Baby Stuff

I finished the I-cord border on the log-cabin-like diaper pad. So it is officially finished and I'm going to send it out the expecting parents who just found out that it's a boy!
I'm thinking it will be useful despite its smaller size. A diaper pad now, and a metal bleacher cover in a couple years at the little league games.

I also quickly whipped up a Baby Feet dishcloth for a friend's sister. She just had a beautiful little girl. While, we (the sister and I) are not very close, I know that if I had lived in Florida for more than just a few months we would have been like family. I wanted to do just a little something to congratulate her.
This was a fun knit with my first ever bobbles. I'm generally not a fan of bobbles. (I think it has to do with a bobbled sweater that I was given as a young girl that had horribly placed bobbles and lead to lots of ridicule the one scarring day that I wore it.) This sweater is the only other bobble pattern that I have ever considered making, and it still hasn't made it all the way to my Ravelry queue. For this pattern however, I think they are absolutely adorable as little baby toes and I will probably make it again.

I finished it at the knitting group last night, and I was asked why I knit dishcloths. I was the wrong person to ask because I've only knit three of them to date. I can see some of the appeal though. They are useful, and cute. They are super quick so they make instant gratification projects. Beyond that, there are so many dishcloth patterns out there, that I can't imagine them ever becoming boring. I can also see them making fantastically specialized gifts. On the other hand, I am starting to have my fill of cotton. When I am working with cotton, I miss the give and forgiveness of wool. Do you knit dishcloths? What do you like or dislike about them?

Festive Fibers

I've been feeling very at home at Starbucks this holiday. All of the shops are filled with yarn for the holidays.Green sparkly yarn balls decorate the counters, fill vases, and are paired up with red ornaments to make wreaths. I don't think it would be a hard look to achieve either. A few styrofoam balls, a couple hanks of festive yarn, and a wreath form would probably do the trick. If you are looking for a caffeine fix, you should go check it out. It's a sweet simple look that makes me want to knit Christmas scarves.

Catching Up: The Knitting

I have a lot of knitting to catch you up on, but not quite as many pictures as yesterday. Hopefully, the formatting will stay a little sane.

Mom's Christmas Socks
First we have to go way back to the pair of Christmas socks that never got blogged. We gave our parents their gifts while they were here, so there is no need to keep it a secret any longer. It started when I mentioned to Hubby that I was thinking of making Mom socks for Christmas. He said she would really love some heavy warm ones that she could wear around the house. I instantly thought of the Windowpane socks that were already in my knitting queue. The color work in these socks almost gives them an extra layer from the yarn that is being carried across on the inside. Originally I had chosen Essential in Cocoa and the Blue Violet Multi.

I was envisioning rich chocolate socks with a hint of color to lighten them up. I didn't get very far in my gauge swatch before I realized that the brown and the purple were too similar to really give the intended effect. Fortunately, I had some Essential in Buckskin waiting in the sidelines to become Hubby's socks so I was good to go, and the two colors worked even better than what I was originally shooting for.
The next dilemma that I had to overcome was the fact that I still hadn't successfully made a pair of socks that fit me. Mom and I wear the same size, so I needed socks that fit me. My first pair felt like they fit, but when I wore them the wandered all around my ankle. The second pair felt like it fit, but when I wore them for awhile they became uncomfortably tight around my leg. It took about 20 minutes of staring at my leg for me to realize that I have pretty good sized calves. I broke out my measuring tape and sure enough, there is more than 3 inches difference between my ankle and where the top of a hand knit sock would sit. I decided that this had been the problem since anything that fit my calf would be far too big for my ankle and anything that fit my ankle would be too tight for my calf. Knowing that Mom's calves are more muscular than mine, I decided that this was how I was going to try to attack my fit problem. I measured my leg every inch and incorporated decreases into the pattern to try and make a more custom fit.
Then I increased back to the original number of stitches across the five rows right before the heel flap. It makes it a little tight to get on, and you have to give it a serious tug to get that smallest section over your heel, but they fit me perfectly. They were really tempting to just tuck away for myself, but they seemed to fit Mom just as well.

Hubby's Parade Mitts
Next on the list is the Parade Mitts for Hubby. I started these about a week before Thanksgiving because Hubby was noticing what an advantage I was going to have at the Macy's parade because of the mittens I had made myself. The plan was to make him some Broad Street Mittens out of the Cocoa Essential that didn't get used for Mom's socks. Since time was short, I decided to make each of the gloves first and the mitten caps second. It was a wise choice, because I finished the gloves at midnight before the parade. I decided that Hubby could do with out the mitten caps for this parade, and maybe it would teach him that I'm only human and I need a little more time for completed masterpieces.
This picture should explain why I knit two socks at a time. Look closer....
The bottom pair is a half an inch longer than the top pair. Even on Hubby's long skinny hands it looks floppy. Since I'm not happy with them, I'm going to skip the mitten cap, make him a new pair, and eventually frog these. While he may not have had enough sense to give me plenty of time to make them, he did have the sense to love them once they were made (even if one didn't fit). Here they are at the parade. The Build-a-Bear float is in the background.

Sprinkles
I told you all about my Sprinkles socks and the alterations I made to the pattern. So all I have to report now is that they are done and I love them!
Here is a good close look at the patter, but the colors are a bit off.

Porphyria
I wanted to go up a needle size for Hubby's socks since he wanted the same pattern as Dad's but when he tried them on, they looked a little strained. I decided a quick fingering weight fingerless glove pattern would be a good way to try out my gauge on a bigger needle so I went with Porphyria (Ravelry link) and the left over Essential in the Blue Violet Multi. They were a super quick knit, and now that I have my first pair of fingerless gloves, I am completely addicted. Expect to see a lot more in the future.
I thought that these were going to be cabled, but the pattern is made with a stitch that is similar to the Holding Hands and Feeding Ducks stitch, except this one is done on the knit side. I used a size 1 (2.5mm) needle and the ribbing turned out really nice so that is what I decided to go for with Hubby's socks.

Hubby's Brooklyn Tree Socks
Hubby loved Dad's socks and decided that he wanted the same pattern for his. So, I pulled out the Brooklyn Tree Pattern (which is actually called Francie but I call it Brooklyn Tree when the intended recipient is a man) and the Essential in Buckskin and cast on.
This is as far as I got before I decided that they seemed a little big and had Hubby try them on. Sure enough, they are too loose and I am going to have to start over with a Size 1 (2.25mm). Since we had guests and they were residing in our living room, I didn't want to have a frogged yarn mess lying around and getting in the way. I just set these aside and picked up one of the many other WIPs from my basket.

Undetermined
The project I picked up, I was hoping would become a baby blanket for some friends back in AR who recently announced that they are expecting. Since I am on a strict yarn diet, I am stash busting the CottonTots that I have left from a couple other blankets that I made. I love the colors of this yarn and it just begs to be baby stuff. I've been working in a make shift log cabin like pattern from the center out, and trying to just keep the project square.
That way, when I run out of yarn, I don't have to worry because the project is square and can be complete. Well, I've run out and it is only about 22 inches square. I can't decide if I should send it to them or not. It is no where near large enough to be considered a blanket, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be useful. I think it might be a great diaper pad, or maybe it could be thrown over a car seat. I could go ahead and send this to the animal shelter as another kennel pad, but I intended it for the baby, and I'm not sure when I'll be able to buy a blanket's worth of yarn. I just don't know. Those of you that have had children (and those of you who haven't but have an idea), what do you think? Could you have used a knit square, or would it just be a nuisance?

Catching Up: The Sights

Our parents left yesterday evening, so hopefully, I'll be blogging with a bit more regularity again. I had a fantastic time while they where here, and we used them as an excuse to do some things around the city that we probably would have put off otherwise. Here is an update on some of the stuff we went out to do over the past week or so. (Remember you can click on any of the pictures to see them larger.)

First, before our parents actually arrived, we went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We showed up around 7:15-7:30am and I can say with confidence that it was not nearly early enough. We were far enough back that I couldn't see anybody unless they were on stilts or a float, but I don't think I missed too much. We did luck out that we were close enough that we were on the line where people started putting kids on their shoulders. If we had been behind that line, I don't think we would have seen anything but the balloons. It was cold, and crowded, and I had an absolutely wonderful time! Unfortunately, our camera batteries started acting up so we had to conserve. I only have pictures of balloons for you.
























































Just for the record, Ronald McDonald was completely creepy and Buzz Lightyear was my favorite. For more Macy's Parade fun, you should check out this Time article.

Friday is when Mom and Dad showed up, so Saturday is when we had our huge Thanksgiving feast. On Sunday we all headed downtown to see Wintuk.

I have always been a Cirque fan. I would say that this show is the most kid conscious one. It is hard to really say. Almost all of them are family friendly and great for kids, but this one seemed to pay particular attention to what is best for kids in a performance. There was a clear storyline, and English narration for it. There was a clear obstacle to overcome and each of the scenes or performances (I'm not sure what you would call it, but the different segments where each of the awesome skills are showcased) had a catalyst for the transitions. I thought it was a great show and a wonderful family event.

Since Mom is a quilter and I am a knitter, we headed to Purl in SoHo. They have one shop full of yarn and fiber supplies and another half a block down full of fabric and sewing supplies. They were both cute shops overflowing with color and nice people, but they were tiny and selection was a little low. Neither of us added to our stash, but Mom did grab me the new KnitScene.

We spent all day Tuesday in the city starting with Australia and dinner at the RUB. Then, as it started to get dark, we headed to 5th Ave. to check out the Christmas store windows.
The Bergdorf windows were a little odd. They were very pretty in mainly white and silver, but all of the men, had animal heads.






















We walked all the way down to Rockefeller Center to see the tree and the ice rink.











Does it look a little lack luster to you? You would be right, and it is because the tree was lit the day after we were there. I confess I didn't do the research and planning that I should have and I pouted about it for a little bit. The Cartier building helped to cheer me up and another building near it had a flashing snowflake light show that brought a smile back to my face.











Saks was on the way back up the other side of 5th Ave. Their store window was a fantastic story about a snowflake named Mike who dared to be different. They are selling the book of the story and part of the proceeds go to St. Jude's. We had a lot of fun there because Hubby goes by Mike. Mom found a sign that said "Mike made snowflake history. (His mother was so proud!)" The whole store was full of fantastic family photo ops that I messed up because I couldn't work out the lighting so we have a bunch of pictures of brightly light display windows and a dark shadowy figure that resembles my husband. Finally I gave the camera back to Hubby so we would have at least a couple successful pictures.

















Before we left downtown, we stopped at FAO Schwarz. I picked up some Christmas gifts for the triplets (since I don't have any kids of my own to shop for), finally got to take a look at the Muppet Whatnot Shop, and met up with some old friends.









By the time it was all over, we had spent almost 12 hours in Manhattan, and we were ready to drop. We spent the next couple days recouping and eating. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get you caught up on all of the fantastic knitting that happend while Mom was here enabling me.

A Little Help Please

So, I've just started this week's Crossword puzzle and 112 across is "Commits knitting boo-boos" and has 13 spaces. I haven't figured it out, and those are all the clues that I have (for now if I get some more that I'm confident in, I'll add them). Any ideas?


Commits knitting boo-boos

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ E _

Radical Web of Terror

Non-knitters beware!

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Nailed 'Em - Radical Knitting

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Handmade Holiday Cavalcade

This is just an announcement for those of you in the NYC area. Tomorrow is the Handmade Holiday Cavalcade at the Knitting Factory. It sounds like a fantastic one day event with three floors full of "handcrafted soaps, housewares, ceramics, paper goods, jewelry, accessories, clothing, and original artwork." This should be a great way to do some holiday shopping, and support local artists and crafters.

Tight Knit Family

I'm still around, I've just been spending time with family that is in town for the week. Spending time with family is great, especially when they pressure you to craft!