort.  I would love to "share the joy" as they say.

I think it's very likely that I will be weaving many more scarves.  I find weaving soothing; and, I really like scarves and I am so excited that I have found another way to make them...faster and more happily.

hats for everybody!

In the interest of starting anew in 2008, I figured I would go ahead post the last of my 2007 knitting.  Did I mention that I knit a bunch of hats?  Well, I did.  Meatheads were the hot item for Little Sir's funky bunch.  I decided to embellish with wool felt appliques.

I knit one for Little Sir first.  I needed a prototype for blindstitching the seal (cut free hand, thank you very much).  Clearly, I needed the stitching practice.

The stitching for the one for his friend CPea went a little better (and it makes me all jolly to know that CPea LOVES this hat!).

The one for his friend KB, better still.

And Mo's was the clear winner.  I almost hated to say goodbye to that polar bear (I free hand cut the polor bear too.  I have no idea how I managed it).  Truly.  I now heart blindstitch.

 

And then there was the requisite Koolhaas for Special K.  Everyone else was doing it.

I was able to use the Malabrigo that I was going to use for fingerless mitts before finding out that Special K would have no use for mitts without fingers... I think Koolhaas was the perfect pattern for the yarn.

The details for all the hats are in the 2007 gallery.  The hats (even Koolhaas) took relatively little time.  And they were pretty enjoyable knits.  All right, bring on the sweaters!

Happy New Year!  See you in 2008 with more hobbies, more projects; and, of course, there will be more pie!

obsessions, healthy and otherwise

Is it just me, or is it easy to catch a little bit of crazy without realizing it?  Just me?

So you know how I "like" (or obsess over, you pick) Pushing Daisies?  Apparently, the show has been picked up for the rest of the season.  To celebrate, I have instituted "Pie hole Wednesdays" (I know this is a Thursday post; but, the pie was made while watching Pushing Daisies...on Wednesday, as it were).  Leslie has her "cookie of the week", and so, I will have my pie...sure I am more of a cake person, but Ned is a pie maker and not a cake baker, so there you are.  First pie (which, truth be told, isn't really a pie at all)...

Chocolate Chip Pie.  Humongous chocolate chip cookie baked in a pie pan?  You betcha.  I encourage you to catch a little of the crazy and make the (pseudo) pie too, seriously (4 fork rating, people!!).

And then there is the single sock thing.  When Megan started the whole movement during the summer, my initial reaction was, "now that is a bandwagon I can hitch a ride on..."  But here is the thing...socks, they really are meant to be worn in pairs. 

My sushi sock roll post told you about the socks that I had waiting for mates and how I was going to try and finish them by the end of November (right...) .... However, I failed to mention the likely obstacles to achieving this goal (I mean real obstacles, my inherent laziness doesn't count).  So yes, one obstacle that was not addressed... a sock I had not (at the time) started.  A sock for someone else who would probably like to see the sock sooner rather than later.  Well, I started it.

I really like the pattern, horseshoe cables and eyelets...in Shibui sock yarn (which isn't pooling at all, Ashley...it's striping, in a serendipitously engaging way--given the spiraling eyelets--or am I just telling myself that?  Is it pooling in some obvious way that I am blind too?  If it is, someone please say something.).

And then, yes, there are these...

giving the people what they want

I am sure a lot of you were wondering if I finished that sweater.  Maybe you lost sleep over it?  Okay, maybe you didn't, but I certainly did.  Having stayed up till 2 or 3 in the morning for 4 days and then pulling an all-nighter on Friday, I finished it.  As I was seaming the sweater at 7 in the morning on Saturday I had this thought, "I am getting too old for this."  Well, old or not, it was finished just in time for me to get the fixings for the party ready.  Oh, did I mention that I was throwing the shower?  Yeah, I know.

There has been quite a lot said about this sweater already by countless knitters, so I am going to keep my thoughts on the knit to a minimum (scroll to end for that).  Instead, I am going to talk about why I knit this particular sweater for a child that does not belong to me.

About a year ago, my pal Al and I took our kids for a walk in the neighborhood.  It was a hot day, we were talking about my "little knitting habit" and how she wished she could knit (I offer on many occasions to teach her, so don't even start up with the "each one teach one" bit, I've tried people, I have tried).  She said the only thing she really wanted to knit was a "pretty, white or off-white, fisherman-type" sweater with really dark buttons for her daughter (then pushing 2).  It was knitwear so I filed it away.  At that point I hadn't made anything besides scarves and a few pairs of simple stockinette socks, but I knew about Trellis and thought about it, but fleetingly.

During the past year, Al and I have become even better friends than I thought possible.  I met her when we both first moved to the area almost 4 years ago.  She lives down the street, her husband works with mine (sort of), and we decided to start a book club.  And then we started doing lunch on Thursdays (it's the one day of the week I do no knitting during lunch) and it's a high point of my week.  She is hilarious, and hey, we've got to eat, right?  Usually, it takes me longer to develop friendships with people (in real life, the development of friendships here in the blogosphere, it's different, you are all kindred after all).  She (and her whole family, actually) are like family for us.  Special K and I have no family in the area so our friends really do become a support, as well as a social, network for us.  So yes, great friends.  Well, a few months ago, Al told me she was preggers again (she tried to tell me for months actually, but I didn't catch on, it became a game, "let's see if we can get Nova to figure out Al's pregnant."  For whatever reason, I thought she was being hypothetical (I can be ridiculous).  After I finally figured it out, I immediately knew what I was going to make for this new Al-baby.  Trellis.

It had occured to me to make this sweater for Little Sir, but I knew I was going to make it for Al at some point, so I held off.  But just because it's not for him doesn't mean he can't model it (he is, after all, very good friends with Al).

Al is due at the end of July with another little girl.  Well, Trellis is a fits-all-genders sweater, in my humble opinion.  It's nothing that a little pink can't fix, right?

Trellis

Pattern: Trellis by  Britta Stolfus Rueschhoff,  from Knitty

Yarn: Moda Dea Washable Wool, 2.5 skeins off-white

Needles: US 7 & 8

Notions: 5 buttons bought from the local Jo-Ann's

Modifications: I accidentally used size 8 needles for the collars (it was 5 in the morning, cut me a break)- I actually like the added heft, so hey "design feature!"

I really liked this pattern.  If you have done a few cables, you should have no problem with it. The pattern is easy to memorize and the sweater itself is really fun to knit.  It went by quicker than I thought it would. Had I knit monogamously on the sweater, for say 2 weeks, I think it would have been reasonable (but I am not a fast knitter).

I knit the 12 month size (which is why it's a wee bit on the smallish side for Little Sir who is sporting 18-24 month wear).  The 12 month size has an error for the neck shaping, I think it was on the left front side.  It's pretty obvious while you are knitting and if you use common sense, you will figure it out--something about the pattern designer telling you to do something on the right side of the sweater when you are actually starting on the wrong side, if you knit it, you'll see.  Besdies that one little thing, the pattern is very well-written.  All in all, I loved knitting this sweater, it was pretty easy, pretty quick and the seaming was not horrible at all!  I think the seaming might have been the easiest part, actually (but that could have been because it meant I was almost done and seeing the light at the end).

 

And a note about the yarn...it's awesome.  I saw the Washable Wool at the A.C. Moore big box and found it inriguing and added it to the stash.  It's really soft, "so soft it doesn't even feel like wool!" was the common observation at the shower.  I loved knitting with this stuff.  I will probably use it again for kids' knits.  I am not sure how it compares with something like Knit Picks Swish, but I felt like a got a lot of yardage for a good price.  And hey, it's superwash wool.

Al really liked the sweater, and I slept for 16 hours(!) after the party.

My pal Al with a baby that does not actually belong to her.

going the distance

...going for speed.

I am not uber slow with the knitting; but, I am not the fastest knitter either.  But nothing drives me like a deadline.

Of course Trellis can be knitted in a week.

Two sleeves, collars, blocking and seaming.  Two days?  Totally do-able.  Right?

Just one thing, anyone have any extra stitch markers?  I'm all out.