Ribbed Socks

The one and only knitted gift this Christmas. Last Christmas was super stressful. I'm not sure why I thought I'd have time to knit with a new baby keeping me up all night and a toddler not letting me knit by day. Plus, I was already sacrificing sleep to learn the hymns for church every week and the music for the Christmas program. I felt like a drowning zombie last year.

I learned my lesson, and that's why there is only one knitted gift this year. This Christmas has been awesome because my baby sleeps 12 uninterrupted hours most nights, and I don't have to play in the Christmas program. I even ordered some crocheted stuff from etsy rather than making it myself because Christmas is about peace, not about stress.

I've been working on these socks for several months. It's not that it was a lot of knitting, it was just so boring to knit all that ribbing. From now on, I'm only going to knit socks with more interesting patterns, like the ones from Cookie A's book, Knit. Sock. Love. I really want to knit these Twisted Flower socks. But first, I'm going to take a little break from knitting socks and finish my sweater and make some fair isle stockings so that we wont go another Christmas with nothing but good intentions hanging from our mantle.

Depressed

Can you tell he's got a knitter who loves him? (Although not enough to knit him some pants, apparently. But at least I put a blanket over those bare knees before taking him out in the snow.) He's not mad about all the knitwear; he's just sick, and he sucked the heck out of his thumb last night, so now it has a blister, and he can't suck it anymore. I'd be depressed too.

Ryan's been leaving town a lot. He just got back from an overnight trip to San Francisco to attend a My Morning Jacket concert. At first I was kinda bummed and thinking jealous thoughts.

But then he came home with this:

The variegated one is called Anime, and the colors are inspired by a Japanese Anime movie. The blue is called Starring, and it's a little more dark and sparkly in real life. What are the chances that Ryan would find not just a knitting shop, but one with unique, San Francisan-made yarn?

So I changed my mind. Ryan can travel as much as he wants, as long as he brings back yarn from everywhere he goes.

Noble Cowl

I finished my Noble Cowl. It was fast and easy, and best of all, it practically kept me from noticing that Ryan was in Mexico all week. I finished it on Friday night, blocked it, and then all of a sudden, for the first time all week, I was bummed that Ryan was gone, and I wondered what on earth I was going to do for the next two days without him. He's back now, and he keeps talking about how great the tacos were, so I'm jealous. But he'll never understand how good the knitting was, so we're even.

Robin's Egg

I went to Blazing Needles in search of some Shepherd's Wool in Misty Blue to use on my Blue Daisy sweater, but they didn't have it in stock. While I was there, I spotted this skein of Madelinetosh Tosh Merino DK in Robin's Egg. It was $20, which I thought was too expensive, but I picked it up and walked around the store with it anyway, and when it was time to go, I just couldn't leave without it, so I splurged. I think I'm going to make a Noble Cowl out of it while I wait for my sweater yarn.

Noble Cowl

I'm excited to find the right shawl pin to go with it. Anyone know where to buy shawl pins?

Sweater Weather

Now that it's fall, I've realized I have no sweaters. And even if I did, I want some hand-knit ones! So I've got the itch to knit myself a sweater. Here are some of the patterns I'm trying to choose from.

1. Blue Daisy by Hilary Smith Callis:

I knew the moment I saw it that I needed to knit this. The problem is that the girl in the photo is tall and skinny, and I'm short and squatty, so I don't know how flattering it would be. Also, I'm a 38" bust, and the pattern sizes are 36" and 40", so I really don't know which to knit. Maybe the 40" since I plan on either being pregnant or breastfeeding for most of the next several years. But I want it to fit me right now too. I love that it uses worsted weight yarn because there is a chance I could finish it before it warms up again.

2. Paulie by Isabell Kraemer

So cute. And I think I could pull off the shape. But I thought wide people weren't supposed to wear horizontal stripes? So maybe it's not for me. The stripes are my favorite part. This one is in fingering weight yarn, so it would take forever.

3. Whisper Cardigan by Hannah Fettig

It'd be really cute with a dress, and I could wear it year round. And one of the sizes is 38". It's knit with lace weight yarn, but on bigger needles, so it's airy. So maybe it wouldn't take as long to knit as it looks like it would.

4. Featherweight cardigan by Hannah Fettig

This is a lot like the one above, but I love the collar.

5. Wispy Cardi by Hannah Fettig

This one is a lot like the Whisper Cardigan too. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with those flaps on the side. Maybe put a button on one and it will close?

Anyway, if you were me, which one would you choose? Maybe someday I will knit them all, but for now, I have to choose just one. I'm leaning towards that first one because every time I see it, my heart skips a beat. But it would be so sad to knit it and not have it look good on me, so that's the hold-up.

Minion Hat

I'm not so sure about this one. First of all, the hair looks like a tarantula. And I think the eyes would have been cuter if I made them out of felt. Do I try to fix it? It was going to be his winter hat, but maybe we'll just use it for Halloween then put it away. I didn't have a pattern, so here's what I used.

How Do I Start?

I just got my Sharp Crochet Hook in the mail, and I bought two yards of flannel from Joann's. Now what? Do I need to wash the fabric? Do I need to finish the edges somehow or sew the two pieces together before I can start crocheting the edging?

More Little Loafers

Pattern

Big Knitting

Ryan made me these beautiful size 50 circular needles. They're a whopping one inch in diameter! He also plans to make 1 1/4 inch needles, which is going to be almost ridiculous but so, so awesome. Anyway, I cut up a t-shirt to make yarn to try on my new needles. I've also been experimenting with Lion Brand Thick and Quick held double, but I don't love any of the colors enough to make an afghan out of it. I wish I could afford this Big Stitch Alpaca Yarn. Anyone know of any ridiculously thick yarn that's affordable?

Diaper Cover

This almost makes me want to use cloth diapers. Wouldn't it be cute to have a baby hanging out in one of these all the time?

The pattern

Little Envelope

I wanted to embroider Ryan a love note for our anniversary, and I thought it would be cute to knit an envelope for it, but I underestimated the size of folded fabric. Somehow, I was picturing it folding up like paper. So instead, I pinned the note into a shadow box that was hanging above our toilet, and I cut a real card (where I could write a more elaborate note) to fit inside the envelope. These pictures don't do it justice because I'm not sure what to do about the bathroom lighting and glare of the glass, but it turned out cute in real life.

Here's where I found the pattern.

Bow

The owl hat is for a girl, and I really liked the way the pattern modeled it, with bows on the ears:

But Ryan is taking the hat early tomorrow to gift it, and I didn't feel like it was worth breaking the Sabbath today to shop for bows. So this owl only gets one bow that I swiped from Hanne's drawer:

Is it cute, or should I leave off the bow altogether?

Owlet

This is a baby gift for one of Ryan's clients. I love that I have my own baby model!

Ryan's Father's Day Beanie

Poor Ryan. I knit this in front of him and made him try it on as I knit, then finished two hours before Father's Day was over. There wasn't even a hint of surprise.

I tried the German twisted cast-on, which came out too loose, almost ruffly and not manly, so when I finished, I tried blocking it. Every time I walked through the kitchen, where the wet hat was blocking, I got a whiff of wet wool and thought the house was on fire. Does anyone else think wet wool smells like campfire?

Yarn Baby

Hanne is the proud, new mother of a yarn baby. 

My First Socks

I've been anxiously waiting to post these, but the person I made them for reads my knitting blog, so I had to lay low until I gifted them, but now they are on the feet of their new owner, so here they are in all their glory:

My first socks!

I absolutely loved making these. I think sock-making is going to be my new hobby for a while. It's just so easy to carry around half a sock in my purse rather than half a sweater. And it's exciting to try on the sock after every few rounds and watch it grow. Plus, the lace pattern is monotonous enough to knit while watching the kids or the TV, yet tricky enough to keep it interesting.

Things That Start With S

Shoes for someone's fetus:

My new spindle:

I'm trying to spin my own wool. It's not going well so far.

Slouchy Pink Hat

I can't decide how to accessorize it, but it doesn't matter because she won't wear it for more than two minutes anyway.

Paci Leash Bling

Lacy Ribbon Hat

This is the first time I've ever wished he were a girl. I didn't want to take it off! Here are some interchangeable flower clips to go with it:

Flower Clip

I made a flower for the hat. I opted for a clip, rather than sewing it on. Now the baby can wear the hat with other flowers and bows and whatnot. And she can wear the flower without the hat. Win-win!

The cute button is from Jo-Ann.

Man, Sully really can't pull off the girly hat. Good thing he's a dude! It's pretty cruel of me to make him wear it. He's just the only one in the family with the right size of head. I'd better take these pics down before he gets old enough to be bullied!

Here's where I got the pattern.

Found Some!

I decided to just make a blue bow and be done with it, but then as I was looking for the right hook to make the bow, I came across a small bundle of the creme yarn! Lucky!

Color?

I decided to hunker down and whip up some baby gifts today. I ran out of yarn one row from the end of this hat, so I used blue for the brim. The problem is that this hat is for a girl. What baby girl has anything to wear with a blue hat? They probably don't even make blue baby girl clothes. I guess I'll just have to buy more creme yarn, unless anyone out there has a baby girl who wears blue? It's too lacy for a boy. I still have to add a flower or a bow, but for now, I don't like it. Maybe because it's a boy modeling it? Or maybe because the color change is weird? Here's what it's supposed to look like.