Live and Let Knit

Wow - has it really been a month since my last post? Time is surely flying by. The new baby will be here anyday now.

I posted a bunch of pictures on Ravelry, but I forgot to do them here as well. It’s tough now to keep things in both places.

So, I’ll start off with widget… this started out to be a sock yarn scrap blanket made from the pattern by Shelly Kang. I realized that I had enough leftovers to repeat colors and make a pattern but now I’m at a loss for what to do with this thing…. any ideas?

My Clapotis is finished, and also a pair of Ladder of Life Socks. I had to make the socks a short row heel since I only had one ball of the cascade 220 superwash.

Then there’s my second Baby Surprise sweater for Paula’s little one (Welcome to the world little J!!). This is more of the Farmhouse Yarns silk blend - knitted on US8s to make it more of a spring sweater.

A pair of socks for hubby’s birthday (Pattons Kroy), and a jump start of some Christmas presents (Knitpicks Telemark)

Currently on the needles is a StowAway Shopping Bag and pair of Blueberry Waffles socks, but there might be a big problem here. I gave the first finished sock to Rachel to play with and now I can’t find it anywhere. Last night I woke up with the thought that she may have tossed it in the trash

Pattern: Leo size L, US 3 and 4 Needles

Yarn: Farmhouse Yarns Silk Blend - Goldenrod - 5 Hanks

Date: August 2008 - Knit for Ravelympics 2008 in the wipswrestling category.

For the most part I’m happy with the way this turned out. For starters it fits. 2008 has been a better year in sizing for me. I did knit the majority of the body in the round which I reccomend. In hindsight I would have made the sleeves shorter by at least 2 inches and added that yarn to the body length - the sleeves will need to be rolled up on hubby.

One thing I’m annoyed about is that when I soaked the yarn before blocking a lot of the dye came out in the bath and you can see the the skein for the very bottom of the sweater dried to a different shade than the other 4 skeins. It’s good that it’s the bottom of the body and not the middle of the body so we’ll just live with it.

Leo is underway and I’ve signed it up as part of the WIP Wrangling event for the Ravelympics. I’ve got the sleeves and about half of the body completed. I really hope I don’t run out of yarn for this sweater! The yarn is the Silk Blend from Farmhouse yarns and the pattern is endless 5×3 ribbing on size 4 needles.

Rachel is going to be a big sister!!!!

Her little sister is scheduled to debut at the end of September

Pattern: Salina, size L, US 3 and 5 Needles

Yarn: Farmhouse Yarns Autumn/Summer Spun - 3.5 Hanks

Date: June 20008

This is probably the first time in ages that I’ve had gauge all the way through a project and been very satisfied with the end product.  This baby fits!  The only adjustment I made was to block the sleeves out to be longer than in the diagram and I left out the seed stitch cuffs until I see how it hangs/drapes after a few times wearing.  It will be quite a while before I can actually wear this, but I’m glad it’s done and ready for the Fall.

So.. I’m a few days over the one month deadline I had set for myself.  Hubby and I both got colds that knocked us off our feet for almost a week so I didn’t get the seaming done in time.  I didn’t think it was possible to sleep for 3 days straight but now I know!  I had to make a run to JoAnns to get the buttons and picked up an Ott-Lite for my b-day present.  I have enough yarn left over that I may try to unvent a toddler sized sweater to match.

My next project is the infamous Clapotis.   A long time ago I had read in blogland that Knit Picks Shimmer held double stranded was a good choice for Clapotis so I ordered some (probably to round out an order to qualify for the free shipping LOL).  It sat in may stash for 2 years so I decided to wind it up and give it a go.   I don’t know how other people have faired, but I had to rip and restart the first ~20 rows about 10 times.  I always seemed to have one extra or one short on the count and since I can’t see if it will effect the pattern I decided to just start over each time.    I’ve made it to the second drop stitch and to be honest I’m not enjoyoing this pattern.   It’s probably due more to the fact that this yarn should have been used to make a thin lace scarf rather than this double stranded mess.   I’m going to keep working on it - some Ravelry posts say they didn’t like it until they blocked it so I’m going to give it a chance. 

Today is Spa Day for Salina.

 The podcast over at knitpicks painted a really neat image of how blocking is a spa treat that we can give our yarn after all of the mangling, twisting, chemical processing, and “knotting” that we do to it.  It really made me feel different about the whole process - more of a doing something special than a boring old chore.

 My hope is to do the seaming and finishing tomorrow and make it the first time I’ve ever knit a whole sweater in under a month!  I have enough yarn left over that I might try to scale down the size and make a matching sweater sized for a 3 year old.

 My other project was a little backpack for the toddler.  I’ll post pictures once I can get the embroidering part finished.   I just need to go get the scrap yarns out of storage first.

 My Louet euroflax worsted arrived so next in line is another surprise project for the long-range-planning bin.

Last weekend my friend Peggy made a comment about me being a fast knitter. I’ve never really thought of myself as a fast knitter - just strong out of the starting gate… but then a bad case of finish-itis.

Case in point, in one week I’ve managed to knit both sleeves and about half of the back on Salina. It’s been flowing quickly, but I’m already dreading the seed stitch at the beginning of the front and for finishing the neck. I just really hope that it fits when I’m finished. I’ve had gauge the whole way so far - after that it comes down to design and body type.

I spent a lot of time on Ravelry these past 2 weeks tagging projects for the future. It’s amazing to me what all is out there. When I went to update my Salina project I double checked the weight of the yarn that I’m using and hit a moment of panic. I *know* the first skein said Autumn Spun, but when I pulled out the second skein for winding it was tagged as Summer Spun. On Ravelry they are listed as different weights and the content is not specified on the Autumn so I can’t tell. When I pulled out the rest of the skeins I found I had 2 Autumn and 3 Summer - ugh. After a few moments of panic and then a few Google searches I found a review that states they are the same content and weight, just different colorways.  So, I’m shrugging it off and marching on ’cause that’s either the truth or some of my skeins are mislabeled since all 5 look and feel exactly the same. The two yarns are both discontinued and replaced by Silk Blend.

Well it’s been forever since I’ve posted.  I have been knitting this year I promise!  

Actually I made 6 items in the first part of the year that go in the Long-Range-Planning bin for gifts so I can’t show them

I spent most of my time on the Color Your Own sweater. The knitting is all done, it just needs to be blocked, steeked and seamed. I’m not in a huge rush to finish that quite yet since I won’t be able to wear it for another 6 months now.

Yesterday I went with the girls out to the Mass. Sheep & Wool festival.  It was a fantastic day.   The weather was great.  The company was superb.  I picked up a new mug for myself, and a few more Long-Range-Planning items.   We had lunch at Packards and then swung over to Webs  for yarntopia.  I picked up some more yarn for future gifts (I’m sensing a theme for 2008) and some pony pearl dpns for socks.

Today I got started on some new projects. I made the Ball-Band-Swiffer-Cover. I took me 3 hours start to finish and that was with a lot of interruptions. Afterwards Rachel helped me test it out.

ThePaintedSheep had this tagged on Ravelry and it looked like such a great idea that I had to try one. We have that awful linoleum floor that needs a lot of cleaning with a toddler in the house, and I hate the hassle of cleaning sponge or string mops.  I made it with Peaches&Cream.  It looks like 3 balls (1 main and 2 contrasts) will make 4 covers total.

Earlier this evening I cast on for Salina.   I’m hoping that this will be a good pattern for my Autumn Spun(discontinued) that I picked up last Spring at one of her fill-a-bag events.  I started with the sleeve and I’ve got exact gauge so I’m really hoping this one has good results!  I’ve had enough of too-short, too-tight, too-big.  I’m ready for something to fit!

This year I only did one item of Christmas knitting - a pair of socks for my sFIL since we drew names.

 All that is missing is a little NY Giants logo.

Other than that I’ve been working on the baby cardigan, my sweater and a scarf from stash for myself. The baby cardigan sure has been frustrating at every step a labor of love - I can’t get the button bands to lay flat/even so they don’t look so sloppy. I’ve ripped and reknit 3 times at least on each side. Anyone out there have tips on button bands? My hunch is that I need to pick up a lot more stitches than the reccomended amount.

 Tomorrow starts a 5-day weekend for me… happy happy joy joy!

The drive out to Rhinebeck was beautiful.  I really love this time of year.  The company was great and we stayed just the right amount of time so we didn’t over do it.

I’m still not buying yarn, but I did pick up some gifts for people that I can’t post about quite yet.

So, not to completely disappoint, I do have some pictures.

It’s cool enough to get action shots of the Windows sweater:

I started this at the end of November…  got stalled a few weeks waiting for replacement needles to arrive.   In February I got stalled again due to yarn issues.  So 2months, plus a few weeks after the replacement yarn arrived.   I cut the steeks in May, but that was after 2 months of sleep deprived maternity leave.   So even though it took almost a year to get the start and end pictures up,  it really only took me 3 months - and that was with 2 pairs of those boot socks thrown in too.

I’m anxious to start the sweater for me - it’s the Colour your own in peacock.  This one will probably take longer than 3 months since I have a lot less knitting time!