Just Sit Back & Knit

Three Months Old...No, Wait...Four Months Old

Our sweet girl is three months old. I feel busier now than I did six weeks ago, strange though it may seem. I guess it is partly because I am now able to get out more with Junah and so my expectations for what I can accomplish have grown. Things don't always get done, though. There is always laundry, especially since we're using cloth diapers. Sometimes I manage to get the dishes done, but while I'm making dinner, so the dishes pile right up again. My husband does as much as he can while working six days a week. He is still the cleaner of the bathroom for which I am very grateful. And the fact that I am still home with my daughter means so much to me, and it is a gift that he is giving to our family.

We were just talking tonight, after I managed to get our over-tired girl to sleep by nursing her in the sling, about how glad we are that I didn't have to go back to work six weeks ago. It seems to me impossible that anyone can do it, at least with a first baby. I feel like we are still trying to get our feet under us, and can't imagine both of us coming home from work, after a long day, and trying to get everything done and still care for our child. Who is just so sweet...

I have managed to squeeze in some knitting time,
which is good, because I went a little overboard
with my knitting acquisitions last month.

Several great books and some Knitpicks needles

Several balls of Peaches 'n Creme, that I just had to order after
getting Mason Dixon Knitting from the library. I really
want to get some Euroflax linen yarn now, too, but that is a bit
more than $1.50 a ball.)

Cascade 220 Superwash for socks (The brownish color
was for my father-in-law's Cinco de Mayo birthday). I vow to
never again make socks that are handwash only. Too much work (for the sock washer).

Lots and lots of luscious Malabrigo in one of the new, true
solids, Chestnut. I'm finally going to make that hourglass
sweater for myself.

And, since I understand that Malabrigo is something of
the poor woman's Manos, I've got to try the real thing.
Three skeins to make a winter sweater for Junah.

This is my haul from Jimmy Bean's Wool. Four skeins
of Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton in Sand for a simple
cardigan for Junah. I've knit up all the pieces, it took less
than two skeins, but have yet to sew it up. I started but need
to redo what I've got done because it just doesn't look good.
Hopefully I'll finish it before she grows out of it. And I've been
longing to make the denim pants from Last Minute Knitted
Gifts since I first purchased the book (before I was even
pregnant) and finally have the yarn. It's Rowan Denim in the
color called Nashville. I also ordered the one skein of Lorna's
Laces Shepherd Sock shown in Cranberry. The other two
skeins I already had in my stash. I'm thinking of the chevron
scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

And I love extra goodies. These are the little treats
I received with my Jimmy Bean's Wool order. Candies
and a color card for the Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton.
Nice, thanks Jimmy Bean's.

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So, all of those purchases and here it is, a month later, my daughter is now sixteen weeks old, and what have I done? Still not sewn up the cardigan, worked a few rounds on the pants, and let pretty much everything else languish while I increased another stash. My fabric stash, that is. I've been sewing. And loving it. My little diningroom, or a third of it, to be more accurate, has been transformed into a sewing room. My sewing machine is sharing space on our diningroom table with our microwave and I've moved our telephone stand to make room for my ironing board. It's a tiny little space for sewing, but it works.

I've purchased diaper flannel, birdseye and PUL to make cloth diapers and covers; linen and cotton for skirts for me and outfits for Junah, and a nearly unmentionable amount of accessories to make sewing faster, easier and more fun. The accessories category includes the book Sew What? Skirts. I love wearing skirts, especially during the summer when it gets so hot here. Shorts are okay but I increasingly feel like it is hard to find flattering shorts, especially if I expect them to cover my bum (I accidentally purchased a pair of shorts at Target that have "lowest rise" emblazoned on the inside of the waistband, and let me tell you, it is a good thing that shirt hems have dropped recently...).

So, skirts. Love the book. I've made two skirts from it and it is so easy! The first skirt I made was an elastic waist A-Line that was a little roomier than I like. I tend to over compensate, I think. But better than too small. The second skirt has become my all time favorite skirt in the world. I've worn it three or four times in the week since I finished it. Actually, the first time I wore it I hadn't even finished the hem but was so in love with it that I wore it anyway (although I didn't leave my house). I used to have a love-hate relationship with the color red. My mother loved it and I hated it. A lot of my clothes were red. I remember a pair of sweats and a sweatshirt I got for Christmas one year...all red. Hated. And what has happened since? Well I was inexplicably drawn to the bolt of red linen (a linen rayon blend actually) at the fabric store. I just had to have some. And now, my favorite skirt? Red. All red.

And, I have to say, I don't think the pictures do this skirt justice. For this skirt I eschewed the bulky elastic waistband for the slightly harder (but still easier than I originally thought) zippered, faced waist. Love. Oh, love. Love so much I took apart my first skirt and put in a zipper and facing. And I have plans for more...

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But first I need to finish a dress I'm making for this sweet girl...Talk about love.

Four Week Long Post Eight Weeks Overdue

I've been meaning to write this post for sometime, however, I'm still not very proficient at one-handed typing, and I generally only have one hand free when I'm in front of the computer. But, I'm going to try.

I'm pretty happy with the fact that I managed to start and complete five projects in the eleven weeks* since my daughter was born. Yes, two of those were washcloths, but hey, they count any way. And two were pairs of socks, which, if I counted per sock, ups my total to seven. But the project I'm most proud of is Junah's Easter top.

In late March I posted about wanting to recreate this outfit for Junah. I'm not so good at the sewing thing, but fortunately, my sister Jesse excels at it.

While I was at the fabric store buying the pattern for the pants, I spied some beautiful fabric that I thought would be perfect. However, since I was still messed up on postpartum hormones, I didn't buy the fabric but just wrote down what it was, thinking I would send Jesse in to get it and confirm that it was as perfect as I believed it to be. Mistake. She loved the fabric, and was able to see a skirt the fabric store has made out of it as a model, but there was none left. None of our local fabric stores had it in stock. I ended up ordering it from The Heart of Dixie in Alabama. Along with some coordinating fabric, for the heck of it, and some Elvis fabric, because my Nana loves Elvis and I'm hoping to make her a tote bag for her birthday (in July). She might get a kick out of it. Or she'll think it's too silly. We'll see.

For the top, the knitted part of the outfit, I purchased three balls of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in a beautiful light green color. I was able to get the book for the top, Debbie Bliss' Baby Knits for Beginners through my library. The pattern is actually for a "Dress with Eyelets" calling for Wool Cotton (which has the same gauge as the Baby Cashmerino). Since I wanted the dress to look like a long shirt instead of pants I decided to shorten it. Knowing that math would be involved in that, and still being loopy from the hormones, I delayed casting on because I was worried about trying to figure out how to shorten it and convert it to an in the round pattern. Eventually I just went for it, figuring that where the pattern said "knit until piece measures so-many-inches" I would just reduce the called for number of inches. Not the best way, since the dress is knit from the bottom up I should have, I realized later, cast on a fewer number of stitches and done fewer decreases on the skirt portion. Oh well, another lesson learned.

It seemed like a couple weeks went by and, despite my best efforts, the dress didn't get any bigger. A round here, a round there, made no difference. I didn't think I would finish. About a week and a half before Easter I decided I really needed to get going and spent a lot of time knitting while my daughter napped on my lap. Things went well, and more quickly, as the number of stitches decreased as I reached the eyelet row and neared the armholes.

I worked the back first, and noticed, and corrected for, the yarnover for the buttonhole seemed one stitch too close to the edge. Instead of binding off at the shoulders I held the stitches on stitch holders to be grafted with the front stitches later. The front was a bit trickier since each shoulder strap had decreases on the armhole side and neckhole side and I was trying to get it to match the back which I had fudged a little in order that the entire shirt be the length I wanted. But, I persisted, and early in the Easter week, kitchenered the shoulder stitches. I then wove in all the ends--there were a lot since each side of the neckhole, on both the front and the back, is worked by itself. Once I had done all the nasty end weaving in work I picked up stitches for, and knit, the edging for the neck band. Feeling ever so accomplished, I held up the piece, complete except for the armhole edging, and smiled. And stopped smiling. The neckhole had about a six inch circumference for my daughter's fourteen and a haf inch head (at birth) to fit through.

In a panic I ripped back the neck edging and cursed my stupid efficiency. No way I was going to unpick all those woven in ends. In a brief moment of wisdom I put the thing away and went to bed. Tomorrow is a brighter day and all that.
The next morning I got out my sewing shears and hacked into the top after picking up a row of stitches on a US #1 DPN. Have I ever mentioned how useful I find my #1 double points? I use them often, mostly for picking up stitches after I've had to rip back, or for casting on for a toe up sock. They're great for these things. I think the fact that they're bamboo is crucial, since my metal pair would just slide right out. I usually keep at least two of the needles in my little knitting tools bag, along with my tiny scizzors, stitch holders and markers, tape measure, etc.
Anyway. I did a little math and some quick measurements on Junah, and figured out that if I left out the decreases on the armholes and just did the neckhole decreases, adding a few decreases to end up with the required number of stitches, the darn thing had a chance of going over her head. And you know, it worked. Just barely. I did have to gingerly ease the top over her ears.

A handpainted wooden button that cost me five dollars (since it came in a pack of ten or so buttons, but I just had to have it) and a purple ribbon, along with the super-cute pants super-busy Aunt Jesse stayed up late the night before Easter making, completed the ensemble. And I, of course, forgot to get good pictures of her in the outfit the day of, and so I dressed her up in it again a week (or three, I can't remember) later.

I did get this picture, however, of our sleeping girl starting out on her first Easter egg hunt, in her daddy's arms. In our family all of the kids line up inside after the (hundreds) of eggs are hidden and the youngest goes first.

And since Nana loves to see pictures of all the great-grands together on Easter, Junah was literally taken from my breast after cries of "Junah! Junah!" (think "Encore! Encore!") made me laugh and give her up for this photo. Of course, she needed a little help, hence Aunt Maddie, not a great-grand, just a grand, is in the photo too.

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As I finally finish this post I hear my daughter, who is fifteen weeks old today, waking up.

Inspiration for this outfit came from SouleMama, a blog I discovered around the time Junah was born. It is wonderful and maybe a large part of the reason my diningroom has turned into a sewing room recently.

One Month

Wow. My one month old daughter is next to me on the couch, sleeping, although it sounds as though she might be waking up soon. Yup, there go the eyes, wide open. I wasn't going to begin a post because I thought she would just wake up the minute I started typing...

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Ahh, that was a very brief period of wakefulness...just long enough for a poop and a little "nursies" (gotta replace what comes out I guess). She fell asleep on my shoulder while I was burping her. This girl needs to be burped or else she spits up...sometimes an hour later, but it happens.

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Since today is March 19, and four weeks to the day since her birth, my daughter happens to be both four weeks old and one month old on the same day, if you see what I mean. She celebrated the big milestone by staying up until six this morning. And I celebrated by sleeping past noon, something I haven't done in years. Here she is in all her month old glory:

Check out the wool soakers...notice anything different? Yes, those are the second pair of wool soakers I made, only now they have short legs added. What they say about breastmilk poop is true...

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Have you noticed also that I am all about poop and use ellipses way too frequently?

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And, since this is a knitting blog, I'll post some knitting related content. I haven't taken pictures of knitting in a while, but here are some pictures I took over a month ago.

The pieces of the matinee sweater that is still yet to be seamed up. Not to worry though, I am off the hook as far as needing it to be finished my this coming weekend, as my sister, who is making the other sweater (our cousin is having twin girls) isn't going to have her's finished by this weekend either. So, we'll gift them later.

Fortunately, I made the wise decision to kitchener front pieces to the back piece, rather than bind off everything and seam them. That leaves me needing to sew up the side seams, attach the arms and sew up their seams. Uggh, all that seaming freaks me out.

February eighteenth was my brother-in-law's birthday, and I gave him a pair of slippers, however, I forgot to take post felting pics, so here is an in progress one.

On the same day I finally gave my sister-in-law her belated birthday present, a different type of slipper. I designed these myself, and took (somewhat) meticulous notes so I can write up an official pattern. Which I will do, hopefully, one day. I actually made two different pairs of slippers, the first pair was a protoype knit with Noro yarn (Jess, I want those back, by the way). The prototype looks more like an ankle sock with low ribbing. The pair for my sister-in-law has criss-cross straps and was made with one skein of Patons' SWS in Geranium.

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I started this post at 7 PM and it is now midnight. My sweet daughter fell asleep on my lap twenty minutes ago and I think I can now sneak into bed with her and (hopefullyknockonwood) get a few (pleasetwoorthree) hours of sleep before she wakes up to nurse.

Cozy Shoulder Shawl

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 Nickel Silver Fibula from Patternworks.

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.

My Latest Obsession: Wool Soakers

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

• two pullover sweaters
• two hats
• one pair of booties
• one one-third complete blanket
• two and nearly-a-half pairs of wool soakers

And I still have 16 weeks of knitting time left to go....

Let's Try This Again

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...

I'm Back

Having only posted once so far this month I feel like I should have a really good excuse. And I think I do. I've been distracted and not just by the stressful situation at work. Something much bigger and better has been keeping me otherwise occupied...

We're having a baby!

That's my husband, Jason, on the left with all the hair.
I'm the strange looking monkey child on the right.

We were trying for this and so were on pins and needles until Saturday June 10th when we finally tested. On Sunday (after three more just-to-be-sure tests) we told immediate family (all of whom were very excited). Then last week I was in a shocked sort of daze--I still have a hard time believing this is really actually happening (and that my boobs can already be this big and still they keep growing). This past weekend we spread the word to our extended family and friends (and I found out one of my very close friends Katie, (the mother of the bear recipient) whom I've known since we were both still in-utero, is pregnant with her second child and due at just about exactly the same time). It's early yet, by my calculation we're due right around Valentine's Day, and today is the start of my seventh week, but I just had to share the news here too. Besides, what do you think I've been knitting? Within a half an hour of the first test I began knitting a baby hat (which looks way too small so I didn't finish it). The next morning I began the Child's Placket Necked Pullover from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. I used some of the Cash Iroha I had ordered for the Hourglass Sweater I was going to make myself (no need for a sweater of that name this winter!).

I've also started working on a baby blanket of my own design (a not completely formulated as yet design). I ordered the undyed merino wool from Morehouse Farms in four colors: chocolate, brown heather, oatmeal and white. I plan to make a striped blanket that goes from dark to light (so four big stripes). I might try doing something special where I change colors...that's the unformulated part of the design. I am doing a seed-stitch border and three-inch squares of stockinette alternated with reverse stockinette. And if you want super-soft yarn this is it. I love the feel of this yarn. It's yummy, yummy yarn.

Tomorrow afternoon my husband and I are going to an initial consultation with a wonderful midwife (who delivered Fletcher) and whom I hope hope hope will agree to be our midwife. I have my heart set on a homebirth (I was born at home, as were my two younger siblings) and am all of the sudden nervous that I won't be able to find a homebirth practitioner. I have no reason to be nervous like this, I just get this way. You know the song, "Que sera, sera," well my mom sang me that a lot when I was little. "Mom, what if suchandsuch happens?" Her reply, "Honey, que sera, sera. Whatever will be will be..." Not the most reassuring thing for a nervous planner like me to hear.

I Love Three Day Weekends

I had a lovely, busy weekend. Saturday afternoon Sara (aka fletchersmama) hosted a great barbecue at her ever-so-cute house (that has the most wonderful knitting/craft room). We had a lot of fun despite the fact some horses tried to eat me and several small children. Don't worry, we're all safe. My husband, brother and dad laughed at my frantic gathering of children and cries of, "Move, move! Drop the frogs! The horses are coming!" but also helped to calm said horses and kept them otherwise occupied as I and several teary eyed (they wanted to continue gathering frogs from the pond) youngsters slipped out the gate. Then everyone including the kids laughed at me as I shook and said, "Dad, they really were going to get us weren't they? They were scary, right?" And I even ate a hot dog which is generally not on my list of acceptable foods.

Sock Update:
In knitting news, the socks are complete! Or they were. Here they are after I spent the time it takes to watch six movies finishing them:

And these feet have never been happier:

Jason wore the socks from the time I handed them over on Sunday until he took his shower Monday morning. He struggled a bit getting one of the socks off over his heel and ripped right through the bound off edge. I didn't have the stomach to snap a picture of the unravelling upper edge, so no picture of the tragedy yet. I just can't believe that I have more work to do on these things!

Weekend Cast-Ons:
I've finally ordered the Cash Iroha #8 for the Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. As reported previously, I bought one skein of the beautiful yarn at my local yarn shop a couple of weeks ago, and this weekend finally allowed myself to begin swatching (I made myself wait until the socks were finished--this swatch was worked during the sixteen hours in which they were finished). Since this sweater is knit in the round, I cast on for a sleeve as my swatch. I also wanted to see how the hem worked and to decide whether or not to knit the part that gets turned under on smaller needles (yes). This yarn is beautiful, soft and wonderful to work with. Love it. Here's what I've got so far:

In less promising starts, I worked on the Craftster Circular Shrug (pattern available in pdf form at Peony Knits) that I thought I wanted to make for myself. And I still may, however, I bought the wrong yarn. I bought Frog Tree Sportweight Alpaca (color 000) which is a beautiful, luscious, soft, amazing yarn. But. It does not want to be a Circular Shrug. It has told me so. It tried to tell me while I swatched different patterns for the center section. It tried to tell me again as I swatched for the seed stitch I settled on. And, finally, it began screaming at me as I stubbornly worked nearly six inches of ribbing on the actual shrug. What? You didn't think yarn could talk? Then you haven't read Maggie Righetti's Sweater Design in Plain English (or maybe she talks about it in Knitting in Plain English). Yarn WILL tell you what it wants to be, or at least what it absolutely DOESN'T want to be. You just have to listen. Well, I'm listening. And hoping my local yarn store will let me exchange the six balls of unused yarn for something else**. And this, well, this will be FROGGED (hmmm...is there something in the name? Frog Tree?):

The only other knitting I did this weekend was on a new dishcloth; it's nearly complete but I haven't taken any pictures yet. I am making it from Sugar 'N Cream (I think, no ball band on it--all the 100% cotton yarn I have was purchased years ago) in a pale yellow and it's in my new favorite stitch--seed stitch. A really good one for a dishcloth too, I think.

A word about dishcloths. I don't have a dishwasher. A mechanical one anyway. What I do have is my own two hands. I hadn't made myself knitted dishcloths in years, until the recent green one (and another more recent green one that is so similar to the first I never posted about it). I can't believe how different it is using these as compared to store bought dishcloths. Somehow, I forgot what it was like. Now I know. Heaven. Dishwashing heaven. If you have to do dishes by hand and have never had a knitted dishcloth you are missing out. Seriously. And I recommend using kind of large needles for the yarn (US #9 or #10 in my case). The resulting fabric is great for washing dishes and dries quickly if you wring it out and stretch it a little. Trust me, they are worth it. Wow, I'm passionate about dishcloths! Go figure.

I also managed to put my garden in this weekend and was going to blog about it in this post, but as this post seems long enough already, I'll save that for another one.

** Normally I would just add this yarn to my stash, but seeing as how I I've already spent my entire yarn budget for this month (and next) and have a baby shower gift to make, I'll make the switch. I'll keep two balls of the Frog Tree--the one I started with and the one Ted got a hold of and carried around in his stinky dogbreath mouth.

Cotton Tubey

Remember my Unfinished Business? That "monstrous, cotton, HEAVY (as Nana pointed out) project" of the "six-million ends?"

Well it's been gifted so I can reveal more about it...

I made a Tubey. My first sweater ever! I wish I felt great, happy and ecstatic about this, uh, accomplishment. However, you may notice that the title says "Cotton" Tubey. And I'm sure there is a more accomplished knitter out there that chuckled at my title and doesn't even have to read this post to know the pitfalls of knitting a Cotton Tubey. In my defense I'll say again, first sweater! And to add to my defense I'll tell you that this was a birthday gift for my younger sister who just turned EIGHTEEN and we live where it is soon going to be hot enough that sweaters won't even be part of the local vocabulary for a few months. I'm going to have to call my sister and wake her up at, say, three in the morning when it MIGHT be cool enough for a cotton sweater and say, "Hey put your sweater on -- you've got a whole five minutes until it starts heating up again." So why a sweater at all then? Yeah, yeah, anyways.

It's not 100% cotton. I used Knit Pick's Main Line (75% cotton, 25% merino wool) hoping that the wool would add the bit of stretch and softness I needed for this sweater to work out. The softness--got that. The stretch? Not so much.

It's a pretty sweater. Beautiful even. Beautiful, but with issues. Like the bunching at the back of the armpits. Like the fact that if my sister leans forward (even a little) the top flops away from her (I did offer to make the neck smaller but she said it's fine, she wouldn't wear it without a shirt/tanktop underneath it anyway--so at least I'm not exposing her to the world:) The sleeves have shortened up a whole lot even though I thought I made them a little extra long.

So, you want to see it?

Here it is, wrapped in tissue paper since it would not dry &
I had to give it away while it was still slightly damp:

And here is one arm as it was getting passed
around the party after Maddie opened it:

And here is a picture taken just after Maddie opened it...
doesn't really show the sweater any better than the other
pictures but I had to show it. Check Nana out!

And slightly (ever so slightly) better...

And that's all you get. I didn't take more pictures while I was making it because I wasn't blogging about it because it was a surprise. I forgot to take pictures of it before I gave it away (because I just wanted to be done with it!). I actually went to my parents house this weekend to take pictures of it. But I forgot the battery to my camera was charging at home. Perhaps another day.

So this is my first sweater attempt but I'm not so happy with it. I feel ready to make another sweater. One for me. I bought Last Minute Knitted Gifts for the Hourglass Sweater. I want to make that sweater. I want to make it out of Noro Cash Iroha #8. So pretty. So expensive (even at Wool Needle Work's great prices. According to Purl's website(yarn store owned by the book's author) many people have reported running out of yarn when using the amount listed in the book. I'll need about thirteen skeins to feel comfortable starting. Maybe fourteen. If you remember way back to my discussion of my preparation problem I have to be over prepared. That means I buy twice as much yarn for a small project. That's how much I don't want to run out. And for big projects, well, a third maybe? A quarter? I like having my stash grow and would much rather need to figure out what to do with three extra skeins of yarn than what to do about dye lots (yeah, I've heard about that whole switching back and forth every few rounds thing--exactly why I over purchase yarn). I've decided that this time around I will stick to the directions--get the right yarn and swatch, swatch, swatch until I get the gauge right. And I have plenty of time to work on this sweater--the weather won't permit me to wear it comfortably until October or November.

What are you trying to do to me?

Fletchersmama, are you trying to thwart my sock-knitting-passion before I successfully cast on and knit more than one inch (yes, more about that later) and throw me full force into having-needing-absolutelycan'tlivewithout-sweater knitting? I'm not there yet, you know? Sweaters SCARE me! Did you see the lumpy, funky toe on Jason's slipper? Did ya notice that I had to make three booties to get two matching ones? I am not ready to try and make two sleeves, a front and a back and a neck-hole and everything else that needs to fit just right to make a sweater. But those sweaters, oh, especially the jacket one and the caped cardigan (I need that! I love that! I want to marry that! ) make...me...want...to...knit...one.......NOW! By the way, when are we all gonna pack up and move somewhere that gets snow on a regular basis so we can wear wool handknits more than two and three-fifteenths weeks a year?

So, I'm am eighty-nine point nine percent sure I'm gonna frog my SKP (nope, not an afghan by the way). It really might be an unfair SKP so don't get mad at me you guys--it is a scarf/wrap BUT it has a specific name for the pattern. Unfair, huh? Yeah, well, as my momma always said, "Life is unfair." Wanna know the name? Maybe next time... Oh, and, thank you both for the generous offers to help free up stash space by taking my SKP yarn off my hands but I think I'll hold onto it for awhile. Because I have a magic-stash box. It is really amazing, I bought this cheap plastic bin at Target or K-Mart five or seven years ago and it never runs out of space to hold yarn. It is the Magic Stash Box (MSB). No matter how much yarn I bring home it keeps taking it in. So, for now, I'll keep the MSB full and think of something (but not a sweater, I told you, I'm not there yet! I can't head down that path!) to do with my rainbow Silk Garden.

So, socks. I have cast on six-sock-toes because I am trying to use the fabulous Sockulator II to knit a pair of toe-up socks. And despite the wonderful directions and all the links to more detailed directions (all of which I printed out totally about twenty six pages for one pair of socks, yeah, because I have another problem, a preparation problem, but I'll get to that) and the also-awesome directions by Denise Powell I cannot manage to cast on and do the increase rows properly all on the same toe. When I've managed to cast on correctly I forget to increase at the end of needle one (repeatedly, so that I end up having a very lopsided toe (which, hey, come to think of it might work for my dad's feet)). When I can't get cast on correctly I fudge to make enough stitches but then I find these unsightly blobs of yarn (stupid superwash wool! all your fault) on the back side (how was I supposed to know? It's on the back side! I couldn't SEE the back side!) just where my father's super sensitive seam-hating (and blob hating too, I'm sure) toes are supposed to go! So, either way I end up ripping it out and starting over. But, never fear! I may scrap the idea of a toe up sock and go for a normal sock pattern (like one from Knit Socks! that I just happened to pick up at Ann's Books today on my lunch break...) and hope that the decreases before the grafting of the toe don't bother seam hating toes.

So, my preparation problem (yeah, you all want an H there, right? you want it to be a preparation-H problem, but that would be a hemmoroids problem and a preparation solution, so there!). I super-prepare for everything. Take coming to work for example. I bring my purse of course, and a tote bag. In the tote bag is (in no particular order)

• my mp3 player (one of the few things I might acutally use during the day)
• food for breakfast (I eat whatever it is 75% of the time)
• snack food in case breakfast food isn't enough (often it's fruit. often, I forget it's there. often, it turns into an ugly (smelly) situation--time for new tote bag)
• a book or two or a magazine or two (for smoke/reading breaks)
• my knitting. okay, this one makes no sense because
  • I don't knit at work. No, really, I don't.
  • I don't knit on my smoke breaks (because, hey, although I admit I might have thought about it ONCE it would be gross and I know it (yeah, don't point out the obvious about smoking being gross enough, and that if I quit smoking I could take knitting breaks (now that I've thought of about sixty times))
  • the knitting might run into the scary fruit
• crap I've stuffed in my bag so that I won't have to look at it anymore. This stuff is in my bag so that my husband can't call it clutter. It will probably stay in the bag until it is eaten by the fruit

Okay, and that is just work. Something I do everyday, twice a day in fact, since I go home for lunch (and my bag has to go with me so I can knit at lunch). But, you guys, what if I got stuck in traffic for a really long time and had to knit to stay sane (yeah, so really bad traffic in this town lasts about two minutes, but worse could happen! Best to be prepared!) There are plenty more what-if-justifications, but I won't bore you. The bigger problem is that I am going out of town for two whole nights (Sunday and Monday) to a place that is maybe forty-five minutes, an hour or an hour and a half away (I don't know, how far away is San Simeon?) and I need to be prepared!
List I've been making in my head of things to take

• at least three knitting projects (BUNO scarf, Dad Socks & something else)
• extra yarn, needles, patterns etc in case I
  • finish all other projects (don't laugh, it could happen!)
  • get tired of other projects
  • something tragic happens like someone steals the needles I'm using on other projects
• at least two books (if I only take one I might not like it) because I might
  • get tired of knitting
  • learn to read and knit at the same time
  • need something to read while I smoke & go potty
  • have all of my knitting stolen
• clothes (eh, who cares if I've got the knitting, right?)
• ...I know there is more, but I haven't really gotten that far, I'm still concerned about taking enough knitting...

Um, yeah, so don't bother reminding me that it's only two nights or that my husband will be there and I will be expected to socialize with him (hi honey!) or that there are only twenty four hours in a single day and that doesn't equal one-hundred-and-sixty-four hours of knitting time in a single weekend! So, that in a nutshell is my preparation problem.

Oh, and FletchersMama, I'm intrigued by your SKP. That yarn is beautiful, is it the kind made from recycled saris? I can't wait to see more pictures...