Little one (part two)

I spend a lot of time waiting for my kids. The pickup loop at school, martial arts class, baseball, basketball, practice, games. Waiting for my kids seems to be where I get a LOT of my knitting time in. My son just completed his fall baseball season. I had been mostly knitting my Creature Comforts cardi, and the garter stitch kimono. A friend of mine has a 7 month old beautiful baby girl. Her husband is from Scotland, and about 8 years ago, on a trip there, she bought yarn and a pattern for a sweet little sweater for her babies (present and future). But then she never found the time to re-learn how to knit, and the yarn has just been waiting to become a sweater. She gave the pattern and yarn to me, and I am really enjoying knitting them up. 

Its a cute little "Irish" looking cabled sweater with a moss stitch motif on the body, arms and hood. I thought the moss stitch was going to be the end of me, but after a couple of tries I managed to establish it well enough to make it work. Its a quick little knit, I've  been at it about 8 days and hope to finish this week. I have made a few mistakes though! I was trying to modify it to knit in the round, thinking it would make my life easier, and mean fewer seams to bother the baby. I got to almost the 11 3/4 inch mark, where I was going to need to split the neck, and realized I'd forgotten something essential. Armholes!  Rather than rip it back, I'm just adding some length to the sweater, and I think its going to be fine.

The yarn is just a simple acrylic, but it should wear well for a baby, and its soft as can be. I am knitting it in a 1-2 year size in the hopes it will get her through winter, spring, and maybe next fall. I'm hoping to get a picture of the baby in it when its all finished!

Little one (part one)

Someone I love is expecting a baby! Its a secret, but I'm honestly not sure anyone reads this, so I figure the news is safe here. They don't know yet if this new addition is a boy or girl. I decided to knit up a sweater for Christmas. I wanted the colors to be neutral, but fun, and I found this yarn


It's Claudia Hand painted fingering in the colorway Purple Earth. I love it!

I'm knitting up Joji Locatelli's Garter stictch baby kimono. 

I love the simplicity of the pattern, even if it did come back to bite me. Somehow I got it into my head that I was supposed to knit 20 cm of garter stitch. I got to 20cm, pleased as can be, and realized that I was actually only supposed to knit 12 cm. SIGH. Good thing I love to knit ha ha haha. I've started the front decreases and should be done any time now, and this can go into my growing pile of hand made gifts.

Success

One of my goals when I started blogging this year was to eventually work up the nerve to try designing a pattern. I have a picture in my head of a gorgeous sweater that will entail charts, and grading, and lots of math, and scares me a little every time I start to think about it. But back in July, a dear friend of mine got some truly terrible news about her health. She was understandably anxious at the prospect of losing her hair, and I decided to knit her a hat. I wanted it to be unique, and decided it was the perfect thing to try my hand at designing. I used Knit Picks Organic cotton, which I thought would be the perfect, soft yarn to use.

I knit it up in a day, and then set about writing up the pattern. I tried to think of all the things that are important to me in a pattern, and the exercise of sitting down and putting it all on paper was very fun. It reminded me a little of a writing exercise we did in the fourth grade, where we had to write the instructions, step  by step, to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. If we skipped a step (say, pick up the jar of peanut butter, or take off the lid), Mr. Muffs, my fourth grade teacher would try in vain to make a sandwich using our less than complete directions, hilarity would ensue.

I spent quite a bit of time trying to make sure the pattern was "perfect" and then one day I decided to get up the nerve, and publish it on Ravelry and Craftsy

I have to say that my my estimation, the whole thing was a SMASHING success.

#1 -- I started with yarn, and ended up with a hat, that looked pretty much exactly like the picture in my head

#2 -- Its as soft as I thought it would be

#3 -- My friend loves it. She wears it all the time, and I know it gives her comfort on a lot of levels

#4 -- I feel like I have crossed something off my knitting bucket list, and I'm proud of the result.

#5 -- I liked it enough I do think I'll do it again (and the scary sweater seems less so )

#6 --The bonus. 78 people have downloaded the pattern from Craftsy, and 131 have downloaded it from Ravelry! I couldn't be more tickled about that. Every time I get a note from Craftsy that someone else downloaded it, I smile from ear to ear.

Jenica

The bright side of not blogging for a long time is that I have plenty of progress and finished projects to share. Among my favorites is my Jenica hoodie. 

I finished it right after Labor Day weekend. I took Labor Day to rest and unwind. I did a juice cleanse, and I spent a lot of time knitting and doing other quiet, crafty things (AND I wrote out my Christmas cards! Take THAT holiday stress!)

 

I really love this sweater. Honestly, I love everything about it. The yarn is Madelinetosh Chunky, in the Weathervane colorway, and I adore it. I have the same color in my stash in a Tosh Mo Light that is destined to become an Austin hoodie. I love the fit of this sweater. It hangs nice and long like a coat, and its WARM. Like, wore it in 40 degree temps at my son's baseball game yesterday warm.

I really love the way the pockets were constructed on this sweater, with the cable detail

This yarn was one of my first forays into luxury yarn, and it was worth. every. penny.

Catching up

I've been upset with myself for not blogging in weeks and weeks, but there have been good reasons, too many, and too personal to number. So instead I'm going to focus on the good news. I've been doing LOTS of knitting. I have also been doing a lot of thinking about my reasons for deciding to blog at all. My goal was really to focus on my knitting, and improve my skills by trying new yarns, and new techniques, and to do my best to really do things right, by swatching, and blocking, and not powering on even when I know a mistake is going to drive me crazy. And so far, I think it's working! With each finished project I feel like my skills as a knitter are growing. My repertoire of techniques that no longer intimidate me is growing!

My most recently acquired skill is that I am now, officially, a continental knitter! I have tried, in vain, for several years to master this, and have never had any luck. One night, I sat down with my Boxy, determined to try again

I thought surely all that stockinette would work in my favor, and it did! Purling took some patience, but I finally got the hang of that too! I have to say, I really do think its making a huge difference in my speed. I thought it might also make a difference in my gauge, because I tend to be a pretty loose knitter, and typically don't even swatch with anything bigger that two needles sizes under what a pattern calls for. I'm hoping that practice will help with that as well.