Better Baby Blanket Photos

I don't have any new knitting to show, but I do have updated photos of the washed baby blanket that show it a lot better than the previous pics:

Now it actually looks like a blanket -- spreading it out while it was damp helped to open up the pattern and flatten the whole thing out so that it doesn't look so lumpy.  (I didn't bother with pinning it down or measuring it or making sure every side matched perfectly, I just eyeballed it.)

The variegated yarn does fight with/obscure the pattern, but I'm still happy with how it came out.

It's soft and squishy and something I made especially for the baby, so it will definitely get used.  And now it's all washed and folded and waiting patiently with some of the other baby knits.  It also has the distinct advantage of being completely finished and not stuck in the pile of things that need to be seamed or have buttons attached.  More on those later when I finally make some progress on them, I hope!

Vacation Knitting

Even though it was a short, direct flight and a hot weather beach vacation, I wanted to bring along some simple knitting.  And, since it's hard to resist baby knitting at this point, I went back to the One-Skein Wonders book (Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders: 101 Patterns That Go Way Beyond Socks!) and worked through a lot of this little number while I was gone:

It's a sweet little baby dress and it is rather wooly and fuzzy, but it will be worn over a onesie or something similar anyway.  It was fun to watch the colors fade in and out and they worked really well with the pattern.  I made more progress on it last night and at this point all it needs is buttons for the shoulder and a little soak, so I should be able to provide some better pictures later.

I did finally get around to soaking some of the previous projects, too (the blanket really needed it and the blob might actually turn into a sweater after being pinned out flat), so hopefully I can get some updated photos of a few other things to share again soon.

A Parade of Cookies

Okay.  Due to my crazy personal commitment to Cookie A earlier this year (the Cookie A sock club and the knit.sock.love knitalong), I have knit a lot of Cookie A socks this year.  And here they are!

January knit.sock.love Knitalong:

Hedera by Cookie A

Malabrigo Sock yarn

Colorway:  Caribeno

February knit.sock.love Knitalong:

Monkey by Cookie A

Blue Moon Fiber Art Socks That Rock Lightweight

Colorway:  Pride

February Cookie A Sock Club:

Ripple Leaf Socks by Cookie A

String Theory Hand Dyed Yarn Caper Sock

Colorway:  Solas

March knit.sock.love Knitalong:

Thelonius Socks by Cookie A

String Theory Hand Dyed Yarn Caper Sock

Colorway:  Bye Bye Blues

April knit.sock.love Knitalong:

Mona by Cookie A

Wollmeise 100% Merino Superwash

Colorway:  Jultomte (We're Different)

Whew!  And I'm almost done with the Cookie A Sock Club April shipment.  I hope you'll see that one soon!

It's My Turn

For months now I haven't been knitting as often or as quickly, which also means I haven't been blogging as often.  Xandermommy jumped in with a sock club update (and will hopefully keep posting!), but I finally have some progress to show, too.  I just finished a little baby blanket:

And I finally feel comfortable revealing that there is a reason for the abundance of baby knits beyond just the simple desire for some smaller, quicker knits: I'm pregnant!  That's also the reason I've been knitting and blogging less.  The first trimester really sapped a lot of my energy and my desire to knit.  There's a seemingly endless amount of cute knitting patterns for baby stuff out there and I just didn't feel like picking up my needles to work on anything.  Knitting suddenly seemed to take so much longer to accomplish anything than it did before.

A Little More Knitting

I'm still not knitting as much as I once was, but I do have a little something to show.  I'm still working small projects on larger needles, so a little baby sweater named "Presto Chango" fit right in.

Now I'm a fan of avoiding unnecessary seaming, but I think this particular pattern could benefit from some photos or diagrams that give you and idea how the construction is going to work out.  This is not what I expected a little sweater to turn into along the way:

3-sided bib maybe?  No, a baby sweater?  Interesting...

But I followed the text of the pattern somewhat blindly and ended up with something that looks like it should, once you fold it over.

Certainly looks more like a sweater once it's been folded

I didn't end up with the number of button holes the pattern intended for the center panel, but hopefully it will work fine with 6 buttons instead of 8.

Now it just needs a good soak so that the edges aren't so curly.  I don't have a lot of good seaming experience as it is and I don't want to fight to line things up any more than I have to.

So yes, I'm still alive and still picking up the knitting every now and then.

Cookie Time!

It feels like I'm a guest blogger at this point, but really I'm not! Since Ludistitcher is hitting a bit of a knitting slump, I'm pitching in and actually putting up a post! I'll be trying to post more often. The photography and writing won't be as good, but I've got lots of finished objects to show off!

Anywho, let's talk cookies. Cookie A, that is. I joined the Cookie A sock club this year, and also joined a knitalong for her knit.sock.love book. The knitalong for the book started on January 1st, but in December they had a "any Cookie A pattern" knitalong. I looked in my Ravelry queue, and saw my November 2009 Rockin' Sock Club kit. The pattern is Raven Swirl by Cookie A, and the yarn is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Lightweight in Blackbird. I finished them up in January, and here they are. They were really fun to knit and fit perfectly! It made me feel silly for letting the kit sit for so long.

Raven Swirls

Pattern:  Raven Swirl by Cookie A

Yarn:  BMFA Lightweight in Blackbird

Needles:  2.5 mm Signature DPNs

Minor Knitting

I haven't been knitting much lately.   I just sort of lost the will.  I tried to make myself go back to a few lingering projects and finish them up, but it quickly became apparent that I just avoided knitting altogether in that case.  I've also knit a lot of adult socks, so I became a bit burned out on those, too.  But I obviously still had a lot of yarn waiting to be used.

So I was looking for a small, quick project to try to get some knitting going.  I picked up a One-Skein Wonders book (Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders: 101 Patterns That Go Way Beyond Socks!) for less than half price late last year, so I started there and ended up with these:

A cute little baby hat and matching socks.

Supposedly sized for a newborn, but they all seem quite stretchy such that they might fit a baby a bit larger, too.

Pattern: Shibui Baby hat and Socks by Helen Bingham
Yarn:  Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight - Bait-A
Needles: US 3 - 3.25 mm for the hat, US 1 - 2.25 mm for the socks
Completed: February 26, 2011
Mods: None intentional, although I think I added one extra row to the heel that certainly wasn't necessary.

Oddly enough, there's nothing about the knitting process that's really bothering me at the moment, I just have a hard time getting started and I don't pick it up as often.  That really hasn't happened to me much since I started knitting, so I'm not sure how long knitting malaise typically lasts.   Maybe there are other small, quick projects in my future.

It's That Time of Year Again

Yes, I changed the blog template... again!  The previous one was rather dark and a little quirky to maintain.  This one is less customized, but hopefully easier to read.

Most things should still be in roughly the same place, but let me know what you think and if you find any errors.  I can still go back to the previous template if this one makes everyone twitchy.

Part of a Tin Man Sock

I haven't been much of a knitter lately.  I think I went nearly a week without knitting a stitch.  But, when I did have some knitting ambition and some new kits at the beginning of the month, I got started on the first of the Tin Man socks:

And the lack of knitting ambition certainly isn't because I don't like these, because I think they're awesome!  There's delicious Cashmere in the yarn, so while they have something of a Steampunk vibe to them they're going to be wonderfully cushy.

The muted colors of rusty tin also blend beautifully with no real striping or pooling in sight.

So I wanted to show the progress here because I love how it's knitting up, but there likely still won't be much knitting progress on these for a bit yet.  What little knitting time I've made recently has been devoted to adding the lining to my Fiddlehead mittens.  Mitten weather will be coming to an end before long and I really want to get to wear them at least once this season, if possible.  I did start the lining of the second mitten last night, so there's still a chance!

Woolgirl Oz Sock Club - Oz

It's time to share my final Oz Sock Club kit - featuring Oz himself.  Although Woolgirl started an additional year of the club for 2011, I'm afraid I've had my fill of Oz and opted out, so this is the end of the yellow brick road for me.

************ Spoilers from this point on! ************

The kit contents:

I'm not sure if it was due to post-holiday timing, but this particular kit didn't make much of an impression on me.  The project bag is great -- it's large enough to easily hold a large skein project and then some, and the box style with a zipper always seems nice and secure.  Then there was actually very little other swag included -- a small post-it note pad, a couple of magnets, an oddly shaped Wizard of Oz tin, and a keychain with a stack of large beads that didn't make it into the picture. 

The pattern didn't jump out at me, either, but I have learned that some of the included patterns aren't represented very well in the pattern photos.  This particular one is rather hard to see since it's obscured by the busy color changes in the yarn.

Now the yarn:

is a lovely squishy Superwash Merino Sock Yarn by Pigeonroof Studios.  I'm not sure about how it looks knit up in the pattern photos, but I'm always game to try knitting with a nice new yarn!

Of course I'm still running a bit behind.  I did finish my Lollipop socks and I have the first of the Tin Man socks on the needles, but I haven't made a lot of knitting time lately and progress is slow.  For the moment, I'm determined to try to wrap up some lingering projects from 2010 before I cast on something new, so it might be quite a few months before I manage to wrap up the majority of the Oz club socks.  Then there's the attempt to knit down some stash...

A Very Large Sock Revealed

A very large sock was the source of my quiet knitting delay before Christmas.  It was also the only Christmas gift I committed to knitting this year.

I hadn't done any colorwork since the beginning of the year (2010), so I did warm up with the Fiddlehead mittens first.  Thankfully, the mitten warm-up helped me get my colorwork tension under a bit more control before tackling the stocking.

Now the lovely free stocking pattern called for bulky yarn, but heeding the Ravelry warnings that it led to an enormous stocking, I down-sized to worsted instead.  It's still pretty big, based on the stocking I had as a kid, but not too much so.

The intended recipient is just a bit too young to even understand what a stocking is yet, but his parents appreciated it and they hadn't bought him one of his own yet, so it was a gifting success.

I did manage to finish it in less than two weeks, but that was also partly due to late start and the looming deadline keeping me on track.  Modifying the pattern and charting out the name so that it would fit on both sides was slow going, but I kept notes so that future stockings might go faster.  It is a beautiful pattern that I would be happy to knit again!

Pattern: Falling Snow Stocking by Jennifer Hoel
Yarn:  Plymouth Yarn Worsted Merino Superwash - Burgundy and Cream
Needles: US 7 - 4.5 mm
Completed: December 23, 2010
Mods: Cast on 80 stitches to accommodate the lighter weight yarn, added the name panel to the pattern, and used a snowflake-like pattern for the toe.

Christmas and Lollipops Complete

I actually did finish the Christmas River socks for Hubs, almost two weeks before Christmas:

But they are probably the longest pair I've made for him yet, and since I used Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight, that means I ran out of yarn before the second toe.  And it was a Rare Gems Mill End skein, which means it's not a standard colorway.  Fortunately, I had another Rare Gems Mill End skein that was surprisingly similar -- at least in that it had a lot of brownish red -- so while the toe doesn't totally match it definitely doesn't stand out as badly as you might expect from a totally different skein.

Pattern: Kalajoki by Tiina Seppälä
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight - Rare Gems Mill End
Needles: US 1 - 2.25 mm
Completed: December 12, 2010
Mods: Cast on 66 stitches to accommodate the lighter weight yarn

Happy Yarny New Year 2011!

More posts coming when I have to get back to a real life schedule again in a few days.  ;)