And the baby wear continues

Thank you to everyone for the well wishes. It's certainly an exciting time. It's hard to believe that I'm now at the five month mark, and September is coming faster than I ever imagined possible. I've been feeling great so far, and having a relatively easy time of it.

So far, the baby preparations have been limited to getting a room finished (flooring and a new closet, which quickly mushroomed into some serious structural renovations involving ripping out the kitchen ceiling below - oy!), and some knitting and sewing. That's it so far - I've been holding off on shopping for baby furniture and all the other "stuff" that one needs. It's been hard enough to keep myself clothed lately with very little choice in maternity shopping in my city.

I've updated my Ravelry page with some of the latest knitting, including this Sweetheart Cardigan:


I've also been dabbling in sewing a bit lately, and have been playing with baby patterns as a fun and low-cost way to work on my dress-making skills. This is 1950's reproduction pattern (Simplicity 2392) that I made up out of some discounted quilt cotton:


I haven't done embroidery in so long that I had to hunt a while to find my box of floss. The gathers along the front, combined with sewing the scalloped edges with lace was quite a challenge for me, but for once I took my time and did a fairly tidy job with it. I'm really happy with the result, and will probably eventually get around to making the matching bonnet and some bloomers to go with it. I know it's an extremely impractical outfit, but surely we'll find a special occasion to wear it!

I also started a baby quilt months ago that I need to get around to finishing, and several other knits are in various stages of planning and knitting. Further updates as I have time! I'm off on a business trip next week, and the minor post-renovation touch-up projects at home are still eating up my "free" time.

Double the fun

Just a quick post today to show a couple of baby sweaters recently finished. There are for a friend who is expecting twins. I had a lot of fun mixing and matching different colours of Bernat Cotton Tots. The very cute pattern, which I altered a little bit to change up the colour schemes and to add three button holes on the band, is available for free at f.pea's blog. A top-down raglan, this is a really easy and fast baby gift. These are my second and third sweaters from the same pattern, and there will probably be some more in future.


Now I just need to find some ultra-cute buttons.

Projects finished, projects started

After almost two years in our house, Nick and I are getting around to some of the small home improvement projects that have been nagging us. Behold: the front entrance.


It looks so plain and unassuming, but I assure you, hours of work and weeks of procrastinating went into this scene. First there's the handrail. There never was one there before. That was purchased, sawed off, stained, and then sat in the kitchen for a month before we got around to actually attaching it to the wall. The wooden stairs were scratched and notched and in desperate need of repainting (the previous owners were kind enough to leave a lot of half-empty paint cans in the basement, so this didn't even necessitate a trip to the hardware store), but I quickly discovered that alkyd paint, once dry, is extremely slippery. That led to a trip to the hardware store to buy the stick-on tread tape that along with the handrail, should decrease the chance of having visitors severely injure themselves before they've even made it inside. Then I painted the moldings. Lassy helped.

And you should hear the new doorbell. Now we'll even be aware of when visitors are on the doorstep. A novel concept, admittedly.

On the knitting scene, I've managed to finish a cute little baby cardigan for an upcoming shower. One of my co-workers is expecting a baby boy early next year.


I improvised the pattern using a simple cardigan pattern from a Sirdar booklet. I basically went through my stash looking for anything that was machine washable and suitable for a baby sweater, and came up with two small balls of the dark colour, and half a ball of the lighter denim yarn leftover from a pair of Blu baby jeans I made last year. They're different yarns, but both DK cotton, so I just threw them together and this is what came out. I had just enough yarn (it was a close finish), and decided to accent it with some cute contrasting buttons. I think the mom-to-be will be pleased with it.

In other baby news, my dear friend Deanne had a girl recently. I sent her the second JoJo cardigan that I made some time ago. Finally, a little girl to claim it! Happily, that gives me an excuse to knit another baby girl sweater now - I always like to have one in reserve, as there are more babies on the way in my circle of friends.

My newest distraction is a new lace project.


This scarf bears the daunting title of "Scarf with Edging 21 and Insertion 25 from The Knitted Lace Pattern Book, Thompson Bros., Kilmarnock, Scotland 1850". For anyone familiar with the book, it's easy to guess that this is from Victorian Lace Today. This is for my mom. She picked out the yarn, Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace, when we were in Halifax in June and I dragged her to Loop Yarns not just once, but twice in one weekend. I've been wondering whether I should have used a smaller needle size (the pattern is actually written for fingering weight yarn), but I'm going to trust in the magic of lace blocking and hope that it will turn out as beautifully as previous lace projects that I had my doubts about.

My other big project this week? I'm dehydrating a bunch of food for an upcoming backpacking trip with my Guides. My whole house sticks of onions. You can even smell in outside on the sidewalk. I can't wait to be finished!

Quick Update

Thank you for the kind comments on the sweater from my last post. Chris was indeed very happy to receive it, and well, I'm awfully happy to have it off the needles. It even fit really well.

Tonight, you get a disjointed update on four different projects.

First off, another Trellis baby cardigan. The first one that I made for an expectant mom was a huge hit, so I thought I'd make another to stash away for, well, whoever has the next boy. Alas, my adorable pink and purple JoJo cardigan is still awaiting a new owner, as everyone in my circle of family, friends, and even colleagues seems determined to populate the world with baby boys lately. Nothing against boys - I love my nephews to pieces - it would just be nice to knit something frilly once in a while, ya know?

Trellis, from knitty.com, size 6 months. Knit in Lion Brand CottonEase, on size 3.75 and 4.5 mm circulars.

Anyhow, given that my friends and colleagues are reproducing in record numbers, it seems prudent to have some suitable baby gifts stashed. And Trellis is such a fun pattern to knit! Using only two balls of CottonEase for the smallest size, it's a really reasonable investment in yarn and time. This time around I adapted the pattern to eliminate the side seams, knitting the back and fronts in one piece up to the armholes. This was surprisingly simple to do, and didn't even require me to think about math much.

Also on the needles at the moment is another pair of plain worsted weight men's socks. None of the men in my family can get enough socks, so I just keep knitting them. At least on 4 mm needles, they go quickly, and they make for good senseless knitting in the car.

And then there's my Ivy League vest. Still chugging along - I'm just starting the neck steek. My first steek!

And the latest quilt project? It's a double nine-patch, from an old quilting magazine. The pattern is called "Box of Chocolates", and if you squint, you can see why.


Those are the first 11 of 42 squares, so you can bet it will be a while before you see this one on a finished state! My quilting projects normally run on a scale of years, although I think that my latest productive streak may have a lot to do with the fact that I now have a dedicated studio space, and I don't need to clean everything up and put the sewing machine away between sessions. The colours aren't showing up very well in this photo, but it's all pinks, browns, and beiges. Pink is not normally a colour I go for, but I really like the combination with the brown. The sample in the magazine is absolutely gorgeous.

That's all that my tired brain can manage tonight. It's already a very busy week, and it's only Monday yet. Time for bed.

Another JoJo

Here is the product of my latest baby knitting, JoJo Cardigan #3.



This one was knit in DGB Confetti, a reasonably priced wool and nylon sock yarn that is available in a nice variety of colourways at my LYS. The solid blue is a heathery, denim-looking shade, and the stripey one is just fun!

Getting this finished was right down to the wire. My mom and I had Friday off and planned to visit my cousin and her new baby. Despite dragging this around with me everywhere for the previous week, I still found myself finishing up knitting the pockets and trying to steam-block the collar to lie flat at 8:00 on Friday morning! In the end, I had to soak the collar and present it, still a little damp, that afternoon.

JoJo #1 was given to my new nephew at a baby shower over Easter weekend, and #2 will go into storage to await the next little girl in the family - although I think the little baby boom that we've been enjoying is over for the time being, with no more arrivals expected in the immediate future. Except for my boss.... maybe if he has a girl I can give it to him...

I have several other projects on the go right now, both knitting and quilting, mostly using up scraps and completing long-forgotten items. One of these has been making juggling balls from yarn leftovers to donate to a charity craft sale:


The pattern, from Odd Ball Knitting which I recieved as a birthday gift this year, is meant to be a kick-bag/hackey sack. I thought that they would make great juggling balls, as they are small and fit easily in the hand, and have a nice weight (they're stuffed with beans). I even sewed the little carrying bags to go with them. I think these will be a big hit with the kids.

My Newest JoJo

Have you ever wondered about what makes for a re-knittable pattern?

I am a person who very really re-reads a book. Usually, no matter how much I love a book, I resign myself to the fact that there are so many others out there that I want to get to in my lifetime that I'm not likely to make it back to that same one ever again. There are some exceptions for a few all-time favourite classics. Les Miserables is one such example, but it's still different in that I've read it abridged, unabridged, in English, and in French. It has long been a favourite, but it has kind of grown with me.

Some knitting patterns are the same way - that was great, and I'm glad I experienced it, but I've done that now and I'm ready to move on to something completely different. On the other hand, sometimes I get so delighted with a particular pattern that I have to keep knitting it until I get it out of my system. The gnome episode in January is one example, but there have been other runs like that in my past, of kid's mittens, cabled hats, and toys. Usually it's because I think the outcome is so cool that I want to make one for several different people - those gnomes will make decent Christmas gifts next year, and I'll probably give some to a charity craft sale too. I've done three Swallowtail shawls, and I think it's just the perfect little project for a single beautiful skein of laceweight - interesting enough to keep my attention, and it has been a good way to get comfortable with laceweight.

The latest repeat knit is the JoJo baby cardigan. A few years ago, I knit a couple of Devan sweaters for friends who were having babies. Devan was a free pattern at Knitty.com by the same designer, and it is also a sock yarn cardigan, but a v-neck. While I think Devan is really cute, I like JoJo even more because the button bands are a little wider and therefore easier to manoeuvre on a wriggling child, and I love the little pocket and collar details. I think it's a really practical sweater in a baby's wardrobe.


So on that note, here is my third JoJo: primary colours edition. This time around I'm knitting it for a boy, in two colourways of DGB Confetti. I think part of the attraction for repeatedly kntting these sweaters is getting to knit in fun stripey colours that I would probably never wear in socks. I find self-striping yarn to be endlessly entertaining.

An Ending... and a New Beginning

It's been a pretty crazy week of ups and downs. St. Patrick's day was celebrated over the span of three days at the pub. What can I say? We really like all things Irish. Several of my family members play in an Irish folk group, so this is our favourite time of year to go out and see them play. The place was packed, and though many beers were consumed, fortunately none of them were green. Who thought that up anyway?

I also celebrated my birthday last week, on the same day as my mother-in-law. In what is now a bit of a tradition, we celebrated with a big family dinner and two birthday cakes. You can't have too many options when it comes to cake, I always say. I received several great knitting books, including Cookie A's new sock book (well, actually, I received a printed copy of the Amazon order for that one, as the book hasn't actually been released yet!). I also received a new GPS, which will inevitably lead to more geocaching during hikes this summer.

The sad news last week was the passing of Molly, the hedgehog mascot of this blog. We have had Molly since 2003, so she had a pretty good shake of it, for a hedgie. Over the last year or so she had been really showing her age, getting slower, rather wobbly on her feet, and crankier all the time. She was never as sociable or friendly as our first hedgehog, Pokey, was, but she had her own personality, and nobody can dispute that she was impossibly adorable! We'll miss hearing her wheel squeaking as she ran late into the night.

The new beginning that's getting very close is the new niece or nephew who should be arriving within the next couple of weeks. The whole family is pretty excited, as this is only the second grandchild for my parents. I also can't wait to see how the big-brother-to-be is going to react to the new addition. He has been the centre of our world for the last four years, so I'm afraid he may be in for a bit of a shock.

So this cardigan is in reserve in case it's a girl:

JoJo cardigan pattern by Holli Yeoh. Knit in GarnStudio Fabel (stripes) and Sandnes Garn Sisu, on 2.5 and 3 mm circs. Size 6-12 months.

This is the second time that I've knit this pattern, and it is becoming my go-to baby sweater pattern. I love that it's machine washable, and the self-striping sock yarn keeps me entertained. There are so many possible yarn combinations, that I'll probably start another one soon. I am also quite smitten with the little floral buttons that I found at Fabricville.


And if it's a boy? Well, let's just say that I've gotten a bit behind in my knitting and need to get moving on that!

With almost every bit of snow gone by last week (foiling my plans to take the Guides out on an overnight snowshoe trip), we were rather depressed to wake up to another dumping of snow on Saturday morning (causing the cancellation of the backpacking trip that we had scheduled to make up for the lack of a snowshoeing trip!). Sometimes you just can't win.

Even Lassy is tired of the white stuff. Come on spring!

Odds and End

I had a little blocking party on the weekend:


Most of these are projects you've seen before in one stage or another. I've been finishing up a few things, and pulling out a few unfinished, hibernating projects for re-assessment. I even found some cute wooden buttons for the Trellis cardigan and sewed those on. It will be going in the mail next week.


And in the past two weeks, I think the only new project I've started is a pair of socks (of which the first is already finished). I'm not sure how long this latest bout of self-discipline is going to last, but for now, I'm going to take advantage of it to try to clear out some projects and plan ahead. The next step will be finding suitable buttons for the JoJo cardigan shown blocking, above. I'll do a proper reveal of that soon.

Nick and I had planned a little weekend getaway to go skiing next weekend, but suddenly we have had a few days of very spring-like weather, and the rain has taken out almost all of the snow. Looks like another weekend at home with my knitting!

Not So Much on the Road, but Knitting Anyway

I'm supposed to be in Toronto right now. I had some meetings to attend, and was planning to spend a little recreational knitterly time with Glenna and Martha. But alas, a snowstorm interrupted my plans, and my flight was canceled. Given the level of service that Air Canada has become known for around these parts, they were unable to reschedule me to fly within a reasonable period (i.e. before the date when I was supposed to return!), so I'm grounded at home. Too bad, as I was really looking forward to visiting the Purple Purl and also shopping for new hiking boots - the shopping options in St. John's are somewhat limited.

It hasn't been all bad though. I got to go snowshoeing yesterday in the aftermath of the storm - finally we have enough snow. Also, I've been attending those meetings by teleconference. I can't knit at when I'm there in person, but when I'm attending from my couch at home, there are no such limitations. I knit a whole sock yesterday, and nobody on the other end of the speakerphone knew any better.

Stripey socks, improvised pattern, 70 st in stockinette on 2.25 mm bamboo dpns.

I also seamed up my finished Trellis baby cardigan this week.

Trellis, knitted in Lion Brand Cotton Ease, on 4 mm and 4.5 mm circs.

My only change to this pattern was to knit the bands at the bottom and sleeves on a smaller needle size. Looking at photos on Ravelry, I noticed that a lot of people ended up with bigger, puckered moss stitch bands, and there's still a hint of that in mine, that I'm hoping a final blocking will take care of (I blocked the pieces once already, prior to seaming). I think the smaller needle size helped to reduce the puckering significantly. If I were to knit this again, I would do the fronts and back in one piece up to the armholes. There are a lot of bulky seams for such a small sweater, that could be reduced.

I rushed to get this finished because I was going to see the intended recipient in Toronto this weekend. I guess now I'll have to mail it. Just as soon as I get some buttons.

Knitting on the Road

A quick post from the suburbs of Houston. Both my hotel and the facility where my course is being held are located in Katy Mills, which is essentially an enormous shopping mall surrounded by big-box stores, chain restaurants, and Interstate 10. Needless to say, this is a purpose-driven visit, not a vacation!

As the neighbourhood does not offer much in the way of culture to take in, there has been significant knitting progress.

This is my Trellis baby cardigan in progress:


It's just zipping along. Luckily I brought along JoJo too, in case I get this finished before my return home. I can't imagine anything worse than a full day of flying with nothing to knit!

Last evening I went exploring the enormous shopping mall next door. In a store called Books-A-Million (How could I not check that out?!), I found this little gem:


I don't know why I've never heard of this book before, other than perhaps that it's very new (published in 2008). I haven't examined it in too much detail yet, but it appears to have very clear diagrammatic instructions for toe-up socks, including multiple cast-ons, and both short-row and flap heels, and a handful of patterns at the back. As I have struggled with my couple of attempts at toe-up socks thus far, I think this may be a useful little addition to my collection.

And Now We Return to Baby Knitting

After that brief quilting interlude (there will be more quilting to come, rest assured), I have finally settled on a fun new knitting project. Since I still need one or two girly baby sweaters to keep up with the ongoing run of new babies in the family, and I enjoyed knitting JoJo so much last time, I decided to knit another one. Or maybe two - I seem to like being on a roll with things lately. This pattern is great, full of great little details, and it knits up really quickly considering that it's sock yarn.

Those are the two fronts. The yarn is all Norwegian: the bands are in SandnesGarn Sisu, and the main section is another fun colourway of Drops Fabel. The colours are a bit off in this photo, but as we've had a snowstorn here today, the light hasn't been good. The colour that looks like yellowish mud in the photo is actually closer to peach.

I'll be packing up some travel knitting soon. I'm off to Houston in a week for work, and then shortly after, another quick trip to Toronto. I think it might be time for a lace project...

Big Cables, Little Cables

I'm on a bit of a cable kick lately. The big cables? a pillow cover for my living room. This has been dragging on forever. Well, forever since last January. Lately, I have picked it up again, and am determined to get it finished before... well.... before Christmas at the latest! In my defense, the pillow is an 18" square, so it's really not that much smaller than knitting a sweater! I'm making it up as I go along, but basically it will be two squares sewn together with a flap and some buttons.

The little cables? That's the start of my Christmas gift knitting, 2008 edition. The pattern is Merike's Gloves, from Folk Knitting in Estonia. This is my first time knitting a Nancy Bush pattern, and I really appreciate her attention to detail. (Though I don't think I'm going to become a fan of this style of thumb anytime soon. I guess it would be an afterthought thumb... I should look that up.) I'm using up some leftover Elann Devon, which although it's supposed to be sport weight, gives me a gague smaller than I usually get with fingering weight. I went up a needle size, and am still slightly under the recommended gague. I read on Ravelry that the fingers come out a little large with this pattern, so with the smaller gague and leaving out a stitch or two from each finger, I have a glove that fits me really nicely. Now, I just have to figure out who on my gift list has hands similar in dimension to mine! (I guess I should have thought about that before I started knitting!) Anyway, the pattern is quite fun to knit, and has really kept my interest. Let's hope that it holds through the second glove.

I should also show you my finished Helena.


My only modification on this pattern was to add three buttonholes instead of the i-cord ties. It was fun and very quick to knit up. I highly recomend the pattern

In other news, it has been a great year in St. John's for music lovers. A couple of weeks ago one of my favourite folk singers, David Francy, was in town, and we treated my brother to the show for his birthday. It was fantastic. Later that week, we joined my family to see the legenday local music/comedy group, Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers, at the Arts and Culture Centre. And while I missed my chance to see Leonard Cohen, Feist, Bob Dillon, and Lenny Kravitz, who have all been here recently, last night I got to spend an amazing night at Mile One being entertained by Elton John. He brought no band or backup singers; it was just him and his piano. And yet the sounds was amazing, and he held everyone's attention though a show that last almost three hours with no break. Just amazing.

I'm incredibly appreciative that artists who routinely play to massive audiences for far more money, take the time to come to St. John's and play at our smaller venues, our even our biggest stadium, which only holds 8000 people. I think a lot of them come because they personally want to visit Newfoundland - it's certainly a beautiful place here, at least when it's not foggy, and the audiences and the people are great. I was thinking last night, as I left my highly livable downtown neighbourhood, and walked fifteen minutes to the stadium to see Elton John, how much I love St. John's. It sure is good to be home.

Now all we need is a cute baby to wear this...

My JoJo sweater is done! Actually, the knitting and even the blocking were finished several days ago. It was sitting around buttonless for a while, but now it's really complete.


This actually came together fairly quickly, mostly because I really enjoyed knitting it and spent a lot of quality time with it, especially during the Olympics. The finishing is pretty detailed (not for those who hate picking up stitches to knit edgings!), and might have bordered on tedious, if I didn't love it so much.

Check out the cute little intarsia blocks on the back.


My one modification was that instead of knitting patch pockets that get sewed to the inside of the front pieces, I made full, free-swinging pocket linings, and then just tacked down the corners to keep them in place.


To re-cap, this is size 6 months, the multicoloured yarn is Fabel by GarnStudio, and the green is Knit Picks Essential. Sock yarn - so versatile! I used only two skeins of each yarn, not the five total that the pattern calls for. This will be a gift for one of the new babies to arrive soon in the family. I'll have to wait and see who has a boy. Despite my early thoughts that the colours were rather unisex, I now think this is really a boy's sweater. I've got other cute frilly things under way for girls!

End of Summer Catch-up

September, huh? How did that happen?

Here's a brief review of recent activities in photos.

Finally, after many months of lying in hibernation, I finally pulled out the Blu baby jeans, bought some elastic for the waist, and finished them off:

Blu jeans, in "Real Indigo" cotton yarn, size 6-12 months, knit on 4 mm Denise interchangeables.

You can't see the embroidery of the pockets too well in these photos, but they are extremely cute in person. I didn't have a lighter colour to do the fake rolled-up hems, but I think they look alright as is.

Over Labour Day weekend, Nick and I took a short trip to Trinity, on of my favourite towns in Newfoundland. We spent two pleasant days taking in beautiful scenery...


(the fog burned off before the morning was out), visiting lots of historic sites...


and doing a little sea kayaking.


It was great, and I hope to get back again next summer to explore some of the surrounding communities. Nick has decided that he wants to move there and buy an inn or a restaurant.... retirement project maybe?

During the car ride I worked on Helena, which I'm knitting for the first of the rush of babies, my cousin's little girl who arrived last week.


Alas, I ran out of yarn with one sleeve to go. Worse yet, my LYS ran out of the dye lot. I ran out on my lunch break yesterday and bought a ball of a different dye lot, but it is very obviously not the same shade.

Luckily, with the internet to the rescue, I managed to locate three different online yarn shops with the right dye lot for me. Strangely, they're all in Britain. I tried at least a dozen retailers in Canada and the US, but nobody had the right number. It makes you wonder about yarn distribution, doesn't it? (Or maybe that's just me.) Anyway, the important thing is that one more ball is now winging its way across the Atlantic to me so that I can finish this off and get it to the new mom. I'm glad I decided to make size 6 months!

Actual knitting

I finally managed to take a little time to myself this weekend - a little guilty pleasure for the holiday weekend. And nothing goes better with a work-free Sunday afternoon than a new knitting project. I haven't done that in a while! To say nothing of writing two posts in one weekend.

I dipped into the Knit Picks yarn that arrived a couple of months ago, and started an Accordion jacket for one of the very little people in my extended family. I may not do too much holiday knitting this fall, but I do intend to make two of these for the boys. This is size 3 years in Swish Superwash, which is worsted weight, making it a fairly quick knit. I've already done the back and half of one of the front pieces.


So far, I love the yarn. This is my first Knit Picks purchase and above all, it's very soft. I am allowing for a little bit of vertical shrinkage, as this yarn does have a bit of a reputation for that. Just to be sure, I plan to machine wash and dry the pieces before assembly.

After a couple of years of experience knitting for the babies and toddlers of the family and receiving feedback from parents, I have learned a couple of important things. Firstly, all members of my family are genetically predisposed to having large heads. Even the babies. This means that pullovers are much more likely to go on if they have a button closure on the shoulder. Secondly, most little boys really hate to have you put anything over their heads. Struggling with an uncooperative kid with a big head means that short zippers in the front of the neck are especially out of the question, as they usually end up stuck in somebody's eye. I hope that this jacket will be loved and worn for a long time because it will involve minimal hassle to get it on, and the ribbed texture makes for a very stretchy jacket that should give quite a bit of room to grow.

Now that I know the yarn will work with the gauge for this pattern, and KP has introduced new heathered colours for this yarn, I plan to order a little more. The second Accordion will be a slightly bigger size 4 years; I'm thinking squirrel heather grey with Dublin green trim. And while I'm ordering, this might be the perfect opportunity to finally get me some good lace blocking wires. But that's all. Really.....

knit knit knit

Well, now that I've taken care of the pile of sweaters, you'd think I'd be looking to jump into a big, new, intricate project, right? I thought I would. I usually like knitting that makes me think, or teaches me something new.

I'm buried deep in thesis writing right now, nearing the end (or at least that's what they tell me. Sometimes it feels like it will never end!). So I'm spending very long days at school six days a week, writing, tweaking, editing, thinking deep thoughts. It's finally starting to come together, and it's pretty exciting after such a long, and at times very frustrating slog. The result is that at the end of the day I still need to de-stress with knitting, but I have no brain cells left to spare for thinking about cables and lace.

In the interest of burning through some more stash and giving my mind a break, I've been working on some simple little projects.


This is the Bamboo Baby cardigan from One Skein Wonders. Simple, but cute. It's the leftover cotton blend from my Sitcom Chic. I did use slightly more than one skein, but I also altered it a little to make the sleeves bigger, and I wasn't using the recommended bamboo yarn. It still needs blocking and buttons. I don't typically knit a lot of garter stitch, but I think it's cute, and it was very quick and easy. If you can knit a dishcloth, you can make this.

I also started a French Market Bag from Knitty a couple of weeks ago.


This is bulky wool from a thrift shop sweater I recycled last year. I'm not sure how well it's going to felt (I know, I know, I should have felted a swatch before I started), but I'm not going to worry about it too much. It's a perfectly nice tote bag even before felting. I just need to knit the second handle, and I might get around to the washing machine fun on the weekend.

And then there's my vest. It doesn't look like much right now, but it's been comforting to knit row upon rown of stockinette in the round. I used to hate plain stockinette, but I'm starting to understand the appeal!


The Denise needles have been a little bit frustrating on this one. They needle tips are great, but I find that the cables, which are thicker but more flexible than the average circular needle are a bit tacky and the yarn sticks to them. So all of the stitches bunch up by the right needle as I knit and I have to keep stopping to push them around. They seemed better with the cotton on the baby sweater, so perhaps this wooly mohair blend is particularly grippy. They might also work better with bigger gauges, and therefore bigger stitches. Oh well. I'm not aiming for speed right now anyway!

Tying up loose ends

So if you've been reading for a while, you'll know that like many people, I have developed a tendency to have a lot of projects going at one time. I'm trying to cut back and actually finish up some of those long-neglected projects, but somehow the pull of new projects is always pretty strong. I've been letting myself get away with a few detours as long as they're using up stash.

Several of these little side-trips are wrapping up - I've been finishing up a few little things over the past couple of days. First I'd like to introduce you to Mr. (or Ms.) Bear:

Best Friend Bear from Interweave Knits special holiday issue 2006. Yarn is mostly vintage wool, and raglan sweater is vintage tapestry wool.

This was a really fun knit, and it worked up pretty quickly. I would definitely knit it again. I think it would be a really cute baby shower gift, maybe with a matching baby-sized sweater. The one thing I wasn't sure about was which way the arms are supposed to be attached. They're basically L-shaped tubes with elbows, but it's not particularly clear whether the short or the long "limb" of the L gets attached to the shoulder when assembling. An accompanying photo of the finished bear without a sweater on would have been helpful. I went with the short limb on top, which seemed to look the most normal. I know the eyes and nose look a little wonky, but I always seem to have trouble with finishing on toys. I just can never get it to look very professional. I decided to leave it with just one sweater, as much as I loved knitting the tiny raglan, because I was afraid that constant changing of clothing would be too stressful on the little guy's head and arm joints. It's really quite a sqeeze to get it over his big head! Anyway, as a stash buster and a learning experience, this was a great little project.

The next little FO has been on my WIP list for a while, but I don't think I've showed it before now. These little socks are for my nephew.

Basic Ribbed Socks, child's size, from Vogue Knitting Socks Two, in Super Socks Dazzle, on size 2.25 dpns.

These are supposed to fit child's shoe size 6-7.5. I guess my two-year-old nephew has pretty huge feet! For such a simle project, I was working on these for a while. I got one of them to the toe decreases when I realized that I had the wrong number of stitches, and I had to rip back to the heel. I guess I had gotten a little over confident (or I'd forgotten how to count - one or the other!) and wasn't paying much attention. I had hoped to have these done while I was home, but instead I finished them on the plane ride back to Ottawa. I'll have to pop them in the mail as soon as they're dry.

I finally found some buttons for that little baby cardigan that I made last month. They're little pewter buttons, and I thought that they looked cute. So cross one more almost-finished object off the list.


I think I've just about got the WIP list under control again now. Three FO's, and only one new project started (socks for my MIL - socks don't really count, right?!). I've been dong a little planning and dreaming lately, adjusting the "upcoming knits" list to reflect what I realistically might get to this year. I'm going to get back to DH's overdue birthday sweater now and put in a real effort to get it finished - just 1.5 sleeves to go. And then maybe I'll try to finish up the tank top and the red cardigan and the mittens that I've had on the go for, well, way too long. Once the pile of unfinished knitting that sits in (and around) the basket beside the couch gets reduced to a reasonable size, I have plans for a couple of vests for myself. I've come to like the looks of a vest over a blouse, and the Leftovers vest recently caught my eye. And then there's this cone of Derby Tweed that followed me home from Newfoundland...


It's 500 g of very fine wool, somewhere between laceweight and fingering. I followed up on a tip from the Yarn Harlot that Woof Designs in downtown St. John's sells off their ends and discontinued yarns - this was only $23. I'm actually proud of myself for not buying more. Oh, here were some beautiful purples, and lots of mohair. This yarn is actually more greeen than it looks in the photo. I'm thinking of knitting two strands together and making another little pullover vest of some sort. Or maybe a short-sleeve sweater. But that's way off in the future. I can still swatch though, can't I.... ?

A fresh crop of little FO's

I've been knitting a lot of little things since the new year came in. Instant gratification. Here's another little catch-up post.

Lace-Edged Hat in Smart Superwash 100% wool (Norway), 4.5 mm circ and dpns.

This is sort of a late Christmas gift for my SIL. I finished her Column of Leaves scarf (sadly, no photo) kind of at the last minute, and since I had a lot of yarn left over, I decided to make a matching hat. I'll be heading home again for a quick visit in February, so I get to give it to her in person. I still had a whole ball of the wool left over when this was done, so I went stash diving and came up with some leftovers of purple tweed in the same DK weight. This little baby cardigan was started and finished so quickly that it never actually made it onto the WIP list.

V-neck Cardigan from the booklet Sirdar Snuggly Book of Baby and Toddler Knits, size 3-6 months, in Smart Superwash (blue) and Tivoli Luxury DK Tweed (purple), on size 3.25 and 4 mm straights.

The original pattern was a solid with a little Fair Isle pattern at the bottom edge. I just used it as a guide for size and knit it in 4-row stripes. I finishd with less that a meter of blue left (hooray for stash usage!). This is for nobody in particular; I tend to keep a stash of baby shower presents around. Sooner or later it will find a recipient. I still need to find some cute buttons for it. And I also finished those crazy stripey socks:

Broad rib socks (improvised patttern, 72 sts) in Lang Super Soxx, on size 2.25 mm dpns.

I'm really glad I didn't try to match the stripes on these, because halfway down the leg of the second sock, I foud a knot in the yarn, and part of the pattern repeat was missing (can you spot it?). The second sock (on the left in the photo) turned out much bluer than the first - the beige pooled on the heel. Knots aside, I really like this yarn, and will probably pick up another skein or two for gift knitting. The fit seems good so far, but I'll see how much they stretch with wear. I seem to have trouble knitting socks that stay up on me, especially in the big snowboots that I've been clunking around in lately. These may well be my new favorite socks.

I'm off to Wool Tyme tomorrow - the big but very hard to get to on the bus yarn store in an industrial park - to stock up on the Galway Heather for dh's sweater. They stock a full range of wonderful stuff that I can't get at my more easily accessible LYS. I'm going to try to resist the pull of the Colinette and Fleece Artist - for the sake of my bank account, please wish me luck!