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.