Almost forgot

These little owlets are long gone, given away as gifts. But here they are all finished.

Special Birthday Socks

I finally, finally, finally finished these socks. Ripped back two times, but this time's charm. For my mom's 80th (!) birthday. She liked them. She is a serious quilter and the stars are called the "Friendship Star" in the quilting world. I had originally made a cuff covered in friendship stars, but I couldn't get my foot into it because the two-color knitting was so tight. So it had to be ripped.
It was hard to rip this back. It looked so good! Ah well....

Christmas stars

I, too, like to knit little gifts for people for the holidays. Because, you know, it's not like I have all that much else to do. . .

But I didn't make up my pattern like Jennifer's owls. It's Stjarna, a free pattern on Ravelry. I've been using primarily leftover sock yarn, which is great because the pattern only calls for small amounts of yarn. But it isn't so great if, like me, you don't tend to knit with holiday-ish colors in your normal life.

But here are some anyway, showing the variety. I've already given away three, and I think I'll probably do about five more. A fun if fiddly pattern.

Stuffed and Beaked (is that a word?)

Sixteen Eyes

Hmmmm...

Monkey Blanket

I've been jonesin' to make a Monkey Blanket for quite a while now. It incorporates stranded knitting at a large gauge, cool colors, and steeking. What's not to like?

So when we found out our friends were having a baby, I showed the pattern to David and he liked it. So he bought the yarn and I knit it up.

It was quite a project, involving not just numerous balls of yarn but also a team-effort of machine-sewing the steeks to reinforce them, since I used superwash yarn. (I couldn't really give a new mother something she'd have to handwash.) The border, knit on each side and then grafted together, was its own project. You basically knit two blankets, which the pattern conveniently neglects to point out.

Anyway, here it is.
Monkey side:

Doughnut side:

Some of the monkeys. (I changed the pattern to give each monkey his own expression.)

More monkeys:

And finally, baby Olivia! Not sure yet how much of a monkey she might turn out to be. . .

Why?

Why would anyone dig through a great big pile of antique buttons, match up 18 of them and then color in the centers black with a Sharpie? What is going on? Stay tuned...

Cute, or What?

Here's some booties that Simma knit up with leftover sock yarn. They are about 2 inches long. So cute! The pattern is the famous Saartje's Booties and you can find it here.

Penguins

Here's an interesting post on how knitters came to aid of penguins in Tasmania. They knit sweaters for them to wear while recovering from the effects of an oil spill. Thank you Rachel for bring this to my attention!

Vintage sweater

Hi Everyone - I'm in Germany spending some time with my Great Uncle. I asked him pull out pictures of my aunt - so that I could scan them. This one was also in there. This is my mom she's maybe 2? And isn't this the most adorable sweater?
I'm guessing this sweater was made for her by her godmother, Tante Hilde. Tante Hilde was my grandmother's best friend. They both taught at a fashion institute in Berlin. My grandmother taught dressmaking and weaving, and Tante Hilde taught knitting and crocheting. She also designed patterns for magazines. I'm guessing this is one of her designs.

Stretchy

BEFORE (about 36 x 20)

Most everyone knows how much I love to block my knitting. I especially love to block lace. Here's some snapshots of Rock Island. It is totally transformed! And I stretched the crap out of it.



I placed the pins at every point of the zigzags. There is a very convenient little triangle that you can see just above and to the right of my thumb where you can place the pins.

AFTER (about 68 x 31)

So cool!

The Crescent

I haven't posted any of my knitting in a while. Just lazy, I guess. I have been knitting, though! Recently I became kind of preoccupied with crescent shawls and I knit three in a row.
This one is Annis and I knit it with some yarn I got on sale at Rosies - Araucania (cashmere!) marked down from $30 to $5. This shawl has nupps, (those round berry-like things) and I had never made nupps before. It was fun and fast to knit and I am happy with the results.


Then I knit Just Enough Ruffles for the Pinkknit-a-thon. You may recall that Simma (my daughter) knit it a little while back and I could see that I would enjoy knitting it. And again, I was drawn to the short rows and the crescent shape. I don't have a really good picture of this one:
I LOVED the yarn, which again, was on sale a Rosies. I got 4 balls of Misty Alpaca Lace - two white and two pink - and knit the scarf starting with 4 stands white. I gradually introduced the pink yarn and ended with the ruffles all pink. The yarn is so soft! Dare I say softer than the Araucania? It is really amazingly soft. And it is not an expensive yarn. But the woman at Rosie's wasn't sure if they were going to continue carrying it.

Then I knit the Oslo Walk Shawl, another Susanna IC shawl from IK magazine. It has over 600 beads that are not strung along, but are added as you go with a tiny crochet hook. I had trouble photographing this one. I'll bring it to the SnB this weekend. It is HUGE! I couldn't believe how much it grew when I blocked it. I really like it, though I am not sure when I will wear it. It seems kind of fancy. Maybe a wedding? But I think I am done with crescents for a while now. On to something else!

Elizabeth Zimmermann's Yoke Sweater

A big, big thank you to Wendy and Jennifer for their advice on the collar and decreases! I think it turned out pretty great (see the pre-advice debacle below). And I loved working with this yarn: Sublime Yarns Organic Merino Wool DK (bought at "the Dump" - 9 skeins for $20!).

I decided to only block the bottom hem because it was curling up (note: next time I will add more than 6 rows for a folded hem with thick-ish yarn - it still really wants to curl). I was afraid blocking the entire sweater would make it much too big for me. Next time I will gauge with a BLOCKED swatch (I can just hear Jennifer saying, "Told you so!").

Before consulting Wendy and Jennifer, I was getting this weird ruching effect when decreasing K1, K2tog around.The K2togs were also looking like a decorative stitch. I was really disappointed. Perhaps if I had had some color work at the yoke, it wouldn’t have been as obvious:

After some frogging and knitting consultation, I reworked the yoke by spreading out the decreases over 4 rows (with 2 plain knit rows in between the 4 - so really over 10 rows total). I also did SSK instead of K2tog. Much, much better:

Thanks again, ladies! Really looking forward to seeing you next week.

Cute?

Simma finished her scarf. Lane likes it.
Pattern: "Just Enough Ruffles" by Laura Chau
Yarn: Blue Sky Suri Merino

Cute!

Here's a picture of River wearing a hat that Simma knit for him. He is the brand new son of some of her friends in San Francisco.

Exceptions

We all have rules we live by. They tend to simplify and clarify decision-making.

I guess that's the point.

As we all probably do, I have many knitting rules. Here are few:

I don't knit with acrylic.
I don't knit blankets.
I don't do fancy borders.

Below, a just-finished blanket with ruffles. I knit it in about a week. It's made of Lyon Brand Jiffy. 100% acrylic.

It's for David's Mom, who's having some serious medical issues.

She needs something that will keep her warm. And something that can be put in the washer and dryer.


And something soft.


And something she can wear as a shawl.


Something that can stay at home or travel in the car and to doctors' appointments.


Something that brings comfort.


And something that's pretty but not precious.

So, rules are great to live by. But sometimes we make exceptions.

SnB Fun

Jon visited and wondered where we got the "furballs" for spinning...

Ang spun some very pretty gray yarn

Wendy and Alice de-tangled a ball of yarn. It takes two to de-tangle.

Jennifer and Wendy compared the sweater they are both knitting.
Fun day.

Cute Hat

I've been home sick for a few days - but not too sick to knit. I made this hat for Val's baby, which is due any day now. It is a modified version of the Gnomey Hat. Her version uses much bulkier yarn. Instead of casting on 50 stitches, I cast on 70. It has a garter stitch edge and a pointy top, except that I ended it with an i-cord and added the little leaf. It's cute because when it is on a head, the leaf kind of dangles. The pattern for the leaf is called Just-a-Leaf. I made this same hat over the summer for Simma to take to the hospital and give to one of her patients. It was her idea to add the leaf. It took me one day to knit. The yarn I got on sale in Cape May and is called Noro Matsuri. It is 80% cotton and 20% wool.

A Very Old Pair of Socks

Hal brought me these socks the other day (I should have taken a picture). One of the heels had a big hole in it. I knit these wooly winter socks for him a very long time ago. Look at them! Why did I do a k2 p2 ribbing on one and a k1p1 ribbing on the other? I have no clue. Also, I have already repaired them once. Where you see the darker blue, including the top of the cuff are all repairs. So I told him that it may be time to part with them. And then he said: " I don't know, Jen. I think these may be the first things you ever knit for me." He HAD to say it! He has always appreciated my knitting. He has also benefited from it and it was sweet that he didn't want to part with these socks. We are talking about socks that are maybe 28 years old. Lately, I am trying to be less sentimental about all our stuff. It's time to part with things, to downsize. But I just couldn't toss them into the trash. So after conferring with Wendy, I came up with a plan to repair them once again.
It was only the heel flap that needed replacing. I just snipped it away and picked up the stitches around where it was. then I knit across the flap and k2tog when ever I got to the gusset edge (Wendy thought part up) and then I just Kitchnered the turned heel to the flap. It worked! The other heel flap is still hanging on, so I left it alone. But I told Hal that he has to baby these socks from now on. No boots or shoes. Slippers and bed only. After all, they are very, very old!

Hats? Done

I start with the very pretty one:This is the Koolhaas hat by Jared Flood. Yarn: Rittenhouse Manos. A hat made for Simma for her birthday. It's so cute in her! This hat is very fun to knit. It goes by fairly quickly and I had to learn to make cables without a cable needle, something I have always wanted to know. I like the yarn ok. It is very soft and the color is great, but it is kind of limp. I like some springyness in my yarn. But I may use it again because when I made this hat I noticed I had a fair amount left. I weighed the finished hat (49g) and then the ball (50g). Seems like a very efficient way to use up this yarn.

The next hat is the current knit-along: Opus Spicatum. Oh, the joys and pleasures of blocking, especially when it is stranded knitting. The pattern really starts to define itself. I have it on a ten inch plate. I have high hopes that it will fit. It could be a little big. We shall see when it is dry.

Pre-blocking