This little cutie is my nephew Isaac, wearing the hat I knit him for Christmas. The pattern is Thorpe, and the yarn is Malabrigo Worsted - the same yarn I used for Levi's blue hat. Time got the best of me and although I had intended to knit Isaac this hat way back in October, I ended up casting on on Christmas Eve and finishing on Christmas Day. Phew! Anyway, I love these pictures of him walking like an old pro - he looks so confident and adorable in his new blue hat!
I just love handknit washcloths. They are the best thing to have on your needles when you want a mindless project, and they are the perfect gift. I have made several in the past out of handspun hemp, but this time I didn't have time for spinning and instead used this amazing soft (and cheap!) organic cotton yarn. I used a lace pattern called "Elfin Lace" from Barbara Walker's Treasury of Knitting patterns and did enough repeats for an approximately 8" square washcloth. Each cloth took less than a half of a ball of the organic cotton yarn, meaning these beautiful little things cost less than $1.25 each in supplies!
Add a nice bar of soap, and you have a lovely little gift. It would have been great if I had time to make some homemade soap for these, but that did not happen this year. I recently saw this post from melissa of tiny happy, and it seems that she had the opposite problem...time for the soap-making but not the knitting!
I wrapped each washcloth in brown tissue paper, tied them with string, added a hemlock branch from our woods, and they're all ready to be given as holiday gifts!
My baby turned one last Friday. It hardly seems possible that a year has past since this amazing sweet boy came into our lives. For the occasion, cake was made and devoured, friends came over to play, and owl-themed party favors were made.
I knit these tiny owls and put them on hair clips for the little girls and pins for the little boys.
I originally intended to make small versions of these as well, but in an especially enlightened moment I came up with the idea of making little owl bean bags instead. These are filled with organic popcorn and I will definitely be making more of them. I think Levi needs a set of 5 for tossing!
This is another pair of May mittens, but this time I made them in October! Consequently I used more autumnal colors than my last pair of springy mittens. I made these for my mother-in-law for her birthday, which was back in October, but I just gave them to her this Thanksgiving. She is one of my few readers, so I thought I'd hold off on posting them until they were gifted.
Again I used Noro silk garden. I'm still not sure about Noro yarns...once again I had to split out several of the colors from the skein because I thought they were ugly and clashing. I am happy with the colors that remained though. The bright blues remind me of my mother-in-law (I don't know why!) and the oranges and browns are a touch of my preferred colors. Once again, an enjoyable pattern and a pretty final result!
I've never had a triangular shawl before, but somewhere along the line three shawl patterns ended up on my "must knit" list. I like that small shawls can be worn like scarves and that they usually only take one skein of yarn. This shawl pattern is Ishbel, and I made it with a skein of green Malabrigo lace that I have had for a while. I had started knitting a scarf with it, but hadn't knit a single stitch on that scarf in over 2 years, so it was ripped out in favor of this project.
I have to say (now that I have my first triangular shawl) that I actually prefer the triangle shape to the typical long rectangular scarf. For some reason, to me it seems more versatile. My favorite things about this particular shawl are the scalloped edge and the amazing yarn. It is so soft and fine and I love the subtle variegations in the yarn. It feels really light around my neck and I didn't want to take it off after photographing it today, even though it was 60 degrees outside.
This was a really great fun pattern, a little addictive (my family did a lot of groaning as I ignored them to work on this one), and I'm really happy with the outcome. There is definitely more shawl knitting on my schedule for this winter!
It is so funny trying to photograph a baby because you never know what you are going to get. For my last post, I had a very cooperative little boy who basically just sat in the grass and smiled at the camera. This time, when I tried to photograph this little blue hat, I literally chased Levi around the house for at least a half hour. He was moving around so quickly, and I was determined to not use a flash, so most of the dozens of pictures I took were just blue blurs. Somehow though, I got some seriously adorable pictures of Levi (check out the drool in that above picture!) that show off the blue hat quite well!
It is a very simple hat, scaled down from this pattern (yeah, I know, I even managed to get a basic hat pattern from Jared Flood), but it is a gorgeous turquoise blue, which is perfect for my little blue-eyed boy. The yarn is the super soft Malabrigo Worsted in color Touareg. Once again, I purposely knit it on the big side, with hopes that he can wear it next winter too.
I finally knit my baby boy a new wool sweater. This is the Cobblestone Pullover, yet another Jared Flood design. I'm not going to lie and say that this is the last of his designs that you'll be seeing from me - I think 4 of my next 6 projects are his patterns. A little obsessive maybe, but I really like his designs and they suit my style of knitting very well.
One really great thing about the sweater is that it will definitely fit him for at least another winter, if not two, and he can wear it now with the sleeves rolled up by about 2 inches. This was my goal - a longer-lived sweater for Levi. I got really sad putting all his tiny newborn handknits from last winter into storage, and was determined to knit something with a little more staying power. I really love this little sweater - it was super fun and easy to knit (all in one piece = no seaming = wonderful!), and it looks really cute on little Levi. Hopefully I'll get around to knitting this pattern for Adam, and then the two of them can be adorably matching in their cobblestones.
I love this hat so much it almost makes up for the fact that our fall weather didn't last very long this year before cold wintery temperatures kicked in. At least I can wear wool every day! I knit this hat from the pattern book "Made in Brooklyn" by Jared Flood. I almost never buy pattern books, but this one has about 4 patterns that I seriously want to knit (or maybe I just want to wear) right this very second. And because they are designed by Jared Flood, I really couldn't resist buying this book - his designs are so elegant and usually involve very little seaming, which is the kind of knitting I love.
This is the Quincy hat, which I knit in Classic Elite Ariosa. It is a super soft blend of merino and cashmere and is pretty bulky, so it knits up really fast. The hat pattern is amazing. You basically just knit a long garter stitch band, twist it, sew the ends together, and then pick up stitches for the top of the hat. Super easy, but brilliant...and I love wearing it. Oh yeah...and did you notice the lack of handknits on my poor cold baby? That is being remedied...stay tuned!
Elizabeth Zimmerman says that you should always knit mittens in May. If you knit them in the winter-time, you are rushed because you want to wear them so badly, and you might end up with imperfect mittens. In May, you take your time so they always end up just right. I have to say that I totally agree with this advice - while knitting these mitered mittens (from The Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmerman), I ripped out an entire mitten just because I wasn't happy with the way the colors played out. Would I have done that in January? Hmmm...
I used Noro Silk Garden color 255, and Kathryn Ivy's thumb gusset modifications. The yarn is one that I never ever would have chosen if I saw it in person. I ordered it online and was disappointed with it when I received it. Luckily, I love these mittens, so the yarn ended up not being a huge mistake. I did, however, only use partial skeins so I could avoid the colors in the yarn that I really hated. I do love the turquoise and rust colored stripes, and how they work with all the shades of green.
I just love this pattern, and think the yarn was a perfect match for it. The only bad thing about making mittens in May is that now I have to wait so many months and months before I can wear them!
I knit this sweater for my friend's baby, Maeve, who turned one last weekend. It's from the Nashua Handknits book, Sprout: Designs for Baby, but I used Valley Yarns Northfield in Chestnut. The yarn is 70% merino, 20% baby alpaca, and 10% silk and seemed to work well for the pattern. I really hate seaming sweaters (I know I've mentioned this before), and this sweater had a fair amount of seaming, but I think it turned out great! Maeve is a very small one-year-old, and I made the 18-24 month size, so unfortunately it may be a little while before I get to see her in it.
This is one of those knits that I wish my baby would never grow out of. I just might have to rewrite the pattern again in an even bigger size, so he has a vest to wear next fall too! The pattern is from thrifty knitter, the cobblestone inspired "manly vest." It is written in a small 0-3 month size, so I added more stitches in an attempt to make it bigger. It perfectly fits my 15+ pound 4 month old son right now.
One of the best parts of the vest are the buttons - which are on one of the shoulders and all the way down that same side. So it is really easy to get on and off a squirmy baby. I also just really love the simplicity of it - it's a knit that requires minimal finishing (you only have to sew together the non-buttoned shoulder), and that is the kind of knitting that I prefer since I really hate seaming together knitted pieces.
For knitters who want to know how I made this bigger, here are the details: I used Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed and size 6 needles. I cast on 90 stitches and used a wrong-side row of S1 K4 P37 K7 P37 K4. I did buttonholes every 12th row (rows 7, 19, 31, 43, 55) and knit a total of 57 rows before dividing for armholes. I had 9 stitches on either side of the bound off neck rather than 8. That's all there is to it!
I knit this sweater for a friend who is having a baby girl in June. I love this pattern - especially the fact that it is knit all in one piece. The pattern is Elizabeth Zimmerman's "February Baby Sweater," which is in A Knitter's Almanac. I used Lily Chin Gramercy, which is superwash merino. The yarn isn't very interesting or nice, and I probably wouldn't choose it again, but I'm so thrilled with how the sweater turned out that, surprisingly, the yarn doesn't bother me very much.
This pattern is ingenious. You basically knit a square, and it miraculously folds into a cute little pointed pixie hat! I used Arucania Ranco Multy yarn in color 308, and size 3 needles. I didn't follow the directions for the ties on the sides as written in the pattern, and instead just picked up 7 stitches on each side and did K1P1 ribbing for the ties. I learned about this great hat from soulemama - I adore her version of it and think it is so cute that it is too big for her baby. Mine is a little more form-fitting, but still cute! In the picture below, you can see the sides of the hat - the way it is knit forms a neat triangle pattern.
The hat is really great and stretchy, so it will fit Levi for a long time - at least the rest of the winter, which is what I was hoping for. He has already grown out of his first handknit wool hat, and I needed something for his little head now that we're starting to take more walks!
I went a little crazy and knit two more pairs of the purl bee fingerless gloves. I really loved the ones that I made for my friend Rachel for Christmas, and wanted to make red ones for myself. My sister left a comment on my blog post implying that she would like a pair as well...so I made a third pair. By the time I finished three pairs of these gloves, I decided that I never ever want to knit this pattern again. So this is it!
This is one of my sleeping baby knits - The Amanda Hat, which is made from Malabrigo worsted merino. I used color "sunset." This pattern is a wonderfully fun and quick knit, and I love the way this hat fits! The pattern states that if you are careful, you can make two hats from one skein of Malabrigo. The hat was so fun to knit that I immediately cast on for a second hat once I finished the first, and sure enough I had exactly enough yarn for two hats. I had about a 12-inch piece of yarn to spare!
We got another 6 or 8 inches of snow last night, and I think I am going to leave my well-fed baby with Adam this afternoon and head out for my first post-partum cross-country ski. Can't wait.
There is still no baby to wear it...but yesterday I sewed the buttons on this sweater and it is now all ready to go! I used a pattern in the Sublime pattern book #600, but used the Sublime washable merino rather than the baby cashmere merino silk yarn. It's called the "vintage car coat," and looks absolutely adorable on the baby boy in the picture.The only thing I hated about making this sweater was sewing together all the pieces. I think there is a good reason I tend to stick to circular knitting with minimal finishing - I am terrible at seaming, and pretty impatient with the process too. The sweater is really cute though. It has two buttons on the cuff of each sleeve, which is a pretty nice touch...although the buttons I bought are a little heavy, so our baby might get a muscle work-out from wearing this sweater! I made the 3-6 month size, so hopefully it'll fit him this winter. With my luck, it'll fit perfectly in the middle of the summer.
In these last weeks of waiting for baby, it seems like all I want to do is sit on the couch and knit. Which means that when I see a pattern that I can't resist, I immediately cast-on. This pattern, the cashmere fingerless gloves from Purl Bee was completely irresistable to me, but I couldn't justify the expense of the cashmere. Luckily I had some handspun alpaca, merino, bamboo yarn that seemed to be the right weight, and oddly enough I had even mentioned making it into fingerless gloves when I first finished spinning the yarn. I used Blue Sky alpaca sport weight in dark brown for the trim, as was recommended in the pattern.
The trip to Portland involved a 2.5 hour bus ride and over 6 hours of flying, each way. Aside from a short nap here and there, pretty much all I did during the transit was knit this Baby Surprise Jacket. It is made from my handspun bark yarn (dyed by Pigeonroof Studios), which is a sport weight yarn, and I think I used size 4 needles for this one.
Adam finished his dissertation and we're heading to Portland, Oregon tomorrow for his defense. I'm so happy for him and now he will have more time to work on his wood lathe...he is learning how to turn wood bowls, and I can't wait to see what he creates! I'm also really excited to visit Portland...I miss that wonderful city!
The last few Pigeonroof rovings that I have spun have been so beautiful as yarn that I am hesitant to knit with them. I'd rather just look at them! This one is different. It's colorway "bitter orange" in 80% merino and 20% tussah silk. I really loved the color of this one and was excited to spin it. But I'm not happy with my spinning at all! I was trying to spin a thicker yarn, but this one just seems dense and it isn't very pretty to look at. I'm also not as even of a spinner when I try to spin thicker (I think in the future I'm going to stop trying - I'll just 3-ply my thin singles if I want a thicker yarn). Plus it is very barber-poley, which I'm not so crazy about in a yarn.
And I learned something about myself. When I am not 100% satisfied with a yarn, I just want to knit it right away! So I discovered a way to get myself to knit more: spin yarns that I'm unhappy with! Just kidding, I won't do that, but check out how amazingly gorgeous the bitter orange is in this knitted garter stitch swatch I made.
I LOVE it. It's tweedy and interesting and it drapes really well (because of the silk)...and I love all the colors. Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to make with it. Unfortunately I only have about 200 yards, which isn't a whole lot. I'm really anxious to knit with it though, so hopefully I'll figure out something good.
