Central Park Hoodie

I finished seaming the Central Park Hoodie made for a friend's daughter last night, but wanted to wait until this morning when the sun was out to take a picture of it. You'll probably notice that the cables flatten out toward the neck, but that's only because the hoodie is too small for my broad shoulders... When the hoodie's laying flat, it's just as it should be!



Pattern from KnitScene, Special Issue, Fall 2006
Yarn: Wool Ease Blue Mist (multiple dye lots, hence the 'stripe') ~6 balls?
Needles: 8 addi turbos and knit pick options
Modifications: knit body in one big piece to avoid side seams, extended the hood about 2" more than pattern called for, and picked up all the front edge ribbing in one big piece instead of two sections.

Started January 18, 2007 and Finished February 4, 2007

Next project in the works is a baby surprise jacket in Bernat softee baby yarn... sneak preview:

Bunny Buddies 1 & 2

I have a handful of friends or acquaintances who are expecting babies in May, June, and July, so I'm working on little gift packs for them all... First up are two bunny buddies. The pattern for these can be found on Lion Brand's website, but I don't like the yarn called for, so I subbed Bernat Cottontots. I've also made these using Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton, and while it was certainly nice, I didn't think it was nicer enough to pay over $9 for a skein of the stuff when I can buy a ball of Cottontots for a third or less of the cost and make at least 2, maybe squeeze a third buddy from that single ball. Cost effective and just as soft, in my book, anyway.

So here are #1 and #2 for 2007 in Sweet Cream:


and Blue Berry:



I hope to be back soon with completed photos of the CPH, wonky stripe and all!

A Lesson in Dye Lots

I won't say much. I'm too mad. At myself and at the stupid $#%(#($@#$&*$%)$_ idiots who developed dye lots. SONUVA.



I can't believe I didn't see this happening. I just kept on-a-knittin and didn't look at anything but what I was working on at the immediate moment. I am actually completely amazed at what a HUGE difference there is between two balls of the same yarn in the same color. I mean, come on! Was the stripe-y causing yarn dyed by someone on crack, or what? Did the dyer forget to add the blue dye? SONUVA.

I'm going to finish it. I'm afraid if I don't, there will officially be a curse on me and the central park hoodie, as I still have one 3/4 finished lying on my bedroom floor. Good news is I'm happy with the overall results, save the color variance. It turned out better than I expected!

In General

I'm chugging along with the CPH v2 in wool ease. Both sleeves are done and blocking away. I've had some trouble with the body, though. In knitting this second one, I realized an error I never really worried about on the first one. Anyway, I have cast on at least 3 times, and I think I've got it right this time. No photos because I doubt anyone wants to see half an inch of k2p2 ribbing! :-) I have used the cable cast on for the entire project... No real reasoning behind this except that I kind of like how it looks. I prefer the long tail method, but I didn't feel like trying to guess-timate how much of a tail to leave for 162 sts!!

On another front, I had found MANY patterns in Phildar's various magazines on their french website and I fell hard! I decided to buy six magazines, mostly the Layette, but also a couple of the kids' versions. That was almost 2 weeks ago! I'm not sure if the delay is on the overseas mailing portion or if it's my not-so-adept-at-their-job mailpeople. They are the worst. I am super anxious to see the mags first hand, though!! I've been a little obsessed (to say the least) about checking the mail. :-) Maybe they'll come today. Or tomorrow. Or sometime this month.

Have a great day! I'll leave you with my youngest, eating his banana and hamming it up for the camera!

Baby Cardigan

Done up in stash-busting Bernat Softee Baby in pale blue, this is the Sirdar leaflet pattern #3143 on size 5 bamboo needles. I adapted to knit in one piece instead of 3 and joined the sleeves as if knitting in the round. Kind of made it more difficult than I thought, but it turned out ok. At least I didn't have to seam much--only the underarms! My gauge was a little off from the pattern, so I followed the 3-6 month sizing to achieve a newborn finished product. I have a couple aquaintances who are expecting this summer, so I might knit up one or two more of these in a summer-y cotton yarn of some sort... perhaps Patons Grace or Jaeger Aqua. I also really want to try the baby surprise jacket (Knitting Workshop) and the baby sweater (Knitter's Almanac) by Elizabeth Zimmermann, so those might take precedence over another Sirdar. We'll see what gender babies are coming before making the decision!

Anyway, enough of the mindless chatter and on to the photo.



I had some trouble with the button band, as you can see, and I haven't officially finished this knit since I still have the buttons to sew on, but I wanted to post a pic anway! (ps... I 'borrowed' this photo idea from a blog I've been following for a while now... I hope that's legal! If not, lemme know!)

Suburban Wildlife

So we're gearing up to watch the Bears playoff game a little before 2pm yesterday when my hubby looks out the window and sees this:



and this:







That's right! A mini pack of deer all of 5 feet from our window! It was pretty cool and the kids were super excited!

Not much knitting news, though. I did finish one sleeve on the teenage CPH and it's blocking... cast on for the second sleeve and have turned one cable... Also almost done with a baby cardigan in Bernat Softee Baby using a Sirdar pattern I've had for a while. I'll post pics tomorrow if I'm done by then!

Avoidance isn't always the best policy

But it's a pretty well exercised one in my world!!

I have a Central Park Hoodie (CPH) on the needles in Rowan Yorkshire Aran Tweed because I'm afraid to finish it... If I finish knitting it, I'll have to seam it and the yarn scares me. It's thick and thin and weak and strong and I'm freaked out. So I have the entire cardigan body and one sleeve done and another sleeve all-but-done (I'm about half through the sleeve cap shaping) and the only things left to do are finish the sleeve and knit the hood. And seam it. Did I mention I fear seaming this sweater? I don't dare admit when I actually cast on for this one. You'd faint.

So yesterday I did what any rational person would do: I picked out some stash yarn (wool ease in blue mist) and cast on for a sleeve of another CPH for a friend's teenage daughter. There's some good news and some bad news to this. Good News: stash yarn! (need I say more?!?) This yarn doesn't freak me out so it should become a finished project in a timely fashion. And finally, it's a gift, which is always a good thing. Bad news? Well, I'll probably never finish the first one. The one I bought good yarn for. The one meant for ME! Only time will tell. For now, here's my progress on the blue one in wool ease, along with a footie shot of my littlest helper! :-)

River Run Vest... Done!

It has several issues, but it wasn't exactly planned well before jumping in and knitting away. Worked in the round until the armholes, then back and forth on two fronts and the back sections. I used size 8 addis on this, as well as 7 bamboo for the neck and armhole ribbing. If I did it again, I'd make several adjustments, including (but not limited to) lengthening the armhole, spreading the armhole and neck shaping over MANY more rows to avoid the tank-top style, and skip the side purl sections. The yarn is Lion Brand Wool Ease in Dark Rose Heather color, and for ~37" measurement I used 3 balls plus a tiny bit of a fourth for the neck ribbing.

Please forgive me my sweatpants and horrible winter lighting self-photo!!

Don't Try This At Home!

I decided it would be fun to semi-design a vest with a nice cable for a friend. From scratch using the Handy Book of Sweater Patterns. Ouch. All was going well until I needed to split the cable, so nicely centered in the front, into two even sections flanking the V of the neckline. It's actually not turning out too terrible, but like an idiot, I left myself a lifeline in a contrasting yarn but forgot to actually LEAVE the yarn in after I started knitting the first side of the neck. DUMB DUMB DUMB.

Oh well. I'm hoping to finish this tomorrow or at the latest on Thursday.

Dolly is born!

From the Jess Hutchison Unusual Toys For You to Knit and Enjoy booklet. Used Patons Astra in lip pink, baby pink, and baby yellow on size 5 clover dpns. Took about 1.5 days including kid-interruption time. I can definitely see more of her patterns in my immediate future!!

My foray into knitting and blogging!

So I'm not a "real" blogger, I'm just faking it so I have a central location for my knitting tidbits. I started knitting in late 2004 when I bought a learn-to-knit-kit by Lion Brand at Joann. I had never even set foot inside a Joann before, let alone a brand spanking new Joann Superstore, so I had no idea what I was in for. I had a 40% off coupon in my hot little hands that was begging to be spent. I had no idea what to buy, but I wasn't gonna leave empty handed. I spotted the kit and I was off. The deep end. I just didn't know it yet.


I since have learned lots of techniques and perfected none. I have fun knitting, but am not often truly please with the end results. Probably because I'm impatient. Very impatient. And I get bored easily. Ahhh... My poor kids got those traits from me. Sad but true.
Anyway, I will try to post things as I finish them now and perhaps throw in a few older FOs along the way for fun.

Thanks for stopping by!

For now, here is a pic of my oldest modeling one of my first FOs, the Bill sweater in Debbie Bliss's Junior Knits book using Knit Picks Merino Style.













And for some older FOs, check out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/94024423@N00/