I would go on choosing you...

Last year for spring break we had the opportunity to run around NYC like tourists because our friends Dean and Katy came to visit.
They are such a wonderful couple that we knew they would be getting married well over two years ago, but it was on this trip that we started to get real details about when the big day would finally come. Just because the event was inevitable, doesn't mean it would be any less perfect, so Hubby and I started the talking and planning to had back to Arkansas as soon as they left.

Two days after we bought our plane tickets, I got a message from Katy asking me if I would read I Like You by Sandol Stoddard Warburg during the ceremony. I was honored and wildly excited. Prior to her request, I had never heard of I Like You. It is such a sweet and funny book that I am a little sad knowing that I've gone this long without reading it. The back cover claims, "Here is the book that Romeo would have given Juliet, Charlie Brown would have given Snoopy," and I agree completely. Please go read this book if you haven't already. It will make you smile despite yourself, and it will remind you how great it is to like all those people that you love. Clearly, I am enamored with this book, but I can't help it. It was a perfect tribute to the marriage of such a fun and loving couple.

I really wanted to make something special for Dean and Katy. I had the ambition to make them a blanket, but since this was the year of babies, that plan became more than impractical.

Maybe for their 5th anniversary... or their 10th. Since they are joining together and setting up a new home, I thought it would be appropriate to make them some dishtowels and wash cloths. The girlfriend who came with me to pick out yarn, started talking about why she could never use hand knit dishcloths. She gave me this whole argument about how they are too fancy so she would prefer to just treat them like art. With that in mind, I decided to shoot for simple and durable looking rather than artful and fancy. For simple and usable, I went right to Mason Dixon Knitting.

Pattern: Moss Grid Hand Towel from Mason Dixon Knitting

Yarn: Lion Brand Collection Cotton Bamboo in Magnolia and Hyacinth

Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm)

Notes: I took one pattern repeat out and it was almost perfect for one cloth per ball.

Pattern: Ballband Dishcloth from Mason Dixon Knitting

Yarn: Lion Cotton Yarn in Natural and Periwinkle

Needles: US 7 (4.5 mm) and US 9 (5.5 mm)

Notes: No pattern changes, but one of these is not like the other. Can you tell which one's special? I'll give you a hint it has blue bricks with a white background. Still don't know? That's ok I don't know which one it is either, but one of them was knit by Hubby. The fact that I can't tell which one it is, just tells you how mad his knittin' skillz are.

Congratulations! We like you because we like you!

Bonus!

Since I finished Owen's blanket in the middle of all that snow excitement, I had a few days before I was going to get it out in the mail. I also had some extra yarn. On an earlier project this winter, I had decided that Comfy might make a good toy yarn. Do you see where this is going?

A bonus for Owen! Before he was born, Owen's parents were keeping his name a surprise so he was "Monkey" to those of us not in the know.

Pattern: Alfonso the Monkey by Cara Key (Rav Link)

Yarn: Knit Picks Comfy Worsted in Honey Dew, Creme Brulee and Ivory

Needles: US 3 (3.25 mm)

Notes: Let me just start by saying that Cara's pattern is fantastic and completely adorable. I couldn't resist making this money the moment I saw him.

I made one alteration and really it was based in a silly misconception. I thought that I was getting smarter, and the next step for me as a knitter was to start adjusting patterns to make them fit my fit my needs and preferences. So, while I was reading though Cara's pattern I read how the body and belly of the monkey were knit separately, then the monkey was stuffed though the belly and pieces were seamed together. I, of course, thought I was super cool and could skip the seaming. Instead of waiting to seam the two together I picked up the belly piece as I knit up the body by using some SSKs and P2togs. When I got to the neck, I stuffed the body before closing it up. This worked just fine, except my monkey has a pot belly that Cara's doesn't. There's no need to be polite, you can tell he's got a bit of a pooch. I think it is kinda cute on the monkey, but when I make Cara's otter, (Rav Link) I want it to be perfect. I will be extremely obedient with that pattern.

Owen's Blanket: Part 3

The Photo Shoot

I finished the blanket just in time for NYC's last big snow. For the first day of our winter wonderland, Hubby and I went to Prospect Park and met the snowmen. For the second day, we took the blanket to Central Park to see just how many statues we could keep warm.

I think my favorite was the Mad Hatter. Not only was he knee deep in snow and in need of some warmth, but I think the blanket made a dashing cape.

Interruption

This morning I downloaded Picasa to help me get ready for my next blog post. So far I haven't really gotten to play with much of it, but I have been excited about tagging all the people in my pictures. It has been pulling up all sorts of faces and asking me who they are, but just a moment ago I got a little surprise.

From Drop Box

Do you see it? Let's get a closer look.

From Pictures

What is Zach Galifinankis doing in my photos?

From Drop Box

Turns out he was in Australia with me. Who can blame him; Australia was awesome.

Owen's Blanket: Part 2

Process

Pattern: Mitered Blanket by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne

Yarn: Knit Picks Comfy Worsted in Creme Brulee, Honey Dew, and Ivory

Needles: US 5 (3.75 m) and US 7 (4.5 mm)

Notes: I have to admit, I am pretty proud of myself. I seamed up each square and wove in all the ends as I went along with this project. I am so glad that I did because it was daunting to just cut off all of the ends when I finished. These little squares made for great subway knitting, so it knit up relatively quickly.

As far as modifications go, I decreased the number of stripes in each square. The meant that I couldn't carry the yarn up the side, so I had to cut the yarn for each stripe. This of course meant more ends to weave in. It also made it difficult to judge how much yarn I needed. I ended up determining how much yarn was needed per square, what percentage of the square each color made up and calculating the yardage from that. My calculations were far from perfect, but fortunately I have a bit of extra yarn instead of running out.

It is not in these pictures, but I also put an I-cord border on the blanket. It wasn't as fun as the I-cord border on my Op-Art, but I still love the look of it.

Owen's Blanket: Part 1

The Plan

When I decide I want to give a hand knit gift to someone, Hubby gets involved in the planning stage. Usually this means helping pick out the pattern or choosing colors. This time he had a much bigger job.

We had a starting point though: colors. I was a bridesmaid in my friend's wedding. When I saw my beautiful mint green dress with golden sash, I just thought about how great it was going to look with my red hair. It wasn't until we were tossing around a football outside the Packer hall of fame in our formal wear that it really sunk in that I was wearing green and gold. Since they had decided to theme their big day with the wedding versions of Packer colors, I decided that this blanket needed the baby version.

So, Hubby and I sat down with Ravelry and looked for some blanket patterns that would work well with two (green and yellow) or three (green, yellow, and white) colors. Our honorable mentions were: Curve of Pursuit, Ribbons Baby Blanket, Carseat Blanket, Baby Shane Blanket, Mirbeau Slip Stitch Baby Blanket, Pathways Blanket (Rav Link), Apple Core Blanket (Rav Link), Amazement and Spinning a Yarn. The winner was Mitered Square Blanket (Rav Link) from Mason Dixon Knitting. It was the beautiful blankets made by ShinKitten (Rav Link) and Fuzzynoddleknits that really inspired our final decision.

We had a pattern and colors picked out; now it was time for the design. The plan was for Hubby to design the blanket, but I wanted to set him up so it would be as easy as possible for him to both create the design and convey the design to me. I made him some little tiles that looked like the squares I could make and asked him to have at it.

We both felt it was too busy, so Hubby decided to do things his way and hopped on the computer. Doing what he does best, he came up with these designs.

Natural Gas or Wool

Mom just shared this great commercial with me. I think it is great idea with superb execution.

A little bit more than it makes me want natural gas, it makes me want to cover my entire world with yarn.

Snow Men

Last weekend we had another snowstorm, but this one came with quite a bit of sunshine. Hubby and I decided to head out Prospect Park to do some amateur snow man judging. Here are our winners!

Most Rockin'

Most Animated

Most Through the Looking Glass

Cuddliest

Most Architectural

Happiest

Most Colorful

Tallest

Happy Valentine's Day!

Tell the people that you love what they mean to you.

Dragon's Wear Lipstick

I started this project back in June. The knitting was fun and went by pretty fast, but it wasn't until last weekend that I turned this

Into this

I know that makes it hard to believe me when I say, I don't really mind seaming.

In fact, I kind of like mattress stitch. The reason this was neglected was because of all the little pieces. I do most of my knitting on the subway, and I just didn't want to see an eyeball fall into the tracks. He got set aside until I could find some time at home to focus on him. Then we moved, so he was packed.

Excuses aside, he's been rediscovered and stitched up.

Pattern: Fiery Dragon Scarf by Brook L. Hanna
Yarn: Knit Picks Essential (now Stroll) Multi in Meadow Multi, Knit Picks Shine Sport in Grass and Leapfrog, and various bits of this and that.

Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm)
Notes: For the top of the dragon, I knit holding both the Meadow variegated yarn and the Leapfrog at the same time. For the bottom, I alternated between Leapfrog and Grass. I wanted to use the yarn double thick on the top and single on the bottom. In my head this meant that the top would be bigger/fuller and be a bit more substantial than the bottom. In turn, the belly would draw in a bit because it was smaller. It kind of worked, but it also caused a tiny problem.

Being bigger also meant being longer. I kept the row counts of both pieces the same (because that is ideal for mattress stitch), but the top had about an inch more than the bottom. I was still able to put them together, but it is not quite as perfect as I would have like. It is doubtful that the young man this is going to mind. Even I don't mind.

What I do mind is the lips. I think it looks like this dragon is wearing lipstick. It is my own fault. First, I didn't add the felt teeth like the pattern recommended. They probably would have made that seam between the red and the green more elegant, but I just don't have any felt lying around. Second, I probably could have tried another seaming method for putting the mouth in. I used mattress stitch because I like how invisible it is, but something a little more visible might have been less rounded. If that seam was flatter, the mouth would look more inset.

Now that I've aired my complaints and been my own critic, I have to say, I LOVE the nostrils. It is not a sentence I have occasion to use often, but they are my favorite part. They are just so cute!

I *heart* Giraffes!

What is your favorite animal? When I was young enough to be asked that question with some regularity, I always answered with panda bear. It made sense. Kids called me Manda Panda. The stuff with panda bears on it was super cute, and I'm a sucker for cute and cuddly. Then, at some point in college when I was far too old for anyone to ask me what my favorite animal is, I realized I've been wrong all along.

If anyone asked me what my favorite animal is today, I would proudly tell them that I love giraffes. They are absolutely adorable in the animated and stuffed animal versions, and in real life they are just overwhelmingly and endearingly geeky. I've got a soft spot in my heart for geeks and that long neck and those gangly legs just make me want to hug them. But when you see them moving, there is nothing awkward about them; they are amazingly graceful.

So, since the secret knitting continues, I am going to share some giraffe patterns that I have queued.

The Giraffe Illusion Scarf (Rav Link) by Isis Kowarik is so much fun. I love the concept and execution of illusion knitting, but I rarely see something that I want for myself. This scarf is going to be awesome though.

I don't have nearly enough hand knit dishcloths so all three of these will be great to add to my tiny collection. They are: The Giraffe Dishcloth by Lindsay Sasseville, Giraffe Dishcloth by Emily Jagos and Giraffe Dishcloth by Whitney Webster.

And of course there are fantastic giraffe knitted toys!

In order of appearance, but certainly not any special ranking I present to you:

Sock Giraffe by Bobbie Padget, Giraffe (Rav Link) by Susan B. Anderson (I have to get this book!), Jelly Bum Giraffe by Raynor Gellatly and Little Giraffe by Christine Landry.

What is your favorite animal? Has it inspired your crafting at all?

*None of the pattern pictures are mine. They all belong to the pattern designers.

Hibiscus Shawl

Pattern: Hibiscus Shawl by Laura Chau (Rav Link)
Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss Sock Yarn in Bordeaux

Needles: US 6 (4.0 mm)
Notes: I had a lot of trouble with this pattern. I generally like to trust the pattern. Honestly, I don't have the confidence in my knitting prowess or my ability to visualize the instructions as I read them to do much more than have faith that it will all work out in the end. Most of the time (as long as I scour the internet for errata before I begin) this faith has served me well. This project changed all of that.

I really wanted this shawl.

I thought it was cute and it was going to be the perfect use of some yarn that was already in my stash. Most importantly, I work with my back to a large drafty window on the shadow side of my building. I've been wanting a shawl that will stay on my shoulders and warm my back for a long time. So, I was just as eager to cast off this project as I was to cast it on. I was zipping through this project until about half-way though the flower when things just stopped working. The lace on the far side of the flower just wouldn't line up like it was supposed to. I ripped back a few rows and tried it again. Still not right. I ripped out the entire flower and started it over. More frustration. I ended up ripping out the entire project and starting it again. I got a little bit of guidance from Ravelry, but mostly I just made changes as I went along. Here are the edits I made:

Row 74: Decrease extra stitch with RT right after flower

Row 78: Knit 8 instead of 9

Row 88: Knit 24

If you've got a good eye, you can see that there is still a row (maybe 2) that are off in the lace pattern after the flower. By the point I noticed it, I wasn't certain if it was my mistake or the pattern's and I was not patient enough to go back. Despite that minor problem (nobody notices but me) I love my first triangular wrap. No one has come out and told me that I look like an old lady when I wear it, but it wouldn't matter if they did. I never have to fuss with it to keep it on (unlike my Clapotis which has been permanently declared a scarf.) If I turn it around and wrap it around my neck, it is the perfect shape to fill in V opening of my coat and any cold from sneaking in. I'm sold! Have you discovered the joys of a triangular shawl?

Hannahmits

Now that it is January, everyone is getting to unveil the secret knitting that they've been doing for the past couple months. I have all of my secret knitting wrapped up in babies instead of Christmas, so I'm still stitching on the down-low. I do have one present that I can share though.

These weren't originally intended to be a Christmas present, but the timing worked out perfectly. (Wouldn't it be nice if that's the way all Christmas presents were.) While hanging out Hannah saw Owls and thought it was adorable (because it undeniably is). I had been wanting to knit something for Hannah, but I knew I wasn't ready to undertake a sweater for someone else (I haven't even made one for Hubby yet, and I have him and his entire wardrobe available for measurement at all times.) I also wasn't prepared to take on something that daunting in secret. Instead I decided to keep it simple and I found the mitten pattern. Once the mittens were done, Hubby helped me hijack Hannah and we took her to M & J Trimmings to pick out her own button eyes. Unfortunately, I never got good pictures of these mittens in the sun light before Hannah took them with her to brave the Arkansan winter. You will just have to believe me that they are the color of a gray squirrel and aren't really brown at all.

Pattern: Give a Hoot by Jocelyn Tunney
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Worsted in Squirrel Heather

Needles: I'm sorry I forgot to write it down.
Notes: I can't tell you what needles I used, because all I am sure of is that I had to change needle sizes. I made the first mitten and when I tried it on, I was just not happy with how it fit me. My hand stretched the stitches out too much, and no matter what I tied together and stitched over, I couldn't seem to close up the gap at the thumb. So, for the second mitten I changed needle sizes and it fit beautifully.

I also learned something very important with this project. I need to make mitten thumbs longer. I have a pair of mittens never been quite happy with. The join at the thumb is full of gaping holes that I have tried to darn, sew, and knot shut with no luck. I haven't made myself a new set because my fingerless mitts are usually enough. While I was fretting over my wrong gauge for the first mitten, I showed it to a co-worker who use to own her own yarn store in Manhattan. She mentioned that I should make my thumb longer, and so I did. Now that the mittens had enough fabric to cover the full length of my thumb, the join didn't stretch out and there were no gaping holes.

This Bunny Needs A Name

As the baby making continues among my friends so does the baby knitting. I'd love to tell you what is on the needles now, but it is going to be a long time before I can say anything about it (take that as a hint...) Fortunately, I have a recent baby FO to share.

This bunny needs a name.

I started out calling him Elvis because that is what the parents to be were calling there son, but as soon as I finished the head, he had a distinct other-worldly look.

I started calling him Al the Alien Bunny, and it suited him right up until I finished his ears.

Now that he is finished though, it is unmistakable that he's a bunny and Al really isn't fitting anymore.

Pattern: Sophie by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Knit Picks Cotlin in Kohlarbi

Needles: US 2 (2.75 mm)
Notes: I wanted to make this bunny out of cotton because I wanted it to be super washable and stress-free for mom and dad to be, but Cotlin was a very unforgiving yarn to make a toy with. Right now, I am working with Comfy for another project, and it is a bit more understanding and much softer, so next time I make a toy for a new born, I think I'm going to try that.

Despite the troubles I had trying to convince this yarn to do what I wanted, I loved this pattern. Ysolda is brilliant and even though this is the first of her patterns that I've made, my queue is full of her creations. The pattern was easy to understand, and absolutely brilliant because there was no seaming to do at all. It starts with the head, and everything else is made by picking up stitches and knitting on (which I imagine is much easier if the yarn has just a little give).

The instructions warned that the ears were going to be difficult because they are folded in half at the attachment to the head (which makes them so completely adorable), but the section I had the most problem with was the beginning of the arms. I was working with DPNs and the head just kept getting in the way. Unfortunately, my frustration filled me with impatient determination and never stopped to take a picture of this section to show you the trouble. Despite that, I will be making this pattern again with some yarn that has a bit more give and drape.

FO: Philly Socks

My Philly Socks saw some neglect with the influx of baby knitting. They were put on the back burner for a couple of projects, and it didn't help that one fully completed sock had to be ripped out and restarted. I didn't mind though, because I am completely comfortable with toe-up socks now. So, just over three months since their beginning, I present to you, my finished socks:

Pattern: Knotty or Knice Socks from the Fall 2008 Interweave Knits
Yarn: Koigu Premium Merino (KPM)

Needles: US 1 (2.50 mm)
Notes: I love these socks. They are my second pair, and I couldn't be happier. They do remind me of my trip to Philly. I think the yarn and the pattern look great together, and they are so comfy. I didn't make any adjustments to the pattern at all. I do want to comment on the yarn. This was my first time to knit with Koigu. The yarn was great, but the color bleed all over my fingers while knitting. Since I knit these almost exclusively on the subway, I would show up at work every morning after about 20 minutes of knitting and my fingernails would be stained, and I would have an orange ring around my finger where I wrap my working yarn. The water was a bright orange after I soaked them, but the color of the socks hasn't faded at all. Hopefully it is just excess dye. I'll just have to see what my feet look like at the end of the day. Though, I'm kinda glad I didn't make a Philly Hat.