Wacky Baby Knits --FINALLY!!

I loved Wacky Baby Knits by Alison Jenkins as soon as I saw it on Amazon.

The frog suit really caught my attention and I knew I would make it. I just didn't know that I would make it in 2 weeks and then take 2 months to finish it.

But then October came and I finally sewed all the buttons on this outfit. It took me a while to find 17 matching buttons I liked that didn't cost a zillion dollars. Then the thought of sewing on seventeen buttons was overwhelming and I just ignored. But now it's done in time for Halloween and winter wearing and I love it.

I only wish I could have gotten a detail shot of the hood. Ciaran was not cooperating. It definitely looks like an alligator, not a frog, but I still think it's adorable.

Here's the picture of the suit from the book. See? It's not that I made it wrong. It looks like an alligator. It's the nostrils.

Detail of bobble sleeve.

Knitting a Kiss in Every Stitch by Nicky Epstein

One of Beckett's friends and preschool buddies had a birthday party. When we got the invitation I knew what part of the present had to be. In fact, this hat was one of the reasons I bought Knitting a Kiss in Every Stitch.

The small cars were kind of difficult to find. Thankfully we found some at Target in the party favors section.

I think when I make this hat again, and I will make it again, I will do two things differently. I will knit it in the round. It's simple stockinette stitch so even I should be able to convert the pattern. Next I will knit the road into the pattern as a stripe. It was really annoying to knit it separately and then take the time to sew it on. Because it's stockinette stitch it rolled like crazy and was hard to keep it the same width all the way around.

Beckett's "Will you knit me a hat for winter?" hat

Beckett spontaneously asked me to knit a hat for him. I did steer him to a hat book that had pictures of kids and adults so he'd pick one of the kid hats that I wanted him to pick, but he picked on his own from there. Then I had to direct him a little more because he wanted me to use some of the scratchiest acrylic on the planet to make it. We settled on a less scratchy acrylic and used Lion Suede. It worked out much better then when I used it for the disastrous jacket.

Thanks to this I can cross off Knit a Dozen Beanies by Edie Eckman.

Fingerless Mitts

I'm starting the Christmas knitting...

These come from my Knitting Pattern a Day 2010 Calendar. So now I've completed it twice while other books languish. Oh well. At least this pattern helped my use up this one skein of Lion Microspun in Cherry Red that I've had for years. It's nice and soft and it made two full pairs.

Vogue Knitting on the Go! Quick Gifts by Trisha Malcolm

I knit the Fingerless Gloves for my mom. She wanted them a little longer than the pattern called for. Due to arthritis she wanted them to cover her second knuckle to insulate and soothe them. This was kind of the practice pair so I experimented with length. On one hand I knit 4 extra rows on every finger. This seemed a bit much. On the next hand I knit 2 extra rounds on the pinky, 4 extra rounds on the ring finger, 5 extra rounds on the middle finger, 4 extra rounds on the pointer finger, and three extra rounds on the thumb. I stuck with the slip stitch pattern although I only knit them in one color. You can see a subtle pattern though.At some point in time I'll need to weave in all those ends. It's a depressing prospect.

Hip Knit Hats by Cathy Carron

Hip Knit Hats: 40 Fabulous Designs by Cathy Carron mostly lives up to its name. There are few hats that could not be called "hip" in any decade, even ones when that term was relevant, cutting edge slang. However, there are plenty of wearable and even cute hats.

I made "Beth" which I would wear, well, with slight modifications. First of all, I made the adult women's medium size. I never thought I had a giant head, but this hat fits Beckett perfectly and I can barely get it on.

The dark green is a fairly accurate representation of the color.

The fit issues don't really bother me because I think the top knot is mostly ridiculous. I would make and wear this hat but sans giant bulbous, bobbly, knot. However, for Beckett I think it's cute. I'd heard this hat ran small so mostly I was making it for him anyway. I may go back and actually make a grown up size for me. It knit up very fast with bulky yarn.

The pattern looks minorly complicated with its twisting look, but it's simply alternating blocks of knit and purl stitch shifted one stitch every two rounds. It's quite clever and makes an interesting pattern. I've seen variations where you knit with one color and purl with another. I may try that.

Rhinebeck Shrug

Rhinebeck is coming. I must be the only person who knits in NYS who didn't know anything about it. I could have gone last year but I didn't even know it existed. Well this year I know and I'm excited. I've already signed up for a workshop. Since I know I'm going I decided I'd make myself something to wear. I whipped up this little shrug. It's from the Knitting Pattern a Day 2010 Calendar.

Hopefully I'll get a picture of me wearing it soon. I'm trying to decide if I should add a button or hook and eye or some type of closure.

Color is somewhere between these two photos.

Sleeve detail

Aunt Pearl's Unfinished Baby Sweater

I need to post this so the picture is hosted online so I can put it on Ravelry where I will then beg more experienced knitters to help me finish it. Whew.

Hats, Mittens and Scarves

I received this lovely little box of patterns a couple of years ago. In the best book club ever we always did a secret Santa draw. One year my friend Jill (of Homemade by Jill, oooooh) gave me this great set of patterns.

I made the Alpine Cable Scarf. It's basically one giant cable. The yarn I used is not my favorite. (A yucky little acrylic), but the pattern called for a SUPER bulky yarn and I didn't have much that fit the bill in my stash. I didn't have time to shop since I had to do this in a rush as a gift for someone. The Red Heart Light and Lofty has a very bumpy almost boucle texture and it really muddied the overall pattern. I would absolutely make this pattern again but NEVER with this yarn.

This is what it's supposed to look like. Depressingly dissimilar.

Knitted Critters For Kids To Wear by Jean Adel

I loved this book from the moment I first saw it. The basic hat pattern from which all the variations are made is so easy and fast. It can absolutely be knit up in a couple of hours. The variations truly are unique and different. Sometimes in books like this they claim to have 40 patterns and when you look it's more like 10. However, all the hats look very different with their embellishments and often have various knitted pieces to complement the animal so they are different. I only made the hat I didn't complete the coordinating scarf and mittens which accompany each animal hat.

I do wish I had stiffened the fins with cardboard or something. I have a floppy fin problem that no amount of sturdy sewing is fixing.

I used safety eyes on it and their pegs are kind of long. They bump into Beckett's head and kind of distort the fabric. I'm going to try and chop them off with wire cutters or something.

Here is my gracious model. I swear he said he liked the hat.

I'm Back!

After a long and lovely trip to Utah to visit the fam I am back in New York and attempting to get life back together. While I was in Utah I did lots of knitting and almost completely finished a project from Wacky Baby Knits. I now need to find 17 buttons to finish it off. Surprisingly, that is taking a long time. It would probably help if I took the outfit with me when I was looking for buttons.

One good reason to be back is that I was in time to catch the going out of business sale of the local yarn/quilt store. I managed to score this haul for $18! Those two sets of dpn's would cost more than that.

While in Utah I also ran into Joann's clearance for the yarns that were being discontinued. Thank goodness my husband packed light and brought a big suitcase. I just barely managed to get it all home.

Dishcloths Down

I needed to use up the rest of my cotton yarn after Beckett's washcloths so I made a dishcloth for me. Chris even agreed to participate by randomly selecting the pattern I would knit from Leisure Arts #3122 Nifty Knit Dishcloths. He chose "stacked barrels". I don't know what I'm going to do if I keep knitting from all my easy books. I won't have anything to break the tension from large projects in the months to come. Oh well, it's done now.