Seeing Stars

My favorite shape has always been a star – I don’t know what about it appeals to me, I just know that it does! I am really enjoying this project – it is a convergence of things that please me: crocheting, crocheting a star, crocheting for my best friend’s baby, and even Caron Simply Soft (shut up, yarn snobs! LOL – it is cheap, machine washable and dryable and super-soft).

I think I am going with 10 rounds of each color – yellow in the center, band of blue, band of yellow and then a band of blue to finish. I am 4 rows into the first blue band and I really like the way the colors look together. The colors are perfectly gender neutral – I could girl it up with some purple I guess, but there is something very pleasing about the pale creamy yellow (“off-white” my ass – that is YELLOW!) and the mellow light blue. Even if I were to know what gender the baby will be, I would probably choose the blue and yellow anyway.

There were a ton of misleading instructions (if not out and out errors) in this pattern – it took a while for me to trust my instincts over the pattern, but the finished project will be the better for it. There are a few stitches in the first rounds that look a bit off after following the pattern as written, but probably things that only I or another crocheter will notice. I am torn between finishing this one, gifting it to someone else and starting fresh on a new one (without trusting the pattern as written) for Liz’s baby and keeping this one intended for Liz’s baby because that is who it was for at the start. I guess I will decide when it is closer to done.

Cabled Calorimetry (aka: Failorimetry)

On Sunday, 9/28/08, I began to think about a cabled calorimetry – I am sure someone on Ravelry has already figured it out, but I haven’t seen it and I want to give it a shot! I was inspired by the yarn, actually. I knit Sarah the calorimetry in the gray wool-ease chunky but I have a TON of wool-ease chunky in aran, too. I thought the aran version would look a bit, well … huge and white unless it had something to give it a bit of personality, but the brown leather covered buttons I have would look sweet with that color – voila – the need for a cabled calorimetry.

I started with CO 100 sts and planned for 5 cables separated by plain ribs for the center of the headband. I also did 1 more short row than on the calorimetry I made for Sarah (leaving 18 sts outside each of the markers). It was too big in every single direction. Also, a twist on the cables would have happened on the last row so I eliminated it – it just looks dumb. I need to pare this down to between 88 and 92 sts CO and stop the short rows when I have 22 on the outside of each marker – this should fix the sizing and the dumb looking cables.

Knit Night

On Saturday, 9/27/08 I had the privilege of teaching my best friend to knit and helping another good friend remember how to knit. In all of my geek glory I ran out to Michael’s and purchased them each a pair of US8 bamboo short needles and a ball of Vanna’s Choice in a light blue color (I think it is actually the color the elephant amigurumi calls for – they didn’t have it when I was crocheting that! J) Elizabeth was a beginner but did a great job – she had figured out the knit stitch and was gartering away before the night was over – no surprise, she is one of the smartest people I know! Jackie had been taught to knit by her mother when she was 7 but needed a refresher. It was slow going for her at first until I began to suspect she had been taught to knit English by her mother and my continental was probably not helping! I had never knit English before but have seen it enough times to try, so I did a few stitches on my own until I was sure I could do it before showing her. It clicked INSTANTLY! By the end of the night, Jackie had a few inches of perfectly even stockinette. There was a lot of info to pack into only a few hours so hopefully we can gear up for another knit night and I can teach them some more!

Star Afghan

My best friend is having a baby! I am so excited for her! You know a person is your best friend when you get deliriously happy over the happy events in their life – when Elizabeth met her husband I was on cloud nine, when they married I was just beside myself with happiness, and now that they are having a baby I am overjoyed! I am tearing up just thinking about it!

I have been waiting for this! Elizabeth is one of the best human beings I have ever been fortunate enough to meet. Generous and kind to a fault, an incredible friend who is always there no matter what is going on in her own life, so incredibly smart and talented and beautiful to boot. There is something about her that just inspires me to be the best person I can be. I can’t wait to spoil her and the baby with handmade gifts!
Since it is way too early to know if she is having a boy or girl, most projects will have to wait, but I can certainly get started on the unisex gifts I want to make! First up? The Star Afghan! I noticed this and added it to my queue 2 days before Elizabeth called me with the good news – I am planning to use Caron Simply Soft in off-white (which is a pale creamy looking yellow) and country blue (which is a nice soft blue color.) I started last night and it is taking shape nicely! I am thinking of frogging and starting over with a larger hook though. For just about anyone else, I would just continue on since it doesn’t look bad at all, but I want this blanket to be beyond perfect!

Calorimetry

I have been meaning to make one of these for a while. I love the way it looks and I know my sister would get some good use out of one when she goes snowboarding. I was mentioning the Calorimetry to my friend Sarah, a runner, mom to an adorable energetic 3 year old and all-around awesome person – she loved the idea and said “I want one!” It was not a directive for me to get busy and make it for her – she crochets beautifully and I taught her to knit … I think she was saying it more along the lines of a project she would be interested in making, but since her birthday is on Monday, I decided to surprise her with one. I have a ton of Wool-ease chunky in my stash, so I figured I would start there. After reading how big everyone else’s came out and realizing that I was using bulkier wool than what was called for, I decided to CO 88 st and work the short rows until I had 22 on each side outside the markers and 44 inside the markers – perfect!!! I could have stood a little more width – I might consider more short rows next time – but it looks cute! I used one of the brown leatherette covered buttons I got at the AC Moore store closing – perfect!!! I can’t wait to give it to her! Sarah is one of the most thoughtful people I know and she is constantly doing nice things for me and gives great presents – I am excited about giving her something she wants and will be useful when the cold weather kicks in! I plan to make a bunch more of these – I knit the whole thing in one sitting so they go fast! My current vision is that all of the females on my Christmas list that would wear something like this will get one!

Twisty Turns – still going!

At last measure, I have 24” along the long edge … I may be taking my time on this, but I am actually enjoying it very much. It is a perfect project for watching TV – as described before I have taken all of thinking out of it so it is nice and easy! The metal needles and the yarn just slide slide slide – reminds me why I prefer metal over bamboo! I took this with me to the laundromat on 9/21 and got some work done – it really is a great take-along project. I need to concentrate my efforts on this to speed it along – the temperatures are now staying in the low 70’s for the most part … I want this wrap ready to wear when we start seeing temps in the 60’s!!!

Hunting Cap

The yarn is acrylic and not the softest thing I have ever felt, but it is certainly the right color for a hunting cap and there is plenty of it! I have tried to wing it with my own made up patterns, but all previous attempts result in laughably oversized hats. This time I grew a brain and decided to follow a pattern! It still seems a tad large, but it is shaping up nicely. I am using the pattern for the Cousteau hat and I think that pattern is going to be the basis for a bunch of hats on my Christmas knit-list. I am using a heavy Aran yarn and US4 16” circs – it makes my hands a bit crampy so I don’t really put in long sessions knitting this one but it is resulting in a nice thick fabric, even though it is slow going. That is for the best – if I stare at the color too long I might go blind! This cap is for my dad, depending on how well it goes, I will probably make one for John I. too – he and Karen always remember the sibs and I at Christmas – it would be nice to have something nice for them too! (Though Karen will get a different hat in a normal color since she is not a hunter!)

Odessa

This was a quick knit! The yarn, Malabrigo silky merino, is a dream to work with – very soft and the colors are really something else! I left off the beads because my intention was to make this as a hat for Dave. It looks good on him and I know he likes it, but I am worried it might be just a touch too femme for him. I am 99.99999999% sure that I will knit up a Cousteau Hat in the same yarn – then we can see who looks better in which one and go from there. We are kind of geeks for matching – not outfits or anything like that (though, we both do have a penchant for khaki pants and black long sleeved tees – it has been known to happen more than occasionally! LOL), but we tend to use matching coffee mugs and we are going to have matching hats. Barf, sappy, whatever – I know!

I plan to make more than one Odessa hat (wound ball of silky merino in bosques, I am looking at YOU!) It is a great pattern, easy to understand and memorize. And since it worked up so quickly I am going to keep it on my radar for last minute Christmas knitting!

Column of Leaves Scarf

Most of the people on my knit-list for Christmas are getting hats, but my mother really doesn’t wear hats. She would love it, probably even be a sport and make a point of wearing it every so often, but she deserves something lovely AND useful. I saw the pattern for the Column of Leaves scarf and I knew I found her gift. I have purchased 2 hanks of Malabrigo silky merino in Cloudy Sky – a beautiful blue color! I need to start soon, but I have a ton of stuff on the needles right now … I think I need to make a point of starting this project next! It is lace and I love knitting lace – plus, lace seems to go quickly for me. But I best not wait too long … if it isn’t finished for Christmas I know my mom will understand, but she shouldn’t have to understand! Time to get moving!

Kittyville Hat

My awesome pal Sage turns 8 on 11/7/08 – she is obsessed with cats and has 2 of her own! If ***anyone*** needs an Official Kittyville Hat, it is Sage! I am making the hat in black, just like her cat, Loki. I am aiming to make this a birthday gift, but if I can’t get it finished in time it will work for Christmas too! Not quite on the needles yet, but I figure if I post about it that will make it more likely that I will cast on!

Happenings

Well, I am going on 3 weeks since my last post … there has been plenty happening, perhaps that is why I have not gotten around to posting about it quite yet! I will make individual posts updating individual projects, but here is news in brief:

When our system was down at work, I taught Eleni how to make Saartje’s Bootees! She hasn’t done any of the seaming or made the button loops, etc. I think she may have lost interest on this particular project, but just yesterday she asked me to help her find a pattern for a crochet afghan! Looks like she just needed needles and yarn in hand to get bitten by the crafting bug!

Sarah, another coworker, wants help getting started on some amigurumi toys for her friend who is expecting – there is a safari theme so she is hoping to make the lion and the elephant toys. If all goes according to plan we are headed to the store today to buy everything she needs!

I brought the booties and that hat and mitts set to Rose’s on 9/13/08 – Bailey was asleep but Rose loved them! Rose said that she will be looking to get out and do some shopping and socializing with Bailey soon – can’t wait to meet her!

I was back at Nonna’s last Friday on my lunch hour – I was obsessed with getting a second hank of the Malabrigo silky merino in smoke so I could make a hat to match the one I made for Dave (or, make a hat for Dave that matches the one I made for me – something tells me we won’t know whose hat is whose until they are both finished.) We are such geeks with matching – at least the hats will look cool, even if we aren’t! LOL I also picked up some Malabrigo silky merino in Cloudy Sky – this is intended for a Christmas present for my mom.

My best friend called me on 9/20/08 to tell me the wonderful news that she and her husband are expecting! Before we were even off the phone my mind was already spinning with a million things I want to make for her and baby! Baby is due 5/10/09 and it is way too soon to know the sex of the baby, but I am already getting started – I have visions of a Moses basket filled with handmade love!!! I can’t wait to see Liz this Saturday night – we are getting together with Jackie and I am going to show them how to knit the sweater Christmas ornaments! These ornaments have a very special meaning to me and I am just so happy with the idea of teaching more people to make them!

Well, that is the short version – more detail to follow in posts on individual projects!!!

Back to the Wrap

Since Bailey is born and it is time to present the presents, I think the bootee frenzy has finally passed. I will admit that the malabrigo I bought today was originally intended for more booties, by the time we got home from Nonna's, I was already imagining it as a gift for an adult, not a baby. It is hand wash after all - pretty obnoxious thing to give new parents. Not that Bailey doesn't deserve beautiful things, but so do some of the other wonderful people in my life.

Thinking of knitting for grownups put me in mind of a project that has sat on the needles for a week or so - the Twisty Turns Wrap. I don't know why I had it in my head that it was so screwed up, it really wasn't. I straightened out all of the stitches and got back to work. Still a lot of progress to be made, but I have a little more than 18" done - respectable.

Since work is going to be a joke tomorrow - system is being upgraded, I couldn't accomplish anything if I wanted to ... which would be rare - I plan to bring the wrap with me and get some serious length added to it - I want it available for wear later this month! I also promised to show Eleni how to make Saartje's Bootees for a shower she is attending soon - I have already re-taught her how to knit (funny, she remembered purl right away but took a minute to remember knit) so I will mainly be there for moral support, but it should be a light day full of knitting - something to really look forward to!

Back to Nonna's

We were in the neighborhood and Dave didn't object, so I snuck into Nonna's this afternoon - didn't have anything specific in mind to buy ... just wanted to buy more beautiful yarn! I bought 2 hanks of malabrigo silky merino - pretty! I am thinking of making Fetching fingerless gloves. This time I was smart enough to ask the owner to pop the hank on the swift for me - I now have 2 wonderfully wound balls of gorgeous yarn waiting to me made into something beautiful!

No sooner do I say it ...

Well, apparently I wasn't done with the bamboo booties quite yet! Must have something to do with the yarn - the color is just gorgeous, the yarn seems to glow and glimmer and it is so soft. The bootie I finished looked so great that I just had to make the second one. I also did some poking around the intarwebs about baby feet - the apparently come in a dizzying array of shapes and sizes - if they don't fit today, they will fit one day, and since they are stretchy, they will fit for many days after that.

I got this one out just in time - Bailey Desrosiers was born today at 6:06am! I am not sure if I will get up to see the happy family tomorrow or if my best bet is to mail the knit goodies to the house.

ZOMG!!!1!!1!!ONE!! I love these!

I knit these booties in the Ranco I bought at Nonna’s – I can’t believe how awesome they are! The colors just knock me out. These little things are so funky and cool! I made them in the smaller of the 2 sizes in the pattern – when Rose gets them (and Bailey decides to make her entrance – YOU ARE LATE, little girl!!! LOL) I will ask for some notes on sizing. It has taken everything in me not to run right back to Nonna’s, buy every color scheme of the Ranco that they have in the shop, and then go twitch-nutty knitting more of these. I am thinking that I can do sets of 3 – one set that is 100% Ranco, one set with a Ranco bottom and plain black (or white? Gray?) straps and upper, and one set with plain black (?) bottom and Ranco upper and straps. Ranco is hand-wash so it is not the most practical yarn to knit baby stuff in, but since infants don’t walk a bootie is the least obnoxious thing in this yarn. It is so beautiful; I don’t think people will mind the handwash!

Hat and Mitts for Bailey

I have some light purple fingering weight yarn I bought to make booties, but since I made booties for Bailey using the Ranco, I decided she didn’t need a second pair quite yet. (Let’s see how the first ones fit!) But she did need MORE!!! I poked through some of the pattern books I had lying around and saw that the hat and mitts for the Little Boy Blue set in the Beautiful Baby book. Little boy blue whatevs … looks a bit girly to me. Well, done in pastel purple it looks totally girly! LOL I finished these fairly quickly over 2 days and I think they came out cute. Original plans included the slippers from that set, but I think it might be overkill. Instead of using a yarn cord on the mitts, I used some white sating ribbon. I will tell Rose that if it proves obnoxious I will make her some cords – I know less than nothing about babies, perhaps there is good reason not to use a ribbon! But anyway, they are done – here they are!

Sleeping Booties

I have been in a bootie frenzy recently (but it may finally be dying off.) There are 2 casualties of the bootie frenzy that will be hibernating on my ravelry.com projects page for the foreseeable future. Not because they are hideous mistakes (they are lovely!!!), but because they each have issues that must be dealt with before they are ready for gifting.

Sleeping Bootie #1 – This was the first one (beside the test bootie) that I cast on to make. This is the set of booties that inspired all that follow – gazing upon their insane cuteness I dreamed of the thousands I know I will be making in the future. I was about 90% done when I made my fatal flaw – I goofed on making one of the straps(you are supposed to cast on AND knit in the same row, someone I know cast on, lost their mind and then jumped to the next row and knit across.) The final nail in the coffin was that I sewed the seams before I noticed. All this one needs is a new strap, a button loop and a bobble button (and then the seam sewn) and it will be ready to stick on baby toes. But, not today. My vision for these is that as soon as I find out someone is pregnant I will finish these off and present them – I will use this as a “test balloon” to see if the new mom is “knitworthy” and then proceed as results dictate.

Sleeping Bootie #2 – This bootie came out GORGEOUS. The color is beautiful and the bamboo yarn is so amazingly soft – it was a true pleasure to knit! I thought the yarn gauge would be “close enough” ( I figured baby can grow into it) but these are a lot bigger than anticipated. I am thinking these will work for an older child … Hailey B. comes to mind! Hailey just had a little sister, Kara, and even though she is taking it all in stride, she needs something beautiful that is just for her! My only hesitation is her age – I would send this lone bootie up to Sandra to have Hailey try it on, but if it doesn’t fit, I am afraid it would be a total tease/let-down/cruel joke for my pal Hailey. I might ask Auntie Liz’s opinion, but until I make up my mind, it sits there is all of its blue bamboo glory, hibernating on my projects page.

Trip to Nonna’s

I needed a treat last Thursday. I have been dreaming about fingering weight yarn that is not white or pastel and I know that a yarn store is the place I stand the best chance of finding it! It was so nice being surrounded by such lush yarns and the staff was fantastic! I picked up a hank of Ranco in blues/greens/purples, a ball of Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino in teal and Sirdar baby bamboo in waterbaby (and some size 3 bamboo 10” needles – I couldn’t resist the idea of knitting bamboo with bamboo – and my only other 3’s are looooong.) It wasn’t until I got home that I realized I should have asked them to wind a ball for me out of the Ranco. It’s my first hank and I was perplexed. But the good folks at ravelry talked me through it! I got advice from experienced knitters, a yarn shop employee and links to videos on youtube about how to wind your own balls. It worked out great!