Progress

The Westport Blanket is nearly done.  I like this pattern so much that I have ordered yarn in my current favorite shade of Burrow Bulky (Vamp) to make it for myself.   There is a half done afghan in Bernat Blanket that I could have pulled out and redone in this pattern but I decided that was just crazy talk.   I do think the Westport would look better in a solid color than in the variegated tones of the afghan waiting to get back in queue.

The Westport Blanket a week ago....

This picture of the blanket shows the color fairly well.   Willow does a great job of making saturated colors in beautiful tones.   Burrow has the same content as another one of my favorites, Plymouth Encore.  Encore does not have the range of colors available in Burrow..and is a little more expensive.

Rory will be two weeks old tomorrow.  I hope to get this blanket...and Henry's hat and mittens in the mail early next week.

The needles have also been flying getting more stuffed animals done.   Owen's nursery theme is "forest friends."    A year ago I had fallen in love with a kit for a stuffed fox that was available at Patternworks.   Now, for Owen, I had the motivation to actually get the kit out, knit it up, and send it out.   The fox was finished last weekend and left in the mail on Monday.

Like the gardening bunny pattern, this fox pattern was done in an interesting way.   While the stomach was done in intarsia (my favorite - not), the white part of the face was done as a separate piece and sewn onto the head.   I really liked doing the white part this way as the edges could be manipulated easily to the curve and height that looked best.   The ears were a lot of fun to do...and easy to place.

The stuffed animal that left as a buddy to the fox is not a forest friend.  Rachel Borello Carroll from Yarnigans designed a series of sea creatures.  One of the patterns was for a manatee.   Manatees are a beloved animal for one of Owen's mother's best friends.   Helen and I thought it would be a good idea if Owen had his own manatee.   I made it so.

For me, one of the big challenges is embroidering the faces on the animals.   My small motor skills  are not that great.   My handwriting is so bad that the day I learned to type was a great source of happiness to many people.   The place in which I really notice this is putting good faces on the  

creatures.   By the time I am done with this run of animals (at least three more to go), I hope I am better at this!

Making the animals is interesting.   I keep saying this but I marvel at the minds that can figure out the construction of the critters.   My next animal will be from one of the Toys from the Toybox collections.   I believe it will be a lamb.  There will also be a lamb hat.....  

I am grateful for all of the children in my life so I have recipients for these fun projects!

Westport Blanket

Ravelry is the source of many wonderful things.  When I am having a rough day, I look through the patterns.  One day, the Westport Blanket  popped up.  As I was looking for a pattern for a baby blanket for little Rory, I downloaded the pattern and began knitting.

 I had another lovely shade of Burrow Bulky available.   The gauge on a 10.5 needle worked out for the way that I knit.   The fabric is a little firm but will relax, a bit I think, when it is washed.

This pattern is simple but a row counter is still your best friend to make the process easier.   I am now further along than this picture would suggest and am still entertained by the pattern.

This is my "carry" project.  At home I am working on some stuffed animals and getting ready to do a series of hats for the Jacobs girls.  

The Westport blanket adapts easily to size changes and would be a good choice for many different yarns.  Do your swatch...do your math....cast on....and end up with a lovely blanket.

Leafy Baby Blanket

The Leafy Baby Blanket....I love this pattern.  As I have made it twice and still love it...that says a lot.

The first time I made it, I used a worsted weight yarn and made an actual baby blanket.  This last time I used a bulky yarn from THE STASH and got a little out of hand.   Version 2 is a throw.

Version 2 is for Owen's nursery.   Technically, it is for Owen but is really for his mother.  My lovely

The Leafy Baby Blanket as a throw, folded in half and draped over a chair.

niece Allison loves blankets.  She and Owen can use this blanket together for many hours of bonding.

Burrow Bulky was a great choice for this project.   The blanket knit up fairly quickly and the stitch definition was good.

The real beauty comes after a trip through the washer and dryer.   The stitch definition remains.  The yarn softens up so that it can give the cuddly hug that all  throws should give the users.

There are more luxurious yarns it is true.   The beauty of yarn that can go through the washer and dryer is that it will be USED.   Knit offerings that require special care often get put away "for good."   My hope is that the knitted gifts I have will be used until they are in tatters. I hope Allison and Owen have many happy hours wrapped up in this throw.

The Traffic Signal Hat

Henry is a great little guy.  He is at the age at which he is a lot of fun.  He is about to have a new little brother or sister who will get a present.   I decided that Henry should have something too.

When my nephew Mike was small, I made him a pair of the Child's Safety mittens from a vintage pattern book.  He loved them.  He wore them until he grew out of them.  When a friend of his really, really wanted those mittens, he passed them on to the friend.

My sister reminded me of those mittens.  She thought Henry would have a blast them with them.
Naturally, as a really good auntie, I made sure I had the right yarn and made a pair.  The mittens
are ready to go.

I decided he needed a hat to go with his new mittens.   The light bulb popped on over my head and I hit Knitbird to graph the pattern.   Round 1 did not work.  Round 2 did.   My knitting could be better, but the had and the mittens are now waiting to go to Henry!

Hope he has a lot of fun with the mittens!

Playing with these may help him to behave in the car...or when the new baby is getting attention.  Let us hope!

I wanted to find out how the hat would look worn.....and did not have a good model.   Fortunately, I could turn to the kitchen for what I needed!  A ripening cantaloupe worked perfectly!

This was good practice both with intarsia and Knitbird.    I think the hat and mittens makes a nice set!

Now I am contemplating what to make the baby.   A blanket is
in the planning stages.   When the baby arrives, I will choose an animal pattern in hopes that the new baby loves the animal as much as Henry loves his tiger.

Knitbird......software I am VERY happy to have...

Knitbird is a charting software that one of my friends told me about.   I think I have talked about it before here.  Over the past day or so I have learned a lot more about working in this program by working out a design for a hat I want to knit.

Being able to see in front of me the color patterning I was able to make decisions before having to rip out...a lot.   I found this really, really fun.  While I was doing this, I was able to get a better visualization of my finished project.

Tomorrow, on my time off, I will locate the yarn and begin this hat.   I am excited and hope that the hat looks like the picture in my mind.

Thoughts on shopping from my own yarn store

Today I spent some time checking boxes of yarn here.   I am not saying there are a lot of boxes, but if I knit ten copy paper boxes of yarn into projects per year, I will have this knit down when I retire.   There is this much at home.

It is time that I got serious about knitting down my stash.   Lately I have been thinking about it like paying off my bills.  Both need to be done.  Unfortunately, I cannot give away bills as easily as I can give away yarn.

This will stretch my creativity as I will have to fit the project to the yarn rather than the other way around.    Some yarn may get re-homed.   The project I bought it for may no longer be something I want to do.  I may not care to wear the color anymore.   There can be any number of reasons that some skeins have lost their luster.

This blog was originally started as a record of knitting out the stash.  It has grown instead.  Time to turn it around!    Well, after I use my Needlework Unlimited gift card......

In the many, many years I have been knitting, the things I like to knit have evolved.  The fibers I can and want to knit with have also changed.   What has not changed is the ability of of color and texture to seduce my mind and fingers.

While I knit because I like the finished product, I have begun to have more of an understanding and appreciation of process knitting.   The yarn slipping through my fingers is soothing (most of the time) and the repetitive motion slows down the crazies.  When I miss knitting for a day, I notice it.

Let us begin...the real journey to the center of the stash.....