Baby Knits, Baby Knits, Baby Knits

I have three friends who are having babies this year. Two are going to be second time moms, and the other is having her first girl. After the barrage of holiday knits, I had debated between making booties and making my go to bib and burp cloth combo. I decided on doing some easy knitting and chose the old standby. I'm actually starting to run low on my Lily Sugar n Cream stash from the great Rag Shop sale of '07. I really like this yarn (and keep my fingers crossed that they will someday launch on organic cotton version). It's easy to knit with, my fingers don't get too dry and the colors are fun. The first set of bibs are in the Summer Splash colorway, and the two sets of burp cloths are in Ecru, Pastel Delights and Landscape. For the Pastel Delights and Landscape ones, I made the pattern shorter because one ball of yarn only gets you to about 50 rows instead of 61 or 62. It still falls over the shoulder well enough to serve its purpose (or so I hope). The last two bibs are made in the Peach colorway from some gifted Bernat Gloucester Sport. A friend had originally bought the yarn for a sweater, but abandoned the project and gifted me with the remains when she saw me knitting baby items last summer. I like the Peach colorway and the yarn was smooth and easy to work with.

This weekend, I'll be venturing to my LYS on Sunday for their Super Bowl Sale. I've got to get some more T-pins for blocking and the creator of Black Bunny Fibers and author of Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn, Carol Sulcoski, will be doing a book signing. Hopefully, I keep the spending limited to the amount of yarn that I have used up this month. Wish me luck!!

-B

Static Be Gone!

I officially stopped using dryer sheets about 7 years ago. I figured that the excess waste can't be good for the environment and I didn't know what chemicals were on the commercial sheets. So, for years, I've existing without anything in my dryer except the clothes or towels being dried. This worked fine until we moved into the "House of Static" this summer. The laundry room does not have heat, and that is what causes the static. Suffice to say, when I leave the house, I always double check for any stray socks clinging to my pant leg. Over on Ravelry, I'm in the Live Simply and Green Craft groups and I decided to search to see if anyone had any static solutions. I happened upon this pattern for Felted Dryer Balls. I headed over to Joann Fabrics to get some inexpensive Patons Classic Wool in Paprika, New Olive and Blue Denim and set to felting. The result were these:



These are the three smaller ones. I have three larger ones too for a total of six. I must say that while not all of the static is gone, it is significantly diminished. We also have the pleasure of playing "Find the Balls" when we pull stuff out of the dryer. I've got some baby knits blocking and drying, so as they settle up over the next few days, I'll post the results.

I've also been lucky enough to find a great group of gals in town to knit with on Tuesday nights. I'll be taking the Clapotis that I am making for my sister with me this week. We meet at a coffeeshop downtown, so I get the pleasure of knitting, talking and having hot chocolate all in one evening.

-B

Yes, I've been doing some knitting

Despite the evidence to the contrary, I've actually been knitting. Since the summer, I've made a bunch of dish clothes with a star motif, but never remembered to take a picture before giving them away. I also re-did the white scribbling in hopes of using up more of the yarn, but that didn't work out. Instead I gave the left over yarn and a freshly made pair of homemade needles to my friend A's niece over Christmas and started teaching her to make her own mini scribbling. I also managed to make 1 sock from the jaywalker pattern that S gave me. Even with a few mistakes in it, I'm happy with the results. It's not a hard pattern, but it took longer than expected and missing a bunch of decrease rounds because I didn't read the pattern carefully didn't help.

I don't know when I'll have time to start/finish the other sock, since I'm going to be pretty busy at work the next couple of months. Maybe at the same time I get around to watching this season of 24, given that I'm already 4 hours behind.

Maybe if I find the energy, I'll post the picture of the 1 sock.

-E

End of the Holiday Knitting Surge

Gosh, has it really been almost a month since my last post? I've been doing a lot of holiday knitting, work, and general holiday prep for the last few weekends, and I guess time just got away from me. Well, below are the last of my holiday knits. I had a great time attempting my first hat, and dishcloths are my go to item. I'll have to get a pic of my ice cream pint cozy in action before I post a picture of it. Tomorrow night's knitting mission is to get the two cowls from a month ago into a vinegar wash so that the colors don't bleed. I also picked up some Patons Classic Wool in order to create some felted dryer balls. More on those later, and without further ado.....


These four Ballband Dishcloths are from the Mason Dixon pattern. I use a combination of Saucy Cotton and Lily Sugar n Cream.



This Turn a Square Hat is my first attempt at a hat. I think I did well and look forward to making some more hats over the break.



I also finished this Calorimetry for my friend and she's already asked for two more for her cousins. When the group of us run together, we'll look like a knitting gang out for exercise.

-B

Band Wagon Jumping, Part II

I've tried knitting Jaywalkers before in hokie yarn...and gave up when they were about an inch longer than my foot when I tried from the toe up. So now I tried from the top down with some yarn that has aloe, Step. Hoping that it would help my perpetually dry fit stay a little more hydrated...we'll see.

The yarn was a bit scratchy when knitting...I didn't really notice anything really soft about the yarn until I washed it...then it became extremely soft and wonderful. So here are my first complete pair of socks, and the start of an addiction I believe...since I fairly quickly cast on another pair of socks in Koigu, which I'm loving even more. And is providing a very portable project...and something to help me focus on work when in my office with the door shut.

S

Kool Aid Dying, Part II, and Single Cable Hat

Okay I have a few posts to catch up on. I've been having some technical difficulties (dead laptop). So now that I've gotten a new laptop (after braving Black Friday this morning for some savings), I can catch up on some posts.

E was here a couple of weeks ago and left me with another skein of dyeable yarn to play with. Although I had plenty of red kool aid flavors left, I thought I would branch out and try some blue yarn instead. So If I remember my Kool Aid flavors, there were 2 berry blue, 1 blue raspberry lemonad and 1 grape to lessen the flourescence of the colors. And as E will tell you, I have issues with knots in my yarn, both knitting and winding. And this was no different. So here are my end results.

Saturday of last week I was told that I would be tailgating and going to a football game, with an expected high of something like 30 degrees, I knew my cold weather gear would come in handy. Unfortunately I also realized that I don't actually have a hat that covered my ears, so Saturday night began the finding of the perfect pattern for the yarn that I already had (as there is no local yarn shop). After trying about 4-5 patterns and not getting anywhere near what I wanted, I decided on Monday afternoon I decided I would have to develop my own pattern to be both warm and cute. I have to say that I was completely inspired by the following hat.

http://anabundanceoflisa.typepad.com/lisainnewyork/2006/10/red_hat_on_a_wi.html

So I set about making my own in black Chunky Cashmerino. But the hat needed to be extremely warm, so instead of knitting on the recommended size needles (10.5), I knit it on size 6. Which also meant that I was just hoping that the size I was knitting was the appropriate size for the hat, as at that point I didn't have much else that I could do other than hope and if I didn't finish, go buy a hat...but luckily the results were very cute and warm. The one that I have of me wearing it didn't look quite so cute after spending 5 hours outside.

S

New Yarn and the Harvest Cowl

I finished another cowl this weekend. I made some modifications to the Pashmina Cowl from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, and I really like how it turned out. It stands up a bit better, so wearing it under a heavy coat will be great for the recipient. I basically alternated 10 rows of stockinette with 5 rows of 1 x 1 ribbing.

In addition to finishing the cowl, I received my latest STR Rockin' Sock Club shipment. The color is far and away my favorite, but still not enough to keep me around for next year's club. I will be spending my 10% coupon this week to order a couple more skeins of this colorway, Muddy Autumn Rainbow, and one or two others, and then I'll be trying to find some other clubs to join for next year.

I have a ton of STR and want to branch out a bit. I've been looking at some fiber clubs to get spinning and The Plucky Knitter just to be able to actually grab some of her yarn. It sells out on Etsy faster than anything I have seen. I'm starting another Calorimetry by request from a friend. We are trading a finished headband for some cookies, so I think I'm being well compensated (she's a great baker!). Also, I ordered stitch markers today, since I realized I needed way more than I had for the Clapotis that I keep meaning to start. I found these, these and these over on Etsy and can't wait for them to arrive. On to the next holiday knitting project!

-B