Santa hats galore!

I haven't been knitting too much lately except to make a few santa hats for little kids I know. I wanted to make the very cute santa hat from Handknit Holidays, but for some reason my bobbles just didn't happen like the picture. I don't think my yarn was bulky enough and I'm not sure I was doing all the bobble stitches correctly. In any case, I just chose to modify Kim's Hats from the old standby, LMKG. I did a garter stitch brim in white (cheapy yarn from *gasp* Wal-mart--the gasp is for oh so many reasons. 1) the fact that it's cheap acrylic yarn will make some sneer and 2) the fact that I shop at Wal-mart at all, I hate what the company stands for, but *sigh* it is all too convenient to shop there sometimes). And then finished the body out with some red Homespun yarn. I just added three or so knit rows between each decrease and then decreased all the way until I had one stitch left. Topped it off with a cute little white pompom. I think it really turned out adorable. I have a couple friends who will have newborns at Christmas time so I made super small sizes for them and then matching toddler sizes for their big brothers.



After I finished making one of the NEWBORN hats Big E found it and smashed it on her head somehow (I have no idea how she got it on there or how long it took her to do so). And came prancing out of my bedroom, proud as a peacock that she had it on her head. Then she noticed the cat drinking from the sink. And the happy little santa helper decided to go torment the cat a bit. I think this is about one of the funniest pictures I've seen in awhile, and it could be a funny greeting card with oh so many possible captions. I'll gladly accept any ideas you may have for captions! :-)

I'm baaaack!

So I've been knitting, just not posting about it. I decided I'm going to use this blog just to post finished things (FO) since I just don't seem to have the time to write progress posts. I have completed the Hour-glass sweater. It was fun to do as my first adult-sized sweater. The Debbie Bliss cotton angora is very nice to knit with despite the rabbit hairs that I inhaled and picked out of my eyes. It does pill and shed VERY easily though. Overall, the fit is pretty good. I'm not sure I'm a big fan of boatnecks on me. I did two extra decrease rows and now I wish I had done two more. Oh well, live and learn. Here is an image of the sweater. There are no modeled images because I have discovered it takes some talent to actually take a picture of oneself in a bathroom mirror and have it turn out (without the flash).For some reason the sleeves ended up an inch or so longer than it should, but I have long arms so its not too bad. I also finished one of Kim's hats from LMKGs for my three-year old. It was my first attempt at knitting with more than one color and I thought it was quite fun. And I'm very happy with how it turned out. I just used some Patrons baby yarn from Michael's for it. It is SOOO soft! Big E loves it and is slowly learning to keep it on her head when she's outside. Now that we're in Minnesota instead of California the kiddos are getting used to cooler weather, more clothes and *gasp* shoes AND socks! I didn't have any winter coats or hats/scarves etc. for them yet and it SNOWED on Oct. 11th. Welcome back to the Midwest for me! So I decided I was going to knit the girls hats instead of paying $16 for ONE hat. The pompom turned out a big large but I think it makes the hat more whimsical and fun.

Signing Off

I'm signing off for a little while. I got a little burned out with the knitting and have been reading lately. The hour-glass is at a stand-still for now with the body and 6" of one sleeve finished. I'll sign on again when I get back in the mood for the needles.

Toodles!

Looking more hourglass-like

Here are a couple progress photos of the hourglass sweater. I'm almost done with the lower body, just about 4 rows left. Then I can start in on the arms. I think the sweater will still fit me nicely even though I decreased a little too much. I made up for that by increasing again so now I have the correct stitch count. If Allison didn't have preggo brain and could do the math right....no, I'm just kidding. She's always a great help to me! She's been patiently waiting for me to get caught up to her so she can continue with our knitalong. Well, Allison, I think I'm almost there!





I have to say I really do like the Debbie Bliss cotton angora. It's very nice to knit with. But it does have fuzzies that shed on me and into the air. I am always rubbing my nose after knitting with it for about an hour. I love how soft it feels too. And I am really looking forward to wearing my sweater this fall!

No news on the house front. A relocation company is in charge of selling my dream house and they are not crazy about a contingency offer. So I'm impatiently waiting for our dinky shoebox to sell so we can try again for the house. There's another one around the corner that just went on the market. It's not quite as perfect, but it has potential. Keep your fingers crossed that someone falls in love with our condo very soon, because the Princess (that's me!) wants all this jazz over with very soon! :-)

The Pear-Shaped Sweater

I know the pattern is called the Hour-Glass Sweater, but I was not graced with an hour-glass shape, so mine will be a pear-shaped sweater to accommodate my misproportioned body. The Knitting Goddess came to the rescue once again and helped me with the knitting math. I started with a size larger and am decreasing to the next smaller size by the time I get to the top. And for my next trick, I will pull a rabbit out of my hat....

Here are a couple pictures for you. The color of the yarn looks more red in the pictures than it does to me in person. But I guess that's why it's called burgundy and not some other color. And I've decided now that I'm a little further along, the fabric doesn't seem too loose to me. Good thing, I'm not sure I really wanted to frog it all the way back to nothing and start over.



In other news, I think we may have found a house in MN. Cross your fingers with me that our offer is accepted. It's the most perfect house, my dream house and I have my hopes up way too high for this one. I'm afraid I'll jinx the whole process because I want this house so badly. It has a perfectly sized yard for the girls to run around in, a four-season porch that would be their playroom, bedrooms for each of them (I won't even tell you that we have Little L sleeping in the bathroom right now. Oops, just did. It's the sink area and she's in the pack n play. Really, don't call child services on me. It's much better than her sleeping in the same room as Big E. Trust me, they were waking each other up all the time. This way, everyone gets a good night's sleep). But the best thing about the new house by far, is that it has an extra room in it. This would be MY room! A library/craft room all to myself! I can go and hide in there and knit or read to my heart's content! I am just so thrilled by this idea! And I'm planning on buying the most perfect chair for in there. Something along the lines of this with a matching ottoman. Oh yeah! I'm drooling just thinking about it!

Dedicated readers

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I'm pleased to see my hit counter rising though. I was beginning to think I was the only one that looked at my own blog. ;-) I have been on vacation the last eight days or so, as well as looking for a new house. So I decided against bringing the knitting with me. I know that must sound blasphemous, but I sort of felt like I wouldn't work on it, why pack it?

At any rate, my knitalong with Allison is soon becoming a knit-a-follow because she is WAY ahead of my measly little 11 rows that I have completed on the sweater. ;-)

I will return to the knitting in a few days and I'll post a progress photo to get opinions on the way the yarn is looking.

Happy Knitting!

PS. Why, when I perform a spellcheck, does blogger not recognize "blog" as a word? You'd think they would have added that one to their dictionary.

So soft!

I decided to get the Cotton Angora from an eBay seller. And it was terrific, not only did I get a great price, she mailed it on Saturday and I had my yarn on Monday! I chose the burgundy color and I'm really pleased with it. It's actually almost a mauve color. And I loved the way it felt when I swatched it up. I am having to use size 9 needles to obtain gauge though. This is unusual since I usually have to use two needle sizes smaller with my loose knitting. We'll see how it turns out! I'm hoping to cast on this weekend. I'll post a picture of my yarn as soon as I can get the camera back from my husband.

I think I'll be making the second smallest size. But I may add some length to the sleeves and waist as I like things a bit longer. And I may try to do something different with the neckline. I'm not sure I want it to be as open as the pattern. Here I go with my modifications again. :-)

Now, I'm off to do some painting in the kitchen. Definitely not how I like to spend the girls' naptime. *Dreaming of sitting in a comfy chair, relaxing with an iced mocha and my knitting*

Hmm....which yarn to use?

Okay, so I'm trying to figure out what yarn I want to use to make the Hourglass sweater from LMKG. I am not a fan of wool at all. I just don't like how it feels, not even sure I would want to use a wool blend. I like cotton angora and cotton cashmere quite a bit (who wouldn't!). I would like the yarn to be machine washable as I have little ones who like to drool and leave baby schmutz on me. I am considering Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora in Burgundy (although not machine washable). But I read on the Hourglass knitalong that the cotton angora leaves "fluffies" everywhere. Not sure I like that idea.

Anyone out there have any suggestions for yarn I might use?

New Sweater and New Stash!

We were gone the last week or so to visit the in-laws. Actually, quite a nice trip. The girls were spoiled beyond belief and my husband and I got some time to ourselves which is always nice. AND, I also had time to knit! I finished up the new sweater for Little L and it is TOO big so it should fit perfect for the fall. I also added a collar to it and I think it turned out quite nice. I'm not sure where my gumption comes from to modify patterns since I'm still bascially a beginner. But at least I have the guts to try, right? Really, my motivation was that having the collar would make the head opening bigger. I tend to overcompensate when I try to fix things. :-) So now, Little L's large noggin should be right at home in her new sweater! And since we'll be moving to Minnesota this fall, she'll actually have occasion to wear it! The blue yarn in the picture is the color that I'm planning to use to make Big E a matching sweater.





And I saw the Knitting Goddess' husband this past weekend. He handed off a bag of stash yarn for me from her! Yeah, now I can swatch and play and see what kind of yarn I might like to knit with. There's some Debbie Bliss, some fun angora yarn, all different textures and varieties. Thanks Allison!



And the girls are BOTH napping at the SAME time! So I'm off to knit....

Progress and More....

So here's a progress photo for you. I know, I know, not too exciting. Looks a lot like the first one. ;-) On a completely different note, I have not been real jazzed about my monikers for D1 and D2. I envy creative moms like this one who calls her kids "Thing 1" "Thing 2", etc. And this mom who calls her youngest kid "Guppy". LOVE that! I'm not so creative. But I am really not excited about "D1" and "D2". So I think we'll try out Big E and Little L for now. And see how I feel about that....

Hate when "things" get in the way of knitting time....

And by "things" I mean D1 and D2 of course. I've been too busy being a mommy this week to really do anything too exciting with the knitting. I am about 2/3 of the way done with D2's new and improved Placket sweater. I actually do have a progress photo to post, but am too tired from child wrangling to upload it from the camera at the moment.

As much as I have not really been knitting, I have been thinking about knitting. I added a few new blogs to the sidebar. And I may add a few more in the future. I found a great little ring called Knitting Parents of Young Children. Sounded like something I could relate to.

Last weekend I was able to sneak away from the fam for a little while to run errands (like grocery shopping, oh what fun!) and I snuck in a trip to Barnes and Noble for a nice frappaccino and some time to look at knitting books (instead of just books in the kids section!). I ended up buying Baby Knits for Beginners by Debbie Bliss and Simple Knits for Cherished Babies by Erika Knight. Both of which look quite fun and have adorable baby patterns in them!

I do have a sweater planned for D1 since I wouldn't want her to feel left out (yeah right). But I may not do that right away. I have other babies to knit for. And maybe since Allison is so generously thinking of letting me try out some of her yarn stash. I'll figure out a type of yarn I might want to use to make the hourglass sweater for ME!

Here's the Nutty Novice in me

Okay, maybe I'm slightly boring (ie: knitting the same pattern again so soon after finishing it the first time) or maybe its the almost perfectionist in me, but I've cast on to make D2 another placket sweater. Well, really here comes the NOVICE part of my knitting. So I washed and blocked the first sweater which had fit her absolutely perfectly before washing. And well, I couldn't even get the sucker over her head! Somehow, my bound off neckline shrunk in the wash (is this just something I should have known would happen?). I couldn't force it over her giant head even with the buttons undone and really trying. (Poor kid!) And well, I'm not one to figure out how to unbind it and redo it. And I feel like it just fit her now when we're entering summer and she'll wear it probably twice when its freakishly cold. SO, to make a short story long, I started over. I'm going to make it slightly bigger so hopefully it will fit her this fall and I'll bind off more loosely this time. I'm using the Bernat Cotton Tots yarn in Strawberry (almost the same color as the pink Crayon). We'll see how it goes this time. But I'm also excited about improving upon my first one. I love the frog buttons but they are slightly big and didn't fit through the knit stitches very well. But thanks to me learning about the YO in the eyelet round of the hat I just finished I think I might throw a couple little eyelet holes into the neckline (look at me go!) so that I can button the sweater easier and it won't just look like a stretched out knit stitch when its unbuttoned.

To ramble on further because I know you're riveted by my post so far. I have noticed that in the other knitting blogs I've glanced at, no one uses um, how shall I put this, "Michael's" type yarn. You are all very selective about your yarn choices (and they are quite beautiful colors and textures, I must add!). I feel very cheap/inexperienced using the yarn I can get at Michael's in my projects. But I also 1) have no knowledge of yarns or how they might knit up, 2) pretty much mostly have knitted baby things so far and therefore would like them to be washable yarns, and 3) have absolutely no budget to go buying wonderfully expensive yarns! I so wish I could and maybe some day after I grow tired of the stuff from Michael's. But I do love seeing the pictures of all the beautiful yarn you guys buy! I aspire to be you someday!

Topping it off

Well, after much deliberation, I decided to make the Children's Cotton hat from LMKG. I even went online and checked for errors in the pattern. Found it here at the blue blog. There's also a cute version of the children's placket sweater.

So I'm knitting along and everything seems great. I finished the whole thing in a couple days (given my limited knitting time). And well, I still had an uneven number of eyelet holes, even with following the "fixed" pattern for the eyelet round. So I'm not too sure where I messed up, but I just threaded the i-cord through a knit stitch to bring it back out.

I measured my just barely 8-month old's head and she was at about 18 inches (she is humungous by the way, without really be overweight or anything. She is just very tall and at the top of the charts for her age). Anyway, so I decided to make the child size hat thinking it would then fit her later this fall/winter. Uh, no can do. The hat just barely fits her now. So, I guess the hat will be given to another well-deserving, but small-headed baby. I did a gauge swatch and my gauge was right on. Unless I changed my knitting tension once I started, this pattern is definitely for children on the smaller-head side of the spectrum.

I used Bernat's Cotton Tots yarn in Lovely Lilac for the hat. And I REALLY liked the yarn. I think I may try a placket sweater in it next. It's so soft and easy to knit with. I think I like it better than Knitpicks Crayon. The Crayon was too stretchy (like my technical words?). I also want to try Knitpicks' Shine worsted.

Past projects

Here are a few photos from things I've finished up in the recent past. I made a modified version of the Big Bad Baby Blanket from the Stitch n Bitch book. I cast on less stitches, used smaller needles, and double-strand yarn. I really liked the way it came out. I also gave the same couple this set of baby booties. The free pattern is here. I made pillows for each of my girls. My older daughter got this version. She LOVES (aka OBSESSED) with all things Nemo/fishy. So I made her an "ocean" pillow with bright Nemo orange on one side and ocean blues/greens on the other. She ended up loving it! I started out with the "funky cushion" pattern from The Cool Girl's Guide to Knitting and sort of modified it. I was originally planning on just stuffing the pillow myself, so I was making it 13" square. Then I remembered, you could buy pillow forms at Michael's. Of course those are only 12" square so the knitted squares didn't quite come together as nicely as I'd have liked, but I fixed that for my other daughter's pillow. I made that one in deep purple and light pink (she's much more of a girly girl). I used Bernat Boa in peacock and Lion Boucle in an orange (not sure the exact color) yarn for the ocean pillow and Patons Twister in Grape Nuts (I sort of chuckle at that name) and Baby Clouds in Pink Lemonade for the other.

More ramblings....

So miracle of all miracles, D1 and D2 are both sleeping at the exact same time today so if I don't waste too much time blogwriting and blogreading today (ever notice how you think, "I'll just check So-and-So's blog and then get off the computer" and then an hour and five different blogs later, you finally realize how addicting blogs can be. Everyone has links to everyone else's and you can just blog-jump from one to another.....anyhoo), I just might have two whole hours to start a new project. And I will be ignoring the dishes on the counter, the toys all over the living room, the laundry that needs to be folded, and the floors that need to be cleaned. After all, we do have a three-day weekend starting tomorrow. A whole extra day to get caught up around the house. Yippee!

*off to decide on a project*

Hmm.....what to do next?

I can't decide what to work on next. I reorganzied my craft cabinet this week. I found all the yarn I had just been stashing in various corners of our bedroom (is this why they call it yarn stash?) and realized I have a ton of stash yarn already! Mostly baby yarn stuff. So I could make some blankets, sweaters, etc. And I plan to. I was at Barnes and Noble yesterday and actually picked up a copy of Last Minute Knitted Gifts. For the sweater I just finished, I used the corrected pattern from here. I do like some other projects in the book so I gave in and used my 15% off one item coupon on that. I haven't been doing much regular reading lately anyway.

I like the hour-glass sweater in there and was thinking of maybe making that for me. But I wouldn't have the first clue of what color or type of yarn I would use. Hmm....maybe I should just do another children's placket sweater with my stash yarn. I definitely want to make another one soon. As I'm an almost perfectionist (meaning, I'm truly lazy at heart but know that I can do something better. The lazy part means I never really stop and redo something, the almost perfectionist part means, I just do it better next time).

Oooh, I loved some of the hats in LMKG too. So maybe I'll try one of those for a change of pace....

Just rambling today...

It's an actual sweater!

The title of this post was my husband's response when I showed him that I finished my first baby sweater (my first sweater of any kind actually) yesterday! He was actually surprised it turned to have two arm holes and a neck and everything. He said, "You made an actual piece of clothing!" This was all meant to be very supportive and about as excited as one man could get about a baby sweater his wife just finished knitting.

I was so thrilled with myself. I haven't washed or blocked yet. But here are pictures of the FO and the sweater being modeled by Daughter #2 (D2-age 8 months). It's the Children's Placket sweater from Last-minute Knitted gifts in Knitpicks pink Crayon yarn. I should have used size 6 needles but forged on with the 7s anyway because I was too lazy to rip it back and start over. I did do a gauge swatch and knew I should use the 6s, but went ahead anyway. (I was too excited to get going on it and didn't want to wait to order size 6 dpns).

I felt like an idiot reading the pattern. I am one of those visual learners, so often a bunch of words on paper in a technical manner make me feel like I'm reading mumbo gumbo. But of course, the Knitting Goddess came to my rescue and translated. I figured things out after awhile. But I don't know why they just don't say knit one round this way, knit the next seven that way....yada yada.

I think I'm slowly becoming addicted to knitting. I found myself standing at the kitchen counter frantically knitting in about 15 minute increments while dealing with the kids. I have found that I can sort of "trick" Daughter #1 (D1-age 2 1/2 years) that Mommy is busy in the kitchen if I stand at the counter and knit. If I sit in the living room and knit she wants to bug me the whole time. I don't ignore her, if she needs something I get it, but there are times when Mommy just has stuff she needs/wants to get done. And dammit, that sleeve just wanted to be finished!

Anyway, here you go:











I realize you didn't really need FIVE pictures to see my handiwork. But that's what you get because I'm so excited about it. I did modify the pattern a bit. I made the 6-12m size (for the body) and used the 1-2 years sizing for the length of sleeves and the body length. D2 has pretty long arms and is long-waisted, but still pretty skinny all the way around. So I compensated for that. It turned out pretty well. The sleeves are a smidge long, but I did that on purpose for "room to grow".

Well, I think that's all for now. I may post a few pictures of my previous projects in the coming days.

Raison d'être

I fancy myself a person of many interests. I like to be crafty and creative. I have become quite an adept cross-stitcher even adapting and creating my own finished objects (well, okay, not exactly all finished. I do have an whole craft cabinet filled with unfinished cross-stitch projects. My intentions are very good. You may see a couple of those on here from time to time). I like to read as well. In fact I have a book blog (On My Bookshelf). On the flip side, I also enjoy technology. I'm somewhat of a gadget girl, even more than my husband is a gadget guy. I guess I am a true product of my parents (a design engineer and a book worm/crafty type). I like playing around with website design, blogs, photos, etc.

Jeez, see I'm already rambling on. The reason for this blog. I learned to knit a couple years ago. But not very seriously. Last summer, I started knitting easy baby blankets for our friends who were expecting and scarves as other gifts. Starting this spring, I grew tired of all things rectangular. So I threw in a pair of booties with a blanket. And made pillows for each of my girls (I guess those are still technically rectangles). I am currently working on my first baby sweater (definitely not rectangular!).

I have a friend who I shall call The Knitting Goddess. She has helped me tremendously in my quest to improve my knitting skills. And I shared some pictures of my knitting with her. She suggested that I should think about starting a knitting blog. I thought to myself, *another* blog! I also have a blog for our family and friends of things our daughters do. But as I thought about it, and enjoyed reading other knitting blogs, I thought why not?

So here we are.