Still knitting, not so much typing

I've been making time for knitting fairly frequently in the evenings, especially over the last few months, but since I've become a stay-at-home Mom I very rarely have time in front of a computer.  That's quite a shift from the working me that was in front of a computer at least 8 hours per day, even if only part-time.  But, we recently splurged on a nifty Chromebook that's super lightweight and quick to boot, so we'll see if I can make a little more blogging time for myself now.

Hop, hop!

My knitting photography has obviously suffered a bit, too, and rarely happens in the daylight or with the fancy camera.  Sometimes it's just the little point and shoot with a flash or an iPad photo, but so it goes.

It's still enough to be able to show off some cute little bunny cubes and the little helper that gets a big smile when they hop around the house.  And just in time for Easter.

A Return to Knitting

Hello again!  I know it's dusty and gathering cobwebs around here and no one has been posting, but I have... *gasp*... a little knitting to share.  Now that the baby has a pretty set bed time and it's a relatively early one, I sometimes get a little time to myself before I collapse into bed, too.  In the past few weeks I've even used a little of that time to pick up some knitting again.

Because my little niece was born when our little one was only a few months old I hadn't had the chance to knit for her yet, so I decided to make her a sweet little girly hat for a baptism gift.  I wasn't sure her parents would use it right away, but I thought I'd keep it white anyway.  And since I have a history of knitting things that weren't forgiving enough for larger baby heads, I decided to try to make it fit our little one's noggin so that Miss K could grow into it and maybe even use it through next winter.

It did end up a bit larger than I expected, but fits a little loosely on our little one already:

And although the pattern called for a rolled edge, I was going for something a little frillier, so I started with a picot edge instead.

The picot edge makes the bottom flip outward a bit, but I'm still happy with it.  It was a fun little project and it was really nice to be able to whip up a quick little handmade item for a gift again.

Pattern: Simple newborn hat with a touch of lace by Ginny Sheller
Yarn:  Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light - Winter White
Needles: US 4 - 3.5 mm
Completed: April 7, 2012
Mods: Cast on 99 stitches (for 2 more pattern repeats) to size up from newborn and worked a picot edge instead of letting the stockinette roll.

I'm still slowly whittling away at the Tin Man socks that got dropped at the beginning of the second sock, too, but this little hat was much cuter to share.  Now we'll see if I can keep up with a bit of knitting here and there enough to have something more to share before another 10 months pass me by!

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.

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.

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.  ;)

Woolgirl Oz Sock Club - Tin Man

Yep, I fell apart a bit.  I've been distracted by all of the usual holiday tasks and consequently have had a lot less knitting time.  I've fallen behind on photos and such, too, but I finally have some to share of my penultimate Oz Sock Club kit - featuring Tin Man!

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

The kit contents:

This is definitely one of my favorite kits!  The project bag is large with drawstrings to close it.  The heart-shaped tape measure is attached to a long cord, presumably for wearing around your neck if you choose.  The decorated red heart tin came with some little Hershey's kisses inside, and the little metal notebook holder has a spring-loaded cover that's held shut by the matching metal pen.  All very useful swag!

The pattern made me want to cast on immediately!

It doesn't look complicated, but it looks interesting with the different textures and matches so well with the yarn.

And the yarn:

Macaron MCN by Wool Candy!  The MCN is for Merino, Cashmere, and Nylon and it feels wonderful.  I love the muted colors and I have a feeling these will be another pair of socks that get a lot of wear.

But I restrained myself.  I haven't finished my Lollipop socks yet; in fact I haven't even worked on them in weeks since I'm trying to wrap up some Christmas gift knitting.  So the Tin Man socks aren't anywhere near the needles yet, but I might get to start them sometime around the New Year.

Mitten Distractions

I've been a bit distracted by some necessary destruction to keep our house steadily heated through the winter...

...so the blog posts have fallen a bit behind.  But of course I've still been knitting and I started yet another project.

Fiddlehead Mitten #1

Fun and colorful mittens from the kit I purchased at Stitches Midwest 2010.

I got to work my first i-cord cast on and I'm pretty sure I'm going to find a way to use it again in future projects.  It's slow, but it makes a very neat edge.

i-cord cast on edge

And they're stranded, so I've been practicing my 2-handed knitting again with the background color in my right hand and the pattern colors in my left.  I still haven't mastered the tension in my left hand, so I've been using an inexpensive Knitting Thimble to help me along.  Instead of using it to separate multiple colors, I run the single yarn through both guides to help keep it from slipping too loosely on the left side.  It might be an odd way to do it, but it's really helped me keep the yarn in my left hand without constantly fiddling and trying to find a good way to hold it.

Inside out

I haven't quite finished the outside of mitten #2 yet (they're lined with another smaller mitten inside) so they haven't been blocked.  My stitches aren't as even as they should be, but I'm working on it and hopefully a nice soak and block will loosen them up and even them out enough.

I'm hoping to finish up the outside of mitten #2 in the next night or so.  With the Holidays and the end of the year looming these will probably have to be set aside for a bit to make time for deadline knitting soon.

Christmas Socks for Him

My knitting feels a bit out of sorts lately.  I think I feel like I should be casting on for Christmas gifts or something, but I don't really have a list of gifts to make.  So when Hubs (aka my Mr. Wonderful) pointed out that my Lollipop socks looked a bit like Christmas socks, it made me want to make him some Christmas socks too.

So I decided to grab some Socks That Rock Rare Gems Mill Ends with some green and red and join the  Kalajoki socks knit along in the Socks that Rawk!! group on Ravelry.

The yarn didn't really knit up how I expected (based on what it looked like in the skein) and they're turning out more gingerbread than red and green, but Hubs is pretty used to crazy pooling socks by now (e.g. Mr. Wonderful and Blue Jean Gems) and doesn't mind.  Fortunately, this pattern seems to stand up to the pooling well enough.

Now the Christmas Lollipop socks and these Christmas River Socks are definitely Christmas socks in spirit, but I/we have already accepted that I might not be able to finish both pairs in time to wear them for Christmas Day 2010.  Both have much longer legs than I usually work for socks, so if I do succumb to knitting Christmas gifts there's a good chance I won't have time for these.  But I finished the toe of his right sock last night and my first sock is ready for the toe decreases, so we'll both have one sock for sure.  Maybe the single socks will get hung up as stockings this year and they'll get their mates for next year.  They would definitely make for some bright and uniquely mismatched stockings!

Lollipop Socks in Progress

My Scarecrow socks took cuts in line and jumped on the needles first, even though the Lollipop Guild kit arrived first.  But the scarecrow yarn was such a perfect combination of Fall colors that it begged to be knitted right away.  The Lollipop Guild yarn was delightfully bright in the skein, but I was a little worried by the splotchy socks in the photos for the accompanying pattern so it was easy to put them aside for a bit.

I was afraid that the Lollipop socks might not find their way onto the needles for several months or more, but here they are.

Of course, this is the time of year where things get hectic and I have a hard time keeping up with photos, so I'm actually a lot farther along with these now.  And they're really long!  Either I've been consistently misreading some part of the pattern or these would be nearly knee socks.  They don't look like knee socks in the pattern photo and it doesn't seem like a large skein, so there must be some fault on my part. 

The leg was pretty long for me after just one repeat of the 77 pattern rows, but the pattern suggested repeating rows 30-77 again before the heel.  Needless to say, I didn't repeat.  And since it's only 370 yards of fingering weight yarn I'm a little concerned that I might run low on yarn as it is.  So when I reached the start of toe decreases on the first sock last night I set it aside.  I'd like to at least weigh the existing sock and remaining yarn to try to make sure I don't need to switch in some contrasting toes.

In the meantime, my Mr. Wonderful pointed out that these look sort of like a lit Christmas tree -- they have a lot of green with dots of all the usual colors from the strings of lights -- so these have become my Christmas Lollipop socks.  They've been knitting up faster than I would have thought, so if I don't get pulled into too many last-minute gift knits they should even be done in time.  We'll see.

Stuck in a Scarf Loop

I've had some projects lingering on the needles that are nearly finished but oddly daunting to get back to. Realistically, I don't want to haul 8 or more pieces of what will hopefully one day be assembled into a sweater around with me, so I do continue to cast on simpler projects for when complicated knitting/assembly just isn't practical.  Unfortunately, said simpler projects are also immediately compelling and they keep jumping off the needles while the daunting projects sit quietly nearby.

Enter the Dipped Infinity Scarf kit obtained from Stitches Midwest 2010:

It's worked in the round and has a simple stitch pattern that's easy to memorize.

It's made of lighter weight yarn held doubled with colors that transition into each other.

It absorbed almost every knitting moment I had for a week to the exclusion of nearly every other work in progress.

It's been soaked and hung to dry and I look forward to wearing it soon.  It's bright and cheery and I am curious how the concept of the scarf as a loop without ends to flap in the wind will work out.  It's also my first project with Stitches Midwest 2010 yarn.

I also made a teeny, tiny bit of progress on my Brea bag this week, which is mostly stalled due to sewing.  So not all hope is lost for the lingering projects -- I still hear their whimpering!

Finished Scarecrow Socks

I didn't quite make the October goal, but I did finish my Scarecrow socks on November 1st so it was close.

Pattern: 'If I Only Had a Brain' Socks by KellyK
Yarn: The Alpaca Yarn Co. Paca-Peds HT - Scarecrow: If I Only Had a Brain
Needles: US 1½ - 2.5 mm
Completed: November 1, 2010

I really fell in love with the colors in these.  They're just so perfect for Fall and they spiraled so nicely.  Even the pooling on the feet after the gussets charmed me.

I did stop working on the first sock before the toe just to make sure I'd have enough contrasting yarn for both socks, and while I didn't have a lot left over I did have plenty for the pair.  And the few modifications I made (detailed on my Ravelry project page) were just to snug up the foot.

Now they're washed and ready to wear.  They're destined to be worn for Thanksgiving this year, although they might jump on my feet a few times before then, too.  I don't think I really want to wait 2 weeks to wear them.

I Became a Test Knitter

When I was invited to test knit a pattern I knew I had to try it and I'm definitely happy that I did!  And after checking with the designer I have permission to display some photos:

It pushed me to try knitting a shawl, which isn't something I had tried yet.

It also gave me a chance to work with Malabrigo sock yarn.  I've knit with Malabrigo worsted before, but I have to admit it wasn't my favorite.