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Walk into the office of a knitter who is snuggly-warm because she has an eight-foot long scarf, that she knit herself, wrapped twice around her neck, laugh and say, "You look like you are going skiing. Are you cold?"
Umm, no smart-guy, but I would be if I didn't have this wonderful, snuggly hand-knit scarf keeping me warm!
I feel like I've moved up a rung on the knitter's ladder (of commitment? obsession?) and this box proves it:
Moments after receiving this package I was setup to try out my new yarn swift and yarn ball winder:
The result of which is a picture I like to call Still Life with Yarn Cake and Fruit:
And less than an hour later the yarn cake had multiplied:
And, because I just couldn't help myself, I yarn ball winder-ed all of this Karabella Aurora 8 that I've decided to let my husband sell on e-bay (unless someone wants to put in a bid on it first? If so, e-mail me at bgtworkman at gmail dot com).
I wonder how much extra knitting time I'll get because of yarn winding time saved...
There is either something seriously wrong with my mouth, or sucking on too many sweet tarts (I just can't stand the spelling sweeTARTs) has flayed the skin off of the back of my tongue. I've got to give up the sweet tarts. After I'm done with this one, last roll.
Work is excruciatingly boring today. I told my boss that I had nothing to work on and he said he would, "Rustle something up." Several hours of I'm-trying-to-keep-myself-busy busy work (interrupted by one very necessary ten minute break) later, I began interspersing my work-busy work with getting things of my own done.
This involved
Finally, able to stand it no longer, i took lunch and picked up my premium at my local NPR member station. Yipee!! A new Amy Goodman book!
So, now I have to cram all of my fun stuff, and lunch, into a too short amount of time before returning to work to twiddle my thumbs.
Fortunately, I can knit and read at the same time.
Postscript: I wrote this post in my journal while on my lunch break. I went back to work and spent fifteen minutes in the bathroom due to some unfortunate reaction by my body to some food I had eaten. If I had actually had any work to do, or had gotten more sleep last night, or felt better able to resist the call of the yarn, I probably could have toughed the rest of the day out at work. But, alas, instead I chose to come home, put on my pajamas, type this post up, knit and cherish each and everytime my baby's foot (hand?) connects directly with my bladder.
Post-postscript: Two sweet tarts were eaten during the writing of this post.
I've returned to the land of bad cell phone pictures. I'm no longer able to resist the call of the yarn while at work. Fortunately, I've managed to restrict myself to knitting on my breaks. For the most part.
Okay, so I am no better at naming knitted items than I am at thinking up titles for posts...
Here I give you what I believe to be my single greatest knitted item ever. Notice I said "my." I think this is probably the prettiest, most perfect item I have ever knitted. And I think a large part of that has to do with the fact that it seems so well suited to the recepient. This shawl is a gift (given just a few short hours ago) for a friend who has been battling health problems for several months now. I've often seen her with a small wrap tied around her neck or shoulders, and decided that I wanted to make one for her. I knew that she would appreciate it all the more because she began to knit just before her health problems began. She is twice my age but I had the pleasure of teaching her to knit, which included helping her pick out her first yarn (Cascade Eco-Wool) and first set of needles (Crystal Palace Circular Needles) and giving her a lesson that began with, "Knitting is just two stitches, knit and purl...."
The facts:
Cozy Shoulder Shawl
Four skeins of Claudia Handpainted Yarn: Sport Weight, "Donna's Favorite" (color)
Needles: #6 Clover Circulars
Pattern: adopted from the "Feather and Fan Triangle Shawl" in Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls
I purchased Folk Shawls specifically for this project. I changed the pattern slightly to suit my 
purposes. I used a completely different yarn and needle size, and made the shawl significantly smaller than the one pictured. I love the beautiful colors of the yarn and wanted to show them off, so I made the main portion of the shawl in stockinette with a thin, five stitch garter stitch border. Then I only did four or five repeats of the feather and fan and followed that up with a few rows of garter stitch. I am really proud of the way it turned out. This was my first project using a chart (besides little teeny charts for simple cables) and am glad I tried it. Not nearly as scary as I thought!
Finally, I blocked it on the guest bed (a bit unevenly, I must admit) and purchased a shawl pin, the 
Before giving it away I had one of my sisters take pictures while I modeled it. And, while the colors are not done justice, I do have an excuse to slip another belly picture in...
And then I tagged it (with this brilliant idea I read about somewhere)...
and wrapped it up...
and gave it to a very pleased recepient. I love knitting.
FYI: A wool soaker is a type of cover for a cloth diaper.
A few months ago, when I first found out I was pregnant, Sara (aka Fletchersmama) asked me if I was interested in knitting patterns for wool soakers. I wasn't. I've never been too fond of repeating the same pattern--once I've made it I like to move and try something else. I told her that I would probably use plastic pants, but either way I would rather just buy stuff and save my knitting time for other things.
And then.
And then my husband and I registered and there are oh-so-many wonderful cloth diaper options out there! And I got all jazzed up about diapers and pins and plastic pants (which you can hardly find anywhere anymore!!) and wool soakers and discovered that a wool soaker costs $22.00! And, yes, I spend a lot of money on wool, but even I know that I could make wonderful wool soakers for a lot less. So I started looking online at patterns and found, in very short order, a wonderful pattern for knitting wool soakers in the round. And I fell in love. I'm currently on my third pair.
Here are pictures of the first two pairs:
Size Small, Knit Picks Wool of the Andes less than an entire skein. Optional ribbed leg cuffs added and, since I'm lazy and avoid i-cords whenever possible, I crocheted the tie. I also tried, and found myself successful, albeit slow, at stranded knitting while holding one color in my left hand (where I normally hold my yarn) and one in my right (which seems totally foreign and uncomfortable and just wrong). And I am just thrilled with the result. Seriously, all modesty aside folks, I love this little thing:
I loved it so much, in fact, that I started another not long after finishing the first...
As you can see from the progress shots, the soaker is knit in the round from the top down to the top of the leg holes. Then the soaker 
is worked back and forth with decreases to create first the butt & back of the leg holes and then the front of the leg holes.
This pair I've yet to make a tie for and didn't add leg cuffs this time...It's actually between a newborn and small size (as far as the number of cast-on stitches) but, as I made it from some left over Araucania Nature's Wool Chunky, it is almost exactly the same size as the first one I made.
The third pair is still on the needles and, as I'm contemplating making this pair part of a layette set, I'm not posting pictures yet.
So, that makes my as yet-unborn baby the owner of the following handknit items
Okay, this time I have a better excuse for my long absence. Just a day after my last post I got a new job that keeps me away from home in front of a different computer for forty hours a week. On top of that, we are down to one computer with an internet connection here at home and I let my husband play online poker to his heart's content while I knit rather than post.
So, seeing as today was a holiday for me but not my husband, and I had all day to do what ever I wanted, I promised Fletchersmama I would post. And here it is, time to make dinner, and I am just starting. So this might be quick and have a lot more photos than text...
First of all, I hate my face in pictures, especially when I smile, because it looks so round and my skin is such a yucky color. But, since I have this wonderful little one inside me I thought I would start with my five month picture...
Let me just say that I took these pictures quickly and they are no works of art!
Baby Blankets
Moving right along (and keeping those of you who want to see only pictures of handknits in suspense), I made a flannel receiving blanket. It was very easy--I used the green color for the back and the purple for the front and added the green stripes on the front for fun.
The knitted baby blanket I began back in June has only grown a couple of inches and waits patiently in the bottom of my knitting basket for attention. I've been working on so many other projects, and it is still warm here, that I'm 
going to let it go until the winter comes and I can snuggle under the growning blanket as I work on it.
Finally, we have the best baby blanket ever. When I was a year old my grandma made me a blanket and matching pillow that I have always called my "Blue Blankie" and "Blue Pillow." After nearly thirty years, and lots of love, the blankie and pillow were hurting. So far I have fixed the blanket. I took it completely apart and backed each piece with an off-white flannel sheet. I added two layers of new cotton batting and made a binding out of the flannel. There were several holes in the blanket and rather than try to hide them, I cut them into shapes and folded the edges under so the flannel was exposed and zigzag stitched around the opening. I turned the biggest hole into a heart and embroidered "Blue Blankie Grandma Evelyn - 1977 Mom - 2006" inside of it.
Knits
I made a hat out of Noro Iroha to match the Child's Placket Necked Pullover from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts I knit when I first found out I was pregnant. 
Here are a few of the knitted objects I've completed during the summer...
I don't know that the hat and sweater will fit the same
child at the same time...but oh well. The ear flaps and ties are knit in seed stitch to match the edging on the sweater. I then did the fancy spiral decrease thing but added a purl just before each decrease to highlight the pattern. I think it goes well with the seed stitch, too. And thanks to Nala, our kitty, who helped me by modeling the hat for the picture...but then he didn't want to let it go!
I also made another sweater, this one a slightly modified version of the the same pattern I used before. The new sweater is made from Noro Silk Garden and has nearly matching arms (I knit three arms and used the best two), snaps instead of buttons and a ribbed edge instead of the seed stitch edge. This pattern is so quick and easy!
And since it is now several hours after dinner and these pictures take so long to load, I am going to leave you with this final picture. It goes with the baby & Noro theme I've got going here, and I'll save the rest of my knitting for another post. Oh, and another matching set that I'm not sure will fit the same child at the same time....Noro Kureyon for those of you who want to know...
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