leapfrog

attention, those of you who knit for small persons!

if you do not already know about it, it's time for you to check out petite purls, an online knitting magazine featuring items for and of interest to children. it's 100% free, and i must say--it. is. awesome. this magazine is the love child of my friend allegra, and her friend brandy--their model is much like that of knitty.com, with more of a focus on natural fibers and knitting green for your little ones. they've attracted a ton of attention from the knitting community, and for good reason. their patterns are great, from great designers, and so far, very reliable. highly recommend.

i don't have nearly the time to knit that i wish i did, but i do manage a thing or two here and there. and i actually managed to get these little pants (rav link here) finished before the squeaker was too big to wear them. in fact, i made them ages ago, but have neglected to post about them till now because i FINALLY managed to get some decent pictures of him wearing them. this may not come as a shock to most of you, but it's rather difficult to get good pictures of a moving baby!

i bought some AWESOME blue sky alpacas dyed cotton especially for these at the salty sheep (still my favorite yarn store). the yarn is a joy to work with and oh so soft. i also find that i am a lover of the worsted weight yarn in general. when you don't have a ton of time, you want what you knit to MOVE, and even i can see my progress when i am knitting with worsted. i would most certainly use this yarn again, and you should, too.

the pattern is leapfrog, from annika barranti--very well-written and easy to follow. i am in LOVE with the braided cable down the sides! i love that it doesn't look feminine at ALL. patterns for boys are so much harder to find than those for girls. i think these pants actually ARE gender-neutral. the only change i will make if/when i knit these again is that i will add a little shaping to the bottom of the leg so that it flares just the tiniest bit. the straightness of the leg makes them fit just a little more like leggings than i would prefer, so i think that a little increase here and there might alleviate that issue. other than that, however--perfection!

headway

i am trying a new strategy for knitting. i am not putting this sweater away until it's done. seriously--i am leaving it out on the coffee table where i can just pick it up and knit a stitch, or a row, or whatever, when i have two seconds to do it. and check it out: it's WORKING! i knitted a swatch (please see the photo i have included as proof of my swatch. i hate swatching.), even. (granted, the swatch was off gauge, but that's irrelevant, right? i just guessed at the right needle size based on the wrong swatch and went with it--isn't that what everyone does?) i cast on for the sweater on saturday, and observe that i am making some serious progress. it helped a ton that i was able to leave the baby at home last night and actually go out and KNIT at my knitting night (thanks, hippie!)--this is only the second time i have been able to do this. i can JUST squeak it in between finn's evening feedings as long as the hippie is willing to feed both boys dinner and get the older one to bed with no help. last night i came home from actually knitting to a quiet house--it was so nice i almost wanted to cry. of course, the diabolical squeaker then woke up and threw up on me, but that's a whole other story, and not for today, when i am reveling in actually knitting. :)

there's actually a real possibility that i might get this done IN TIME for gabriella's birthday. can you feel my amazement?

somethin' new

i am going to make gabriella a sweater for her birthday. she will be 8 in march, and i have wanted to make her something she could wear basically since the day her mother and i learned to knit together. i've been loosely waiting for the right sweater to come along and jump out at me, and finally, it has--the tiny tea leaves sweater (rav link). something about this is just so appealing to me--it's a real, grown-up style sweater that still looks like a young girl. it calls for some lovely madeling tosh yarn that costs more than i can really spend, so i was hunting for options when i stumbled across something PERFECT in my stash (i LOVE my stash!). i'll be knitting with this lovely brooks farm solana that i bought at SAFF in 2007:

this is a washable wool, perfect for an 8-year-old girl. it's a gorgeous color that will suit her beautifully. this stuff has 320 yards in a skein, and i had two, which gives me more than enough yarn to knit this cardigan and lengthen the sleeves as well. i cannot WAIT to cast on!

i knit a swatch last night in spite of being so tired i couldn't see straight. i was sleepy enough that i knit the swatch, then went to bed without even measuring the thing. we'll see tonight if i guessed my needle size right or if, instead, i have to knit another swatch before i can get going. this, by the way, is torture for a knitter. you KNOW the swatch is fully necessary, but it feels like wasted time when you JUST WANT TO KNIT! but i digress... the point is--this is the first time since finn was born that i am actually fired up to knit something. here's hoping it's a sign of things to come...

goals

2010 was the year of unfinished projects. so many things half done; so much life passed in a hurtle without stopping to breathe; so much time escaped from me in a fog of half concentration. to this, i cry: no more! my main goal for 2011 is to follow through on what i start. i want concrete goals for the year, so i have things i can check off. here's my list--consider it in sharpie:

HOUSE AND HOME
1. clean out/organize closet and dresser
2. fold laundry within 24 hours of doing it
3. plan meals better so we waste less food
4. finish bedroom decor
5. do more art with the boys
6. more dates with the hippie

KNITTING
1. knit kieran a fair isle hat
2. finish my sister's clapotis
3. felt all the nearly finished felted bags i have ready to go (and have HAD nearly ready to go for...uh...a long time)
4. finish one of the two shawls for me that i have on the needles
5. knit a sweater for ME
6. knit finn a blanket

SELF
1. maintain my haircut
2. move more
3. play more with my family
4. write more
5. make at least one thing a month
6. finish 3 novels

there. something down on paper, so to speak. as cliche as it is, it's important to me to start the year off with some thoughts of this nature. i'm not wasting time regretting all the things i didn't get done in 2010--that's pointless. all i am doing is looking to the future with thoughts of improvement.

i believe i will print this out and put it in the fridge to remind me every day what i want to get done.

new (free!) yarn

oops--i wrote this post last week, but failed to actually publish it. let's hear it for follow-through! anyway, here it is--better late than never, right?

one of my bosses is also a friend and fellow knitter, which sometimes works to great advantage. she has excellent taste and picks out lovely gifts as well. earlier this week, these things all coincided when she gave me a gift for administrative professional's day--enough yarn for 3 pairs of socks. now, granted, the likelihood of me making actual socks from this yarn is, as you guys well know, slim. and yet--the yarn--it is intriguing to me. the ella rae is so my color scheme, and it's enough for a swallowtail shawl (rav link). the others, who knows, but the possibilities are endless. are all these colors not lovely? here's what you are looking at, from top to bottom:

aslan trends santa fe: 2 skeins, 180 yards each. 85% merino, 15% polyamide. color SFE1327, dyelot 3810. made in argentina.

ella rae lace merino: 1 skein, 460 yd. 100% extra fine merino. color 120, dyelot 90021. made in italy.

opal: 1 skein, 425 m. 75% superwash wool, 25% polyamide. color 2650, dyelot 102. made in germany.

olympics progress

as stated in the last post, i had people over and cast on my project for the knitting olympics. and then i ripped it out. turns out i can't actuall watch the olympics and knit lace at the same time. so i restarted on saturday, and made some headway by knitting through the critter's nap on both saturday and sunday. then monday, i had the day off and the critter was at his nanny's house, so i made some more progress. i knitted a couple of rows at lunch today, too. then i had a little progress photo shoot here at work where the lighting is bad and there's nowhere very light colored to pin out the shawl so you can see it. the light green chair in our work training room was the best i could do. but anyway--progress! yay! of course, it's getting slower and slower as i go, since the rows are getting longer and longer. that's just the way of things i suppose. it's still going to be an absolute miracle if i manage to finish this thing by the end of the olympics!

so back to friday night for a minute. my friend amy made dessert int he form of this lovely cake. this is an AWFUL picture i know, as i had only my phone available to snap a quick one. this picture that THK took is way better, so go look at hers. but anyway--how cute is that?

meanwhile, i also have to say that i really enjoyed the opening ceremonies this time. punk rock tap dancing bluegrass fiddlers covered in tattoos? i mean--how can you go wrong with that. and that poet they found on YouTube??? go canada is all i have to say about that. awesome. no wonder i couldn't concentrate on the actual knitting.

the knitting olympics, 2010

it's time once again, for the knitting olympics. and as I did in 2006, i am going to participate by starting a project tonight that i will hopefully, by some miracle, finish by the 28th when the torch goes out. last time, if you recall, i had only known how to knit for a few months, and i knitted a clapotis from some wonderful cashmere yarn--i had to pull an all-nighter to finish. but that clapotis remains one of my favorite and most worn knitted items. i am hoping for similar results this go'round.

i've chosen to knit a shoalwater shawl from some lovely prism lace wool that the hippie gave me as a gift a few years ago. my friend beth tells me this isn't challenging enough, but for me, it's definitely going to be a challenge. this will be my first time working with lace-weight yarn for one thing, plus i am not very experienced with lace. so while this is a simpler lace pattern, i still think it's going to require a lot of focus from me. in addition, the sheer volume of knitting involved is insane. if i finish, it will be a small miracle, especially when you add in that whole, pregnant, tired-as-hell, atttention span of a gnat thing. cross your fingers for me, people!

tonight, i have invited all my local knitting friends over for a little cast-on party during the opening ceremonies. i've made two lasagnas and a salad, and the hippie is on board to help with the critter so i can actually knit a thing. of course, now the weather people claim it might snow (AGAIN!), so i may end up all alone with two whole lasagnas, a place no pregnant woman should be. anyway--here's to getting off to a good start. i'll keep you posted as t hings progress. :)

am i the only knitter who hasn't seen this already?

even if i am late to the party, i am still in stitches. (no pun intended, i swear!) you should go watch this right now, even if you aren't a knitter. ann and kay from mason-dixon knitting are an absolute riot.

the salty sheep

The Salty Sheep Yarn Shop
105 W Church Street
Swansboro, NC 28584
Phone:910-325-0018
i had the good fortune of stumbling across the salty sheep yarn shop in swansboro while on vacation last september. it's in swansboro, at the end of a little street of shops in the tiny historic district of the town. the building in which it sits also houses a fabulous deli/coffee shop/irish pub, a pottery shop, and a cigar shop. in our family, that means there's something for everyone.

i've been back to the store four or five times now, and that has been enough to make it one of my two favorite yarn stores ever. (the other is purl soho, where i get to go next month--whoo hoo!) this one is probably the closest thing to what i would do if i opened a store myself. i think it's a great example of where dreaming can get you. the owners, peggy and amber, were knitting friends who often joked about opening a store in this location, and then--one day--the space opened. amber called peggy, and less than 3 months later, they opened for business. just like that. not to make it sound easy--i think there was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in those three months, and a TON of work after the doors opened. but the fact that they pulled it off and have managed to build a profitable business in less than two years is nothing short of amazing to me.

this is a store full of fabulous. they decided early on to stock it with yarns they wanted to knit with, and this is working VERY well. any knitter who walks through their door is bound to leave with SOMETHING. they have a boatload of many of my favorite yarns, including malabrigo, blue sky alpacas, be sweet, dream in color, and rowan. it's a wonder i don't felt it all with my drooling. and if i were a sock knitter, i would just pull all the koigu and malabrigo sock yarn tothe floor and roll around in it. it ALMOST makes me want to knit some socks. (but not quite.) and here's the part i love: they are completely up to date. there's ravelry open and running in the store on one or both of their laptops. if you pick up something interesting, both peggy and amber can tell you 10 things you could make with it. i have been in so many stores where the help is kind of not there, but not the salty sheep. they are ON it without making you feel like you can't think for yourself.

further, the salty sheep is a community. i feel like part of this community in spite of living so far away and getting to the store so seldom. and i have discovered through ravelry that i am not alone in this. there are others here in the cary/raleigh/apex area who get yarn shipped from the salty sheep all the time in spite of many closer and larger stores. that truly says something.

on this year's beach trip, meredith and i were fortunate enough to be able to pull off going to the friday knit night at the salty sheep. there was yarn. there were snacks. there were about a dozen very friendly knitters and crocheters. and amber and peggy made is out-of-towners feel 100% welcome. meredith knitted practically a whole hat, and both of us spend too much money, which is only the Right Thing.

in conclusion, if you are down in the emerald isle-swansboro-atlantic beach-beaufort-morehead city-jacksonville area at all ever for any reason, and you are a knitter or a crocheter, then you are doing yourself a disservice if you don't find some time to go check out the salty sheep. it's utterly worth it, and i can't wait to go back!

SALTY SHEEP LINKS
the store: the salty sheep yarn shop
the ravelry group: the salty sheet support group
my pictures of the store: the salty sheep, a set on flickr

there's been some action in the yarn department

since last we discussed knitting, i've been--well--knitting.

first up, the tarris heeter hat, designed by a friend from my tuesday night knitting group. (ravelry link here) she literally followed a woman around in harris teeter until she had the woman's hat firmly in her head so she could pseudo-knock-it-off, using some information on reducing for the crown by the great and versatile ann budd. all in all, i LOVE this hat. i made it for a gift, but then caved and decided to keep it for myself when i couldn't bring myself to take it off my head. i lerve it. mine.

the yarn is lucious malabrigo, but i fear i've lost the label, so i can't tell you what colorway it is. i'm going with red. i bought it ages ago at bella filati. i have more malabrigo i picked up recently in hillsborough, and with it, i'm going to knit some more of them for actual gifts. i have plans to use some new dream in color class to knit one with a matching scarf (in the little box stitch that makes up the bottom half of the hat), my only christmas knitting so far.

i also made a bulky baby hat for kieran in one night from some blue sky alpacas bulky naturals. (ravelry link here) very instant gratification, and lovely and squishy in all the right ways. it was the color of this yarn that got me. and the hat fits the critter like a dream. so cute! size 15 dpns though--not my favorite. i'd knit this again bc the yarn is to die for and it's so fast, but i am not a fan of giant dpns.

making a shedir hat for the hippie's aunt. it's slow going, and there's not a lot to show yet, so i have no pictures. slow because 1) i have to concentrate on it, and 2) it makes me unspeakably sad. i'll take a picture when it's done.

almost done with a baby blanket for a woman i work with who has a tiny baby girl. i waited on this one for a bit, but now i am cooking with gas on it. it's pink and purple and fluffy and just like the hundred other fluffy baby blankets i've made in the past. i haven't take any pictures of it either--it's nothing you people haven't seen me knit before.

made my mama a ball band dishcloth--my first one. (ravelry link here)i went home to see her a few weeks ago, and she was all bitching about how crappy all her dishcloths were. and then we had to run an errand to the super-walmart, which was FULL of peaches and cream. so--i grabbed 2 balls of it and some size 8 needles and whipped out a dishcloth for her. she reports that it's great but needs to be just a little longer than i made it. as a good daughter, i will oblige and make her some more of them. besides, it was superfun. :)

let's see, what else? i've been working in fits and starts on kieran's hoodie, which now has a full body, a hood, and half a sleeve. (ravelry link here) i am 1.5 sleeves out from finishing the knitting, and then i have to sew down the casing for the drawstring, and i'll be done. if i actually keep working on it, i should have it done in time for cooler weather here. i really love it, but all the gauge problems i had with it in the beginning have worn me down. i pick it up now with a little fear in my heart every time. i'm committed now though--if the gauge goes south on me this time, i'm done. i don't have it in me to rip it out again. besides, it's so pretty!

i am sure there's something i am forgetting, and i have some new yarn to report on as well as a new and a favorite yarn store. however, i am saving those for later when i have both pictures of the yarn ready to go and more energy than i have right this minute. i am The Tired.

but really y'all--i've been missing this bloggy thing.

dragonfly washcloth - free!

i blogged about this little washcloth i made an age ago, but since i am on ravelry and have emailed it out to bunches of people, i decided to officially offer it up as a free pattern. it's one of my favorite and most well-used knitted items, and it makes a great little gift with a bar of soap. so here ya go--have at it.

you can download it directly here.
or if you prefer, here's the ravelry pattern link.

ps--i have no delusions about becoming a designer or anything, but i might someday get around to drawing a few more washcloths. i'll keep you posted. :)

progress report (aka, third time's the charm)

one of my goals for the year is to knit kieran a sweater. i tried once already, and ran out of yarn due to a mistake in the pattern i was using. boo. so i decided to go for this children's hooded pullover, which i have made before, as it would be reliable and simple,and useful. silly moi--little did i know i was going to have gauge issues out the yin yang! i started and ripped this sweater twice due to gauge problems (i swatched, i swear!), and had to put it in time-out for a little while before i wanted to work on it again. however, i really want the sweater, so i thought--ok, one more time... and so far, so good.

i love the color, although dark heathered charcoal grey proves to be remarkably difficult to photograph. the yarn is mas acero from brooks farm--i bought it at SAFF specifically for this hoodie while i was still pregnant. it's listed as worsted--it's not. this yarn is DK, or i will eat my hat. however, i find that i like it knitted at the worsted gauge--i am on size 10 needles to make that happen. it's a little looser of a fabric than i usually knit, but it's giving it this lovely, beachy feeling. and in NC, that's not such a bad thing--it just means he'll be able to wear it more. i am concerned about colorfastness--my fingers turn corpse-grey when i knit this yarn for more than 20 minutes. i think perhaps a vinegar soak will be in order before it gets officially washed. but anyway--so far, i am loving it. links and details are all in ravelry for you knitters who might be interested in those. otherwise--isn't it pretty? still have a ways to go...

believe it or not...

i've been knitting!

yesterday at lunchtime, i sat outside in the lovely weather and wove in the ends on the blanket i knitted at warp speed for my friend kylie, whose baby boy is due in just over a month. this is a tried and true pattern for me, and one many babies love above all other blankets. plus it's affordable, machine washable and dryable (driable?), soft as clouds, and quick to knit. it's a simple 4x5 basketweave with garter edges. this one's 5 skeins of paton's melody in le grande bleu, knitted on size 15 addi turbos. knitted in less than 2 weeks, which for me, is nothing short of a miracle.

i also finished (and mailed!) the butterfly hat (free pattern on ravelry) for my friend amy in oregon, where she promises me it is still cold enough to wear it. i confessed to her that i actually wore it myself last weekend for emily and my walk on the beach in the freezing wind. it was a tad harder to mail after that--i may make one of thse for myself. this is knitted in malabrigo (the BEST hat yarn) in the velvet grapes colorway on size 8 something or others... anyway, totally fun to knit, and i love the result.

i've also been having a bit of a delusional cast-on problem lately. i keep starting projects with this kind of field of dreams mentality of "if i cast it on, somehow it will get knitted." this is the mable dress from erika knight's book, simple knits for cherished babies, that i have wanted to make for years. however, i have never before known anyone having a baby girl at the right time of year for it. now i do, but odds of me being able to get it finished in time? well, we'll just see. if i don't make it in time for boo, then some baby sometime in the future is going to get a lovely little classic dress knitted from jaeger sienna in the creatively named colorway, 404. i will refer to it as lilac. so far, it's slow going, but lovely.

and since mable isn't knitting itself up at warp speed, i needed a faster back-up project. thus this hooded tunic i am making for kieran. this is a pattern from knitting pure and simple that i have made before from noro silk garden--that one is one of my favorite finished objects of all time. this one is a dark grey (darker than the picture looks) wool, silk, and viscose blend called mas acero from brooks farm, which i bought at SAFF in 2007 specifically to make into a hoodie for my then-unborn baby. i was going great guns on this until i realized i might be having a weird gauge issue. i need to address that--there may have to be frogging and redoing on different needles--we'll see... so far, i am happy with the fabric, but i dislike how the yarn gives me corpse-colored fingers when i knit with it. this will get a vinegar soak before i wash it when it's done.

and as if that's not enough (and it's definitely not--who are we kidding?) i've started buying a new yarn here and there in spite of the fact i have enough yarn to last me a good 3 years of constant knitting. at the beach this past weekend, i picked up this lovely skein of be sweet magic ball in the lemonade colorway. nevermind that my pasty white face has no business anywhere near these colors--i want to knit a ruffle out of this. i almost HAVE to. my friend kerstin's fabulous suggestion was to make a skirt and put this around the bottom as a thin ruffle--i REALLY want to do that! now i just need to learn to sew...

i also bought yarn to make some chickens, but we'll get to that later. :)

monday knitting update: the amanda hat

mondays are for knitting updates. i guess--why not? i made a hat. hats are about all i can swing lately, but that's ok, as i have not yet gone through a round of hat gifting. there's a group of people on ravelry knitting 3 hats for january, and i thought about joining it. but man, i don't need the pressure. i am just knitting hats when i can get to them. i bought a bunch of malabrigo so i have many colors to choose from, and i downloaded many free patterns. excellent.

anyway--this is the amanda hat, which i knitted for kerstin, my friend and one of my bosses. this was my ONLY christmas knitting, and well--i gave it to her last wednesday. the good news is, she loves it! it fits her perfectly! it matches her shearling coat, which has this lovely ribbon trim in white, silver, and champagne. this hat is made from malabrigo, my current favorite hat yarn--soft and boingy and semi-solid. the color is called polar morn, and is the same color i used for my own foliage hat a while back as well as for one of the many umbrella hats i've made. love it.

note: posted on ravelry here.

ps--if you knit or crochet, and you aren't on ravelry, get on there. i mean it--there's just no reason not to!

ah, 2009...

some thoughts on the last year:

so glad that i have a happy and healthy family and a great village in which to bring up a baby. so in love with that baby and his daddy, it's not even funny. so grateful to have a job, a house i love, two kitties i love, and a neighborhood i love. i have plenty (too much!) to eat and clean water to drink. there are many people in this world i love and who love me. i feel so lucky! i feel so lucky, i almost feel guilty about how much more i have than so many people in the world. i am blessed.

this past year hasn't been all fun and games, and it's been one of the biggest adjustments of my life so far. i am sure that's not over--we are continuing to find our groove with each other as a family and to re-prioritize all our stuff. but overall, it's been a good year--a great one, even. the hardest thing has been time--i never ever feel like there's enough.

for 2009, i have more overhanging goals than resolutions.

i'd like to focus the first two months of this year on finishing up with all the loose end things hanging over my head, so that for the rest of the year, i can focus on enrichment, personal development for all of us, and play.

in january,

• i'm going to hang the aplhabet cards i got for the critter's room.
• i'm going to get all packages in need of mailing into the mail.
• i'm going to organize the crawl spaces.
• i'm going to trim the crepe myrtle tree.

in february,

• i'm going to finish all the almost-finished knitting projects (there are a few...)
• i'm going to finish my massive flower bed overhaul.
• i'm going to do my level best to get two trees planted--a redbud and a dogwood.
• i'm going to get my studio organized.

general goals for myself for 2009:

• spend more time in the studio.
• focus on debt riddance.
• walk more.
• try yoga.
• read more.
• spend more time outside.

knitting goals for 2009:

• finish kerstin's hat!!!
• make the critter a sweater.
• finish and felt 3 almost finished bags.
• pick up the baltic sea stole again.
• get started on a sweater for the hippie.
• make hats for the critter, the hippie, tristan, and amy p.
• make baby gifts for 3 babies.
• start on a blanket for my house.

note: i have all the yarn i need for all of the above projects. and more.

two possible big-ass long-term house and home things:
1) ditch all the carpet and put in bamboo flooring?
2) puppy?

and last, but definitely not least, this is a year when i want to do something to give something back to the world. i need to live greener and lessen my footprint on this earth. and i really want to do something for others this year, whether it's volunteering or knitting for charity or what--something. suggestions are welcome.

i knitted something

it's not a big thing, but i did manage to start and finish and gift something in less than a week--this little pumpkin hat for my friend lisa who's baby is due just a few days before halloween. i feel strongly that all babies should have at least one handmade thing to surround them with love--i may even be a little superstitious about this. and well, i just don't have the time to make blankets like i used to. this little hat though--i have made it before, and i knew i could do pull it off if i tried hard. i knitted most of it in the dark while we were driving to my parents' house for a visit, and then i did the stranding at home (the night before her shower). although i had to stay up late to finish it--it was totally worth it for the smile on lisa's face when she opened it up. :)

for the record, i also managed to knit a little hat in july for our frineds clay and heather whose baby was soon to be born while we were in pennsylvania, but i don't have any photographic evidence of that one. it was a dove grey malabrigo umbrella hat--i used the leftover yarn from my foliage hat, which was still lingering around in my knitting bag.

hats are the new blanket.

a post with no pictures...

...in which i will tell you that i am knitting, and LOVING knitting, and not having time to take pictures of the knitting. BUT. this is marathon knitting. i have a deadline. and the knitting is a surprise for someone who MAY read this blog, so i can't go showing it off yet. i'll throw some pictures onto ravelry as soon as there's something to actually show--right now i have a long, pink strip, so it's not that interesting anyway. what's awesome though is that i am knitting!!! lord, how i've missed it...

happy due date to me!

40 weeks. hard to believe. and now all i want to do is get this baby out asap. come on baby! go go go! all of y'all, light candles, build altars, pray, and hope with me that this baby comes out this weekend all by himeself.

and since i am tired of talking and thinking about my pregnancy, here we feature the finished baby bolero, the only newborn sized garment i have knitted for the baby. and soon, he will be in it, stylin' and looking all cute. the pattern is from leigh radford's one skein book, and i knitted the body of it in about a minute. I changed the top shoulder seam from a real seam to a 3-needle bind off, and i had intended to change the sleeves from the way they are written to top-down and in the round. however, i stalled on that, as it required thought and math, and i just decided to go for the easier path and make them as written. i have read before that it was difficult to attach the sleeves, and i think the cause is generally that the row gauge is different for so many people. but me and leigh radford--we have identical gauges. always. in every pattern of hers i have ever touched. so anyway--this is one skein of blue sky alpacas organic cotton in willow, knitted with 8's and 9's. i love the little motif on the back, and i love how well it came out. i think it's going to fit my baby for maybe 5 minutes, but that's ok. i wanted him to have something to wear that i had made for him from the beginning. :)

as for the bottom picture, that's my belly eclipsing the bolero being modeled by my favorite of the baby's toys so far: abima. he's one of two uglydolls we've gotten for the baby, and i LOVE him. he's coming to the hospital with us...

hats, hats, hats

i have the attention span of a gnat lately. hats are perfect for this. i've made many, and have many more in my mental queue. here are the hats of the year, so far...

this is the third umbrella hat i have made. the pattern is from leigh radford's one skein book, and i just love it too much to stop making it. the yarn is malabrigo in the colorway called molly. somebody needs to have a little girl soon so i can give this hat to them. i had no reason at all for making this other than the fact that i fell in love with the color of the yarn. does that happen to everyone?

this is the foliage hat from knitty.com. also malabrigo, in the colorway polar morn. this one's for me! i am trying to learn to keep a few knitted items for my own self, and i really needed a winter hat. i am fast coming to the conclusion that malabrigo is the best hat yarn of all time. it's so soft, and the colors are fabulous. plus--two hats from one skein--can't beat that!

this is some yarn i got at earth guild, a store up in asheville, a few weeks ago. it's a blend of wool and soy silk, but i can't remember for the life of me what it's called. i will have to find the label and come back to update this. i can't even find it on ravelry, so you know it's something weird. the woman at earth guild was telling me she got it to try ti herself, and i decided to do the same. it's not the best to work with--it fuzzes up in your hands pretty badly, and i think it's going to be pill-y as all hell. but it's soft and pretty and will look good on some baby's head. it's just a little beanie hat loosely based on the gauging and decreasing in the ann norling fruit hat.

and last but not least--one foliage hat is not enough when you can have two. this yarn is the hippie's, but he got too busy with work and more work to make this hat--he asked me to make it for him. and since a) it's malabrigo, and b) i loved this pattern, i jumped on it and knitted this up in like two days. i did a better bind off on th is one than i did on my own, which is good because mine would be too tight on anyone other than me. i love this color of yarn, although i have no idea what it's called. the only downside is that the pattern is far less clar with the variegated yarn than with the semisolid above. still--i am pretty pleased, and so was the hippie. maybe some day, we will get it into the proper recipient's hands...

that's all you get for now, as i am off to meet my friend emily for dinner. there's other knitting in the works, but alas, you must wait for it. life is just too rushed lately for words--literally.

finally, a finished object!

at long last, i have finished knitting a baby blanket for my own baby. after countless fluffy basket weave blankets (which i still love, by the way), i decided to knit something different for myself. this is a simple eyelet blanket from a pattern written by the owner of my LYS. the pattern has two versions, for worsted or chunky yarn, but the designer knitted it at a gauge that was just way too loose for me. i sort of combined the two, and knitted the worsted pattern with chunky yarn on needles that were kind of in the middle. this is 7 (i think) skeins of encore chunky on US size 10.5 lantern moon destiny needles. (love these needles, by the way, mainly for the way the cable swivels at the join. i bought them just to try them, but they are truly awesome, and now, i am afraid i may be hooked.) i am really happy with how this came out. i haven't washed it yet, but that's the next step. of course, it took about 30 seconds for fergus to claim it for himself.