Knitting

Another Candle-Flame shawl off the needles.  I had just enough alpaca yarn left from the first shawl to make another.  This pattern is so addictive and simple – it makes a heavy, warm shawl, especially in this fluffy alpaca (the original pattern calls for Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Bulky 85% wool, 15% mohair), although there is a cone of deep gold mohair in my stash that may end up as a lighter-weight version of this shawl sometime soon.

A good shawl blocking tutorial can be found at See Eunny Knit! If you’d prefer to use blocking rods or are interested in the dental floss technique (which I think I’ll be trying next time) see Deborah’s blocking page. I couldn’t find my blocking pins, and just used straight pins from my sewing drawer.  Hopefully, all will turn out well.

I have a few things I wanted to share in the upcoming days, but we’ll see how things go – this is going to be a very over-full week, which includes prep for and teaching two different knitting classes amongst a host of other projects.  Oh, and thanks to a broken tooth, I have to squeeze a root canal in somewhere this week and next. (How do other homeschoolers make it to appointments?  This is a continual issue for me – I’m never “free” during the day while my kids are in school, so making time for dentist appointments, doctor visits, errands and coordinating childcare is tough! I know I’m by no means alone in this, and would love to hear how other folks with little ones manage!)

We’re looking forward to a break from the craziness the weekend after next – we’re traveling to visit with dear friends on the coast (where we used to live).  We all need some relaxation pretty badly, and I think a little yurt camping, a little cider pressing, a little wave-watching, and a lot of good conversation will be exactly what we need to recharge.

We are having absolutely glorious fall weather, and so have been spending a lot of time outside the past few days, working the garden  and making chalk drawings on the front steps.  The yard work has been a bit daunting – hazelnuts to coppice, wheelbarrows and wheelbarrows of manure and mulch to spread, garlic and leeks and shallots and onions to plant, beds to prepare for the ridiculous amount of spring flower bulbs I’ve ordered.

However, today, while the baby takes his afternoon nap, I think I’ll let the yardwork go, and just sit in the sunny window seat and watch the girls race their scooters around the driveway.    And, I may attempt to finish these socks.

I think it’s best not to put too many things on the “to do” list for a Friday afternoon, don’t you?

I hope you have a relaxing Friday afternoon as well, and a peaceful and refreshing weekend.

Another pixie hat off the needles.  This pattern is so simple and looks pretty adorable, so it’s become one of my favorites to knit for baby gifts.  Knit on size 3’s with a wool/silk hand-dyed fingering-weight yarn.  (One skein looks like it might be just enough for two hats!)

This one is going out in the mail to a friend from high school who just had a baby boy.   I’m super late finishing it, but it’s size 3-6 mo, and he won’t need it until the fall anyway, so maybe it’ll be right on time.  🙂

If you have a moment, check out my favorite green knitting blogs Green Woman Comes Knocking and Ever Green Knits.

Okay, stay tuned!  First giveaway coming up in just a couple of days!  There’ll be yarn and other goodies!

This yarn is frustrating me to no end!  I have started and frogged 4 different projects with it so far.  It’s hand-dyed 100% cotton fingering weight.  The colors are beautiful, the yarn finicky.  So, I’m going back to an old standby and hoping 5th time’s a charm.

Updates soon.  Things have been so incredibly busy the past two weeks, but I’m hoping they’ll slow down here after the weekend.

Hope your summer is turning out to be a relaxing one.

After a busy morning volunteering in the nursery at church, then a trip across town to a babyshower, the late afternoon was spent sitting in the sunshine.  Little Hen doodled fairies and spidewebs in her notebook, Firecracker thumbed through library books, and the baby napped next to me on the sofa.  I was doing some “theraputic knitting” – easy, repetetive, soothing.  This time, a few washcloths for my mother-in-law, whose birthday is fast approaching.

Nothing like a Sunday afternoon to help recharge for the busy week to come…

My big boy in his finished soaker.  I really like the results – the soaker stays very dry on the outside.  I was a bit skeptical that it would stay up very well on a crawling/cruising baby when it has no elastic, only an I-cord drawstring, but it really does!  Next time, though, I’ll make the leg openings a bit larger to accomodate his chubby thighs.

Also, the yarn is a very saturated, brilliant color, and left a teensy bit of blue residue on his legs and the diaper inside.  A few washes will remedy this, I hope.   The next one will be in yellow – nice and cheery for summer.

Just a quick, easy soaker for Tum Tum.   Despite knitting it to gauge, it somehow came out much larger than I had imagined – it was originally intended as a baby shower gift, but would be much too large, so I ended up knitting another style (pictures soon) for the gift, and will keep this huge one for my strapping boy.   I just need to finish the ribbed cuffs of the legs and the I-cord tie,  and the little man will be cruisin’ around in his new wooly buns (I’ll be sure to get some pictures).

For information on washing wool diaper covers, read this (which I found through Emma’s blog.)

For a friend who’s sweet baby girl’s baptism was this past Sunday.  The pattern is free (Ruth’s Perfect Baby Booties), and I’ve made it many many times and like it a lot (I prefer a mohair blend or Cascade 220 for this pattern, and a pretty vintage ribbon for the lacing.)

We’re home from Florida and back to the grey, cold, foggy drizzle of the Pacific Northwest.  Sigh…I love Portland, just not in January!

So, to keep our spirits up,  we have been taking breaks from the unpacking to research our Valentine’s Day crafts for this year – so many great ideas and we’re having a hard time narrowing things down!  Many Valentine’s craft posts here in the coming weeks.

I have a little surprise of my own for the girls, too.  Back during our snowstorm, they requested some new mittens, and I have finished this pair, for Firecracker.  They are of Lamb’s Pride Worsted in Cherry Swirl, on 5’s.   

I’m working out a pattern for Little Hen’s that have a lightly ruffled cuff and are in pink and pale blue (she loves blue).  I’ll have the pattern and pictures up early next week, I think.

Now, up to the attic to dig out some Valentine’s-y craft supplies.  Hmm…where did i put the doilies and heart-shaped craft punches?

Last year for Christmas, my father made me a nostepinne out of some black walnut he had been saving from a tree that stood in my grandfather’s Indiana yard 40 years ago.  It is a really special gift, and I use it a lot. 

Yes, a ball winder is faster, but a nostepinne is portable, and the natural wood feels very nice in the hand.  It is easy to use once you get used to it, and makes nice self-pulling balls, especially handy if you knit on the go, looping your ball onto a holder, then on your beltloop and knitting while you walk around.  You can only do this with a self-pulling ball.

Some yarn I’m prepping (using my nostepinne) for a new project:

More on the project when I get a few inches completed.

Thanks to everyone who has been leaving such thoughtful and encouraging comments of late.  I am truly honored and overwhelmed at the recent traffic on my little blog, and I really appreciate your kind words.  Those of you with blogs of your own – I am daily inspired and challenged by your creativity and domesticity and artistry.  Keep posting, I’ll keep reading and learning from you!

Over the weekend, I finished the pixie hat for my boy.  An easy knit in fingering weight handspun on size 3 straights – simple knit/purl alternations with twisted cord for the ties (I personally think the ties make the hat - much better than the I-cord version in the Ravelry pattern).  I think I will be making more of these in the future for baby gifts, and might try sizing it up for TumTum when he outgrows this one.

Other knitters who’ve made this hat – Life in Color, Miss Sticks, WhistlePea Knits. 

I hope it still fits when we get back from Florida!  Okay, off to the airport!

Days of being able to sit and knit for hours on end while I watch Jane Austen movies and drink tea happen so rarely nowadays.  That it not the current season of my life, and I am glad for the busy-ness and responsibilities that come with having little ones, but it means that knitting projects are slow to be completed.  For everything there is a place and time…

Yesterday, I finally got an hour to sit down, assemble the green baby sweater I started ages ago, and sew on the ribbon ties.  (Not sure I would make this again, though.  I knit it to gauge, added a few stitches on either end, and it still knit up too skinny for my liking, but maybe the friend’s son will wear this when he’s born won’t be quite so barrel chested as Tum Tum!)

The pictures don’t do the color justice.  It’s a deep emerald green, with cobalt blue ribbon ties.

Now, on to the next baby project. (Why is it that everyone seems to be having babies this winter, right when I’ve got Christmas gift knitting/sewing/baking/canning to finish??)

I finished this hat a few weeks ago.  It’s a Debbie Bliss pattern that I altered quite a bit, made of 100% merino handspun (although, not my handspun – I bought it at an estate sale.)

After two ladies in two different places asked me what my baby girl’s name was, I thought I should probably make him one in a different color.  (I personally don’t think purple is a particularly “girlish” color, but I guess some folks do.)  So, here’s the one I made in yellow.