Saroyan

B's teacher this year is wonderful. We really like her. She almost makes me want to have another child so I can have her for a teacher again. Almost, but no, no more children.

I did want to thank her for the great year that B has had. I did what I do, I knit her a scarf. She loves pink, hot pink.


Pre-blocking


Post-Blocking

It turned out nice. Sure hope, Mrs F thinks so too. Saroyan

And on a knitting note, my mother gave me this.

It is a baby head stuck on a ceramic yarn guide. She thought I definitely needed it because I knit and the curlique is used in spinning yarn (I think.)

I decided that I probably wouldn't wear it on a necklace, as much as my mother thinks I will. I hung it on the cube at work. My only decoration besides a magnetic Rangers schedule.

Wisp

I finished my Rockefeller shawl last month. I had a good chunk of the peridot yarn leftover. I did a quick search on Ravelry to figure out what I could knit with 200 yards of lace weight yarn.


Wisp it was.

It is a nice little scarf, perfect for the slightly cold, not quite warm weather we had recently. I'm not sure I'm happy with the pooling of the colors, but you don't notice it so much when it is on. I haven't decided if I will add buttons or not. This might be my fastest finished object ever.

Rockefeller

I was very excited last July to start a KAL (knit-along) by westknits . I had never done one before and I was going to use up some yarn that had been sitting in my drawer forever. In fact it was one of the first few skeins of yarn I bought when I started knitting back in 2007. We were leaving to go on the cruise in the middle of the KAL but I figured I could catch up later.

It ended up that I didn't knit at all on the cruise. I finished the first clue the first week and then put it away. I picked up and started the second clue maybe in September. I got to the third clue in October. I finished the first wing in December. I started the second wing in January. It only took me 6 weeks to finish it.

My sporadic knitting habits do not make me a very productive knitter, but at least I finished it!







Thanks to A for modeling for me. Ravelry link here.

My first really bad FO

So last week it was cold, really cold and my poor baby J cried because I never made him a hat. So what did I do, I immediately cast on a hat. It turned out so cute. A london beanie pattern with a nice stripe pattern using the leftover yarn from his sweater.

It was so cute until I tried to try it on his head. It wasn't happening. Way too small. So I said, that's okay. We'll give it to B. Nope, doesn't fit his head either.

So what went wrong. The pattern called for size 7 needles, which I don't own. I picked up my 8 dpns or so I thought. It turns out I had my 6s and hence very small hat. I thought great, it's a baby hat. I can use it for a present for the shower I have on Sunday.

Nope. It's too big for a baby hat.




I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. Maybe I'll frog it. Maybe I'll keep it because even though it doesn't fit anyone, it is a still a cute hat.

FO: J's sweater

 

FO: sidekick

 

FO: Dream swatch

FO: Calorimetry

I had extra yarn. I had never done short rows. Work was slow. So here's my calorimetry.

 

Here J was feeling left out because A always gets to model Mommy's knitted things. So he took a turn.
 

FO: Camo Hat

A is not a happy camper because I'm making her model a boy's hat. I told her that no one would ever see her in these photos. Well, at least no one important to her would see these photos. The hat turned out well and the nephew was actually kind of happy about it. Even BIL seemed to like it. Oh well, I can't have everything.

FO: Headband

Here's the headband for my niece. It is made from cascade fixation. The colors look nice but the lycra in the fixation pulls the lace pattern too tight so you can't really see it. I tried blocking it (the orange towel looks lovely behind the pink, no?):

 
But it didn't help much. It pulled right back together. But it still looks good on. I don't know if niece will ever wear it. My sister tried to put it on her head when she opened the gift. She ripped it right off. At least I got a picture of A wearing it before we gifted it.

 

FOs

 
Here's the umbilical cord hat

 
Here are the wristbands. The top one has a pattern of a ribbon purled in the st st. It didn't work out that great, so the second one is plain.

FO2

 

Here is the second FO for the week. Not bad. They turned out well. My mattress stitching through the ribbing (under the standed cuff) got messed up on the first one, so the seam is a little wonky, despite pulling out 2/3 of the seam and redoing it. For the second one, I got out clothes pins to hold the sides together as I seamed it. Much better results. A wasn't exactly thrilled. She started to complain about them and cut her off at the pass. I told her I would be very disappointed if she didn't wear them with a pretty smile on her face. So she smiled. I bet she'll rip them off the minute I drop her at ballet class. But that is fine with me. They will keep her warm from house to car to ballet school. Watch, we'll have an incredibly warm winter and she'll never even wear them. At least I got photos.

FO & UFO

 

FO

Here is the sock cat for my niece's first birthday. I would definitely make this from a child's sock instead of an adult sock next time. He is bigger and longer than the book version and he doesn't really have the cuteness of the book version. I think he's got a slightly evil look, but my sister said my niece was dragging him around the house today. I guess he isn't that scary.

 

UFO

Here is legwarmer #1. Leg warmer #2 is on the needles. I haven't sewn it up because I was willy-nilly on my decreases. I watched tv while knitting and I didn't exactly follow the pattern. I have been keeping the first one by my side and just measuring up against it as I knit so that I make them the same.

Safi Hat

 
I made this using leftover yarn from my Marakesh bag. The pattern was in the Rowan Cotton Rope Collection, same as Marakesh. I messed up the pattern. It was 4 rows and I accidently repeated rows 3&4 after the first 4 rows. I liked it okay so I just followed that pattern instead. I only had one skein so I made it a little shorter and gave to the A to wear. She's excited to add it to her dress up collection.

I finished this up in the last two days. Since my little bit of knitting time went to the hat, I've made no progress on tw. I haven't touched it since Saturday. Tonight is Dad's Club. Once kids are put to bed and I've run 3 miles, then I can knit in peace. Let's hope the first two tasks don't take too long!

Marakesh Complete

My Marakesh bag is complete. I should call it the watermelon bag. I used a hot pink leopard print to line it. I made several pockets in the lining similar to my VB tote bag. One side has two larger pockets(cellphone & glasses) and a pen pocket. The other side has a small pocket to stash receipts and/or a little cash.

Here it is hanging from the chair and close up:

Here are pics of the inside empty and somewhat filled: