Recently in Knitting Category
Posted on 09/16/2008 by Barb
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DIY, Free Patterns, Knitting
Well, I've finally finished the pattern for the vintage holiday stocking I first worked on back in March, then declared as a project for the Ravelympics and failed to complete at that time.
I said I'd share the pattern when I was finished, so here it is! There's a nip in the air, not too early to think about those Christmas projects.
When I'm sitting at the hospital over the next few days, I'll be working on the Leo ...
Who knows? Maybe it will be done by Christmas ... maybe not.
Posted on 09/10/2008 by Andrea
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Babies!, Knitting
Here's my Sideways Sockyarn Baby Sweater, halfway finished! The baby is about at the halfway point too.
, originally uploaded by AMK.
The other day, I'd just gotten to the part of the pattern that says, "For boys, work the button hole row as detailed below. For girls, the button holes will go on the right side", but I didn't know if I was having a boy or a girl. Well, after an ultrasound yesterday, now I know! The buttonhole goes on the right side....
We're having a GIRL!
The astute among you might notice this baby sweater looks a bit different than it did when I first posted it. I blame it on pregnancy brain, but I got my stitch counts all wrong somehow (still don't know how) so I ended up pulling the entire thing out and starting over with the yarn I dyed a couple of weeks ago.
I'm loving pregnancy right now. Getting used to the idea that we're having a girl... feeling physically good... feeling her kicking like crazy in there. Once I'm done with this sweater, I have lots of ideas for more baby knits. I have patterns ready for a few more gender-neutral sweaters. Now that I know we're having a girl, here are a couple of more girly possibilities that I love:
- Peapod Baby Set (boo hoo... I love this pattern but it looks like Interweave Knits no longer has it available online. I hope they post it on Knitting Daily someday...)
- Helena (from Knitty)
And someday when the Muppet is bigger, I'd love to knit Reid for her.
Posted on 08/26/2008 by Andrea
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Knitting
I've been thinking about stress relief lately, and about methods of coping. I asked my chiropractor if her adjustments could possibly have caused my right eyelid to begin twitching. It started twitching a couple of weeks ago, around the time I started seeing a chiropractor. She allowed that it's possible the adjustments could have something to do with it, but that eye twitches are more often caused by stress.
Stress? Impossible! I'm 19 weeks pregnant and more than one person has told me I've got that glow. I'm starting to feel the little bugger moving around in there and it's one of the most amazing experiences of my life so far. I was telling a friend on Saturday that maybe it's the pregnancy hormones, or maybe I'm just in a good place in life, but I've never been happier than I have been lately.
Still, I have to admit it's possible to be happy and under stress at the same time. There's a lot to do between now and January and I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed with it. My bathroom is half painted (and the half that's painted, I painted it so badly it's almost funny). The future baby's room is packed with non-baby-related junk almost to the point where you can't walk across the room.
But I take a deep breath and instead of painting or moving stuff out of that room, what do I do?
I knit.
I'm knitting the Sideways Sockyarn Baby Sweater. I don't have a photo of it in process (beyond the one I posted earlier), but Flickr user Spinnity has a photo of one that's at the same stage mine is currently at. And check out her lovely finished version.
Knitting is a wonderful stress relief as I'm sure anyone who knits would agree. I know there will be many more stressful moments in the next few months -- both baby-related and not baby-related -- and it's a comfort to me that I have something I know will keep my hands and my mind busy. Hopefully not to the exclusion of real preparation for the baby, but enough to keep me on the sane side.
I hope everyone has something like knitting in their lives. If not knitting, then reading or exercise or something. Something meditative and sane-making.
Posted on 08/25/2008 by Barb
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Babies!, Knitting, Ravelympics 2008
… and I hope getting your new Bump Sweater makes you feel like you’re the winner even though you had that setback on your project.
Yes, folks, I made it to the finished line in the Ravelympics Sweater Sprint for Team MN. I bound off the last piece of the Bump Sweater on the plane home from New Jersey on Thursday, August 21st, soaked and blocked the pieces Thursday night. By Saturday morning, August 23rd, it was dry and ready for seaming. So, yea for me, I finished the Sweater Sprint!
A great quick project and I hope you love it, Andrea!
Posted on 08/22/2008 by Barb
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Knitting, Ravelympics 2008
... I'm breathing fast and my muscles ache as the Ravelympics finish line approaches! I cast off the last sleeve of the Bump Sweater on the plane last night so all the pieces are done and as I write this, they're blocked and drying in preparation for finishing the seaming. I'm still thinking I might get the Holiday Stocking done, too, but that will be tough. More later! Gasp, wheeze ....
Posted on 08/15/2008 by Barb
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Babies!, Dyeing, Knitting, Ravelympics 2008
I have set the Holiday Stocking project aside for now and am just concentrating on the Sweater Sprint – the Bump Sweater project. I have completed the back, and have started the front piece. So I think I’m on track to complete that event on time.
Tomorrow morning Needlework Unlimited is having a Dye Party in their parking lot. Andrea and I have signed up to attend and play around with dying a couple skeins of sock yarn, using all-natural dyes of course (oh, did you know, she's pregnant?). It should be geat fun and I’m really really looking forward to it (dyeing yarn and being a grandma).
On my drive in to work this morning I was thinking about “the sweater project” and “the pregnancy” and “the baby.” Andrea asked me yesterday if I had a sense of whether it’s a boy or a girl and I said I had no sense of it. But on the drive in this morning my mind was filled with girl names and girl things … so I think somewhere deep in me is a sense that this is a girl.
... 50:50 chance I'm right!
Posted on 08/11/2008 by Barb
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Knitting, Ravelympics 2008
I had intended to post a bit of braggery about my Ravelympics progress the end of day Saturday but was too exhausted, didn't get it done. Then Saturday became Sunday and Andrea came over for dinner. I pulled out the knitting projects and proudly showed off my progress.
She cocked her head sideways and said, "but this is wrong ...", pointing out to me that Santa is going to end up on the inside of the stocking, not the outside. It's totally backward from what it should be when compared to the original stocking. And this has to exactly match the original. Besides, it would just be stupid to have the Santa on the inside and the plain ole tree on the outside. So it's tinking time! This could be fatal for my completion of the event it's entered in, Holiday Handball. I’ll start over, though, but I really think I have to put the majority of my efforts into the Sweater Sprint, which is progressing nicely.
You realize, Moms, that Andrea finding the problem with the Vintage Holiday Stocking is payback for the hard time I gave her during our liveblogging Friday night during the televising of the 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony.
The pearl of “mother-wisdom” out of this sad saga: Don't go giving people superior-attitude sass ... that kind of neener-neener attitude will come back to bite you in the butt every time!
Posted on 08/05/2008 by Andrea
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Babies!, Knitting
I have to say, it's pretty cool to be knitting something for my baby. Somehow it makes it all feel just a little bit more real to be creating something tangible that I can imagine putting onto a baby - my baby. Kind of mind-blowing, really.
This is my first baby knitting project so far. It's the Sideways Sockyarn Baby Sweater. So far, I'm pretty impressed with how well-written the pattern is. It would be a good pattern for a beginning knitter; it explains things like how to close the gap formed when you join knitting in the round, and why knowing the difference between a M1 increase and a knit-into-front-and-back increase is important. It's the sort of pattern that immediately instills trust that it will not lead you astray. I hope it continues to live up to that glowing review. And it's fun to knit up something that has such an unusual construction.
I can't wait to see how this turns out!
Posted on 07/28/2008 by Andrea
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Babies!, Finished Objects, Knitting
My mom and I both went to a baby shower tonight, where we both gave the mom-to-be some knitted items. It's so much fun to give knitted stuff as gifts; I would enjoy knitting even if it weren't for all the oohs and aahs, but they are a bonus.
As I was designing this, I sort of dubbed it the "Atticus" sweater in my head, since that was one of the joke names the future parents came up with for their baby boy. I liked the reaction it got at the shower; one person said she thought it should come with a little set of golf clubs.
Someday I might post the pattern, but it really needs a lot of work. It was something I knitted on the fly, and my notes are terrible. It will need at least one or two test-knits before the pattern will make any sense to anyone other than me.
A little bit about how I made this: I used Trekking Pro Natural (wool and bamboo), a lovely sock yarn to work with. I'm infinitely happier with picking up stitches than I am with seaming, so I made this without any seams. And I had lots of fun designing and knitting it. I'm sure I'll be making at least one sweater for my own baby using this basic template and varying the stitch patterns.
Now that I'm done with baby shower knitting, my attention turns to the Ravelympics. I've been "training" (aka, swatching) for Liesl, which I'll be knitting for myself in black Cascade Lana d'Oro (a gorgeous wool/alpaca blend). I'm excited for this pattern because it looks like it'll be a good layering sweater throughout my pregnancy. And after that? I've got a queue of baby knits a mile long.
Posted on 07/28/2008 by Barb
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Babies!, Knitting
Today I get to give the preggy-mom the baby blanket I’ve been knitting. I hope she likes it! (I always get just a little nervous about it when I knit a gift for someone.)
I’m also giving her some Mama Bee products from Burt’s Bees: Mama Bee's Belly Butter and Mama Bee's Leg and Foot Creme
Because let's face it ... it's really mom that's earned the gift here!
