Baby Stuff



My sister is due to have her second baby in January and she sent me some Pinterest pics of what she wanted for her girl.  Obviously her nursery color theme is pink, white and gray.  The set below was done with one skein each of Lion Brand Vanna's Choice in Pink, White and Silver Grey.

 



The patterns are: Itty Bitty Ribbed Leggies (w/striping & minus the pom poms), this newborn owl hat crochet pattern (though I added the flower but in pink instead of the white & used felt instead of button eyes), this other crochet owl hat pattern (with sleeping lashes instead), and the striped crochet flowered earflap hats in 2 sizes (0-3 & 3-9 mos).  I ended up doing 2 striped hats 'cause I forgot to work in the gray into the smaller size, so I made a second in the next size up.

Before I got my color marching orders from my sister, I had started a cutely constructed pattern that my knitting BFF was working on.  I may give this to my sister anyway since it's in cotton (for HI).

Pattern: Snug
Yarn: Plymouth Fantasy Naturale in a multi from a lys closing awhile back
Needles: size 10

Color Affection, Placemats & Violets Rising

Like a lot of the knitting/crafting world, I'm completely lagging behind on my blog posts.With Instagram & other quickie online social media sources, they're so much easier to update than it is composing one of these blog posts.  In any case, a few things I've finished in the past few months.

Pattern: Color Affection
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Spring Tickle, Cinnamon Girl, & Romeo Blue
needles: size US 7

mods:
Ran out of Romeo Blue right at the bind off, so I had to switch to Spring Tickle.  When I had bought the yarn at a lys years ago for another test project (wasn't right for it - not lofty enough & too thin), I had an inkling the Romeo Blue skein wasn't quite as full as the other Smooshy skeins.  I don't know why I didn't weigh it & brought it to the lys' attention, but I don't remember if I had a kitchen scale at the time.

Like most other Color Affection knitters, subbed a kfb for the M1 & added a yarn over near the edge stitch on the RS row & dropped it on the WS row for stretch. And like everyone else, I've have tons of sock yarn in my stash, so I'll probably make another one in a different color scheme, probably with some STR.

Per DH's request for our family cabin, I knit up a bunch of place mats.

Pattern: My own though I used this tutorial to miter the seed-stitch border.
needles: size 8 (border for the thinner yarn) and size 10 for the body

Lastly for now, an Anne Hanson (Knitspot) pattern I got from a Yarn4Socks (now a defunct online yarn store) sock club kit. I've been meaning to knit up this pattern ever since I got it, but since I hadn't knit any socks in awhile, I figured now was as good a time as any.

Pattern: Violets Rising
Yarn: The Woolen Rabbit Superwash Merino
needles: size US 1 (2.50 mm) nickel-plated dpns

No mods.  Cuff is a little on the short side, so I have plenty of leftover yarn to do a pair of fingerless mitts if I wish.

Traveling Sweater

Pattern: Traveling Sweater
Pattern size: The first one in the original publication (the 'smallest' size).
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Woobu in In the Navy - over 3 skeins.  Will need to weigh the remainder to figure how much is left
Needles: US size 4 Knit Picks nickel-plated circs for everything except the wrist bind off when I switches to size 3 circular needles.

Very helpful for the assembly of the sweater is the designer's blog post if you have difficulties picturing it based solely on the written text in the pattern.

I was a little crazy and decided to do a grafted bind off of the 2x2 ribbing spine instead of a 3-needle bind off or the crocheted bind off recommended by the designer. After some research, including this YouTube tutorial , as well as this blog post and a knitting manual here and there.  This worked really well for the body of the sweater which is worked in the same direction and so the knit & purl columns line up when the 'top' and bottom' are sewn together. 

However, grafting doesn't work when the pieces are knit in the opposite direction, such as the back/shoulder/sleeve pieces were.  The columns were a half-stitch off, so the grafting doesn't align perfectly.  But since I already grafted the body, there was no way in hell I was going to undo that seaming and switch to a 3-needle bind off for the entire spin.  I think most muggles won't notice & the knitters that do will get a nice technical discussion with me on the subject matter.  If you're so inclined, that is. ; )

Sorry, for the blurry pic.  At some point I'll re-take and replace it. My last modification was to do a tubular bind off of the 2x2 ribbing as described here.  But before that, I tinked back 4 rows since I wanted the sleeves ever so slightly shorter.

Bigger on the Inside

Bigger on the Inside, a photo by crochet_chick on Flickr.

Like most crafters, I've pretty much abandoned my crafting blog in favor of quick posts on Instagram. I'll have to make an effort to blog more. It would be easier too if I took the time to learn how to add more than one flickr pic into a blog post.

In any case, I'm on vacation, so I've got a little time to post.

Project deets:
pattern: Bigger on the Inside from knitty.com
yarn: BMFA Socks that Rock medium weight in TARDIS Blue bought at Stitches West 2013
needles: size 6 (US)

No mods. I bought 3 skeins of TARDIS Blue and only used 2 for the shawlette, so I'll probably make a pair of socks from the 3rd skein. I don't like the existing TARDIS sock patterns online since they're all colorwork. I'll probably take the TARDIS chart from the shawlette pattern & put them on the leg of the socks & just do a simple rib pattern for the rest of the socks.

Sisters

I will freely admit that I would rather buy 2 expensive 18" dolls (the one with the brand name A______ G___) than make another felted doll.  The hair alone was a pain to do.  Not to mention felting them by hand in the sink since my clothes washer is a bit too gentle for machine felting.  Which probably explains why there's a year separation between the first doll I made (the one in blue) and the second.  At least it didn't take almost 5 years like it took for me to have my 2 monkeys. 

Pattern: Benji & Friends doll by Maggie Pace
Yarn: Pick Up Sticks Wool in Sandy, Chocolate, Pink (or Petal?) and Sea Blue
Needles: US size 10 for the dolls & US size 6 (but I may have stuck to the 5 recommended in the pattern) for the undergarments

The pattern & yarns were bought at Maggie Pace's moving sale.

I also bought the two clothing patterns designed to go with the dolls which I'll do next gladly.  I don't mind knitting doll clothes as much.

No vacation knitting would be complete without a little knitting for myself:

Pattern: Autumn in Garrison
Yarn: The Fibre Company Babe (discontinued) in Iris
Needles: US size 8
Pattern size: one

And a little more for Monkey1:

Pattern: Taylor Swift Inspired Diamond Slouchy Beret
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Bulky in Blackberry (color discontinued I think)
Needles: US size 10.5
Pattern size: the larger one

I had already knit the worsted weight version for Monkey1 a year ago.  I had downloaded this bulky weight version at the same time when it was offered free & finally got around to knitting this version.

They both are drying from a wash/block, so no block FO pic yet.

Done with the holiday knitting

After knitting a few gift knits after last Christmas holiday season,  I finished a few more for my staff at work (my numbers almost doubled) and for a couple of Monkey2's teachers.  I even managed to knit a spare just in case, just like when we buy an extra box of See's Candies during the holiday season. 

These Naylor Street infant & toddler hats were knit while I was test knitting/tech editing Carrie's pattern, so I don't have any particular babies in mind for them yet.

Yarns:  Knit Picks Swish Worsted (Carnation pink) and Cascade 220 superwash in a blue (lost the label so don't know the color number/shade)
needles: size 7

size: in Men's for my newest staffer
Yarn: Berroco Comfort Worsted

I was in a rush to finish before I took time off w/the monkeys, so I didn't take a pic of both Hat Shaped Hats, but I did make two for one of my staffer's boys.

Yarn: Bernat Roving in Dark Grey
Needles: Size 19 Clovers which I think we got free at a Stitch & Pitch a couple years back.

For one of my staffers who likes pink:

Pattern: Zigzag neckwarmer on the Jimmy Beans Wool site
Yarn: Stitch Nation Washable Ewe in Icing
Needles: Size 8 needles

The spare:
Pattern: Phydeaux Twist Cowl (the non-i-cord edge version) which I think I got in her newsletter
Yarn: Loops & Threads Cozy Wool in Sweetgrass
Needles: Size 19

The one that went to Monkey2's dance teacher:
Pattern: also Phydeaux Twist Cowl
Yarn: Loops & Threads Cozy Wool in Black
Needles: Size 19

This one went to Monkey2's grade school teacher:
Pattern: Phydeaux Ridgely Cowl (also via her newsletter)
Yarn: Loops & Threads Cozy Wool in Thunder
Needles: Size 19

Not fond of knitting with such large needles since my hand movement has to be much larger, but since I'm done w/the holiday gift knitting for the year, I get to go back to smaller needles to knit things for my monkeys and myself.

Wool Accessories Season

I finally got around to knitting a hat to match my Ishbel Shawlette.

Pattern: Ishbel Beret 
Pattern size: 3rd size up
Yarn: Madeline Tosh Pashmina in Tart
Needles: US size 5 & 6

No mods.

I love Knitwhits colorways & had actually bought a couple skeins from her booth at Interweave Lab in San Mateo last year. I bought more this year, but this time I actually knit them up for Monkey1.

Pattern: Victoria Gauntlets 
Yarn: Knitwhits Freia Fibers Flux Sport in Ultra Violet
needles: US size 7
No mods though when I make myself a pair, I'll have to add at least 2 more stitches since my hands are wide.

It was that time of year when Wooly Wormhead holds her Mystery Hat Knit-along &; once again I joined up. I stash dove for this yarn as I decided to join after shopping at Interweave Lab market. The only problem I had with this yarn was that one of the ball in the bag I bought from a lys closing a few years back had a lot of breaks in them. After the 4th break, I had to tink back a few rows & use another ball. Thankfully, it looked like the rest of the balls in the bag & the yarn in the plastic bin they were stored with were all fine.

Pattern: Wooly Wormhead Mystery Hat KAL 2012
Pattern size: Large
Yarn: Lana Grossa Numero Uno (discontinued) in color #112
Needles: US size 5 & 6
Mods:
- Picked up stitches on a 1:1 row ratio & then did an increase row in purl to get the desired number of stitches for the body of the hat after knitting the brim. Added an extra repeat of the body pattern since my stitch gauge didn’t match the pattern & I wanted to make sure it was more beret-ish instead of beanie-ish.
- Added 3 plain rows to the crown decreases.

BTW, I'm wearing my favorite lip color for this fall season in the last pic. (MAC Rebel)

The knitting on these mitts were finished in September, but I didn't get around to seaming them closed & adding the buttons 'til today.

Pattern: All of 'er Buttons Mitts from the Jan 2012 Rockin' Sock Club
Yarn: Socks that Rock lightweight in HRH Crown Princess of Purple, Violetta
Pattern size: Large & long
needles: US size 1.5 mm, I think? I totally forgot to put the specs in Rav when I cast on

Mods:
- 2 extra repeats of the pattern on the hand portion after the thumb gusset as is my preference.

- Extra cable cross on one of the mitts. DH calls it my ‘signature.’ LOL!