Knitting Update

It’s been a while since I have shared any of the things I have been knitting for Carter.  One of my favorites is this little sweater called Baby Yours.

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The pattern is by Stephanie Pearle McPhearson.  (who, by the way, is one of the funniest bloggers you will ever find.  Even if you aren’t a knitter, her blog is fun to read).

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The pattern has just the right amount of cables and I think the side buttons are such a cute detail. 

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I made a few mods – I picked up stitches for the sleeves and knit from the top down, rather than knitting them separately and sewing them it.  I think it’s a little quicker this way and still very easy to do.  I also did a three-needle bind off at the shoulders, eliminating another seam.  I also saw that people on Ravelry had issues with the bottom band being wavy, so I cast on fewer stitches and then did a lower lift increase to start the cables and get me up to the required number of stitches.  As you can see, it is still a bit wavy, but it would have probably been a lot worse if I hadn’t cast on fewer stitches.

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The yarn is called Plymouth Yarn Baby Boutique.   I’m not totally sold on the yarn.  It knits up incredibly soft, which I like – but it’s not wearing well.  Considering he won’t be fitting into it for very long, that isn’t a huge problem but I wouldn’t use it for something for an older baby.  The car seat straps are really hard on the yarn, so it’s not a good thing to wear if I am going to be taking him in and out of the car seat.

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You can find my Ravelry link to this project here.

 

I found my next project on the Knitted Bliss blog.  Julie had a baby a few months before me, so when I saw this, I knew I had to make it.  (I also made the booties to go with it – and yes, they do stay on!)

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We even tried the same pose as Julie did with her husband and baby, but as you can see, Carter is not thrilled with being perched so high off of the ground!

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The pattern is called the Baby Sweater Buffet, because you can choose from several options for the ears, etc.

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It’s even cute with the hood down.

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You can find my Ravelry link here.  I also made a few mods, which are listed on my Ravelry page.

Have I mentioned how much I love making little sweaters?  They go soooo quick.  I work on the same sweater for myself for months (and months).  With Carter’s little things, they are done in a week or two.  So fun……..

 

Posted in Family, Knitting | Tagged , , , | 15 Comments

Friday Finish

DSC_1260 adjSo it sounds like I am not the only one with a story to go with one of my projects!  You were all quite encouraging of my crazy efforts – and I will admit that I wondered if I should include the abbreviated version of the story or just fess up to all of my issues.  The only thing that I left out – and this was because I forgot until I reader reminded me – was that I was quite pregnant when I went running through the parking lot after my yarn.  I seemed to have blocked that image from my memory, but Joel remembered too.  As if you needed another visual to go with that story . . .  but turning the page . . .

On Sunday morning we woke up to a winter wonderland.

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The weather man predicted 4 inches, but as you can tell from our deck railing, we got slightly more than that.  Slightly being about 10 inches more than that!

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Church was cancelled that day, along with school and other activities the next day.  I continued to hole up and play with my new Summer House fabric.

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I’ve got one runner done and several more items almost finished.  This runner if from my Little Charmers 7 pattern.

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The original colorway is done in Christmas fabrics.  It’s more appropriate for this time of year, but I guess I will just be ready with a new runner when the Christmas decorations get packed up.

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As you can see, I quilted the new one just the same, but I like the way it accentuates the blocks.  I do love a ribbon border.  

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It was fun to make again and it only took a couple of hours, from start to finish.  

I love instant gratification. 

Especially when it involves new fabrics!

Posted in Fabric Trends, Quilting | Tagged , | 22 Comments

Finally Finished

I started this sweater back in February.  We were heading to Florida and it was to be my vacation knitting.  As I worked on it, I began to worry about having enough yarn.  The original pattern called for about 900 yards  I had 1200 yards – as I knew my gauge was off.  I was also using Rowan denim, which shrinks like a pair of jeans, so I also needed to allow extra for that.  By the last few days of the trip, I knew I wasn’t going to have enough yarn, but that was what I had with to work on, so I kept knitting.  By this time I almost had the yoke finished.

When I got home, I called around (and e-mailed) looking for the dye-lot that I needed.  By this time, the yarn had been sitting in my stash a couple of years.  I had no luck finding the exact dye-lot.  I decided to order the numbers that were the closest, in hopes that they would be close enough.  Three different times I did this.  None of them were the same color – they were all too dark.

Don’t call me crazy yet – you haven’t heard the rest of the story.

Next, I contacted my friend Maria to see if she had any in her stash.  Of course she did, but the ends of the skeins had all faded.

Hmmm . . . faded?    Now that’s an idea!

All of my skeins were too dark and I wasn’t ready to give up on my sweater yet.  I unwound the skeins and set them in the window sill.  Every few days I turned them over to keep the fading as even as possible.  After a week or so, I rewound the skein and knit a little to test the color.  It was still too dark, but getting closer.  I let it go another couple of weeks.  I did this with all four extra skeins.  I got questions and teasing from visitors who noticed our window decorations.  But it was all worth it – I had the yarn to finish my sweater.

Or so I thought.

Did I mention that this was  long post?

Did I mention that I usually knit in the car?

I was working on the ribbing (in the car) when Joel dropped me off at the grocery store.  He then proceeded to drive through the parking lot to fill up the  car with gas.

As I came out of Cub, I noticed a long blue thread running by the door.  I did a double take, and then with horror, followed the long blue thread through the parking lot towards our car.  At this point, I started to run, gathering up the yarn as I went –  Ready to tackle any person or car that threatened to come between me and my precious yarn.  When I got to the car, I opened the door to find my sweater safe and sound, but the ball that I had been knitting with was completely unwound.  It all seemed to be in one piece, but it was no longer blue.   It was a greasy brown color.  I knew I didn’t even have a yard to spare, so I brought it home and soaked it.

That night I dreamt of our car careening through the parking lot with a wildly unrolling giant ball of yarn flying behind it, tangling around people’s legs and carts as it went.  (This would actually be kind of funny, if I wasn’t crying and chasing it through the parking lot!)

I soaked the yarn over and over and again, and by some miracle it came clean.  I was able to finish my sweater.   After all that, it is kind of a miracle that it’s finished.  A smarter person would have given up long ago.

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Call me crazy, extremely determined, crazy, obsessed, crazy, dedicated to my craft – whatever – I have a new sweater and I am going to wear it!

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Are there any other knitters or quilters out there that can identify with the measures I was willing to take to finish this project?  I hope there are – as I hope I’m not the only crazy one!

I’d love to hear about it, if you would like to comment on it or link to a blog post with your story!  I’m sure we could all use a little encouragement 😉

You can find my Ravelry link here.

Posted in Knitting | Tagged , , | 48 Comments