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Posted on 01/26/2010 by Barb
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A year old already. The time has just flown by, and yet I can’t imagine a time without her.
For her birthday I made her the “You Kiss a Hundred Frogs Purse” designed by Laura Rintala (on Ravelry) and published in Interweave Knits, Holiday Gifts 2009. What a fun project!
The pattern calls for Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted but I used Cascade 220 and it worked just fine. I decided to use Cascade 220 because I had leftover colors from Eva's Christmas stocking, and thought it would be safest to use all the same yarn since it was going to be felted.
While I was knitting it I thought, “huh, I don’t get it … how’s that going to work, shouldn’t that be attached to something … oh, angsty, angsty!” But I followed the pattern in spite of my doubts, and tossed in the washing machine with my fingers crossed. It felted in no time, and like magic it turned into a … a frog!
With a kiss, will it turn into a handsome prince? Now that would be magic!
Posted on 01/24/2010 by Barb
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I needed a little something for a colleague's little one, expected early February, shower last week, gender unknown.
This took two sittings to complete, no big deal. But I think it's kinda cute.
Posted on 10/07/2009 by Barb
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(That's a touch of local dialect ... and a very cute baby.)
This Whirligig Shrug is so cute. If you make it, you can very easily use the basics of the pattern to improvise a little matching hat.
I made the shrug using Merino 5 Superwash by Crystal Palace Yarns. I bought three 50-gram skeins (110 yds/skein) and had most of one left over so I was able to just use that. I used the same size needles I used for the shrug. And I chose to approach it as a top-down construction so the U-cable for the hatband wouldn’t be upside-down compared to the waistband of the shrug.
I started by casting on 7 stitches in a circle. (Tip: After a round or two you’ll want to place stitch markers to divide the piece into 7 sections. Then make your increases in the stitch before (or after) each stitch marker. Just be consistent in where you add them.) Working in stockinette stitch, I added 7 stitches per round until I had 28 stitches. Then I added 7 stitches every other round until I had 77 stitches. I worked those 77 in stockinette stitch to the length I wanted (about 3-1/2 to 4"). (I cook that way, too: "Oh, I don't know ... you just wanna add 'some'.")
Just before starting the U-cable section, I added 3 additional stitches to bring the count to 80. You bring the stitch count to 80 because you need multiples of 8 to duplicate in the hatband the U-cable stitch pattern of the shrug.
After finishing the U-cable “band”, I made a ruffly brim by adding stitches in the same manner as they were added to form the ruffle of the shrug. The brim is maybe 8 rows of seed stitch.
Voila! That’s all there is to it.
Posted on 05/08/2009 by Barb
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Well, I finally got the pattern for Eva’s Hat posted in our DIY section... and it’s also available through Ravelry. Here's Andrea, taking Eva for a walk, and baby's wearing the hat! (Don’t you just love it when you make things and they actually get used?)
And just as exciting … I have a Bella Lana gift certificate and used it to score some blocking wires. (How exciting is THAT?) I’m just finishing the circular shawl and am so excited to use for-real blocking wires to block it. I hear they're the real deal. I’ve always just used a b-jillion pins and patience, patience, patience, so this should be a real treat.
I’ll report back on how the blocking goes!
Posted on 04/04/2009 by Andrea
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I miss knitting. I don't get that many chances to knit these days, what with the whole baby thing and all. Especially now that I've gone back to work. I used to be able to take Eva out to a coffee shop during her nap time and the stroller would work its magic and put her into a deep sleep, and I would knit. Not these days; the world is far too fascinating a place for miss Eva!
Eva gives with one hand and takes away with the other, however. She's now moved her bedtime back from 10pm to 8pm, so I suddenly have some time in the evening! And I managed to sneak away from the house today and get to my knitting group. The result of all this? A Finished Object!
This is my version of Eva's hat. I made the large size, which was the only size my mom hadn't made. Now that we've made all the sizes, the pattern is almost ready to go up in our DIY section. We just need to make a couple of tweaks and then it'll be up. Hooray!
Posted on 03/24/2009 by Barb
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Thank you, Andrea, for the photo of Eva ...
She's just too cute for words!
Posted on 03/23/2009 by Barb
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... but for now you'll just have to take my word for it. I don’t have a picture of Eva wearing her little mint green hat but, trust me, she looks really cute in it … like a little elf. It fits her just right, right now, at 3 months, so I think she might get a few weeks of wear out of it!
Now I’ve moved on to other projects. I’m back working on the "White Shawl" project at home … that project takes a little concentration. And I also just started a pair of toe-up socks, these being an easy, portable project to keep myself occupied while I sit and wait through my husband’s chemo treatments. Four to go.
I saw Coraline Saturday. Loved it ... I thought it was a little scary, but when you stop and think about it, a lot of children's stories are pretty darned scary!
Posted on 03/14/2009 by Barb
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I have the hats finished but no babe. So here they are, being modeled by a balloon, balanced on top of a ceramic vase.
Sometimes you just have to make due with found objects! Stay tuned. Andrea is knitting the hat in size large, I’m knitting it in size small, and if all is well with the pattern, you will be able to download it from our DIY section or through Ravelry.
Posted on 03/12/2009 by Barb
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Remember that project? Well, I ripped it back and now it's finished and big enough. I'll post up a photo when I have a baby to put it on! I'm reknitting it now in a creamy white to proof the pattern.
Posted on 02/24/2009 by Barb
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Babies!, Knitting, Stash
I had a skein of Lorna’s Lace Tickled Pink fingering weight in my stash, and decided to make a little spring hat for Eva. No pattern of course, just making it up as I go. (Yep, because I’m just so very good at that ….)
“So just how big is a 6-month-old’s head,” I wondered, well into the project.
Dunno. So I googled it and found a helpful (I say “helpful” somewhat wryly since it’s now after the fact …) guide to sizing.
According to that, her head will be around 16-17 inches in circumference at six months, and require a hat height of about 6.5-7 inches. Height’s not a problem, at least not yet … but circumference …
… as you can see (and I can no longer be in denial about this), it’s going to be too small for her by the time the weather is warm enough here in Minnesota to do much strolling. Hrrumpf!
I’m thinking out loud here … if I tear this back to the eyelet row and decrease the number of stitches to half instead of a third for the crown, it should (hopefully) still have enough fullness around the scalloped edge for a little bit of a girly flared brim. Might be too big then, but if so, it could easily be tightened up by threading a ribbon through the eyelets. We’ll go with that for now and see what happens.
Oh, the suspense, the adventure …
(Gosh, if this is really my idea of high drama, I do need to get a life!)
