Not Qualified

Today's topic is 10 Tips for Sticking With Your Fitness Routine.  Since I don't actually have a fitness routine and I'm unlikely to start one anytime soon this really isn't a topic I can write about.

So back I go to the list of unposted knits.  Today I've got a pair of cute little mittens I made for Miss M.  They were inspired by our trip to New York over Thanksgiving when we went for a walk on a super windy day.  Thats when I realized that My sweet girl had no mittens or gloves yet.  What kind of mom let's her baby go out with cold hands?  Even worse, what kind of knitter?



I loved the idea of making Miss M some cute little mittens.  The pattern (this one) suggests making three mittens just in case one gets lost.  Such a great idea. So I decided to make a pink stripe on one, two pink stripes on the next and three on the third. Terribly original. Right?

Well, it turns out that my toddler is growing faster than I thought and these mittens barely fit her.  I don't know if she has big hands or what.  I have found another pattern for little kid mittens and I was all set to make them for her right away but then the weather got warm... and it's stayed that way.  It's January and it should be mitten weather but it's really not.  Thankfully these mittens were really fast to make so if the weather should become more seasonable I should be able to whip up a pair of cute mittens fast.

Three Years of Yarn Collecting

My knitting bag is quite full these days. I feel energized and optimistic about all the things I can and will make. Part of the reason for this are the things that I have finished recently and particularly this sweater. It’s the Tulip baby sweater which I have wanted to make since I first saw it over three years ago.


Since then I have dreamed about these sweaters and tried to settle on which baby I’d make it for since, until recently, I had none. But in all honesty the Dream in Color yarn is kind of pricey and you need quite a few skeins. I’d have to really, really, love a baby to make that kind of investment. So for three years I dreamed of making the sweater and bought yarn. This picture was taken in March. Since then I bought a *few* more skeins.



When I finally sat down to choose my color line up my daughter was kind of shocked at the amount of yarn I was choosing from. I could probably make one of these for Miss M for the next 4 years and still have yarn left over. And I may just do that because there are so many color combinations you can go with. Part of the fun (and challenge) is in selecting just the right colors in the right order.



Once I chose the colors the knitting itself was fast and easy. Based on notes I read on other completed projects I made the 2 year old size but added 2 rows to each stripe (changing every 10th row instead of every 8th). It was a good call but I inexplicably decided to go with 8 rows on the sleeves and they came out more ¾ than full. This is really ok for a baby because it means that she drags her sleeves in her food less. It’s worth noting though.



Ultimately, this sweater lived up to all the anticipation and Miss M loves it. It’s a good thing that the yarn seems pretty sturdy because she tries to put it on herself often and stretches it this way and that. No worries though, because it still looks great every time she wears it.

Red for My Nephew

Amid all the running around and general craziness I've been super busy knitting. It seems like now that I've gotten back to it again I just can't stop. It's like I'm compelled to finish all the WIPs and try all the patterns that have been languishing in my queue. As a result I have a backlog of FO's to share. Can you believe that?

Since I just got back from Indiana I'll start with a baby gift I delivered there.

Normally I wait until a baby arrives to start knitting for it. It's kind of a superstition I guess but I just can't shake it. This time I had a gift ready when my new nephew arrived because it wasn't originally meant for him. I started it quite a while ago for my cousins baby. He just turned one.

While it wasn't the right size for the baby it was originally intended for, my nephew "M" has plenty of room to grow into it.

Isn't he handsome?

Moving Parts

There's an expression in vogue right now that describes my life quite well. To say that there are a lot of "moving parts" is an understatement of the highest order. It seems that nothing stands still.

My baby is in constant motion. She crawls after me all around the house and cruises along all the furniture. She even follows me with her voice and eyes. As we drive home from daycare she does a version of call-and-response where she laughs then I laugh then she laughs differently then I repeat it. Sometimes she mimics me instead. And when we get home she is leaning forward as far as the straps of her cars eat will allow to see me come release her.

Perhaps nobody is on the move as much as DQ who is street legal as of last Saturday. I'm not sure that she'll ever be home again. I am surprised, no - shocked, at the number of folks that are only too willing to let her take their children places in the car. I know and trust her more than anyone and I still get nervous when she drives her sister places. She's a new teen driver. Those 3 words strung together ought to give anyone pause and yet, a few parents are already expecting her to give their kids rides places. Am I missing something?

Not to be left out, Stinkette is quite busy too. It's softball season again! She is on a select team again this year but it's a little more intense. They've got fancier uniforms and more strenuous practices. I'll be there on the sidelines watching Miss M while I crochet kippot and knit sweaters. I'm back on track with the kippot so I'm rewarding myself with a new baby sweater.

It's not for Miss M. In fact, I'm not sure exactly who it's for. I'm not sure how to explain this so that it makes sense to anyone but me but here's an abbreviated version of the logic involved.

I want to make Miss M a certain very colorful sweater but I couldn't get the color selections ironed out. I also want to make a sweater as a baby gift for one of my cousins. My preference would be to make a cardiganized version of the twisted tree sweater but I'm not sure i can get it right so I need to ponder that. So I found another interesting but not earth shaking pattern which will look good in this lovely red Cascade 220 and I'm making it while I ponder the other sweaters. And if the cardiganized sweater I really want to make for my cousin doesn't work then I'll have this as back up.

Does that make sense to anybody but me?

At Long Last a Finished Object

My sweet baby is one step closer to having some Mommy knits. I felt like I needed to catch up on baby gifts before I knit for my own babe. So I have been dawdling and procrastinating over a silly baby sweater for my cousin's son for months. There is nothing that puts quite the same damper on a project as the feeling that it's required. It saps all the fun out of it.

Then I heard that my cousin, who lives in Canada, was going to come down for the 70th anniversary party. Suddenly I felt the urgent need to finish it so that I could give it to her in person. That and the fact that the "baby" will be one next month.

So I pushed through it. I really focused and neglected everything else and I got all the knitting done, the pieces sewn together, and the ends woven in with a few days to spare. Then I was ready to install the zipper. Damn! Wrong size and wrong type. I went looking for the correct zipper but I really didn't have the time. Who knew it would be so hard to find a separating zipper? Not me.

So I did something that totally goes against my nature. I gave it to my cousin without a zipper. Mostly I wanted her to see that it was done. I offered to take it home and finish it off but she said she'd work it out. I suspect that my aunt is going to be getting a call.

All that aside, this really is a sweet little sweater with a lot to recommend it. The color is yummy. My cousin was thrilled with it. The yarn feels nice and soft and light. Perfect for a baby sweater. The pattern worked out perfectly. This is my second Sirdar pattern and I found it very easy to work. Well written and reasonably easy to follow. I'll be starting another one of their patterns soon. The finishing work (aside from the missing zipper) makes me proud. It gets better and more enjoyable each time I sew up a sweater.

Thanks to Miss M for modeling her cousins sweater. She wiggled and waved and demonstrated well that this sweater has plenty of room to grow. That good to know for the mommy knits ahead.

The better than expected progress of the kippot has had a broader effect on my current finery activities. It means that I can allow myself to work on other things as well. I'd like to be knitting sweaters for my sweet Marissa but I'm trying to be responsible and won't allow myself to knit for her until I get caught up with my gift knitting. The first on my list is this sweater for my cousins baby... who is almost 1!

The problem is that I severely underestimated the effect that pregnancy would have on me. It sapped not only my energy but my focus as well. I started this sweater last spring but before long I was frogging it and casting on in a larger size because I knew it would be a while before it was finished.

The long delay also inspired my handling of an error I made. You can probably see it in the picture. I screwed up the offset on the texture pattern for quite a few rows on the first piece I knit. That was the back and it was big so I chose not to fix it. Instead I employed the strategy I was taught for blue booking (citation), consistency trumps perfection. In other words, if you repeat an error throughout then it becomes a design feature. So I repeated the error on the two front pieces and now I think it's fine.

Since I took these pictures last weekend I've finished the second front piece and one sleeve. The second sleeve is on the needles. So, after months and months of languishing in my neglected pile of knitting it seems like this is swiftly headed for the finish line. But will it be ready in time? I hope to see my cousin in a little over a week and I've never put a zipper in a knit before.

Marley Baby

This is the second hat I made for Miss M from Susan B Anderson's Itty-Bitty Hats book. It won't be the last but I am taking a break. I'm being forced to. My family says that it's time to move on to sweaters and scarves and socks, they're demanding socks again.

Anyway, I'll start with the reason why this hat got made so fast (aside from wicked cuteness). The yarn was all in my stash! Hooray! I had bought a supply of Elann Sonata and Tahki Cotton Classic for crocheting and it was perfect for this hat.

This hat really isn't that difficult. It's mostly knit with a few strategic purl and seed stitch sections. What makes it interesting is the color changes. They also make the finish work ugly. Tons of ends to weave in.

Then there is the icing on this cake - the marley topper. Here is a closeup of the marly bits. Suprisingly, these were pretty easy to make. They look fiddly but they're not. They do add to the number of ends that need to woven in though. Ugh - weaving in ends.


The hat may look just a little bit different in this picture (where she is being held by a friend of DQ). That's because this was taken after it went through the washer and dryer. It seems to have softened the look of it. The yarn is less shiny and crisp.

I really love the way it came out. Totally worth the effort.

Itty Bitty Earflap Hat

Like many people, my Rav queue is amazingly long. There are so many designers and books and magazines... so many sources for more new and fabulous patterns. Because of all the possibilities it's always a little surprising when I find myself favoriting multiple patters from he same source. Maybe it's a sign. I should probably go get that book right away.



Often I do but then they sit because, like my queue, my collection of books is way too big for me to ever get to all the stuff within them that I'd like to. So I didn't get Susan B Anderson's Itty-Bitty Hats right away. Then came Marissa, a sweet baby without much hair. Let the hat knitting begin. I want to make them all.

I started with one that my husband chose called the Inca Snowflake. It started off really well. Noro Kureyon is always a fun knit and happily there weren't many ends to weave in when I was finished. The only negative was that it was a little bit big. Even more so after I blocked it.



Then came the finishing stuff. Lot's and lot's of finishing stuff. Embroidered snowflakes, crocheted edging and a pom-pom. I visited so many stores looking for just the right yarn. White but not too bright. Just the right degree of imperfect. The crocheting was easy but the embroidery was challenging. It's really not my thing but it can't be the Inca Snowflake hat without snowflakes. Right?

And then I started working on the lining. Stinkette and I chose purple and I really think it worked well. I am proud to say that I hand sewed the whole lining myself and I doesn't look bad at all.



Lots of finishing on this sucker! I'm not sure that I would've chosen it if I'd read through the pattern and realized just how much effort it would take but, I'm happy with the results. On this hat, everything just came together well. Even the accidents worked out ok. Like DQ put it through the wash with the rest of Miss M's clothes but it didn't shrink and the Noro is a bit softer now. Additionally, installing he lining made the ear flaps lay flat so it no longer links like my baby is going to fly away.



I'm definitely calling this a win.

Hats For Babies

The pace of knitting around my house has picked up quite a bit lately.

Miss M is playing more on her own and that has freed up my hands to knit a bit. It's not quite at the level that it used to be at but I definitely feel inspired and my focus is returning and, lo and behold, stuff is getting finished. Yay. That's a good thing because the pace of yarn entering the house for those very inspiring projects has picked up quite a bit too. Ooops!

And books, I can't forget that I've added a book or 2 to my collection. One was the Knitters Book of Socks which I can't wait to dive into but the socks will have to wait a little while. Right now I have a baby with very little hair and winter is coming. Enter Itty Bitty Hats by Susan B Anderson which is a book that I had looked at for quite a while but never needed. Now that I have a baby in my house again itty bitty hats were required. She's still got the first one I made for her but I know how things disappear when small people are involved so it's just a matter of time before we get her ready to go one morning and there is no hat for her sweet head. Better to be proactive about these things and have a stash. Fortunately, there are lot's of hats calling my name and hats are such easy, quick projects.

The first hat from this book is one that Bruce liked. It's the Inca Snowflake, a cute hat with ear flaps and a bit of embroidery which sets of Noro Kureyon perfectly. It never fails to amaze me how different this yarn looks knit up versus in the skein.



I took this picture of the hat last week. Now the knitting is done and the embellishment can begin. Last weekend I got some fleece for the lining and chose some yarn for the embriodery. Who knew it would be so hard to find just the right white. I needed something white but not too white and not too perfect because the Noro is kind of rustic. I think I got it right but time will tell.