FOs in Action!

Baby booties in action!  (via DP)
Well, as close to action as a 21-days old baby can get.

DP kindly posted a photo of his sweet girl, MMP, wearing the baby booties I made for her right after she was born.  So, I was working on the second bootie in the lunchroom at work and one of the ladies asked if I was selling them.  I shook my head apologetically and said no.  As much as I love knitting as my primary hobby once it turns, for lack of a better word, job-y my focus starts heading downhill.  Hobbies satisfy a a personal interest that is totally under your own control; not a time limit or a requirement, or a dollar amount or use value--it's always about what ever satisfaction you get from it.


My nephew playing with his Little Teddy Bear. (via LM)

My sister sent me some photos of my nephew playing with the Little Bear I gave him when they visited in February.  According to the email, he put it in his shoe and began driving him around eventually parking him in the laundry basket.  As you can see, I did knit a sweater for the Bear. On a side note, I love his fatty baby hands.

This to That

Remember Longina/Trigoria?  It was a hybrid of the Trina Cardigan and another pattern written after a sweater that Eva Longoria was photographed wearing in, like, 2008.  Well, I was really close to being done. REALLY close.  The sleeves were still live but everything else had been bound off or woven in and I had a nice wooden button ready.  I'd even gone as far as washing and blocking just to see how much the yarn blossomed.  But that was it.  While it did satisfy what I'd originally planned for and desired as a knitting project way back when, the physical result just did not hit the mark.  The pockets weren't as deep as I would have liked, the sleeves weren't quite long enough, the collar was itchy and didn't stand up too well, and I felt it was overall too baggy and schleppy and very much something you would throw on to take out the trash. 

It was last September that I sent the cardi to the frog pond.  I pulled out my SUPER AMAZING YARNBALL WINDER and started cranking.  It was a lot of yarn; I mean, I was cranking that handle for daaaays.  Since I started with a basic raglan, I frogged up to the armpits and went with simple cap sleeves.  With the left and right bands, I made a neckline placket (which is now oh so slightly off-centered now, but I have plans), then knit so many inches of plain stockinette plus waist shaping, and closed it out with an easy 1x1 bottom rib.  The neck stitches were picked up for a squat foldover collar a la mock turtleneckish-bateau.  The collar was tacked down by crochet over sewn-in method, and then I made some loops down the neckline placket which is ready for some buttons.

I'm quite pleased with it now.  It's feels much better, it has an actual shape and a bit of visual interest. I was really hoping to have enough yarn for a sweater tunic with two flat front pockets, alas it was not destined to be.

After a nice soak to straighten out those frog wrinkles, we're now on the second day of drying.  With this dreary gray weather I'm banking around some time next weekend for it to be totally dry.  Do you know what that means?  I can't try it on and fudge and fidget. It's just going to lay there atop the towel and drying board mocking me.

I did discover something funny last night.
 

The last two inches of the sweater is from a different dye lot because there is a very clear demarcation of two different blacks.  I'm glad it's at the bottom. 

Oh Baby!

These are for MMP who was born just 2 weeks ago.

Oh, Baby! Baby Booties pattern from Empty Knitster
Takumi #3/3.25mm
BMFA STR Medium in "Jewel of the Nile"

Free Pattern: Bender

Bender is started at the tip of his antenna and worked down to his body.  His face, arms and legs are made separately and sewn on after. He was heavily improvised as I went along because that's just how I roll so if you're a seasoned knitter and comfortable with small diameter knits, you shouldn't have too much of a problem. The reason I say this is because I didn't keep track of specific stitch counts unless they are specified in the pattern. Also, this is my first written pattern, and I use "written" extremely loosely as you'll see when you read through the pattern.






YOUR TOOLBOX
Set of 5 US3/3.25mm DPNS 
Sts markers to mark the beg of rnds
Blunt embroidery needle to weave in ends
Stuffing
Gray yarn for body
Yellow yarn for eyes and mouth
Bits of black yarn for pupils
Sewing needle
Matching gray thread
Crochet hook (to pick up sts)

THINGS YOU SHOULD BE COMFORTABLE WITH OR GOOGLE BEFOREHAND
inc
dec
m1
i-cord
cable cast on
knitting in the round
picking up stitches
making a bobble
sewing with a blunt embroidery needle and a sewing needle
small diameter knitting

HEAD
With gray yarn, CO 4-sts and begin i-cord for four rounds
Purl two rounds
Inc 1 in every stitch for top of head
Knit to mouth
BO 8-sts for top lip
Knit back and forth for two rows
Starting on RS, cable CO 8-sts for lower lip and join back in the round
Continue knitting in the round for four rnds
BO loosely
DO NOT break yarn

BODY
With same gray yarn still attached to his head, pick up stitches for body
K one rnd
Inc 1 in every other stitch
Knit two rnds
Inc 4-sts evenly around
Knit body until it's the same size as his head
Purl one rnd
Start decreasing evenly for the flat base of his shiny metal ass
Close up the hole
Break yarn

MOUTH
His mouth is basically a 9 sts/5 row rectangle with yellow yarn that I sewed into his face with matching gray thread.  You can knit it into place via intarsia or fair isle method but I wanted his mouth to be dimensional. Also, if you choose the sewn in route, you'll want to knit this BEFORE you close up his body so you can sew it in without having to make any crazy dexterous maneuvers.

ARMS & LEGS (2 of each )
With gray yarn, starting at the base of his foot CO 3
Inc one st on each end until 7 sts
Dec back to 3 sts
Pick up stitches all the way around the base
Starting in the round, knit two rounds
Dec for however many rnds required until you have 5 or 6 sts left (it took me two rounds, dec every sts)
Begin 5 or 6-sts i-cord as same length as body
Break a tail of yarn enough to run yarn through the leftover sts and sew top of leg to the base of body

EYES & EYE CASING
For his Eyes, with yellow yarn, knit a 12 sts/5 row rectangle and sew in or knit in the small amount of black yarn to make his pupils.  As you sew his eyes to his face, take a bit of stuffing to make his eyes dimensional.

For his Eye Casing, with gray yarn, cast on 30 sts and knit 2 rounds, BO.  Sew the casing around his Eyes.

STOMACH DOOR
With gray yarn, CO 12
Knit back and forth for 4 rows
K3, make bobble, knit remaining sts
Knit for 4 rows
BO and leave a long tail
Sew door to stomach with the long tail

Please note that I chose not to stripe his arms and legs to simulate the sections of metal plates that make his limbs because I didn't like the VVVVVV looking stripe as is typical with single rows. I used only one shade of gray yarn throughout because this Bender is only 11 inches tall and I felt that less is more.  But, you know, feel free to stripe if you please.  Hey, feel free to modify this pattern as you go along... just don't be a jerk and claim it as your own or do something jerk-y.

Done and Done

LOOK WHAT I DID!

Last night, I debated on adding another section of color but I don't have any more baby pastels or anything else that is also machine washable so I went ahead with the final scalloped/shell edging using up those odd remaining strands. You can see the places where I ran out before I made it to the end of the round, but that's what made this the BEST stashbuster project ever.

I would definitely do this again. Just like knitting, sewing or any other sort of creative hobby, it's the best way (at least for me) to relax. With granny squares, you can make them as big or as little as you want. There isn't much to think about. It was surprisingly portable even as it grew to blanketing proportions and I took it with me to the park once. I simply stuck a bobby pin through the loop, rolled up the whole thing with the yarn inside, and tossed the hook in my bag. And anytime I needed to pause to do something, or if I pulled a a few chains out by accident, there was always only ONE stitch to look for.

If I was going to make a gift next time, I'd use the correct hook size and matching yarn weights. Since the green and purple blanket was a stashbuster I didn't really care what it looked like. I only own three hooks which were shared between my mom and grandma and now me: a 1mm which was too tiny; the one I used, the 3.75mm/F; or the gargantuan 9mm/N. As you can tell in the pictures, the white center which was a worsted/heavy worsted tends to skews a little bit and is also slightly stiffer, while the purple sport flares out more and is more drapey.

I loved the making the scalloped edging. I used the pattern from Woolcrafting and as helpful as it was I'm a visual learner so a quick Flickr search later, I found IamSusie's photo of her granny square coasters and improvised a pattern:

*5 dc in the first loop, ch 1, sc in the next loop, ch 1*

My corners got kind of sketchy because I didn't do the math at all. I had an uneven number of loops so only two of my corners have the 5 dc scallop, the other two are only sc.

For corners: (when I got to them) end on sc, ch 1, 7 dc in the corner, ch 1, continue as normal.

Sweater Goodness

Here's a detail shot of a completed a sweater that I had not really planned on knitting. It's a hybrid of Mr Greenjeans and KSD's leaf tee, and took a total of 10 days from start to finish.  This is in its finished, bumpy, and unblocked glory. I would have been done much, much sooner but because I can't follow directions I had to frog about 7 inches of the thing. Painful. After that, I said, "forget sleeves, you're gonna be a vest."

- Seamless top-down construction following Mr Greenjeans' CO and raglan shaping, joined at the center and then followed KSD's lace panel.
- Waist shaping at sides versus front/back darts.
-1x1 rib hems
- 3 balls Patons Classic Merino in Dark Grey Mix
- Denise #8US