Miss Dashwood Finished

Once I finished Daydream, I got to work on Miss Dashwood so I could get the set finished and in the mail. It was a much quicker knit than I expected, so it's finished and the package is on its way to Katie now. But, of course, I took some shots of Miss Dashwood before she left.

The Details
Pattern: Miss Dashwood, from knitty
Yarn: TLC Baby in Lilac. For both Daydream and Miss Dashwood, I only needed 1 skein and have some left over.
Modifications: I knit a 2 stitch i-cord instead of the seed stitch cord. I also omitted the buttons. This was partly because I couldn't figure out where the heck to put them. It seemed to me that if the earflaps were folded up, they would either have to fold completely up into the hat, which might be uncomfortable, or if folded up along the brim, they would still cover baby's ear halfway. I dunno....so I just left them out! Katie lives in Minnesota, so it's probably always going to be chilly enough for the earflaps.
Verdict: It's darling for a little girl, so I hope she likes it.

Here are a few more shots of it:

I wanted to give an idea of how it would look on, but since I don't have any babies lying around to model, I used my wine carafe. Yeah, I know....

Earflap close-up.

I'm continuing with the Christmas knits. One in progress is knit and tonic Wendy's Girlfriend Shrug. This is for my seven year old niece, who is a girly-girl. I was going to do a long sleeve version of the one skein wonder, but that is only written for adults, and since I was lazy and didn't feel like translating it into a smaller size, I'm going with this one. I'm using Knit Picks Swish and get a gauge of 14 sts/4" on size 10's, so since the pattern's written for 28 sts/4", I'm just halving the stitches. Hope that works out.

Next weekend is the Stitches Event in Baltimore. I'm already making my shopping list....

Daydream Finished

I got pictures today from my friend Katie, who is 32 weeks pregnant. She's looking VERY pregnant, so it's a good thing I accelerated on Daydream over the weekend. It's finished!

The Details.
Pattern: Daydream from Rowan Babies
Yarn: TLC Baby. I didn't love this yarn. It's great for baby knits because it's washable, but it was kinda of splitty and strands stuck together a bit. Next time I might use a cotton blend.
Modifications: I knit the back and front together up to the armholes. But, next time I will knit this from the top down to avoid some sewing and make it look more polished.
Verdict: Great - I hope Katie's little girl will get some nice spring-time wear out of it.

If you subscribe, have you received your Vogue Knits Holiday issue? I've been dying to read it, but mine hasn't arrived in the mail yet. We often get mis-delivered mail at my house, but I don't know if subscribers just get theirs later than stores do. I can't remember when my Fall issue arrived relative to the issue date. Thanks!

A dose of reality and some finished hats

I'm trying to figure out if I'm on track to finish my Christmas hats in time or not. I've got 3 complete and 7 to go. Looking at the calendar, there are 9 full weeks left until December 25, but really, I'm going to be giving some of these hats as gifts before the actual holiday. I also remembered that I was going to knit a long-sleeve version of the one-skein wonder for my niece. I also heard from my pregnant friend Katie (recipient of the in-progress Daydream and yet-to-be-started Miss Dashwood) who is almost 32 weeks into her pregnancy. I didn't realize she was that far along! I also thought I would be almost done Arisaig by now, but I am slowing making through the 1st sleeve.

So. It's been a dose of knitting reality for me these days that I am not going to finish things as fast as I planned and I must give myself a break. My goal now is to still complete the gifts, which is totally do-able, but also to not set goals for the projects for me. It's so hard not to plan ahead with all of the new patterns coming out, but I must be patient. Knitting is a hobby, it's therapy, it's supposed to be fun. Not stress. I must put the fun back into it, or else I might ruin my love of knitting.

Ok, the updates. Here are the 3 hats thus far completed.

Hat #1. For my brother, knit with the grey and stripes of blue and green mixed in. Sorry the picture is so dark.


Hat #2. For my friend, Jen. I was going to give this to another friend, but I saw Odessa and thought that would be really cute for her and a matching one for her daughter.


Hat #3. For my 18 month old nephew. This one is my totally my favorite one so far. I love how the stripes came out.

And, I picked up some Cotton Fleece to make my knock-off of Bea. But that's not til end of winter, early spring at best. No pressure! No time constraints!

WIP update

I've gotten some good knitting time in during the past week. It's only in the 50's here today in Baltimore, so I could be wearing Arisaig or the Grannie Smith Cardi if either of them were finished. Here's how it's going with them.

Back of Arisaig

When I started Arisaig, it was my first project using yarn that got a gauge of 28 sts/4". I was afraid this was going take forever. While it took a while to get going, the pattern repeat wasn't too hard to memorize and I am over halfway through the right front also. I hope to have this one done by the end of the month (maybe...).

Grannie Smith Cardi

This one I just started last week. I decided to cast on the fronts and back together to avoid some seaming, not sure if this is going to make it harder to sew in the sleeves or not? Ever since I made my first top-down sweater, I try to avoid sewing at all costs!

I'll have some pics of the Christmas hats next week. I've got 2 down, 8 to go...

A splash of color

Here's the new blog design I've been mulling over and editing for the past few weeks. It took me awhile to get the template done, but it wasn't until I saw Carrie's new design yesterday that the idea of photographing something for the banner hit me (thanks Carrie!). I pulled out my dpn case and photographed the fabric. It fit nicely with my already existing pink and green color theme. Ironically, I have updates on Arisaig (in pink) and Grannie Smith Cardi (in green) to show you later this week. Hmm, I do like pink and green a lot, so maybe it's not ironic at all. I should start expanding my knitting project color palette!

A more organized knitter

In the past week, I haven't been doing as much knitting as I normally do. I have the back of Arisaig completed, which I'll show in my next post, but I have kinda gotten on a little sewing kick. It all started when I read a post on Elliphantom.com that showed a lovely dpn case she had made. At the time, my needles and other notions lived in a mess in a basket that I had to dig through everytime I needed a tapestry needle or crochet hook or size 4 needles. You get the idea. So, this inspired me to do a little more Googling on needle cases. I'm not a good sewer, but the cases didn't look *too* hard. Straight lines to sew and straight lines to cut. I Googled away and found some helpful links for sewing your own needle case. I also found some cases other knitters had made, like Grumperina's and splityarn's. I also found The Organized Knitter with beautiful photos of cases.

So, I went to the fabric store and found some nice coordinating fabrics, got some ribbon and thread and got to work. My first case, which was for straight needles, was a disaster. I didn't even take a photo for you because I already cut away the fabric that could be re-used. I guess it was my learning experience. Basically, I sewed the front and inside flaps together first before sewing all the pockets for the needles. So when I made the pockets for the needles, the underside stitch (this probably has a technical name, but I'm not a real sewer to know) showed up on the outside fabric. So when it was rolled up, there were lines of stitches half-way up the roll. Gross. I thought the process through a little better and also rounded the corners so the edges were cleaner. Here are the finished products:

Straight needle case rolled up.

Unrolled. It holds all of my straight needles and even the big size 35s I bought for fun.

Circular needle case. This one folds in half twice like a book.

Circular needle case opened up. I kept these in their original cases, so I didn't have to measure to tell the 24" ones from the 29" ones!

dpn / crochet hook case. I still need to attach the ribbon and button....

dpn case opened up. I don't have a lot of dpn, but it holds crochet hooks, stitch holders and scissors.

I also made a straight needle case for my friend Jen (non-blogger) who knits. She's a big crochet person too, so I'm making a dpn like case for her crochet needles.

The last item on my to-sew list is a mini case for all those little notions, like the tapestry needles, cable needles, row counters, point protectors...have a great weekend!

Prosperous Plum Tank Finished

I actually finished this a little while ago.

Yarn: Rowan Handknit DK in Sugar, 5 balls
Pattern: By Joanna at knitpicking, available here
Started: Early August
Verdict: Love it! This one was a project that I wasn't super excited about when I started it, but it ended up being one of my favorite knits. I love the picot edging and learned how to use a provisional cast on. It fits really nicely, not too big or too small, and the back came out nicer than I thought, too. I was nervous about it because it was my first project dealing with negative ease. I wasn't using the specified yarn, which yielded 4" of negative ease, but I trusted Joanna's advice and gave myself more negative ease, 6" worth, since I wasn't using a stretchy yarn.

Unfortunately, it's getting chilly now here in the mid-Atlantic (which I am actually enjoying, autumn is my favorite time of year), so unless we get another warm day, this one might have to sit in the closet until spring time. Thanks Joanna for the free pattern, it was really well written and easy to follow.

In other knit news, I've added some items to my stash.

Elann Devon in Claret - no project in mind.

Cascade Indulgence in Rose - intended for the Embellished V Neck from Fall VK.

A make-up gift and a little quickie

I got a very nice surprise this week. It's kinda a long story, involving a Christmas gift from my husband Bill that didn't materialize and a crappy 2nd anniversary gift last year. Going back to October 2005 (we got married in 2003), if you didn't know, the traditional gift for a 2nd wedding anniversary is cotton. I normally follow tradition, but these categories are so difficult to work with. I mean, come on, paper for year 1? Does that mean only a card because you're still poor from paying off your honeymoon? Anyway, I really wanted to get Bill an iPod nano. So, he got his fancy iPod nano and I got cotton. Socks. With dogs on them. I got over it though, since we had sort of agreed not to really go all-out for anniversaries. I guess I forgot about that.

Christmas came 2 months later. My sole gift from Bill was an envelope containing a 'voucher' for acupuncture. I have back problems and he thought this would be a good gift. The voucher itself was cute - he made it and took pins from my sewing kit and stuck them in it. His mom even contributed $200 towards my gift. As it turned out, I started acupuncture and my health insurance covered it at 80%. To this day, I have yet to fork out the $200 his mom gave me in co-pays. This means that Bill's gift didn't really materialize. He didn't seem to notice.

Back to now: It's September. Our 3rd wedding anniversary is next month. For the past few months, I've been borrowing my parents' camera since our digital is WAY old and outdated. The batteries can barely keep it charged for an hour. Well, my parents just left for a trip to Germany and took their camera, rightfully so. We are going a friend's wedding on Saturday and I am left camera-less. Much to my delight, I came home this week to find a brand new Canon SD600 digital elph hiding under my Arisaig WIP bag in my yarn basket.

I asked: is this was an early anniversary gift?
Bill replied: no, it's to make up for Christmas and our anniversary last year.

What a fabulous husband. The camera didn't come with a protective case, so I quickly got to work on a case for it. I had 1 ball of Noro Blossom I had purchased a long time ago because it was so pretty. This was perfect for it.

I just knit in seed stitch until I had enough to fold up with a flap, sewed up the sides and attached a small loop for a button.

Then I tossed it in the washer to felt. It's so cute and I love it because it was a quickie-knit (took about an hour while watching 'House' on Tuesday night) and it's for my awesome make-up gift.

Ms. Marigold Finished

Ms. Marigold finally finished blocking last night - the rainy weather doesn't really facilitate speeding blocking. Here she is.

The Details:
Pattern: Ms. Marigold, available at zephyrstyle.com
Yarn: Elann Sonata in Ruby, 4 balls with nothing to spare
Verdict: So-so. I like the pattern but it was a frustrating process. Here are my gripes with this one. I thought the pattern lacked some guidance. For instance, I usually double check and keep track of my stitches anyway, but before joining in the round, after doing all those increases, there was no guideline for about how many stitches should be on the needle. I ended up counting and doing the gauge math, realized that I had about 30" of fabric around, even though I was knitting the 34". So, I added on some extra increases before joining in the round.

My other major gripe was that I ran out of yarn. Twice. I used up my 3rd ball before even getting to the bottom border, which I did in seed stitch instead of rib. So, I ordered 1 more from Elann, thinking that would be plenty. Wrong! I finished the bottom (added some increases to allow for my hips) and v-neck border and had only enough yarn to crochet 2 rounds over the ruffle, not 4. In a perfect world, I would like this to be a little longer, I would have knit the 36" size and I would like enough yarn to have rufflier ruffles. I might knit this again with some modifications, but overall I'm pleased with it (I wore it to work today).

Some more shots:

In other knitting news, I scored some Cascade Indulgence on sale ($5.70/ball, regularly $9.50) from Knot Another Hat for the Embellished V Neck from the new VK. And, Stitches East is coming to the Baltimore Convention Center November 2-5. There are supposed to be lots of vendors at the Stitches Market - has anyone ever been to one of these? Sounds like trouble for my wallet!

Lotsa yarn

I took Friday off from work, planning to use the day to run some errands, clean the house and knit. My order at Knit picks for the 21 balls of Swish I ordered had been shipped over a week before and the tracking system said it would probably be delivered on Friday. It was! The package was practically vacuum-packed and felt like an over-stuffed throw pillow. It was heavy. And dense. I pried it open, too excited to find scissors, and the bag burped out 21 balls of yummy soft, colorful yarn....

I ordered at least 1 of almost every color they stocked. It is VERY SOFT. So far, I've got 9 hats in mind. With Christmas less than 4 months aways, that's about 2.25 hats per month. 1.125 hats per week!

In other knitting news, I finished Ms. Marigold over the weekend. She is currently blocking - I'll have a FO report this week. I enjoyed the long weekend, hope everyone else did too!

I ran out

I was moving right along on Ms. Marigold, knitting, knitting, knitting in the round. A little boring, but I felt like I was in the home stretch. I kept looking at the 3rd ball, attached to my needles, getting smaller and smaller. I was worried I was going to run out of yarn.

I was right. I started the edging (in seed stitch instead of the rib specified) and ran out about 3/4" in. Argh! I'm not sure what went wrong. I used 3 balls on elann's Sonata (115 yards each), which is actually more yards than the called for 3 skeins of Knitpicks Elegance. So, I went to elann to get the 1 more ball needed (hoping the dye lot is the same, or at least not too different looking) and ended up tacking on 6 balls of Devon, the 100% Virgin wool that others have been raving about. I think I have a pattern picked out for that one:

Embellished V-Neck from Vogue Knits Fall 2006. I'll need to knit a bigger size to get the correct gauge since the pattern calls for 21 sts/4" and Devon knits up at 25 sts.

I swatched for Arisaig last night and have re-written the pattern for a 34" finished size and to take Liz's modifications into account. I hope to cast on tonight!

Orangina is finished!

With the end of summer approaching, I've finished another summer top in time to wear. I figure I've got through September to sport the sleeveless items, so with about 6 weeks of wear time left, Orangina is finished!!

Front and center.

A shot from the side. I like having the armholes larger and more comfortable since I need to wear a cami underneath.

The details.
Yarn: Elann Sonata 100% mercerized cotton in Victorian Grape. It's a little darker than it appears in the photos.
Modifications. A few. I knit the smallest size and did the lace pattern for about 12 1/2" instead of 14". I wanted the change from the lace to ribbing to emphasize my waist more and not my hips. So, I had to knit the ribbing longer. I have a little longer torso, so I knit the ribbing for 7" instead of the 4" called for.
Verdict. I love it. This pattern has looked great on everyone I've seen knit it in blogland, so I am glad I am not an exception!

In other knitting news, I am already planning my Christmas knitting. Scary. It seems every year there is a new nephew/niece and since we all exchange gifts (Bill & I have tried to stop this, but there's no stopping presents when it comes to his family. Last year we just got gifts for the kids, but the adults bought for us anyway. ). I just placed a big order at Knitpicks for the Swish superwash in about 10 different colors. I plan to make the hats featured in Last Minute Knitted Gifts for about 5 adults (including 1 for me!) and 4 children. That's a lot of hats. I will definitely post a photo of the colors when they arrive.

A friend (Katie Z, if you are reading this, STOP HERE!), is having a baby girl in December, and I've finally picked something out to knit for her.

Daydream from Rowan Babies.

And, to coordinate with it, Miss Dashwood from knitty.

I'm using TLC Baby yarn in a soft lilac. Katie lives in Minnesota now, so this should be cute on baby girl come Easter time.

Pink and purple goodness

I can't believe it's been over 2 weeks since my last post. I'm slacking! At the end of July, I took a week off from work and Bill & I went to the beach with my parents. We stayed with my dad's friend in Rehoboth Beach, DE during the massive heat wave. We had a nice time despite the uncomfortable weather, and the best news is that I discovered a LYS in Rehoboth. It's called Knitty Gritty. We passed by one evening when they were closed, but I peered in the window and saw a TON of Cascade 220 yarn. I've been extremely undecided about what color Cascade to get for Forecast because the color of the yarn looks different on every website I visit. So, the last day at the beach, I stopped into Knitty Gritty after lunch and picked up some Cascade Tweed in a lovely deep purple. I was tempted to get the tweed in a bright bubble-gummy pink, but I will knit everything pink if I don't discipline myself. This is a color that I don't have any winter sweaters in, and it will look great with jeans or black/grey pants for work.
In other knitting news, Orangina is blocking right now and will have a finished post this week. I started the Prosperous Plum Tank over the weekend. I'm using some Rowan handknit DK in, what else, Sugar (pink) that I scored off of eBay. I can't think of a fruit that's pink colored, but since the color yarn I'm using is called Sugar, I'll call this my Prosperous Sugar-Plum Tank. I like it.
Lastly, Bill and his law partner were featured all over the local news last week for a popular case they are handling. Here's a link to the article that followed in the Baltimore Sun. He really enjoyed the few minutes of local fame!

I just can't help it

I said that I was going to make some more progress on my 2 existing knitting projects before starting another one. I said that. Well, I don't know what it is, but I just can't help it. I kept picking up the pattern for Ms. Marigold and reading it. I liked that it was divided into sections. None of my other WIPs were written like that. I kept looking at the neat, wound up balls of Sonata in bright red that were begging to be knit. So, I did it. I cast on for Ms. Marigold and completely neglected everything else all week. But, I've made lovely progress.

Done up to the armholes, almost ready to join in the round.

In other news, I found some Jaeger MM 4 ply in a yummy shade of pink (my favorite) to make Arisaig. I am going to at least keep my promise not to cast on anything new for fall until my summer projects are complete. I must stick to it!!! Otherwise, I know I will have unfinished summer items that will sit all winter and then be old news when new spring patterns come out. Discipline!

I swear this will stay wound up....for now....

Finished: Lelah-Penny Top!

I've finished my version of the Lelah Top. I wanted little sleeves on it, so I followed glampyre's instructions for Bad Penny up until I knit over the bust and then worked Lelah backwards. This was pretty easy, since all I had to do was interchange rows 1 and 6 of the lace pattern. It was fun to knit and my first top-down raglan knit. I am definitely doing something like this again. I love that there's no seaming!! I've worn it twice so far and it needs a washing. The yarn is from elann and was super affordable ($1.98 per ball, used 6 balls), but I am nervous about how it will hold up. I know I will wear this A LOT because I wore it to work on Friday and it was the first thing I wore that co-workers (some of whom are fellow knitters) did not know/ask if I had knit it. That's the best - it looked store-bought and not handmade. Whoo hoo!

Love the waist-defining i-cord.

A view from the back.

Close up of the lace detail and waist shape.

Now, I am making progress on Orangina and the Lion brand t-strap top. I'd like to get those in the home stretch before starting something new. Difficult, I know!

Nephew #4 has arrived

Bill's (my husband, the lawyer) brother and his wife are now the proud parents of 2 girls and 2 boys with the addition of Jack on Tuesday. He arrived a little early, but past the critical 37 week mark, weighing in at 6lbs 14 oz.

I gave them the Pea Pod Set and everyone loved it. Hope he enjoys wearing it when he gets much bigger (and it gets cold). Though I am not quite ready yet to think about having kids, I can tell I am getting older, and hence, getting closer to that point. Scary!

Eyelet V-Neck Pattern

I've written up the Eyelet V-Neck with Ribbon trim into a
pdf file.

Please let me know if you spot errors or have questions. This is the first pattern I have ever 'formally' written up!

False Alarm

Over the weekend, my sister-in-law started to feel labor pains (she's due August 6 but is expected to deliver any day), so I scrambled to get the Pea Pod Baby Set complete.

Success!

It is SO adorable and the detailing on the lace-leaf came out better than I expected. The color looks dark in the picture - it is more of an olivey-piney green. I cheated on the hat (didn't do the lace-leaf), but I added a pom-pom to make up for it. Turns out, the labor was a false alarm. But, it's wrapped and waiting for baby's arrival.
I also wanted to add a personal touch by creating a label for the sweater. I read on crafster.org about how you can buy iron-on printer paper and make labels by ironing the paper cut outs to ribbon. I went to Joann fabrics and found something even better - inkjet printer fabric paper. I made my label and pasted a bunch onto a page in Word. Then, I printed to the fabric paper, ironed it, washed it, re-ironed it and voila!! The label can be sewn right onto the garment:

Fabric paper, after printing the labels out.

A label cut out and sewn to the Pea Pod sweater. So cute!

A Quick Note

The Prosperous Plum Tank now has multiple sizes! Check out knitpicking to get the pattern.

Creating a stash

I was not happy with how Orangina was knitting up with the Shine Sport. It was looking "fuzzy", so I frogged it and ordered some Sonata from Elann. I loved the way this was knitting up with my Lelah-Penny top, so I ordered 3 colors. I am SO not a pack rat and have trouble keeping things I am not using, so this was a big step for me. I plan to keep all this yarn and hopefully knit up some surprises with it, since I am sure I ordered way more than I need for Orangina. Ms Marigold is planned next with the red, and perhaps a Ms Marigold for a friend (or two).

Here are the 21 balls I ordered.

Orangina was started and 4" completed using the dark purple (Victorian Grape).

In other knitting news, I made great progress on the Pea Pod Baby Set over the weekend. Only 1 sleeve left to go! Which is good, since the baby is coming very soon. We drove to Ohio for Katie (who taught me how to purl)'s wedding, so the drive gave me good knitting time. We stopped at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.