29 posts tagged “knitting”
I'm not a fan of hot weather, especially not the humid variety of hot we get here in the Mid-Atlantic states. I usually don't do much crafting in the summer, but I guess I'm subconsciously (or maybe consciously) trying to will summer to be over by crafting my little heart out.
Because I don't have enough demands on my time, I thought, why not try my hand at making quilts? I bought a quilt kit from Jo-Ann Fabrics with an eye to making Little Mr. E a crib quilt, which I managed to finish in an afternoon. (I'd love to link to the kit I bought, but I can't seem to find it online... suffice it to say they do have them in the stores, they're not terribly expensive, and IMO they're a good option for those of us who are new to quilting and find fabric selection and complicated patterns daunting. Yes, I've made a suit among other very complex garments in the past. Yes, I still find new things daunting sometimes.) As soon as the older kids (and Mr. G) saw the quilt, I was inundated with demands requests for quilts of their own. This one here is Little R's quilt, done with the same pattern as the kit but different fabrics. I used a variety of ladybug prints (he's my nature lover, that one) as well as red minkee dot for the border (hate hate hate... so annoying to sew, though so nice in the finished product) and one solid lime green since the Jo-Ann I went to to select the fabric only had four ladybug prints and the pattern requires six fabrics in total. I also used batting in the middle of this one, which I didn't for Little Mr. E's. I'm unsure of whether I love the batting or not, but Little R seems happy with it.
Next in line is Muscari from Knitty's Summer 2008 (what do you call it, a volume? edition?)... well, from the summer 2008 Knitty. I've had this KPPPM lying around since Mr. G, the older two boys, and I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in 2006, just waiting for the perfect sock pattern to come along. I think I've found it. Further bulletins as events warrant.
...Hence this blanket. Every baby needs a knitted blanket, right? And even if my youngest son doesn't actually need a blanket, surely he'll like to have one. I'm knitting this out of naturallycaron.com Spa, which is a bamboo and synthetic blend. I'm not sure I'd use it for a garment (but then I am very picky about what I will wear) but for a blanket it seems ideal -- soft, smooth, with good elasticity and nice drape. The stitch definition is good, too. I don't think I ever realized how very easy feather-and-fan is... this is just feather-and-fan repeated 10 times across 180 stitches for a stitch pattern width of 18 stitches. It's easy enough that I have it memorized but not so easy that it's dull (unlike some seas of stockinette we know... ahem.)
The cat is knit in many separate pieces, and as mentioned above, the pieces are lightly felted prior to assembling the cat. I think I'm a somewhat intermediate knitter, and I hate mattress stitch, so I would have preferred the fiddliness of picking up stitches on the body and knitting on the various pieces, but that's just a personal preference and not a complaint with the pattern itself.
This is my first experience with a pattern from Mochimochi Land, though I'm certain I'll be back for more. I found it very easy not only to understand and follow the pattern, but I found it easy to make my cat turn out similar enough to the ones in the pattern pictures. That's always a bummer when you put time into something that looks adorable in the pattern picture and then turns out to look nothing like that when you make it. No worries about that here.
Progress has been slow but steady on Mr. G's sweater. It's a sea of stockinette for the most part, which makes for good TV knitting, but at the same time it's dead boring to knit. I'm at about inch 8 from the hem and I need to go another 10 inches before I get to do anything interesting... yawn. Well, at this rate, at least he is likely to have it for next winter, though certainly not before!
And since I'm bored with this project, I'm looking forward to see what my next project is going to be. I'd love love love to make Marjorie for myself, but it seems to take DK weight yarn and I'm having a lot of trouble finding a cotton/synthetic blend in a DK weight at an affordable price (as in, less than $100 for about 1600 yards.) I want cotton because I want to make a summer sweater and it needs to have some synthetic in it for drape. I've made 100% cotton sweaters before (mercerized and not) and I don't care for the drape of cotton without a little bit of synthetic in there. So, anyone who has any wisdom on this topic, I'm all ears. :)
In the meantime, I think I'll try Sheldon since it seems that Mr. G and the kids each want one, and it looks like a quick and easy little knit. I've bought a bunch of big box store acrylic so it's just a matter of printing the pattern and getting started.
Emma's Unmentionables: Eh. I'm not a huge fan of bloomers for little girls over a year old or so.
Charm Shrug: Again, eh. I have a body type on which shrugs are insanely unflattering, so I'm pretty over shrugs in general.
Juju: I do not understand knitted pants, even for babies.
Jaden: Too fussy, and I also don't care for sweaters that are partially lace. Either commit or don't.
Nob Hill: Looks great on the super skinny model. Would look terrible on me.
Marjorie: Love, love, love. This is just gorgeous.
Talia: You know how I don't like shrugs? I don't like vests either.
Yosemite: Nice enough, but would look terrible on me. I also don't like cap sleeves.
Honeycomb: It's a vest, enough said.
Lace ribbon: Pretty, but IMO too much effort for a scarf. I think it'll be the next Clapotis.
Laminaria: Also pretty, and something I would definitely consider making. I have a ball of Jaggerspun Zephyr lying around; I wonder if one ball would be enough...
Mosey: I also don't like legwarmers.
Paw cozy: I have a colleague who has dogs and I'm tempted to make her two. What an ingenious idea.
Salto: Pretty, and unique-looking. I would definitely consider making them, though I think I'd need to go yarn shopping as most if not all of my sock yarns are variegated and I think the awesome cables in this would get lost in a variegated yarn.
Posey: I love the effect of the mitered squares, but suspect they may be more work than socks are worth.
American in China: I know a lot of people find these unattractive, but I think they are wonderful. I'm tempted to make all of Mr. G's socks with this pattern in the future since he tends to wear holes in his handknit socks and I'm no good at darning. I'm all for making functional things sturdy!
Brighton: I wanted to like this, but honestly, eh.
Spirogyra: These are very Pomatomus, I think. I'm not the worlds biggest fan of fingerless mitts, either.
...and cast on for the Cobblestone Pullover. Here is the Ravelry link if you're interested, though honestly it doesn't look like much right now. I'm finding that ~250 stitches of stockinette and garter stitches make for good TV knitting, but it certainly goes slowly enough. I suppose it would go more quickly if I'd just suck it up and buy a set of Addi Turbos in the size I need, but when I already have the Denises, which are perfectly adequate, it's hard to make myself spend the money.
Winter must be knitting time for me. Not only have I finished hats for the older boys, socks and mittens for the baby, and socks for Mr. G, but I'm in the home stretch on Little R's yellow sweater.
So... what to do next? I have some Zitron Loft Color for a Cobblestone Sweater for Mr. G and a kit for an Alligator Scarf for him as well. And I also just grabbed some Silk Garden for a blanket for Little Mr. E.
Which to start, which to start...
I've been checking out other people on Ravelry and they've all got 100+ projects listed... I'm at twelve. Sad. :) I suppose I'd be closer to about twenty if I'd really put everything I've knit, but honestly, how interesting are plain hats and baby mittens? Not very.
I did finish E's socks. They were a fun little knit, and just what I was looking for. Unfortunately, the color choice I made was somewhat impractical as they match nothing he owns, so they're doing a lot of sitting around, and not on his feet. I also made him a set of very simple little no-scratch mitts out of some off-white Cotton-Ease I had left over from his sweater; they are the same basic idea as cuff-down socks, just with no heel. If only he'd stop yanking them off his hands...
Right now I'm making a basic hat for Mr. Wee similar to the one I made for Little R, and then... I'm not sure what I'll start then. Mr. G is angling for a knit Dalek, so maybe that? I'm not confident in my colorwork abilities, though. I don't know. All I know is that my effort to finish up a lot of the unfinished stuff I had lying around was maybe too successful, since I don't know what to do now!
But here I am nonetheless, making arguably less than ideal use of my time during a vacation day, but it is what it is. I should be cleaning the house, or packing... especially packing since we leave for Disneyworld in seventeen hours or so, but I can't seem to be bothered to do that quite yet.
It has been forever since I've updated, mostly due to this little guy over here on the right. Little Mr. E was born on 06 September 2007. I think I forgot how little time one gets to herself when a newborn (especially a nursling) is in the
While sewing is out the window right now (too much to set up, not kid friendly once it's set up, plus it's not really something that I can handle being interrupted at) I have been knitting up a storm. Mostly small items, but that's fine -- I've finished several and that's made me feel all accomplished.
I made this hat here on the left for Little R. He's my "hat kid", he loves hats of all shapes and sizes. Mr. G picked up the yarn (Patons Shetland Chunky... certainly not my first choice but then I wasn't there) on clearance at Michael's and Little R asked me if I'd make him a hat with it. Who am I to say no? I didn't follow any particular pattern, just cast on the amount I thought I'd need at the brim and worked my way up, doing evenly spaced decreases every other row when I thought the hat was big enough. It's definitely a close-fitting cap and I'll be lucky if he gets the remainder of the winter out of it, but eh... it took me like five hours to knit and the yarn was all of a dollar. If he gets a few wears out of it, it's all good.
Been a few months, hasn't it? I'd love to say that I've been doing a ton of knitting and sewing, but well, I just haven't. Those who are on my LJ friendslist know why... I've been working on a rather important and time-consuming WIP that I anticipate having done in early September. (The 6th, to be precise.)
In the last few months, I've been making my way back to sewing, though, and more recently to knitting. I've made a few sets of footed pajamas for Little R using this pattern and some boxers for Mr. Wee and Mr. G using this one (well, for Mr. G I used the adult pattern, but it's the same as the kids' pattern save for the sizing.) I'm making a pair of socks for Mr. G to replace the last pair, which he wore straight through, and a sweater for the baby (ok, to be fair, I haven't actually started the baby's sweater, but I have the pattern, the yarn, and the needles, so I have done everything but start!)
I've also joined Ravelry in the last couple of days and am mrsg there just as I am here. I'm about the least interesting knit/craft blogger out there and I don't have nearly half the output of most people on there, but it seems like a fun toy at the very least. And that's about it here (though I think it's probably enough...)
