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Sweaters, and Socks...

I've started on E's new Griffyndor sweater. It is going to drive me crazy and I don't like the yarn, but I'm trying to get over myself and just knit it. I'm using some of the acrylic yarn I recived from our friends grandma. Yuck to acrylic, but I'm reminding myself that this is for a 6 year old boy who will wear it for one winter and out grow it. Plus doesn't really need it to last that long. I'm trying very hard to make it large enough it can go over another shirt, since last years model was too tight in the arms to be anything but a primary layer. Sigh. I'm still learning this shit though.

It is burgandy and gold, as are the movie colors rather than scarlet and gold, simply because I didn't have any scarlet yarn, well not any I was willing to use, the reds she had were more like Ronald McDonald hair red, than anything I would put in a sweater for my son to wear. (See I'm still picky)

The fabric is really dense because the yarn is a heavy worsted and I'm using size 7 needles, and I do not knit loosely ;) 4.5 sts/inch. I figure that will work since it is going to be an outer sweater to help keep him warm, and it isn't wool which has real insulating properties. (yes I'm still confllicted about knitting this in acrylic why do you ask?) Eh, we'll see, it shouldn't take too long to knit up and then we'll see what we see. He wanted it to be the exact same colors as last year but when i told him I would have to buy the yarn he looked sternly at me and told me, yet again, that I am not allowed to buy yarn while I still have a garage full of yarn. ;) (he takes after his father in many ways)

Socks, what am I doing wrong? I don't think hand knit socks are all that cofortable. I think it is partly because I'm getting the fit all wrong. the last pair I knit E are really too tight to pull on his feet. How to you make the heel so you have extra room to get them over your heel/arch? He has skinny legs so to keep them up they need to be pretty small at the top but then they are a bit too tight to get over his heel. Also I think I'm running into problems because I tend to knit tight and so they don't have much stretch. Hmmm maybe if I knit them in a k1p1 all over pattern (well except for the sole) they would give enough stretch? Anyone have an idea?

No really I am still knitting.

This is not going to be a post about the baby sweaters or the craft show I didn't go to. Instead this is going to be a post about a really fun quick knit I just did. My son E has a love of cephalopods, yeah I have no idea where it comes from but there it is. I knit him a cuttlefish earlier this year. He loves it. At the time I got that pattern I also bought a squid, octopus, and dumbo octopus pattern. He wanted the squid next and I had him pick out the yarn and I've been promising to make it for months now. Well on Thursday morning I decided this was the day and I started on the arms. I finished all 8 arms and both tentacles by that night. Yesterday I started on the rest and by 6 last night it was done. So I present to you Squid Squid and Cuttie...


As you can see they have become fast friends and both enjoy sleeping with a 6 year old boy. Who knew that nearly alien sea creatures could be so darn cuddly?

So I'm going to take some of my knitted things to a craft sale the 1st of November. Towards that end I've started knitting somethings to actually, you know TAKE to the craft show on November 1st.

First out of the pipeline is a little purse. I figured it would serve a dual puporse. It would knit up quickly, and it did, and it would kill some of my stash, which it did. I used Patton Merino Wool, in black, and Noro Kureyon in colorway 170. I have no idea why I had 2 skeins of the Patton's in black but one is gone know. the Kureyon was a left over bit from a purse I made myself awhile ago. My Brother-in-Law brought it back from Japan when he was visiting his then fiance.

This shows the color work I did on it, very little, and the lovely pre-felting floppiness of it. I was pretty pleased with the color work. It turned out a little too tight but not bad.

Here is a close up of the color work, very basic but since it was at a light color point in the Noro I think it showed up well and show the gradation that I love about Noro yarn.
Here it is in the post-felted state. I need to figure out a strap and a button for the closure. Anyone want to give a suggestion for the strap? A leather strap from the fabric store? A felted i-cord strap? Something else entirely?

I'm now working on a baby sweater using Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Suprise Jacket pattern. So far it is lots of garter stitch. We'll see how it looks in the end. It isn't my favorite shape but I have always wanted to try it for the novelty of how it is constructed.

So does anyone know?

As I mentioned we have inherited a 'bit' of yarn. We also seem to have inherited some moth cocoons and I'm guessing some wool moths as well.

So dear Internets anyone know if all the acrylic yarn needs to be treated for moth infestation the same as the natural fibers? There were little cocoons on some of the acrylics but only the ones in boxes that also had natural fibers in them. I don't think there is anything in them since even if there was eggs they would have nothing to eat at this point in the game.

I'm going to go buy some dry ice today and gas the buggers on the wool and like. Well that and I will likely make dry ice bubbles with the boy. No dry ice rockets though.

I have more pictures to share but I have a feeling I'm going to run out of disk space before I can get pictures of all this yarn online. Not that anyone really needs to see what 100 lbs of off white acrylic yarn looks like.

What's 2 months between friends?

Hmmm so maybe I'm not keeping up with this as well as I had hoped to.

That said I have some exciting news. First I am now a stay at home mom. For this month anyway. I'm staying home with my son E to help him transistion to Kindy. We'll see what I can find starting in Sept.

What does that have to do with knitting you might ask. Well a little. It isn't like I'm getting a ton of knitting done staying at home with a 5 year old I have to admit. I did finish his cuttle fish. It turned out ok. Drove me a bit batty, but all in all, ok.

See isn't he a cutie? Dh thinks with a couple of wings, and something about longer tentacles I could make a Cuthulu plushie. I may have to. E loves him and that is what I wanted the most.

I also have started on a pair of socks for the boy made from Schoeller & Stahl Fortissima Socka Teddy, in blue. It is fuzzy and cushy, should make for some comfy socks for this winter.

All that said, the really, really big news is that my sister and I inherited a lot of yarn. A friend of ours grandma passed away and no one in her family did any crafts. She had a room full of yarn, material, embroidery projects, hook rag projects, and the like. I have 4.5 13 gal trash bags filled with wool, wool blend, mohair, angora, and camel hair yarns. The sadest things so far is that the camel hair has been eaten by moths. I have to treat all of the natural fibre as though there is moths in it. There are 3 bags full of cotton and cotton blend yarns, and we have more bags and boxes that I have counted yet full of acrylic yarn. This yarn runs from the mundane to the sublime and everywhere in between. We are sorting now.

Since we had to start somewhere, the first sort was by fiber content, and in the case of the acrylic by color also. The next for the acrylic will be to sort by weight.

Much of this yarn is going to have to find a new home and for that I'm going to be looking at the charity knitting groups here in Colorado and seeing if any of them would like to have it. Yesterday afternoon I was drowning in it. I'm starting to feel a bit better about our chances of passing it on.

Estes Park Wool Festival

Oh, so much yarn and roving, and fleeces and well all things fibery. It was fun. Lots of fun. I went with a co-worker and had lots of fun.

It meant driving up to the mountains a second day in a row, but it was worth it. I bought a Maggie spindle and I am in LOVE! It is a 35 ounce, medium, midwhorl, maple spindle. I spun up what I was given that was already preped. I was given some locks that I will attempt to prep and continue spinning. I think I'm going to take what I've made so far off and then ply the two together. My production with this spindle is so much smoother for a couple of reasons. First there was a wonderful woman in the 'children's tent' who sat and showed me how you card the wool, start it on the spindle and where to hold it to draft it. Second was because this is a much light and well balanced spindle. My other one is a pine one that was not well constructed.

Happy, happy, E spun a bit of yarn himself, and I think I'm going to get an inkle loom from my coworker I was there with on Saturday. Yippee!!!!

World Wide Knit in Public Day....

So we went into the mountains to a lake at about 10,500 feet and fished, well my Dad & my son fished. I knit. While there were not many people there were about 50 up there and I did get the webbing on the left side tentacle done. The right side (which is what I thought I was knitting earlier) is not going as well. I can't figure out the picking up of the stitches. I feel like I'm learning to knit all over. Of course this may be due to the fact that I did not drink any water today, only Pepsi. I might be dehydrated and stupid from having a shrunken brain.

I am done with that baby sweater I was making for a co-worker. Woo Hoo!!!! I can't tell you how happy I was to have that damn thing off my needles. Teach me to knit the same basic thing 3 times in a row. She said she would talk to me the next time she knew someone having a baby & I told her that I have lots of baby sweater patterns to choose from. To which she said, yea I really liked the one you made for K. Ummm yeah see that was the same pattern just different yarn, not different enough for my brain. Thank you very much.

Oh so what I'm knitting right now is a cuttlefish for the boy. He is very exctied about it. I'm actually pretty excited about it as well.

Blah

I had a lovely weekend but it did not involve knitting. I wanted it to. Oh well. I'm still working on the Clapotis for a friend, I had forgotten how long that sucker is. I still have a baby sweater that needs to be knit up by the first of May and the kilt hose that while I don't have a deadline I would like to get them done in April as well.

I want to take the cuttlefish pattern with me to Disney World so I can get started on that for my son. I also want to see if I can knit up a better snake pattern for him. One that would involve stranded knitting. I think the markings on a boa or anaconda would be lovely in stranded knitting. I need to think on that.

Happiness on a gray day

One of my co-workers found a bunch of circular needles at a local 2nd hand store for 50 cents each. She bought the lot of them and just brought me what she doesn't want.

I've been wanting to try the magic loop method and really want to use it for the kilt hose I'm going to knit up. This has given me the needles I need to do it.

Hurray!!!!

Ideas and thoughts...

I'm trying to figure out how to parlay my love of knitting into something that helps bring home some cash to offset the cost of yarn, and the ubiquitous needles that I *always* need more of.

I'm considering different options. I don't spin, yet. I have had some turns of dyeing but I'm not sure I want to sell dyed yarn, although that isn't a horrible idea.

I've knitted up some items for people as gifts and I apparently can knit evenly enough that they think they are well made. Ok they are well made, I knit well, not quickly but well. I could knit up some items of my own creation and sell them.

I could work in a yarn store, but I'm sure everyone wants to do that, well everyone who is fiber obsessed, and I'm not sure how much I would actually make after I spent my earnings on new yarn. ;)

Oh well I'm still working it out.

ACK...

What have I got my self into? I have a co-worker that wants me to make a pair of kilt hose for her. She gave me what she has now, complete with holes in the heel and toes and still dirty for the last wearing. LOL

I know how to make socks, I know how to knit cables. This shouldn't be too hard right? Right? Ummm I guess I'll see. She wants it to be machine washable, and mentioned making it acrylic but wanted to make sure it wouldn't strech out too much. Yeah I think I'm going to see if I can make it with either a superwasher wool or else with a wool acrylic blend.

Wish me luck. At least it isn't another baby sweater right?

Baby Sweater #3 Done....

So I finished knitting and blocking the latest baby sweater. It is done but for the buttons and those will be added at lunch today. The bottom trim I put embossed hearts on. I found that stitch pattern in Nicky Epstein's Knitting on the Edge. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Hurray. Now I can move on to the Clapotis, I started it last night and will work on it at lunch after the buttons get attached.

That said someone at work has asked me to make a sweater for her. I will work one more up. Really people need to let me move on to other things, ummm maybe I need to let myself move on to other things. HA!

I'm going to order the Cuttlefish by Hansi Singh and start that for Everett soon. He saw the Knit Picks Essential sock yarn in Gulfstream that I bought planning on making socks for him and he said it wants to be made into a cuttlefish instead. Who can argue with that?

My Yarn is HERE!!!

I was afraid the Post Office was going to wait until I finished the sweater to deliver my yarn and I would be yarnless (well kind of) over the weekend. I see myself finishing the sweater this weekend btw.

Nope it is here. 9 balls of Knit Picks Andean Silk in Lettuce to be used in a Clapotis as a prayer shawl for a co-worker with uterine cancer. She is fine and they belive they got all of it early and completely. The sentinal lymph node was clear so she is now just recovering from the surgery.

So this weekend will be the start of a new project that has nothing to do with babies and I did not have to worry about the washability of the yarn while picking it.

Unfinished Symphony...

Yeah, this is so not a symphony. Anyway, the baby shower it today at 3:45 and the sweater is NOT even kind of finished. Well unless you consider mid-knitting weaving in ends kind of finishing? Yeah me neither. I did that to make it look a little neater in the bag. Sigh.

Still I'm going to let her know it is for her little one and that way I can knit it in front of her at lunch. That has been a HUGE kill of my time on it.Well that and the stomach flu that knocked me out over the weekend.

Baby Sweater #3...

I will never knit this sweater again. Ok that is a lie. It is easy and cute and knits up quick. I am not knitting this sweater again for a long time. There that is better.

I'm working on #3, I have the hood finished and will pick-up the stiches for the body tonight. I need to knit like a fiend so I can hopefully have it near compleation on Weds for the baby shower. Last weekend was nearly devoid of knitting time. Friday and half of Saturday I was sick and unable to to knit. The other half of Saturday I actually played with my son, which sadly does not involve knitting since he does not consider knitting 'playing'

I've ordered yarn to make a Clapatois as a prayer shawl for a co-worker. The yarn should have been here today I'll give it until tomorrow's delivery and then call Knit Picks to see if they can find it.

Well that baby came quickly....

So baby William came before his sweater was done. He came before his Mama & Daddy were ready, but he came anyway. He seems to be pretty healthy and will hopefully be home with them and big brother soon.

That said, I'm going back and forth on how much I like this sweater knit with this yarn. The cotton yarn is making it floppy, what I can't decide is if that is a bad thing or a non-thing with a baby sweater. I'm making the judgement that it is a non-thing.

Annoyances

Once upon a time I bought a Vogue Knitting Fall 2006 magazine. It had many sock patterns I wanted to try. I left the magazine with a friend who said she would get it back to. She left our circle of friends quickly and without much explination soon after and I have never seen the magazine again.

This morning I went to put on my favorite sweater. It is a cotton cable knit sweater my Mom bought me 20 years ago. I love that sweater. This morning the love shone through. I had a 3 in hole in the right elbow. It has compromized 4 or 5 rows of knitting, plus I have none of this yarn to darn it.

I went looking on Ravely for a pattern I could use to make a new one for myself, I found it, guess where the pattern was published? Damn it! Wish me luch dear internetz to find the magazine again so I can knit that sweater. Well that or accept that there is another pattern out there that will work as well.

Love of knitting...

How had I forgoten how much I love to knit? I had not picked up needles in a few months and now that I'm back at it I remember how much I love it.

I'm waiting for yarn to show up so I started a baby had with the left over yarn from the baby sweater I just finished. I was going to try to add some basic cables but realized I don't have the proper understanding of how to start them to do it. I finally figured out the layout but the actual execution was not what I had wanted.

It is basic 2x2 ribbing at the rim and st st to the crown. I'm not sure if I'm making it too small or not. Eh it will be what it will be, it is keeping my hands busy and that is the main thing I wanted it to do.

Baby Sweater #1

I'm done with the first edition of Lillie's Little Sweater. I just have to find buttons for it. I'll go today and see if I can find something at JoAnn's and if not I'll have to make a trip to Shower of Flowers on Saturday and see if I can't find something that will work.

I've ordered the yarn for version 2 of the sweater to be made for another friend's baby. Knitpicks Shine. Woo Hoo I've very excited to see that one take shape. I'm getting a blue and green color and plan to frame the hood in green as well as the bottom of the sleeves and sweater. Hmmm and maybe even the ribbing at the neckline I'll have to see how it looks.

I SWEAR I'm going to upload pics soon, maybe this weekend.

A day at the frog pond...

I spent my morning break today ripping out the 'shawl' I had started out of Mountain Colors Bearfoot in I think Ruby River, or something close to that. I love the color and feel of the yarn and really want to find something that will make me happy with it. Maybe socks for myself, maybe a scarf for my bf. I must think on it more.



The Noro My So Called Scarf also went the way of the frog pond. The fabric was just too dense, I'm sure it is because I'm using too small needles. I may try it again on larger needles, or I may see if something else calls to me for this yar.



Pictures to be added tonight.

Knitting, yeah...

So I'm going to start knitting again this year. I have many projects I'm excited to start, much yarn in my stash that is begging to be knit, and patterns that tempt me daily.

I went to take a break and knit on what I'm carrying with me and found that I'm unhappy with the scarf. I'm knitting "My So Called Scarf" in Noro Kuryon on US 9 needles. I'm not happy with the fabric, too dense for a scarf to my liking. I want something that has a little movement in it and this has nothing. Although I'm thinking it would be really nice as a hand bag or a structured jacket so I may come back to this stitch later and see what I can do with it then.

So I figured I'd pick up the socks I'm making for my boy, except my 4th needle has made a run for it and I can't find it. I thought I had a duplicate set of needles in the bag but nope they are US 0 and I'm working on US 1's for this pair. Sigh. No luck there. Then there is the shawl/what do I want it to be ball of yarn. I'm not happy with it either so I've got to rip it out as well and then see what I want that yarn to be.

Today was not a get projects done or even worked on day. Maybe tomorrow will be better. Maybe tomorrow I'll upload pics to add to this.