May is when my knitting slows

It's true! Every year, I think I'll beat it, but every year, my knitting slows down as soon as the days finally feel longer. I'm not sure if it's because I'm outside more or because I can't sit still when the sun finally shows. Whatever it is, the stitch 'n bitch group stops meeting, my production of knit goods slows and I start to garden. . . a little. There were a few babies and some teachers to appreciate.
I made some totes out of reclaimed and recycled material for Abby's pre-3 teachers. It's from a pattern in this book. Love them. Once I got the hang of it, I couldn't stop and ended up making two more for friends leaving Port Angeles.

I made two identical itty bitty hats from this book. I'm not sure who the second one is for, but the first was so cute, I had to do another! One skein of Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk dk did both hats in the infant size (color 26005).

I finished the amaizing hat and didn't end up liking the basic pattern I made. The hat didn't end up feeling soft enough either. I probably won't use that yarn again. Made up several little waterproof totes for babes. I like to use them for dirty cloth diapers in the diaper bag. They are also really great for swim suits, wet clothes etc. I made up the pattern, but based them on these bags by bummis. They are made out of some sort of outdoor balloon-like material that my mom got for me at Seattle Fabrics. I wish I could find the exact stuff again, or knew the exact name of it, because my stash is almost gone and it's a great gift that's easy to make.

Funny story: My mom and dad found an old bag of crazy knitting that my dad's step mother must have been working on in the 1950's. She had nearly finished one argyle sock and had the cuff and one pattern repeat of the argyle done on the second. They were still on the needles, in a bag with all of the yucky acrylic and wacky 1950's pattern. They are hideous. I finished one of them, modeled here by Tom. When I tried to get working on the second one, I kept getting lost in the pattern. Finally, after lots of stitch counting, I realized that Grandma Sue had screwed up the first sock and there was no way to make the second one match. That's probably why she threw up her hands 50 years ago! If they were wool and the least bit cute and didn't reek of cigarette smoke, I would have perservered, but, due to all of that and the 50 year old screw up, I chucked the whole bag in the thrift store pile. But, we have a picture of that one ugly, stinky, screwed-up sock.
Speaking of socks. . . I finally finished my pair. Basic Pattern with Patons Kroy Socks Jacquards in "Hip Hop" colorway. I'm getting less and less enamoured with the idea of knitting socks. Not only do you knit FOREVER to get one, you then have to try and repeat the same thing exactly for a matching set. AND, despite Stephanie's best advice, I can't get them to fit properly. These are too loose and scrunch down a la 1983. Ugh. Maybe I'll stick with sewing for a while. I found some cute vintage patterns for little summer dresses for Abby at a thrift store. I'm inspired daily by Amanda and hope to hit the sewing machine again soon (check out these picnic blankets! I love them). We're almost done getting my little sewing area set up out in the extra room attached to our garage. Right now, all of my fabric is in grocery sacks sort of spread out around the dirty, shop-like garage part of our garage. I'm looking forward to having a spot to spread out! Yay!

Socks and Hat

What a boring title. And, most likely a boring post.
I'm almost done with the leg of sock number two.














I started in on a baby hat made out of amaizing yarn in the Aiden colorway. It's made of corn. I don't think it tastes good though. I'm cheap and am knitting it with my old school grandma metal knitting needles. The stuff is so slippery that I'm just about ready to get some bamboo needles to keep from losing stitches. I probably won't. This way it'll take me longer to make and give me more to bitch about.

Puke, poop and pee aka "The PPP"

That's all I've been dealing with the last week. It's gross, I know, but it's the truth. Abby got the yucky sicky thing that's been going around. I thought we'd dodged it, but I was cocky and now it's kicking my butt too. On Thursday, I had already done 2 loads of poopy, pukey laundry and had already been through 3 outfits on Abby by 9am. That was just the beginning. Poor thing, she just stood there covered in vomit saying, "mama, I pooked, I pooked on my crib and feet!" She hasn't quite figured out how to make the long "U" sound in puke. I think we're through the worst of the releasing of disgusting bodily fluids. Now we've moved on to the I'm so cold and shivery and sweaty and achey I could die part. We rented Charolette's web this morning and are hoping for a long nap out of the little one.
Moving on! Oh, that pic up there is before the PPP.





I whipped up a little "Airy Scarf" from "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" for my friend Christine. I'm loving the color of it. It'll match her blue eyes! Yay. It took less than 1 skein of LLH Soft-Kid in color #63.



Also, last week, I made two more yoga mat bags. One for my friend, Heather, for her birthday, and one for me! So there! I made up the pattern. Really, it's just a rectangle of fabric serged on two sides, with a draw string at the top (I used twill tape to make the casing for the draw string. It looks neater and is easier to pull shut than a fabric casing). Then, I sewed on some webbing for a strap. I wanted to be able to sling it over one shoulder, or wear it across my chest with the bag on my back. Anyway, aside from trying to figure out how to attach the ladderlock buckle, they went together really easily. For a bag to hold a regular sized yoga mat and nothing else, I started with a piece of fabric 16"x 28". For my bag, which I put a few other things in, I used a piece that was about 20"x 30". Can you tell that I'm in love with the daffodils in my yard right now? So cute.






Anyway, a few people have requested a pic of my short hair cut. All I can say is that you'll have to wait until I'm not cleaning puke, poop or pee. It's cute, but not so cute when I'm dealing with this stuff. ugh. Instead, I'll show you this one of me finishing my second ever 5K race.


Oh, and I almost forgot about the tote bag I made for Meggan. My first lined tote bag and my first embroidery ever. It's made with linen cut off of the bottom of an ikea curtain that was too long, thrifted cotton lining and hand-me-down embroidery floss from my mom. It suits Meggan's earthy ways in that it's all recycled or reclaimed materials. It was fun too! I'll probably make more.




And, I'm still plugging away at those socks. I got close to finishing one and then realized that the foot was HUGE without continuing the ribbing I'd started on the cuff. I've torn back to the gusset to put the ribbing back in and might reduce down more for the foot. That's all for now.

Socks and toddler royalty!

I got sidetracked from my socks.

The novelty of a new project just takes hold of me and I can't help it.
Inspired by Amanda's really awesome crowns, I went out on a limb and made my own. Two little girl birthdays and a bag of thrifted felt got me moving. I even made Abby one. She likes it, but wants to wear it all hip hop. . .backwards and upside down ("down up side", as she says!).









Oh, and a slightly better photo of the slippers that she shall not wear. Ugh. My little backwards crown wearing, no slipper sporting princess.

And, as much as I love more light after dinner, I'm not down with the havoc it wrecks on sleeping schedules!

Death to Santa Smurf

I frogged him. He's gone. I'm considering not even knitting him back in, even with a grey background. I'm considering stripes. I'm considering just plain copying Laura's beautiful stocking. I'm kidding. . . kind of. Didn't someone somewhere say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? No, in all seriousness, I will not copy Laura's stocking. I will however, be inspired to simplify, simplify, simplify. I think a lot of my "dollar-store" and "red-heart" feeling about the stocking was because of the cheesy design I chose. It looks great in the book with other colors, but the combo of straight up Christmas colors and little santa faces is too much. I'm hazarding a guess that cool colors with the santa faces *or* plain christmas colors in a simple pattern may look a bit more sophisticated. So, I'm re-thinking the designs I'm putting in the stockings.
In more uplifting news: I finished my honest to goodness first sock. The little baby socks don't count. . . this is the real deal. Now I understand why so many knitters have single socks sitting in their knitting baskets begging for a partner. I loved doing the sock, but now I want to get back to the stockings. . . not so interested in making the lovely orange hued sock partner. I'll get to it. . .someday.
Thanks for the sweet comments. It makes me feel less alone out here. Great job to all of you other stocking along folks. .. yay stockings. Oh, and Katie, your belly is beautiful!

And, how can I not show you my sweet husband and daughter pretending to be asleep to "trick mama." They were pretend snoring too. Ya gotta love it!

Stocking Progress on Vacation

We vacationed. It was wonderful. I knit. I hate it. ARRRRHHGG.
In my knit-shop induced stupor. . . I just bought plain old Christmas colors. I am not a strong color person. I mean, I am not super creative with color combinations. It takes a lot of effort to try and do things in a fresh way (I also have a similar problem with needing everything to be symetrical. . .) Anyway, I am feeling like my color choices don't show off how pretty the yarn is. It's cascade 220 and it's wool and yummy. It looks, to me, like I made it with red heart. Now, there's nothing wrong with red heart. . .but I'd just buy red heart if I wanted it to look like that. So, now I'm frustrated because it looks a little "dollar store" to me and to top it off, Santa looks like Papa-freakin' smurf. . . really, can you tell me that he doesn't? Look at him!

The knitting was going along so smoothly. I'm liking the pattern. It's from this book. I'm doing the mix and match stockings with green, red, white, blue and a random purple color. Mostly I picked the colors because my LYS is going out of business and that's what was there. So, I can't even go trade the skeins I haven't wound yet. My best thought, at this point, is to frog the smurfy santas and use some heather/gray yarn I found at a thrift store (have I
mentioned that I'm an obsessive deal-finder?) that is very similar in weight and is wool like the cascade 220. I'll use the gray as the background for santa, so he doesn't have a blue or green or purple face (the only choices with my current colors). Any thoughts?

So, I put the stocking aside while on vacation. I happened upon an entire laundry basket full of knit picks sock yarn and knit one crochet too merino at a thrift store on the oregon coast for 99 cents a skein. Needless to say, I bought it all and immediately started knitting a tasty little sock. . .I love it.
Now, my momentum on the stockings is lagging, but my sock-lust is just beginning. I have some time. Does anyone have any thoughts on a pattern choice for stockings for a newbie knitter? I have a few in my stitch n' B that are wanting to start with stockings and I'm nervous for them (and for me. . . I'll be teaching them!).
Okay, I'll post more after the death of santa smurf.